If it had have happened in a game which was in any way meaningful it wouldn't suck as much. But as of now we're losing one of the best strikers in the game because of some BS tournament.

Sanchez isn't much of a downgrade. Always hated Pedro for some reason though.

Sign him up, Kenny

I like watching soccer. I watch the MLS and the EPL. However, I couldn't give a flying fark about Spain, Italy, France, German, or whoever else. I don't know why. Actually, now that I type that out, I know why: english. It is odd since I am always complaining about the announcers in sports.

lecavalier: I like watching soccer. I watch the MLS and the EPL. However, I couldn't give a flying fark about Spain, Italy, France, German, or whoever else. I don't know why. Actually, now that I type that out, I know why: english. It is odd since I am always complaining about the announcers in sports.

Can't you catch a feed in English? I sure can.

This is the only time you're allowed to grab your shin and writhe around in agony.

JC

TonnageVT: Evilsmurf: If it had have happened in a game which was in any way meaningful it wouldn't suck as much. But as of now we're losing one of the best strikers in the game because of some BS tournament.

Yeah, I don't understand why teams put out first squad players in these tournaments. Just asking for trouble with the travelling and time difference.

The winner of the Club World Cup gets around $5m which is a pretty tidy sum for 2 games (because of the seeding the ECL winner only plays in the semifinal and final match) so financially it's worth the effort to at least put a decent squad in (though with a team like Barcelona you'd think they'd be deep enough that they could play fringe players and reserves and still win the thing)

Excellent! This improves my club's chances of winning the Champions!

/Not really happy
//Elated!

I'll bet no one realized he was injured right away because he was rolling around screaming and clutching his leg, just like everyone else on the field.

Carl Winslow's .9 MM: Sanchez isn't much of a downgrade. Always hated Pedro for some reason though.

Alexis is an upgrade at this point. Villa has been in poor form for most of the season, and there has some been talk of bringing in another striker and selling Villa in the summer. It's telling that Pep went with a front 3 of Alexis-Messi-Fabregas in the Clasico and only brought Villa on with 10 minutes to go.

Cajnik: rocky_howard: lecavalier: I like watching soccer. I watch the MLS and the EPL. However, I couldn't give a flying fark about Spain, Italy, France, German, or whoever else. I don't know why. Actually, now that I type that out, I know why: english. It is odd since I am always complaining about the announcers in sports.

Can't you catch a feed in English? I sure can.

This. If you really care, there are English commentators for all of those leagues. Myself, I shut the commentary off all together or try to brush up on my Dutch

Evilsmurf: If it had have happened in a game which was in any way meaningful it wouldn't suck as much. But as of now we're losing one of the best strikers in the game because of some BS tournament.

Because Barcelona v Santos.

Sure, start the stars against Santos, but why start them against this bunch of scrubs?

Pity.


/fark Barca

Of late it seems to me Villa has been the Rodney Dangerfield of Barca anyway-but dang, that's an awful-looking injury.
/God bless him and give him a speedy recovery
//and why do the Liga announcers pronounce his name "Vee-ja" when I always thought it was "Vee-ya"???
///Visca Barca

Loud_Mouth_Soup: Pity.

/fark Barca

This, but with the January transfer window Barca's Andoni Zubizarreta is going to start a rumor that some top-flight striker wants out of his club, interest the guy with a potential huge sum offer, poison his relationship with his current club and then act disinterested once that happens, That's when they can swoop in and get the guy for a song.

Lather, rinse, repeat, it's the Barca way.

Oh snap.

A soccer player getting genuinely hurt? I thought this was a not-news site.

Why do you have your whole name on the back of your jersey?? ....douche

Evilsmurf: If it had have happened in a game which was in any way meaningful it wouldn't suck as much. But as of now we're losing one of the best strikers in the game because of some BS tournament.

TP Mazembe doesn't think it's a BS tournament.

Well at least he'd drilled and practiced incessantly on how to fall down and shudder in agony. Actually being hurt might have come as a surprise though. I bet he his first thought as he was collapsing was, "Wait am I actually injured? This is new."

/European Turf Diving

Zeddediah: I'll bet no one realized he was injured right away because he was rolling around screaming and clutching his leg, just like everyone else on the field.

182: pfft....soccer thread.

Super_pope: Well at least he'd drilled and practiced incessantly on how to fall down and shudder in agony. Actually being hurt might have come as a surprise though. I bet he his first thought as he was collapsing was, "Wait am I actually injured? This is new."

/European Turf Diving

cjmook21: A soccer player getting genuinely hurt? I thought this was a not-news site.



How can we miss you people if you won't go away?

Carl Winslow's .9 MM: Sanchez isn't much of a downgrade. Always hated Pedro for some reason though.

Sanchez is a whiney little biatch that deserves a red card on principle. His behavior in the CL game was horrible.

/Barca fan hoping Villa gets better soon.

squealie: Of late it seems to me Villa has been the Rodney Dangerfield of Barca anyway-but dang, that's an awful-looking injury.
/God bless him and give him a speedy recovery
//and why do the Liga announcers pronounce his name "Vee-ja" when I always thought it was "Vee-ya"???
///Visca Barca

It might be a regional accent of Spain, so it would depend on where that particular announcer is from. I learned all my Spanish in Latin America, so "Vee-ja" is how I want to say it. I have an Argentine friend though who would say "Vee-ja" and quite a few Argentine's pride themselves on speaking "better" Spanish than Mexicans or Central Americans. Some will even say that they speak Castilian and not Spanish.

I don't actually know because I've never been to Spain and am not familiar with the regional accents of Spain though (I know Barthelona and that one, but the rest I don't know) so take what I am saying with a grain of salt.

This hurts Spain more than it does Barca. Alexis has been playing better than Villa this season anyways, and this injury just means more playing time and therefore development for young Isaac Cuenca, who has looked great whenever he's come on for the Blaugrana. Barca will have depth issues if another attacker goes down now, though.

I'm now anticipating Cesc Fabregas playing the false 9 for Spain since he's done so well at the position for Barca.

Barca gave a non-committal answer as to whether they plan on signing a replacement for Villa, and it just so happens right now that a certain Robin Van Persie is currently dilly-dallying on signing an extension with Arsenal.

The butthurt throughout world football would be absolutely legendary if Barca signed Van Persie.

Conversely, everyone would point and laugh at Barca if they signed the now-for-sale Torres.

ZoSo_the_Crowe: This hurts Spain more than it does Barca. Alexis has been playing better than Villa this season anyways, and this injury just means more playing time and therefore development for young Isaac Cuenca, who has looked great whenever he's come on for the Blaugrana. Barca will have depth issues if another attacker goes down now, though.

I'm now anticipating Cesc Fabregas playing the false 9 for Spain since he's done so well at the position for Barca.

Barca gave a non-committal answer as to whether they plan on signing a replacement for Villa, and it just so happens right now that a certain Robin Van Persie is currently dilly-dallying on signing an extension with Arsenal.

The butthurt throughout world football would be absolutely legendary if Barca signed Van Persie.

Conversely, everyone would point and laugh at Barca if they signed the now-for-sale Torres.

Is Torres even really for sale? I thought that was just a Daily Fail reporting. Besides, I don't think i've ever seen Torres play as a winger, and he's such a woefully out of form striker I can't see him taking the center forward position when Messi already has it cemented down. If they are in the market for a winger, they could always try and get Mario Gotze out of Dortmund's hands, and as a Bayern Munich fan I would like to see Gotze out of Dortmund!

I think it's most likely someone like Cuenca or Sergi Roberto will be called up for the first team. Or nothing will be done, because Cesc can also play as a winger.

Also, pic of the moment the tibia broke: Ouch. (new window) (not for the squeamish, hence why I'm linking and not posting as an image.)

KaisertheCoyote: Or nothing will be done, because Cesc can also play as a winger.

I dunno about Cesc at the wing, he looked pretty lost playing the wing in El Clasico until he scored the goal. He seems best at the false 9 on Barca. I think they'll be at their best with Cesc at the false 9 with Messi and Alexis/Pedro/Cuenca on the wings... although it seems like whenever Messi wants to play CF, Messi plays CF because Pep seems to give him pretty much full autonomy...

TonnageVT: Wait, isn't Barca vs. Santos at 5:30AM on Sunday? I was hoping to be in the bar early as QPR v. United is right after that.
will "they" be open then?
Andres (the barça fan) should be there as well.

David Villa was great and classy as a Velncia FC player, so i wish him well

expobill: David Villa was great and classy as a Valencia FC player, so i wish him well

lecavalier: I like watching soccer. I watch the MLS and the EPL. However, I couldn't give a flying fark about Spain, Italy, France, German, or whoever else. I don't know why. Actually, now that I type that out, I know why: english. It is odd since I am always complaining about the announcers in sports.

During the US/Mexico final last summer, I watched the Spanish feed. Couldn't understand a damn word but I thought the announcers were better.

Daniels: lecavalier: I like watching soccer. I watch the MLS and the EPL. However, I couldn't give a flying fark about Spain, Italy, France, German, or whoever else. I don't know why. Actually, now that I type that out, I know why: english. It is odd since I am always complaining about the announcers in sports.

During the US/Mexico final last summer, I watched the Spanish feed. Couldn't understand a damn word but I thought the announcers were better.

I know a little Spanish so I enjoy watching the Mexican premier league, too. All in all, as I typed out my original comment - as you saw - I realized, "Wait a second, I got it!"

The hypocrisy is that I am always going nuts on sports announcers and, lately, not so much them but the whole format. I've watched a couple of events of the Olympics on NBC's website without announcers and it was glorious.

So, we are back to where I started, I have no idea why I have no interest or knowledge of any footie outside of NA and England.

lecavalier: I like watching soccer. I watch the MLS and the EPL. However, I couldn't give a flying fark about Spain, Italy, France, German, or whoever else. I don't know why. Actually, now that I type that out, I know why: english. It is odd since I am always complaining about the announcers in sports.

Sucks to be you. Serie A has more parity than EPL, La Liga has better players, and Bundesliga has even better atmosphere than EPL (and EPL is known for its atmosphere). EPL is kind of crappy right now tbh.

>losing to Basel

I can normally manage to find an English stream online of any Serie A, La Liga, or Bundesliga game I'd be interested in watching.

expobill: David Villa was great and classy as a Velncia FC player, but now he's a Barca player, so fark him


Fixed pour vous.

David Villa's 30? Why didn't I know that before now? Swore he was younger.

Anyway this is a bad break (no pun intended) for a damn good striker. Sucks for Spain, here's hoping Llorente or Dye-Blond Traitorous Scum Torres gets good in front of goal for their Euro hopes.