der Berliner

I bought myself four bottles (instead of the usual one for a Rangers game of late) of Double Bock for the final, as I expect some dire tactical battle geared for success, not football. The Spanish defence is rather good, whereas England relies on the odd spark from one of their forwards far too much. It is easier to read tea leaves (or coffee ground, as we say over here) than predict this one. Spain 2 England 1 Thinking on this brought back memories of James Alexander Gordon's reading of the football scores on a Saturday afternoon, not least when games were postponed, but results had to be determined for the bookies. The droning voice of an e.g. "no score draw" will probably live with me forever ...

Some clips from the sidelines via twitter ... FT 0-0

Some needs to kick the Rangers homepage fellows a little, since there is no page for the academy players. Curtis e.g. is not listed with the B team, so you have to dig somewhat to even notice that he is a midfielder. That 2nd-half line-up looks super-make-shift. Three centre halfs, three DMs, one more left back and a midfielder supporting Wright in attack.

One more correct result or a miss or two by Ted, and I am "God-King of guessing the correct results for Euro 2024" ... 😱

Spain 2- 1 France - Joker Netherlands 2-1 England I do expect dire "modern" tactical football ...

How do all these supposedly good and much-talented teams of superstars manage to give us such bore-awful games. I missed much of the tournament, assumed that yesterday's 4-potential European Champions would show some skill and football, yet Portugal vs France was brutally dire (if that is modern football by France, I want 4-4-2 back!). Germany vs Spain produced more action, but these Iberians also showed almost as much tactical "football" as France and rarely shone. You almost look forward to a Swiss vs Turkey final, if that was possible ...

RANGERS have been drawn against Arsenal in Round 1 of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Rangers were drawn in Group 3 with the other semi-final tie in that group between Atletico Madrid and Rosenborg. Both semi-finals will be played at a single venue, with the winners of each tie playing each other in a final on September 7 for a place in Round 2. RANGERS can confirm the fixture details of their UEFA Women’s Champions League Round 1 mini-tournament. The matches will be hosted at Meadow Park, London as the Light Blues will take on Arsenal in the semi-final on Wednesday, September 4 with the kick off time to be confirmed. ... what rubbish is this? Some woke-creeps seem to suffer the urgent need to turn every football event upside with silly ideas about pre-pre-pre play-offs, groups where you play selected teams but not all, and then this?

I cannot really see the Legion growing warm to the idea of "home games" in Edinburgh, given the amount of travelling the "common Ibrox home fan" would have to cope with.

Spain 3 - 2 Germany Portugal 0 - 2 France England 2 - 1 Switzerland Netherlands 3 - 1 Turkey - Joker

Nothing to lose sleep about.

No real reason to hate someone, as the name comes from ... Ajax (/ˈeɪdʒæks/) or Aias (/ˈaɪ.əs/; Ancient Greek: Αἴας, romanized: Aíās [aí̯.aːs], gen. Αἴαντος Aíantos; archaic ΑΣϜΑϺ [aí̯.waːs])[a] is a Greek mythological hero, the son of King Telamon and Periboea,[1] and the half-brother of Teucer.[2] He plays an important role in the Trojan War, and is portrayed as a towering figure and a warrior of great courage in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War, being second only to Achilles among Greek heroes of the war.[3] ... and despite the initial pronunciations say so, there was no Germanic vowel shift in Greek like it happened with the English language. A small fact often forgotten and rather annoying if English-speaking historians (who should know) go about spreading English versions of ancient places and people. That said, more often than not, you do get a mangled pronunciation e.g. for Paris St. Germain over here too, where Paris is in the normal German way, while the latter two words are spoken like they do it in French. Yet, "PSG" is used only in its French pronunciation. And to round it all off, while these days German media people bend backwards to make all Ukrainian names sound Ukrainian and use Ukrainian pronunciation, Lviv (instead of Lvov), they don't like to twist their tongues all too often and just call it Lemberg like "in the days of old". Always raises a little chuckle this side of the screen. Speaking about Ukraine (yeah, I'll stop right after this), the Ukrainians "de-colonialized" a few places previously not Ukrainian like Charkiv or Siverskyi Donets (Ukrainian: Сіверський Донець) with the "i". Which at times even doesn't make sense. Sample here: Siverskyi Donets ... refers to the northern branch of the river Donets who goes over into the more famous Don. It is called Се́верский Доне́ц in Russian, meaning Northern Donets. There is no word in Ukrainian like Сівер for north, e.g. the Northern Thames would be called Північна Темза. But let's bend etymology plus reason and give it a nicer, Ukrainian sound instead. Next!

Truth be told, I was gutted as I believed the result at 90 mins was the one who counts. The table above was some sort of an early morning surprise ...

If you want to see a bit of East German Ultra "culture", Dresden is a place to be. Here some of the Dynamo Dresden band on a day out in Hamburg a few years back, chanting "East, East East Germany" ... in small and large

Rangers winger Scott Wright is a target for Sheffield Wednesday, with the Championship club registering an interest in the 26-year-old who has a year left of his Ibrox contract. (Sunday Mail) Brighton & Hove Albion have reduced the £8m price tag placed on Abdallah Sima, but new head coach Fabian Hurzeler has yet to assess the 23-year-old forward who was on loan to Rangers. (Sussex Express via Glasgow Times) Rapid Bucharest striker Albion Rrahmani, the 23-year-old who has been linked with Rangers, is close to a £2.5m transfer to Slavia Prague. (Pro Sport via Sunday Mail) ... the Sima story is an excellent example of modern day "journalism". Sussey Express via Glasgow Times via Rangers Review ... and the latter states: However, the Sussex Express states that this is set to decrease with the winger, 23, into the final 12 months of his contract at the Premier League outfit. ... which leads to a BBC quote saying: Brighton & Hove Albion have reduced the £8m price tag placed on Abdallah Sima ...

Since yesterday, I've decided to call these VAR clowns VAJ - Video Assistant Jokes. It was hardly visible from those hasty replays (on German TV) of the Danish goal which was VARed that there really was a toe in an offside position (when the graphic game a few minutes later, I simply assumed that they extended the foot for an inch to make it plausible) and the ref didn't go to the screen either to watch it again. Afterwards, the thumb of the Danish defender made contact with the ball on a molecular level, barely changed anything, yet off he went to watch it again. Anyone has the name of the near-side linesman? That fool let German players run half the length of the field, score a goal or miss-cue the shot, before raising his flag. When it was obviously clear that the player was offside. Had he run e.g. into Schmeichel and either of them got an injury, who pays for this foolishness? And then the German dumplings had three free runs at goal, miss two and have one ruled out by VAJ ... when my 3-0 Joker score was on the line. If only Scott Wright was German!

May I advise my respected, not-so-eagle-eyed fellow boarder, to check the reply four posts above his reminder ...

Both clubs are strong contenders but with Turkish giant already in agreement with the Munich. #Transfer #BJK #RFC Rangers in agreement with player Besiktas has agreements Bayern https://t.co/5KDKymASmJ — All Transfer (@Allfcbtransfer) June 28, 2024 ... gut feeling says that we should not bother that much. If the player wants to come, fine. We already have one Matondo though.

Switzerland 1-2 Italy Germany 3-0 Denmark - Joker England 2-1 Slovakia Spain 3-0 Georgia France 1-0 Belgium Portugal 2-0 Slovenia Romania 1-2 Netherlands Austria 2-1 Turkey

Wee question regarding the problem at Ibrox right now ... does it cover all of Ibrox or just this or that stand? I remember various places that we've visited over the years where there were whole stands closed and/or under repairs? Haven't seen any pictures.

Watched a German TV crime series a few days back and one policeman talked about a folklore band, starting: "Yes, they have a very bright future behind them ... (being in their mid-fifties now) ... Which reminded me instantly about the "next-best superstars" and "mega-talents" we signed over the decades for the youth team and noted them next when they left us 4 to 7 years later with hardly ever making the bench of the first team.

... FFS.

He's a centre-back (left-back). My modus operandi with linked players: Go to Transfermarkt, Copy & Paste name in "Enter your search term", check the contract length and team he plays for. ... have a wee chuckle or get interested. Callum Doyle is a left-footed English 20-year old chap from Man City's u21s, contract till 2027, played mainly as CH. Given contract length, team and league, he's "valued" at Euro 15m. Loan or not, City will sure look for 4m+ at least ...

First round of games today again pure coupon busters ...

Alan Burrows has insisted Aberdeen are prepared to take Rangers to a tribunal if it means getting best value for Connor Barron. The Light Blues signed the Scotland under-21 cap on freedom of contract earlier this month. Rangers have made an offer of around £500,000 but it is nowhere near the Dons’ valuation. Both clubs are still in talks over a possible deal but Aberdeen chief executive Burrows had made it clear that unless they can strike an agreement then they are prepared for a Scottish Professional Football League tribunal to decide the fee Burrows stated: “If there isn’t agreement between the two clubs then we are fully prepared to go to a tribunal. It is our job to get the best value for any player and we will try and do that with Connor Barron. Ideally, in all walks of life, we would like to avoid situations where you have to go to tribunals but if we have to we will.” Talks are ongoing although Aberdeen know they would have been guaranteed around £500,000 in training compensation had the 21-year-old moved outside of Scotland. Aberdeen are likely to get more than that in a tribunal and could also net a further sell-on. Snatched from FF. Now, forgive my ignorance, but he was out of contract. They now want a "training compensation" and I vaguely remember that we did something similar before and paid some cash, yet, they want more than what they would get from a transfer abroad? I laugh later ...

Tenacious player with a good track record. Aside from centre-half and goalie, he has played in every position. The likes of him and Wright are sometimes needed to wear down poor Premiership sides, games, where our Danilos and Cortes have to be spared from possible injury. Kenny McLean (32) ... probably only if we get some money for Dowell and/or Lawrence, who are bound to be squad players like him too next season.