Prem Weekend Off...

...but, OH BOY was there some faaaaaabulous drama!!

If anyone out there dislikes Liverpool as much as I do (and I assume there are a few of you), I hope you were paying attention to this weekend's FA Cup 5th round matches. I, unfortunately, had to go into work on Saturday to do some extra wonderful drafting for this extra wonderful project I've been working on lately. So the good new is, while I was there slaving away on a weekend, I was listening to the live feed from the BBC of the Chelsea/Huddersfield Town match, which was entirely entertaining. But once Chelsea scored their third and put the game away, they switched to the Liverpool/Barnsley match, which was tied in the 70h minute. At that stage of the game, Liverpool was POUNDING the Barnsley net with shots, but the new boy Steele, in goal, kept getting in front of EVERYTHING, putting on a show and frustrating both the sad, sad Liverpool players (especially Harry Kewell, who I just absolutely dispise) but also the nasty Kop support. But listening to it live, you fully expected Liverpool to put one of their many, many chances away into the back of the net, cleanly finishing off this round, which they were FULLY expected to win and move on, looking forward to Tuesdays Champions League clash with Inter Milan. But then, in extra time, when Liverpool STILL hadn't capitalized on any of their opportunities, and when the fans were REALLY starting to get worried, one of the many wonderful FA Cup moments occured. Somehow, Barnsely got forward, and their captain, Brian Howard, skipped into the box, attempted a shot, and was clearly fouled in the box, which should have been a penalty. The radio announcer beautifully took us listeners through the play and described how his foot lifted up to take the shot, but never hit the ball(which never moved actually) because his foot was hit from a defender's leg - clearly an obvious foul. But the ref called nothing, because he was obviously scared of being cut by one of the numerous thuggish Liverpool supporters. But almost before he could finish his description of the previous play, the same player got another chance in virtually the same area, and EXPERTLY put the ball away into the low-right corner of the net to SEAL VICTORY IN STOPPAGE TIME FOR BARNSLEY OVER LIVERPOOL - AT ANFIELD!!!

You should have seen it - I was sitting alone in my office, lights off except for my individual desk lamp, with my sad computer monitor glaring on my face, and inexplicably, my hands raise in the air, I let out a restrained wimper of a "YES!...." and then start to laugh silently due to the simultaneous enlightenment of listening to Liverpool and Rafa Benitez embarrass themselves yet again at the hands of their clearly flawed rotation system, and the embarrassment of expressing pure joy in a room of no one but myself and a bunch of computers.

Now, to keep on the football theme, this week starts the round of 16 in the Champion's League tournament, and this week we get to spoil ourselves with AMAZING matches, between Liverpool/Inter Milan, Roma(my new favorite Italian team after our vacation this summer)/Real Madrid, and Arsenal/AC Milan. These are matches that the football fan waits all year to see, and the round of 16 and 8 of the Champion's league is equivalent to the excitement achieved by the rounds of 64 and 32 of the NCAA basketball tournament. It's pure, pure bliss. So please check your local schedules, because (and thank the Gods above for this) ESPN2 often plays some of the best Champion's League matches for the American Public to see.

By the way, I was asked about not commenting on the Pavlik/Taylor bout this weekend - but I'll tell you why I hadn't much interest in it - they fought at 166 pounds, therefore nullifying any title ramifications for the fight!! It was due to earlier contractual obligations, but come on - what a let down. But I'll tell you what - on the 23rd, we've got the heavyweight unification bout of Klitschko vs. Ibragimov at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, and finally we'll get to see a halfway decent heavyweight fight. It's been a while since we've gotten one of those. It's on HBO but I fully intend to watch it on Sopcast over the internet. Any thoughts on this fight - please post them here!!