Jimmy_D

Well that was a bit grim. Might have been a very different day had the stonewall penalty not been missed by the ref, but definitely a day to dig Adkins’ pen out and draw a line under.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66682503 Wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out they’ve managed to turn some former Wagner fighters.

It’s getting more and more difficult for Russian propaganda to put any sort of positive spin on anything at all.

Gerrin! Looked a bit uncertain for a while there but the 2nd half subs really made a difference. The team is really starting to make a habit of responding well to setbacks this season.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/08/25/milley-ukrainian-troops-break-through-russian-defense-line-on-southern-front/ US Military seem to be confirming some sort of breakthrough for Ukraine. Once Tokmak is in conventional artillery range, Russia’s logistics options between the West and East of the Southern front are extremely limited.

Nothing absolutely conclusive, but it’s been claimed by Ukraine, and Russia are claiming it was prevented rather than that it didn’t happen. Also a separate operation reportedly took out a S-400 AA system in Crimea.

Unconfirmed reports tonight from Russian sources of an extremely rapid Ukrainian advance/Russian retreat in the Tokmak direction on the southern front. No guarantees of course, but if it’s accurate, might be that Ukraine have something of a breakthrough into an area behind a defensive line that’s far less defended. Between Ukraine’s hitting of logistics lines in Crimea that have massively stretched Russian resources so that they can’t defend in depth, and the reserves Ukraine still haven’t had to commit, might be a very interesting 24-48 hours ahead.

Looks like it was at least six of the top leadership of Wagner on that plane. Relatively little collateral damage by Putin’s standards. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Russian_apartment_bombings It’s extremely unlikely, but after the recent repeated drone attacks on Moscow, there’s a chance this was actually accidental friendly fire by a trigger happy air defence operator, with absolutely no chance of anyone believing that’s what happened. Shows you just how far Russia have fallen though, that bringing down a private plane is unsurprising to the extent it was practically expected that something like this would happen.

At the very least, it looks like some elements of Wagner are going to be hostile to Putin for the foreseeable.

The only real surprise is that it took this long really. Appears that Utkin, the other co-founder, was on board too. What happens with Wagner now and the soldiers more loyal to Prigozhin than to Russia is anyone’s guess.

Russian propaganda these days seems to be ‘we could nuke everyone and win, and no-one will retaliate because we have more nukes than everyone.’ Incidentally, Ukraine has a defence agreement with China in the event that Ukraine is attacked with nuclear weapons. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/feb/28/putins-war-tests-chinas-nuclear-pact-ukraine/ Whether that would hold up in the event it was triggered is one thing, but China really wouldn’t want to be seen to break a treaty, which is likely why a lot of the nuclear threats being implied by Russian officials dried up after the meetings with China happened a fair while back. For what it’s worth, the UK MOD think the hit on the Tu-22M is highly likely genuine.

The real risk the club might be worried about is keeping Che, missing out on promotion (for whatever reason, injuries to players being one reason that could happen), and then being stuck with no Che, no Che money, and another season in the Championship, with the unknown of whether any replacement strikers would be available at the right price. Personally I’d be inclined to keep him and gamble with his record in the Championship, but I can understand the club wanting to reduce the risk around striker options for next season, even if that potentially makes it less likely we go up this season. What we don’t know is how far advanced any potential replacements are this window that would influence the club’s decision on that.

Separate teams. The Southampton team that won those isn’t affiliated with Saints.

Even if you step back for a moment and look at it from a purely footballing perspective, there’s no way anyone would be able to deal with the constant scrutiny and abuse he’ll be getting if he plays in England. You’d get almost no benefit from signing him and the cost to the image of the club would be immense.

Absolutely not. I’d go and support Sholing instead.

It must have been torture waiting two years for her first loss in a competitive game so you could finally criticise her.

https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-14---the-penalty-kick “When the ball is kicked, the defending goalkeeper must have at least part of one foot touching, in line with, or behind, the goal line.” I thought it’d have to be retaken initially as I thought the foot had to be on the line, but it doesn’t and she timed it perfectly.

Lauren James effort into the top left corner at least one that immediately comes to mind, 9/10 times that doesn’t get saved.

Absolutely gutting. Spain managed to take one chance, England unlucky with the chances they created. Refereeing nowhere near good enough for a World Cup Final.

One where the keeper stopped short of the player, and the player stuck a leg out and back, and dragged it to slightly brush the keeper and then went down himself as there wasn’t enough contact to bring him down. Never a penalty but it could have fooled some refs probably on another day.

Get in! Well fought win there.

Are you really trying to downplay a coach that’s reached four major international tournament finals in a row, winning at least two of them, to crazy golf level?

Looks like it’s a moot point anyway. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66530873 Tactics-wise she’s obviously very good. We’ve faced teams using all different styles of tactics at this World Cup, missing some of our best players, and had an answer for all of them. With her international teams she’s managed to get players willing to run through walls for her, and more than that, believing they can run through walls for her. Whether she’d get the same respect from a men’s team… she certainly would from some players, but probably not all. I don’t think it’d be impossible for her to build a team that works given enough time, but the chances of that seem relatively low to me. That said, I reckon she’d be a better shout than some of the players that have walked into top management jobs five minutes after retiring from playing.

Oh sorry, I’ll just go ahead and restore all the posts that aren’t talking about football, and are instead speculating about people’s sexuality or implying that people need to watch extreme videos because of their sexuality. Oh wait. No I won’t.

Y’know, we’ve just won a World Cup Semi-Final. Any chance of anyone talking about football?