IgnisExcubitor

Mean Machine was shown on the telly last night. It's a poor man's, British version of The Longest Yard. Overall an average flick, and at times even chessy, but fucking hell I enjoyed it. 

Ki Jana Hoever has been the most impressive in the preseason friendlies. For a boy of his age, he looks so calm, as if he has been playing at this level for several months now.

After several years of yes and no, Test Championship finally begins today. In its present state it still isn't perfect, but at least they have given this a start. I really hope this succeeds. 

I don't see Levy changing his ways. I fancy him leaving when a job at a big club becomes available. 

I am fairly impressed with Arsenal's summer business. If the signings adapt quickly then I can see them having a good season.  Defence is still weak, though. 

6 hours ago, Rick said:

We will regret it. As greats as our front three are, you can't rest on your laurels. 

Suppose Spurs did it and got to a European final though, so goes both ways haha 

Yep, injury or exhaustion to any of our forwards and we are left relying on  Origi, a young kid and Shaq. 

The thing with Spurs' and our run is that it was in cup competition. In league you need your best players playing all the time, and their replacements contributing when called upon. We were kinda lucky with injuries last season. City's Achilles was no backup DM. They have remedied that, while we are going into the season with kid, Milly and Gomez (an injury prone lad) for backup FBs and vastly average and unproven backups up top. 

I hope I am proven wrong by the likes of Origi, Hoever and Ox. 

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I suspect we’ll bin off the domestic cups again, with more fixtures than we had last year and substantially the same squad 

That would be a shame. A cup win is a cup win. Not friendly like Community Shield. But FA is prestigious still in my mind, and the League Cup ain't trash. Of course the league and UCL will always be way above them, but I don't think City or the past LFC teams thought like that. They try to win them all. 

Not bothered about the results. These are preseason friendlies. The only issue for me remains lack of signings. We needed a few. And it seems  that Klopp has decided  to trust the players he already has on the basis of last season. Can't overly criticise him. But I have a bad feeling that we might regret this decision. 

On 24/07/2019 at 16:53, El Profesor said:

I don´t know if you guys have already seen this story, but this is just so bizarre, it´s disturbing. 

 

 

Absolutely no sympathy for him. I only feel sad for his ex-wife. Also not surprising is to see some idiots on Twitter actually supporting or trying to make Shuman and Haider as the victims. 

Between this, the Jessica Yaniv case and the revelations by Andy Signore, we have seen enough pitfalls of woke culture in the past few days. 

On 22/07/2019 at 16:51, nudge said:

India has successfully launched Chandrayaan-2 - its first lunar landing mission - today! If everything goes according to plan the lander (including the rover) should land on the Moon on September 6.

Some info on the components of the spacecraft:

The Orbiter

 

The Lander

 

The Rover

 

A 3D animation of the mission overview:

 

 

Congratulations to ISRO for the successful launch and best of luck for the upcoming landing... Will be following it closely.

@IgnisExcubitor @Mel81x @Stan

Project headed by two women, and made by mostly women engineers. They have got some good minds there. 

Next year it will be Aditya. A spacecraft to study sun. 

I see Taika Waititi I am interested. 

Just read about it. Still pales in comparison to what Shami did. 

Anyways, this is not a MetToo. Good to see quite a few women stating that. 

I enjoyed the Kingsman films. Well, I had few issues with the second but it was still good fun. 

This looks like a serious origin film of that series. The cinematography is gorgeous. 

Fleming went to meet him, when he was in the hospital. Guptill's dad requested Jeff Crowe for this gesture to cheer up the lad. He was thirteen then. Martin later broke Fleming's Kiwi record on debut of the highest ODI score on debut. 

Yep, has done quite well since then. 

Today I learned that Guptill only has two toes on his left foot. Lost three toes in an accident, where his brother drove a fork lift over his left foot. 

21 hours ago, Stan said:

 

This is lovely. A man who saved millions of lives, but was then arrested  for being gay and forced into conversation therapy which caused him to commit suicide. You would think people would universally celebrate this move to have him on the note. But no. 

She is a published author, by the way. 

I enjoyed Spiderman Homecoming, because Tom Holland was likeable and the movie felt funny and fresh. It was also a huge upgrade on Garfield's spiderman. But the new Spiderman Far from Home just felt hugely underwhelming. Holland and Zendaya are likeable as a couple and actors. Jake Gyllenhaal tries his best, but the story and villain seem weak. The humour, which was one of the strong points of Homecoming, is passable at best. This movie also has a very Disney feel to it and not in a good way. The action sequences are stellar, eventhough they are similar to Dr. Strange movie. 

I thought this was an average flick and hence I am surprised by the good ratings. 

Nothing wrong or mental about celebrating the fact that England have now won the cricket, rugby and football world cup. And it's not England's fault that there is lack of quality teams on other sports or some of the countries not playing the other sports. A World Cup is a World Cup, the highest prize. The pinnacle of that sport. It's a notable achievement. 

It's not like Americans calling domestic competitions World series or World championships. 

Greatest cricket match of all times. Tops the other Sa-Aus and Nz-Sa semis. 

Absolutely gutted for New Zealand. 

England deserving champions. Congrats to them and the English lads here. 

New Zealand have bowled well, but this all pressure. You don't let Grandhomme bowl seven overs for 18 runs. 

Satner held back because of lefties. I wonder what kind of effect he will have. 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang-rights-idUSKCN1U721X

Saudi Arabia and Russia among 37 states backing China's Xinjiang policy

From the article

“Faced with the grave challenge of terrorism and extremism, China has undertaken a series of counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers,” the letter said.

As well as Saudi Arabia and Russia, the letter was signed by ambassadors from many African countries, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar, the Philippines, Syria, Pakistan, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

I guess money rules over Ummah. 

And that's the match. 

1 hour ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

 

The reason is irrelevant. The BCCI and the ICC (run by BCCI, Cricket australia and ECB) are destroying cricket in favour of revenue.

Don't wanna start this again, so will keep this short. The debate wasn't just around boards. I have been one of the biggest critics of BCCI, and other boards. Hell, even Afghan's board have shown themselves to be jerks during the WC. The debate was around India, Indian fans preferring limited overs and T20(or rather IPL) spoiling the game.

@topic

England look pumped. Wishing for a Guptill special. 

This is actually a cool promo. 

20 minutes ago, Rick said:

He looked lively. His link up play was good with Brewster & Clyne. Shame that he will most likely leave the club cause I think he could be very handy coming off the bench. 

Yep, I don't get that. Reading that in most places. His numbers for Derby were good. Has pace and decent skills, and a good freekick on him. Could be handy upfront. I really want to see him excel here.