After what feels like an eternity and a day, club futbol is back. No marquee matchups in the EPL though Villa v Spurs should be decidedly more competitive than last season’s drubbing. Especially with Benteke due to be back. United face a tricky Southampton that has only allowed two goal so far, and West Ham will try to add to the worries at City. Arsenal will be without Ozil but get Cazorla back; Norwich at home doesn’t sound like a huge threat but they do have Dortmund looming in the (near) distance.

Spain: with Balegate rumbling on, all of Madrid will be joyfully looking to Benzema’s renewed goalscoring to carry the day. Or perhaps they will boo with abandon and keep focusing on completely not-trivial matters like who is still loyal to the previous coach. It’s Madrid, anything could happen. With the Classico coming up in a week, no doubt all controversies will be magnified, especially if Barca (and Atletico) keep up their winning ways.
Italy: there’s a promising Fiorentina-Juve on Sunday, but the big game is without a doubt Roma-Napoli later today. Roma showed against Inter their record is not just due to favorable scheduling, let’s see what they can accomplish here.
Germany: there were interesting rumors of Mueller going to Barcelona, but they got shot down with the quickness by everyone on the Bayern side. Bayern will not allow this foolish rumor-mongering to continue unabated. We are only allowed to discuss fussball matches, jah?
France: the clubs are threatening to strike over the proposed 75% marginal tax rate, and possibly refuse to play all matches for gameday 11. Insert French-people-strike-all-the-time joke here.

EPL
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2013
7:45 ET Newcastle United v Liverpool
10:00 ET Arsenal v Norwich City
10:00 ET Chelsea v Cardiff City
10:00 ET Everton v Hull City
10:00 ET Manchester United v Southampton
10:00 ET Stoke City v West Bromwich Albion
10:00 ET Swansea City v Sunderland
12:30 ET West Ham United v Manchester City
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2013
11:00 ET Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013
3:00 ET Crystal Palace v Fulham

LA LIGA
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2013
10:00 ET Real Madrid v Malaga
12:00 ET Valencia v Real Sociedad
2:00 ET Osasuna v Barcelona
4:00 ET Espanyol v Atletico Madrid
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2013
6:00 ET Granada v Getafe
11:00 ET Almeria v Rayo Vallecano
1:00 ET Real Betis v Elche
3:00 ET Real Valladolid v Sevilla FC
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013
2:00 ET Celta Vigo v Levante
4:00 ET Athletic Bilbao v Villarreal

SERIE A
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2013
2:45 ET AS Roma v Napoli
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2013
12:00 ET Cagliari v Catania
2:45 ET AC Milan v Udinese
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2013
6:30 ET Atalanta v Lazio
9:00 ET Fiorentina v Juventus
9:00 ET Genoa v Chievo Verona
9:00 ET Hellas Verona v Parma
9:00 ET Livorno v Sampdoria
9:00 ET Sassuolo v Bologna
2:45 ET Torino v Internazionale

BUNDESLIGA
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2013
2:30 ET TSG Hoffenheim v Bayer Leverkusen
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2013
9:30 ET Bayern Munich v Mainz
9:30 ET Borussia Dortmund v Hannover 96
9:30 ET Eintracht Frankfurt v Nurnberg
9:30 ET TSV Eintracht Braunschweig v Schalke 04
9:30 ET Werder Bremen v SC Freiburg
12:30 ET Hertha Berlin v Borussia Monchengladbach
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2013
9:30 ET Hamburg SV v VfB Stuttgart
11:30 ET FC Augsburg v VfL Wolfsburg

LIGUE 1
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2013
2:30 ET Nice v Marseille
2:30 ET Stade de Reims v Toulouse
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2013
11:00 ET Paris Saint-Germain v Bastia
2:00 ET AC Ajaccio v Nantes
2:00 ET Evian Thonon Gaillard v Guingamp
2:00 ET Montpellier v Lille
2:00 ET Stade Rennes v Valenciennes
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2013
8:00 ET Sochaux v AS Monaco
11:00 ET St Etienne v Lorient
3:00 ET Lyon v Bordeaux

...if not necessarily "marquee."

10:00 ET Chelsea v Cardiff City

Cardiff will put up a fight.

10:00 ET Manchester United v Southampton

You KNOW this could go Southampton...

Fitness tests have gone very well according to Wenger.

He might get some minutes tomorrow. I put his over/under on consecutive matchdays without injury at 3 :o/

Messigoat's back, too! Whoo!

Big week next week w Milan and Realmad. Balotelli supposedly out, Bale who the hell knows

*makes sign of the cross*

moyes aint getting any slack.

>moyes aint getting any slack.

ManU fans have had this coming for a long, long time...

They'll figure it out in the 2nd half of the season, I'm sure of it.

Until then...LOL

Miguel Herrera, who you may know from Club America and my avatar has been named the new coach. He replaces Vucetich; who replaced Luis Fernando Tena, who was interim after Chepo de la Torre was fired in early September.

I stated before the season my disappointment in Arsenal letting him go. I didn't think he had really lost anything, but a change of scenery has really benefitted him and his new club (and national team) are reaping the rewards.

kinda funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jURa0W2k5LY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vQZmRqxnH6M

*scrutinizes stat sheet*

hmm ... could've sworn he was out there ...

oh! is it just me or has his diving improved?

so that he can go back in time and not sign w/ Sunderland?

he needs to find a way to hit the eject button, fast.

Sign of a good team when you get a blowout and not really play all that well. Fuck Ramsey's on one right now. I think my favorite goal was Ozil's goal off the Olivier cross, on some reading places steez.

But that first goal was scintillating, magisterial even as our BEIN friend would say? Midweek against Dortmund- CANT WAIT!

Dude is on one for real

The idea itself was great but the weight and touch he placed on it was perfect.

the boy is on fire

Dude is a disaster waiting to happen

season to come already, yet here i am.

this is the new normal.

i didn't even get mad when we blew it because i was expecting it. this is the change moyes has brought.

http://i.imgur.com/Zow66YV.gif

in that .gif

No GIF though. Yet

http://s3.amazonaws.com/br-cdn/temp_images/2013/10/19/WestHam2.gif

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lQqTyClmMWY/UmP_egyjsaI/AAAAAAAAAGw/WrG61OOygvU/w634-h347-no/cavani.gif

If too light, the defender is able to get a touch...if too heavy, he kills his angle with the keeper...got it just right. The skill and composure is beautiful.

another week, another missed penalty call on neymar. terrible passing all game, though.

-----------
Y'all stupid...should've tanked for Lebron/Wiggins in 2014 -Rex LongFellow

It's only funny till someone gets mad. Then it's hilarious.

>another week, another missed penalty call on neymar. terrible
>passing all game, though.
>
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BW9x-F6IIAIQedy.jpg

The ref had it after Mourinho threw the type of tantrum/verbal assault that we all know he is capable of and was told to leave the sidelines...he went and sat 5 rows back with the season ticket holders lol....was going ham after the third goal.

the NJ kid brings em back from 2-0 down.

*gazes off into the distance imagining what could've been*

the early NFL games are pretty blah so I might peep

you could tell how rusty he was by how unsure he seemed on a lot of his runs. I think he only played 47% of his balls in the opposition half, which is a pretty bad stat for his role. Mostly I'm worried he only got this shot because we were playing Bastia.
Ongenda, on the other hand, OH MY that kid is good. And Rabiot had another good outing.

I spotted at least 3 situations where he would have normally attacked, tried to dribble or run by his defender, but instead he stepped back and went for a safe pass backwards

I thought Rabiot was outstanding, and so was Ongenda. I really hope Blanc (or whoever coaches the team next year) gives the youngsters a real shot (Koman was great in preseason too).

I guess I could have understood some amount of shit talking after the playoff, if they made it to Brazil (even if it's pretty much the minimum that's asked of a team like France).

But now? if he shits himself even just a little in one of those two games (and it's not like it's out of the realm of possibilities, he's been shaky at best in the qualifiers), he's never going to hear the end of it.

I guess winning in decent fashion vs Australia and Finland is enough of a platform to him.

the first team listed hosts the first game (thus is at a disadvantage)

Portugal / Sweden
Ukraine / France
Greece / Romania
Iceland / Croatia

I'll say it now, France should take care of Ukraine, if not it's going to be a failure on par with the '94 debacle. Other than that, I really, really hope that Zlatan makes Cronaldo cry, that would be so sweet.

It'd be a weird WC w/o CR7

>It'd be a weird WC w/o CR7

this is the last shot for Ibra, on the other hand, so that would sadden me for him

http://balls.ie/football/gif-fulhams-patjim-kasami-scores-goal-of-the-season-contender/

Great ball to him . . .even better technique to score.

Can only imagine how that one felt off his foot