Football
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Watched USA's defeat to Honduras a while back and thought they were well beaten. Presumably Guzan will play as Howard is injured? Please nobody injure him!
Oh lord, now Fletcher is knackered. An optimist might say that we have two more than capable strikers in reserve - one desperate to silence the doubters, the other with massive potential. But who ever heard of an optimistic Sunderland fan? 
Great scenes from the aforementioned World Cup qualifier between USA and Costa Rica yesterday. Whose mad idea was it to schedule a game at altitude in the Rocky Mountains in March? 
The Montenegrin national anthem is my new jam. Sounds like something from 'The Omen'. 
At least England were so rubbish last night that Joe Hart didn't have time to INVENT problems, unlike another incredibly arrogant, utterly obnoxious shouty keeper.
Continuing still further on the theme of goalkeeping, er, 'eccentricities' this international break, Pepe Reina appears in a 17 (seventeen) minute video dressed as a Roman soldier. As you do.
Terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. I’ve already seen countless Sunderland managers come and go, but quite honestly, this departure has upset me more than any other, not least because I really, really liked O’Neill. He seemed to have all the right credentials to take us forward, his presence was a breath of fresh air after Bruce and his well-documented childhood affinity with the club was an added bonus. Hard to say where it all went wrong - although it seems too throwaway just to say that he's lost it or that he's no good without his mate John Robertson, anyone who's watched us at any point this year would have seen a team with some very obvious and very serious shortcomings, and while the timing could hardly have been worse, Short must have been incredibly spooked at seeing a seven-point safety cushion go up in smoke within the space of six days. So here we are again, flying straight into the unknown, holding what could turn out to be a get out of jail free card or a one way ticket to the Championship. Despite a good few years' experience with this kind of nonsense, I'm completely clueless with regard to what or who's going to happen next.
With the exception of Benteke's header that was blocked (by Gerrard, clearly well rested having slept through the entire second half in Montenegro) we were absolutely hopeless in the second half today. Baker must be the clumsiest sod since at least, erm, Richard Dunne.
Its hard to argue that O'Neill was doing a particularly decent job at Sunderland but I don't necessarily regard this as a wise move. The timing seems very cynical and as I've said before their run in post-Chelsea looks pretty decent. That Newcastle game just keeps getting bigger.
Hells bells, its Di Canio. Someone get Michael a strong drink.
It's difficult to see it as anything other than a 'hail mary' play by Short, but I suppose all you can do as a fan at this point is cross your fingers and hope for the best. If Di Canio can fire a rocket up the players, scrape a win or two and drag us out of danger with time to spare, fantastic. If relegation should happen and we go down fighting, then I'd probably prefer to be in the depressing environment of the Championship with him than some old-school dullard like McLeish or McDermott. Of course, there's a good chance we'll just completely crash and burn too, but we'll have to cross that bridge if and when we come to it. One thing's for sure, it won't be boring.
Too bad Sunderland moved so swiftly, for the great (but actually inarguably rubbish) Neil Warnock is now available. Incoherent Di Canio style verbal sparring for half the price.
Kaboom
My new ultimate dream this season is for all of Stoke's remaining opponents to band together between now and May, and perform a public service by relegating them.
My new ultimate dream this season is for all of Stoke's remaining opponents to band together between now and May, and perform a public service by relegating them.
Games like that remind me why I love football. Is there any right-thinking neutral out there not currently pulling for Dortmund in the Champions League?
Messi to the rescue for Barca. Even while struggling with fitness, his class told in the end. Credit must go to PSG as well, they pushed Barca all the way and were superb for long periods - particularly Pastore and Lavezzi.
Not exactly a newsflash, but Bayern are really quite good. When Schweinsteiger took command after the half-hour mark, they looked as if they could have kicked on and scored more at any point, with Juve simply unable to track how fluently they moved the ball.
Champions League semi-finals
Bayern Munich vs. Barcelona
Real Madrid vs. Borussia Dortmund
Europa League semi-finals
Fenerbahce vs. Benfica
Chelsea vs. Basel