http://www.theoffside.com League Football, Soccer News and Views from Around the World Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:55:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/photo-tell-us-how-you-really-feel.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/photo-tell-us-how-you-really-feel.html#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:22:24 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/photo-tell-us-how-you-really-feel.html Celtic fans send UEFA some Christmas wishes during the EL fixture with Udinese. The club just might get coal in their stocking. And an invoice. ]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/photo-tell-us-how-you-really-feel.html/feed 0 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/patrice-evra-europa-league-ambassador.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/patrice-evra-europa-league-ambassador.html#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:04:07 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/patrice-evra-europa-league-ambassador.html This probably isn’t what UEFA had in mind when they revolutionized the UEFA Cup into the Europa League, hoping to give it a greater sense of legitimacy. Patrice Evra feels dissimilarly. “I’ll be honest with you, the way I fell now it is Champions League or nothing but when we start playing in the Europa League [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/patrice-evra-europa-league-ambassador.html/feed 0 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/the-israeli-sir-alex.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/the-israeli-sir-alex.html#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:59:12 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/the-israeli-sir-alex.html Many of us have likely come to a place of a complete lack of surprise at anything which may occur on a football pitch. File “kicks boot at linesman” under this notion. But Yoaz Ziv theen attempts to explain to the referee that…yes he did kick the boot at the referee? Is he simply recreating the [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/the-israeli-sir-alex.html/feed 0 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/a-swing-a-miss-a-goal-shame.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/a-swing-a-miss-a-goal-shame.html#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:00:55 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/a-swing-a-miss-a-goal-shame.html YouTube is being very uncooperative today, which is good, because they waited for the redheaded stepchild of European competition gamedays to fail. And speaking of lesser beings… This is what happens when you allow a second division club into a European competition. Well, not necessarily, it could happen to anyone, but the symmetry is simply too easy. However, [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/a-swing-a-miss-a-goal-shame.html/feed 0 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/europa-league-final-sion-v-uefa.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/europa-league-final-sion-v-uefa.html#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:18:25 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/europa-league-final-sion-v-uefa.html FC Sion is a small club from a small Swiss town, one which only harbors under 30,000 inhabitants. And yet, they seem to be single-handedly taking on and defeating UEFA in perhaps the fall’s most intriguin football sideshow outside of Who Wants A Beckham? (PSG is, yes, the perfect fit.) After being booted from Europe by [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/europa-league-final-sion-v-uefa.html/feed 1 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/theres-a-finnishing-joke-somewhere-in-here.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/theres-a-finnishing-joke-somewhere-in-here.html#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:04:55 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/theres-a-finnishing-joke-somewhere-in-here.html HJK is the Finnish team which famously thrashed Welsh club Bangor City 13-0 on aggregate in the Champions League early round playoffs. They were then unkindly dispatched from the CL by Dinamo Zagreb, making their way to the red-headed stepchild, the Europa League. Teemu Pukki, formerly of Sevilla and still only 21, seems perfectly pleased with [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/theres-a-finnishing-joke-somewhere-in-here.html/feed 0 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/because-schadenfreuday-is-too-good-to-pass-up.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/because-schadenfreuday-is-too-good-to-pass-up.html#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:59:16 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/because-schadenfreuday-is-too-good-to-pass-up.html Apologies. That’s Nassim Ben-Khalifa, a young boy playing for Young Boys, and that’s his rather poor attempt on a completely wide open net from dead center in the box. Luckily, Young Boys would still win, 3-1, so it’ll all be fun and incessant ribbing at training for, oh, ever. The look on the face of the defender [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/because-schadenfreuday-is-too-good-to-pass-up.html/feed 0 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/porto-hoists-europa-league-trophy.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/porto-hoists-europa-league-trophy.html#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 20:58:45 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/porto-hoists-europa-league-trophy.html Arguably the best team in Europe this year which was not in the Champions League? The case for Porto could – should – certainly have been made before the Europa League final thrust that slightly skewed title upon them. And if not the best, easily the most prolific, as European competitions go, was Falcao, who [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/porto-hoists-europa-league-trophy.html/feed 0 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/mario-balotelli-yet-another-undercover-ninja.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/mario-balotelli-yet-another-undercover-ninja.html#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:09:42 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/mario-balotelli-yet-another-undercover-ninja.html More ninja theatrics in the world of football, this from another boy well-known for his ways on the wrong side of acceptable, Mario Balotelli. His first mistake was the inability to put on his bib, a task mastered by even the most unskilled of ninjas. This failure fresh in mind, Mario then went into overkill [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/mario-balotelli-yet-another-undercover-ninja.html/feed 1 http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/aris-thessaloniki-now-in-charge-of-all-football-programmes.html http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/aris-thessaloniki-now-in-charge-of-all-football-programmes.html#comments Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:32:13 +0000 chris http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/aris-thessaloniki-now-in-charge-of-all-football-programmes.html By our decree. Aris took on financial behemoths Manchester City during the week in a Europa League match which ended nil-nil, arguably a small victory for the Greek side, even if they were playing in the Balkans. And though they didn’t score on the pitch, they scored in the program with a none-too-subtle dig at Man [...]]]> http://www.theoffside.com/tournaments/uefa-cup/aris-thessaloniki-now-in-charge-of-all-football-programmes.html/feed 0