Friday, February 6, 2009

1. Liverpool is gone from the FA Cup. Liverpool's other team, Everton, knocked them out with a 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from 19 year old in the 118th minute of the match. Liverpool had been down to 10 men for some time after Lucas (yup, just Lucas) got sent off in the 79th minute. Liverpool also was without their captain, Steven Gerrard, for much of the match after he left with a hamstring injury. Up until last week, Robbie Keane would have taken his place in such a situation. However, Robbie Keane is back with Tottenham now, so that option wasn't there.

So by my count, the teams left in the FA Cup are these 17, the ones not in the Premiership are in bold, because they are so plucky:

Everton
Burnley
Derby County
Aston Villa
Blackburn
Swansea City
Fulham
Coventry City
Sheffield United
Hull
West Ham
Middlesbrough
Watford
Chelsea
Man U
Arsenal
Cardiff City

2. Spain's domestic tournament is a little farther along. The Copa del Rey is in the semifinals, and it looks like Barcelona will be advancing to the finals as they attempt to win this tournament for the first time since 1998. They beat Mallorca 2-0 in the first leg of their semis matchup. Thierry Henry scored for Barca in that match but despite that comes word that he is going to be sold back to a Premiership team this summer. Barca paid Arsenal 16M pounds for him in 2007, and he's been a pretty good investment, scoring 24 goals in 48 matches and being a contributing member of what I think is the best team in the world right now. Expect Man City to offer him most of Scotland to come play for them next season.

3. David Beckham has let it be known he wants to stay with AC Milan for good, meaning he won't be willingly coming back to MLS. He has said that he has "rediscovered himself as a football player" in his short time with Milan. The best thing about this story is a raging debate on ESPN's soccernet about whether America is good or bad, with the best post being,

"Most american sports, with the exception of Basketball are tailored for fat people. Baseball and football, are sports where FAT people can actually play because you dont have to run that much"

I guess they've got us there.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beckham pretty much reveals the problem with the DP rule in that if you lose the DP player you built your team around, you're pretty much screwed. And with AC Milan screwing the Galaxy over on Becks and Bayern screwing over THEIR loan agreement on Donovan (who was being paid DP money but not counted because he was grandfathered in), Galaxy loses two DP level players and are stuck with draft prospects and players that were meant to fill holes with the limited cap space they got. Bruce Arena says he has a back up, but he's got SHIT.

Galaxy changed their whole uniform to fit Beckham's image, raised tix to the ROOF and now they are stuck with crap. Fans are already asking for their money back or season tickets are super reduced prices and with the recession, MLS really can't afford to lose their cash cow (since the MLS is a socialist system).

Basically, unless Beckham gives up 16.4 million, the MLS and Galaxy will be out of business in 2 years unless Ronaldinho or someone like him takes Beckham's place.

Lesson: Never loan out to big clubs because they don't respect you anyway.