ingenuine not a word?

what the hell, i've been saying that forever. what am i supposed to say then? agenuine? ungenuine? non-genuine?

big friday ahead

yeah thats right, what else am i thinking about? what else should you be thinking about?

the world cup draw stupid, duh!

so theres a pretty good rundown here of how the whole thing is done.

obviously you've hit the jackpot if you get south africa, you really can't have a hard group w/ them in it. looking down from there, you have to say all of the rest of the seeds are pretty tough. if you want to tell me france and argentina haven't been playing well you go ahead, i'm still liking their chances.

now as for the other 2 pots, or the rest of UEFA/africa, is where it starts to get interesting. this is really the guy who's gonna dictate your group. assuming we dont draw SADARICA, we're more than likely looking at a proven
1)a proven EUROPEAN FORCE (france, spain, italy, germany, england 5/8 chance)
2) a mediocre euroteam (swiss,greece,danes,serbs,)4/8 chance a nasty group (portugal,holland) 2/8 or a cupcake (slovaks,slovens)
3)a tricky african/chilean/uruguayan team.

all and all i'm expecting something like,
italy,slovakia, algeria, i would really like that.
or spain, denmark, ivory coast, would not like that....

bulls bears

"If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms." - Ditka

thanks ditka.

looks like tigers really drove it into the hazard this time. fire hydrant and a tree huh? bet he couldn't do that w/ a golf ball.

wow les miles i mean wow

you all remember this right? well if that wasn't enough to make you open up a book on clock management... (yeah laugh at yourself you moron)he was dumb enough to fuck it up again and blow his teams shot at a game, i mean what a joke.
the scary thing is how do people as stupid as wes miles get into these positions...anyone can see this guy is a dumbass, is he really that good of a recruiter that you want a dumbass running your team, way to handle that pressure there les...

and for you more cynical folk.

talk about a throwback

oh and the greeks go through, looks like going to the corner in like the 60th minute pays off, good for greece though, we don't need anymore ukranian swiss groups like in 2006

every fucking time van persie

big day for some people

thats right sports fans. if you're a greek, ukranian, kiwi, bosnian, portuguese, bahraini, french, irish, slovenian, or russian, then this is an awfully big day for you b/c your country has a chance to qualify for the world cup.
i'm tipping the kiwis, ruskis, frenchies, greeks, and bosnians in an upset special to get the job done.

enjoy this awesomeness. true story.

Kevin Kuranyi

what an ugly face that is.

tough luck for the tigers. what the hell was ryan raburn doing out there. And you've got to think that they would have had a much better chance to handle the pinstripes. The twins just look pretty soft, take them out of the dome and they are barely a .500 team. not to mention that they will have absolutely no pitching left. oh well, it was always gonna come down to either boston or the angels anyway. And honestly I like Either of those 2's chances.

poor old atletico

still the best

torn today between picking the steelers or the pats.

and is that brian witty?



there is no god

old onion face

one of my childhood heroes HB

rest in peace

i think i knew patrick swayze had cancer. i guess i only forgot because he was battling it for such a long time. he seemed like a good enough guy and he will be missed. my favorite role of his is probably point break. but he also has a pretty sweet little cameo in donnie darko. anyway, heres a little something to remember him by, when vh1 originally published this i guess they felt bad and had to come back with this

roadhouse is badass too.

same old bullshit

after the first two weeks it was easy to be optimistic. after the next two weeks, its almost impossible to be. this was a typical arsenal loss of the last 4 years, dominate possession, create plenty more chances than your opponent, get punished from a few set pieces, and boom, here we are. with 6 points from 12, and saying here we go again.

Bendtner was back to his old self. Denilson was very poor. But the LVP of the day for me was Diaby. Man City look like a force to be reckoned with, they've got some really nice players, I thought De Jong was MOTM, and Bridge, SWP are both top class prem players. And Bellamy still has plenty of miles left in those legs, scary to think that they were without arguably their 2 best players today...

college football underway

an exciting weekend indeed. not if your a duck fan but whatever.

quote of the weekend goes to kevin albrecht after UVA goes down to a formidable 1-AA opponent Bill & Mary, "the diplomas going into the fire."

below one of my favorite college players and one of the reasons why he is that, but ignore the awful music and perhaps go for something like this


and another player who falls into that category of underappreciated college badasses: my main man lynn greer
oh and how could i forget randolph childress

these made me laugh

maybe its my jingle brain but i think their song parodies are the best thing that family guy does. with the nice little segue into danza of course

bring him back. where is he now?

comical shootout

unless you're a fan of slovan liberec or dinamo bucharest, which i doubt any of the readers of this blog are, then you would have quite enjoyed the penalty shootout last night for the europa league playoff spot.

after the first leg had to be abandoned in bucharest after dinamo fans started to invade the pitch with 5 mins left, (well not even the pitch just the track around the pitch) slovan took a 3-0 lead back home to the czech republic thinking progression had to be in the bag.

But incredibly, Dinamo bagged three goals to send it into extra time, and then to penalties, where the hilarity ensued. This picks up after the first four rounds, but the Dinamo keeper has guessed correctly every single time up to this point, and still hasn't made a save. His plight is just hilarious to me, I dont know why, maybe its the head to head pep talk he keeps on getting from a teammate only to have the exact same thing happen again.

I was thinking, the only way this is going to end is if someone hits him with a ball, and thats exactly what happened as little jidlicko stepped up to the spot, already with his shirt in his mouth, (classic sign of choking) before he even took the kick!

Its also worth pointing out how both coaches waited to have their african players kick until the 8th or 9th rounds, trying to keep them as far out of the spotlight an potential scapegoat's role as possible.

why not?

never heard that nickname though


i'll punch every baseball bat right in the face

nfl is dead to me

not that it was ever that alive, but yeah i'm still plenty bitter after the worst superbowl of all time. anyway, lets see what chevy thinks of our chances this year.

well i have kissed a man

white?


your paaaaaaid


...and one hell of a model american

radiohead

so i saw radiohead last night. they mostly lived up to my expectations, it certainly could have been a little better, and i'll attribute most of that to the venue, but all in all it was still pretty special.

Going in, I didn't really know what to expect from the stage/crowd/atmosphere. I'd say about half of the crowd was just in town for the concert and the other half was just czechs with money or a little curiousity to see what all the buzz was about but weren't really familiar with too much radiohead. most of the tickets go to all the big companies and they were having problems getting rid of them all, so there were more than a few suits in the crowd. (i'd say your typical czech likes hard rock mostly anyway, think depeche mode but with a modern twist, so needless to say radiohead isn't exactly up their alley.)

but despite the atmospheric shortcomings, Radiohead failed to dissapoint. The show was typically atypical with little Thommy Yorke (who is really quite small in stature) really exerting some serious energy prancing around the stage all the while not forgetting to add that eccentric touch by putting a lemon on the keyboard during "everything in its right place" for the lyric "yesterday i woke up sucking a lemon." or the set seemingly ending with the band already having left the stage but the music still going of "how to dissapear completely." those were just a few.

in terms of highlights, the encore was probably my favorite half hour of the whole set. Pyramid song, National Anthem, 2+2, etc. Other memorable ones for me were 15 step, There There, Lucky, and predictably Idioteque with Thom really getting into it. I kept hoping for a couple things that I was sure weren't going to come and they didn't but what are you gonna do? They obviously played more of In Rainbows than I would have liked, (i think maybe 8/10 songs) but they were nice enough to play at least one maybe two songs from most every cd so that was cool. They even threw a couple of new songs in there, but I couldn't really tell if I liked them or not.

fastest man ever

where's your shoes?

so will this knucklehead run through the line tonight in the 200m like he did in Beijing and set consecutive world records, consecutively, on the worlds biggest stage?

i wouldn't bet against him.

here's some interesting lunchtime reading for all you small market fans

man united look really shaky by the way. nice to see.

and this is probably harder than it looks, but the guy in the background isn't too impressed.

bye bye huffy

i say good riddance. i hope that mora is next and that luke scott can play 1b.

and i know better than to gloat, especially after the first weekend, so i'll let others do it for me

"Because when Arsenal win, it is not just a triumph of a team. It is a victory of an ethos, of financial husbandry and a perfection in passing, three points and six goals for Wenger's idealism. There are days when they render talk of trophies irrelevant, occasions when the quality of their football suffices. This was one of them." well said sir.

whats with the initials

I'll bet it doesnt say Y.E. on his birth certificate. Not that he gives a shit, but its pretty bad that we'll just go ahead and give everyone Ji Hoon or Yin Yang an Ellis Islandesque americanization. Its not really a big deal, and yeah Y.E. is easier for us linguistically challenged to say, but the worst part is that i bet 99% of the people watching the PGA didnt even think twice about the guys name, and how it wasn't just two letters, he's not an outlaw or a cartoon character.

In baseball news, it looks like spending 450 million gazillion dollars does help, and it will get you to the post season after all. SO NOW YOU KNOW!

And I'm not the biggest Simmons fan, he can be a little too ______, help me out, nerdy at times? but everyone should read this article, and kudos for ESPN pushing US Soccer relativley hard lately

gof without the l

as i was flipping back and forth between the o's 13th inning meltdown (where they gave up all of 9 runs to push my streak to 8) and the pga, i caught this gem from jim nantz.

"Y.E. Yang, he's got that great concentration and confidence in his abilities, a lot like K.J. Choi."

nice

this guy?

he looks like he should be on a boat somewhere

i'm not a tigers fan or anything, (thank god) because I might have thrown something off my balcony last night if I'd had to stand for that little shit show by jerry crawford and company. To eject a pitcher with a three run lead for hitting probably the most deserving of all players in baseball of a plunk is just inexcuseable. Baseball umpires usually aren't in the media and they rarely get called out for their mistakes, but I dont know how much more you can change a game than those fuckers did at fenway last night. So come on media jump on those assholes like you love to with NFL/NBA. last night was shameless, that oarsmen should get 10 games.

but when it comes to charging the mound...it doesn't get much better than this former oriole. I like when he comes back for more.

for you nba fans

MAJERLE! (sound that name out)


I haven't seen a bailout like this since the...


the title says it all

seasons greetings

Where the hell did the summer go? Its early August and fall feels like its just around the corner. School starts in 2 weeks! With the new season set to kick off in just a weeks time, theres a couple of things I want to get off my chest.

I spent a decent amount of time in Portugal, Spain, and most recently Germany this summer, all three lovely countries. Although I wasn't there long, it wasn't hard to gauge the interest in the upcoming season in each's respective leagues through the media coverage. I'd say it went something like: interested (portugal), extremely interested (spain), to borderline obsessive (germany).

Its no secret which club all eyes are on as we approach the 2009/10 campaign. The events that have transpired this offseason have undoubtedly thrust Real Madrid willingly back into their favorite position as the center of everyone's attention, and every club has been affected by their off-field antics. If you don't support Madrid, your sure to have some qualms with them and the Manchester Cities of the world. But what about their fans? Real's fans predictably don't have any problems with the way their club went about their business this summer, by simply buying up the best collection of footballers they could get their hands on. Hell, they were given more cash than AIG (almost) to do what they pleased. But is that really the best way to fix a problem? I say no, and the most ironic thing about Real's offseason is that their weaknesses still weren't really addressed (now finally with Alonso, but still...) They haven't really evaluated themselves because god forbid they look in the mirror and acknowledge their flaws, but instead they've just created a media circus, and fired everybody up about the new generation of galacticos.

Incidentally, on my travels there was no country that wanted to talk more about the financial crisis and how unaffordable life in the city is than in Spain and Madrid. Well, didn't your government just give Real a blank check of your money,taxpayer, sir? How can they not put two and two together? Mindboggling.

My point is Spainards are quick to jump on any train without looking where its going. They just want the results without putting in the gruntwork. You've gotta take the good with the bad, thats what makes the success so sweet (at least thats what us oriole fans have to believe). Bayern could have sold Ribery, and they probably will next summer. But it was nice to see somebody not give in to the big bully and handover their lunchmoney. I'm not saying Germans are better fans/people than spaniards, but they can't be as fickle.

BTW, what an active summer. Huge names and talents on the move that didn't get that much recent hype, Eto'o, Ibrahimovic, Aqualani, and more to come on their way out of Madrid for sure.

dear arsene

can you please sign another mediocre centre half for 5 million pounds or somewhere in that vicinity. or would you rather go out of the champions league quarters again because Djourou is playing right back or something because three people are injured?
Oh, you would? Ok, then please don't sign anyone else. I'm sure our squad is deep enough to hang with the big boys this time around...

transfer rant

they're all selling?
then BUY! BUY!

oh they're all buying? then SELL! SELL!

rodney might have had it right after all.

as ridiculous as this quote is, its only my precursor to an even more ridiculous thing. the summer transfer window of the modern footballing era. Brits will point the finger at real madrid, and what is essentially a blank check that has been given to them by their government to go out and buy the best team they can. (sound familiar yankees fans?) But the brits are no angels either. Unless you've been living under a rock you'll know what's been going on at Man City over the past 1 1/2 years, which in my eyes is worse than what is happening at the bernebeu.

I've got no problem with the transfer market in general. No monumental changes were put in place this year, but we've seen an insane amount of activity culminating with madrid's triple signings and leaving gap between the rich and the poor the widest its ever been, at least in terms of buying power mind you. Where does this leave us? Us non Madrid/Man-U/Chelsea/Man City fans.

As an Arsenal fan I'm all for Wengers policy. Who wouldn't be? But from a sheer fan's perspective, theres no joy in operating in the black where teams can be millions of dollars in debt and have their slates wiped clean at the drop of a hat. Everything is cheapened, but for some reason, europeans dont see it that way. Maybe this is their equivalent of giving the winner of the conference tournaments in the NCAA the automatic bid in that it is equally senseless, maybe not.

And you can call footballs mercenaries all you want, but you can't really blame them. I only know 2 things for certain going into this season: that rooting against Real will be more fun that its been in some time, like back in the derdemezis era. And that I'm gonna see way too much of Niklas Bendtner once again for the third straight year.

oh, and check out these price is right clips
http://www.manofest.com/Content/the-10-funniest-moments-in-the-price-is-right-history/Page-2.html

L wedge

i'd say hockey is easily the most underappreciated sport in the US. not the case in the CR.

maybe you saw THIS

maybe you didn't, but this guy is sick, i've never seen anyone even attempt that, much less pull it off so effortlessly.
40-48 is the orioles record at the break for those scoring at home.
but that doesn't tell the whole story, does it?
see you in portugal. i'll miss you tour de france.

mid summer classic

no, not the "this time it counts" selig special all star game. But LE TOUR!

About the all-star game though, and I think baseball still has it over the nba, or the joke of a pro-bowl. And I did used to get all excited about the homerun derby. But wouldn't it be cool to see some kind of skills competition like they have in basketball, even though the guys just go half speed through it. There has to be some kind of defensive medley out there. Outfielders with the best arm competition? Lay a trash can down on top of home plate? Eric Sutter style at the beach last fourth of July? Ok, you get the idea.

Right, but the real mid-summer classic for me is the tour de france. Every year I seem to get more and more into it, and my appreciation for what these guys are actually doing over the course of three weeks swells. But can you even imagine running the equivalent of a marathon almost every day for 3 weeks??? Incredible. Its def on my list of sporting events I need to see live. Which also includes.

An Oriole playoff game. (not even WS)
All 4 tennis grand slams would be cool.
I'd like a Ryder Cup...in Europe.

losing teams...

"..find ways to beat themselves" - Jim Palmer

is there anything worse than..?

watching the williams sisters "play tennis?" I wouldn't like to make a list of 10 things I'd rather do. At least this one doesn't look like its going to take that long. what a couple of brutes they are. And then Venus just chokes up and is all afraid of her little sister...sickening.

For a women's sport that is somewhat respected, I think that the gap inbetween the two (men's and womens games) is perhaps as large and as evident as in any sport. Patrick Gee was right.

Some Confederations Cup Questions

How unlucky were were against Italy?
How bad is Brazil's national anthem?
Shouldn't Bob Bradley be teaching me History of Latin America or something like that? I swear that guy doesn't even blink.

No but seriously, we were at our best against Italy. Altidore and Donovan, Onyewu, Demerit, really solid efforts.

I only got to see the first half of the Brazil game. What an embarrasing performance that was. We didn't belong on the same field as them. We were scared, outclassed, just pathetic. No need to single out people, it was a collective effort, but Clint Dempsey needs to show me something against Egypt or I'll have Freddy Adu in there right now.

Sucks that they two groups were so poorly balanced, but we are clearly the fourth best team in our group. and we sit right where we belong.

nice job magic

yeah, you jameer nelson. nice job. the worst part about it is the lakers aren't even that good. they've been better. i thought everyone was better last year. i'm just glad the cavs aren't around because they really suck.

simmons' recaps of the fourth quarter are awesome. i'd suggest everyone read that, even if you don't like basketball. the part about the dad calling the ref turds is the best. and after watching some of that officiating, I might want to alter my previous statement about refs in football having a worse and potentially more ngative effect on a game by blowing a call, and that still holds true. but boy, nba refs sure are consistently awful.

anyway, on to the confederations cup. it has to be spains to lose considering how bad their group is. but I'm gonna go with the brazilians. don't ask me why. And its not like it would be such a huge upset, they are still one of the most feared countries in the world. so that being said.

i'll have brazil over spain in the final, with italy losing to the hosts in the 3rd place game.

Fed gets it done

and by that I mean beating Del Potro, because theres no chance in hell that he loses to Soderling now. I guess DP was pretty gassed in the end. Still gave it a pretty good fight. Just like Gonzales who only showed us a shade of his dickhead self from the olympics and australia. Good job roger, everyone was rooting for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3CzYw5-qdA

Fail

the catchy new way to say anything bad. but there are a few good videos spliced in there. this one being the pick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAuY1NRPsF8&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QUT0tweX1M&feature=player_embedded

frech open observations

now i know a lot of you don't know dick about tennis, or you could probably care less about what goes on at roland garros. BUT, there has been some mouthwatering, holy s** Reimold style stuff going on the past few days.

The first week of a major is almost on par with the first four days of march madness for me.

All these clay court specialists. Spaniards, Italians, and pretty much evey south american is so much more comfortable on the clay than your american/brit. That goes without saying, but what's so cool about the french is that they clay is such an equalizer. Thats why Murray was stumbling all over the place yesterday before remembering how to walk, and subsequently walk away with the fourth set from your middle of the road Italian.

Acasuso, awesome name, awesome game. Some sick rallies with fed, up an early break.
You knew Almagro Gulbis was gonna be a barn burner, just like my man JCF Ljubcic, with the Croat just running out of steam at the end. And Tipseravic knocking off two tough clay court specialists in Montanes and Lopez, the Wyatt Holzbach of the tour, looks like he's gonna be a tough out. He only always seems to show up for majors, but that guy is an animal. Oh and Safin going down to a nice looking qualifier, just another testament to the depth of the men's game.

Blake shouldn't play on clay. But he somehow made it to a final in portugal on clay this year? strange.

I've actually enjoyed some women's matches more than usual so far. I think clay is the most suitable surface for the women because they are forced to come in more instead of just slugging it out there on the baselines with your usual williams sisters' power games. Thats why Henin was so good here.

Tour de France is coming. watch this space.

Is this the man...

http://www.killerclips.com/clip.php?id=129&qid=1616

Awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrVWyj-XcbQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fanswermethis%2Ewordpress%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded

How old is he here?

Its a lot of work to maintain a blog an update it every day. Not that I would know about that or anything, but I can imagine. Whilst I've been picking up little British mannerisms of speaking I've been reading/listening to other people's blogs/podcasts instead of keeping up with mine. Maybe not the best, but most entertaining being a little call in answer show called answermethis run by a few witty brits that comment on just about anything.

http://answermethis.wordpress.com/

And as I watch man united wrap up another title, I can't help but wonder what might have been for arsenal. Actually, theres nothing much to wonder at all. Until Wenger bolsters the squad we'ere always gonna be struggling to handle man u and chelsea, and we're vulnerable to the occasional gross loss at stoke or bolton.

Baseball is more my speed. Especially when you can watch entire games in 20 minutes the next morning none the wiser to whats happened the night before.

A couple of mid-May observations.
1.Greinke is good, but I don't see how a guy just gets that good all of the sudden. This guy was a bum 3 years ago.

2. The NL sucks. I mean, there's a couple of nice teams in there, the Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, Brewers, blah blah blah, but take a look at the Padres. That lineup really strikes some fear into my heart.

3. Baserunning. a) How the hell does Bobby Abreu steal bases? b) And someone should keep track of all the outs the Orioles give away on the basepaths this year. Shameful.

AND is there anything that pisses me off more than fucking photographers sitting so GD close to the baseline in the NBA playoffs that guys constantly have to try and not fall on them or break their fall with them. RIDICULOUS. Its only a matter of time before someon ends their career with some unfortunate accident.

Same is teu in football. Somebody is going to crack their skull against an advertising board off of those five feet crows next to the edge of the pitch. I think Fulham has the worst one, theres like no room at all in there.

Ok, I feel better now.

poor old kenny perry

was there any doubt in your mind that kenny perry wasn't going to win the masters? a shadow of a doubt might have crept into my mine after he hit it to 3 inches on 16. but come'on, you never really felt like he was gonna win it.

chad campbell ran off the 18th green like he had a plane to catch.

anyway, i couldn't help but feel bad for kenny perry after that interview. "i guess I just...suck" ouch, don't be so rough on yourself guy. your still one of the top 20 golfers in the world i guess.

i hate the red sox. still hate the yankees more. but its close.

if i had to rank my all time most hated teams it would probably go something like.
1.yankees
2.redsox
3.chelsea
4.oregon state
5.man united
6.mexico
7.rams
8.lakers
9.odu/pesky caa team trying to thwart vcu/u of r
10.someone i forgot?

C-league, opening day/night

Some scattered thoughts.
Marcos Senna is a force. Villareal are a nice team, but Joseba Llorente? that's the best you can do? they need a top striker to push them into the realm of the elite. Maybe someone like Drogbaaaaa. yuck.

Man U? slipping up now of all times. how unlike them. i couldn't feel less sorry for them either.

Bayern barca should be a great game. And unless you're a liverpool or chelsea fan, I don't see how anyone in their right mind would willingly watch that snoozefest over the aforementioned, you'd have to be some kind of a masochist. chelsea aren't everton, but they're damn close.

Its nice to have baseball back.

fragile frankie

its a good thing we don't play in asia/africa/europe, or else we wouldn't be able to coast through any joke of a hexagonal without playing anywhere near our best. the performance against el salvador was embarassing. is that really the best back 4 we have to choose from. I'm gradually going from not minding bob bradley, to him kind of getting on my nerves.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4020878

what!?

premiership not everything its cracked up to be

the czech republic, for whatever reason, loves to televise the premiership. i think in the entire time i've been here, there's only been a handful of spanish games, a bit of the french league, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen an Italian one televised. Sure the prem is the biggest market, and it has the biggest names. But lets talk about the quality of the football for a second. You've got your big 4, aside from Barcelona, I'll take any of those 4 clubs with anyone else in the world, no questions asked. But I think the premiership is as top-heavy as ever, evidenced by the middle of the table.

I don't mind the Villas and Evertons, not the flashiest, but really solid sides. And Man City and Spurs might not be the most consistent, but they are attractive enough, and they can compete in Europe which has to be worth something. But its the Fulhams, Wigans, Hull Cities, and Boltons who are enjoying relative success in the league this year that I can live without. I'm sorry, but those sides are shit.

A spanish mid-table game in hand is worth two blackburn boltons in the bush I say.

poorly officiated excitement.

Is it just me? Or has anyone else noticed how referees in this year's NCAA's are a little too fired up. They seem like they are so eager to be a part of the game and make emphatic, game-changing calls, that they want to really blow the whistle as much as possible. I don't have a problem with calling a foul, it needs to be done, but is there anything more disenchanting then the ref waiting that extra second to give an overemphatic hand signal to reinforce the fact that the call he is making is all the more significant? He must be thinking to himself, "yeah, this one's gonna be a game changer, so that's why i'm really gonna thrust forward my hips and kick back my elbows for this blocking call. Which by the way is probably the most difficult call to make in sports, and silliest cop out for a defender who is cleary at a disadvantage only as a last resort to sneak in under an unsuspecting would be layuper.

Would it be giving Aaron Segel's life coach Mike Shushefsky (thats how it sounds isn't it?) too much credit to say that Duke basketball revolutionized the game with the likes of Trajan Langon and Shane Battier taking the charge with the best of them? Maybe the pros were doing it long before that, but the charge really has a special, more visible place in the college game.

Despite all those negatives being thrown out there, I have been able to watch quite a lot of the tournament due to our prolonged daylight savings time for the time being, and the minimized time difference. Although maryland-cal was probably the worst 1st round game i've ever seen. too bad i didn't watch wake forest/florida state. way to go acc, just go on and vindicate the big 10 getting all those teams, minnesota, wisconsin, i'd rather watch them play football, (i think).

Teams that have impressed me: Memphis, Villanova, UConn, W.Kentucky

teams i expected more from: Washington, UCLA, the ACC

My Current All-Awful team

any additions welcome.

And up top, its none other than good old Pippo Inzaghi- people actually own his jersey.

and alongside him donkeyface Didier Drogbaaa- biggest whiner/complainer/egotistic, etc. player in the world, but i will say, he impressed me in WC and he seems to transform when he pulls on the Ivory Coast colors into a real person...

Midfield
Emmanuel Eboue - maybe the worst player in all senses of the word to ever wear an arsenal shirt, and the inspiration for this post.

Darius Vassel- ENGLAND?! he may be over the hill. but how the hell is he taking penalties in world cups?


Defenders
Mexes- a trainwreck waiting to happen, club and country

Paulo Ferreira - "he's playing out of position." so? nobody's making you use him...

Fragile Frankie Hejduk- Just a reminder of all those very,very average americans who have represented us for so long...embarassing.

Keeper-
Victor Valdes- Not quite up to par with the rest of his team. Probably not even in the top half of La Liga.

refs

Why is the refereeing in champions league so much better than any other matches? Is it merely the obvious? That these are the best refs too? Does anyone remember how bad the World Cup was officiated?

I love Spring Training. Not the eternal optimism that surrounds each club, and the "this could be our year" bullshit, but its something else. I'm not quite sure what. Maybe its just seeing all of those familiar faces that we spend almost 3/4 of the year with. And the welcome return to a habit that they symbolize. Who wouldn't miss Aubrey huff lacing something up the middle and Melvin coming up with two outs to strand a couple? Never gets old..

100th Post!

now that i'm done patting my back, I can do what I do best..complain.

Why isn't there a compilation of the best baseball throws ever? This is the closest I'll get. I like how they all still try to run on him, you think they might learn...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfXRjE9vjYI&feature=related

pretty awesome

but is this his dad here? Is this the kind of dads that we're gonna be? This kid is gone...

http://current.com/items/89782035/david_after_dentist.htm

arshavin

finally. what a prolonged transfer. i hope he is playing this weekend, because the arsenal faithful can't stand to see another game without anyone creating anything in the midfield.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Cesc Fabregas is the most important player to any team in the premiership. Sure, make your Gerrard, Ronaldo, and Lampard arguments, but if your talking about end product, and how dramatic the dip in the quality of play is without said player. Its far and away Fabregas. Arsenal are shit without him.

Nadal is too good

Tough not to feel bad for Fed, but lets not feel that bad. He straight up dominated everything (of course not Rolland Garros) for like what? 5 years? And now his reign as the best player ever is being eclipsed when he is hardly even out of his Prime. Nadals emergence as an all-court badass leaves him with the sport at his mercy.
He is scary good. He just looks pissed when he is playing. I don't know if I've ever seen him play poorly.

NFL sucks, sorry guys, but its true. Steelers weren't even that good. I think its safe to call this one a down year. Were the commercials even any good? Something tells me they werent.

Been getting into lots of good music lately. Anybody know anything about what.cd? Apparently their selection is unparalled.

FERNANDO!

no wonder he is dating ivanovic. i can't imagine playing tennis for 5 hours. I can't imagine doing anything for 5 hours. I hope that I can see like a condensed game of that eventually. chop it down into like 1 hour and a half. If you haven't been checking your daily fix on current.com, then youtube "Ram it". Its well worth it.

I was watching some basketball the other day, and I was quickly reminded just how bad college basketball refs are. They love their cop outs. Count the basket on the offensive foul. What the hell, why even call the foul then? Just chicken shit. My streak snaps at 7.

Federer will win in 4 tommorow, won't he? Thats probably where vegas has it. But Nadal is just so damn pesky. At least Aston Villa drew today. Fabregas might mean more to Arsenal than any other player in the Prem.

So its Nadal Federer? again?

Maybe Verdasco will prove me wrong, but I doubt it.
I watched Fed dismantle A-Rod (who didn't play that bad) this morning. And everything was just business as usual. Lets hope the final is at a convenient time for watching for everyone.

Aston Villa needs to stop playing so well.

Gasquet & Gonzales: Aussie Classic

Saturday morning I tuned into the Aussie open to take in one of the best matches I have seen in some time. Richard Gasquet of France the 22nd seed vs 12 seed Fernando Gonzales of Chile the 13 seed. Two of the most lethal shots in the game were on display. Gonzales' hugely powerful forehand, and Gasquet's deadly backhand. Only Federer might have a better forehand, but Gasquet's backhand, second to none.

I only started watching a tthe start of the 5th set to find Gasquet visably in pain with what looked to be a bad ankle, but he wasn't about to retire. So it looked like Gonzo was going to run him around and wear him down, but it wasn't to be. It was Gasquet who had the better break chances, as he was holding with relative ease. But everytime he needed a big point, Gonzales would either find a huge serve, or that forehand would come and bail him out.

And somewhat ironically, it was the Gasquet Forehand and Gonzo backhand that took center stage in the deciding game. Gonzales finally got the inevitable match point at 30-40 but Gasquet flipped an incredible crosscourt forehand that caught the line that left the whole crowd stunned. But after yet another run-around forehand winner for Gonzo, he made no mistake with his second match point. Carefully stepping into a backhand and taking it up the line leaving the hobbled Gasquet helpless.

What a match. 3-6. 3-6. 7-6. 6-2. 12-10. This match had it all, a great davis cup like atmosphere, with plenty of Les Bleus jerseys and Ale Richard chants to go around, coupled with your boisterious and often unruly Latin American Chilean contingent. I mean who knew there were so many Chileans in Australia. Or did they just come to see Gonzo? I guess its not that long of a flight for them, but still.

Gutty, gutsy performance from Gasquet. I was obviously rooting for him, especially after Gonzales was going all fred on the chair umpire after a questionable call or two.

And typical South American idiots setting off a flare after match point. Yeah, thats what you want to see in a Tennis Major. Nice reward for Gonzales though, he gets Nadal next.

same old story in prem

Week after week i'm amazed how many teams pull results out of their ass (Man U, Chelsea, Real Madrid but not this year) and it was looking like Arsenal were set to drop even more points until Nasri buried his left footer with about 10 mins left. He's been a solid signing, and he doesn't do bad for a central mid playing on the left.

The race for fourth is almost as intruiging as the title/relegation races, you've got to figure that 3 teams are going to be in the mix. With Liverpool coming back down to join dissapointing Arsenal, and the ever plucky Aston Villa side, who is quietly unbeaten in 11 games in the league now, and grinding out results of their own.

I haven't seen Barca highlights yet, but if Nick Derdemezis is out there somewhere still telling anyone who will listen that Henry sucks and he's over the hill, then he can just look at the numbers. Another 2 goal performance, and another easy win. It must be nice to just own a league like they do.

I heard a couple good graucho marx quotes from the cartalk brothers this week. Jake Denon could have used these in study hall when we used to peruse the old rodney dangerfield collection.

1. i've had a perfectly wonderful evening...but that wasn't tonight

2. she got her good looks from her father...he's a plastic surgeon.

3. he may talk like an idiot, and act like one, but dont let that fool you...he is an idiot.

4. i usually never forget a face, but in your case i'm gonna make an exception.

And finally I saw Ben Buttons at last, and I thought it was only ok. But cool to see all the scenes on fourth st. This last thing can be appreciated by all but especially Tulanians and hurricane vets. Classic!
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/hou/100381033.html

..and texas

i'm actually going to miss bush. i've always found him, if nothing else, able to make me laugh.

http://current.com/items/89709513/bush_s_final_press_conference.htm

MESSI!

best player alive.

Finally!

no, not a bcs playoff, or a 500 season for the o's, but something to look forward to in US soccer.

Joseph Gyau & Charles Renken - United States U-17 team

I'm only regurgitating this section from soccernet, but its still exciting, and new to me, these 2 look like the type of players I always new we could produce, but never had, (and still really haven't save Adu, who is still largely unproven).

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=575144&sec=us&root=us&cc=5739

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=571292&sec=us&root=us&cc=5739

Guitar hero is better than rockband in my book