Hapless_Hans wrote:Unreal underrating of Sheriff FC here Robes, no poll option ffs. Hope they beat you to the EL spot, if they don't finish 2nd as I predict.

Not invited to the Group D reunion

— Gladbach (@borussia_en) August 26, 2021

neuro11 wrote:shameful not to give the other team any chance....this is CL man

Jesp wrote:inter has to top this group no excuses... its a weakned madrid and their only true competitor in this group

Moldova's football, even in the Soviet times, was always comically bad. Back in 1983, when Nistru Kishinev made it to the Soviet top league, it went 3 wins, 4 draws, 27 losses..
I remember watching Nistru-Spartak Moscow and going outside to play at halftime, with the score 1-1...

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

Well, first they stole like 5 of our top players. They came to our stadium, which was next to railroad tracks, and a train would occasionally go rumbling behind the Eastern Stand, shaking the entire contraption. The scoreboard was human-operated (I was often one of the humans)

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

And, let me tell you, Tighina's fortunes have only gotten worse since. The stadium is the same, except now the Eastern Stand is collapsed. It's pretty much the same story everywhere else - except in Tiraspol.
What's happened in Tiraspol is a criminal and hilarious anomaly...

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

The green band represents their not giving a fuck about history. Like, remember those Japanese soldiers on isolated islands who kept fighting until the 70s because they didn't believe the war was over? That's Transnistria. An entire country living in 1991, as if nothing happened.

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

... basically assembled a cabinet of "ministers" most of whom were very pleasant-looking single women in their 30s, then chose himself a wife from among them (the Minister of Internal Affairs) and retired happily.
How does a country like this survive? Russian assistance and...

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

This is were Sheriff Tiraspol comes from. The team was founded by the owners of the company (both former KGB agents, of course) who have bankrolled it as a giant money-laundering operation. They've built a huge football complex in the middle of a quiet Moldovan cow pasture...

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

Absurdly, the Sheriff Stadium is now the primary ground for Moldova's national team, even though "Transnistria" vehemently denies being a part of Moldova and there are customs checkpoints and everything. But since nobody anywhere recognizes "Transnistria", they have no choice...

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

All of this is being done to the proud bafflement of the locals, who have never seen any kind of football beyond factory-level Soviet kickarounds prior to Sheriff's creation. I mean, the average attendance at matches in Moldova is in the dozens, unless Sheriff is involved...

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

... the village of Parcani, populated entirely by ethnic Bulgarians who produce mostly salty cheese and very exotic-looking brides. Further to the west is my home city of Bender, whose own football stadium looks like this: pic.twitter.com/giVzv8JNat

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

The triumph was short-lived, because the USSR chose that very moment to break apart, while Transnistria happily plunged itself into a civil war. The very reason I am now in America, by the way.
So, that's where Sheriff comes from. This is the team playing Real Madrid soon...

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

Never let anyone tell you not to dream big, kids. There is nothing, NOTHING, that positivity, hard work, a secret nation-building KGB plot and an international gun-trafficking ring can't accomplish.

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) August 26, 2021

halamadrid2 wrote:Game of the round imo. Who are Inter lining up with?

Real Madrid XI likely:

Tibu
Dani-Militao-Nacho-Alaba
Valverde-Casemiro-Modric
Hazard
Benz-Vini