Joel

Ahhhhhhhhh posts like this tend to jinx things, nearly did too!

****, schoolboy defending from Pompey and it's in their own net, 2-1

absolutely ASTONISHING own goal from Ferdinand!!!!!!!!

Ricky MOTM for me by a mile. Can't remember him putting a foot wrong, and he chipped in with a goal (bit of a blunder by Robinson IMO, but still a good strike). Roll on Pompey!!

Could you at least describe what operating system you have? Windows XP? Windows 2000? Whichever it is, definitely try to get it booted in safe mode if possible. Borrow a friend's PC to get some of the antivirus/antispyware software already mentioned burned onto CD so you can get them installed. I am guessing your PC is riddled with spyware or infected with a virus, if not both.

Gilardino had an absolute nightmare, getting whistled and jeered (deservedly for me) by the home support relentlessly. He was probably the happiest man in the San Siro when the referee awarded that penalty and Kaka dispatched it. I can't put my finger on why but I don't really enjoy the prospect of AC Milan advancing, so I guess as a neutral I was thrilled to see van Buyten equalise (again) right at the end. Milan really paid for their wastefulness, they were so dominant in the first half it really should have resulted in more than 1 goal. And, the penalty....if the referee was shielded from seeing that Lucio had gotten the ball in the tackle, what on earth has he given the penalty for???? You better be DAMN sure to give a penalty at any time, not least of all in the dying moments of a CL quarterfinal.

That gave me heartburn.

I genuinely feel sorry for you lads. But the Guardian's minute-by-minute report is facking hilarious.

I was down visiting a friend and we got tickets for this friendly. I lied in the subject line however...I have no match report. Please read my tale here: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost ... tcount=268 Completely, utterly shambolic. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has been to a few England/Scotland/other friendlies or competitive internationals and have you chime in about how smoothly it tends to work. And more importantly, what the FA would do if such a thing were to happen over there.

This is a stroll in the park today. Shevchenko best game in a blue shirt. Ditto for SWP. Can anyone watching any of the other games explain why Paul Robinson's name is on the scoresheet for Tottenham??

Distressingly I knew when reading just the title that references were going to be made to all the ridiculous things that have been attempted over here in the USA by the brain wizards in charge of MLS. Worth noting that EVERYTHING that was attempted--strict 45 min halves with no injury time, any kind of shootout, sudden death overtimes--was eventually SCRAPPED and sanity won out. However keeping in mind that the people in charge are endlessly thinking up new ways to get non-fans interested I am wary of things like long distance goals counting double, timeouts, etc. God we are an embarrassment.

As Scott said Setanta is carried exclusively by DirecTV ($15/month for just the one channel!). The North American broadcast rights for the various European leagues have tended to vary quite a bit in recent years from season to season, so I'm very curious to see how things pan out this summer for who will be showing what. I intend to cancel Setanta in May after everything's done and then see if the situation is going to change for next season. The Spurs Cup tie was only on Setanta Premium via PPV, which isn't available in residential areas at all that I can tell. A couple pubs in downtown Minneapolis screened the game but it was too early for me to get up and haul myself down there.

In fairness to Messi he went over in the area during the 2nd half on a stellar tackle from someone (Helguera? can't remember) and despite the baying of the crowd for a penalty got up and dusted himself off without making any sort of claim. It was the perfect spot on the field for a persistent diver to try it too. So I think he has it in him and in general seems to keep his feet more often than not.

This game was everything it was cracked up to be. Any opinions on the Ronaldinho penalty claim in injury time? On a related note, I am looking for a good hitman if anyone has contacts. I am placing a contract on the head of Ray Hudson from GOL TV. God-awful and indescribably annoying.

GOL TV is replaying this match tonight, I forgot to record it live so I'm Tivoing tonight. Can't wait to see it.

Saw the last 25 minutes or so, simply dreadful game. Plymouth would have done well to actually keep the ball and attempt to do something with it. Instead that entire time they lumped it high and long with their first touch EVERY time they saw it. Only real chance they created while I watched was a good free kick from the left that almost resulted in an own goal.

Phillip that comment might negate your credility on everything until the end of time. Pizza Hut is so greasy, ugh!

I don't know why exactly, but I'm particularly keen on winning the FA Cup this year. Almost moreso than the Champions League--maybe in part because I feel it's more realistic. If we do fail to retain the league, it ought to prove ample motivation for next season, where we'll have the new high-profile recruits with one season to settle under their belts and hopefully ready to roar out of the starting blocks.

Leaving aside that anything is still mathematically possible, the looks on the faces of the United players told me all I need to know. They have the belief that no matter what their personnel situation is from here on out they can do it. They know they're in the driver's seat. The story--not to be confused with an excuse--of our season for me has been injuries and the resulting players being fielded out of position. We've gotten away with it here and there but it seems plain that it has had an effect. Apart from certain players giving me heartburn consistently and our play being dour and lifeless (yet effective) we haven't had a bad season by any means. And if a couple things go our way it could be one of those last days of the season with everything to play for. But O'Shea's sucker punch goal certainly did feel like the title decider. Liverpool failed to take any of their host of chances and then give it away at the end....UGH. I reckon that Player of the Year gong is a neck-and-neck race between Ronaldo and Drogba.

I believe it is over here on Setanta, but I'm just guessing as I forgot all about today and failed to set up Tivo.

PSV 1 Arsenal 0

Very interesting. Perhaps the ultra long term benefit to all these developments will be to increase our national team's success on the world stage. It certainly won't be to grow the game here....until proven otherwise it will be small but stable. Anything to further that stability is good I guess.

Adding RAM won't hurt any of your existing files, settings, programs, or anything. Just pop open the case to see how many DIMMs (memory modules) your motherboard can accept. On some older computers you used to have to add RAM in pairs or put certain ones in certain slots. I don't think that's the case for anything these days, thankfully... If you add RAM the only thing you're likely to have to do is enter the BIOS once the first time you boot it up, exit and save everything, reboot. Good to go from then on.

Vista RC2 was widely available for download. Now that the final version has hit retail outlets I doubt that it's still available from Microsoft...but I'm sure torrents of it are still floating around everywhere.

I can't see myself jumping to Vista anytime in the next year or more. Most of the features that would have made Vista revolutionary were axed to get it out the door (e.g. WinFS). Maybe once SP1 comes out, DX10 is launched and DX10 compatible video cards get affordable I'll consider it.