12/21/24
June 17, 2003
Beckham: goes to Madrid. Real Madrid have payed between 18m and 22m pounds for David Beckham, who signs a reported 17.5m pound contract. The saga is over, let the thousands of column inches analysing the move begin. [more inside]
Better than any National team?! Easy there pal...
posted by StarFucker at 03:07 PM on June 17, 2003
well... who? Brazil maybe, but their top striker and defender are at Madrid, and I'd argue that their midfield is better.
posted by sauril at 03:11 PM on June 17, 2003
Ahhh fuck, I don't like to see a player of Beckham's undoubted quality leaving our league. Good luck to him though. Figo for the Blues. ;-)
posted by squealy at 07:03 PM on June 17, 2003
Rumor has RM also looking into a Ronaldinho signing and if they do, can someone predict the starting 11? Figo or Beckham or use one allowed sub to switch at the half? At a more basic level, one starts to wonder how any other team can expect to challenge for La Liga top spot and is this a case where too much money will hurt them all? I'm thinking of the Old Firm versus the rest of SPL but in this case only team.
posted by billsaysthis at 07:11 PM on June 17, 2003
Sorry, I just went and looked at the RM website and saw their recent lineup, answered my own question. Damn, I recognized almost every name that played for them, which is really saying something. And that's with out DB07!
posted by billsaysthis at 07:15 PM on June 17, 2003
Why Figo OR Beckham? According to Real's sporting director Jorge Valdano, Beckham is a "[...] footballer in exile. He should not be playing on the right (of midfield) but in the centre". This deal doesn't mean they won't cop for Ronaldinho too, either, but it makes it that much more likely that he'll be the first ever Brazilian to play for Man U.
posted by walrus at 04:49 AM on June 18, 2003
But even the most star-studded team in the sport's history was not good enough this season as it was knocked out by Juventus in the semifinals after beating United in the quarters. (link) Thank you, Juventus is awesome. Especially in EA FIFA 2003 on the XBOX, which I without question dominate. Don't forget Juventus.
posted by insomnyuk at 09:10 AM on June 18, 2003
You're not supposed to do that-- when you have a video game you can dominate at, you've got to take an obscure or bad team and win with them. It's why I was a Crystal Palace fan for a few years after FIFA '95 or '96.
posted by yerfatma at 11:44 AM on June 18, 2003
Agreed, trying beating Bayern Munich 15-0 with Wolfsburg, then you can talk domination. What up sammy and 86! Did I mention we rock?!
posted by garfield at 12:45 PM on June 18, 2003
At last! David Beckham has signed for someone! I can start reading the sports pages and listening to five live again! We've had media overload of Beckham transfer rumours for about 2 months now, and I'm so so glad that he's signed for them, just so that the media will start talking about something else! FIFA? Give me SWOS any day. 
posted by BigCalm at 06:48 AM on June 19, 2003
4 sendings off!? was there a brawl? amongst your own players?
posted by gspm at 08:17 AM on June 19, 2003
I have to admit that wasn't my game, it was a friend of mine's game. Not a bad result though - away at the Nou Camp with Haverfordwest (which is a crap team in the League of Wales US folks), four sendings off, and still managed to come away with a one-nil win. I just hope the Barca manager was sacked afterwards. Technically, with only 7 men left on the field, the match should have been abandoned by the referee.
posted by BigCalm at 08:33 AM on June 19, 2003
What's SWOS? Looks really lo-tech (96? 97?) Can you email it to me? I wanna play! Is it a manager game or more of a matchplay game?
posted by worldcup2002 at 09:25 AM on June 19, 2003
Haven't heard of SWOS? The most popular game ever for the Amiga? The best footie game ever? Sheesh. You can download it here. Simple to play, top-down football game. Contains virtually every professional team in the world in 1996, though more recent updates are available. Fantastic career mode option, where if you do well enough, you might be offered an international managers' job.
posted by BigCalm at 09:39 AM on June 19, 2003
The best footie game ever? Maybe true, but just don't even start with CM4. I used to have a life.
posted by walrus at 10:01 AM on June 19, 2003
HA! Four red cards! Hilarious...I used to always end up with 3 or 4 red cards on FIFA 99 for Nintendo 64...i could still beat all my friends though... Can anyone tell me why FIFA can't keep track of goals, assists, shots, etc by each individual player like the NBA, MLB and other games do?
posted by StarFucker at 10:14 AM on June 19, 2003
FIFA tracks goals by player. The totals are never complete as cup matches don't count towards the season totals for some reason. Same goes for cards.
posted by garfield at 10:51 AM on June 19, 2003
No no no... What i mean is, when you play NBA or NFL, regardless of whether you are in tournaments or just a friendly game. You get to create a profile, and it keeps track of everything... For instance, if you create a profile, StarFucker. Everytime you start a game it prompts you to choose a profile. If i pick StarFucker, i will get the stats for that profile. How many games won, lost, passes attempted/completed, yards rushed, interceptions, etc... The only thing FIFA keeps track of, and thats ONLY if you are in tournament mode, is goals and cards...what about shots on goal? Corners? Shots NOT on goal? Blocks? Steals? ETC...
posted by StarFucker at 11:11 AM on June 19, 2003
BigCalm: You can download it here. Ta, Calmy. My wife will kill me.
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:41 AM on June 19, 2003
By the way, 7 players is fine. 6 is when the match is abandoned. I used to love Sensible Soccer on the Atari ST all those years ago. I downloaded it for the PC, and it just....isn't the same.
posted by salmacis at 01:17 PM on June 19, 2003
I think this cements Real as the team of the current era. One can debate the move in pure soccer terms -- will he play ahead of Figo? have they too many stars now? -- but the fact is that Real Madrid have signed the biggest player in the world for 4 years in a row, and have become the club that everyone wants to play for. They are now more than ever the team to beat in every competition, and are (on paper, at least) better than any national team out there.