Adios Scum and Woods Wins Everything

It’s Monday. Booooo! Actually, it is somewhat nice out and the weekend was nice, so I can’t complain. Too much that is. I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. Right.

Anyway, with that inane tidbit out of the way, it’s time to talk about important stiff, namely the Arsenal! The boys in red traveled up into scumville to take on Tottenham Hotspurs (it hurts to write that out) in a North London Derby. For those not in the know, these bastids are Arsenal’s oldest rivals, which makes this and the home match the biggest games of the year. Man U and Chelski are big matches too, but these are the ones that all Arsenal supporters wait for. When I decided to make my first trip over to England, I wanted this away match to be part of the schedule. It means so much to keep these guys from winning. Most supporters outside of England have a hard time with this being a big rivalry due to Sperz being crap, but go to a match and you’ll quicklyt understand. It has to be experienced.

On to the match. The game started OK for both sides with some back and forth play and then Gilberto brought down Berbatov just outside the box for a free kick to Sperz. New signing, 18 yro Bale took the shot left footed, bent it around the wall and past Almunia. Argh. 1-nil down early in the match. Some say the wall wasn’t set well, the Hleb should have done more to get in the way, and that Almunia should have covered the shot. No matter what, the ball went in. Not a great position to be in, but there you go. Arsenal have been there before and know what to do.

The Gunners stuck to their game plan and continued to play the way they like to, which is open and attacking. The half ended with them still down, but there were some good chances, especially the sitter that Diaby put over Robinson but clanged against the bar. As a note, that is now 2 that Diaby should have put away in my opinion. Anyway, the Gunners got going again in the second half and kept attacking with another sitter missed by Adebayor. The Togolese striker made up for it though by heading a free kick to go level with the scum. Sperz nearly went ahead when Berbatov got the ball clear in space and Almunia came running out of the box at him like Lampard to free pies. Berbatov then rounded Almunia and looked sure to score but King Kolo came back and tackled the ball away. Whew! Then 10 minutes from time, after a few nice passes, Cesc got the ball about 25 yards out with some space. “SHOOOOOOT!!!!!” I screamed, scaring my wife and daughter. Cesc must have heard it in England and let rip a shot the sent Robinson flying but unable to stop it. Arsenal were now up 2-1!! Could this be it? Not this Arsenal. Most teams would be happy to sit on the ball, take it into the corner, waste time, etc. Instead, the boys kept pushing with Denilson having a great chance (which he missed) and Adebayor teeing up a great volley (which didn’t miss). Once this went in, the scum headed for the door so they could get behind the police line early and have a good position to shout obscenities at the Arsenal leaving the ground. 3 points from the 3-1 win saw Arsenal move to the top of the table where they should be. Hey Chicken Littles, how you like them apples?! Stupid Chicken Littles.

With that out of the way and feeling chipper, I took the family out for a bit of lunch at a place with a nice new kids playground. After stuffing ourselves and letting the little one wear herself out, it was time to head home and take a rest. A quick snooze later, it was time to watch some World Cup rugby I had taped. England played South Africa on Friday and I was contemplating buy the match on PPV, but decided the money was better spent on a round of golf. I shot an 82 and found out later that England got crushed. Smart move by me! In fact England were embarrassed, at least so I thought. I’m new to rugby, but being the current cup holders, you wouldn’t think they would be beaten 36-0. Nil!!! Not even a drop goal. Heck, even Portugal got a try and a few kicks in against the All Blacks in the 108 to 13 hiding. England aren’t looking too good right now and they lost the one player (Robinson to a hamstring injury) who looked any good against the Springboks. As a result, Toby Flood has been called into duty and talisman Jonny Wilkinson (Wilko) has decided he is fit and will play against Samoa on Saturday. The next matches coming up are Scotland v. Romania tomorrow and Italy v. Portugal on Wednesday.



Finally, as I’ve finished with my lunch hour and am now on company time, Tiger Woods has notched another win at the Tour Championship, which earned him $1.26m and placed him 1 win short of Arnold Palmers record of 62 wins. There is still Nicklaus at 75 and Snead at 82, but Woods is only 31 and has plenty of time. Crazy. The win on Sunday also secured him the inaugural FedEx Cup, which was a season long points tournament with 4 playoff tourneys (the Tour Championship being the last). This win gave him a nice little bonus of $10m. Yes, 10. Crazy. I’m sure Tiger was happy, but I bet caddie Steve Williams was loving his 10%, or $1.126m for 4 days work! I know I talk a lot about Tiger, but there isn’t too much else to talk about. Especially when he is killing it right now. The next big event will be the President’s Cup which is like the Ryder Cup and pits the US versus the rest of the world (or the international team). More on that as we get closer.

I think that is more than enough for today. I need to mow the yard tonight, but the thought of heading to the driving range sounds more fun. I’ve been hitting it a lot better lately and I’d like to work on a few things. We’ll see.

Adios.

Stupid Scum

I was hoping to make it a full month between posts, and I succeeded!! Hah! Hurrah for me. Yeah. Oh. Uh, Ok. So anyway, here’s a post to get things going again. I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine, so hopefully this post makes sense!!

A lot has gone on in the interim since my last sojourn into the blogosphere. I went to Tulsa and caught one day at the PGA. I managed to follow Ian Poulter (who is a massive Gooner) for awhile and when he saw my Arsenal shirt, he tossed me the ball he had just played on that hole! Ian tossed it to me and I stopped it, but let the kid next to me pick it up. The kid was really stoked, which was fun. Also, I found out my preggo wife is carrying a boy! Huzzah again!! Now I’ll have some help with all these crazy ass women in my life! At least that’s what I’m hoping.

On to more important things: Arsenal. The season started and we are 4 matches into the season and have played 2 Champions League qualifier matches. If you were to believe all the Chicken Littles over the summer who thought the whole club was going to implode with Dein leaving along with Henry, then you would be so stupid. The Arsenal have won 3 league matches and drawn 1 (the Blackburn match should have been a win except for a howler by Lehmann). The 2 CL matches against Sparta Prague were wins as well. The Chicken Littles would have also have had you believe that our midfield was in tatters and couldn’t score to save their lives. Cesc has 4 goals. Hleb and Rosicky have 2 each. Stupid Chicken Littles.

So this past 2 weeks has been an international break. Normally the Arsenal squad would have come back in tatters. However, the squad is mostly intact, which is a nice change of pace, especially before the North London Derby this weekend. The Arsenal travel about 6 miles to Shite Hart Lane to take on the Scum on Saturday morning (well noonish over there). I’d love to see a win but would be happy with a draw in that shite hole. And it is one. I’ve been there. Anyway, I’m predicting a 2-1 scoreline with the winner coming in the 81st minute.

I’ve also been watching some of the Rugby World Cup which is taking place in France. There have been some good matches so far with the US doing fairly well (though still losing) against Engerland. Tomorrow is the 3 lions versus South Africa. The match is on PPV for $25, so I think I’ll be waiting for the rebroadcast on Saturday. Good stuff.

And for a final rant, I’d like to go off on the signing of our national anthem. As mentioned above, I’ve been watching the Rugby World Cup and they play the anthem for both nations prior to matches. The anthem is either pre-recorded or someone who sings it as it is written, properly. The players sing along, and are sometimes moved to tears. Then I watched an NFL match on Sunday. The woman singing the anthem went through all the R&B “ohho o ohhhohhohhhhhhssssss” whenever possible. This is really driving me nuts. The anthem is the anthem. It is supposed to be sung along with by the crowd in attendance, which is a bit hard to do when someone is trying to “put their mark” on it. It isn’t their friggin song! They aren’t better than the nation! Sing the anthem as it is supposed to be sung. The singing of the anthem at a sporting event should be an honor, not a reason to show off.

And with that, I think I’ll call it a night. I need to turn in so I can be rested for cutting out of work early tomorrow!

Adios.