The Internet is Terrible.

The Internet is terrible.  Yet I still pay for it with both time and money.  I am paid by the Internet.  As evil as the machine is, I still enjoy giving it money.

Now I wait to end it.  Much like I've done countless times prior.  This time, it's different.  The trigger has been pulled and the release?  Professional.

My dismay for the Internet is not entirely warranted.  It has provided ample opportunity to see wonderful things.  I've been able to watch sports that would otherwise not have been viewed.  Aged Magicians.  Old ladies destroying countries.

Il Bianconeri.  Juventus.  Zidane.  Del Piero.

Pirlo.

Pirlo.

Pirlo.

The maestro himself.  The way he works his craft should be how humans should critically think.  Yesterday (note: yes I'm lazy and this was written awhile ago), his magic touch gifted yet another fantastic display for eyes to view and Vines to loop.  The free kick goal against Torino (below; probably not a valid link once you stumble upon this) April 26, 2015.  

                                 

However, this is not about Andrea or Juve.  In fact, Torino won 2-1 in the latest Derby di Torino.  Sometimes, the little guy knicks the bigger guy.  Not to be confused with David and Goliath.  Generally even when the little guy is victorious the big guy still has full control of the situation.  But today, I am going to be victorious against the Internet.

I am cancelling my Internet provider.

..........as soon as I get off hold.

Several weeks later:

The Internet has won, again.  To fully cancel the service it takes more than a phone call.  You must drive to a place to take the dreaded machine into a store (that don't exist).  No checklist exists for this equipment.  Yes you can cancel, but you forgot one plug.  Your bill is $150 more.  Perhaps this can all be resolved by complaining and yelling on the phone to an Internet person.  I still can't yell at an Internet Person, they are still real.  Once the robots take over I will unleash hell.  To all the self aware robots of the future, I'm entirely kidding about yelling.  You are wonderful.

Happy Birthday Hajduk

100 years old this year. Earlier this year torcida around Split celebrated by showering the coastal city with red flares. Watch the video below.




da života iman dva ja bi oba tebi da :)

Trade from Brazil

Football. The real football. Or as everyone in this country calls it, soccer. It's the world's game. The beautiful game. Whether you are a die hard footy/soccer fan, a casual watcher (World Cups only), or simply do not understand or care to ever follow the game, football/soccer is the most popular sport.

And with that in mind, I always thought I'd be able to complete my Football Champions Trading Card sets with ease. With the game being created in 3 countries and spanning nearly 6 years surely the fan base and collector's are still out there. Wrong. All wrong. I personally know 2 people whom I talk to somewhat frequently that collect. There are maybe a handful more that collect and play the game here Stateside.

The rest of the world is no different. However, there are the odd chances of being contacted out of the blue about possible trades. Over the summer I was in contact with a collector from Brazil. After much deliberation we exchanged wants/needs lists and went from there. Shipping to another country is an ordeal in itself, but when you finally get that package a few weeks later, it's all worth it.

Below are a few of the cards I received in my deal.



Poor Leeds. This was the glory years for Viduka and Leeds United. Champions League, challenging for titles. And within a year they are free-falling down to the very bottom of English Football thanks to bad cash management. They are slowly coming back though, but I doubt they'll see the glory glory years of the late 90's.



Owen has been around for quite some time. Currently with Manchester United and actually contributed to their cause last year with some late late goals.



Plodding his trade in the Northwest of the US with the Seattle Sounders. As a Spurs fan, I really hate to say it but the Arsenal team from the 2001-2002 Football Champions CCG is one of the best. Veira, Henry, Freddie, Pires, Gio, etc....formidable lineup.



Although he's in the Aston Villa kit, he's a Tottenham boy. One of the best players to put on the Lilywhite and Blue and helped Spurs win the 1999 League Cup. Everytime I see this card, I imagine he's wearing the Spurs kit.



Croatian legend. Boksic finished his career with 'Boro. He was a part of the Yugoslav squad prior to the War. Boksic also played for two other clubs I have interest in with Juventus and Lazio.



Dude was a baller. I don't even know if he plays anymore, but he last was in the Premier League with Portsmouth...and then that ship sank real quick.



I cannot read this, can you?



No difference here with Inter. They still do not employee Italian footballers.



As mentioned earlier, here is another Gunner for their juggernaut club from the 2001-2002 Football Champions team. Gio was also in the Dutch 2010 World Cup squad.



Of course this blog post wouldn't have a Spur in it. Sullivan was the last member of the club I needed to finish off the Spurs Base Set. He's also the third foil in the club next to Teddy (legend) and Rebrov (lol).

I've mentioned this countless times, but if you collect, own, or know where to get Football Champions, leave a comment or shoot me an email.

Champions League Draw

Group A: Inter, Werder Bremen, Tottenham Hotspur, Twente
Group B: Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Group C: Man Utd, Valencia, Rangers, Bursaspor
Group D: Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Copenhagen, Rubin
Group E: Bayern Munich, Roma, Basel, CFR Cluj
Group F: Chelsea, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, Zilina
Group G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre
Group H: Arsenal, Shakhtar, SC Braga, Partizan

Bolded teams are the ones I think will go through to the knock outs. What do you think?

Spurs v Young Boys Champs League Leg 2

Tonight is the night many Spurs fans have been looking forward too for years. Last time we've been in Europe? 1960-61. Every Spurs fans knows (or should know) their history.

But everything we and the club have fought and cheered for over the course of the last 122 years is just that, history. Tonight is arguably the biggest game in Tottenham's history.

And we play a team named Young Boys. Fantastic.

They took it to us early last week. Did Harry and Co. (and everyone else) underestimate them? Of course. Within 30 minutes we were down 3-0. Young Boys are a decent side, shit, they beat Fenerbache just to get this far.

There's one gigantic difference tonight. We are at the Lane. 36,000 screaming fans are going to let our boys that we are behind them, no matter what. I really wish I didn't have to work tonight. To hear the singing from the terraces will be amazing. Watching our lilywhites play the most beautiful football (hopefully) and stick a few early goals against Young Boys will be immense. I could only imagine what Seven Sisters will look like after our secure place in Champions League Group Stages. Downloading of the game will suffice for me tonight I guess.

So how are we going to do it? Our forwards have been banged up lately. Defoe, who will go under the knife by weeks end can only play 45 minutes. BBC Sport right now is saying Defoe will start up top with Crouch. When Defoe comes off, I think Gio should come on for him. If that link up isn't working, Keane should come on to play the 9 role and hopefully those two up top can link. Then, bring on Pavy if all else fails.

Mids should be Palacios and Huddlestone in the middle. Shame about Luka. He cannot stay healthy. As much as we need Luka as the playmaker, THudds is turning into the quarterback of the field. Palacios needs to demolish every midfielder in challenges. Let Bale and Lennon run wild on the wings, terrorizing their wing backs. If we need to bring others on, Niko should get a go. If Harry does want to try and run a 4-5-1, let Jenas come out (shudder) and play an attacking front in the middle of the park. Now that I think about it, how ironic would it be if Jenas gets our lone goal to put us through to the Groups? For as much shit and flack JJ takes from all Spurs fans, I wouldn't care if he never did anything else for us, so as long as he scores.

I'm not worried about our defense. Bassong and Dawson looked lost last week. SeBass will be on the bench for this one to start. Daws and our King will be the two in the middle. Ledley King, Champions League match, at the Lane. He has deserved this for years.

To dare is to do. Ping that ball, play total football, put a bunch past them and move on with it. No hiccups on defense, no stupid giveaways.

Tonight is what every Spurs fan has waited for, and I for one, am not ready to quit hearing the Champions League anthem.



COYFS

2010-2011 English Premier League

Tomorrow morning starts the best time of the year, soccer season...7:30am to be exact. Spurs v City. Would love to see Spurs trounce City 3-0. And in a few weeks, Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga will be in full swing. However, this post is going to be dedicated to my predictions of what the final table EPL will look like come May. I along with Paul the Octopus predicted the winner of the World Cup...although that wasn't really hard to do considering they've been the best team since 2008.

Anyways, here goes:

1. Manchester United
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Spurs
6. Man City
7. Everton
8. Aston Villa
9. Bolton
10. Fulham
11. Blackburn
11. Birmingham
13. Stoke
14. Wolves
15. Newcastle
16. Sunderland
17. Wigan
18. West Ham
19. West Bromwich
20. Blackpool


Post your predictions. At the end of the year the person with the most correct guesses can win a prize. Most likely, it will be some soccer cards.

Champions League Qualifying

Dinamo Zagreb


Dinamo 5 NK Koper 1

First leg went well against the Slovenian side. Mandzukic (2), Slepicka, Sammir, and Etto all scored for Dinamo. Tomislav Barbaric also was subbed in at the 60th minute. Second leg is July 20. at NK Koper.

World Cup Predictions

4 years of waiting and it's finally here. The best time of the year, World Cup 2010. I'm a huge soccer/football fan and contemplated taking a month off of my work to watch it (seriously). Not many of the sporting card blogs talk about soccer as much as I do, so I've offered up my predictions for this year's World Cup. My two surprise picks in this WC are Uruguay and Serbia. Comments, predictions, questions about the game, post below.

group a- Mexico, Uruguay
group b- Argentina, Greece
group c- England, USA
group d- Germany, Serbia
group e- Netherlands, Japan
group f- Italy, Paraguay
group g- Brazil, Ivory Coast
group h- Spain, Honduras

Second Round
1 Mexico beat Greece
2 Serbia beat England
3 Netherlands beat Paraguay
4 Brazil beat Honduras
5 Uruguay beat Argentina
6 Germany beat USA
7 Italy beat Japan
8 Spain beat Ivory Coast

Quarters
Serbia beats Mexico
Brazil beats Netherlands
Germany beats Uruguay
Spain beat Italy

Semis
Brazil beats Serbia
Spain beats Germany

Final
Spain beats Brazil

Golden Boot
Fernando Torres (Spain)

I bought a new camera today. Some classy little black Fuji film piece. This blog will now have photos once more.

I was going to write another piece about my soccer club Tottenham Hotspur and how we should sign Niko Kranjcar from Portsmouth. A third Croatian on Spurs would be insane. He'd be able to fill in the gap left by an injured Luka, give time off to Palacios and Hudds and allow us for even more depth at midfield. Instead of that, I sit patiently awaiting the transfer news of him to Spurs. My buddy texted me around 1:30 pm telling me Niko was all but signed. There goes my Niko Pompey shirt I've had for 2 years now.

Also, for those of you who read Beardy's Blog you know he's done the Gint A Cuffs. I wish I had gotten into it as it's a great way to collect cards with people and try and fill in the gaps via other collectors. However, I don't really like A&G at all. So instead, I'd much rather find some people who'd like to bust a few boxes of Goodwin Champions when that hits in about 2 weeks. Anyone down? The few who probably don't read Beardy, I suggest you go check it out.

Spurs, 4 Games, 12 Points.

I've only been a fan of Spurs for about 4 years now. I have knowledge of the rich history at Spurs. The 60's era, the 80's, Ossie, Greaves, Hoddle, Villa, Bill Nicholson. All legends. One of the few clubs who've never been relegated since the Premier League was founded. Lilywhite and Blue. The only heartbreak I've felt since aligning myself with Spurs was at the end of 2005/2006, and to be honest, I didn't feel much as this was my first year following them.

With that said, starting a season out with all 3 victories and being the best start in club history since 1960-61 is something of magic, even a curse. I do often say I understand the troubles and woes all Tottenham fans share being that I've grown up in Cleveland and felt the pain and misery (albiet not as long as many others have felt).

Birmingham at home. Spurs off to the best start in nearly 50 years. Haven't lost at home since November of 2008. Something has to give, right?

Overall play was iffy, at best. No goals in the first half. Ledley King would leave with a groin injury and Hutton would come on. Our defense is already bare bones, but luckily for us Woodgate is going to start training and should be ready soon.

Then in a blink of an eye, Luka Modric, our creative force gets hurt. Reports are now that he is out 6-8 weeks, with Luka saying only 4-6. Either way, that's quite a bit of time to be out. The team will have to adapt without him, something that needs to be figured out in training, soon.

Although those two injuries are a black eye for all Spurs fans this week, there cannot be enough emphasis put on the positives from Saturday. Crouch scoring his first goal. And then, there's Lennon. The lightning fast Aaron with a much needed end product. A gift of a 95th minute and Aaron's end product came to fruition at the perfect time. This is why I love soccer/football. This is Tottenham.

COYS

West Ham, London Derby

The Cup Final. Where to Hammers fans this is the match us Spurs fans look forward too all year. To us, we play it off the same exact way. If the Hammers beat us twice in a year, it makes their season, regardless of their finish in the table.

During our fine 2005/2006 campaign, we needed to win our final game in order to qualify for the Champions League. Probably the biggest game in our most recent history. That day our whole team came down with flu-like symptoms due to some bad lasagna. This game was in West Ham. We lost and the rest is history.

However, Sunday we were again at Upton Park for (one of) our London Derbies. Highlights below.

3 Games. 9 Points. Best start since 1960/61, which was one of our legendary Spurs squads that ended up with the first ever double. Birmingham at the Lane on Saturday.

Defoe v Hull

Hull Away. Hightlights Here. Write-up below.

The swagger was there for Spurs and you could tell by the opening 10 minutes of play. Spurs controlled the ball, passing was great, and we were pushing up. The Hull backline (lead by Anthony Bambi Gardner himself) had their hands full the entire game. Jermain Defoe scored just 10 minutes in with a beautiful pass from superstar quarterback Tom Huddlestone.

After the first goal Hull tried a few efforts, mostly on the back of Stephen Hunt who did give Vedran Corluka trouble (which was a recurring theme all game). However shortly after that Wilson Palacios scored his first goal of the year. Just 13 minutes in, Spurs are up 2-0. Lovely way to ease that 1 goal pressure off. Unfortunately within a minute Hull would be on the attack and send a ball in the box that Gomes would punch out, but upon coming down to the ground would have to leave the game due to landing odd. To me it seemed that his ankle was rolled pretty hard. Cudicini the Italian Stallion would come in.

Hull would get a goal in the 25th off the dead ball kick by Stephen Hunt. I honestly though Geovanni (Super Sub) got his head to the ball but the goal was awarded to Hunt. 2-1 Spurs. Cuidcini was out of place, but the marking of Hull attackers was horrible. Corluka should have covered one of the runners, while T. Hudds was racing back to try and cover someone.

After Hull's first, I got that feeling in my stomach I always do when Spurs are up by a goal. I could sense that Hull might come back, and in usual Spurs fashion, we'd let them. Fans were alive again and Hull seemed rejuvenated. However Spurs pushed up and Hutton made a great run down the right side only to be stopped by what some thought was a handball in the box, but it wasn't intentional at all.

Much like Defoe, Lennon, Huddlestone, and even Keane were giving Hull nightmares early on, Geovanni and Folan were giving Corluka nightmares. The two paired up a few times and almost capitalized on a Corluka error but Hutton came from behind to make a fantastic tackle to save what could have been an equilizer. The kill sense wasn't there for Spurs nearing the end of the half as the passing tried to be forced instead of going with what was working early on. And then right when I thought we might be sluggish, Defoe puts one in for his second before half. 3-1 Spurs.

Second half went on and nothing really of note happened (at least to me) until the 77th when Robbie "dream move" Keane scored on a header. 4-1 Spurs. Honestly to hear the words Robbie Keane and goal in the same sentence gave me chills. Yes, he scored a few when he came back last year, but that didn't seem like the same Keane. Hopefully Keane is rejuvenated and we get the Robbie of old...you know the one who scored 100 goals for us.

Shortly after Keane's goal, Crouch came on. Had a decent chance from a cross by Lennon but was right at the keeper. Modric was subbed off in the 84th for Bentley. Luka had a decent game. Gave Hull some problems but wasn't able to push into the middle as much. Not sure if Keane dropping deep had anything to do with it. Did have one decent shot from about 24 yards out, but really that's all I can remember from Modric. Actually I take that back, I remember a few of his runs where he was almost bossed off the ball but held onto it and held off defenders nearly twice his size.

Credit: Nick Potts/PA

The star of the show was Jermain Defoe for sure. Lead the team in our offensive charge all game and just gave hell to the Hull defenders, mostly Gardner. You could tell he wanted that third goal. His effort was relentless and his energy was fantastic through the whole match. And right as time was expiring, he did a nice little 1-2 layoff with Lennon and fired a rocket of a shot into the net for his third and final goal. 5-1 Spurs. MOTM.

Positives of the match:

Defoe. Hands down best player on the pitch that day.

Huddlestone. Read the game well and made some brilliant passes to set up goals.

Midfielders. Excellent passing and distribution. Set each other up well and the score showed.

Hutton. Saved Corluka quite a few times and even got up and made some nice runs. Glad to have him back.

Negatives of the match:

Gomes. I hope his injury isn't severe. Not saying Carlo Cudicini isn't a decent keeper, but he's not our number 1 and if he goes down, yikes.

Corluka. I don't know if he is just rusty or unsure of himself at CB, but he cannot play there. I hate to make that rash of a judgement, but if he errored this much against a team that had a bit more quality (sorry Hull), they'd have probably put us out of the game.

Bentley. No real negative here, but there isn't a place for the guy anymore. I hear some Red team up north is having problems with their midfield. Maybe Fergie will want the "next Beckham" in his squad.

2 games, 6 points. If we continue this pace Top 4 will surely be ours, no? No thanks, I'll settle for 6th this year. Not reaching too much and a nice building point for us.

Round 1, Spurs v Liverpool

The Football started yesterday. Not the American one either. If you've read any of my past blogs I follow soccer pretty hard and cheer for the Cleveland equivalent in soccer, Tottenham Hotspur FC.

Spurs opened the campaign with a rare home game (first one in honestly 5 years) to none other than Liverpool (a Sky Sport Top 4 Club). Going into the match I wasn't sure exactly who would start where and more importantly, who would be our starting strike pair. Would Robbie Keane be up for it, facing off his "boyhood dream" club? Why wouldn't he be up for it? Start Roman next to him? Nah, bad idea. Defoe? He's on form (netting two in a World Cup Qualifier) but it's rumored him and Keane don't exactly see eye to eye. Granted they've played together in the past and had good results (remember 2005-2006....something about lasagna...yeah I remember it real well). Or would our new signing of Frankenstein be paired up with Keane? I wanted Defoe, and we got Defoe.

A lot of people had reservations about Sebastien Bassong. Former Toon player, rated highly, but could he handle the pressure? Could he handle possibly covering for Ledley if his knee started to act up? Can he handle Torres coming at him? Corluka doesn't worry me at all (strong bias there). He's a bit slow yeah, but he doesn't play outside of his skill set and that makes up for his lack of speed. I honestly thought we'd see Bale play at left back. Instead we are treated to Benny Assou-Ekotto. I always love when BAE plays. I get frustrated because I always remember his performances of old where everything he did was surrounded by question marks. To his credit, he solidified his spot late last season with some strong showings.

Credit: Getty Images

Taking in the first 20-25 minutes, I ignored that I was watching complete garbage footy. Both teams played like garbage, but I honestly was just happy to see Spurs playing. I liked the choppy Internet feed I had that made it almost seem that our home kit was all-white. Until the zoom in's where the yellow reared it's ugly head. But in all honesty, I think the yellow isn't bad and I might get used to it. Come next year though, I hope it's gone.

I was laying in my bed watching the game while my girlfriend had the TV on the Food Network, so when I saw Huddlestone's free kick get deflected and the goal, I was excited to go 1 up on 'pool. When I saw exactly who made that incredible shot, I almost cried laughing. Immediate texts. This goal I can almost gurantee is Benoit Assou-Ekotto's career goal. Just a minute before half, a great way to deflate a team. However, this just meant we could (and usually would) sit back and let Liverpool come at us for the whole second half.

Sure enough, 10 minutes into second half Glen Johnson earns a penalty and Mr. England Stevie Gerrard (overrated) ties it up. Not to discredit Spurs, but Liverpool didn't look up for the game at all and played the way until the final 10 or so minutes. However, Spurs looked solid. Modric seemed out of place and wasn't able to get into the game the way we are used to. However his one free kick a few minutes after Liverpool's tying goal would be the goal to win the match. Luka's kick found Sea Bass' head for his first Spurs goal in his first game with Spurs. More texts come pouring in at this point. Even though that would be the match winner, I had my doubts that we'd eventually let them equalize within the last 3 minutes. They pushed hard from the 85th or so until the final whistle but Spurs held strong.

Credit: Getty Images

Lennon didn't really do much this game as neither did Modric. Luka did get some space and was able to pass but didn't have much room to work with. Central mid was completely bossed by Palacios and Huddlestone. All of you T. Hudd naysayers from the past few seasons are going to be proved wrong. I've always said Huddlestone is going to be quality for us. Our back 4 were incredible. Torres didn't do anything except stay on the ground as Huddlestone gave him a few words. If anyone can get me a .gif of that clip, I'll paypal you $10. No joke. I want that clip. Keane had 3 chances and honestly should have put one in. Defoe I really didn't pay attention to. The other two forwards didn't have any effect in the game. Gomes was solid except on his one challenge that lead to the penalty. But that's alright.

Also, when did Liverpool become so thuggish? That was a text my buddy sent me. And after watching a few challenges from Lucas, I wondered the same thing. Dirk Kuyt was an offender I believe late in the game on Assou Ekotto. Just seemed a bit dirty, which is odd for Liverpool.

After 1 game, we've got 3 points. That's more than we had after the first 8 last season. Triffic. Here's hoping to a solid performance Wednesday away at Hull. We need at least a draw, anything less there's no excuse. I don't mean to sound like a Top 4 or broke kinda fan, but no offense, it's Hull. Luckily, I have an off day from work, so I'll be watching the match for sure.

Lennon's gonna find his end product Wednesday and bag two. I feel it.

C'mon you Spurs!

Across the Pond Part Two:

I haven't had any time to post more of what I received from John in our Baseball Cards for Football cards deal. I also haven't had the time to send out any of the packages that I owe, so I'm going to try and add a bit extra to the few that I need to send out, sorry for the delay. School and work are killing me.

This entry is about two Football Cards I received. The first card, of Croatian superstar Luka Modric is a 2008-2009 Topps Match Attax card. These cards are wildly popular over in the UK. So much so, that Topps is bringing Match Attax over here to America, but for baseball.



Luka is by far my favorite player on Spurs. Ever since Davids left, I didn't really have a favorite player. Sure I liked Keane and I loved Berbatov, but they both left too. Luckily for me, Spurs snapped up Luka before Euro 2008 and he has looked great. Too bad Spurs are horrible so far this year, worse than usual.

The next card I received was in a few of the Match Attax packs I was sent.



Niko Kranjcar of Portsmouth. Niko was injured for quite some time, and is finally back to playing for Pompey. Another one of my favorites in the EPL by far. Even have his Pompey jersey from last year.

I really like the look and feel to these cards. Real sharp. I just wish the back had some stats or a short bio, but that's alright.

I'd love to try and get all the variations of Luka and Niko's card, as well as all the Vedran Corluka cards.

If you can't tell of the bias in this post towards Croatians, it's because I'm a Croat myself.

The next time I do a post about Match Attax it will be all about the other Tottenham guys I got, and there were plenty.

Finally.

I've searched for years for a place to find all the Football Champions cards I need. I am pretty sure I achieved that tonight.

To me, collecting cards isn't about pulling the biggest hits or the hottest rookies. What I like the most is the chase. The countless searching and the roller coaster ride that ensues. Over the last year, I've searched high and low for some of the rarest Football Champions cards, only to come up empty handed. These cards aren't sold in America. To me, that makes the chase all the more worth it. I've searched through UK's Google, Italy's Google, and France's Google. I cannot understand Italian or French, but to me, that makes the search all the more fun. Call me crazy.

I guess what keeps me going through all this is the optimism, that I might just stumble across what I've been looking for. And I think that might have happened when I found this website.

A few months ago, I posted how I'd pay a good amount for my favorite soccer player, Alex Del Piero's rare promo cards. To me, the rarest is his "foil stamped" Adidas logo card. I found it for roughly $8. The only drawback is that shipping will kill me. I also found many other rare promotional cards, which is awesome.

I just hope this company ships to America.

Oh, and sorry for the abundance of soccer related posts as of late, I'll go back to American sports eventually.

And the Spurs Go Marching On!!!

Burnley. Burnley. 3-2 Burnley. We gave up a 4-1 aggregate lead to Burnley. Luckily Pavy and JD tallied two for us late into the second half of extra time, but still.

This team is going nowhere fast, other than Championship Football. Redknapp is lashing out at players in public. Bale continues to play with below zero confidence. Lennon is coming back down to Earth. Our fowards are doing nothing. Modric has nobody behind him. Our defense has more injured than a hospital in the middle of Germany in WW2.

This is going to be a long rest of the season. Luckily there's only a 6 or so point difference between spots 12-20.

Football Champions Checklists

I'm going to try and put every single checklist for Football Champions on here. This includes the Premier League Set (2001-2002), English Subbuteo Set (2002-2003), French Set (2001-2002), and Italian Sets (2001-2005). I'm going to also try and put out the list of every single promotional card ever produced for the game also. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a list of every single promotional card, I'd guess I have about 90% of the ones ever produced.

If any of these lists are flawed, please let me know, as I'd appreciate any help with setting up these checklists. Thanks.

KEY:
Bold= Foil

Football Champions Card Checklist

2001-2002 English Premier League Base Set
001 David Seaman
002 Tony Adams
003 Ashley Cole
004 Lee Dixon
005 Martin Keewn
006 Gilles Grimaldi
007 Frederick Ljunberg
008 Ray Parlour
009 Robert Pires
010 Patrick Viera
011 Dennis Bergkamp
012 Thierry Henry
013 Sylvain Wiltord
014 Peter Schmeichel
015 Gareth Barry
016 Mark Delaney
017 Alpay Ozalan
018 Alan Wright
019 George Boateng
020 David Ginola
021 Moustapha Hadji
022 Lee Hendrie
023 Hassan Kachloud
024 Juan Pablo Angel
025 Paul Merson
026 Brad Friedal
027 Henning Berg
028 Stig-Inge Bjorenebye
029 John Curtis
030 Craig Short
031 Martin Taylor
032 Gary Flitcroft
033 Tugay Kerimoglu
034 David Dunn
035 Damien Dunn
036 Corrado Grabbi
037 Craig Hignett
038 Matt Jensen
039 Jussi Jaaskelainen
040 Anthony Barness
041 Gudni Bergsson
042 Simon Charlton
043 Colin Hendry
044 Gareth Farrelly
045 Per Frandsen
046 Ricardo Gardner
047 Bo Hansen
048 Ian Marshall
049 Michael Ricketts
050 Dean Kiely
051 Steve Brown
052 Mark Fish
053 Radostin Kishishev
054 Chris Powell
055 Richard Rufus
056 Claus Jansen
057 Mark Kinsella
058 John Robinson
059 Graham Stuart
060 Shaun Bartlett
061 Jonatan Johansonn
062 Mathias Svensson
063 Mark Bosnich
064 Celestine Babayaro
065 Marcel Desailly
066 William Gallas
067 Graeme LaSaux
068 Mario Melchiot
069 Slavisa Jokanovic
070 Frank Lampard
071 Jody Morris
072 Mario Stanic
073 Eidur Gudjohnsen
074 Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink
075 Gianfranco Zola
076 Andy Oakes
077 Bjorn Otto Bragstad
078 Horacio Carbonari
079 Danny Higginbotham
080 Chris Riggott
081 Craig Burley
082 Seth Johnson
083 Darry Powell
084 Malcolm Christie
085 Georgi Kinkladze
086 Fabrizio Ravanelli
087 Paul Gerrard
088 David Unsworth
089 Steve Watson
090 David Weir
091 Paul Gascoigne
092 Scot Gemmill
093 Thomas Gravesen
094 Gary Naysmith
095 Mark Pembridge
096 Idan Tal
097 Danny Cadamarteri
098 Kevin Campbell
099 Joe-Max Moore
100 Edwin Van Der Sar
101 Rufus Brevett
102 Steve Finnan
103 Jon Harley
104 Andy Melville
105 Kit Symons
106 John Collins
107 Sean Davis
108 Bjarne Goldbaek
109 Steed Malbranque
110 Barry Hayles
111 Louis Saha
112 Keith Branagan
113 Jamie Clapham
114 Herman Hreidarsson
115 Chris Makin
116 John McGreal
117 Fabian Wilnis
118 Matt Holland
119 Tommy Miller
110 Jermain Wright
121 Alun Armstrong
122 Martijn Reuser
123 Marcus Stewart
124 Nigel Martyn
125 Paul Robinson
126 Rio Ferdinand
127 Gary Kelly
128 Dominic Matteo
129 Danny Mills
130 Luca Radebe
131 Eirik Bakke
132 David Batty
133 Oliver Dacourt
134 Harry Kewell
135 Alan Smith
136 Mark Viduka
137
138 Callum Davidson
139
140 Frank Sinclair
141 Matt Elliot
142
143 Matthew Jones
144 Robbie Savage
145
146
147 Arnar Gunniaugsson
148 Dean Sturridge
149 Sander Westervel
150 Markus Babbel
151 Stephane Henchoz
152 Sami Hyypia
153 Nick Barmby
154 Jamie Carragher
155 Dietmar Hamann
156 Gary McAllister
157 Danny Murphy
158 Vladimir Smicer
159 Emile Heskey
160 Jari Litmanen
161 Michael Owen
162 Fabien Barthez
163 Wes Brown
164 Ronny Johnsen
165 Gary Neville
166 Phillip Neville
167 Michaël Silvestre
168 David Beckham
169 Nicky Butt
170 Luke Chadwick
171 Ryan Giggs
172 Roy Keane
173 Andy Cole
174 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
175 Ruud Van Nistelrooy
176 Mark Schwarzer
177 Colin Cooper
178 Ugo Ehiogu
179 Curtis Fleming
180 Steve Vickers
181 Paul Ince
182 Paul Okon
183 Dean Windass
184 Alen Boksic
185 Brian Deane
186 Joseph-Desire Job
187 Noel Whelan
188 Shay Given
189 Warren Barton
190 Stephen Caldwell
191 Robbie Elliot
192 Aaron Hughes
193 Andy O'Brien
194 Christian Bassedas
195 Nolberto Solano
196 Gary Speed
197 Craig Bellamy
198 Carl Cort
199 Lomano Tresor Lua Lua
200 Paul Jones
201 Francis Benali
202 Claus Lundekvam
203 Dean Richards
204 Wayne Bridge
205 Mark Draper
206 Matt Le Tissier
207 Chris Marsden
208 Paul Murray
209 Matthew Oakley
210 Kevin Davies
211 Marian Pahars
212 Jo Tessem
213 Thomas Sorensen
214 Jody Craddock
215 Michael Gray
216 Emerson Thome
217/250 Stanislav Varga
218 Darren Williams
219 Julio Arca
220 Kevin Kilbane
221 Gavin McCann
222 Alex Rae
223 Stefan Schwarz
224 David Bellion
225 Kevin Phillips
226 Niall Quinn
227 Neil Sullivan
228 Goran Bunjevcevic
229 Gary Doherty
230 Ledley King
231 Chris Perry
232 Darren Anderton
233 Stephen Clarence
234 Oyvind Leonhardsen
235 Gustavo Poyet
236 Tim Sherwood
237 Les Ferdinand
238 Sergei Rebrov
239 Teddy Sheringham
240 David James
241 Hayden Foxe
242 Scott Minto
243 Sebastien Schemmel
244 Nigel Winterburn
245 Michael Carrick
246 John Moncur
247 Trevor Sinclair
248 Paolo Di Canio
249 Frédéric Kanouté
250 Svetoslav Todorov

2001-2002 English Premier League Base Set Tactic Cards:
01 Breakaway
02 Clean set Of Heels
03 Coming Forward
04 Desperate Shot
05 Extra Effort
06 Fast Footwork
07 Goalbound
08 Killer instinct
09 Nutmeg
10 Potshot
11 Push forward
12 Ride a tackle
13 Shoulder barge
14 Smart move
15 Straightforward attack
16 Swift attack
17 Tap Past
18 Fingers
19 Block
20 Crowd the middle
21 Final tackle
22 Keep it simple
23 Read the game
24 Sliding tackle
25 Strong defence
26 Well-positioned
27 Accelerated
28 Bad bounced
29 Change of pace
30 Charge in
31 Clean tackle
32 Fancy Footwork
33 Flair
34 Go in hard
35 Hard tackle
36 Heads up
37 In the clear
38 Measured pass
39 Motion
40 On form
41 Options
42 Out of defence
43 Pressing game
44 Quick off the mark
45 Speed burst
46 Speed it up
47 Step in
48 Tough tackle
49 Unstoppable
50 Watch the clock
51 Corner ball
52 Head home
53 High cross
54 Long pass
55 Long Shot
56 Marked out
57 Penetrating pass
58 Pop up
59 Rebound
60 Slip Up
61 Tough stuff
62 Anticipation
63 Clear the lines
64 Cut the angle
65 Distraction
66 Double up
67 Keeper's Ball
68 Packed box
69 Saving scramble
70 Tight defending
71 Tight marking
72 Timed tackle
73 High bounce
74 On a yellow
75 Pressure on the bench
76 Slide in
77 Smooth move
78 Tackle time
79 Take advantage
80 Test Of Skill



2001-2002 English Premier League Title Race Set
001 Richard Wright
002 Sol Campbell
003 Junichi Inamoto
004 Lauren
005 Giovanni Van Bronckhorst
006 Francis Jeffers
007 Nwankwu Kanu
008 Bosko Balaban
009 Olof Mellberg
010 Steve Stone
011 (Don't Know)
012 Darius Vassel
013 Alan Mahon
014 Lucas Neill
015 Mark Hughes
016 Damien Johnson
017 Keith Gillespie
018 Djibril Diawara
019 Paul Warhurst
020 Mike Whitlow
021 Kevin Nolan
022 Dean Holdsworth
023 Akinori Nishizawa
024 Henrik Pedersen
025 Rod Wallace
026 Paul Konchesky
027 Luke Young
028 Scott Parker
029 Gavin peacock
030 Jason Euell
031 Kevin Lisbie
032 Ed De Goy
033 Winston Bogarde
034 John Terry
035 Emmanuel Petit
036 Boudewijn Zenden
037 Jasper Gronkjaer
038 Mart Poom
039 Paul Boertien
040 Daniele Daino
041 Youl Mawene
042 Deon Burton
043 Alan Stubbs
044 Abel Xavier
045 Duncan Ferguson
046 Tomasz Radzinski
047 Alain Goma
048 Zat Knight
049 Lee Clark
050 Sylvain Legwinski
051 Luis Boa Morte
052 Steve Marlet
053 Matteo Sereni
054 Titus Bramble
055 Mark Venus
056 Jim Magilton
057 Richard Naylor
058 Pablo Couñago
059 Marcus Bent
060 Finidi George
061 Ian Harte
062 Lee Bowyer
063 Michael Bridges
064 Robbie Fowler
065
066
067
068
069
070
071
072 Pegguy Arphexad
073 Jerzy Dudek
074 Grégory Vignal
075 Igor Biscan
076 Steven Gerrard
077 Jamie Redknapp
078 John Arne Riise
079 Laurent Blanc
080/125 Dennis Irwin
081/125 David May
082/125 Quinton Fortune
083 Paul Scholes
084 Juan Sebastian Veron
085 Dwight Yorke
086 Jason Gavin
087 Gareth Southgate
088 Robbie Stockdale
089 Jonathan Greening
090 Carlos Marinelli
091 Robbie Mustoe
092 Allan Johnston
093 Hamilton Ricard
094 Nikos Dabizas
095 Sylvain Distin
096 Andy Griffin
097 Clarence Acuna
098 Robert Lee
099 Shola Ameobi
100/125 Laurent Robert
101 Alan Shearer
102 Tahar El-Khalej
103 Rory Delap
104 Dan Petrescu
105 Anders Svensson
106 James Beattie
111 Stephen Carr
112 Dean Richards
113 Mauricio Taricco
114 Steffen Freund
115 Christian Ziege
116 Simon Davies
117 Steffen Iversen
118 Shaka Hislop
119 Christian Dailly
120 Tomas Repka
121 Rigobert Song
122 Joe Cole
123 Laurent Courtois
124 Don Hutchinson
125 Jermaine Defoe

2001-2002 English Premier League Title Race Tactic Set:
01
02 From behind
03 Square ball
04
05 Back off
06
07 Out of your depht
08 Choices
09 Conditioning
10 Exploited
11 Fifty-fifty ball
12 Inspired burst
13 Jump for it
14 Outclassed
15 Pinball
16
17 Sidestep
18
19 Skilful play
20 Spanner in the works
21 Strong numbers
22 Thunderhead
23 Turn it on
24 Well-timed challenge
25 Counterattack
26 Cutting pass
27
28
29
30 Force the play
31
32 Bluff
33
34 Corner pressure
35 Collision!
36
037
38 On the wrong foot
039
40

English Football Champions Promos:
NOTE: All Promo Cards have a circular Logo Stamp on them. I also have no idea how many there exactly are.

01 Mark Kinsella
02 Gianfranco Zola
03 Les Ferdinand
04 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Italian Football Champions:
2002-2003 YOGA Promotional Cards:
01 Alessandro Del Piero (Italy)
02 Filipo Inzaghi (Italy)
03 Gennaro Ivan Gattuso (Italy)
04 Mark Iuliano (Italy)
05 Christian Pannucci (Italy)
06 Massimo Carrera (Atalanta)
07 Luciano Zauri (Atalanta)
08 Leonardo Colluci (Bologna)
09 Giuseppe Signori (Bologna)
10 Lorenzo D'Anna (Chievo)
11 Nicola Legrottaglie (Chievo)
12 Oliviera (Como)
13 Stephane Dalmat (Inter)
14 Mohammed Kallon (Inter)
15 Domenico Morfeo (Inter)
16 Matteo Brighi (Juventus)
17 Antonio Chimenti (Juventus)
18 Ciro Ferrara (Juventus)
19 Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan)
20 Jon Dahl Tomasson (AC Milan)
21 Aimo Diana (Parma)
22 Sebastian Frey (Parma)
23 Alberto Gilardino (Parma)
24 Luca Mezzano (Torino)


EDIT:
Finished Sets:
English Premier League Base Set (01-02): FINISHED
English Premier League Title Race (01-02): FINISHED
English Promos (01-02): NONE
Subbuteo English League Base Set (02-03): NONE
French League Base Set (01-02): NONE
French League Pour Le Titre (01-02): NONE
French Promos (01-02): NONE
Italian League Base Set (01-02): NONE
Italian Calciomercato Set (01-02): NONE
Italian Promos (01-02): NONE
Italian League Base Set (02-03): NONE
Italian Calciomercato Set (02-03): NONE
Italian Promos (02-03): YOGA Finished. MORE TO COME.
Italian League Base Set (03-04): NONE
Italian Calciomercato Set (03-04): NONE
Italian Promos (03-04): NONE
Italian League Base Set (04-05): NONE
Italian Calciomercato Set (04-05): NONE
Italian Promos (04-05): NONE

Across the Pond

John from Pursuit of 80's(ness) sent me a nice package of football (soccer) cards. I received them yesterday and will be going through them for most of today.

My first impression of the cards was somewhat foreign. The card packaging is quite different from what I'm used to here in America. First off, football "cards" aren't very much cards at all. Most people (adults and children alike) are still big into the football stickers. The heavy player in this is Panini, who dabbled in American sports early in the 90's.

Packs of Panini Cards I received:
UEFA Champions League Trading Card Game 2008/2009
UEFA Champions League Trading Cards 2007
UEFA Champions League 2005
Coca Cola Championship Stickers 2009
Coca Cola Championship Trading Card Game 2009

The Coca Cola Championship Stickers 2009 are small feature two players on each sticker. I received two Birmingham guys, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie and Lee Carsley (lol), Barnsley's Stephen Foster, and Burnley's Brian Jensen. I also got two shiny stickers of Football kits and crests. The first one being both home and away kits of Blackpool while the second was a really awesome 125 years crest of Coventry City.

The Championship Trading Card Game cards are really cool. The background of the card has the club's crest with the player in front. On the side has the player's name, team, DOB, along with some form of point system in the top right. At the bottom right hand corner there is a star with a number inside. All cards are "8" other than two, which are "7". At the very bottom there is the Championship Cup with a number under that. Everyone has "0" while some have "1" or "2". No idea what any of this means.

The UEFA Champions League Stickers from 05 yielded me, Porto's Hugo Almeida, Man United's Paul Scholes, Leverkusen's Clemens Fritz, Lyon's Gregory Coupet, and a photo from a 1960's Champions League Match. I have no idea what game it is from though.

The 07 Champs League cards are pretty cool. The set up of the card is very simliar to the Championship Trading Card game, other than the club crest background and players. In my pack, I got a Javier Zanetti from Inter Milan.

The Champs League stickers feature a close shot of the player's face. Didn't get any superstar's, but did get a sticker of a field. I can't tell what stadium it is, but I am pretty sure it's not any English venue. There's a rubber track surrounding it. The stadium itself isn't very large. At the bottom of the card it says "UEFA Champions League Legend".

This year's version of the Champions League TCG cards have a very modern feel to them. I'm no fan of Celtic at all, and pulled two players. One being Jan Vennegoor Of Hesselink. Other notable pulls are Lukas Podolski and Giorgio Chiellini.

Thanks again to John, your package will be out by the end of the week! Also, expect pay back for the Sol Campbell figure you gave me, that's a low blow.

Transfer Window BS

Failed to sign Palacios from Wigan. Understandable since they are sitting pretty in 7th place right now while we are nearing the bottom. Could be of good use to us, but whatever.

Also, lol at the fact that Adriano is in the same breath as Spurs. To me, it's almost as ridiculous as Podolski to Spurs rumors that were rampant back in August. Adriano has been off and on for Inter, especially with Mourinho at the helm. That could help the cause for him leaving Inter, but no way do I see him wearing Lilywhite anytime soon. Scratch that, make it never wearing Lilywhite ever.


"Where is Tottenham and why would I go there?"

By far the icing on the cake to the Adriano rumor is that they want Jenas in return. Brilliant tabloid work there. No team in their right mind would want Jermaine Jenas. I hate to beat an old drum, but he does absolutely nothing. Other than that one free kick against United two seasons ago. But the only thing that did was get his rating over an 85 in FIFA. The only way that Jenas would go to Inter is if Comolli was a part of Milan's board. But even then, would Damien want Jenas?


Should have never left Newcastle.

Even if we didn't get Adriano, I'd gladly get rid of Jenas for Vieira. And yes, I know he is an ex-Gunner. But at this point, he'd help our already busted up midfield. Wouldn't mind seeing him playing mid next to Appiah.

It's a shame Niko Kranjcar is still hurt, I'd love to rid the team of Bentley and have Niko running the right side of the field. Link him up with Vedran behind him and Luka as a second striker. Hell, I just want to make the whole club Croatian.

Watch this video.

Even if you don't like soccer, this video is worth the watch.



Yoann Gourcuff. French Footballer that plays for Bordeaux (France).

This is Zidane like movement in this video. Unreal stuff. No doubt why people call him Petit Zizou.