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this is hilarious!!

i’ve been seeing this way too often this season.

for all the skill this kid has, he misses too often. he has an unbelievable calmness on the ball and plays like a player 5-10 years his senior. his name is cesc fabregas and he is only 19 years old. he has a first team spot secured for arsenal, plays regularly for the spanish national team, usually coming on in the second half, and is regularly rumored to be headed to real madrid due to his off-the-charts potential.

it seems the only instances in which i want to write a post over the last 5 or 6 months, is when my favorite sports team, arsenal fc lose a match. thanks to the brilliant itvn i was able to watch arsenal’s mid-week tie. unfortunately, i got to watch them crash out of the uefa champions league against psv eindhoven of holland. arsenal lost the first leg in holland 1-0 and after an own goal by alex, the match looked headed for extra time. in the last 10 minutes, alex sent a smashing header received from a free kick near the corner flag, that beat jens lehmann, and put psv through to the last 8.

so arsenal are out of all competitions this season and the best result they can shoot for is a top 4 finish in the premier league. there was a story on fox soccer.com recently about arsène wenger reportedly being given a war chest to splash in the transfer market this summer. wenger was quick to state that he would not be active in the summer due to how his young players had responded so well this season. with the disappointing
results, or more accurately the lack of results, wenger is sure to be looking for a few top class reinforcements in the offseason.

to make things even worse, henry reportedly tore his groin and stomach muscles after coming on as a second half sub. he has had injury problems this season, and with this injury, arsenal

without their top two strikers in henry and van persie. i just can’t see how a player or two are not needed. if there were no injuries, then there would be no need. rosicky, henry, van persie, gallas, and ljungberg have all had lengthy injury spells this season.

i know its just a game, but since yesterday i’ve felt exactly like freddie does here.

its more than handing the ball over, with the result today, 3-1 at the reebok stadium against bolton, arsenal has all but ended the gunners title hopes for this season. arsene wenger feels the same way.

on november 25th, arsenal are 12 points back of man united. and even with the fact that they have a game in hand, there is all but no hope for arsenal to make a title run.

even with the boy wonder, theo walcott in the starting 11, arsenal couldn’t get things going offensively.

so its back to pursuing the champions league trophy like last year. but for a questionable call, a red card, a late rain storm, and a brilliant move by frank rijkaard, manager of barcelona, to substitute henrik larsson in the second half, arsenal would very likely be holders of the “trophy with the big ears”.

so i’m left feeling like cesc fabregas today, when he hit the crossbar and failed to net a tally in a must win game.

tune in tomorrow for an epic clash between manchester united and chelsea who are only seperated by 3 points at the top of the EPL table. i’ll be watching on tuesday when its replayed on FSN. should be a great match.

during a recent preseason tour to europe, the philadelphia 76ers, the phoenix suns, cska moscow, and maccabi elite, all faced off in a sort of round-robin, “lets all play each other” type of set up. obviously all of the teams had practice during the week, and on october 3 in barcelona, allen iverson and thierry henry met.

looking at this photo i’m immediately struck with the thought, “does iverson know who he’s meeting?” i’m serious, does he have any idea? thierry henry is a fantastic footballer, absolutely world class. ronaldinho, wided regarded as the best footballer in the world, who has won the fifa player of the year award two years running and is on the short list to win this year, called him “the most technically skilled player in the world.” henry’s skills are unparalled in my opinion. his combination of pace, touch, accuracy, and grace is often times breathtaking. his touch in particular is eye catching. he moves the ball with grace and improvisation unlike any current player i’ve seen save ronaldinho. he scores goals, lots of them. his career totals are 364 matches played and 218 goals scored. and he sets up goals to the tune 73 in as many matches. compare those numbers to any other striker in the world and his consistent form and skill will be apparent. he looks like a gazelle when he runs. when he turns it on, it looks as if everyone else is running in mud.

does an american basketball player know who he’s meeting when he meets henry? i like iverson and i respect him for staying the same. say what you will about him, he’s not conformed to anything other than to what he knows himself to be. i’m not cracking on him, but i seriously doubt that he knows in the world of soccer, who he’s meeting or shaking hands with. i would say, sadly, that 80-90% of americans would not know henry from the guy at starbucks. it is sad that our culture is thoroughly unaware of what is going on in europe and abroad.

the meeting was most likely arranged by the folks at reebok. henry suddenly announced last spring, that he was leaving nike and signing with reebok. he had previously been the #2 guy in the mercurial vapor line behind ronaldo, who getting old fast. the mercurial line is designed to be light weight and ultra-fast, exactly like henry. he had begun having to share the marketing stage with the young christiano ronaldo of man united and young zlatan ibrahimovic, now with inter milan but previously of juventus. henry said he felt the ‘i am what i am’ campaign from reebok was more “him and who he is on and off the pitch,” so he signed with reebok. i don’t think it hurt things that he became “the guy” for reebok and their soccer line.

hery leaving nike was a big drag for me as i love nike’s gear and enjoyed buying nike soccer gear becasue i’d see henry rocking it on the pitch and in commercials like this one.

henry_honor.mov

i’ve not spent money this season on arsenal or nike soccer gear. oh well, i’ll make it through somehow. if you get the chance, watch an arsenal match and watch #14 up front. its worth your time i assure you.

July 9.2006

what an indescribably insane and overwhelming day. my first born child was born, we gave him the name elijah john. the world cup final was also played, in case you were sleeping the whole weekend, bringing the 2006 world cup to a close. i have had such a wash of emotion in the last few days. i don’t understand this fact, but for some reason no man that i have ever known has taken me aside and told me what it was going to be like to be a married person and then to have kids, told me what i can look forward to or expect to experience. my dad didn’t do it, and no other male that i have ever spoken to has told me. i don’t think it is a case of having to experience it to really understand it. i think there are things that can be shared that can help the next person be a little bit prepared for their experiences. a little understanding is immeasurably better than no understanding. if you have the time and the interest, i’ll tell you sometime. i don’t know how this enormous thing just happens everyday hundreds and thousands of times and everyone just acts like nothing major happened and then 6 months to a year later they start saying, “i think i’m ready for another one.”

write it down, i won’t be saying that. i am ecstatic with the family that God has blessed me with right now. if i spend the rest of my life perfecting my ability to lead, care, love, and provide for the two people i am responsible fo today, i will be singing God’s praises for all time. i believe there may be two more, both girls, in our future and i will welcome with an open heart those or any further blessings He desires to bring into my home, but wow!!! is this emotionally super-saturating.

2006 world cup, kind of smelly.

i spent nearly the entire first 5 months of this year and a good portion of last winter, due to the lack of snowfall, looking forward to the 31 days between june 9 and july 9 and the football that was to be played. i had so much anticipation and excitement. there were some definite high points, italy v usa, spain’s 3 group games, the 6 argentina put up, and the france v spain match was spectacular, probably the match of the tournament for me, but all in all i feel very let down. perhaps i was too excited. coming off the champions league semi finals and final, which were chock full of excitement. i really thought these teams would come and and just go for it. the only teams that came out and looked even interested were spain and argentina. argentina lost a tough one against the hosts and spain came up against an inspired zizou and a well functioning france team.

the #1 commentating team of dave o’brien and marcelo balboa were a waste. i truly wish there was a button on the remote that muted the commentators but allowed the sound feed from the arena or stadium to come through. adrien healy and tommy smyth for my money were the best team. not surprisingly they are both from the uk and they both commentate the european matches all season. they were used sparingly as the #4 team, which boggles my mind as to why. the great thing about commentators from europe is that they let the action do the talking and they aren’t afraid to not talk for a spell or two, it really is wonderful to watch european football on the television.

zidane’s head-butt was one for the ages. they’ll be playing that clip for 50 years and beyond whenever it is a world cup year. i’ll be telling my kids about that one. zidane was out of line but i believe that the italian way of playing dirty, play-acting, and causing incidents like the elbow on brian mcbride and the head-butt in the final, is the real problem. zidane’s mother is in hospital and materrazzi insulted his mother and sister and zidane said he heard him say it once, twice, three times and he said at that point he could no longer control himself. the world cup is interesting because you have all of these cultures coming together in one place and in many ways the style of play and the demeanor of the teams is to a degree, representative of the country as a whole. that being said, there isn’t one thing about the italian team, aside from fabio cannavaro’s work ethic that i feel in accord with. in some ways it’s fitting to me that they won the cup because the world cup was lackluster and a lackluster team won it. france wasn’t much more exciting, especially with henry going awol for all but maybe 30 minutes of the entire tournament. sure, he got called on a ton of offsides, which means he was trying, but there wasn’t anything but two goals to show for it. the goal against brazil was spectacular, but he didn’t make it, zidane free kick and brazil’s lack of marking did. he just finished with precision. henry has to be more inspirational and the form he demonstrated in arsenal’s champions league run was nowhere to be found.

all in all i’m left feeling like henry looks in the picture below, anticipating something big, but being let down.

what can i say? as exciting as it was to watch the football and know it is the world cup, and know this only happens once every 4 years, it just left me, well, again feeling like henry looks below.

on a sad note,

saturday, august 19 will mark the official end to highbury being known as the home of arsenal. they will play their first leaguegame at their new 60,000 seat digs across the railroad tracks at ashburton grove. highbury was one of if not the last art-deco stadiums as they are called. it has marbled halls and huge white facade on the east end. it stands in a residential neighborhood of row houses and has so much character and heart. one of the very few regrets that i have in my life is that i didn’t travel to london last year in time to see the stadium while it was in use as a football ground. it is being largely dismantled and turned into high priced flats with the pitch being turned into a communal center garden area. if you happen to be in london any time soon, you’ve got to pop round and see it. take plenty of pics and be sure to send them to me.

alas, there won’t be anymore photos like this one.