So has anyone seen the HBK DVD?

[So has anyone seen the HBK DVD?]

Sounds really well put together and everything but there's just so many more matches they could have put on it. In a perfect world they'd do about 6 volumes of stuff following his career through comprehensively. There were loads of great Rockers matches for a start.

[English Football]

I was in Amsterdam on holiday, so I decided to go see the Amsterdam tournament for a laugh.  I saw both Sunday games.  Liverpool - Galatasaray was one of the funniest matches I've ever seen.  Liverpool are so horrifically crap and boring they become entertaining.  Who here in this thread can fail to appreciate the sheer comedic genius of a central midfield pairing of Bruno Cheyrou and Igor Biscan, with Harry Kewell on the right for some unknown reason and looking every inch an overhyped flop?  Ah, great moments such as Emile Heskey repeatedly passing the ball off the touchline and the final glory that was both Neil Mellor and Steven Gerrard being sent off minutes after coming on as subs.  Galatasaray weren't any great shakes, but they were playing Liverpool so they won 2-1, with the second goal being a rather tasty free kick.

 

The second match was Ajax-Inter and on a technical level was superb, as well as having a great atmosphere owing to it being an Ajax home game.  Ajax deservedly won 3-0, they're a wonderful side to watch.  Their main man is Rafael Van der Vaart, a phenomenally talented withdrawn striker.  Mark my words, he will be one of the world's best players in the years to come.  They have other great players too though, such as Litmanen, Trabelsi, Pienaar and Van der Gun.  They could be dark horses for the Champions League, as they seem to have a really cohesive squad.

Not a Liverpool fan?

 

I've always had a big soft spot for them myself but I agree they've become almost unbearable to watch. As a neutral I enjoy watching the top teams like Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle play but i'd honestly rather watch Leicester play than Liverpool. Funny how Biscan turned out to be a dud as loads of top European clubs were after him before he went to Anfield. Until Houllier goes Liverpool will struggle more and more to get into Champions League contention, the man couldn't even get a French squad including Cantona, Ginola, Papin and Desailly to a World Cup.

 

Ajax do indeed have an excellent crop of youngish players but they were very fortunate to reach to quarter finals of the Champions League last season playing a negative brand of football Houllier would be proud of. Koeman's tactics were an ugly contrast to the traditional Ajax style of attractive attacking football. Arsenal should have buries them at Highbury but their usual wayward finishing cost them dear but I admit I was cheering for the Dutch that night as their mid 90's team gave me a lifelong bias to them (BTW was it a family holiday you were on?). Van der Vaart is supposedly staying this season so far but it won't be too long before every top club in Europe will be bidding for his services, Alex Ferguson would have him next week if he could.

[English Football]

Beat Caboose to it....

 

Leicester 0 Barcelona 1

 

Just over 32,000 saw a decent enough (friendly matches are weird to watch) game which was won by a classy goal from Saviola on the stroke of half time where deft footwork brought him the time to fire an unstoppable shot past Walker. Ronaldinho got booed a lot which was quite funny but he still showed flashes of brilliance spearheading most of Barca's first half attacks. For some reason Cocu was playing centre back and got himself sent off for cynically haking down Hignett when he was in the clear. A big scuffle kicked off and for a while it was anything but a 'friendly'. Mikey Adams wisely took Alan Rogers off before he got dismissed himself and the game calmed down again. Barcelona's passing and movement was predictably smooth and effortless but Leicester enjoyed decent spells as well and should probably have equalized second half with a couple of decent chances being missed. Puyol looked class but apparantly they don't want him to go to Man Utd as its been rumoured.

 

Most impressive for City were Gillespie and Nallis, I don't think the defence and midfield is particularly inferior to the other teams in the bottom half of the Premier pecking order but i'm just worried where the goals are going to come from. We don't look like a team who could recover often if we went a goal down.

[Essential Albums]

Generally regarded as 'Classics'

 

The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man

The Kinks - Something Else By The Kinks

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?

REM - Automatic For The People

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

More personal taste favourites, not a definitive favourite albums list or anything but a few of my essentials.

 

Uncle Tupelo -Anodyne/March 16-20 1992

Wilco - Being There

The Jayhawks - Tomorrow The Green Grass

The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash

Ron Sexsmith - Ron Sexsmith

Eels - Electro-Shock Blues (that poster was right the other day in the gig review thread = just get the first 2 albums)

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - For the native tongue wacky early stuff 20: EP's/Singles 94-96 , The Blue Trees EP for the folkiest and most low key later stuff and Barafundle for the most deliberate mix of the two.

Blur - Best Of IMO their only album free of filler, my favourite singles band of the 90's.

 

Anybody into 90's Ska bands should at least get a singles collection of Madness & The Specials and anybody willing to admit a fondness for 90's melodic punk should get early-mid 90's Lookout records stuff like Green Days' Kerplunk! , Screeching Weasal, Mr T Experience & The Queers.