i must admit

arsenal aren't even close to where they were last year. they were lucky to beat portsmouth, the don't create anything, and they are more nervous than summers trying to ask christy mazza to the u of r ring dance for the second time whenever they are trying to see out the last five minutes of a game.

bowl games are fun, but not that fun. more fun is being back and seeing everyone i've ever known in a 3 day stretch. richmond is unbelieveable for that.

How bout that pac 10 football? acc isn't bad either, and if it wasn't for the worst college football qb i've ever seen (nc state's 2nd string, (not third string) then NC state would have beat Rutgers handily.

and check this out, who knew there were so many canadians in the nhl. or czechs..
http://redblackhockey.blogspot.com/2007/11/nhl-players-by-nationality-since-2002.html

2001 GMAC Bowl, blast from the past

I was combing through the espn video files and I noticed that they are doing this little 12 bowls of christmas, counting down the 12 most memorable bowl games of the past decade or so. (i'm not exactly sure what the criteria is). Anyway, they did a pretty good job too, not just giving you a 3 minute recap but a full on 20 minute summary.

Anyway, the 2001 GMAC bowl pitted Marshall vs East Carolina and incidently Byron Leftwich vs David Garrard the future Jacksonville teammates. This game had everything, I actually remember staying up past midnight and watching it live. East Carolina was having their way with the Herd in the first half, they must have been up by at least 4 touchdowns at one point. But they couldn't keep the shackles on an already gimpy and lead footed leftwich, who really could zing the old pigskin around back then, and Marshall was always going to be within striking distance for the latter stages of the game.

The end of regulation of this game is one of my favorites in college football. Marshall kicks a field goal to make it a 6 point game with about 2 minutes left. They stop ECU, use all their timeouts, and get the ball back in their own territory with about 30 seconds left and no timeouts. This game should be a blueprint of how not to defend a last second drive, and the constant closeup of the East Carolina defensive coordinator, head in hands, inconsolable as if he knows whats going to happen before the drive even starts, is priceless. Anyway, Leftwich is brilliant, he doesn't panic, and he uses that awesome rule of the clock stopping to move the chains to perfection, and actually scores with 7 seconds so spare to tie the game at 51.

BUT THEN, just when we think its over, this kicker comes along and hits a gross, low extrapoint that misses wide to the right. This was his 7th missed extra point of the year. uhhh, thats not a very good stat to have. Marshall goes on to win the game in OT, but what a classic, crazy fourth quarter that exemplifies the bowl season at its finest.

was it just me

or did every game i watch this weekend have a crazy ending?
Man U Sunderland, Juventus Lecce, Villa Everton, Sevilla Real, Dallas Pittsburgh, the list goes on...
i was lucky enough to take in a large part of 3 games this saturday, arsenal, man united, and barcelona.
It almost seems silly to write about this now, ( i began this post on sunday, but since i've gotten sick, i didn't get back to it until now).
There's no question which one of the aforementioned was the most impressive. Barca. They're in a class by themselves at the moment. Dani Alves could probably play anywhere on the field, but he just so happens to be probably the most dangerous right back the world has ever seen, how convenient. He combines so well with Messi, who is just Messi, and I have to mention again how him and Ronaldo are polar opposites when it comes to how they handle their treatment. Granted, Ronaldo's style does lend itself to him being in some more all or nothing situations which ronaldo is right to go down if he does lose the ball. but my case and point was illustrated sunday when Ronaldo went grimacing off with his trademark overembellishing of an injury after 64 minutes, whereas Messi just shrugs off challenges like there is no tommorow and lets the ref do his job.

Still like the bcs texas fans?

about that time...

for my annual BCS rant.
Ok, I know everyone already hates the bcs, and i'm not trying to beat a dead horse here, but there are some interesting aspects of this debate that rarely get mentioned, that I’d like to elicit here.
i'd say your typical auburn 2006/7? Oregon 2002/3, and all the other schools' fans that have been hard done by the bcs might have a conversation that goes something like the following..
fan1: "hey so how bout that bcs? bullshit right?"
fan2: "hawwwww, (incoherent rant) (dey took our trophyyyy." (end of rant).
but it usually doesn't go any further. People just run around like chickens with their heads cut off screaming for a playoff, but can they actually defend the concept? Do they even know what their argument is? Is their argument even a sound one? These aren’t easy questions. And neither was deciding what to do with kramer’s girl’s bike, but Newman found the answer.
Somewhere along the line, we decided that the human opinion after all the traditional bowl games wasn't enough to crown a rightful champion, and often times we were left with co-champions, (which nobody likes, but ironically wasn't fixed by the BCS). In theory the BCS was put in practice to determine the best two teams from division 1 to play in the championship. Whether or not it does this adequatley or not, is beside the point, (for now).
So initially, the BCS was looking good, 2 teams to play for it all. But come on, how little foresight can you have? How hard was it to figure out that eventually there was going to be 3 undefeated or comparable teams, whose differences might be able to be deciphered by the slightest of margins through computers, but not by any disinterested college football spectator.
So, here we are, if you are a proponent of a playoff, as Mr. Obama apparently is, where then do we draw the cutoff for who gets to play? The logical number is 4, or 8, if you want to be safer, but either way, aren’t we just enlarging the same dilemma? (assuming we keep the rankings to determine these teams). I won’t get into the merits of the actual system of rankings, because although they are surely flawed, the formula is likely not going to be tinkered with, and that I can accept. BUT, there’s always going to be a legitimate gripe from that number 5 or 9 team, that they were robbed of a rightful place in the playoffs and who are we to tell them otherwise?
I myself have never been a big proponent of an end of season winner take all tournament to decide who is a “league” champion. For example, in NCAA basketball, if you play in a bottom feeder conference that is only going to get one bid no matter what, your regular season is essentially worthless. (if all you care about is trying to win a nat’l championship, which in theory is what all D-1 teams are playing for). Is it not fair to say that the best team will always have the best record in the league if everyone plays an equal number of times? Thus, I believe that this regular season champ should have the honor of representing the conference in the big dance.
I’m not exactly sure how this tradition started, and I’m too lazy to research it, but this is clearly become the benchmark for how titles are decided in American sports. Nowhere is this more evident than in the MLS which inexplicably does not crown their regular season table topper the champion, as is the case in every other soccer league in the world that I know of, but prefer to “let them play it out,” in a somewhat comical MLS cup, where the quarterfinals are 2 legged and the semis are not! What?! Even the grueling 162 game baseball season in belittled to a play-off, and no one blinks.
How is this relevant to the BCS you ask? Well, in some ways it isn’t. And there is no easy solution to the college football problem. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that perhaps we need to re-examine the way we evaluate our awarding of championships based on the entire course of a season, and not just on one game.

ronaldo a point shaver?

i don't know why else you would catch a ball going for your forehead. If ronaldo didn't go down so GD easily all the time, than he would get a lot more decisions, you think he would have figured that out by now, and he presumably has. Even still, he seems more content to just give up on a play when he feels he's been fouled, and that puts a lot of pressure on the ref to then instantly give the decision. Messi on the otherhand, will get kicked all day long, and let the play run out, and allow the ref to pull the play back to where he was originally fouled, a far more efficient and pleasing on the eye strategy.

but honestly, its tough to like and root for the collective united. especially ferguson, he really is a kid in a candy store. they've got some outstanding players. players i'd love on my squad, evra, park, anderson, tevez. but the amount that they bitch and whine is second to none. maybe those 2000s yankees a la roger clemens. but rio ferdinand is right up there with ferguson on that one.

Anyway, Man U 1- Man city 0. man of the match was SWP for me. what a joy to watch he is, and he gets kicked just as much, if not more than ronaldo week in and week out, and takes it like a man.

Its nice to finally see xavi getting all of the praise he deserves, but "one of the best in the world?" He really hasn't done that dramatically different from the last few years, has he? and as for henry on barcelona, well... yeah, it doesn't really work does it? I wanted to believe that he could fit in at barca, and he can at times, but the match is always going to be an odd one. little intricate passing has never been his forte, but rather that infamous dragback move that he patented along the left appears to be the only useful trick he has left in the bag. It's not that he's really lost a step, because it doesn't appear that he has, it only appears that Henry's game is better suited for england, for a number of reasons.

he's basically forced to play on the left wing, albeit always close to the pentaly area, and he's not really a winger. granted he can deliver that low hard ball right across the face of the goal with the best of them, that just isn't barca's style, and they would probably be better served leaving him on the bench when they have both iniesta and messi, (not to mention hleb) to support Eto'o.

and yes, come on arsenal! a little luck never hurt anyone did it. but we've been on the wrong end of that 2-1 game one too many times, so its a great win. but lets see if we can sustain any kind of form, before we get all carried away.
RVP is man of the match, who else?
stay classy nick/ piston fans

romanian politics (check the video).

this took place last week, i guess they are parlimentary candidates. the first thing the guy says in the video is, "you have the face of a bidet" and then... whoosh, what if biden did that to palin?!

http://www.ziare.ro/stirivideo.php?m=vizualizeaza&id=347

champions

first, this is from a b-sun, i used to be roch, blogger...

In the last two years, Markakis has quietly blossomed into the best right fielder in the American League, and there really isn't much point in debating it. (Vlad Guerrero might be more feared, but Markakis is the better overall player, and his best years are in front of him, not behind him.) Did you know he got on base 283 times in 2008? That was the most in the league, more than league MVP Dustin Pedroia and Indians All-Star Grady Sizemore. He was third in the league in runs created with 123 (a somewhat confusing statistic you can read about here), trailing only Sizemore and Josh Hamilton, and third in on-base percentage. Batting average, home runs and RBIs have become an antiquated way of measuring a player's value. The best compliments you can make about Markakis is that he's pretty darn good at not making outs, and he plays exceptional defense. There isn't much else you can ask from a baseball player...

and markakis had a horrible august/september, but hey, that kind of comes w/ the territory. so lets just fucking resign him already.

chelsea at bordeaux w/ it all on the line tonight. i'm putting my streak on the blues to get the job done. but i was snapped again last night by zenit. thought those ruskies would muster up a win, but when you are taking your best player off w/ 30 mins to go, (arshavin), it must be time for some caviar.

as will cottrell and i correctly observed, niklas bentdner is always going to be more effective as a sub, for whatever reason, and he gave arsenal a bit of breathing room, and more reason to focus on the upcoming clash w/ chelsea. which hasn't been the cleanest game in the past couple of seasons, so this weekend could be interesting. especially depending on what chelsea do tonight. new poll q coming.

adorable local news

that's your news?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/23/massachusetts.piano/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

looks like a couple of umass-harwich "students" probably rough rider alum, finally thought of that timeless haloween prank they'd been craving all those years. only it came about 6 years and 3 weeks too late.

what the hell are these streakers doing? just some on suck it up and win it already.

banana, trick of the day

so whawt did you guys think of that last poll question? pretty weak huh? its about time for a new one in FBB also, to be frank*.

We had our first snow of the year, on friday. woopdie doo. i can't help but miss new orleans now. this was my fav time of year there anyway. with those chilly nights where it might drop down to a frosty 40 degrees, living in some poorly constructed house that its cold as shit it even though the heat is turned all the way up. yeah, thats what i miss.

tough times for arsenal. just not good enough. no longer are we dominating games and not getting results, but we're actually on the wrong end of the drummings for a change. i guess it really doesn't matter all that much in the end, but its been pretty painful to watch at times. no worse than this past saturday's second half. oh well, there's always europe.

and what an idiot that jfulk guy is. please pick the panthers. that was a proverbial choke in every sense of the word. i wonder how thorough espn is checking and making sure that everyone is only using one email address and not their little brother's or sister's, which I for sure would have done if i was still at home, or had any brother's and sisters. i mean if your gonna just give away 1,000,000 like that, its worth a shot.

my streak sits at 8, and i'm not touching MNF w/ a ten foot pole. lets just hope that people keep being idiots and thwarting themselves.

the orioles gave up 869 runs last year, thats a lot of runs

thanks a lot england

walcott going down with an injury, just what i need. i watched the second half of england germany. england were the better team, i'll just leave it at that. but with all the debate over the midfield, i think michael carrick may be their answer, (or at least part of the answer). He's really cemented himself in the United midfield this year with Scholes being out long term. He's finally putting in the performances we saw from him at spurs. His passing is immaculate, on either foot, and he's not short on confidence even when it comes to finishing these days, (if you saw the goal at stoke).

So then, with that said, what is your England Midfield, or starting 11 for that matter.

Mine is a 4-5-1 of sorts, w/ Terry, Ferdinand, at the center, A.Cole at left back, M. Richards or Glen Johnson at right back). And sorry Frank, but as much as I love you I think you're the guy who's gotta miss out. so it goes, Downing on the left, Barry and Carrick in the middle, Wright-Phillips on the right, and Gerrard going wherever he needs to in support of Rooney, or even Agbonlahor, who is really, really pacey. And put David Seamen back in goal.

that's twice now...

..that arsenal have gotten their ass kicked in this young premiership season. i can't remember being so dominated in a match in the past 2 years in the prem, let alone in the same month. first from stoke, and now by villa, and at home no less? i'm not gonna write about how its time to question wenger, and how arsenal are the weakest of the "big 4," because maybe it is, and obviously, they are. But what I will say is that this is the least amount of faith I've had in a Henry-less team, who lack leadership, and who's best player, (clearly Fabregas) is incapable of changing the game on his own. Cesc is just about the only guy on the field that I can trust out there, aside from Clichy and Sagna. I just honestly don't like what Wenger is putting out on the field right now, end of story.

And as far as Bendtner, I've always thought that he's better suited to come off the bench, but Wenger almost has to play him now, because he's in their as much to defend on corners and set plays and win headers as he is to be a striker, which is a joke. I obviously prefer Vela, but thats another smurf in an already smurf filled team.

Man U, Chelsea, and even Liverpool look to be cruising, looks like its time weather the domestic storm and to look to Europe.

Rangers playing with emotion already ted? I didn't realize that reg season hockey was such a big deal. Oregon 55 Arizona 45. Houston 70 Tulsa 30. those could pass as basketball scores.

yeah, its only the carling cup, but...

why wouldn't i be delighted with this weeks results? chelsea, chelsea, chels..ugh. at home? drogba was eatin onions and spottin dimes, and then throwing them back into the crowd? but a carling cup loss to burnley is nothing to be proud of, no matter what big phil might say. and we can talk about the spurs redknap revelation all we want, and yes, they are playing some of the best football in the country, but what is it? november? and where are they? 9th? that feels about right, they're right where they should be, pushing for that uefa cup spot.

lakers beat the hornets again, huh? seems like every time if fisher isn't driving the stake through our hearts, then kobe is there to finish the job. should have put rafer in the squad to pick up that first ejection. oh well.

tell me you saw jack wilshire play tuesday night. he's 16.

Wieters is stone cold last time I checked, but he'll still probably be league mvp or something. jets pats tonight? the thing about brett favre in prime time football is that its brett favre.

goodbye cruel streak

alas, the steelers did me in, streak snapped at 11. nice job rothlesbagger. should have put in gardenhoser. but the sad thing is i wasn't even half way there(to 25). At least arsenal took care of business, now if we could only handle the scrubs.

there have been some rumblings about the credentials of this newfound fantasy basketball league after numberou matches inexplicably are ending up as ties. Could there be some point shaving, a la hot rod williams going on? Who knows. I'm just looking forward to the return of Drogba to start throwing the wrench into chelsea's title plans. Apparently they've already booked their hotel rooms in Rome for the champs league final. I guess that's one strategy...

And as exciting as college football is, just think about how much better it would be without the bcs. Its ridiculous how many doubts and what ifs could be erased. RIDICULOUS! i've hated the BCS since miami beat the shit out of a piece of shit and heisman winning eric crouch and nebraska team that was all about the big 12 and big 10 for who knows why. (well, its the money) isn't it always??)

sorry college football fans, but your claim to a championship stinks, smells, smells bad. alright enough with the smells.

sam's euro power rankings
1. Barcelona
2. Chelsea
3. Man United
4. Arsenal
5. Real Madrid
6. Liverpool
7. Juventus
8. Bayern
9. Villareal
10.Atletico

also there's: lyon, roma, inter, zenit, porto, leverkeusen.

not lookin so hot?

hey all you football fans. are you concerned with your teams' latest CL performace? are you gifting a late goal to Basel Exposition? Can't score at home to Fenerbeche? Drawing with those pesky Scots? Or losing again to Old Man Piero, and this time at home? Giving up three goals to Anortidis Farmougoustis(sp)? Or was your team just mirkoed by a Montenegran of all people?

Well, unless you are one of the aforementioned, I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Barcelona have nothing to worry about at this stage, and they sent out a fairly weakened squad to take on the hapless, but legitmate Swiss squad.

Arsenal's troubles are strictly domestic at the moment. Sure it would have been nice to beat Fenerbeche, but the result won't matter that much in the end, and Wenger and the players know that.

Man United are still the holders, and I wouldn't fret at a 1-1 draw at one of Europe's notoriously difficult grounds. Sir Alex stil has some tinkering to do, because he can't continue to leave Tevez/Berby on the bench continuously. Tevez is too good.

If you are a Real Madrid fan, you know all too well about how much trouble your club is in at the moment. Nevermind how good Barcelona are looking in the league, but what the f was a normally perfect Casillas doing lining up that wall last night? I could have drove the accord between the gap and the far post, Del Piero doesn't miss that. With Juventus looking strong, and the everdangerous zenit still lurking, with their fate in their own hands, madrid will know that they aren't out of the group yet...

And lastly, George, you and your fellow Chelsea supporters shouldn't be that discouraged at this particular result. Roma had been underperforming all season, and they were overdue for a result. But Bourdeaux are a very capable squad, so don't buy your knockout state tickets yet. Gourcouff is the real deal holyfield, and as long as Old Donkeyface Drogbaaa is playing up top, leaving the in-form Anelka to rot a la Wright-Phillips on the Chelsea bench, then yeah, theres always a chance things could blow up in fat phils portuguese face. And you have to go to france and romania if i'm not mistaken? That's a lot of latin languages, but it shouldn't be enough to derail your precious blues, not just yet. Oh and fuck you for taking spencer hawes ya bahsted, stupid waiver wire policy, give me the old yahoo instant add.

Quick mention to some dissapointing teams. Inter, Werder Bremen, Bayern, Germany, and Lyon is no where near where they were 2 years ago.

And some surprisingly impressive ones, Atletico, Villareal, Fiorentina, Juventus.

hey pablo, i think thats a candidate

I don't think anyone can appreciate this post more than Nick Derdemezis so I hope you read are reading this.
What is the goal of the year so far? is it not bentley? is goltv still doing that show on sunday nights with the dialtone in the background?

Obafemi Martins is the sneaky young, he puts Kanu to shame. Only 23 last week??! He's been around forever already, I guess we have too then.

Its looking like this might be the year that all the karma kramer finally catches up with Real Madrid, and they stop pulling all of those results out of their ass. Don't get me wrong, I used to hate it at first. But my Real relationship was a lot like the one I have with one of my favorite films, THA DUH-PAH-TED. Hated it at first, but the more you watch, the funnier and better it gets. Only with Real, I realized, why get mad at all of these crazy strokes of luck going their way when I could just sit back and enjoy it. Of course I prefer Barca, as I would imagine most neutrals do, but there's something special about Real that makes for great entertainment if nothing less.

Streak is at 10! Can you imagine DiMaggio? 56?! To je neuvěřitelný!

you mean the panties your mother laid out for you?

gelp gelp texas. tech. Stoke crush Arsenal? Spurs beat Liverpool? Whats next? Harwich over Chatham in lifeguard olympiad? Darien tops New Canaan in Turkey Bowl OT?

Stoke actually beat the shit out of Arsenal yesterday. Embarassing. Chelsea & Man U cruising, but the real cruisers appear to be Barca. No GOLTV over here, but the recaps do them enough justice.

My streak was on life support yesterday with Michigan State, but them and South Carolina took me up to 9. Can I make it to double digits?

Work Forest put you in the hospital? really? too much chick fil a?

happy hal-o-ween

nope, no jolly green giants, or jack and the beanstalks this year. And no WS for the Rays just yet. Too bad, theres always next year. Or the next 40 years...

Wednesday night produced some pretty tasty goals. I loved Lampards little chip, (who cares if he meant it) and of course Bentley's volley left us all stunned. Thats got to be a candidate.

Inicidentally, the sickening 4-4 draw with Spurs is easily the worst performance I have ever seen from a usually rock solid Manuel Almunia. Blaming him for Bentley's goal might be harsh, but he usually makes that save. But he arguably was only blameless for the final and most gutwrenching goal of them all. Arsenal love to give up points, but I think its fair to say that this was uncharacteristic, at least the manner in which spurs were allowed back into the game. But the overall theme, (horribly outplaying the opposition, and having nothing to show for it) remains. At the end of the day, its about results. period.

Hornets are off and running, NBA games are pretty tough to come by over here, but so are a lot of things.

I'm nursing my longest streak yet at a modest 7, but I'm so gunshy about doing anything, I'd rather just go for the monthly crown, but thats impossible from over here, unless I want to give up sleeping.

And last, I guess we're a little too young, but check out this guy. what a badass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4QjKdMIXes

pumpkin patch

i only have 2 accounts. one for me, and one for my homey. I'm about to carve my pumpkin, in the shape of bill clinton...
those streakers know what they're doing, sometimes. I'm sittin on 6 w/ my streak. don't want to tempt fate. Scared of all these first week NBA games and 2 or 3 goals. I love how us Ameros think that its gotta be over 3 goals, everytime its at least 75%.
Bankin on blatt for f bball, thats prob not the best. Go Bees!

not so fast

you might have spoken too soon but at least you were right in the end will. The Rays deserved to win, didn't they? I'm not really sure how I feel about them taking down a world series though. Don't get me wrong, it’s not like they don't deserve it. But it seems like an awful lot has fallen into place for them. They are/have been the best team in the league over the whole season. But they've hardly had to contend with a typical New York team, or a legitimate threat out of the central. And the Angels (and the rest of the west) have been predictably soft in the past few offseasons.

If TB wins, (knock,knock) what does that mean to an O's fan. It’s a slap in the face isn't it? Sure it could be a "blueprint for success" or any other one of those token BS sayings that Buster Olney & co. love to throw out there, but at the end of the day, it's more demoralizing than anything to those who bleed Orange & Black.

The Rays system was loaded, it was no secret, and their FO had been preaching patience to their fans, because their waiting would pay off one of these years. Who knew it would be this soon. 2008, shit. They only started playing when, 10 years ago? Hey this wasn't that hard, was it? What O's fans know all too well, is that we are nowhere near making a run like this from out of the blue. Nor are we even 3 years from it. And the worst part is...we've just had, by far, the best series of offseason moves in recent memory. UGH...

oh, and be sure to not bet on any NY/NJ teams for your streak. The jets/rangers have singlehandedly thwarted me at least four times in the past 2 weeks. I'm still stuck on 3.

nothing like homeade gulas on a saturday. I had my first this afternoon and it was a dandy. I also got my tvu player going good enough to see my goltv phil and ray going for atletico real. What a cracker of a goal from old horsey face. And an edgy game to boot. But how does Real do it? Time and again they pull out these games like clockwork. After Atletico scored my first instinct was to look at the clock. And still w/ 6mins of stoppage time because of the ref, well thats just way too much time to give Real. It was a great game though, really exciting. Aguero was the best player on the field.

I watched Chelsea dismantle a normally decent Middlesborough this afternoon, 5-0! It was a typical performance from Chelsea, but boro were just god awful. Sometimes, (when watching Arsenal) I always wonder why teams seem to play so good against us. I just figured that you play up or down to your competition, such is the case in most sports.

But when watching Chelsea destroy Boro today, and then contrasting that with Arsenal Everton in the afternoon, I realized that its just the pure physicality aspect that Arsenal is never going to have that makes it that much easier for their opposition. Chelsea's Mikels, John Terrys, Ballacks, and Alexs, are just intimidating in their stature. Boro was almost afraid of Chelsea, something Arsenal can rarely claim. Until the pint sized gunners start adding some grit to their lineup, fellow Arsenal fans and I will have more games like the recent Hull loss to look forward to. A lesser team full of confidence, and executing their gameplan to perfection to steal the points.

worth a shot

just watched scottie mcgee's return number 1 on top 10 to sink richmond, that's gotta sting, but not if you're will cox.

I can't get past 3 on my streak, 3 and out every time. Its those GD stupid college football games that do it to me. But at least there's hockey in there now. Go Caps.

is this the man that wrecked the buffet at the harold club this morning?

Phillies Rays, yeesh. that just doesn't feel right. kind of like that heat mavs series a few years ago. can't write them off yet, but all those idiot red sox fans that thought they didn't need manny are gonna be changing that tune of, "I don't really care too much about the C's.." and start being basketball fans pretty quick.

It looked like Spain were pretty lucky to beat a legitimate Belgian squad last night after they had a good goal disallowed, and Villa didn't score til the 87th min. Its funny how the groups shape up though. There are a couple that are absolutely nonsensical. Poor old Malta, stuck in there with Hungary, Albania (2 not bad teams) and Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal. Take 4 of those and you have a legitmate European Championship group right there.

Then you have the Greece and Swiss group, or the Czecho-Slovak Polish group, or even the England group. It hardly seems fair, and I don't see why they don't just seed all 30something teams and make the groups like that. It seems to work in the NCAAs.

Thank god for Wieters, someone to look forward to finally for us annually dejected o's fans. He's tearing it up in the Arizona Fall League, check it out statboy.

Who won btw, Richmond or JMU?

dissapointment

blogger's block? I don't know why you can't access my volny (free) sites. Perhaps you should check your privacy settings. Who do you have Sox vs Rays? Avery, Smolts, Glavine = Kazmir, Garza, Shields? or what was that shirt. i guess i'll be rooting for whomever comes out of the NL. meh... I don't know we'll see.

business as usual

nothing too crazy happened in the CL this week. Real Zenit was the only match I really watched, and it was a dandy. Real were pretty lucky to win, but if you don't expect that out of the madradistas by now, then I guess you never will. But the haven't been so lucky lately in this competition, so we will see where they are in March.

Zenit on the other hand are desperatley unlucky to have 0 points after two solid performances but they only have themselves to blame. Their only consolation is Bate's draw with Juve, and the fact that there is a ton of football left to be played.

That's twice now the Pitt Panther football team has halted my ESPN streak in its tracks, and because of the west coast games taking place around my 4am, I pretty much don't have a shot at the monthly title so I've gotta go for the long streak. Thanks South Florida.

Whom to root for in the World Series? Aren't the Yankees playing anyone that I can root for?

Big game saturday, we're putting our 9 game win streak on the line against the bankovani badasses, our site is here...
http://volny.cz/partisan/

isn't a hull a part of a ship

i was lucky enough to watch arsenal's humbling at the hands of hull at a pub with some men who happened to actually be from Hull, in prague...what are the odds. anyway, I just can't bear to watch whenever Arsenal concede a corner. the other team scores about half of the time, no joke. do i need to berate Gallas again? It was his fault in Kyiv. It was his fault for the corner, and it was his antics at Birmingham that showed the world his true colors and what he really is: a fo-hawked crybaby.

At least there is no shortage in good football as I have to kiss another Oriole losing season goodbye. I'm gonna miss seeing Jaime Walker throwing that 82mph spinner a la Dave Ogburn, that any Thomas Dodson could yank out of the park. And did Raindor Beird even once not allow an inherited runner to score? I'd be curious to know, because there has to be some kind of statistic for that.

Anyway, at least I'm not a Spurs & or Newcastle fan. What a mess those two clubs are.

Man U Chels / Ryder Cup

He actually rode the bull?! I still don't believe that, even though i've seen the clip. I guess it went over well too? But golf better be careful, next thing you know theres gonna be two bikers having sex in the woods. How am I supposed to chip with that going on?

But as good of a competition that the Ryder Cup is/was, Johnny Miller and company are always up to the challenge to produce equivocally terrible broadcasting/commentary. I can't count how many times they said, "so Tiger is into it, and he is watching, he just texted Zinger.." and I think thats enough fake southern accents to emulate boo weekley for any one person to suffer for a lifetime.

Interesting match between Man u and chelsea. Neither was at their best. Probably a fair result. I hate seeing Tevez on the bench. But how the heck can you play Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo, and Berbatov. You can't. Somebody's gonna get a little more pinetime than they deserve. I love Berbatov, but I don't really know if he fits into the United scheme. He is probably the best I've ever seen at holding a ball up, but I think the ideal United frontman has to have some breakaway speed too, a la Louis Saha, who is where btw?

No new cds for me. Feeling good lost by BSS though. New TVOTR is only ok. haven't listened to PiP yet.

tough to watch

sometimes football is just painful...to watch. Thats how i'm sure spurs fans feel all the time, and how I felt watching arsenal play dynamo kiev wednesday night. Kiev are shit. they're striker, (bangoura) is terrible. He belongs in some honduran league or something. Kiev took the lead on a classic hooking a la Vlade Divac, that the ref fell for and awarded the penalty.

Hopefully this doesn't come back to haunt them, but I don't think porto or fenerbeche will have any trouble with Kiev. This was just one of those games where arsenal were exposed. Van persie walking off the pitch after being subbed, Bendtner being his typical self and rushing to give the ball away or do something after the whistle had blown, and most importantly, Gallas (who was at fault for the goal) just being plain awful. He is a shit choice for a captain, oh, and I can't forget about Denilson giving the ball away countless times too. I guess he was trying to make up for Eboue's absence. I would take Song over Gallas right now to play alongside Toure.

ESPN has a cool new fantasy game called streak. My streak just came to a stuttering halt at three after this match that i'd love to forget.

nice one lauer

fast forward to like 5 30 after you get the gist of it.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/24289720#24289720

did anyone see that guy for stoke with his throw ins today? Good lord, thats as good as a free kick.

some thoughts on internationals/ US Open

I didn't get to see much of the England Andorra match due to shotty internet, (which is still plaguing me now), but I don't know if there could be any more coverage of the English team in the English media, so you feel like you have a pretty good sense of what was going on, even if you might not have seen a minute of the actual match. Everyone loves talking about England's problems, but how bout a little optimism? Couldn't hurt, could it?

I did see some of the pivotal stages of both Austria France, and Spain Bosnia. Spain are still firing on all cylinders, even without Nando. They were carving apart the poor Bosnians, who were obviously solid in defense, but hopelessly overmatched. Iniesta looked the most dangerous. Every time he would pick the ball up, he seemed to be running at people, or playing a telling pass into the box, just a terror on the ball. I think Spain and Argentina are head and shoulders above the rest at the moment. But it could (and most likely will) be a different story come 2010.

As for France, well they just can't seem to get their shit together. They missed Ribery sure, and Austria's not bad. But Mexes thought it would be a good idea to pull a Nik Haak and form tackle an Austrian in the box. This isn't Italy, you can't do that.

Never the less, this was just one game, a game that is taking place almost 2 years before the tournament will start. France will most likely still qualify, and nobody will remember this little Austrian slip up. It’s all about peaking at the right time, but its gotta be tough to have the sense of continuity over such a prolonged period.

And finally, how great was it to see the Federer of Old, just ripping apart the surprising, but the also hopelessly overmatched Andy Murray. This was Spain Bosnia II. He's too good. You can't hang with him on his day, nobody can. I caught the last two sets of the final, and that’s all I saw of my least favorite grand slam. But those two sets were a blast from the past, and Roger was oozing with confidence and firing on all cylinders. He is a joy to watch. Federer is in the elitist class of sportsmen in my book. Right there with MJ, Zidane. Players that are the best, but they also have that extra grace, and fluidity. The game is so slow for them and you can see it. I think Federer has been grossly underappreciated by the sporting world, (maybe it’s a tennis thing), but hopefully we realize how good he is/was while he is still winning.

Don't see this everyday

matter of fact, i'm not sure I've ever even seen it before this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRIFTEDFLv8

I think I'm gonna add a little musical feature to the blog, if its alright with everyone. I forget which magazine or blog I've seen this on, but I think its a cool idea. Feel free to let me know what you're spinning as well.

ugly spending

"I'm the new Abromovich," was the introduction that the new Manchester City owners gave us as they shocked the Prem by purchasing Robinho for millions and millions of pounds. I don't know if Robinho will cut the mustard in the premeirship, it only takes one Joey Barton welcome to make you pretty gunshy about going into a challenge. Speaking of Barton and Newcastle, what the hell is Keegan doing at the end of the Arsenal match? What an idiot. Newcastle remain the enigma of the prem, but at least Ameobi's back. Did they show their owner slamming down that beer in the stadium (which isn't allowed) on FSC? Czech TV was loving it...

With Berbatov coming in, who is the odd man out now for United? I can't see Tevez in the already overcrowded midfield, so unless they go with 3 strikers, (unlikely) its gotta be Rooney riding the pine,(sorry wayne).

I used to like the idea of the transfer window, and I still do. But the line has to be drawn somewhere, doesn't it?

champions league ties

First of all, if you are reading this and you didn't get an email about football pickem, let me know, its because I dont have your email address...

Draws are always fun. There are limitless possiblities and almost completely unpredictable.

Two groups are much softer than the rest to me, and it really just has to do with the "two seeds" or teams from the second pot in those groups. Sporting Lisbon and Werder Bremen. I'd play either of those two before I played Fiorentina or Atletico (four seeds) any day of the week. The two relatively lucky of the bigger teams were Barca and Inter. Basel Exposition? Shaktar Donetsk? They sound primed for a 4-1 thumping. Sporting and Barca cruise.

Inter may need their luck if they play anything like they did last year in CL. But you can't ask for a much easier group. Bremen, Panathinakos, and some Cyprian team starring Ephrim and Co. At least Greece has a representative, more than the Czechs can say.

And how about the Ukranians and Romanians, each sending 2 teams, not to mention the Belorussian team. The soviet bloc is well represented.

There are some tricky groups but two stand out to me. That being Liverpool's and Lyon's. If Real Madrid are the class that they think they are, then they shouldn't have any problems with either Juventus or a depleted Zenit. But these two groups I speak of are dictated by the aforementioned four seeds. All four teams, Lyon, Bayern, Steaua, and Fiorentina are tough. But Liverpool, Marseille, PSV, and Atletico...yikes.

Just quickly I'll predict.
Chelsea&Roma
Inter&Bremen
Barca&Sporting
Liverpool&PSV
Man U&Celtic
Bayern&Lyon
Arsenal&Fenerbeche
Real Madrid&Juve all to advance

Everyone's favorite AL east matchup tonight, O's Rays. And conveniently enough the rays need just one more win to ensure they have their first winning season ever.
Nothing like playing the spoiler, right Ramon?

And lastly all you crystal castles fans out there, we all remember the Black Panther video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNiL-w4fwS4

but here's my fav song's fan retort, Air War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDbPmqKoSko&watch_response

glass half empty

No posts in a while. I've been kind of busy with this whole apartment search. What a hassle. All the apts are the same anyway. No wonder they just used to divie them all out accordingly. (If that's how communism worked).

But anyway, with a mere four or so days left in the transfer market there may still be a flurry of late action. But none that would concern me more than the acquisition of another player by the Arsenal, which almost HAS to be a strong central midfield player. Someone to plug the gaping leak that Flamini has left. But Pavluychenko, Arshavin, Robinho, Berbatov, all big names, still possibly on the move.

But when Wenger said he was going to add one more player, I don't think anyone thought he was referring to Mikael Silvestre, (which isn't a bad signing at all). And its also a nice loan out of Senderos to Milan. But surely Wenger cannot be done? Can he? Its true Arsenal tends to bring out the best in the opposition, but Fulham!? (yes, Fulham) just plain dominated the gunners. Clearly the central midfield pairing of Denilson and Eboue isn't going to get it done. I'd like to see Eboue on a loan out somewhere...maybe to the Richmond Kickers.

olympic wind down

after a night of heavy drinking I was hoping for something relatively soothing on my 2 olympic channels. It didn't look good with the first showing that damn equestrian, (and people say golf is hard to watch) but things picked up with France vs. Croatia in the handball semis. Sure, we've all seen handball before, but not like this...

Two countries going all out, beating the crap out of each other, bloody noses, closelines, and alley oops were just a few of the happenings in this match. France pulled off the relative upset with Croatia being the 04 medalists, but the French were the better team.

I think boxing just edges out its competitors, (judo, shooting, whitewater rafting) for most irrelevant and boring. I swear there's boxing everday all day. But one thing i haven't seen is a baseball game. Oh well, I guess I've seen plenty of those.
Go USA volleyball. This site is sweet too for the olympics. http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/olympics/

nice to see guatemala's keeping it classy

I'm assuming some of yall out there watched this match. I only can find a replay of the goal. While the guy is tempting Onyewu into pushing him and conning the ref into giving a foul, they forgot to mark old Charlie Blackmouth and he buries it. Classic US goal. But did you see the Guat try and kick him after he scored...nice. And I read in the match report what Howard had to say about Ruiz, nice squad they've got down there.

Quite a chokejob for our 4x100 teams. Shouldn't the exchange be the top priority? Especially when you are ahead by like 2 seconds? In a qualifying heat? Tyson Gay has had a pretty rough Olympics. That's ok, there's always 2012..ugh.

By the way, its amazing to me how all these world records are always broken at the olympics. It makes me wonder. Are they just not running their hardest the rest of the time? Is it the adrenaline? Or is the modern athlete just getting stronger and faster? Perhaps a combination of all 3...

spell check doesn't work in prague for some reason.

only O's fan in prague?

So the Orioles will welcome their 50 millionth fan through the turnstiles of Camden Yards, and it will go down in history, (for the moment) as the stadium to reach this milestone the fastest. Incidently, this is likely to happen during one of the upcoming two series which conviently happen to be against the Red Sox and Yankees. Most legitimate O's fans hope that their worst fears aren't realized and a Yankee & or Red Sox fan claims the honor. This is unlikely to happen, as the PR people say that there will be some discretion involved as to who they give the prize package to for this reason exactly. So Ted, if you don't have anything better to do, hop on old 95, pull out the old Jimmy Key jersey and hope for the best.

I almost want them to give it to some NY guido jackass. It would only be fitting to describe what has transpired at the Yard for the past five sesaons or so with an O's fan playing second fiddle in their own city. The Yard is transformed into Fenway Jr when the Sox come to town, and I have to say, they've become far worse than Yankee fans. Its like they are still on that high after winning in 04, they need to calm down and realize that their club has money, a good GM, and that they are going to have some success. None the less, Red Sox fans omnipresence does affect the Orioles, and dare I say it, the outcome of the game. It might not seem like it, but I am absolutely positive that the O's are a little tenative when its New York or Boston. The crowd just causes your Freddy Bynums, Alex Cintrons, and Danys Baez (oh you forgot about him) to tighten up a bit. The entire affair is just awkward, I almost sense that most of the guys would rather be playing in the Bronx or Boston, where the crowd is supposed to be against you. It makes a difference, you can tell by the way that the guys play.

Melvin's series in Detroit was incredible. I'll take our 1-4 hitters over anyone's. Yeah, I said it, ANYONE'S. But Guthrie is my MVP. Cintron wins LVP, just edging out Jamie Walker. Well, maybe we should give them a little more time to settle it.

How fast is Usain Bolt? He's just jogging out there. And who has a better flag than Estonia? I'm sure there some good ones, but I just like those badass colors.

I'd heard about Panda Bear's "Person Pitch" but never listened until now. A little trippy but well worth while.

Arsenal West Brom Wrap

First of all, I found this site for highlights, hopefully its like this all season.
http://blog.soccerslave.com/

It wasn't the most convincing performance, but Arsenal got their season off on the right foot (of Samir Nasri) with a 1-0 win at home to West Brom. I'll just take a moment to list the Arsenal Players in the order of their performance.

Nasri- Sometimes the goalscorer is just random or fortunate, but not this one. Nasri was the best player on the field and man of the match in my opinion. People want to compare him to Hleb, but I don't see it. He's more like somewhere in between Fabregas and Rosicky. A midfield with those three is a scary thought, only who is going to get them the ball?

Clichy- He continues to amaze with those barnstorming runs he makes from his own penalty area all the way to the opposing team's. There's not another left back in the world like him.

Djourou- Great performance from Johan, that will surely boost his confidence even more, being his second good game in a row. Him and Phillipe will be fighting it out now for 3rd choice center back.

Sagna- You can tell a lot about a team from its full backs. Sagna continues to provide good service and do a decent job in getting back when Arsenal are caught out upfield.

Almunia- He had one save to make and he made it.

Denilson- Pretty much non-influential, but for the second straight game he's provided the telling pass for the assist of the all important goal. He has good instincts in the area, something that could come in handy this year.

Gallas- This "new" Gallas still looks as volataile as ever, but you can't criticize as long as he performs. He seems to enjoy yelling at anyone who will listen whenever he gets the chance.

Eboue- I guess that was a decent game for him, although he made every Arsenal fan chuckle on four occasions when he "shot." Maybe he's better in the middle, but he still shoudln't be playing when we're at full strength.

Bendtner- Undeniable skill, but man is he selfish. I think he's much more effective off the bench, and he doesn't really fit the Arsenal mould, but he is always an aerial threat, something Arsenal lack. Way too flashy when the ball is on the ground too, he has a long way to go.

Adebayor- I said I wouldn't make any pre-season predictions but I did make one to myself. Emmanuel Adebayor will be flagged for offside more than any other player in the Prem this season, and not the good kind of offside.

Walcott- Much like Adebayor, he is far too obvious with the ball at times. I have a bit more faith in him now, but its clear he still suffers from rushes of blood to the head and he still is too wreckless.

Van Persie had a small injury, I guess that is why he did not start, the same is true for Toure. Both of them need to stay on the pitch for Arsenal to be themselves, that is no secret. Without Van Persie, Arsenal somehow have no one that can score off a free kick.

The addition of Nasri is a huge bonus. But it will take a lot to convince me that it makes up for the loss of Flamini. Arsenal are soft and vulnerable in the middle of the field, as Twente exposed. But that isn't that huge of a concern for me, at least at the moment. Who knows what Song or Diaby will be able to bring once they get back. But Arsenal should still be able to pass their way around smaller sides like West Brom, its only once we run into the big boys that we'll have problems. Stay tuned.

nobody likes a whiner

Is it just me or is there a lot of whining going on at these Olympics? I won't even get into the whole gymnast thing. But I would think that it shouldn't be any easier for twelve year olds to beat sixteen year olds in much of anything. So they are less developed...fine. All I know is that I would be pissed if a twelve year old beat me when I was sixteen in a spelling bee, but I guess that happens too.

But the real whiner today is James Blake. First of all I really like Blake, much more than Roddick, (for whatever that's worth). And it was a hell of a match he lost today to the Chilean dark horse that's become a prominent figure on the ATP in Fernando Gonzales. Blake had three match points as he got up 0-40 in a Gonzo serving game, and couldn't convert. He then heroically saved three match points, down 40-0, but couldn't pull out the duece game, and served out the third set to win 11-9 I think.

Anyway, the first point in the game, at 8-7, right after Blake failed to convert on those match points ther was a somewhat dubois incident. Blake hit a passing shot that clearly knicked off Gonzo, but it was missed. Blake then said after the game how Gonzo should have called it on himself. Really? Do you really expect a Chilean tennis player to do such a thing? I think 80% of the tour does the same thing and pleads ignorance til the day they die.

Too bad though, because it was otherwise a great match. I can only assume Nadal Djokovic was just as good, but I missed that one. They were too busy showing the replay of the Czech women destroy new zeland in basketball. I really wanted to get in there and help out the Kiwis, they were hapless. But besides women's basketball, I don't think theres any other sport that I could compete with these girls in. The lightest weight lifter...? maybe?

Dear Monsieur Wenger

Please stop playing Emmanuel Eboue in competitve fixtures. And while you are on the subject just go ahead and give him his outright release. There were days, (two years ago), when he was actually a dangerous right back. I remember him being instrumental in that Champions League run to the final. Always getting forward and slicing up the right side, and getting that hard low cross in.

As I type this, Adebayor just scored to make it 2-0 Arsenal. I can't remember Arsenal playing this bad and not being punished. They've basically been dominated, except this Dutch team is afraid of the net. What a soft performance though. I hope not to see Arsenal play any worse this year, (but I'm sure I will). There are some positives though. Djourou played relatively well which is good for his confidence. And shit, we won (I assume we will) 2-0. Which practically assures us progression, unlike some other Greek teams which will remain nameless.

I haven't seen the USA Nigeria highlights yet, but 2-1 seems about right. You knew we probably weren't going to recover from that Dutch last gasp equalizer. Too bad, but I'm sure its a good experience for our team playing with, (and I mean with, not just being there) world class teams of their caliber. By caliber I mean of course the size of the gun and the character of the girls, its a homonym.

Phelps

Wasn't Phelps a building at TMS? Who could that possibly be named after anyway? I'd love to know. Anyway, they just showed the replay of the 4x200 free. Our anchorman had time to look over his shoulder in the pool, I mean, come on. Doug Hardy could have swam that last leg and brought home the gold.

I don't know if anyone saw, but Slavia Prague played Fiorentina last night for they're Champs League qualifier, obviously a pretty big deal in these parts. Gilardino won a free kick after like 90 seconds and Mutu tucked one into the top corner from like 25m. Fiorentina was alright, I guess, but Gilardino is looking more like the next Pippo Inzaghi. Its a wonder how these guys can kind of hide in Italy. Look at Schevchenko, dominant in Serie A, and we all know what happened at Chelsea. That's not to say that everyone in el calcio would be terrible elsewhere. Fiorentina has an awesome young striker Oswaldo or Osbaldo, he's gonna be a star. But I just wonder whether Pippo could have hid out at say Atletico Madrid for all those years just being a poacher. Check out Gilardino's dive, amongst some classic others in this video here... priceless. The music and title are perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioyt2zzm530

In Honor of a Living Legend

Let's all just take a minute out of our days to praise George Hawes and his infinite baseball wisdom. There isn't another guy that I would want in my dugout going into the late innings. This praise is rooted on the grounds of his correct prediction that the rays "would be good this year, above 500." So hats off Ted, this posts' for you, let me know when they get to 82 wins.

Have they made fun of Brett Favre on The Soup yet? I feel like he is approaching Spears territory, every time he takes a piss you hear about it, and I don't even have espn.

Will you acclaim me as a football guru if I say that, "the Jets won't be that good this year." Probably under 500. In the words of Mr. Monk, "you've got thousands of psychics making millions of predictions each year, they're bound to get one thing right."

And finally what do you guys think is more important in our competition with the Chinese. Most total medals, or most golds. I think its gotta be most golds.

And finally, I thought that Wilhelm-Ross was tough growing up as a kid, imagine this. http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=245865

muje nedele (stop shooting kobe)

My sunday started early as I had to skate across town to catch my first Czech soccer match which featured Viktoria Zizkov and FK Teplice. I guess I need to see Sparta or Slavia play before I jump to any conclusions, but let's just say that the MLS has nothing to worry about. Zizkov scored as I was waiting at the gate with about 100 other people because the man working the tickets was about 97 years old and he had to rip them all off one by one. Then the first half was uneventful until about the 30th minute where I witnessed a goal for the own-goal hall of fame. Teplice's left back was under pressure but around midfield and he was forced to retreat towards his own goal, he kicked what looked like a pretty harmless ball back towards his keeper who found the only way possible to misjudge it, (although it did take a huge/trampoline like bounce) and the ball ended up in the net. I was sitting next to a couple Teplice fans who just shook their heads. Their expression didn't change much all day, because they were just awful. I don't know if they managed a shot on goal until like the 75th minute. Zizkov won 3-0.

After a little jazz in Old Town, I was back home just in time to see the Dutch snake that late equalizer and put our hopes of advancing to the knockout round in serious jeopardy. What a stupid foul that was by whoever, but we probably would take the position we were in if you asked us before the tournament.

And then I saw some of the US vs China. I thought it was pretty comfortable in the end, after we settled down, but there is a lot of room for improvement. For once, I think we are taking way too many jumpshots. Nobody but Michael Redd should be allowed to shoot a contested 3. Kobe more than anyone looked out of sync. LeBron however was outstanding. They kind of switched roles. Usually I'm yelling at LBJ for taking too many jumpers, but he attacked the glass. Wade was great too.

Sure China might not be the best barometer, but let's be honest. Is anyone going to be able to handle us in the paint. We should clear it out for LeBron or Wade every time. Dish to Howard, let teams foul him. They'll be fouled out by halftime. The only way I think we can lose is if some team has a mean zone and we fall in love w/ the three, or we just shoot terribly.

arsenal ajax

I was lucky enough to get my sopcast going to watch arsenal ajax last night in ajax's prestigious preseason tourney. Ajax is a good team with an unsurprising mix of talented young players on the rise, and a few tested veterans on the tail end of their careers. This seems to be the MO of dutch football for the past few years, or at least what I've noticed.

Wenger didn't hold anything back in this one, this was the real deal. He didn't have Nasri and Diaby, and of course Rosicky won't be back til September (it's been long enough hasn't it?). So he was forced to choose the awful, woeful, shameful, Emmanuel Eboue to play on the right. I don't know if there's enough adjectives that do him justice. He was predictably poor, but by his own low standards, he wasn't that god awful, and he even had a nice cross that led to a goal for once.

The first 30 minutes were fairly even, but Ajax struck twice in a matter of minutes on 2 clinical finishes, (one courtesy of a trademark Eboue giveaway). But because this was a friendly, there wasn't but so much pressure on Arsenal to come back, and that's just what they did, all the way, to 3-2. Adebayor had a hand in all three goals, scoring 2 and setting Bendtner up for the third. If there's any team in the world that is more capable of erasing a two goal deficit than Arsenal, I'd like to see them. Sure their style leaves them open at the back, and it costs them on occasion, but this game was an example of the dividends that such a fluid, attacking style can pay.

Looking ahead to the season, the question still remains of who will play alongside Fabregas in the middle. I would have to imagine it would be a healthy Abu Diaby at this point, with Walcott looking poised to be a regular down the flanks this season with Hleb's departure. What an opportunity for Abu, the red sea that was Arsenal's central midfield when he arrived three years ago has parted, with Flamini, Gilberto both gone, he can move back into his natural position. But maybe Alex Song will push him for that role, if he can prove to be a good defensive mid in covering Fabregas. When Rosicky comes back, assuming everyone stays healthy, there will be quite healthy competition for playing time, something Arsenal rarely seems to have come mid-season.

Every Arsenal fan, every football fan for that matter knows Arsenal's weakness: durability. Sure I like all these kids, Nasri, Denilson, Walcott, and these Wilshire, Ramsay guys seem to be for real too, they wouldn't be in the shirt if they weren't. But Arsenal's demise the last two years has frustrated everyone with the club tremendously because it seems to be through injuries, and personnel issues. That being said, I have to say that I am shocked that Wenger didn't buy at least another experienced defender, I mean does he really want to watch poor old Senderos and Hoyte try and keep up with Tevez and Ronaldo all over again?! I hate to say it, I just don't see this year being any different.

If Van Persie and Rosicky can stay on the field with Fabregas and Adebayor, the goals will come, and we'll beat anyone in the world on our day, but over 38 games, the squad is just too vulnerable. Whether its Gallas' temperament, Adebayor casually drifting offside, or Eboue wasting a golden chance for the thousandth time, literally, Arsenal will have to play every game like its their last to stay with man united. I can almost see Wenger sitting there with his hand on his chin, with that same old irritated face I've grown so accustomed to, but as long as he continues to sit on his cash, I think we're in for another season of frustration. Hope I'm wrong.

games of the whatever olympiad

I remember watching those opening cermonies as a kid with great interest. But its all just a big spectacle, I guess the only interesting thing is seeing these countries you never knew existed before.

To take it off soccer for a second, there has to be a lot of interest in the basketball competition, especially for Americans. I haven't really looked at the groups, but I'm assuming its a standard format, just like Eurocup was. Even if we slip up and lose a game, I'm assuming we make it to the quarters without any problems. Sure we will be the favorites to win, but you know Argentina, Greece, Spain, or whoever will have something to say. The Czech coverage of the Olympics is pretty thorough, its basically going to be on two channels 24/7, showing all those games you wish you could see, but never get a chance to.

I just wonder whether or not that crazy rule where you can hit the ball of the rim might end up hurting us. If Dwight Howard can remember that he's allowed to take every thing off of the rim, just think about how many shots aren't going in. Yeah, its a lot to ask, and our guys probably won't be able to relearn their entire basketball muscle memories and mentality, but suppose they just remember on occasion. Lebron, or even Melo could be snatching everything off of the rim that doesnt go straight down. If we're in a tight game, and I'm sure we will be, just make a note to yourself every time you see a chance for a player to do it, I'll be watching too.

And by the way, the first National CD, Alligator, is better than the second, Boxer.

I think I'm gonna go to my first Czech first division match this Sunday, we'll see how it goes. And happy trails "sidewinder" Chad Bradford, who knew we were paying you that much. But I hate to see one of my dad's favorite Orioles go.

The thing about Brett Favre...

http://premierfantasy.soccernet.com/

the name of the league is usual suspects, and the password is soccer.

Great News for all you Jet fans out there, finally the QB to solve all your problems. When does football start anyway? Its hard to tell b/c NFL Live is on every night year round.

Fantasy Camp + Girls Soccer

Hi everybody, as you may have guessed I'm safely in Prague by now, and teaching and whatnot. That Menomena Animal Collective was just a note to myself for some concerts that are coming here for all you die hards.

I'm gonna make the usual fantasy league for the premeirship on soccernet, but make your team quick. Kickoff is the 16th.

I happened to stumble upon the review of all the women's action from the preliminary rounds of the Olympics today. Fresh off my humbling at the hands of the University of Richmond Women's Soccer team, (I played in a pick-up game with them, and a few men's players right before I left) I was intruiged enough to watch it through. The one thing about Czech TV,(well, there's a couple of things) but for one, there are no commercials. Its really comprehensive and unbiased. I mean, there are some commercials, but they lump them all together in five minute chunks over like three hours, so there's practically none. Hence, you can really get into a program.

Anyway, there were some incredible matches. Brazil is sick, with Ronaldinho in the stands, he might have his female counterpart with whichever girl is wearing that 10 shirt out there, but she couldn't do enough to get past ze Germans as they played to a 0-0 tie. Japan looks good too, and they might be the only other team in the class of those two, save maybe China.

Our women were gross. Norway scored two quick goals, kind of flukey on the first one, but a classy second one, and we were shell shocked. About the response you'd expect from a bunch of girls. And yeah, they are just girls, and if there's one who's a lot faster than the others, then thats all it takes, just like Corey Prior. But when you get on the field with them, they are not as bad as they seem.

Ill post the password for the league once i get it to work.

Casual Saturday

As I continued to postpone packing, I was flipping through the channels and I came across the CBS Sports channel who was replaying some of the early round games of this past NCAA basketball tournament.

The one I caught was Clemson Villanova. The perfect example of an awesome game that quickly goes forgotten amidst all the chaos of the first four days, arguably the most exciting in sports. Villanova, the 12 seed, won the game behind their chaotic zone, and a heroic performance by Scottie Reynolds, capping it off with a four point play in which he banked in a three after he got his defender in the air.

The officials were fairly bad, when they did choose to blow their whistles, but that wasn't so often, so the game had a nice flow to it. A few things did come up though that made me scratch my head.
1) Someone from Villanova managed to accomplish that illusive feat of wedging the ball between the rim and the backboard with a jumper. But somehow, that's a jump ball, which is stupid, that should obviously be the defensive team's ball.

And 2) A Villanova player cramped up after he went up for a dunk and was fouled. But the rules allow Villanova, not the opposing team like in the NBA, to pick someone to shoot the free throws. What a joke.

Oh, and 3) The one thing the NCAA did have on the NBA, at least in this game, was adequate room on the baselines between the game and the photographers. You could park a jumbo jet in the space that the cheerleaders and cameramen were apart from the court. How many times did KG or Paul Pierce go head over heels on top of some cameraman because they were too close to the floor, just like the soccer advertisements are too close to the pitch on the endlines, especially at like Fulham, Chelsea, Everton, etc..I get them all confused.

Kudos to Carlos Sastre. He earned it I guess. Le Tour is Bad ASS.

I also watched some of the replay of a Milan Classic, the game with Inter in which Dida was hit with that flare. He was kind of nonchalant before that, as all of this shit is raining down upon him, almost as if he was expecting to get hit, if you can watch the replay, check it out, bizarre. And I know its bad to stereotype, but those Inter fans are thugs at best. I mean good lord, how stupid and bad of losers can you be? I can see why all these Italians get killed with their riots, they have no sense of shame.

Gegegegegege, That's all folks, ne videm v praze

Lisa Leslie Dropped!

Wow. In case you missed it, there was a fight in the WNBA, and it was awesome. They have the video on ESPN. What is that guy doing putting his hands on the face of the WNBA. Shame on him. They're calling it a heated rivarly, and an extension of the Lakers Pistons, and all the bad blood, bad boys of the 80s. What a joke. Lambeer is a joke, he was a joke then, and a joke now.

The tour was pretty incredible today too. Highest road in Europe, they're just up there in the sky with nothing even around the road. Too bad Vandevelde lost a bunch of time today, but its been enjoyable none the less.

And to keep it with the transfer theme, there's definately still a few big moves to be made. As an Arsenal fan, I'd give anything to get David Villa, even though it isn't going to happen. Adebayor had a great season, yes, but I still don't really trust him, he's no Henry. Villa on the other hand would give Arsenal the consistent finishing they so desperately need. And someone who can take free kicks with their right foot, which they somehow currently lack.

Power outages at RFK? Pretty weak MLS.

Midweek Check-up

This move isn't really a surprise. Hleb is awesome, I think he's still in his prime. I was watching Sky Sports and they were trying to say that Arsenal was better off without him, citing some stupid statistic, and then downplaying his role as a creator by making it look like he didn't have that many assists. But I can remember countless times he's put Baptista, Adebayor, Eboue, Hoyte, etc. on a platter and they've squandered a chance. I hope he does well at Barca.

Ronaldinho looks fat. That's a crowded midfield in Milan. I can't envision Pirlo, Ronaldinho, and Kaka all on the same team, and Milan might not even be done signing people. We'll see what happens.

There's still tons of other speculation as to who will end up where. It really is wild how little control clubs have, and how anyone can be snatched out from under them, even if they are under contract, bizzare.

Bob, I can't get enough of those tour commentators, they are just right up my alley. I find the tour to be super relaxing too, it might be in my top 5 sporting events.

And the Hornets get Posey. Hollinger is bashing it right away, but is he not exactly the kind of player that the hornets need? Just a Bonzi upgrade in my mind, its too bad we couldn't have gotten him for this year's playoff run and won that damn game 7, and embarassed those soft and overrated lakers.

All's quiet on the riverlake front...

I think Nadal and Federer might be the two best tennis players ever. No one has dominated the sport like Federer, and for Nadal to just own him like he does already, at 22 years of age, or whatever he is, is remarkable. Nadal still has a lot to prove, and more majors to win, but we have to mention his name along with the greats already, merely for this ridiculous feat he accomplished this year. I don't see him slowing down at all. The only thing that might get him is that dairy queen swirl he does on his forehand. That has to be stressful on the elbow, but he is such a physical specimen, it probably doesn't hurt him at all.

You've gotta love Federer though, what a class act, always gracious, even in defeat.

If there was ever a time to pay attention to the MLS, this would have to be it. This is probably the slowest sports time of the year, and with a full month until the Olympics, there's nothing but baseball with some golf and tennis sprinkled in. So whether its the Rapids, Red Bulls, Galaxy, Revs, or United, go ahead and jump on your local team's bandwagon, you've got nothing to lose.

Check out these clips

If you've got 15 minutes check out a younger Zidane narrating through 8 of his favorite goals. I could watch him every day, it never gets old.


Better than Gerrard's

Dirty Bicycle

Best Counter attack Goal

Just skip to like 40 secs

Some strange, but sweet goals

What a routine from Khorkina

I saved the best for last

The Best XI

Hooray for Spain. I can only hope that I'll be able to have that sort of feeling of triumph after my country wins a major trophy that all of Spain must have felt Sunday night. Well, either that or an Oriole World Series will do, but I digress. Anyway, here's my best 11, what a tournament.

GK- Iker Casillas, He didn't have to do all that much this tournament, but how outstanding were those penalty saves? I think he bested Buffon right there, and took the title of the world's best keeper. Edwin Van der Saar gets honorable mention.

LB- Giovanni Von Brockhorst, Except for the Russia game, he had played essentially a perfect tournament. Its amazing what putting on your country's shirt can do, because he never looked to be half this player while at Barca. There were lots of other solid left backs, Zhirkov, the Croatian, but Gio gets the nod.

CB- Marchena, I kept waiting for him or Capedevilla to screw up, but it never happened. To think that Valencia had him, Villa, and Senna and were that poor is flabbergasting. He was the more confident of the two center halves this tournament, and he wasn't afraid to dribble his way out of trouble unlike the nervy Puyol.

CB- The other Kovac, I was expecting Croatia to be terrible at the back, and a lot more games like we saw against England, but I was wrong. This guy was as steadfast as they come, and he probably could have at least hit the target in their shootout with Turkey, unlike some of their better known stars. Honorable mention is the Russian Kolodin for unleashing those 50 yard daisy cutters vs Holland

RB- Sergio Ramos, Call him Jar-Jar Binks if you like, but for all his shortcomings he makes up for with his pure athleticism. He had his two best matches in the two most important games, and he only gets caught out because he's been given license to go forward because of his undeniable offensive skills. Any team would be lucky to have him. Boswinga was solid as well.

DMid- Marcos Senna, Sure defensive mids are overlooked, and its not a glamorous position, but I don't think its all that demanding either. Not to take anything away from Senna, he might be MVP of the Spanish team for the collective tournament, but if you have the energy, and are decent on the ball, this isn't all that difficult of a role to fill. I see Dirk Kuyt becoming one of these players before its all said and done. Honorable Mention is the dutch pair of Engelaar and De Jong

Attacking Mid- Andrei Arshavin Its pretty remarkable when we consider what he accomplished in three games. He's now a shoe in to sign for Barcelona or wherever. It only speaks volumes to the magnitude of this tournament because think about how good he probably was for Zenit all year long. H-mention- Xavi

RMid- Bastian Schweinsteiger He was the most dangerous German player in the knockout stages, no question. That finish against Turkey oozed of class. Its too bad that he got that red card, but it seemed to help him in the end.

LMid- Lukas Podolski He was more of a midfielder than a striker this tournament, and its impossible to think that he will remain on the Bayern bench to rott after this campaign. He looked much more dangerous than Klose, which makes me wonder. Just how good are Bayern with Klose and Toni as their goal sources. Sure its fine in the Bundesliga, but don't bet on them in Europe any time soon. Libor Sionko gets his honorable mention for being the only worthwhile Czech in the tournament.

CMid- Wesley Sneijder For a while there, it looked like the Dutch would cruise to the title with this man as the tournament MVP. But they found their bogey team in the Russians, and despite his best efforts, Sneijder couldn't find the target in that last desperate push where he had several clean looks at the Russian Goal. H-mention Van der Vaart

Striker- Fernando Torres, I guess he is the best striker in the world right now. He's got some moves in addition to his blazing speed, and he reminds me a bit of a young Thierry Henry the way he slices through not only the Premiership, but international defenses as well. I'll keep it with the countrymen theme and give Villa his honorable mention.

Let me know what you guys think, I'd like to see your opinions too.

Si Si Senor

Hours away from kickoff now, and we're all but certain that this game won't feature Michael Ballack and David Villa. I'm more inclined to think that the Germans will miss Ballack more, but it isn't like he's their creator as much as he is their leader in every sense of the word. I have a funny feeling that this is going to be a strange game, with a few twists and turns along the way.

I can only imagine the legacy of this Spanish team if they capture victory today. They would obviously go down in Spanish history, but more than that, they will be remembered as the ones who pulled Spain out of their almost self-inflicted slump, and readjusted the footballing power scale of Europe.

I'm looking for Lehmann to have a big game, and mix it up a bit. Maybe he'll get in pretty boy Torres' face early like he likes to, and make some good saves thereafter. But the Germans are weak down the left. Aside from that goal, Lahm has been pitiful this tournament, and I look for Ramos, Silva, Iniesta, etc. to exploit him. The only problem is that Podolski and Schweinsteiger have proven that they can counter-attack before, and they'll be even more inclined to break down the right side when Ramos gets out of position.

Spain have been the best team in Europe for almost two years now, with their unbeaten exceeding 20 games. There's no reason to think that they can't beat this less than perfect German side. But I'm not going to get ahead of myself. Germany? In a final? Let's hope it doesn't go to penalties...

Its the Final Countdown

Sorry for the delay, and leaving you blogless, but I was at the beach for a few days, and with a predictable effort from Deyan in picking up the slack, well, here we are. Not that you will anytime soon, but if you ever get a chance to watch Daniel Cabrera hit its quite comical. The guy is 0 for 13 with 13 strikeouts in his career.

Anyway, back to the real deal. What a performance from the Spaniards! They straight up dominated Russia, I couldn't really believe it. Ramos looked awesome, Xavi was his usual self, and Fabregas had a huge impact as a sub. Its a blow that Villa will miss the final, but they have ample options for Aragones to choose from. The same can't really be said of the Germans. So Kudos to Spain and Germany for seeing through their halves of the draw. Spain has been tested by trickier opponents, and been forced to play a little better football, but unfortunately, they don't give trophies for that.

It obviously wasn't the same Russian team Thursday night that disposed of the pick of the litter Dutch in the quarter finals. With no other obvious explanation, I think credit is due to Aragones. He's outfoxed the supposed mastermind Hiddink twice now, both by a healthy margins. He's been one of the many who've kept with the theme of silencing their critics this tournament. (Ibrahimovic, Fatih Terim, Croatia) On that note, I'd like to offer some players, who in my opinion, have opened the doors for criticism, I give you, the First Team All-Dissapointment.

I'm excluding anyone from Spain or Germany, because as bad as Mario Gomez was, you can't really be too disappointed when your country is in the final.

Goalie - Petr Cech - A number of candidates did their best to claim this spot (Ricardo, Rustu, Lehmann), but it was Cech's nightmarish gaffe that handed Turkey their biggest gift and kickstarted their amazing run to the semis. I like Cech, but let's hope he saves some of those blunders for the Premiership.

Defenders - Eric Abidal - Not only his sending off against Italy got him here, but his performance was weak against Romania as well. Granted he was out of position, but if he stopped and thought about who he was tackling, (LVP of the tournament Luca Toni) he might have saved France some blushes.

Paulo Ferreria - Let's face it, he's never been that good, as evidenced in the days when Essien was preferred to him at right back under Mourinho. But he inexplicably seems to hang around and win caps, and at this case at left back?! Whenever I see him, I'm always amazed that there's no one better.

Willie Sagnol / Lillian Thuram - We could have put the entire French backline in here, but these two aged veterans looked out of sorts, and overmatched on numerous occasions. Thuram's subsequent retirement on the day after their defeat with Italy was imminent.

Materazzi - Tough to feel bad for this chump. Call it out of form, but he had a terrible season at Inter from what I understand, and Donadoni's decision to drop him was the right one after that torching at the hands of the Dutch

Midfielders - Genarro Gattuso - He was largely ineffective in the games he played. Maybe its the end of an era in Italy, but with AC Milan's crashing out of Champions league, and the Italians following suit to Spain, it may symbolize the end of Gattuso's mainstay in both midfields.

Massimo Ambrosini - I chose Gattuso's countrymen, not only because I don't like him, but because he too was largely inconspicuous for the Italians. Its easy to laud his performances when they win, but when they lose, you really see what he gave you, and most of the time its nothing.

Simao - Lets hope Scolari keeps his terrible selections coming after failing to choose Ricardo Quaresma over this clown. Normally he's bright, reliable, industrious, but he just had a stinker of a tournament, no two ways about it.

Forwards - Luca Toni - See this entire blog...

Henrik Larsson - He played better than I thought he would, but I think it was his failure to be on the same wavelength as Ibrohimovic that cost the gutsy Swedes. It was also his first major tournament he failed to score in...ever. But what can we expect from a 37 year old.

Old Horsey Face - I know this is a bit harsh, and he had a great tournament. But that game versus Russia was there for the taking. He missed a couple of chances that he usually finishes 10 out of 10 times, that would put the Dutch through. Sure he shouldn't be held entirely accountable, but I was looking to him that game to stick the nail through the Russian coffin and it simply wasn't to be.

Coach - Raymond Domenech - This debacle looks like it will claim his job. I'm not saying that it shouldn't France were atrocious. But sometimes, coaches are kept on too short of a leash, but I don't think anyone will be too sad to he the professor go.

Let me know if I missed anyone...

The final promises to be entertaining. One thing is for sure, we can throw out all the record books. This Spanish team doesn't care about history, and this German team could care less what type of football they play. I don't see them coming out all tentative like they did against Turkey, its definitely an advantage to the Germans that they are in fact the underdog. Its all about finding a way to win, even if you aren't playing that well, that's all we will remember in the end. May the best team win.

A Gobble of a Chance?

Down to the semi finals and we have two countries that aren't actually considered to be in Europe, and certainly not the EU. The star-crossed Turkish team comes into this game about as depleted as any team could be in a major tournament. Including their third string goalkeeper, Turkey have 13 players available for tomorrow night's clash with ze Germans. And maybe four of them are arguably preferred when the squad is at full strength. Their only reliable player on the pitch tomorrow might be Hamit Altintop, the Bayern man who knows all about German football. Kazim Kazim is much more effective as a sub, but he'll be forced to start alongside their Semih- sub striker who brought their hopes back from the dead with that wonderstrike against Croatia. As for the rest of their team, they will just be plugging holes on the field, and trying to make life difficult for Germany. Luck is again kind to Germans, inexplicably, and they'll waltz into the final with only won real credible win under their belt, that somewhat comfy win over a much maligned Portugal squad who was horrendous in defense.

I'm not giving destiny's darlings Turkey a chance. Germany 3-0 in a rout. Klose hat trick perhaps??

An interesting sub plot to keep your eyes will be the keepers. Maybe they'll get some sort of proverbial H-O-R-S-E game going, to see who can scare their fans the most with their incredulous acts on the ball. Poor Receber Rustu, that guy is gonna have a long night I fear. A wild ride for the Turks but it ends here. I CANT WAIT for the other match, and to see where Arshavin ends up in the fall.

Spain vs Italy: Ray Hudson's Fantasy

I just got back from the river, and there's not much time before kickoff. Phil Ball wrote a quality piece as usual for the buildup to this game that's worth a read. It just seems all to obvious that the Italians would win, but I hope not. I'll be pulling for Spain.

What about yesterday? What a game, it had everything. Hiddink's celebration, Arshavin's dazzling skills, a horsey face tap in, MVB's questionable decision not to use Robben, it had it all.

Its tough not to feel for the Dutch, Croatia, and Portugal, but it just goes to show, that the group stage doesn't mean anything. So conventional wisdom would tell us that Italy should progress over the fourth team that rested players after securing the group only playing 2 games. But its not as if the Spanish team doesn't have enough history going against them already, so what's one more little pattern?

It looks like my man Acquilani will start alongside De Rossi, thats a nasty midfield, I don't care how many Marcos Sennas are in there to try and stop them. And if Cameronesi has a good game, well LOOK OUT.

But still, I gotta keep the bad predictions coming and go with Spain 2-0! Ole...

So Dutch...

I've really been waiting for this one. This should be one of the more exciting games of the tournament because of both teams' styles. One thing I'll mention about Russia that impressed me, is that they did not celebrate like they just won the world series after the beat Sweden. If you saw Croatia after they upset Germany, you would have thought they won the entire tournament. Russia was not like that. They expect to be here, and they know they are capable of beating the Dutch.

We'll see if the Orange can rally around the delicate Bouhlarouz situation, I cannot imagine playing after such a thing, but apparently he is in the squad. And if that storyline isn't enough, of course there's the whole Hiddink being a "traitor" or wanting to be a traitor. Who knows.

I expect a great game, watch out for Arshavin, he is a monster. 2-1 Netherlands.

Berk to start alongside Altintop in Semis?

In all honesty, who the hell are the Turks gonna put on the field against Germany? Well, we won't worry about that for now. But Evrim should be lacing up those boots and that knock off #6 Rosicky jersey he wears. Actually Evrim should be banned from soccer.

Its amazing how much two minutes can change the entire complexion of a game and how you'll remember a game. Up til the 119th minute I think it would be fair to say that this was the most uneventful, stagnant game of the competition so far, at least that I have watched. But when that trainwreck of a Turkish keeper finally got that half a chance he'd been waiting so patiently for to make the costly blunder that he surely must have thought would see Turkey out of the tournament, he took it. Dale Johnson of soccernet most accurately described the keeper's actions as some kind of a safari walkabout. I pray that they revoke the suspension of their real keeper so we don't have to watch that guy play a game again. Horrendous.

The whistle could have easily gone at 122minutes, especially when you consider that the referee blew the whistle to stop the first stoppage when the full fifteen minutes hadn't even expired. But the ball fell kindly to their sub-striker, who will most definitely feature in the semi, and he buried it in the top corner, assuring the game of penalties.

But up to that hectic two minutes, these teams were admittedly disappointing. Neither played with that reckless abandon we saw in the previous rounds, especially the Turks who had flashes of creativity, but were mostly poor. Their defense is bad, both full backs are inconsistent, I thought Croatia should have tried to play some more over the top balls to really test their center backs too because that Emre Asik guy is slow as shit. At least my Ugor Baral finally got on, but he played as an attacker, while in the Champions league he was Fenerbeche's left back. (that'll tell you something about Fenerbeche).

Anyway, if you look at the penalty shootout, you can't help but feel for Croatia. They were probably still in shock from that equalizer, and the magnitude of that goal might not settle in for quite some time. But Turkey were the much calmer of the two teams, and lets be honest, if 2 guys aren't even making old man Rustu make a save, you're probably not gonna win. I really like Modric, but you could see the Spur in him already. Love it. And Rakitic is a nice player too, but I just wonder why you don't let some of your veterans take penalties, especially the Kovac brothers, (I can only assume Niko was #5 taker).

So Turkey moves on, their third come from behind win on the trot, what a run. Remember in the beginning of the tournament when one of their assistant coaches said that they would "put their trust in allah, and let him decide their destiny?" Look how far its taken them. Most people predicted them to come in last in their group, and look at them now. Its a shame that their team will be so hampered by suspensions and injuries. They'll have a few extra days to recover, but Arda Turan will be out as will Tuncay, as will seemingly their entire defense...too bad.

Man of the Match: The Croatian left back (Prajnic?) He's been solid all tournament, and he's just a little energizer bunny over there too. Some big club will likely make a move for him as his stock is soaring.

Gaffe of the Match: Well, do I need to say it, two days in a row, two horrible keeping decisions.

Lady Luck of the match - The ref not blowing the whistle and giving the Turks a chance. You have to ride your luck in this tournament, any Greek will tell you that, although they may not be so happy on the shittier half of Cyprus tonight.

Again, this is a really rough loss on Croatia, and lets not forget that they were missing their star striker, poor old Eduardo, who has seemingly been forgotten by everyone. They at least proved that their England win was no fluke, and they have a good enough core of young players to stick around the European scene for years to come. By the way, my 3-2 scoreline was obviously the penalty prediction, lets not kid ourselves. Tomorrow should be a GREAT game. I don't know who I'll be rooting for, although its hard to root for Russia...ever.

Croatia heavy favorites

Love him or Hate him, but Slavan Bilic, that rockstar of a coach of the Croatian national team sure has them playing some good football. And in lue of their goalkeepers suspension, and a few lingering injuries, the Croats are big favorites to ensure a rematch with the Germans in the semi-final. Bilic is still holding firm to his prediction that Luca Modric will be the player of the tournament before its all said and done. That might not seem so far fetched now, with the way the things have shaped up, but not so fast my friend.

Turkey are coming off 2 incredible come from behind victories. They might have gotten a bit fortunate, but they are the obvious team that the gods have chosen to shine on this tournament. So there are two ways we can look at this. We can say, "Well, its only a matter of time before their luck runs out." or "They are this year's Greece." I'm inclined to go with the latter. Who wouldn't want to see another heartstopping comeback from the rightful Cyprian owners. Plus those warmups are so badass, (you know, the turquoise ones) who wouldn't want to see those again?

So far the Croatian backline has held up alright, but I just think they are on their last legs and going to crumble in a matter of time. I look for Adra Turan to be the difference and I'm taking Turkey in an upset special 3-2.

Feel free to toss your predictions out for the other 2 games, especially Italy Spain, I'm still undecided.

I know that defense...

I mean come on Portugal, did you really expect to beat ze Germans playing like that. And without using one of Europe's highest price tags? (Quaresma) You'd think they might have known better, but their inexplicable dreadful defense of set pieces killed them and allowed a very beatable German team into the semis. The first German goal was on par with that peach of a goal from the Dutch against France. Ballack's to a somehow fully-fit Podolski to the man of the match Swiensteiger, harrowing in to beat a helpless Ricardo.

I know I don't need to say it, but Paulo Ferreira was poor. "He's playing out of position." Well get a left back then, what's the problem. We've seen playing defenders outside of their natural role backfire already in this tournament. (Abidal anyone?) I kind of like Scolari, but his decision to stick with Simao cost him. He didn't do a damn thing in this game/tournament.

If you get a chance watch a replay of some of this game, and check out Deco's defense. I mean, this is an international quarterfinal here, and the guy is on a Sunday saunter through the park when he doesn't have the ball. Whoever inherits him, (please be Newcastle) better be able to make up for his lack of effort off the ball.

Bosingwa is a very solid right back, but his crosses could have been better. But even still, who is in the box for Portugal, their team make-up really let them down, and Germany proved that good defense still beats the smoothest of midfields. At least Germany's coach picked the right team, he looks better up in those stands where we don't have to look at that haircut.

Man of the Match: Sweinsteiger - how did he not start their first match? Ridiculous

Gaffe of the Match: Ricardo - Wouldn't have made a difference, but at least he gave us a laugh when he didn't even get close to the free kick.

Lady Luck of the Match - Klose - that was some good fortune off the shoulder, but he's always scoring in big games, isn't he?

Next up Croatia/Turkey, there should be some goals in that one, but I guess we reached our quota today.

Where did you get ze clapper?

Portugal vs Germany is an appropriate fixture to kick off the quarter finals. Everyone was predicting this clash in the semis, but Germany failed to win their group. boo hoo. Portugal have all the flare and individual talent, while Germany are more of a cohesive unit. They will have a lot to do without the duo of midfield workhorse Frings, and sizzling polish born striker Lucas Podolski. Bastan Schweinstieger will step into the spotlight, and he'll need a huge performance for the Germans to advance. But if their weird hipster of a coach keeps picking Mario Gomez, he's just being stubborn at this point.

Portugal, even though they've been known to lay an egg in these situations, should move on. They are extremely well rested, which could factor in a tournament like this. They will have to be mindful of the Germans on set pieces though, they have a glaring height advantage. I hope Ricardo Quaresma gets a run in this game. He is overshadowed by Ronaldo, and rightly so, but he would be the star of over half the teams in this tournament, but due to his countrymen and team shape, he is still virtually unknown. Portugal to win, maybe in extra time even 2-1.

Au Revoir Les Bleus

Its the final day of the group stage and we're left with Sweden and Russia vying for the right to play the hottest team in the tournament, the DUTCH. I like Russia in this game. People can talk about Sweden's experience, but Russia has come up big when they've had to each time under Hiddink, why should this be any different. Zlatan's knee is ailing, and this isn't the US Open, you need your knees to play this sport. Granted, Sweden has surprised a few people in this competition with their stellar performances, but I think they're going to rue that David Villa late winner that they could have done without. Ljunberg just doesn't have it anymore, and with Wilhelmsonn (no relation) out on the wing, I don't think they're gonna be able to get the required service to their strikers. Russia 2-1.

I know none of you were expecting Romania to move on, but I really thought they had a shot, and I was increibly dissapointed with their effort yesterday. They just never really got going, they lacked the same confidence they had in qualifying becaue they can play nice, free-flowing attacking football, (I've seen it), but in this tournament, it just wasn't to be. Its easy to pile on Mutu, not only from that missed penalty, but his performance in all three games was less than stellar by his standards. He is just one player, and none of their other attacking players ever looked like scoring, but he was always gonna have to be the one to propel them into the next round. He simply could not do it.

No surprises that the Italians sneak in, they never really lost their confidence, and it showed. If there's any good news for Spain its that Pirlo is suspended, and that Luca Toni still cant find the onion bag, but that's about it. Everyone will be tipping the Italians to knock off the Spaniards, but I'm not so sure yet. We've got a few days to ponder over that one.

One last note about the French, maybe this will seem biased, but I can't see how Sagna and Flamini could not have helped them tremendously against Italy. I won't harp on Domenech any more, and it looks like he won't be fired, but I think he made just about every wrong decision there was to make at least in terms of team selection.

Regardless of the winner today, we're gonna have some tasty quarterfinal ties coming up, with Germany and Portugal kicking things off tommorow.