Gazzetta Football Scozia

If you came here from Dear Scotland, welcome to the archives. I was a bitter and cynical man back then.
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So Gazzetta Football Italia is going off the air after 14 years... tragedy. Haven't seen it in ages (what with being in the US and all) but it was a favourite of mine back in the day and I completely agree with everything said by the commenters on this post.

Guardian Unlimited - Arrivederci, James, and thanks for the memories

Obviously I owe a big shout out to James for inspiring the title of this humble blog. Hopefully he'll be back on the telly soon.
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You've probably figured this out already but I've had no time for Gazzetta in the last month and things don't look like they'll improve (mainly on the work front). So, unless I can find a willing volunteer to contribute, Gazzetta posts will be few and far between for the foreseeable future.

I'm disappointed because I've managed to keep it going reasonably well for over a year, but... can't really do it justice at the moment.

But Billy will be back!
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Read - Scotsman - Blatter orders 2012 GB Team

Any Scotsman playing in this team - which will probably never happen anyway - should be banned for life.

Everything and anything you ever read or hear about Blatter highlights what an arrogant, obnoxious, or corrupt wanker he is.


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The South Koreans must have got Berti Vogts shambolic team performance confused with my mate Malky's ultra-shambolic palavers at the Korea-Scotland game back in 2002.

Read - Scotsman - Vogts in frame for South Korean job

Getting blazing drunk on whisky during the day, beer till last shout at the cafe outside the stadium before kickoff, going pure radge inside the stadium (Scottish crowd: approx 50; English crowd approx 150) by trying to start chants of "we f*cking hate England" (a bit rude, old chap) and then attempting to invade the pitch at half-time. He only stopped because the sweet wee Asian security guard smiled and asked him to.

Half-time went better 'cos he got the email address of a fourteen-year-old girl, without any money changing hands.

Downhill again after the third goal went in, a snide smile from a fat southern wanker had Malky reaching for his fists at which point the wee 'sensible' bell started ringing somewhere inside his crazy mixed-up heid and he decided it would be best all round to return to the bar and wait out the game for us with a quiet pint.

So later at the bar, after engaging friendly local ladies with chat-up lines like "so why dae ye eat dugs?" (hit ratio: 0%) he laid forth on Scottish independence to a large table of Hong Kong expats, heavy with drink. They were even heavier with drink when the Malkster stood up to go to the lavvy and knocked the table over... somewhat reducing the profundity of his argument.

Clearly, Malky - not Berti - is the man to get the South Korean game back on track.
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From the Scottish edition of the Sunday People today:



[cheers gomacgers]
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"Every Friday before a game I would have a Chinese and a couple of pints."

Those were the days... I have a game tomorrow morning so it's a quiet night in for me and I'm even avoiding the temptation of warming up a wee steak and cheese pie (from DUB Pies, of course).

Read - Observer Football [cheers Kenny]
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...and this is nothing like taking it one game at a time.

Read - Sporting Life - Novo believes title can now be won

Might be a little bit more credible if we were even top of the league... and more than a month into the season...

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Missing in all this is a small but ironic parallel of an incident in Strachan's own career.

One minute in to the Scotland-Uruguay "group of death" WC 1986 match and the wee ginger one is felled by a brutal chop - the ref pulls out a red and the "scum of world football" (per Ernie Walker, SFA chief at the time) are down to 10 men.

19 years later, Alan Thompson flies into Nacho Novo and just about manages to miss his kneecaps. Immediate red card again. You'd think it would bring back some memories for wee Gordy, but it doesn't seem to register.

Read - Scotsman

Of course the rational reason for the red is that a flying tackle is now an automatic red card offence - and about time too.

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Ever wanted to punch Neil Lennon in the face? Now you can.

Barry Ferguson is up there too if you're from the other side.

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Bizarrest thing tonight... was just about to switch off the TV but it was tuned to Fox Soccer Channel and showing a game, so I watched for a few seconds. Straight away the team in blue scored - and the scorer was called Rozenthal. Sebastian Rozenthal. And he looked exactly like the former Chilean international Sebastian Rozenthal who Rangers signed in the mid-90s, who then got seriously injured and missed the World Cup in 1998.

Which wouldn't be so bad except this was the USL Soccer League - aka the US Second Division - which is frankly pretty rank. I did a bit of digging and yes, he signed for the Puerto Rico Islanders recently...

Read - BigSoccer forums

I guess it's good that he's still playing but sad that such a promising career took such a nosedive.
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More proof that we invented proper football...

Read - The Global Game

Interesting site - looks like a lot of unusual material on it.

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Take the test - should only take a minute or two of your time.

I'm Gordon Smith - "You seem to have a bit of everything as far as football pundit personality traits are concerned. Don't get too annoying!"
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