Posts by rustystag7

rapidbison42 said:Joka and Sesar absolutely crushed Partizan...

+25

People are saying they could be the big dark horse this year, and honestly? I really hope so. Sesar is such a beast on the court, and Joka is playing out of his mind too!! Not even gonna get started on Zadravec—the guy is something else. I’m telling you, any team stepping onto their home court is in for a rough night.

swiftmoose22 said:I mean, you aren't really keeping up... from what I gather, he actually changed his last name back around April this year... went with his mother's maiden name instead.

Joka was talking about retiring, saying he’s just totally wiped out by how grindy our style of basketball is here.

I remember reading something about that, but I wasn't 100% sure if it was actually him!! It's such a bummer that Joka left Cibona because he’s still easily one of the top two or three heavy hitters on the roster!! Has anyone even been watching Cibona play in Chicago lately???

I’m really hoping Penn explodes like he used to, and that Cibona finally pulls something together and breaks through that losing streak barrier—but man, I say that every single year.

So I’m flipping through this weekly magazine and they’re claiming Cibona is the absolute top dog for the 2005/2006 NBA season because their roster is just stacked!! They’re saying Zadar will hold their own, but Chicago is basically gonna be bringing up the rear at the bottom of the standings!!
How do we even fix this so we actually have more than just two or three teams representing us in the league??? Like, what exactly needs to fall into place for that to happen???

Also, who is this Markota guy playing for Cibona?? Did Omerhodzic just change his name or something???

Honestly, Sirok might just shock everyone!! That combo of Sesar, Zadravec, and Joka is way too good to ignore!!

And seriously, how does Joka not still with Cibona after being their best player last year? It makes no sense.

rustystag7 said:If that's the case, honestly, it’s probably for the best that McLaren is gone. We’ll end up with two much faster cars on the track that actually finish races instead of breaking down every five minutes. It just makes F1 way more fun to watch.

It's definitely a win that those old McLaren engines aren't around anymore, but man... wouldn't it be wild to see if a scrappy little outfit could actually outrun Red Bull using the exact same power units? Imagine that chaos!!

I mean, at the end of the day, the name on the car doesn't even matter that much. They could call themselves McLaren and have Red Bull as their main sponsor and people would still tune in regardless. That's just how it goes.

redheron12 said:man, screw Haas... seriously, just let them vanish... is there even a petition out there to strike the Haas name from the record books?

easy to say that now, but wait until the tears start flowing once Haas is actually gone for good.

it’s like how everyone was hating on Coach Saban back in the day, but once he left, there was just this massive, empty hole left behind😁 !!
just think back to all those wild rumors you used to hear about the coaches or their drama offshore etc😁

i can still feel that shock, man, like that one time after two laps when someone got overtaken and they just lost it and started screaming like crazy!! i swear i nearly jumped out of my skin

Count me in too!!

But hey, I actually want to get your take on something because I was getting into this huge argument with a buddy of mine the other day...
The guy—total idiot, honestly—is insisting that since they're basically becoming a rebranded Haas, they’ll just keep using the same engines but swap out the chassis. His logic? They won't invest nearly as much as Oracle does because, you know, Oracle is the top dog. He thinks the old Haas setup is just gonna be relegated to some kind of junior development team and won't be any better than what they have now.

Me? I'm telling him he's overthinking it. It's not that deep. You've got the testing, you've got the development, and at the end of the day, the new tech and upgrades are going to be rolled out across all four cars on the grid.

What do you guys think? Am I right or is he onto something?

Personally, I'd be stoked if Ferrari had just bought them out instead. I mean, sure, their engines aren't exactly bulletproof, but they've got real power. Plus, they’d actually have two solid drivers who could realistically fight for a top 10 spot—I'm talking about someone like De Rosi first, and then maybe Wurz following behind.

Major props!
I’ll be honest, I don't really follow much besides Formula 1, but I’d occasionally tune in if a race was on ESPN or something. I actually stumbled upon a race on satellite the other day, and it happened to be that exact one where Zanardi had his accident!
Man, my heart just sank for him... losing both legs is just devastating. My first thought was, "Dude, this guy lives for racing, what happens now?" Like, his whole world just flips upside down because of a shock like that, and knowing he can't get back behind the wheel again—which is probably the hardest part—it just felt heavy. But man, am I glad I was wrong about how things turned out!! Such a bummer I missed the actual win because my satellite signal cut out on me, but all I can say is
👍 go zanardi 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏

quietmaker44 said:You clearly haven't got a clue! If we actually followed your logic, every single manager would just be throwing red cards around like confetti. You’d basically be stuck constantly bringing up that Osijek vs West Ham match and that whole mess with Robert Štimac forever.
Look, it’s pretty simple. It’s the club's job to actually KNOW which players are suspended and build the lineup around that. You can't just walk into a match totally clueless—or worse, pretend you didn't notice—and then sit there whining about how FIFA has it out for us. It's ridiculous.
Yeah, okay, so sure, West Ham United got away with one this time. A precedent was set, I guess. But honestly? You’d have to be a total amateur to think this kind of thing is just going to slide every single time from now on. It's not like there's a free pass waiting for them at every turn. And don't even get me started on the idea that some tiny, joke of a club—like we're talking a bottom-tier outfit from a small town—could actually pull any strings or have the same kind of clout as the big English sides. As if they could somehow influence the outcome or even walk away clean. Not happening.
The bottom line is this: if those club execs from Žepče actually knew what they were doing, they wouldn't have played an ineligible player in the first place. If FIFA wasn't such a hardass and handed out punishments like candy, they wouldn't even be in this mess. Honestly, they've got nobody to blame but themselves. Amen!

Look, the facts are the facts. This kind of thing happened way before the Osijek match, and honestly? We got absolutely screwed. And I mean properly taken for a ride. Back then, stuff like this actually carried consequences—it was penalized normally—so why isn't it happening now? It’s pretty obvious if you think about it. West Ham United is a massive club with serious weight behind them, whereas Osijek? Only like two people at UEFA have ever even heard of them.

Look, I’m all for handing out punishments without all the endless back-and-forth questioning... but if we're gonna go that route, then let's stop pretending everyone is on the same level. Because honestly? We clearly aren't. It's just a fact.

frozeneagle49 said:Man, when have we actually been able to say the draw was "kind" to us in the last few years? The only thing I can even think of is back when Dinamo was seeded in the 2nd round UEFA Cup 2002/03 and ran into Fulham—and they had some seriously heavy hitters at the time (Steve Marbranque, Marlet, Edwin van der Sar, Boa Mort, etc., etc.).

Everything since then has just been a massive downward spiral!!!!!
But honestly, it always turns out to be us who completely blow it. Dinamo couldn't find their rhythm against Dnipro, Katalinić messed up against Shelbourne FC, Runje and Miladin struggled against Roma, and HNK Rijeka conceded a goal to Genclerbirligi in the 90th minute—if it wasn't for a penalty, SC Heerenveen would've absolutely cooked them (Dinamo). Then you've got Chicago playing around against ZTE, a team they should handle easily, or Hajduk Split underestimating Dunaferr SE. Or Varteks getting so intimidated by Brøndby IF that they walk onto the pitch with legs made of lead mixed with steel. And don't get me started on Dinamo thinking Maccabi Tel Aviv was just some farm team.

Osijek could have really written their own history a year later, but instead, they managed to do the one thing almost anyone else would have avoided: losing to Slavija in such a pathetic way. Meanwhile, 1. FC Kaiserslautern just laughed at them from the sidelines.

If UEFA didn't screw around with small teams, you wouldn't see clubs like Austria Wien, CSKA Moscow, or AZ Alkmaar (even if those Dutch guys are a tiny squad) making waves in the UEFA Cup quarterfinals. Before that, you had Steaua București, Partizan Mexico City, Shakhtar Donetsk, and "who knows," Dnipro, popping up in Europe repeatedly, or Debrecen seeing some winter action in Europe, Vålerenga, FK Teplice... these aren't massive money-burning giants!!!!

The truth is, we’re small fry. We’re never going to see those Champions League-level millions swirling around us. And yeah, UEFA totally screwed over the Osijek vs Varteks situation a year later (they miscalculated Varteks' coefficient and basically handed them to Aston Villa on a silver platter). But did justice prevail? Osijek was the surprise package halfway through the UEFA Cup season, and Varteks ended up crushing Aston Villa, showing everyone they weren't just pushovers in Europe.

Bottom line: UEFA respects you exactly as much as you prove yourself to be worth. If you try to coast on charm alone, expect to get slapped. But if you show you're actually someone significant, you stop being treated like a shrimp. That's how things work in Europe. It just seems like we're the only ones who think everyone is out to get us, like we're some kind of tumor on the continent. We aren't. It's just that our officials (just like those guys in Canada) can't stomach the fact that THEY are the incompetent ones who need to pack up and leave the clubs. (Now I'm just waiting for rustystag7 to jump in and go, 'Yeah, exactly!' 😁 )

P.S. You guys might not realize it, but Dinamo still commands more respect in Europe than they realistically deserve. Honestly, Europe has a much better opinion of our football than we do of ourselves. The problem is, they see our issues clearly, while the people who *should* be fixing them are either too dim to notice or too corrupt to care...

Hats off to you, man. I agree with this post from A to Z. 🙏 🙏

frozeneagle49 said:FIFA messed up here, no doubt about it. Though, if I'm being honest, maybe we didn't push hard enough ourselves? We just sat there acting all naive, waiting for justice to somehow just show up on its own while the USSF basically did nothing. But hey, clubs that don't watch their step like this? They honestly deserve these kinds of penalties. I mean, come on, this isn't some game of Football Manager 2005 where you can just play however you want in the UEFA Cup or Champions League...

There's definitely a point there, but look... you gotta take what you can get. Osijek deserved that 3-0 win on paper. Whether people were making noise about it or not doesn't change the fact that FIFA's response was basically "whatever," implying they'd throw some favors our way to the USSF and Osijek down the road—and honestly, we're still seeing those perks today. 🙄

quietmaker44 said:Yeah, sure, it’s always someone else's fault, right?

UEFA is the villain here because the amateurs running these clubs can't even figure out if a player is serving a suspension or not... I mean, how hard can that actually be? Honestly.

And don't even get me started on those guys over at Široki. They go out for an away game with three Brazilian players, only to have them sent straight back from the border because nobody bothered to check if they even had visas... absolute amateurs.😁

Wait, wait, hold on, there's more.

Take Zrinjski: fifty minutes into the match, instead of just crushing some Luxembourgish semi-pros, they start staring at the scoreboard, counting down the seconds until it's over, deciding they've done enough running for one day... and then, surprise, they end up conceding four.😁 😁

Then you've got Boston and Velez... they haven't even met the bare minimum requirements to show up in UEFA competitions in the first place...

But hey, let's just blame everyone else for everything...

Man, stop talking nonsense when it's so obvious you don't have a clue what you're talking about! Apparently, it's all UEFA's fault, right? Like back when Štimac was playing for West Ham and missed a red card suspension—UEFA's big explanation was just to register the game as a normal result instead of a 3-0 forfeit, which would've been according to the rules anyway. And this year, the exact same thing happened and it got sorted out by the book. So, I gotta ask, if it isn't UEFA's fault, who is it? Is it the people selling popcorn in the stands or what??

UEFA has always been a total mess, honestly, so we’re pretty used to the chaos by now. But hey, nothing's set in stone yet—I wouldn't be shocked if these guys pull a fast one and end up crushing us 4-0 at home!

If I were in the shoes of the folks over at Osijek right now, I’d definitely send a formal complaint over to UEFA. It’d be worth reminding them about all those explanations they gave us earlier, you know? Since Osijek basically has zero to lose here, calling out UEFA feels pretty damn good.😁

Randall Flagg said:REF:
Vodka, vodka, it's all just like last year
Hey, just a beat or two, my heart starts to race
beat-two, beat-two, my heart's losing its pace

*this song was dedicated to his favorite drink by Kimi Raikkonen after visiting the Spanish Embassy...

man, this hits right in the feels!! especially that part about his absolute favorite drink!!😁 👍 👍 👍