That was of course our rather farcical 1-1 (or 4-4 after a penalty shootout) draw against Olympiakos last night, which leaves us with a chance of becoming only the second side from outside Portugal to win, to give it its full name, the Trofeu Internacional de Futebol do Guadiana.
To do so we’ll have to overcome a face that should be familiar to most of us. Hugo Viana signed for us ten years ago now and stayed with us for three seasons. He was dubbed as the next Portuguese superstar and arrived at St James’ Park with a better reputation than a young Cristiano Ronaldo who cam through the Sporting Lisbon academy at the same time as Viana.
Unfortunately for Viana his career path took an entirely different route to that of Ronaldo and I would say that it’s fair to suggest he was ultimately a failure during his spell on Tyneside. That’s not to say that I don’t think it could never have worked for him, but I just think everything weighed on him and he took his time to settle and adjust even though he did show brief glimpses of quality.
Still time moves on and so must we. Viana now plays for the “other side” tonight where he has become an integral part of their team. SC Braga are in the Europa League this season and, like us, must qualify from the same round that we are in so they aren’t a poor side by any stretch of the imagination.
On our part we can expect to see come faces who were rested last night. Jonas Gutierrez, Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Simpson, Cheik Tiote and Ryan Taylor all sat out the match last night so it’s fair to assume they’ll get the nod tonight. Yohan Cabaye will have to settle for a cameo role however, and that is only if the game is going a certain way according to Alan Pardew. That “certain way” is presumably not the way that Olympiakos were going about things last night!
The game is being shown live on ESPN, making my three month free offer seem like a really good deal as I’ve now watched the last four pre-season matches without the hassle of finding an internet stream listening to it legally and above aboard. However for those who don’t have ESPN I’m pretty sure it will be available somewhere… Kick-off is at 8:45pm UK time.
Team news will be added in below as and when it becomes available.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Colocini, James Tavernier, Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, Cheik Tiote, Sylvain Marveaux, Demba Ba, Sammy Ameobi, Papiss Cisse
Subs: Tim Krul, James Tavernier, Paul Dummett, Steven Taylor, Davide Santon, James Perch, Romain Amalfitano, Gabriel Obertan, Gael Bigirimana, Haris Vuckic, Mehdi Abeid, Shola Ameobi
oh Cabaye
Big Dave(Quote)
Oh Cabs that was sooo close.
kimtoon(Quote)
The central striker for Braga has given Collo a torrid time, good contest !
Munich Mag(Quote)
cabaye’s made an impression since coming on 😀
andymag(Quote)
yippee we got a pot 😀 😎
kimtoon(Quote)
YAY we win
andymag(Quote)
Wehey….open top bus trip through the toon !!!
Munich Mag(Quote)
It wasn’t pretty but we don’t care…
Munich Mag(Quote)
AWWW they didnt show the trophy ceremony 😥 😆
andymag(Quote)
Thanks a lot ESPN. Do we not get to see us get the pot then , I know it’s a non event but I would of liked to see what it looked like. 👿
kimtoon(Quote)
What a shower of ***** 👿
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim
It’ll be on the official siter most likely in a few hours
andymag(Quote)
Theres nothing for it ,we’ll have to win the Europa cup now. 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
Andy ,yeah I’ll have a peep laters.
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim
Even if we win the PL, the tv won’t show it 😉
andymag(Quote)
Andy @ 162 if they’re as fast as usual it will be on there by tuesday or so 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave
They’re actually quite good with that sort of stuff, especially on reserve stuff and friendlies.
andymag(Quote)
Are we now maybe the first English team to win a cup this season ❓
Axel(Quote)
Andy ,if we won the PL half the press would top themselves I reckon and frankly that’s as good a reason as any to win it. 😈
kimtoon(Quote)
Axel
😉
We’ll be the only ones this season
andymag(Quote)
the press’s heads would explode kim, they’d find some way to put us down though “Newcastle cheated their way to the title”
“Magpies win poor league”
“Newcastle will sell all players due to lack of ambition”
andymag(Quote)
Andy, we could win with a dozen point gap and still be told we fluked it. 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
Sad but true Kim 🙁
Andymag(Quote)
fuk the press 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
or they would say
We haven’t played anyone yet
The EPL is not allowed to be won by a team north of Manchester
I tried too shag a geordie lass once but she said she only did it with a real man .
Axel(Quote)
http://www.nufcfans.co.uk/photo-captain-coloccini-with-the-torneo-guadiana-trophy/
It’s not a great photo but you can see colo holding it clear enough, looks like a boat.
Andymag(Quote)
Axel
You a puppet or something? 😉
Andymag(Quote)
Andy ,It looks like something a sailing team would win 😆 Still it should fill up a nice bit of room in the trophy cabinate. 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
ANDYMAG
the last lass i had asked if i was an elephant 😳
Axel(Quote)
Well the lads sleeping well ,no more puke and a trophy ,reasons to be cheerfull . 😎
kimtoon(Quote)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7GepOF-D-c
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM I just thought the same when I seen what Kim wrote 😆 only I was sitting trying to think of who sung it or its proper name
Big Dave(Quote)
Axel
That’s a good thing is it not 😉 😈 , or was it trousers on elephant? 😆
Andymag(Quote)
ANDYMAG
The female elephant that stood in front of me took one look and ran away , screaming she could never take it . She was from gatesheed 😯
Axel(Quote)
Axel
That explains it, she was a hippo 😉
Andymag(Quote)
Get in a piece f silverware to add to our intertoto cup lol.
Does nobody on here have even the slightest faith in obertan?
colos curly curls(Quote)
@186 Colos
Can only speak for myself but, i have more faith in North and South Korea becoming best friends than Obertan coming good for us + he reminds me of the tortoise from the “creature comforts short films”
……
Thought last night was a decent enough performance good to see Marveaux get some more playing time under his belt, impressed with Tav again and Cabaye looked a class apart when he came on.
Saw someone say Sammy was a poor mans Robben – looked more like a poor mans Shola , great to see Cisse getting these misses out of the way pre-season too
All in all good workout for us – be interesting to see how we would fare against Braga with both clubs first XI’s playing
But thats 2 games against teams in this years Champions League and unbeaten v both
Gary(Quote)
I see Bale got a nasty foot injury last night from an Adams tackle .Would be ironic if he’s gonna miss start of the season now having pulled out of the Olympic team with a ‘ bad back injury’ . 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim-aye, justice
Adam is a pretty filthy player though…and I don’t really get why cards aren’t shown in friendlies, just gives dirty players free rein to put people out before the season starts 😕
Newkie(Quote)
Charlie adam doesnt like Gareth Bale much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrUVRB78WxA
CC(Quote)
cc, it’s awful mind ,not good at all.
kimtoon(Quote)
I cant stand Adam, Useless, Overrated and bought for a hugely inflated price on a whim.
Still everyone makes mistakes im sure kenny wouldnt overspend on players like that again… 😯
CC(Quote)
CC….Adam….”bought for a hugely inflated price”…fits in well at Liverpool then 😆 😆 😆
Munich Mag(Quote)
Young Brendan has a bunch of excuses lined up all ready, the first excuse being “guvnor I have to first sort out King Kenny’s band of expensive misfits”….
Munich Mag(Quote)
Adam = poor mans (uglier) Guthrie. £6m for a player who’s best days are behind him and who previously transferred from Rangers as they thought he was ***** is ridiculous.
Andymag(Quote)
I kind of feel sorry in a weird way for Brenda walking into a similar situation to Roy hodgson without the previous success, Experience or ability.
Average squad getting more mediocre by the week (Allen, Borini and Doris De Vries 😆 ) For a combined near £30m should put paid to any lingering top 4 hopes… 😆
CC(Quote)
Andymag, in all honesty I think you’re dissing Guthrie there mate… 🙄
Guthrie served the toon well, and always give it his best shot. We got value for money imo cos he only cost a mill I reckon (could be wrong though…)
That we got nowt for him at the end of the day was just par for the course.
Were it not for King Kenny and his extravagant owners, Adam would never have been a multi million player… 😆
Munich Mag(Quote)
Laugh, I almost got the beers in… 🙄
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/2/7947173/villas-boas-blasts-adam
Now Bale has a bad back AND an ankle injury….. 🙄 🙄
Adam was obviously peeved that he wasn’t chosen along with the other scots for the GB Olympic team… 😳
Munich Mag(Quote)
Couldn’t stand blackpool that season either….”breath of fresh air” ****, they were a bunch of pikeys, Adam and Taylor-Fletcher were right twats, and DJ Campbell is just DJ Campbell…
Still, better football than Swansea, ugh. 🙄
Newkie(Quote)
So who played well last night?, any one who watched the game and wants to provide some insight will be thought highly of 🙂 🙂
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
no comments 😕
batty(Quote)
oh it works now 🙂
batty(Quote)
Having a good chat with yourself there Batty 🙂 🙂
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
aussie magpie fan
us true toon fans were stuck to the excellent ESPN link watching the excitement of the night unfold…. 😳
In years to come, when you look back on life with your young grandson sitting on your knee, and he asks you “grandad where were you when the toon won the Trofeu Internacional de Futebol do Guadiana ?”…. you’re gonna be in big trouble big man…. 😉
Munich Mag(Quote)
AMF all i can say mate is marv is starting to show sumit motm for me,cabaye looked good when came on,i worry for the defence like,thats a couple of goals scored from just on edge of box,tiote was tiote seemed full of it, his timeing was well off,was nice to win something dont want to put any downer on it but brada didnt have most of there first teamers playing,but you can only beat whats in front of you 😉
icedog(Quote)
MM I agree with you there, theres no excuse 😀
Batts so what was the comment that didn’t show 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
Agree with Munich….
And Ice, not really a convincing performance but there we go. Raylor showing he can shoot from set pieces with another good free kick, but was pretty invisible otherwise. Best part of the match was harper coming way out of his box to head the ball away and flattening some braga guy who “challenged” him 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Cheers Ice 🙂 , Eminem, Big Dave and Newkie, **** off you bastards 🙂
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
Aussie now now it is sunday 😀
As Ice says Marv is looking like he could be a goodun, I also think Abeid is looking good.
Sammi for me just looks as if he is naturally good but doesn’t gave a foitie brain and makes silly mistakes, but theres still time I guess.
Big Dave(Quote)
Amf- for me I’ve been impressed with Marv, bigi, amalfitano, gosling and tavs.
MDS(Quote)
I meant this whole preseason
MDS(Quote)
not a normal sunday thought there would be more **** knocking about in the rags,the games must have them worn oot 😀
icedog(Quote)
BD & MDS, looking forward to seeing Marv get a good run out.. I posted a week back that Sammi doesn’t have enough mongrel in him on the park. He needs to up his intensity leves and get stuck in and really want it like Cabaye and Tiote (minus the red/yellow cards). Other wise he will be another run of the mill player..
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
raylor was mint and marv bigi,sammi ,gosling and tavernier have been very good preseason imo
stevo(Quote)
aussie magpie fan
just joking mate, the lads will keep you straight on who played well yesterday.
I thought we struggled at times against the Braga second string, and considering we have Spurs coming up in a few weeks we need to pump up the volume a bit …
Still silverware is silverware though 😆 😆 😆
Munich Mag(Quote)
two trophys far tavs …….
stevo(Quote)
Eminem all good, took your comment as intended. 🙂 you are right it is a fair chunk of pewter that is for sure. 🙂
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
Bloody sailing boat if you ask me . Wonder if it has a remote control 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
You could certainly use it for an anchor on a sailing boat, Kim 🙂
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
Neymar…unbelieveable player
Newkie(Quote)