What sports teams do you support?

[Heid the Ba]

Just the continuing: Look at me, me, me, me, ME, ME, ME, ME!

[MM_Dandy]

He also just signed with the Minnesota Vikings, which is tantamount to signing with the devil if you're a Green Bay Packers fan. For the record, I'm a fan of neither team, and would probably find the whole thing much more amusing if I weren't also numb from all the media attention paid to him. Every NFL off-season for the last three or four years unofficially morphed into the "Brett Favre Show."

[Heid the Ba]

I find it more annoying that he is always "Future Hall of Fame QB Brett Favre"; how many more bad years does he have to have to balance out the handful of good ones?

[Enzo]

Hey, he had to do something, Michael Vick was shoving him off the front page.

[Heid the Ba]

Well here we are again, Scotland play Netherlands tonight in our final qualifier for the World Cup next year. If we win we are in playoff (probably) anything else and we're out.

I suspect we won't win and HD's lot won't do us a favour, and there is no reason they should.

[Arneb]

Maybe if the Scottish players file their teeth before the match and improvise a hakka with shouts of "fraydom" ?

[Enzo]

FRAYDOM!!!!!!

[Heid the Ba]

As expected, we gat desperate at the end, chased the game and they scored. Oh well.

[Arneb]

Russa 0 - 1 Germany

Phew!
South Africa, here we come!!! :D

[Мастер]

Russa 0 - 1 Germany

Phew!
South Africa, here we come!!! :D

The nemetz have it!

[Arneb]

Oh, de Russn will follow; or do you think the likes of Bosnia, Greece, etc. will have a chance against them.

One thing that makes me quite happy tonight is that the German team havong shown a lot of sluggish play recently, fought down an exquisite, highly-motivated, self-assured team on their own turf. And it didn't even look ugly. OK, th Boateng thing wasn't particularly elegant, but that boy is particularly immature even for a twentysomething.

[Heid the Ba]

There are some interesting teams heading out (Sweden, Croatia) and some only in the play-offs (Portugal, france) there will be a few more shocks yet.

Are the playoffs seeded or is it a straight draw?

ETA: looks like they are unseeded so an unlucky draw could put anyone out.

[Arneb]

No, there are seedings. Of the eight playoff participants, the four with the highest FIFA rankings will be pot 1, the rest pot 2; German papers discussed this in the run-up to the Russia game, when everyone was fantasizing about how they would trounce us and how we would then be incredibly lucky not to have France, Croatia and Greece.

[Мастер]

Saw the Mexicans beat El Salvador from a cafe in Tijuana.

[Enzo]

And then they had the cafe all to themselves?

[Мастер]

And then they had the cafe all to themselves?

It was awful - the ball kept breaking the margarita pitchers, a penalty kick took out the chef, . . .

[Heid the Ba]

No, there are seedings. Of the eight playoff participants, the four with the highest FIFA rankings will be pot 1, the rest pot 2;

Of course, it wouldn't do for any of the large tv markets not to be there . . .

[Arneb]

One of the contenders for goalkeeper in Germany's World Cup teamRobert Enke, has died,apparently in a suicide.

This is extremeley sad news. He was a sportsman of great integrity, a role model so much more thatn the average footballer. AND he might have been one to make the German team Football World Champion.

[Heid the Ba]

The African Cup of Nations, where goal keeping is optional. My favourite competition.

[Heid the Ba]

It begins (again) . . .

Euro qualifiers

Spain, Czech, Scotland, Lithuania, Leichtenstein*

Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakstan, Azerbijian

Nederland, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino.

It could have been worse for us, we always get a Baltic State and we have avoided the worst of the eastern nations.

Arneb's mob get to play their immigrant population, their wee brother, Belgium (again) and two of the remoter outposts of Europe.

HD's lot play in the Nordic sub-Group, before heading to Central Europe and an amusing anomaly.

*some groups are 5 teams others 6.

[Arneb]

A very nice group. The matches against the Turks always have a lot of spark, and after past encounters, there never was any violent trouble. Last time we played them at the European Championship in (ha, ha) Austria, it was a beatuiful match with about half of the Turkish players speaking German at least as well as Turkish.

Playing Austria is a mixed lot - We are almost certain to win, but IF we don't it will taint the careers of the hapless players who perpetrated the defeat forever after; and every German will painfully remember the moments when die Ösis stood tall... I think we already mentioned die Schmach von Cordoba (I'm looking at you, Heid... :( ).

The rest should be a walk in the park, but for the big nations, there is always very little to gain and a hell of a lot to lose in those qualifiers... yes, I'll stop whining now.

[Мастер]

and every German will painfully remember the moments when die Ösis stood tall...

[Arneb]

You don't remember 1978, die Schmach von Cordoba? Well, I DO

[Heid the Ba]

and every German will painfully remember the moments when die Ösis stood tall... I think we already mentioned die Schmach von Cordoba (I'm looking at you, Heid... :( ).

Move along, nothing to see here . . . :D

[Heid the Ba]

Scotland lost to the USA at cricket..

With Afghanistan and Ireland next we may not get a win in the tournament. :(

Canada play Nederlands later today in the other group.