12:00 EST
Germany vs Switzerland
Portugal vs Macedonia
Spain vs Serbia

2:00 EST
Netherlands vs Bulgaria
Turkey vs Finland

2;15 EST
Czech Republic vs Israel

2:30 EST
Greece vs Slovenia

2;45 EST
Norway vs England

6:30 EST
El Salvadora vs Moldolva

8;00 EST
USA vs Scotland

8;30 EST
Honduras vs New Zealand

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

'Sensational from A to Z'

FCB Erlebniswelt opens to the public

It features all the trophies Bayern have won, it includes worthy tributes to Franz Beckenbauer and the other defining figures at the club, and it is of course Germany's biggest club museum. But the 3000 m² exhibition at the Allianz Arena, bursting with trophies, images and stories, sets new standards for its lively presentation, interactivity and sheer volume of material.

Quite deliberately, the installation documenting the club's 112-year history is not called a museum, but rather the FC Bayern Erlebniswelt, literally 'world of experience'. The doors open for the first time on Friday 25 May. "I have to say: all credit to those involved. This is sensational from A to Z, a milestone, and a gem in the Bayern collection," a thoroughly impressed Uli Hoeness declared, "it's fantastic. I never imagined it would be like this."


( welcome to flawless Bavaria )

Someone with Dutch skillz will have to translate, but the Dutch NT made a spectacularly amazing video featuring them and some tiny rubber birds that are evidently designed to support the team on their way to Euro 2012 greatness. Or something.



(Source)

Is it just me, or does the song sound like a terrible cross between "The Chicken Dance" and "Mambo No. 5"?

Queens Park Rangers captain Joey Barton was suspended for 12 matches by the FA today after he was found guilty of two counts of violent conduct, according to BBC Sport.

The issue stemmed from the dramatic final day of the Premier League season in a match between QPR and Manchester City.


( naughty naughty )

Welsh club understood to have agreed fee with Hoffenheim



Sky Sports understands Swansea have agreed a deal with Hoffenheim to sign Icelandic midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson on a permanent basis.

Sigurdsson joined the Swans on loan in January after falling down the pecking order at Hoffenheim and quickly slotted into Brendan Rodgers' side.

He played a key role in an impressive campaign for the Welsh club, but it was always unclear whether Hoffenheim would call him back this summer after a managerial change saw Markus Babbel replace Holger Stanislawski.

However, it now looks as though Swansea will be able to keep hold of Sigurdsson as they are believed to have agreed a fee with Hoffenheim.

It is thought the two clubs have struck a deal for the Swans to buy the 22-year-old for a fee in the region of £7million, which would be a new club record.

Sigurdsson is now set to discuss terms with Swansea and the club will be hoping to confirm him as their first signing of the summer.

source



SMH AT HOFFENHEIM FOR NOT APPRECIATING HIS PERFECTION TBH. BUT YAY FOR SWANSEA GETTING TO KEEP HIM!!! ALSO IMO WE NEED A GYLFI TAG.

Now that the season's over, I'd like to stage a vol 2 of this. I got most of the category ideas from The Guardian and The Independent, as well as getting rid of pundit and adding one of my own, dish (aka best looking. Cos beauty's worth celebrating :p)



The creation of the end of season review will be done in three steps:
01. Nominations (this, here. This was last yr's)
02. Then I'll aggregate the nominations and the ten in each category get put up for voting (eg this was last yr's)
03. Then the votes will be tallied up to report said report with pickchurz (ie this)

As this is just nominating, feel free to nominate as many people/games as you like. You can nominate as many as you like from the same team (although when it comes to voting the rules will be stricter there). I think I'll just keep this open until I get a fair amount of votes. If I don't get enough I'll get the extras from The Guardian, but I'd rather not as this should be representing your votes!

The categories:

Match
Player
Goal
Underrated
Hero
Villain
Gripe
Shock
Flop
Off-pitch moment
Dish
OTP
Two I just thought up: Best individual performance
Worst individual performance

(just thought of the third to last one :p I figure I can only be a fangirl for a few more years, so why not? ^__^)

A couple of notes:
- As I said, you can nominate as many/few as you like, then the ten that get the most nominations in each category will be put up for a 1., 2., 3. system of voting. That comes later though. Right now you just list any you like.
- Last year it was limited to just matches/goals/moments from Premier League games. I think I'll widen it now so that it's any match involving a premier league side; so you can nominate CL, FA Cup and Carling Cup matches too.
- Flop vs Villain. A flop is a player who underperformed/played badly in the season, or a manager who did badly. A villain is someone to hate for reasons other than football, ie the way they carry themselves etc.
- Same for Hero vs Player of the season.
- If a player gets a high amount of nominations in Player and Most Underrated Player, I'll just pick one category for them as this will maximise their chances of winning. Aside from that though, I'm happy for people to be in multiple categories. So a player could logistically win Best Player, Best Goal, Hero, and Best Looking haha
- Only player and goal have to be actual footballers. All the other categories can pertain to managers, football pundits/commentators, football journalists etc. :D

So yeah that's it really. Any questions, just ask! Nominate away!

The relatives of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have become the latest of the England player families to decide not to travel to Ukraine for this summer's Euro 2012 tournament because of fears that black and Asian supporters could be targeted by the violent racist fans that blight Ukrainian football.

Oxlade-Chamberlain, 18, is the youngest member of the squad and his father Mark Chamberlain is a former England international himself who won eight caps for his country in the 1980s. However, the Chamberlains, like the family of Theo Walcott, have decided not to travel to watch England's three group games – two in Donetsk and one in Kiev – in the light of recent warnings from the Foreign Office.

( Read more... )

source.