"You're going to end up living in a van, DOWN BY THE RIVER." -- motivational speak Matt Foley.
One goal. One got dang goal.
Not sure where to begin -- the joy of West Ham or the misery in Sheffield (not on Wednesdays, though.)
We'll start with the bad -- Sheffield United dropping down after losing to Wigan Athletic 2-1 at home on Sunday.
For whatever reason the Blades carved out a little soft spot in my heart this year. Maybe it was the scrappy manager in Neil Warnock, more likely the excellent atmosphere at Bramall Lane. These were for lack of a better term, 'real' fans. It's a shame they had to endure with their own eyes what I could only do with my computer. The second 45 minutes must have felt like a lifetime flashing before their eyes in the midst of a solid, cold May rain.
Wigan end with 37 goals scored and 59 allowed equaling -22; Sheffield Utd. 32, 55 = -23. And that single goal is worth somewhere in the range of $60 million. Incredible.
Detroit Lions fans think you have it bad? At least with Matt Millen screwing things up you get to stick around in the NFL. In English football if you can't hack it, it's "nanana, nanana, hey hey hey...adios." And least you aren't kicked out of the NFL for Jason Hanson missing an extra point.
All morning as I watched West Ham defeat Manchester United 1-0 on television, I kept the other glued onto the match tracker with the dealings at Bramall Lane.
Nothing against Wigan, they are a nice story after all coming from nowhere, staying up two-years in-a-row, etc., but every time there was a game from the JJB Stadium it seemed half-full and disinterested. Plus from what I've read they claim the town's rugby team is better supported. It's not like there aren't already a million teams from Northwest England in the EPL right now.
As they say, the table doesn't lie, but Sheffield United seem to deserve Premiership football more than Wigan. Not that what I think matters one iota.
One goal. One got dang goal sinks the Blades to the Championship.
And that goal ended up being a penalty kick thanks to a 45th minute handball from Phil Jagielka, arguably the Blades best player this season. What a shame. I offer my sincerest condolences to all the Blades' fans worldwide, from actor Sean Bean to fish-and-ships sellers in South Yorkshire.
Then again, of course there's the fact that at home, in the proverbial 'big spot' Sheffield United came out flat as a pancake and choked. So it be. Let's hope they can pull off a Sunderland or Birmingham and come right back up.
On the other hand, credit to West Ham United.
Left for dead in March, they rattled off seven wins in their last nine including a dramatic 1-0 result at Old Trafford Sunday. West Ham won their first game of the season, then with eight without a win. Crazy.
With Wigan winning, they needed to hold on and simply not lose to Manchester United. For people that hate soccer, watch the last 30 minutes and tell me you don't fell the drama and tension. Credit United too, they didn't back down and fielded pretty much a full-strength team. SAF cares too much to jeopardize the sanctity of the game.
Any wonder what would have happened if Yossi Benayoun didn't make that clearance off the goal line in the first half for West Ham?
What can you say about Carlos Tevez?
The pint-sized Incredible Hulk was simple unreal in the last two months of the season, probably the best player in that stretch. As great as he was, it's going to be very difficult for the club to turn down what figure to be a boatload of offers for the Argentine in the summer...if they even own his rights.
I'm glad that West Ham stayed up (pending a probably lawsuit from Sheffield for the Tevez signing...ugh). They're always fun to watch and always seem to be making news. Nick Frost and the rest of the Hammers' fans must be on Cloud Nine. They'll forever be blowing bubbles for months.
One quick note on Manchester United. Anyone else notice that as they celebrated with the trophy they sang that old, 'Campeões' song, a subtle dig at Jose Mourihno's Chelsea boys, no? And interesting to see absolutely no mention whatsoever of the Glazers at OT...at least that I saw on my television.
Highlight of the Man Utd. title celebration -- the shot of Paul Scholes son, who believe it or not, is even more Ginger than the Ginger Ninja himself.
Yeah, guess I ought to mention Rooney and Ronaldo embracing with the trophy. Their famous fallout at the 2006 World Cup is, afterall, in the new banner of this site.
Elsewhere, Tottenham, Everton and Bolton all gained spots into the UEFA Cup. Reading misses out by a point, which is probably a good thing. ... In the promotion playoffs Derby County and West Brom each take 1-goal leads into the second legs to be played Wednesday.
We'll prolly have some sort of EPL wrap during the week. Be sure to tune in.
In the meantime, here's your table.
Germany
Maybe I've imparted this story before, maybe not.
On the jam-packed train to Kaiserslautern last June there was this one crazy Germany, sort of a Tuetonic Carrot Top meets Hennny Youngman. He had this little megaphone and used it to rile up the 'zug' full of people headed to that day's World Cup game. Besides attempting to sing some speed metal riffs and imploring the American women to 'show your tits,' he attempted some comedy and even let me use his No. 1 prop.
Using my phrase book I found the most outrageous statements I could find and spouted out, 'Schizer,' which I thought meant 'shit' in German. The comedian didn't understand, and I tried to explain. His retort..."Kaka...the brown stuff (motions to his rectum and makes a fart sound)...shit...shit is shit."
In other words -- Schizer for Schalke! They had like 40,000 people at their home Arena to watch the game -- ending like this. Eh, maybe this one sums it up better. Nice hair kid.
My buddies from the Ruhr were downed 2-0 to rival Borussia Dortmund Saturday, thereby giving Stuttgart the keys to the Bundesliga BMW. Stuttgart, despite fielding a pair of Mexican internationals, deserves some props since they fought back from 0-1 and 1-2 to win at Bochum.
Dortmund looks to have one of the best home crowds in the world, including 'You'll Never Walk Alone.' (Honestly, the Germans love it more than Hasselhoff.) They call it the opera house for a reason and you gotta love the guy with the giant flag with all the nationalities of the team sewn together.)
So the race for the big silver plate comes down to next week. Stuttgart, which now leads by two points, hosts FDR powerhouse Energie Cottbus; Schalke takes on Arminia Bielefeld at the Veltins Arena. The title is Stuttgart's with a win or tie. Schalke needs to win and pray for Stuttgart to screw up. In this wild, wacky German season, seems possible.
Spain
For a little less than 24 hours Real Madrid is in first place...and they'll stay there until further notice as Barcelona drew 1-1 with Real Betis, Rafael Sobis netting the equaliser for Betis in the 89th minute.
Both are level on 66 points with four games left. Third place Sevilla kept pace and are two back. Sevilla plays Wednesday in the UEFA Cup final. Goody!
Holland
Normalcy returns in the lowlands. Ajax thumped Heerenveen 4-0 in Amsterdam and will now face AZ in the battle for the second Dutch Champions League spot. Say it with me now -- Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. That gets an A++++!
This will be a game to watch...not sure how in America...Setanta?
MLS
We interrupt this MLS talk for a brief, stress brief, USL nugget.
I'll admit, the other night I watched the last 25 minutes to the Portland Timbers/Seattle Sounders USL First Division game. Amazingly it was pretty enjoyable. Yeah, part of me was rooting for a player to get horribly maimed by the lip of turf covering up the pitcher's mound at the PGE Park. The game ended up rather entertaining and the Timber's Army was pretty lively. Sort of like the bastard children of Steve Prefontaine and Karen DeGroot.
Plus, it doesn't hurt that the Timbers have a guy that uses a power-saw to carve off a ring of lumber every time the home team scores. And that they have the best logo in North American soccer, by far.
There might have only been say, 6,000 fans at the game but they were a lot feistier than your average MLS fans. Naturally it would be beyond wonderful if their was some integration between MLS and USL, but promotion and relegation probably won't happen in my lifetime.
The Pacific Northwest definitely deserves an MLS side in the next round of expansion. So do Philly and St. Louis.
And speaking of atmosphere...it's taken say, oh, 12 years, but looks like MLS finally has a team with a legitimate home field advantage. Too bad it ended up being in Cananda.
Sometime in the middle of the day Saturday the one-and-only Pops Cardillo rings me to tell me to put on the Toronto/Chicago game. After just returning from the massively disappointing and underwhelming '28 Weeks Later' this was a nice pick-me-up.
During the week there was some, apparently bad blood, between the teams..at least by MLS standards.
Toronto finally broke with their first three goals of the season, prompting the fans to hurl the free seat cushions they received onto the BMO Field turf in their 3-1 win vs. the Fire. Not sure how long the good vibes in the Great White North will last, especially if the team doesn't play great and when the weather gets colder. But for now, it seems like a nice 20,000+ party.
From what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be much to BMO Field, aside from a beautiful view of the Toronto skyline. Basically it looks like a bunch of bleachers, but at least it's not just gray concrete like Pizza Hut Park or Toyota Park. Naturally I'd prefer the new soccer-specific-stadia to have the more enclosed, European feel, if only for acoustics.
Also, who's a better player right now Freddy Adu or Maurice Edu? Talk amongst yourselves. And I am the only one that thinks 'TFC' sounds a little too much like 'THC'?
With another two goals against Los Angeles on Saturday night, it seems like it's a safe bet to call Taylor Twellman the best attacker in MLS right now.
Later it's the Red Bulls hosting Colorado....and later has come and RBNY laid a stinky, smelly turd on the crummy turf at Giants Stadium, losing for the first time 1-0 on a first half tally from Nico Hernandez.
Finally, if you made it this far, give yourself a gold star to sew on your favorite shirt. You earned it.
One goal. One got dang goal.
Not sure where to begin -- the joy of West Ham or the misery in Sheffield (not on Wednesdays, though.)
We'll start with the bad -- Sheffield United dropping down after losing to Wigan Athletic 2-1 at home on Sunday.
For whatever reason the Blades carved out a little soft spot in my heart this year. Maybe it was the scrappy manager in Neil Warnock, more likely the excellent atmosphere at Bramall Lane. These were for lack of a better term, 'real' fans. It's a shame they had to endure with their own eyes what I could only do with my computer. The second 45 minutes must have felt like a lifetime flashing before their eyes in the midst of a solid, cold May rain.
Wigan end with 37 goals scored and 59 allowed equaling -22; Sheffield Utd. 32, 55 = -23. And that single goal is worth somewhere in the range of $60 million. Incredible.
Detroit Lions fans think you have it bad? At least with Matt Millen screwing things up you get to stick around in the NFL. In English football if you can't hack it, it's "nanana, nanana, hey hey hey...adios." And least you aren't kicked out of the NFL for Jason Hanson missing an extra point.
All morning as I watched West Ham defeat Manchester United 1-0 on television, I kept the other glued onto the match tracker with the dealings at Bramall Lane.
Nothing against Wigan, they are a nice story after all coming from nowhere, staying up two-years in-a-row, etc., but every time there was a game from the JJB Stadium it seemed half-full and disinterested. Plus from what I've read they claim the town's rugby team is better supported. It's not like there aren't already a million teams from Northwest England in the EPL right now.
As they say, the table doesn't lie, but Sheffield United seem to deserve Premiership football more than Wigan. Not that what I think matters one iota.
One goal. One got dang goal sinks the Blades to the Championship.
And that goal ended up being a penalty kick thanks to a 45th minute handball from Phil Jagielka, arguably the Blades best player this season. What a shame. I offer my sincerest condolences to all the Blades' fans worldwide, from actor Sean Bean to fish-and-ships sellers in South Yorkshire.
Then again, of course there's the fact that at home, in the proverbial 'big spot' Sheffield United came out flat as a pancake and choked. So it be. Let's hope they can pull off a Sunderland or Birmingham and come right back up.
On the other hand, credit to West Ham United.
Left for dead in March, they rattled off seven wins in their last nine including a dramatic 1-0 result at Old Trafford Sunday. West Ham won their first game of the season, then with eight without a win. Crazy.
With Wigan winning, they needed to hold on and simply not lose to Manchester United. For people that hate soccer, watch the last 30 minutes and tell me you don't fell the drama and tension. Credit United too, they didn't back down and fielded pretty much a full-strength team. SAF cares too much to jeopardize the sanctity of the game.
Any wonder what would have happened if Yossi Benayoun didn't make that clearance off the goal line in the first half for West Ham?
What can you say about Carlos Tevez?
The pint-sized Incredible Hulk was simple unreal in the last two months of the season, probably the best player in that stretch. As great as he was, it's going to be very difficult for the club to turn down what figure to be a boatload of offers for the Argentine in the summer...if they even own his rights.
I'm glad that West Ham stayed up (pending a probably lawsuit from Sheffield for the Tevez signing...ugh). They're always fun to watch and always seem to be making news. Nick Frost and the rest of the Hammers' fans must be on Cloud Nine. They'll forever be blowing bubbles for months.
One quick note on Manchester United. Anyone else notice that as they celebrated with the trophy they sang that old, 'Campeões' song, a subtle dig at Jose Mourihno's Chelsea boys, no? And interesting to see absolutely no mention whatsoever of the Glazers at OT...at least that I saw on my television.
Highlight of the Man Utd. title celebration -- the shot of Paul Scholes son, who believe it or not, is even more Ginger than the Ginger Ninja himself.
Yeah, guess I ought to mention Rooney and Ronaldo embracing with the trophy. Their famous fallout at the 2006 World Cup is, afterall, in the new banner of this site.
Elsewhere, Tottenham, Everton and Bolton all gained spots into the UEFA Cup. Reading misses out by a point, which is probably a good thing. ... In the promotion playoffs Derby County and West Brom each take 1-goal leads into the second legs to be played Wednesday.
We'll prolly have some sort of EPL wrap during the week. Be sure to tune in.
In the meantime, here's your table.
Germany
Maybe I've imparted this story before, maybe not.
On the jam-packed train to Kaiserslautern last June there was this one crazy Germany, sort of a Tuetonic Carrot Top meets Hennny Youngman. He had this little megaphone and used it to rile up the 'zug' full of people headed to that day's World Cup game. Besides attempting to sing some speed metal riffs and imploring the American women to 'show your tits,' he attempted some comedy and even let me use his No. 1 prop.
Using my phrase book I found the most outrageous statements I could find and spouted out, 'Schizer,' which I thought meant 'shit' in German. The comedian didn't understand, and I tried to explain. His retort..."Kaka...the brown stuff (motions to his rectum and makes a fart sound)...shit...shit is shit."
In other words -- Schizer for Schalke! They had like 40,000 people at their home Arena to watch the game -- ending like this. Eh, maybe this one sums it up better. Nice hair kid.
My buddies from the Ruhr were downed 2-0 to rival Borussia Dortmund Saturday, thereby giving Stuttgart the keys to the Bundesliga BMW. Stuttgart, despite fielding a pair of Mexican internationals, deserves some props since they fought back from 0-1 and 1-2 to win at Bochum.
Dortmund looks to have one of the best home crowds in the world, including 'You'll Never Walk Alone.' (Honestly, the Germans love it more than Hasselhoff.) They call it the opera house for a reason and you gotta love the guy with the giant flag with all the nationalities of the team sewn together.)
So the race for the big silver plate comes down to next week. Stuttgart, which now leads by two points, hosts FDR powerhouse Energie Cottbus; Schalke takes on Arminia Bielefeld at the Veltins Arena. The title is Stuttgart's with a win or tie. Schalke needs to win and pray for Stuttgart to screw up. In this wild, wacky German season, seems possible.
Spain
For a little less than 24 hours Real Madrid is in first place...and they'll stay there until further notice as Barcelona drew 1-1 with Real Betis, Rafael Sobis netting the equaliser for Betis in the 89th minute.
Both are level on 66 points with four games left. Third place Sevilla kept pace and are two back. Sevilla plays Wednesday in the UEFA Cup final. Goody!
Holland
Normalcy returns in the lowlands. Ajax thumped Heerenveen 4-0 in Amsterdam and will now face AZ in the battle for the second Dutch Champions League spot. Say it with me now -- Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. That gets an A++++!
This will be a game to watch...not sure how in America...Setanta?
MLS
We interrupt this MLS talk for a brief, stress brief, USL nugget.
I'll admit, the other night I watched the last 25 minutes to the Portland Timbers/Seattle Sounders USL First Division game. Amazingly it was pretty enjoyable. Yeah, part of me was rooting for a player to get horribly maimed by the lip of turf covering up the pitcher's mound at the PGE Park. The game ended up rather entertaining and the Timber's Army was pretty lively. Sort of like the bastard children of Steve Prefontaine and Karen DeGroot.
Plus, it doesn't hurt that the Timbers have a guy that uses a power-saw to carve off a ring of lumber every time the home team scores. And that they have the best logo in North American soccer, by far.
There might have only been say, 6,000 fans at the game but they were a lot feistier than your average MLS fans. Naturally it would be beyond wonderful if their was some integration between MLS and USL, but promotion and relegation probably won't happen in my lifetime.
The Pacific Northwest definitely deserves an MLS side in the next round of expansion. So do Philly and St. Louis.
And speaking of atmosphere...it's taken say, oh, 12 years, but looks like MLS finally has a team with a legitimate home field advantage. Too bad it ended up being in Cananda.
Sometime in the middle of the day Saturday the one-and-only Pops Cardillo rings me to tell me to put on the Toronto/Chicago game. After just returning from the massively disappointing and underwhelming '28 Weeks Later' this was a nice pick-me-up.
During the week there was some, apparently bad blood, between the teams..at least by MLS standards.
Toronto finally broke with their first three goals of the season, prompting the fans to hurl the free seat cushions they received onto the BMO Field turf in their 3-1 win vs. the Fire. Not sure how long the good vibes in the Great White North will last, especially if the team doesn't play great and when the weather gets colder. But for now, it seems like a nice 20,000+ party.
From what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be much to BMO Field, aside from a beautiful view of the Toronto skyline. Basically it looks like a bunch of bleachers, but at least it's not just gray concrete like Pizza Hut Park or Toyota Park. Naturally I'd prefer the new soccer-specific-stadia to have the more enclosed, European feel, if only for acoustics.
Also, who's a better player right now Freddy Adu or Maurice Edu? Talk amongst yourselves. And I am the only one that thinks 'TFC' sounds a little too much like 'THC'?
With another two goals against Los Angeles on Saturday night, it seems like it's a safe bet to call Taylor Twellman the best attacker in MLS right now.
Later it's the Red Bulls hosting Colorado....and later has come and RBNY laid a stinky, smelly turd on the crummy turf at Giants Stadium, losing for the first time 1-0 on a first half tally from Nico Hernandez.
Finally, if you made it this far, give yourself a gold star to sew on your favorite shirt. You earned it.
Labels: Soccer
Great post. Added to the blogroll.
Regardless of who Man U. played yesterday, the team they did field didn't mail it in. That first half was one of the most entertaining I've seen live (on TV) in a while.
When Benayoun headed that ball off the line and then made that kick save I about fell out of my chair. One of the savviest defensive plays I've seen in a looong time.
how did you watch the Timbers game? i know they play it locally on comcast. are you located in or around portland? if so, we should get a beer a talk footy, cuz i'm in portland.
Game was on FSC.