Ep.23 Deadline Daze by Off The Post on Mixcloud The Pod lived the ultimate football punditry dream last night – recording whilst all the frenetic bedlam of Deadline Day played out. With producer Stu alerting us of live developments throughout, the Pod's narrative zig-zagged back and forth like Bellamy's rubber band dance in the FA [.

The Bedfordshire regiment play soccer with the Germans, Christmas Day 1914

Truth is stranger than fiction. Liverpool are to host Man Utd in the FA Cup 4th round at the end of the month in a potentially explosive match that could see many sources of conflagration from fans, players, and even the managers all centered around the Luis Suarez vs Patrice Evra racism row.

What a difference a week makes. Since Christmas Day, the teams at the bottom and in the middle of the Premier League have performed spectacularly, picking up much-needed points. Consider that Blackburn beat Manchester United at Old Trafford and tied...
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• Kop That: Jamie Redknapp: Arsenal need to re-sign Thierry Henry http://t.co/Fy2YzhvQ 23:39:55, 2011-12-25
• Kop That: Boxing Day can make football smile again after shocking week http://t.co/kPstYng0 23:09:52, 2011-12-25
• Kop That: Referees are picking on Craig Bellamy, says Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish http://t.

26.12.2011 - Mientras una Buenos Aires semidesierta funciona a media máquina y los diarios cumplen con llenar el espacio destinado a "noticias", Londres y toda Inglaterra vive el sustancial y legendario Boxing Day, el día posterior al "Christmas Day", nada menos que en Lunes.
El Boxing Day es una festividad celebrada en las islas británicas el día de San Esteban, 26 de diciembre (o próximo día hábil después de Navidad) y su origen data de la Edad Media.

Many people look forward to Christmas Day, what with all of the presents and the food and the family time. Now, that's all very, very nice, but I look forward more to the day after Christmas, even if it's not a holiday in my little corner of the world. Boxing Day means football, football, football, [.

Revealed: LFC Xmas quiz answers

How many questions did you get right in our annual bumper LFC Christmas Day quiz? We provide you with the answers now.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-12-26 09:37:35 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Barcelona striker David Villa got a welcome boost as he was released from Hospital yesterday, five days after undergoing an operation on his broken leg picked up last month in his clubs successful World Club Cup competition.

Villa must be delighted with being able to spend Christmas day with his childhood sweetheart, Wife Patricia Gonzalez and their two Daughters, Zaida (8) and Olaya (2).

On You Tube people are creating better and better videos all the time bearing in mind the copyright constraints imposed by the Premier League and clubs in general.
TheSpinFire on YouTube has created some of the best of them. I have posted up some of these videos on here before but yesterday the final part of The Roman Abramovich Era 2003-2011 was uploaded and I am featuring today.

The LFC Christmas Day quiz

Welcome to our annual bumper Christmas Day LFC quiz. There's 50 questions to be answered – some hard, some easy – see how many you can get right.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-12-25 00:03:57 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Ignorance is all too common

It seems there is no shortage of ‘look at me' columnists or radio shock-jocks ready to stick the knife into Liverpool following this week's events and the fallout from the Suarez-Evra verdict. It was like Christmas had come early, albeit by a few days, with a topic they could talk about from atop their high horses without wasting valuable festive drinking time by bothering to do any research on it.

Will Manchester City still top the English league after Christmas?

While the rest of European football shuts down for a well-earned break at Christmas time there is no such luxury in the United Kingdom. It has long been a traditional within the Home Nations to continue over the festive period and this season will should see some interesting action.

Manchester City top Premier League on Christmas Day stats of title winners

Man City top of the Premier League table on Christmas Day but fans should be careful not to count their, erm, turkeys as leading the way at Christmas is not as reliable an indicator as many think.

By 1916, exhibition soccer games on Christmas Day were a Philadelphia tradition that dated back at least to the inaugural season of the city's first organized league, the Pennsylvania Football Union, in 1889. As was the case then, the exhibition game in 1916 took place at the grounds of one of Philadelphia's professional baseball teams, this time at the Phillies Ball Park.

Naughty Naughton Norwich full-back Kyle Naughton picked up the most sensible booking of his career during last night's pulsating 2-2 draw with Wolves. Naughton received his fifth yellow card of the season to earn himself an automatic one-match ban. That rules him out of the Boxing Day clash with Tottenham.

Kobe Bryant suffered a sprained wrist in the first preseason game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. The injury could keep Kobe Bryant out of the Lakers second and final preseason contest.

However, the good news for the Lakers and Kobe Bryant is that he should be ready to go once the regular season begins on Christmas Day.

So it is Manchester City who proudly sits at the top of the Premier League table going into Christmas this year.

Of course, manager Roberto Mancini is refusing to get carried away by all that, but it is true that it is his side who now hold the advantage going into the tough second part of the season.

Dear Tottenham players and staff,
I got such wonderful feedback from those of you who I bought presents for last year, I just had to send you some more to say thank you for a great start to the season, and to give you further incentive to carry it on into 2012. Have a look below to see what you can expect to find in the post for Christmas day.

In my two decades as Newcastle fan I have had worse Christmases, tucking into my Turkey in 2008 whilst languishing four points above the relegation zone springs immediately to mind. This was made all the worse by having to bypass drinking my despair away due to a nice early drive to Wigan the next morning.

The Chicago Fire might be in the off-season but Section 8 Chicago keeps working on. The Section 8 monthly Board Meeting will take place tonight, December 7 at 7:00 PM at The Atlantic Bar & Grill, 5062 N. Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. As always, the board meetings are open and everyone is invited to attend.

So Steve Kean at least avoided the ignominy of becoming the Premier League's first coach to be sacked thi season. Poor old Steve Bruce has taken that title for him.
But with Rovers propping up the rest of the division and slung out of the Carling Cup by Cardiff in midweek, most managers in Kean's position would be nervously awaiting a phone call from the chairman.

With the NBA season set to begin on Christmas Day, let's take a further look at the basketball landscape. We already looked at the NBA power rankings to see the best teams in basketball. Now, let's look at the worst. Here are the top 10 worst teams in the NBA headed into the 2011-12 season.

1.

We are starting to get some details of the 66-game NBA season that will take place following the end of the lockout. The season will start on Christmas Day and will run through April 26th. The playoffs will be pushed back and end later than usual.

During the regular season, teams will play conference opponents a total of 48 times.

Finally. The NBA lockout, which never really made that much sense, is over. The NBA owners softened there stances are a number of key issues and a deal was reached early Saturday morning. While both sides have to vote to make this deal official, that is all just a matter of time.

Among the issues the owners softened on were rules regarding the mid-level exception, sign-and-trades and even the overall BRI split.

Welcoming Laurie Dunsire this hour. A Hearts fan. This blogathon is inclusive to its bones.
Laurie writes for the excellent Scottish Football Forums
And follow him @lauriedunsire
I'll let Laurie explain what this hour has been about:
Aidan Smith, Hibs fan and sports journalist, carried out an unthinkable challenge when he became a Hearts fan for a whole season, something which he documented in his book, Heartfelt: Supping Bovril from the Devil's Cup.

G'day Arse addicts, tis I again, that Stillman fella, come to once again dispense wisdom and bile in equal measure on behalf of you, the silent majority. Aren't you lucky that I have appointed myself to hold court at your benediction? With the internationals behind us for another five weeks, Champions League qualification secured and new signings stockpiled, I'm putting the traumas of early season behind me and considering this the start of our season.

Unlabour Day cheezies.... let us pray...
We've always found those strange "almost holiday" days that come right after a very recognized special day to be quite odd. For example, the day after Halloween is known as All Saints' Day, a Christian holy day where every saint, known and unknown, is celebrated.

Holidays are not really holidays in Major League Soccer. Or, holidays are truly treated as holidays in MLS. Depends on one's outlook. A sports fan might think the latter, but wishes it weren't true.
There is one match scheduled for Labor Day. It's a good one, with Donovan and Beckham leading the charge against the upstart Sporting KC squad in its newest, state-of-the-art Soccer specific stadium.

• Kop That: Steven Gerrard to begin light training at Liverpool http://t.co/4vWjXLg 22:45:02, 2011-08-15
• Kop That: Raul Meireles is Chelsea's latest target http://t.co/p99Ud3f 22:29:38, 2011-08-15
• Kop That: Steven Gerrard ready to step up rehabilitation http://t.co/QBQTYLZ 20:17:06, 2011-08-15
• The Kop That Daily is out!

Christmas Day for Liverpool ends halfway through

The king ordained Saturday to be Christmas Day. The day Kopites got to open all the new presents they'd been bought and revel in a day-long festival of joy, hope and blessing counting. And Kenny Dalglish's decree held good right up to 4pm.

As Arsenal supporters we have many great anniversaries to celebrate.

There was May 26th 1989 – Micky Thomas scoring in the closing seconds to clinch an improbable title away at Anfield. The sight of 40,000 thieving Scousers whining about being robbed was karma on a cosmic scale.

Or how about May 3rd, 1971, when a Ray Kennedy header made us champions of England – an achievement made all the sweeter by the location of our triumph: that's right, that large public convenience in N17.

Unlike the rest of the world, my calendar doesn't run from January to December: it starts in August and ends in May.

The last game of the season is like Christmas day: the party you've all been building up to.
The Champions League final and the Play Offs are that little bit of extra excitement: like New Years Eve.

As MLS continues its battles for American mainstream status, it must always look to stay relative in the sports fan's consciousness. Scheduling games on Memorial Day is a no-brainer. It is a day of reflection, a day of remembrance and a day off from work. It is the perfect day to create new memories.

With the TPL long destined for Buriram PEA time to look at the relegation struggle in Thailand.
Good news for Thai Port fans as back to back home wins have seen them climb away from the drop zone. I wonder if the six goals in those two games were linked by any chance to salaries getting paid? But they won't be breathing any easier there because a record of five wins, five draws and five defeats with 16 goals scored and conceded by look a mathematician's wet dream but coach Sasom, whether he stays or leaves, won't be fooled.

On Christmas Day, 1914, during World War 1, a series of unofficial ceasefires took place. Soldiers from both sides emerged from the trenches to meet in no-man's land, to talk, to throw down their arms, and some, remarkably, even played football.

That someone had foresight to bring a newsagent-bought 99p orange cup champion ball with them was a testament to the power of the game.