The big story from last week was the goal scoring of Chelsea against West Brom. If they can put up some big numbers again against Blackpool, they have made a believer out of me that they are going to be unstoppable in the league. Manchester United only put up 3 goals against a lowly Newcastle and Liverpool and Arsenal could barely put each other away. It should be interesting to see Drogba and Maluda become the 1 and 2 scorers for Chelsea and that would leave them to sell Anelka especially after his antics during the World Cup to the highest bidder. These are just some ideas. In my eyes, there shouldn't be any new surprises from the English this week as I am expecting the same teams to dominate and destroy to further seperate the big four and the rest of the group.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how Favre was retiring again and maybe we can put all of his summer antics away and never have to hear about him again until he would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. BUT NO...he has to come back again so I have to deal with him again next summer. I have a feeling that I am going to be in my 40s when Favre retires in 14 more years. How much does he need to feel needed since it took 3 Viking players to fly down to Mississippi to fetch him to come back to Minnesota. Is his ego that large that he needs to feel like the most important person in the entire world? My guesses are that he is. He might be the nicest guy and best teammate but he needs to stop making my summer horrible since every story is about whether or not he will retire. Make your decision in April before the draft and I won't care as much.
Should there even be a NFL preseason? I have to say no on this argument. First off, the owners still charge people the same price for the tickets to see mostly back ups and people they are going to cut for most of the game. All of the starters are out of the game by end of the first quarter anyways. Also, players like Tomlinson in the past haven't even played one snap in the preseason in order to save themselves for the rest of the season. The number of injuries that happen during these fake games are astronomical and they should be reduced to maybe only two games instead of four. The question is do we raise the number of regular season games from 16 to 18 to take its place. My answer to this is if the owners still want the same amount of games altogether then go for the extra two games even though many more records will be shattered due to the extra seasonal games. If we keep the way it is and just eliminate the two games I am fine with that or lower the amount of money for those tickets and then play the back ups. Either way, I hate watching preseason fake football games.
When will Chad Ochocinco explode when he realizes that Carson Palmer has thrown many more balls to Terrell Owens than to him? This is getting interesting since this is the guy who fought to have T.O. on the team thinking that they would double team him and leave Ochocinco open to have more passes and receptions. I think we might have a civil war in the Bengals locker room by Week 10 and this will make things much more interesting to watch this year. Considering how well this offense is, they have been lacking in the amount of yards and production that was predicted that they would get. We shall soon find out what will happen between these two players. At least this is more interesting than the indecesion of Brett Favre.
The match yesterday between West Brom and Chelsea was one of the most lopsided victories I have seen in a few years except for the North Korea blowout by Portugal. The first half was a little sluggish with Chelsea cruising to a 2 goal advantage, however, the play of the Blues were amazing and exceeded my expectations of exactly how well the champions are playing. Drogba seems to be on the same path as last year in which he might win the Golden Boot as Malouda finally seems to overtaken Anelka as the second striker on this star studded team.
Granted, Chelsea was playing West Brom who were in the Champions League last year and was one of my original picks to be knocked right back down in there, however, last year on opening day, Everton lost 5-0 in their opening game with Tim Howard in goal who may be one of the best goaltenders in the English leagues. Needless to say, I want to see how well Chelsea will play against tougher competition of an Arsenal and Liverpool before I can really make any sound judgements from right now stating that they might be one of the best teams in Europe. Let's see how Manchester United plays tomorrow against Newcastle United if there is the same result of a 6-0 win.
After the herorics of Landon Donovan and the rest of the US soccer team during the World Cup, the match last night with Brazil's Junior Varsity squad was very disappointing. So disappointing that I deleated my recording of the match before even watching the entire game. I had heard what the score was and then saw some of the highlights on ESPN and was very happy that I did not tune in to watch the entire game. This might be the end of Bob Bradley in which I hope Maradona's ban in the US ends so at least we can watch the antics of that Argentinian. I really hoped that soccer would pick up the pace after the World Cup. I guess for now I am very wrong.
Violence in sports? It seems like that is all that was being talked about last night between the Cards and the Reds. Ironically, I believe that violence and fighting in sports is actually normal and a part of the game. Fighting in hockey has been happening for decades. Going after the opposing team in baseball is just as good as anything else. Plus, I actually find the fighting entertaining (only when it is not any of my favorite players or teams since suspensions happen). I am only bringing up this subject since 4 people last night called me to go onto ESPN and watch how entertaining it was to see Carpenter get thrown up against a fence and Molina and Phillips going at it. Everyone remembers a great fight and not who has won the World Series five years ago. For example, Ventura vs. Ryan, Pedro vs. Don Zimmer, Joey Porter vs. the entire team. Needless to say, I love watching a good fight and the one last night was a very good fight!
Mark Planamente
Norm
Add Comments
Read More
Comments (1)
