Your Saturday Morning Lesser Footy Open thread. Now with more Wales!

Well it is my turn in the King Hippo-less rotation so shall we see what is going on in the EPL this morning?

Hmmm, nothing.

Oh lord please let it be an international break.

Everyone has always qualified for Russiya 2018 so it can’t be that.

Oh no, it is FA Cup weekend which can kind of be fun but mostly the Premier League clubs house the minnows.…… Let’s take a look see around Europe for something palatable. Hey here’s one, Valencia v Real Madrid which should be good as Valencia is ahead of Real in La Liga. Can we take a moment to laugh at Real please? They are in 4th and I am sure the Madridistas are not pleased looking up at Athleti, Valencia, and Barcelona. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Man that felt good.

What else we got? Catholic derby in Scotland where Hibs travels to Glasgow to take on Celtic. This is no Old Firm Derby however these fanbases do not like each other at all. We will chalk it up to city rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Celtic is running away with the SPL and usually it is a 2 horse race with Rangers taking part but Aberdeen is up on them by 3 points currently. I am sure that will rectify itself due to all of the money dumped in to Rangers now that they are back up.

In Italy Juventus takes on Chievo Verona. The “Old Lady” is in a battle with Napoli this year so at least there is some intrigue at the top of Serie A.

In Germany Bayern is running away with it which is not really unexpected but below them is the real battle for who gets in to the Champions League next year. There are 6 clubs within 1 point of each other so me thinks that this will come down to the wire. As Balls stated a few weeks ago German football is fantastic to watch and the crowds are nuts. Basically this is just giving me an excuse to show this Tifo again.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKSBQVWRBRE]

Alright, let’s look at the FA Cup. I do normally like the domestic cups as every club is thrown in a hat and go from there tends to make for some huge upsets a couple times a year. It is enjoyable that from time to time you get a tiny club gets through a few rounds playing other small clubs then a giant gets drawn with them and has to travel to a miniscule ground. The only one that looks like this today is Tottenham visiting Newport County who I have never heard of before. Is it better know a tiny English side time? You are damn right it is!

Newport County A.F.C. are Welsh not English. We are learning.

Nickname – The Exiles! This is better of the other ones listed on Wikipedia. I will give you the cheat notes for them to conserve your time. Founded in 1912 but reformed in 1989 due to bankruptcy. They were reformed by 400 fans and were placed below football league as punishment. They would not have been able to be in this competition if they were still way down there today. They returned to league status in 2013 and are in League 2 and sitting in 8th. The Exiles had to beat Leeds to get here in the third round and this is the 1st time they have been this far since 1979. Their rivals understandably are Cardiff City although I don’t know how often that they would meet due to being in different divisions.

Their stadium is known as Rodney Parade which is quite a good name. I always enjoy when smaller teams host these games because of the advertising along the side boards. You will not see Asian gambling sites, multinational airlines, shoe companies or really anything familiar.

Their supporters are known as the Amber Army and I really hope that they play the 311 song there but I highly doubt it. The last thing that I will saw I found was that their mascot is Spytty the Dog.

That caption was not by me but by the photographer. In all seriousness there are no superb match-ups in England today so enjoy your Saturday on the continent.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEed-o8fVpM]

I know it iwill be incredibly stupid but I am so freaking excited for this on April 20th.