And Now My Footcer Heart Rate Can Return To Normal
On the bright side, I'm now free of worries on Saturday mornings until August. But, this is still the saddest day of the year - the end of the Premiership for another year. This year was especially sad since Alan Shearer retired and Highbury closed. Sure it's two teams that I could care less about but it's still the end of something big.
Just a quick aside on a related note, "When The Lights Go Out In London" by The Charlatans U.K. is possibly my favorite new song in the past couple months of 2006.
And as the lights go out on another Premiership season, I guess it's time to look back on all my smack talking predictions and see how accurate I was.
First the biggie (the whole league predicted #1-20):
Actual place in parentheses.
#1 (1) Chelsea - Got that one, but that was a gimmie.
#2 (2) Manchester United - Nailed this one too and I'm much more proud of it since everyone was predicting Malcolm Glazer would mean the apocalypse way before January of the year.
#3 (4) Arsenal - My exact reasoning was: "still looking for a goalie and Viera is going to hurt." Huzzah, got the logic right, just the place one wrong. :)
#4 (3) Liverpool - This is one where I should have gone with my gut because I stated: "actually considered putting Liverpool ahead of Arsenal but there's no way the Gunners finish 4th." I could claim oracle like wisdom on this one since really the Gunners should have finished 5th or 6th. :)
#5 (8) Bolton - My picks start turning to crap here. ;)
#6 (5) Tottenham - Another place where I thought one thing and typed another. For the record I said, "more talent than Bolton. This is the year they take the next leap." Yeah, next time I say a team has more talent, I should probably place them ahead of the other team.
#7 (16) Aston Villa - Looks like I bought into the big club hype. Relegation next year? :)
#8 (14) Middlesbrough - Well, maybe the reading I was getting was on a UEFA Cup run, not near a UEFA Cup spot.
#9 (11) Everton - Oops, just the wrong side of mid-table. But I did predict their meteoric fall back down the standings.
#10 (13) Charlton - Who knew they would start their new year swoon in October?
#11 (18) Birmingham - The exact comment I made was: "no real comment, they're just there. Teams that are just there finish mid-table." Or teams that are just there with no scoring punch at all get relegated.
#12 (6) Blackburn - I did have them rising ("the team everyone will love to hate will make people hate them by actually winning this year.") but I didn't realize the heights.
#13 (15) Manchester City - Close enough predicting gloom and doom. Ironically I said they were in disarray to begin the season but really the chaos only started once Andy Cole got injured. Which is odd because last year the chaos ended at Fulham when the same thing happened.
#14 (17) Portsmouth - I said people were underestimating Pompey. No, I was overestimating them but it all evened out in the end.
#15 (12) Fulham - They were all ready to make me correct and then they had to start winning to make me happy instead.
#16 (6) Newcastle United - My news of Newcastle United's impending death proved false. 6, 16, they look similar. The crystal ball was just foggy.
#17 (9) West Ham - "they're putting the pieces together to do some damage in the future. Enough is in place now to keep them up." To which the Hammers responded, "this season is the future."
#18 (20) Sunderland - Hey I said they were going down, didn't I?
#19 (19) West Brom - This was my favorite of my predictions: "won't be pulling any escaping acts this year except escaping the Premiership." Therefore I'm glad it was 100% correct.
#20 (10) Wigan - Again, 20, 10, they look similar. Here's my prediction: "you can't compete in the Premiership on an MLS level salary structure." In other news, the Los Angeles Galaxy just signed Henri Camara. Just kidding. :)
I'm much more proud of my side bets, however. The one I'm most proud of was getting the number of losses for Chelsea exactly right. I wish I had put down money on it because I think the odds of Chelsea losing five was probably enough to let me quit my job. I can't find where it's in writing but I've reminded people of the prediction in my LiveJournal every time Chelsea lost.
Next year, however, Chelsea is back to losing only three so we should all revel in how many times Chelsea got beat this year. :)
By the way, I also predicted the top three in La Liga correctly and won my fantasy league if anyone wants to hire me next year.
The actual picture of the victory standing tomorrow (as I'm sure Yahoo is just calculating accuracy) but I had goals from Defoe, Pires, and Saha today (with Saha's being the game winner) with assists from Greening and Nolan. Jaaskelainen got a clean sheet as did Gary Neville.
My main competitor bet the house on Steven Gerrard. He no longer has a house. But he does still have his second place trophy. I finished ahead of him four weeks in a row to end the season. Yeah, I just spotted him a 90 point lead as of week 34 to give him a false sense of confidence.
I had some really crap weeks, but I can't argue with having a good week when it actually really matters.
Too bad he's a sore loser and even though he made five changes he said that he forgot to make any. I wonder who it really is and if I can rub it in his face at Fire matches since it was a Chicago Fire Fans league.
FROM 5/6/06:
I almost turned off the Revolution match on ESPN2 this afternoon because there was a really close Valencia (who are battling Real Madrid to the wire for 2nd in La Liga) match on Gol TV. Then I said to myself, "why not just watch the Revolution demolish the Galaxy until the end with a huge smile on my face."
Sure the Galaxatives won the match that mattered last year and are MLS champions but the Revolution proved yet again who the better of the two teams are.
And, Cobi Jones is still an overrated bigmouth who can kiss my ass! :)
Anyhow, back to the positive. Taylor Twellman scored the first goal of the match after only five minutes to show something to Bruce Arena before leaping into the crowd in front of a giant red, white, and blue sign that said, "WHY NOT TAYLOR?"
While I really appreciate the sentiment, I'm one of the few people in the entirety of the United States footcer community who agrees with Bruce Arena for the selection of the fourth striker (assuming Josh Wolff was the third).
Here's the reason (that I probably should have expressed on here some time ago), Brian McBride and Taylor Twellman both wear #20. That's not saying the reason not to include Taylor Twellman is because there would be a numbers squabble but because they wear the same number for a pretty good reason - both are the same type of player.
Now, mind you, I think Brian McBride is the best player the United States has behind DaMarcus Beasley but he's not the world's greatest goal creator. He's a great goal scorer - as a poacher. He can get his head to any cross and he sniffs out rebounds like a bloodhound. But don't run him at a defenders - it's not his strength. The same is true of Taylor Twellman. Twellman needs the rest of the United States B Team Revolution to create for him. Hence why he's not a #9.
Which of course is a position that the United States really, really lack and why we're not considered a real world power. I mean there are entire clubs in Europe and many other national teams that don't have one - at least a real one. But why bring a spare poacher when you can bring three creators along with one of the better poachers currently playing.
But I do understand the logic of bringing the best player available in each position and Twellman is our second best striker available.
Though that being said, the joke that I've made to other "WHY NOT TAYLOR?" folks is that he's the next big United States star in Europe so why would we want to give him a free ticket over - he might not come back. And, well, this way only one Revolution player is going to get taken away during the summer transfer window on European wings.
But back to the sillier footcer news which I do better rather than that boulderdash serious stuff that I get wrong half the time anyhow. Or not as the only story that I've come across is "next year maybe in England?"
For those who don't want to click the link, it's the story on Shakhtar Donetsk playing Dynamo Kiev for all the marbles as the teams stand deadlocked at 74 points at the end of the second and final half of the Ukrainian split season.
Hades, what am I saying next year in England. Next year in the United States? MLS needs to institute split season by the time of 2010 World Cup at least.
Just a quick aside on a related note, "When The Lights Go Out In London" by The Charlatans U.K. is possibly my favorite new song in the past couple months of 2006.
And as the lights go out on another Premiership season, I guess it's time to look back on all my smack talking predictions and see how accurate I was.
First the biggie (the whole league predicted #1-20):
Actual place in parentheses.
#1 (1) Chelsea - Got that one, but that was a gimmie.
#2 (2) Manchester United - Nailed this one too and I'm much more proud of it since everyone was predicting Malcolm Glazer would mean the apocalypse way before January of the year.
#3 (4) Arsenal - My exact reasoning was: "still looking for a goalie and Viera is going to hurt." Huzzah, got the logic right, just the place one wrong. :)
#4 (3) Liverpool - This is one where I should have gone with my gut because I stated: "actually considered putting Liverpool ahead of Arsenal but there's no way the Gunners finish 4th." I could claim oracle like wisdom on this one since really the Gunners should have finished 5th or 6th. :)
#5 (8) Bolton - My picks start turning to crap here. ;)
#6 (5) Tottenham - Another place where I thought one thing and typed another. For the record I said, "more talent than Bolton. This is the year they take the next leap." Yeah, next time I say a team has more talent, I should probably place them ahead of the other team.
#7 (16) Aston Villa - Looks like I bought into the big club hype. Relegation next year? :)
#8 (14) Middlesbrough - Well, maybe the reading I was getting was on a UEFA Cup run, not near a UEFA Cup spot.
#9 (11) Everton - Oops, just the wrong side of mid-table. But I did predict their meteoric fall back down the standings.
#10 (13) Charlton - Who knew they would start their new year swoon in October?
#11 (18) Birmingham - The exact comment I made was: "no real comment, they're just there. Teams that are just there finish mid-table." Or teams that are just there with no scoring punch at all get relegated.
#12 (6) Blackburn - I did have them rising ("the team everyone will love to hate will make people hate them by actually winning this year.") but I didn't realize the heights.
#13 (15) Manchester City - Close enough predicting gloom and doom. Ironically I said they were in disarray to begin the season but really the chaos only started once Andy Cole got injured. Which is odd because last year the chaos ended at Fulham when the same thing happened.
#14 (17) Portsmouth - I said people were underestimating Pompey. No, I was overestimating them but it all evened out in the end.
#15 (12) Fulham - They were all ready to make me correct and then they had to start winning to make me happy instead.
#16 (6) Newcastle United - My news of Newcastle United's impending death proved false. 6, 16, they look similar. The crystal ball was just foggy.
#17 (9) West Ham - "they're putting the pieces together to do some damage in the future. Enough is in place now to keep them up." To which the Hammers responded, "this season is the future."
#18 (20) Sunderland - Hey I said they were going down, didn't I?
#19 (19) West Brom - This was my favorite of my predictions: "won't be pulling any escaping acts this year except escaping the Premiership." Therefore I'm glad it was 100% correct.
#20 (10) Wigan - Again, 20, 10, they look similar. Here's my prediction: "you can't compete in the Premiership on an MLS level salary structure." In other news, the Los Angeles Galaxy just signed Henri Camara. Just kidding. :)
I'm much more proud of my side bets, however. The one I'm most proud of was getting the number of losses for Chelsea exactly right. I wish I had put down money on it because I think the odds of Chelsea losing five was probably enough to let me quit my job. I can't find where it's in writing but I've reminded people of the prediction in my LiveJournal every time Chelsea lost.
Next year, however, Chelsea is back to losing only three so we should all revel in how many times Chelsea got beat this year. :)
By the way, I also predicted the top three in La Liga correctly and won my fantasy league if anyone wants to hire me next year.
The actual picture of the victory standing tomorrow (as I'm sure Yahoo is just calculating accuracy) but I had goals from Defoe, Pires, and Saha today (with Saha's being the game winner) with assists from Greening and Nolan. Jaaskelainen got a clean sheet as did Gary Neville.
My main competitor bet the house on Steven Gerrard. He no longer has a house. But he does still have his second place trophy. I finished ahead of him four weeks in a row to end the season. Yeah, I just spotted him a 90 point lead as of week 34 to give him a false sense of confidence.
I had some really crap weeks, but I can't argue with having a good week when it actually really matters.
Too bad he's a sore loser and even though he made five changes he said that he forgot to make any. I wonder who it really is and if I can rub it in his face at Fire matches since it was a Chicago Fire Fans league.
FROM 5/6/06:
I almost turned off the Revolution match on ESPN2 this afternoon because there was a really close Valencia (who are battling Real Madrid to the wire for 2nd in La Liga) match on Gol TV. Then I said to myself, "why not just watch the Revolution demolish the Galaxy until the end with a huge smile on my face."
Sure the Galaxatives won the match that mattered last year and are MLS champions but the Revolution proved yet again who the better of the two teams are.
And
Anyhow, back to the positive. Taylor Twellman scored the first goal of the match after only five minutes to show something to Bruce Arena before leaping into the crowd in front of a giant red, white, and blue sign that said, "WHY NOT TAYLOR?"
While I really appreciate the sentiment, I'm one of the few people in the entirety of the United States footcer community who agrees with Bruce Arena for the selection of the fourth striker (assuming Josh Wolff was the third).
Here's the reason (that I probably should have expressed on here some time ago), Brian McBride and Taylor Twellman both wear #20. That's not saying the reason not to include Taylor Twellman is because there would be a numbers squabble but because they wear the same number for a pretty good reason - both are the same type of player.
Now, mind you, I think Brian McBride is the best player the United States has behind DaMarcus Beasley but he's not the world's greatest goal creator. He's a great goal scorer - as a poacher. He can get his head to any cross and he sniffs out rebounds like a bloodhound. But don't run him at a defenders - it's not his strength. The same is true of Taylor Twellman. Twellman needs the rest of the United States B Team Revolution to create for him. Hence why he's not a #9.
Which of course is a position that the United States really, really lack and why we're not considered a real world power. I mean there are entire clubs in Europe and many other national teams that don't have one - at least a real one. But why bring a spare poacher when you can bring three creators along with one of the better poachers currently playing.
But I do understand the logic of bringing the best player available in each position and Twellman is our second best striker available.
Though that being said, the joke that I've made to other "WHY NOT TAYLOR?" folks is that he's the next big United States star in Europe so why would we want to give him a free ticket over - he might not come back. And, well, this way only one Revolution player is going to get taken away during the summer transfer window on European wings.
But back to the sillier footcer news which I do better rather than that boulderdash serious stuff that I get wrong half the time anyhow. Or not as the only story that I've come across is "next year maybe in England?"
For those who don't want to click the link, it's the story on Shakhtar Donetsk playing Dynamo Kiev for all the marbles as the teams stand deadlocked at 74 points at the end of the second and final half of the Ukrainian split season.
Hades, what am I saying next year in England. Next year in the United States? MLS needs to institute split season by the time of 2010 World Cup at least.
posted by incendiarymind at 6:52 AM
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