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Cheers

Heading to the point tonight for the KOL gig and I am wondering where the best place to park is?  I have badly hurt my back ths week as well so would like somewhere quite close.  Tried pre-booking the Euro Car Park at the point village there but seems i am too late.  Anyone know if I can turn up there without pre-booking or should I be looking at trying to park somewhere else.  I will be coming from the north probably via the tunnel

Ghost ofTom Joad is my favourite album although I quite like Born in the USA and Darkness. They really do have a wide variety of stuff.

As I said last week I just thought after last weeks show that Liz would be out this week, initially I had thought she would win but her performance and attitude were well down.

One of my friends sent me this earlier today thought it quite funny not a bad way to prepare for a game either. 

‎"In tonight's show, I want the first half to be really entertaining and the second to be unbelievably nerve-wracking and difficult to watch. Let's see how you like it" – stand-up comic and Arsenal season ticket holder Dara O Briain's opening line at a charity gig attended by the Arsenal first-team squad Monday night.

Apparently Dara then took the piss all night

On the first question, to me it is, but I'm a bit of a Springsteen nerd so to a more casual fan it might not be.

On the second question I only saw the last two minutes of last night's show I'm afraid, I'm sure it'll be getting discussed to death at www.backstreets.com though so you'll probably find out for sure there.

I've become a Springsteen nerd in recent years and been to his last 7 gigs. I've listened to the promise but have held off buying it so as to maybe get the box set

Good stuff. I got The Promise Blu Ray box set. The old concert footage from the 70's is astounding.

Was seiously considering this but can't find much change out of 80 for it which just out of principle seems a little steep so two questions. 1. Is it worth it? 2. Is the content of the documentary much different to last nights show?

Spent 5 or 6 hours last night trying get the exact songs I wanted on my iPhone because my library is too large to fit everything on. It's a real pain the arse so if you have or plan to have an in any way extensive or good quality music collection then I'd go for the classic

Yeah I'd heard Iniesta has won it too. I'd have him last of those three. Someone pointed out to me today Sneijder hasn't scored from play for Inter for 13 months so maybe it's not a surprise that he didn't make the final three

I don't think anyone could have complained if any three of the four in contention made the shortlist, but I personally feel the three who made it are the most deserving.

I love all three and think Iniesta and Xavi are two of the best players on th planet, but on a year by year basis I just can't find fault with Messi. People will continuously say he had a poor World Cup. He did in my hole, he was fantastic - just because he didn't score didn't make him poor. Just like in the Clasico.

I dont think Messi had a poor world cup, I just think the other three had much much better world cups Xavi with two 100+ passes games and his control of every match he played, Iniesta with some strong performances and the winner in the final and Sneijder with this 5 goals and commanding performances for what for me was an otherwise average dutch side.  Mind you I can't remember who won the golden ball in the tournament (if thats what the awards called) for player of the tournament?

Yeah I'd heard Iniesta has won it too. I'd have him last of those three. Someone pointed out to me today Sneijder hasn't scored from play for Inter for 13 months so maybe it's not a surprise that he didn't make the final three

As someone touched on there I don't think the FA could have selected a worse choice of representatives to support the bid. FIFA hates government involvement with FA's so who do England send but their head of government and their future head of state as well as a player who became soo famous he pissed off the top brass for most of his career. As I said earlier too the Qatar bid looked very very impressive and drew rave reviews for the mini replica stadia they constructed for the technical assessment.

I completely disagree and would actually say the opposite Xavi creates as much if not more out of nothing than Messi, the difference being Xavi creates chances for others and therefore doesn't get the same credit.

Yes - provided there is sufficient quality on the other end to complement the work he does. That is my point. Xavi creates a lot of chances - and is a joy to watch - but if he was playing with a poor team much of what he would create might go down the shitter, whereas Messi would create it and and finish it himself.

All opinions I suppose but without good players round him feeding him the ball I don't think Messi would have anywhere near the same impact he does at Barca. For me Xavi could be the lifeblood of a poor team more than Messi.

As for the Ballon D'or I would have had Messi in there but personally would rate those three as three of the best four players in the world this year

Can't find anything on the net about it but heard a radio bulletin there saying the final three for the Ballon D'or are Sjnedier Iniesta and Xavi

I think it depends on the team you are inserting the player into. If you're a team struggling to create chances and goals - a player like Xavi won't be as much of an impact to your team as Messi would. Messi can do it on his own - he can create his own chances and he can finish them off and torture defences. Xavi (and I am a big fan) isnt the kind of player who's impressive statistics can carry a team to a win week in and week out - unless he is playing along side very good footballers.

You could take Xavi and stick him in the stoke team and they'd do a bit better.
Take Messi on the other hand and stick him in there and he could well turn a mediocre team around singlehandedly.

I completely disagree and would actually say the opposite Xavi creates as much if not more out of nothing than Messi, the difference being Xavi creates chances for others and therefore doesn't get the same credit. There was a goal in the reverse fixture last season that Messi scored where he got a lot of praise even though all the brilliance on the goal was in Xavi's vision yet after Villas non offside goal on Monday Messi got all the credit for the pass. To go back to international football Messi is for me yet to perform to the same level for Argentina as he does for Barca and I think a big reason for that is the lack of Xavi

One final stat because I'm starting to make myself sound like his agent but according to Jw's blog before this season since 2004 in the champions league Barca's record reads as follows:

With Messi 45 games

23 wins 16 draws 6 loses

Win percentage 51.1%

Without Messi 22 games

16 Wins 3 draws 3 losses

Win percentage 72.7%

With Xavi 53 games

32 wins 17 draws 4 losses

Win percentage 60.3%

Without Xavi 14 games

7 wins 3 draws 4 losses

Win percentage 50%

There was a show on sky sports the other day about the Qatar bid and it looked really interesting (from a nerdy point of view).  Apparently they had created mini replicas of all the stadia they are going to construct and had them powered by solar panels for the fifa inspectors to visit.  They were also using some strange type of air conditioning with a wall of cold air around the tops of the stadium so that it didnt matter what the temperature was the place would never heat up.  They were also saying a number of the stadia would be taken down after the wc and moved to other countries in the area at the Qatar government's expense.  Oh and they had Zinedine Zidane