My Kingdom for a ...

As King Richard III is fighting for his last breath, he bemoans his fate but for a horse and is willing to give up an entire kingdom for the sake of a four legged creature, I wonder what would Charlie Weiss say if such a predicament befell him; wait, oh snap! it already has. As Michael Hart, and Chad Henney murdered the Irish by the scores in the latest match up, Weiss couldn't help but make this call in the dark corners of his heart. Brady Quinn was sacked more times than he and the Irish would like to remember, and the defense seemed inept when a throw to the wide receiver was turned into a 60 yard TD run. But for all the things that went wrong with the Irish this week, I still think that they may be one of the best teams in the nation. After all It was football, and the Irish were up against a great team.

The last week matches were something to be remembered as it was dubbed "Separation Weekend", the reality of the teams came to light as lower ranked teams fell to the higher ones, and NR teams toppled the ranked ones. To me the two biggest upsets after the ND, Michigan game were the TCU vs. TT game and the Clemson vs. FSU game. TCU held the explosive Tech offense to only a field goal. I mean that is impressive for even TCU. Tech has been producing QB's who have records in each of the previous 4 season of NCAA football and this was a smashing reminder. Clemson on the other hand rose up pretty nicely after their loss in the first week to beat the Seminoles. FSU seemed really poised to win after they beat the 'canes but it was not to be. 'Canes on the other hand lost to Louisville after dominating every game played with Louisville for the past decade.

Since the season has opened, there have been quite a few changes in regards to the rankings and the image of certain teams and conferences. So far my views

1. Conference USA CAS produce great teams on a regular basis.
2. Teams will exchange rankings more often than teams would like for teh sole reason that teams are much better this time around and a single team is hard to dominate rankings like they have in the previous years.
3. NCAA should implement a relegation as well as promotion system, where Division - I A teams who have performed most horribly should be relegated and teams from Division - II A should be promoted. Although I don't see this happening, still I hope that in the spirit of competition such an arrangement can be very beneficial.

On a side note this time around, I am going to say that Oklahoma deserved to win that game and that they should not only be given a forfeit, but also they should be marked off in the win column. Usually I am not that vocal about officiating, but this is not an instance about sore losers, or losers at all. This is Oklahoma people, Bob Stoops, National Championship caliber team (although they haven't won one in the past 2-3 years). When people tell me that anything could have happened and the TD could have been scored anyways by the Ducks, I am not only skeptical, I am furious. You don't seriously expect me to believe that Bob Stoops and Adrian Peterson would have not held on to the ball. It's like saying that Bobby Moore getting an open net and not scoring, or the Colts having the ball in the red zone with first and ten and not even coming up with three points; hard to imagine right. Although I realize that Ducks, and the Pac-10 people will not reverse this win, I still think that if we let this go this will become a trend. With microscopic accuracy required in officiating these days, controversies like these will not lessen anytime soon.

Of Pompey and The Gunners?

As I do my usual update for the English Premier League for the week I can’t help but feel happy as to how the season is turning out. Although Arsenal my favorite team has not been quite themselves for the start of the season, I look at the table and I love what the game is going through right now. After 5 weeks of pure premier league play the table presents a view that some may not have guessed prior to the start of the season. Portsmouth under the tutelage of Harry Redknapp and with a team reinforced by new players like Kanu, Sol Campbell and David James and with players like Lau Lau already in tow for the team are sitting happily atop the table after 5 weeks of play. Portsmouth couldn’t have asked for a better start to their season. With West Ham returning to their old self despite the new transfers lost to Newcastle who is still without Owen. Reading recorded another win as they are looking more and more like Wigan Athletic from last year while Sheffield United and Watford are sulking at the bottom of the table as they are trying to adjust to the new premiership life. Tottenham perhaps after the 5 weeks have had the worst start that they could hope for after qualifying for Europe last year and missing the UEFA Champions league play by only one game as they lost their match again. The toughest battle perhaps came in the form of Arsenal vs. Manchester United and Chelsea vs. Liverpool. Manchester United was flying high with a couple of new players in tow and with a lot of experienced players in the team. Their start of the season was great and this would have been the first test of their prowess as they battled against a tattered Arsenal. Arsenal has been really slow to start their campaign with no win coming out of their first three matches, they not only needed this win but they were craving it. The result surprised a lot of spectators as Arsenal overcame a much better but a poorly performing Manchester United team when in the last 5 minutes a deserving Arsenal team scored a goal through a little magic by Cesc Febregas and Adabayor. Liverpool on the other hand was not as lucky as they missed countless chances but an absolutely beautiful turn and strike by Drogba earned Chelsea the 3 points they needed. As the season progresses we are sure to see a lot of changes in the table as the dominant teams take their places atop the table but one thing is for sure change is coming and there are a lot of teams with a lot of talent out there who can regain the glory of the English Football as it used to be in the past.

A little Pink with that Black!

Until now I have been keeping my hands clear of all the scandal ridden Italian football. Although I have nothing against the Serie A, it was just the disappointment caused by the stupidity of a few clubs that ruined everything for everyone that even loved the dazzling, daring, passion ridden Italian football. With illustrious names to the league it was with heavy heart that a lot of people admitted that without the relegation of Juventus and other teams from the top league, the scandal would have ravaged the sport al together. Now the few teams that do remain into the mix for the Serie A are picking up the pieces and moving on so that they can one day return to glory what the club football in Italy really means. But the relegation and the emotions also meant something else; the head start that a lot of teams may have gotten over the years including AS Roma, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Lazio in regards of club coffers will at least for the time being be thrown back in line as other clubs try to make the schism between the clubs into a more even match up.
So as I watch the match between Palermo and Lazio in the Stadio Olympico I have this feeling that can best be described as euphoria as Palermo try to match up to a better Lazio. The goal keeper Frederico Agliardi saves so many shots on goals that I lose count and despite their inability to put up a proper defense against Lazio, Di Michelle of Palermo scores two goals over Lazio and shows the world that Italian football is not dead yet, that teams long forgotten and relegated to the dungeons of football history halls can yet rise again to the challenge and play with the big clubs, that once again the passion., ingenuity, athleticism, and more than anything true footballer’s heart can regain what was lost into the scandals that left a devastating history in their wake.

On a side note, I loved the jerseys for Palermo. Italian football is the only league that I can recall that puts as much emphasis on their stylish presence in their uniforms as much as in their play. Only an Italian team can carry a bit of pink with the all time black. Nice.

Manning vs. Manning

In the past two weeks there have been so many new developments in the sports world that I will only have time to discuss the most important ones. But as a highlight I will point out a few

1. Agassi retires from Pro Tennis after a career spanning 21 years including the most coveted of prizes a Golden Slam.

2. Michael Schumacher retires from Formula 1 after this season is over, after a stunning career spanning a decade and winning the Formula 1 crown 7 times and on track to capture the 8th.

3. Ohio State won the No.1 vs. No. 2 battle over Texas.

As the week comes to an end tonight with Manning vs. Manning on NBC, it only seems fair that the affairs of the past week were as momentum building as tonoght's matchup and there is no doubt in my mind that they were.

Starting with the EPL, Manchester united mantained their complete dominance over the table as they won at home over the spurs. Although I think that the spurs should not be woeful as they put up one hell of a fight before they lost to Manchester United. Arsenal continued their dismal performance as they barely equalised at home to Boro. Even the new transfer of William Gallas could not help lift the Gunners. As the weeks pass by Arsene Wenger a quicksand feeling overcomes the players and the coach. Next week won't be as easy either as Manchester United comes to the Emirates Stadium. It was the first time for West ham United to show off the talent that they acquired only a few weeks ago, and they didn't disappoint as they overcame a first half deficit over Aston Villa and equalised, with Macherano coming coming over in the second half. West Ham is on its way to building one aggressive mid field. The rest of the matched were a reflection of last week as Fulham's American duo (Bocanegra & Brain McBride) won over Newcastle. Portsmouth continued their dominance on the top followed by Everton. Overall the table remained unchanged this week, but as the season boils down to December, the race will become tight, so stay tuned.

The college games were unbelievable as Ohio State beat Texas as probably everyone knows and saw the game. Let me focus on the games that I thought were great other than the primetime game. With Oklahoma finally coming out and winning over Washington State, but as in the last week their performance this week also seemed a bit shaky and with concerns still looming over the quarterback position it seems unlikely that Oklahoma will win the Red River shootout (despite the presence of Adrian peterson). Notre Dame continued its dominance this week over PSU as they removed some cobwebs from last week and won over decisively. With SEC dominating again this week, seems SEC is the conference to beat this time again (even though none of the teams has won a championship in the past few years).

So overall the week was a great one for sports and we can be sure that there is more to come with the Basketball season starting in October.

Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men!

The title of the post may not exactly reflect my feelings right now, but as the transfer window closed on early thursday morning you could almost feel the haggling of the lawyers up late night to get things done. Well, things got done to say the least as too many surprises awaited an eager football fan Thursday morning. It was like waking up on Christmas morning to find not one but many presents for me. The biggest coup (I am biased) was the transfer between Chelsea and Arsenal of Ashley Cole and William Gallas, with Gallas going to Arsenal with some cash and Chelsea getting Ashley Cole. Although Ashley Cole's intentions weren't hidden from the world to go to Chelsea and the Gallas saga at Chelsea was also quite quagmired since the summer. Both teams found a way to dump their problems onto one another. It is hard to say who will benefit from these transfers, but I think at 12 at night both teams were just trying to lessen their damage from both the players actually staying at the team rather than thinking about what they were getting. Later during the day, though, another saga emerged as news emerged that the transfer to Gallas was done without Jose Murhino's approval. Although the GM and the owner really don't need his "approval" but I at least here agree with Jose. William Gallas was at arms with Murinho, and Murinho was trying to show that Gallas was not going to get the pleasure of going behind Jose's back (although I don't condone this ego boosting narcissistic behavior either, but from his perspective that is just Jose being the "boss"). But ulitmately I think it just came to two things.
1. Damage control
2. Business decision
I think that both teams will at least benefit from these transfers. With Arsenal's defense now void of three of its defensive prdigies Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Paul Cygan William Gallas will probable be great with Toure and Sanderos (a great find). While on the other hand Carvalho and Ashley cole will probably be good defensively with Ashley being an attacking defender.

The biggest upset in reality though was pulled by West Ham united. With hammers on the verge of breaking into the top 6 or 8 this year the signing of two Argentinians Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano will not only help achieve those aspirations but will also help West Ham in vying for a long term stay in the Premiership. This may not have been that dramatic of a singing (as both came on to the hammers from Corinthians) had it not been for the fact that both Arsenal as well as Manchester United were also looking to sign at least one of these players. Details have not surfaced yet as to how Hammers managed to snatch these palyers out of the top teams' hands, but in my opinion both players may have wanted to stay togather and being on the same team helps.

We shall see how both players perform in their debut right after the Euro qualifying matches this weekend.