AC Milan learns opponents for UEFA Cup group stage

Soccer Betting Lines

10/07/2008 - Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Seven-time European champion AC Milan was drawn into Group E of the UEFA Cup on Tuesday, highlighting what is arguably the tournament's "Group of Death."

AC Milan last won the Champions League in 2006-07, but failed to qualify for Europe's top club event this season. With Brazilians Kaka and Ronaldinho, the Italian club is easily the favorite to capture the UEFA Cup.

Any group with AC Milan is automatically tough, and England's Portsmouth, Dutch side Heerenveen, Germany's Wolfsburg and Portugal's Braga round out the teams.

Manchester City was drawn into Group A with Schalke, PSG, Racing and Twente, Tottenham is in Group D with Spartak Moscow, Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb and NEC, and Aston Villa is in Group F with Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia Prague and Zilina.

The group stage starts on Oct. 23. The top three teams in each group advance to the knockout stage.

Following is the complete UEFA Cup group stage draw:

Group A: Schalke, PSG, Manchester City, Racing, Twente.

Group B: Benfica, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Hertha Berlin, Metalist Kharkiv.

Group C: Sevilla, Stuttgart, Sampdoria, Partizan, Standard Liege.

Group D: Tottenham, Spartak Moscow, Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb, NEC.

Group E: AC Milan, Heerenveen, Braga, Portsmouth, Wolfsburg.

Group F: Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia Prague, Aston Villa, Zilina.

Group G: Valencia, Club Brugge, Rosenborg, FC Copenhagen, St. Etienne.

Group H: CSKA Moscow, Deportivo, Feyenoord, Nancy, Lech Poznan.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their “supplements” to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this won’t be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a “truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit.” And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. “The plug-necked yahoos on your team,” you can say, “will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.”

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesn’t focus only on your opponent’s team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Where’s your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, “I’ll try to type slower for you next time.” Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, don’t just conclude by saying your opponent is a “twerp who drafts like my grandmother.” Say that your opponent is a “sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars.” By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You won’t be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, I’m sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.