....and I'm Dating Jessica Alba too!!!

Today is the last day of the transfer window, and as of the writing of this post, there have been no signings at Arsenal. The pundits, journos, and locos have been dreaming up transfer rumors like they were dreaming of Jessica Alba; that is these moves had zero basis in reality. But, there is still a few hours left before the window closes and the rumors die. Well, they go away until the first bad result then they start up again until the end of January, then repeat for the summer. Anyway, maybe Cashley will go to Chavski. Maybe Reyes to Real. Who knows and I am beyond caring anymore. I of course want the best for Arsenal and would have liked to see Wenger do more in the close season, but I don’t want to see signings for signings sake. All will be revealed by 6pm CDT.
















I am a bit late in reporting the results of the Gaelic football semifinals, but I’m sure you readers (all 2 of you) have already seen the matches and have filed the results next to anniversary dates, children’s birthdays, and hot chicks in the “Very Important Things to Remember” section of your noggin. Anyway, Mayo and Dublin played a very exciting match over the weekend (shown on Monday night on Setanta) and after a lot of scoring, goals, lead changes, wides, harsh tackles and the final whistle, Mayo came out on top and moved on to Final. If you haven’t ever seen the sport, this was a match that would get you hooked. Like most sports, the teams really took it up a notch since they were in the semis. I got a “Why are we watching this?” comment from my lovely wife, and I tried to explain what was happening and why the outcome was important so she would become hooked herself. Instead, I got in trouble for having the TV on while eating dinner. It was worth it though.



Finally, college football season is upon us and my Fightin’ Texas Aggies take on The Citadel at Kyla field on Saturday. It is not the match of the century, let alone the week, but hopefully A&M will put on a good show and get the season off to a good start. I have already gotten crap from T-sips over us playing the Citadel, but who really cares. I never really care what T-sips say anyway. Not sure what else is going on that weekend football-wise, but that’s because I don’t really care. I didn’t go to other schools and they have plenty of people to laud their games. Well, I take that back. I do follow Miami, but just because I used to live there, went to a bunch of games, and know the athletic director’s son. Plus, they play Florida State on Monday and it is always a good game. I hope it doesn’t come down to a field goal again, but another wide right would be funny.

I may or may not post tomorrow as I prepare for the big trip to San Diego. If not, hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday. Back in a week!

Adios

Rum and Choke

Ahh Monday, the beginning of a new week, new possibilities, and the need to drink lots of water. Part of my dehydration comes a lot of rum, but also from the intense heat we are having here in south Texas. It was a balmy 95 yesterday with about 70% humidity, and I spent much of the afternoon on the golf course avoiding responsibilities at the house. It was fun though to get out and hit the links with my neighbor, especially since I took him to the cleaners. As I was tearing it up (at least in my mind) so was Tiger at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone in Ohio. Woods rallied back to shoot a 68 to go extra holes with Stewart Cink (who had a 69, yeah dude!). It was Woods’ 5th title at this event and even though he wasn’t playing his best golf, we all knew, even Cink, that Tiger would take the title once it went to a playoff. He is something like 100 and 1 (not that much, but you get the drift) when in a playoff. This man is truly amazing at his sport.

Club football is on hold right now as there is an international break this week. We are about due for one because it seems like it has been only days since the last one (that was sarcastic in case you don’t really know me well). I am steadily growing weary of the international matches, in particular the “friendlies” that only seem to result in injuries to key players. Here is to hoping that all our boys come back a bit rested and injury free.


Finally, I thank my lucky stars that I never spent any money to see the movie “Transporter 2” with Jason Statham. The first one was OK, but holy crap is the second one horrible. Some scenes were about painful as a boot to the head from Alex Ferguson. I did go to high school with co-star Amber Valletta, but that is as near to fame as I’ll ever get. Anyway, the “plot” of this movie is that a kid that Statham is protecting gets kidnapped and injected with a virus that gets transmitted as an airborne agent and immediately affects anyone who comes in contact with the infected person. So, in theory, it keeps getting passed on and on and on, killing everyone all who come in contact with the virus. Also, the bad guys have an antidote to the virus. I may not be Doctor Carter on ER, but viruses aren’t immediately curable by antidotes! So, getting back to the completely horrible and impossible stunts, I nearly pissed myself laughing when Statham’s character drove a Lamborgini up to a jet taking off, jumped on to the front landing gear, then climbed up into the plane (computers anyone?). Then of course, when the plane crashed, there were no injuries and they opened the hatch and swam to the surface. Friggin unreal. I really hope he got a lot of money from the film. I loved Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but Statham has moved on from good films to take on crap action roles. Oh well. Time for me to plan my activities next week.

Adios

Pool Party

A mid-week of travel and nonstop meetings has curtailed the postings here a bit, but I’ll try to get a few more in before my trip to sunny San Diego next week. Arsenal had a 2nd leg match against Dinamo Zagreb last Wednesday and got the first real win at The Grove (2-1 to the Gunners and they move on to the group stage in the CL). Yesterday, the Gunners traveled north to Man City and lost on a penalty kick. The call was justified, but there were few calls for the many fouls on Cesc, one of which lead up to the PK. Such is life in football and you can’t play for decisions from the ref. The team looked OK, but there is still a lack of shots on target and the desire to pass the ball in to the net. The squad looks a bit rusty, Henry especially, but this should start to work its way out over the next few matches. There is an international break next weekend, so hopefully a lot of the players will get some rest (Ahem, Domenech, rest Henry dammit!!!).

There has been a lot of talk about Hoyte in the LB role and Djourou in the CB position. These guys are young and obviously not the first choice, so they can’t be held to task at the same level as seasoned veterans. Djourou has benefited from playing alongside Toure, but Hoyte has struggled a bit more. Eboue on the right side hasn’t been playing up to par either, in my opinion, and seeing Lauren back in the side will help out both the club and Eboue’s growth.

Right now in the Prem, there doesn’t seem to be any real dominant side, apart from ManU. Chelsea lost midweek, but they got the win today though they didn’t play very well and benefited from a stupid play by Ooijer (who turned into a teenage Vicky Pollard and clung to Lampard like he was a free Burberry jumper) to give the Chavs a PK. As it stands now, only Man U have won every match so far (though the season is only 3 matches old). The Gunners have a game in hand and lets hope they can start moving up the table. Also, I did watch Tottenham lose yesterday, so there was a bit of a bright spot in the world of football this weekend!

In Championship football, Plymouth was at Stoke on Saturday and drew level on a 77’ strike by Hayles to put Argyle level. Plymouth currently sit in 8th position on 8 points. Cardiff is tearing the league up with 13 point from 5 matches.


It is now noon on Sunday and decisions have to be made on how to go about the day. I need to mow the lawn, but it isn’t too high right now (thanks to the continues south Texas drought). I need some jeans for the upcoming Fall, but don’t really feel like going to any store as there are still a lot of back to school shoppers. I could go get my new hunting/fishing license, but dove season doesn’t start until. September 22nd. I think I may call a friend with a pool to see about some floating, drinking and grilling. If that doesn’t pan out, I see a nap in my future.

Adios.

Tiger and a Giant

Sunday at the PGA Championship started off with Tiger and Luke Donald tied for first and a number of other players making a run towards the top of the leaderboard. On the first hole, Tiger placed a 7-iron 10 feet from the pin and sunk the birdie putt. That was the beginning of the end for the rest of the field. Donald shot a 74 and was never in contention. Shaun Micheel put on a show, but never threatened. Woods had his way with the course, except for a bogey on 17, and finished at 18 under (tying his own record for a low round in the tourney) to win the Wanamaker Trophy. It is really crazy how focused and good he can play. I am sure everyone on the tour is hoping he goes through another swing overhaul sometime soon.

Two Premiership matches took place on Saturday as the Mancs destroyed Fulham 5-1. Rooney got a brace and even winker-purse-boy Crynaldo got one. The team looked in good form and will likely give the Chavs (who won 2-0 over citeh) a run for the title. But when the Mancs rested a bit, Fulham had some good play and punished the lax in defending by netting a conciliatory goal. This lapse in concentration could come back to haunt them, hopefully when they play the Arsenal!

The rest of the weekend was spent having a heat stroke while mowing, napping, and drinking wine. I’m really looking forward to the Fall when it isn’t so bloody hot out and you can spend more than 2 minutes outdoors without sweating through your shirt. I also watched some pre-season American Football, but can’t really be bothered too much as it is still only pre-season. Oh, and I started preliminary plans for a quick trip over to the new home of football at the Grove in October!

Finally, I thank my lucky stars I never played little league, especially against this kid!!!! I wonder how big he’ll be when he hits puberty!

At Least the Season Started

The season started today and the Gunners hosted Aston Villa and their new manager Martin O’Neill. The Arsenal had some injuries to deal with plus AW left Cashley on the bench because he is likely out the door soon, and therefore had to pull in Freddie before he was ready. Also AW put Henry in upfront though he looked tired and rusty all day. The lineup was:

Lehmann
Eboue Toure Djourou Hoyte
Hleb Cesc Gilberto Ljungberg
Adebayor Henry

The Arsenal started off well and attacked often but there were scenes from last year of the team either trying to get Henry the ball or trying to pass the ball in to the goal. As a result, there weren’t too many shots and the few actually taken weren’t well executed. Arsenal looked to have a late goal, but it was disallowed due to offsides and the match went into halftime 0-0 with the Gunners looking OK. The 2nd half started the same way, but Villa scored on a corner that was headed in by Mellberg in the 54th minute. Lehmann should have stayed on his line, but came out to collect it and instead collided with two others and could only watch as the ball sailed in the net.


Being down a goal in the opening match at the Grove got the team a bit more fired up and Les Boss put on RvP for Ade in the 66th minute. Robin isn’t one to shy away from taking a shot, and he brought a bit of life to the match. A few minutes later the place went up in a roar as wunder-kid Theo Walcott was subbed on for Freddie in the 73rd minute. Let me just say that Walcott really has pace, a good eye for angles and the goal, along with a good touch, especially for a 17 year old. Just to prove that he isn’t all hype, he sent in a beautiful cross just over RvP’s head, but right to the feet of Gilberto who slotted it home for the equalizer in the 83rd minute. Not much else happened after that, though the Arsenal tried to get a winner but didn’t seem to have it in them.

For years I haven’t really been too annoyed with international friendlies or tournaments, but this year you can really see the toll it took on some of the players like Henry and Lehmann who seemed to be going through the paces today. The club should be able to rest most players and send out the kids against Zagred for the midweek CL 2nd leg match.

Plymouth didn’t have much luck today either as they lost on a late game goal to Sheffield Wednesday at home. Their short unbeaten streak ended, but there is still a lot of season left to play. Holloway’s boys play in a Carling Cup match at home against 2nd Division side Walsall. They return to league play on Saturday at Stoke


The last major golf tournament of the year is on right now, and I don’t know why I’m writing instead of watching, but I guess it’s because the wife is out, the kid is asleep and I have a few minutes of silence. Anyway, the PGA Championship is being played at Medinah outside of Chicago and there are a ton of players right up at the top of the leaderboard. Before I left the couch, Luke Donald and Mike Weir were tied for the lead at -13 with Tiger lurking just behind them at -11. Overnight rains made the greens soft and there was a flurry of birdies to start off the day. Things have settled down a bit but it should be an interesting finish and great day of golf tomorrow.

Enough for now.

Adios.

Live at Pompeii

Well my friends, the blog update is a bit late as today was spent in a “project management” training session that went on for 8 hours. Numb and devoid of rational thought, I stumbled up the steps of the garage and headed for the car and pointed it towards home. Upon arrival, mumbles of hello were issued to the wife and child followed by a change of clothes and the slipping on of flip flops. I then planted myself on the couch in hopes of reviving my life, after which my beautiful wife brings over a small package with a return address for Amazon.com. What the bloody hell is this I thought, and then it hit me!! The spur of the moment web purchase this weekend of Pink Floyd’s ‘Live at Pompeii – Director’s Cut’ had arrived! Life surged back into my limbs and I quickly tore open the package, opened the case, and slid the DVD in. Immediately I was thrown back nearly 20 years to the first time I watched it with another Floydster and good friend Michael. I can’t remember what I wore to work yesterday, but the lyrics to Echoes slipped easily off the tongue.












For those who haven’t figured it our, I am a huge Pink Floyd fan and particularly like their earlier stuff and the later album Animals. Theirs is some of the best music and though I only saw them once, on the Pulse tour and sans Roger Waters, I still get goosebumps thinking about their shows. Lets put it this way, I didn’t cry when my father passed away or when my daughter was born, but watching the original lineup (except for Sid of course) perform at Live 8 last summer brought tears to my eyes and choked me up. I know I have a problem but I don’t want it fixed.


Anyway, on to other important matters such as football. We are less than 48 hours from the start of the new season and this could partially account for my inane blabbering about PF. Horray for the new season, the first league match at Ashburton Grove, and all the ups and downs it brings. The summer limbo is nearly over and order will return to my life.

The England squad did a bit of a good job yesterday with a 4-0 defeat of Greece in a friendly match. It seems the dropping of Beckham, a new manager and a bit of rearranging did the trick. Even Lampard scored and he spent the entire month of June terrorizing spectators in the upper decks. Of course, this was a friendly match against a side, who even thought they won Euro ’04, that are pretty crap and only play defensive football. But, hopefully it is a sign of things to come and their form continues into the tournament two summers from now (though that is highly unlikely as history has shown us.)

Robin van Persie also saw action last night and got a goal against Ireland. Good to see he got a good match in and is maturing in the upfront position. As for Ireland, they were hoping to repeat the win 5 years ago that saw them into the World Cup, but alas, they weren’t in the best form. We’ll see if they can turn things around.

Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is almost here. Hopefully I can cut out of work early and get prepared for the Arsenal match on Saturday morning, which of course means going to the liquor store and buying some beer. The wife doesn’t approve of morning drinking, but it just doesn’t feel right watching football while sipping orange juice (unless of course it is mixed with champagne or vodka)!

Adios.

Promise, Leadership and Tortillas

Mid-week international friendlies are going on right now, but do little to quench my thirst for Arsenal and Premiership football. England take the field at OT tonight against Greece (1:45 pm CDT) with new manager Second Choice Steve McClaren and captain John Terry. Not only is Becks not captain (after his stepping down post-WC) but he isn't even on the squad. Beckham is a good footballer, but not great. Plus he was way to passive as captain in my opinion. Will Terry be any better? Who knows, but I do think the vice-captain $tevie G should have been the one to skipper the side.

The youth teams were also at it this week and Walcott scored after 3 minutes against Moldova for the England U21 side. Although the match ended 2-2 and Theo was subbed off after 66 minutes, it was still a good run for him. I hope he continues to develop and I’m sure he’ll get few first team starts this season along with the Carling Cup and early FA Cup rounds. Cesc and Reyes both played for Spain in their draw with Iceland, and RvP will likely take the field for Holland tonight against Ireland.


Moving back to Cesc, I know I’ve already lauded the kid (he’s only 19 by the way) and am amazed by his maturity, but I’m going to do it some more. As mentioned before and stated in this article, we've been watching this kid grow and develop over the last few years and he has gotten better and developed so fast it is stunning. It all came together last season, in my opinion, when he totally owned Patrick Vieira in the CL match against Juve. It reminded me of the Vader and Obi Wan scene from Star Wars:


I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I met you I was but the learner. Now, I am the master.

I know, a dorky comparison, and Cesc is actually good-not evil and not that Vieira is either... but oh well, it seemed right to me at the time. Anyway, Cesc is not only maturing on the pitch, but off as well. Maybe AW can get him to teach some yoga classes, Zen training seminars, or something to the rest of the team! It is the exact opposite of Cesc’s actions that will cause Cole to be vilified by Arsenal faithful.

Not much else going on football wise though. No new transfers and we’re only a few days from the start of the season. So, get you gear out, your kit shined up and set the alarm clocks!


In my world outside of football (which is limited ;)) I finished my Japanese book “Out” as mentioned previously. It was pretty good and not what I expected. As a result, I'd like to read some more Japanese literature, which will win me big points at home! An interesting aspect of Japanese culture and literature/movies is that they don’t really beat around the bush and aren’t afraid to dive in to dark subjects. Also, it is interesting to watch movies based on Japanese novels such as The Ring, and The Grudge. In these stories, there is evil and it can’t always be stopped. If you come across it, you’re screwed! The hero of the story doesn’t always win. Now I am reading the book “The Tortilla Curtain” which deals with immigration issues in southern California. It is starting alright and we’ll see how it goes. The book was sitting around the house when I finished my other one, so there you go.

Hasta manana.

Hark, Doest Football Calleth Me?

Friends and neighbors, gather round!! The football season is drawing nigh. This Sunday past, scousers rejoiced as John Arne Riise’d to the occasion and slotted home a cracker of a shot while Peter the Bean Stalk chopped down the Chav giants and brought Liverpool the win. If you failed to follow all of that, last Sunday was the Community Shield, which is a charity pre-season match between League champs (Chelsea) and FA Cup winners (Liverpool). For the first time in many years, Arsenal was not featured in the match, but I watched it anyway as it is a sign that the season is about to start.


Before the match even began, Mourinho was getting in his excuses early by stating that the team wasn’t really ready or fit. True or not, ‘pool came out and were all over the ball. In the 9th minute, Riise collected the ball from a Chelsea kick near his own 18 yard box and sprinted the length of the pitch before unloading a powerful shot that skipped below Cudicini. Sheva leveled for the Chavs just before the half on a nice 1v1 with GK Reina. The Reds continued to dominate the match and got a goal from Crouch who headed in the cross from new signing Craig Bellamy. As an Arsenal man, I can only get so excited, but it was great to see the billionaire’s boys lose.

On Saturday in the Championship, Plymouth won (3-2) on the road again as they defeated Sunderpants in the Stadium of Blight. Niall Quinn is not having much luck and the Black Cats are 0-0-3. But Plymouth with this win are currently in 3rd position with 7 points (2-1-0). Not a bad start and Holloway reflected on Sunderpants poor performance:

"I said at half-time that I wouldn't want to be in the other dressing room. The fans weren't happy and there was a lot of negativity out there."


Gaelic Football quarterfinals were shown last night on the good old Setanta, though they cut off the last minute of the Mayo v. Laois match! Arggh! The match was close the entire time and when the nitwit in charge of programming switched to an advert for the upcoming Prem season, Laois was up 0-15 to 0-14 with Mayo in possession of the ball and heading to score. And score they did, tying the match and forcing a replay. The other match was Dublin v. Westmeath and the Dubs had a fairly easy win scoring 1-12 to Westmeath’s 0-5. The semifinals are coming up soon.

In hurling, the season is almost over (timing was never my strong point) with Kilkenny and Cork preparing to go head to head for the third time in four seasons in Croke Park on September 3rd. I’ll be pulling for Kilkenny only because some friends of mine who own a pub in Miami Beach are from there and they gave me lots of free pints!!

Adios for today

Miami Wiess Number 1 Show!!!

Yesterday I was out in the field on an airboat pretending I was in an episode of Miami Vice (which is the number one show in Bratislava by the way!), so I am just now getting around to the great Arsenal win 3-0 over Dinamo Zagreb. The match was without starters such as Jens Lehmann (suspension for red card in CL Final), Thierry Henry (not match fit yet) and Ashley Cole (because he is an ass), but with Gilberto being the midfield general and youngsters such as the Fabulous Cesc tearing it up, we got an important away win and are surely through to the group stages of the CL. Cesc got a brace (63, 79) and Robin van Persie (64) scored one minute after Cesc’s first!

It was Cesc’s 100th match on Tuesday, which is amazing as he is only just turned 19! He has shown maturity, intelligence and incredible football awareness and it will just get better. The Gunners are truly blessed to have him on the roster and he fully deserves the No. 4 jersey in my opinion. Oh, and here is a picture for Steph. Here is another pic for the fellas. Have to keep it on a level playing field here.












Also, did I mention how glad I am to get DirecTV with FSC, GolTV and now most importantly Setanta? I mention this because I read today that there will be no more PPV matches in the US, so they only way to catch an Arsenal match on Setanta is to have Setanta. Yea to me and my brilliant future predictions. Wish it worked on the Lotto.

Colchester 0-1 Plymouth

Plymouth got a win on Tuesday night by a goal from midfielder Luke Summerfield who marked his first start for the club. The winner came as a powerful 25-yard shot after a poor clearance. Word around the water cooler, well the message boards is that Summerfield is the son of former Argyle player Kevin Summerfield who played from 1984 to 1990 in 162 games and scored 34 goals. The match was against newly promoted Colchester, but was a hard fought game and away at that. Good to see the Argyle winning on the road. Manager Ian Holloway was happy with the win and complemented the traveling fans as only he could:

"When you think how far the fans have come to watch a Tuesday night game it doesn't really make sense and I'd like to thank them all.”

Argyle are currently in 10th position, but that doesn’t mean much this early in the campaign. Next match is away at the Stadium of Blight against Sunderpants. Another road win would do just nicely!!

Till next time.

CL Football is Starting!!

Tonight is the first real match of the season and it is the Q3 Champions League qualifier against Croatian club Dinano Zagreb. There are a number of players out tonight, but the youngsters have been looking pretty good in the preseason matches. It will still be tough, but I think the Gunners will pull a 2-1 victory.


Freddie Ljungberg (ankle), Gael Clichy (foot), Philippe Senderos (shoulder), Abou Diaby (ankle) and Lauren (knee). Jens Lehmann is suspended his red in the CL Final against Barca. Theo, Thierry Henry and Cashley Cole (but we all know his real reason) are still getting back to fitness after the WC. Wenger has a lot of respect for Zagreb, but of course picks the Gunners to win it

“From what I have seen, Zagreb are technically very good and they pass the ball out well from the back,” said Wenger. “They are very creative so I expect them to attack a lot on the ground rather than in the air.”

“We have watched them three or four times and I have seen them twice on tape recently. They have players who have played against us before like Jens Nowotny plus a good mixture of Croatian, Brazilian and German players. They have a lot of experience and they seem to be a mature team.”

“I respect Zagreb but I believe in the resolve of my team to repeat the performance of last year. We went to the Final without losing a game. That is no coincidence. We have enough confidence to feel we want to go back to the Final again and win it.”


In the transfer news, there are rumors that Arsenal are going to sign Marseille and French international player Frank Ribery. I’m not really sure where he will fit in and it seems we need more depth in the back 4 rather than the middle, but with Diaby out for awhile it may make sense. Ribery has a lot of hustle, but not always the best at linking up with others or great at putting shots on targets. If the rumors are true though, you have to think that as usual, Arsene knows.

It looks as if Sol Campbell is set to join Pompey on £50,000 per week terms for one year, with an option to re-up for another year. Sol had a medical yesterday and it is down to the signing and announcement now. Good to see Sol went abroad like he said he would when he asked the club to buy out his contract. Meh.

Cashley’s departure will likely be this week as AW wants this all sorted before the weekend. Cole didn’t travel to Zagreb so he won’t be cup tied. Lets just get this over with.


And it was reported yesterday that Crespo has left Chavski to sign for Inter. Glad to see that Argie bastard leave the Prem. The Chavs also lost Joe Cole until December during their match with the MLS all-stars. My buddy Graeme was at that match and proudly wore the only Argyle kit in the whole stadium!! Anyway, even though the Chavs have a full starting XI on the bench, a few losses are good to see (not that I want to see any injuries to players) and hopefully Drogba will leave as well.

Speaking of Argyle and to wrap up the football stories, Plymouth drew with Mick McCarthy’s Wolves on Saturday. Argyle went up 1-0 in the first half, but conceded an own goal after a shot by O’Connell was deflected into the goal just 90 seconds into the second half. Tonight they travel to Colchester. Come on Argyle!!

GAA and Me

There was a slight delay in new posts as I was lazy and didn’t do it. No valid reason, just lazy.


Anyway, as promised here is a post dedicated to my newfound interest into Gaelic Football and Hurling, which are both regulated by the Gaelic Athletic Association, or GAA. A quick wikipedia search gave me a quick rundown on the rules and few ins and outs on how the game is played. One of the interesting facts is that the players are all amateurs! Great to see the sport is played for the love of it and not the money.

The sport is a bit like football, rugby, and Australian Rules Football all combined. Here are some quick points:

- Pitch is similar in size to a football pitch
- The ball is similar to a football,
- Ball is a bit heavier with horizontal stitching rather than hexagonal
- Use of hands are allowed
- You can kick the ball, handpass, or solo (which is kicking the ball to yourself)
- Can’t throw the ball
- Can’t go more than four steps without releasing, bouncing or soloing the ball.
- Tackling is allowed and is more robust than in football, but less than rugby


Scoring:
If the ball goes over the crossbar, a point is scored and a white flag is raised by an umpire. If the ball goes below the crossbar, a goal, worth three points, is scored, and a green flag is raised by an umpire. The goal is guarded by a goalkeeper. Scores are recorded in the format {goal total}-{point total}. For example, the 1991 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final finished Meath 0-15 Roscommon 1-11. Thus Meath won "fifteen points to one-eleven" (1-11 being worth 14 points). (From wikipedia).

As with most sports, watching it helps to explain some of what is going on. The best way is to watch with someone in the know, but as there are hardly any football fans here in Corpus, there are likely even fewer Gaelic Football aficionados here! Hopefully someday though. And I’ll be checking in with my new friends at Munchen Comcilles for more updates. As a note to the person I was commenting, with send me an email and we can discuss the game even more.


And it seems that the climax of the season is coming up with the All Ireland Final coming up in the end of September. There are some matches on Setanta tonight, so I better wrap this up and go in and watch some!!!

Back to normal day to day crap tomorrow. Maybe.

Cole Tied Up? and Ryder Blues

The transition is now complete and I am the proud viewer of satellite TV!! I am sure most everyone I know is sick of hearing about it, but I can’t help it. The European football season is about to start up and now I can watch lots more of it. Heck, I even get coverage of rugby, hurling, and Gaelic football. If you haven’t seen either hurling or Gaelic football, they are crazy sports but fun to watch. I watched a little of the Irish footie before turning in last night. Good times.

Today’s events in the Cole-play drama is that Arsenal are looking to name Cashley to the roster for the CL match against Dinamo Zagreb next week. If he were to play, he would then be cup tied and couldn’t play for Chelsea during CL matches. The Arsenal boardroom looks to force the Chav’s hand with this move. Reportedly, Arsenal wants £25m for Cole and has rejected a £15.5 bid already. I can’t really believe I am following this so much. Don’t tell my wife because this saga is as bad as the soap operas she watches!!


In other Arsenal news, youngster Fabrice Muamba is heading to Championship side Birmingham City for a year loan. Muamba, an 18 year old midfielder, made a couple of first team appearances in Carling cup matches against Sunderland and Reading last season. He has a good hard tackling game, slightly reminiscent of Vieira, and the Championship level of play should help develop that even more. Hopefully he will get some good experience and lots of first team play. All the best to Fabrice.


And here is a picture of Freddie Ljungberg for Steph. (I gotta do something to keep the readership up!!) Reports are that he will miss the first match or two of the season due to foot problems, but it shouldn't be much more than that. Hopefully he gets it all sorted and doesn't have to drain his foot after every match like the end of last season. Yuch!

The Women’s British Open has kicked off at Royal Lytham and Michelle Wie has opened with a 2 over 74. Not too bad for a 16 year old, especially considering Karie Webb opened with a 76. Keep an eye on this young lady!!


And there are only 3 more tourneys before the Ryder Cup team is picked. The US team will consist of the top 10 players on the Ryder Cup points list. This list is not the same as the world rankings though and there are some new names, relative unknowns, and could be fluke tourney winners on this list. Therefore, a lot of talk about who will be playing has filed the broadsheets for weeks. Of course Tiger and Phil will make the cut, and most likely Jim Furyk, Chad Campbell, David Toms and Chris DiMarco will make it. But the next four, J.J. Henry, Zach Johnson, Brett Wetterich and John Rollins, are relatively unknown rookies. Team captain Tom Lehmann can pick two additional players and these could be “known” veterans to round out the squad. But I say stick with the rookies. Can’t hurt seeing as we’ve had out arses handed to us recently when we played all the big names. Maybe a shake-up is due.

That’s enough for today. Enjoy your Must-See-TV reruns and start preparing for the weekend.

We're Getting Closer Friends!

August is finally here, which means league football is right around the corner friends! Even Cesc is excited!! The transfer market is starting to heat up (heard today Vieira went to Inter for £6.5m) and Mourinho is starting his inane tirades. Injury reports are starting to come in, squads are finalizing, and I’m ecstatic!! The dull void that occurred after the WC is starting to fill in as the Championship is set to kick off this weekend and the Gunners have CL match a week from today. Good times are coming my friend.

In the latest edition of the Cashley Cole saga, Arsenal has now told Cole’s publisher that they cannot use club photographs in the upcoming autobiography. Arsenal had previously consented to their use as they have the copyright, but after all the shenanigans, they are pulling their permission. It is a bit petty, but hey, he started it! ;)

The satellite is supposed to be installed today, so I am hoping to watch tons of football tonight! This may be the next step towards my wife leaving me, but I gotta do what I gotta do. Football fanaticism is a disease, right?

More from Ian Holloway:

“I reckon the ball was traveling at 400mph, and I bet it burned the keeper's eyebrows off”

“Whoever picks up this baton has to be able to carry it forward”



In other areas of life, I just finished reading “Cash” by Johnny Cash. It was a pretty decent autobiography, but it dealt with a lot of the later aspects of his life. I’ll have to look for his earlier autobiography to fill in the details. He did lead a pretty crazy life and has done some very interesting things and met/performed with tons great people. I am now reading a book called “Out” by Japanese author Natsuo Kirino. My wife suggested it and said it was one of her favorite books in a long while. She really has been into Asian authors and almost anything else Asian. I had to ask her to stop shopping at World Market though as our house was starting to look like a pagoda!

Finally, I am going to have to put in a word verification on comments portion of the blog as I got two spam messages yesterday. Not that anyone reads this thing, let alone comments, but there you go.

Heat Wave

Not a whole lot happening in the world of Cam today, except that it is still hot as Hades here in South Texas (and the rest of the US apparently). It will be over 100 again in Chicago today. I love that city, but would not want to be there right now! Temperatures in the 80’s would be a welcome break, but that won’t happen any time soon as we don’t get cool fronts down here until about October or November.

Like the Israeli strikes on Hezbollah, the Cole saga is intensifying with Cole reporting to training in London (while everyone else is in Austria) and leaving only an hour later claiming to be ill. Cole seems to be staging a standoff against the club in order to be transferred elsewhere. I don’t care how good the kid is, the way he has treated the club over the last year is horrible and I hope he is on his way out for a tidy sum soon enough.

Vieira looks to be jumping off the Old Lady sinking ship as Juventus are being relegated to Serie B. Reports are that he wants to move to Old Trafford, but I don’t really see him playing for Fergie and ManU. Stranger things have happened in football.

Finally, in my quest for more football, I have signed up for DirecTV and it should be installed tomorrow evening!!! I am now going to get Fox Soccer Channel, GolTV (which carries Arsenal TV programming, YEAH!) and Setanta (PPV matches, UEFA matches, and Championship matches). I am a bit excited about it all and happy to be rid of crappy Time Warner Cable.

And to keep the Ian Holloway link going, here are some more great quotes:

“It's very difficult to bring in players with the current rules and even if you want to bring in a loan you often have to pay loan fees.”

“When their man was sent off, it seemed to wake up the crowd and give them someone to get their teeth into and fortunately for us that was the referee,”