colman1860

He's an 18 year old, not playing for a big team. 0 caps to his name. Would be a massive surprise. It'll take an injury to Cole/Baines to get him there.

Pretty good draw, actually. Sunderland are beatable, and a lot of big teams will knock each other out, while small teams are guaranteed to move on to the last 8. This looks promising.

*how long they wait...going to be brilliant when I get to edit my posts!

Anyone know how soon the FA usually waits before they release the exact date/time these are scheduled for?

Negredo is played onside by Chambers who got close to the goal line defending the cross. Even if he had been in an offside position, I still don't think he was interfering. Literally put his hands up to demonstrate he wasn't involved.

Dissent is a cautionable offense, not dismissable. I think realistically what would happen is we would see even fewer cautions for dissent. Referees wouldn't want to affect the game is such a significant way by issuing cards for something which can often (though not always) be managed without cards. This would lead to dissent becoming an even greater problem.

I'm a referee, and spend a lot of time on a refereeing message board on bigsoccer.com, where this was discussed a few days ago. One of the posters, MassachusettsRef, wrote the following, which echoes my views entirely, but is a lot more eloquent than me, and saves me writing an essay. I should point out - it was in response to Platini talking about this(http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25235277), not Le Tissier. Yes, I know, tl;dr. "This is frustrating to read. It shows a complete lack of understanding as to the purpose of cautioning a player. He's basing his reasoning on yellow card accumulation, which is something bureaucrats invented and has--as he implicitly admits--nothing to do with the game. If this is his real concern, then the answer is to get rid of yellow card accumulation penalties. Not that I actually advocate that change wholesale, but accumulation--something invented by the governing bodies--shouldn't be a reason to change how we caution players on the field. A caution, as I was taught long ago, is remedial. It is meant to modify behavior. A send off is punitive. The notion that a caution doesn't "benefit" the opposing team in that game is absurd. It modifies behavior immediately. Or, if it fails to do so, then the player will be sent off soon thereafter and the opposing team will benefit. Why must the opposing team "benefit" in a more tangible way from a caution? Who came up with that idea? We give cautions for a variety of offences. I'm sure some might get on board with the idea that a tactical foul should also have a 10-minute sin binning, because it takes away an attacking chance. But from there it's a slippery slope. Simulation should be a caution and a 10-minute sin bin? Failure to respect the distance should? Dissent? I'd argue that, if this change ever got instituted, it would be a giant step backward for the game. You'd never see anything but clear tactical fouls and obvious reckless fouls getting cautioned. I happened to be watching some video of the other day of some 1970 and 1990 WC matches... the fouls that were allowed to occur without a caution--even by some of the best refs of those eras--were ludicrous. We've come a long way toward cleaning up the game by creating a culture where refs are not afraid to deal appropriately with misconduct. And Platini wants to toss that all away? It's a dumb idea. Not to mention, take a look at rugby and the frequency of yellow cards. Has there ever been a World Cup Rugby match with more than 3 cautions? The average number of cards, I would bet, is below 1.00 per game. There have only been 16 red cards total over seven World Cup Rugby tournaments. Cards do not happen a lot in rugby. They are a much more major event than they are in soccer, which is why their system works. A rare 15 v 14 over an 80 minute game is fine. Anyone want to watch La Liga when each team is playing down a man on 4-5 occasions per match? Perhaps worse, does anyone want to see refs reluctant to give obvious yellow cards because a team is already down a man? Let's say a team loses a player via DOGSO 44 minutes in. Then they pick up a card for a reckless foul to start to the second half. It's 11 v 9 for nine minutes... there will be situations where it's free reign for players to commit misconduct because not many refs are going to want to put a team down 11 v 8 in the middle of the match due to, let's say, a shirt pull. Oh, and you could probably eliminate Persistent Infringement from the Law book because it would never get called again. Just a horrible idea."

No Clyne or Wanyama tomorrow: Mauricio Pochettino confirms @VictorWanyama and @Nathaniel_Clyne are out of tomorrow's game against @MCFC. #saintsfc (from the official twitter account)

I assume Wanyama went off to save him from a yellow card, which would have kept him out of Saturday's match. I didn't notice Cork positively or negatively except for their second goal. Overall though, there shouldn't be too many scapegoat threads today. Villa had three shots on target, and they all went in. None were the keeper's fault. Bit of a fluke overall, with the individual errors coming from players who haven't had much time (Yoshida/Cork).

Summary: We're the same, except we defend better and attack better

That's cause for embarrassment, not pride.

Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Essien, Ramires, Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Torres Had hoped Mourinho would continue his silliness with Mata on the bench...

The 5 "B" players mentioned in the guardian report on Germany resting players - Weidenfeller, Boateng, Schmelzer, Hummels, Bender - would all (with the possible exception of Schmelzer) walk into the England XI. This will still be a big test.

Have been using this one, no issues so far: http://www.football-fixtures.info/category/premier-league/southampton/

Off-topic (and probably unwelcome) contribution to this thread: Anyone know of a pub that will be showing the Sweden-Portugal game, even if it's just on one screen?

How often do away tickets actually make it down to general sale? I assume it depends on a combination of big club/proximity? (Very new to Saints - just moved here from Canada for school a couple months ago. Have been to three home games, would love to see them away)

The term "soccer" is an abbreviation of "Association Football", used in England to distinguish football from rugby, which was called football way back when (football and rugby originated from the same sport). So the idea of Americans making up a silly word to distinguish football from hand-egg (I know, you didn't say that) isn't correct. Football fans in the US/Canada have to use "soccer" to clarify that they don't mean American football, which is definitely more annoying for them than us. Let's give them a pass on the word.

I know it's a long shot, but if anyone's selling 3 tickets for the Arsenal match in two weeks time, please let me know. com1e13@soton.ac.uk