No idea if Claudio starts in this third-round knockout match, following City's 1-0 loss at Chelsea in the Premiership on Saturday. Eyal Berkovic returns for City, while Steve McManaman remains out. In the Carling (League) Cup competition, Man City-- as a team playing in Europe-- gained a bye until the third round, while QPR advanced with a 2-0 second-round win at Sheffield United. Not sure about broadcast information, but I know that City's website is now charging an annual fee for its audio webcasts. Not sure about QPR's site, though. News briefs forthcoming...
* * *News briefs* * * As far as the kickoff time goes, not sure, but I'll try and find it. But here's the news... From sportinglife.com: "Keegan eyes cup glory": http://www.sportinglife.com/footbal...occer/03/10/27/SOCCER_Man_City_Nightlead.html Preview, from Soccernet: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/preview?id=129280&cc=3436 From the BBC's site, a roundup of team news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/league_cup/3204815.stm From Manchester City's official site... "Cup ambitions for boss": [/b]http://www.mcfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=169833&Title=CUP+AMBITIONS+FOR+BOSS From the Manchester Evening News, "Keegan eyes cup glory": http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/sport/football/manchestercity/stories/Detail_LinkStory=71277.html Also from the Manchester Evening News, "Sinclair dreams of silver": http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/sport/football/manchestercity/stories/Detail_LinkStory=71318.html
Found the kickoff time on Man City's site... 7:45 p.m. local time at Loftus Road, which makes it 2:45 p.m. ET/11:45 a.m. PT. Which makes it past my bedtime.
One other news item... From sportinglife.com, "Keegan wary of complacency": http://www.sportinglife.com/footbal...E=soccer/03/10/28/SOCCER_Man_City_Keegan.html
This game is going to be broadcast by 5Live Sports Extra: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/sportsextra/schedule.shtml And the webcast isn't blocked like the Premier league games.
I'm headed up to Shepherd's Bush now to go to Loftus Road - I'll try and post something later if it's not too late of a night
Reyna not starting, and not even on the bench. Rest day for him. Per Manchester City's site: Starting XI 1. Seaman, David 22. Dunne, Richard 5. Distin, Sylvain 17. Sun, Jihai 24. Barton, Joey 18. Tarnat, Michael 26. Bosvelt, Paul 28. Sinclair, Trevor 8. Fowler, Robbie 29. Wright-Phillips, Shaun 39. Anelka, Nicolas Substitutes 32. Stuhr-Ellegaard, Kevin 4. Wiekens, Gerard 14. Berkovic, Eyal 10. Sibierski, Antoine 11. Macken, Jonathan
One of the BBC's announcers, on the PbP of the Leeds v Man Utd game, said that he felt that Man City had what it took, potentially, to win this competition. From all appearances based on this scoreline and performance, mark those words, I'd say.
The QPR match report: http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~444298,00.html Sounds as if the 1st goal was pretty dodgy. Still, a good payday for the R's, which is all this was to them realistically.
I'll pay that. City indeed do care about this competition, and Keegan sees it as a ticket back into Europe. Which gives it meaning and purpose, really.
Went to the match - Superhoops were hard done by - 0-3 really flattered City First goal was complete incompetency by the linesman (obvious foul by Sun JiHai about 2 feet from the linesman) - SWP and Barton were class for City Ian Wright got into a bust up with a QPR fan (apparently a racist comment directed his way after he celebrated SWP's first goal) Keegan actually went up and got Ian and brought him down close to the City coaches