The Goat Pen

Where are Ron Mexico's wedding updates?

You motherfucker. Justin Bieber on the soccer thread? Fuck VCU.

Justin Bieber > Americans who pretend to follow English Premier League

Fear Will Bruin.

What's taking you so long to ban the Beiber spammer? This wouldn't happen if Cletus was still alive.

efz

We got how many registered here now? How many actually post? Thin the fucking herd and moderate new posters.

Or ya can always give me buttons dammit

Christ, how fucking lucky can Chelski get?

Wolfsburg is channeling 3-wolf moon for their jerseys next year.

Missed this, but apparently CONCACAF is sticking with the Hex qualifying format.

Noticed this though for 2014...

Teams Entering First Round: Antigua, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent,** Suriname Trinidad & Tobago

Teams Entering Semifinal Round: Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, United States

When was the last time Cuba qualified? Ever?

I dont see why theres a need to muck about with FIFA rankings for those top 6 if they are going to be that bogus, just give the 6 top seeds to the teams that made the hex last time (given that T&T was one of those teams, I'm shiocked they DIDN't do that.)

I wasn't even aware that Cuba participated.

Canada gets killed because they arent as good as the US or Mexico, but the get an automatic Gold CUp bid (and seriously, these seedings need to take the Gold Cup into account at least) and dont get the ridiculous points that Cuba and Jamaica and the central american teams get for their gold cup qualifying games.

There was one slight change for us, entering at the seminfinal round means no more ridiculous 11-0 or 7-1 thrashings or whatever in a home/away tie of Barbados, Grenada, etc that we had the last two cycles.

It's mildly surprising that they didn't just use the last hex, but I'm sure Warner has some sort of angle: either it's financially advantageous for them to play in the round or at least he gets to strut around Hasley Crawford like the cock of the walk during those first round games. I'll spare him the Dr. Kananga/Live and Let Die comparisons for the time being though since we at least managed to maintain the hexagonal, which seemed unlikely 6 months ago.

True about the Gold Cup fucking Canada, but at the same time I don't think they're any better than T&T or El Salvador. I do think Guatemala is better than Grenada though and whichever of the Pot C teams gets Guatemala in their group is the only one of that group that I can see having any trouble moving on to the second round.

Pot A: Puerto Rico, Barbados, Curacao, St. Vincent, the Cayman Islands, Nicaragua
Pot B: Antigua, Guyana, Suriname, St. Kitts and Nevis, Guatemala, Dominica
Pot C: Panama, Canada, El Salvador, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti
Pot D: 5 winners from Phase 1 + Bermuda

Why is Avon Barksdale's hoop affiliation Prairie View A&M? And why aren't his answers to the other two questions correctly displayed?

Anywho, I think today's clash goes one of two ways -- Madrid comes out and try to score, in which case Barca run rampant; or Madrid comes out and try to disqualify Barca players for the final, in which case we have another 90 minutes of crap. Of course, I suppose Barca could run rampant and a frustrated Madrid could turn the came ugly.

Eh, whatever. I'm still sour on this fixture after last week's atrocity.

Dear God,

I never ask for anything, but this Sunday there is a huge soccer match in Manchester. I know you probably have more important things on your plate, but a catastrophic Earthquake/Volcano/etc centered at Old trafford would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

aTm