Weekly football post #45.

An enjoyable weekend has come to a close, and you all know that means that it is time for the weekly football post. 

I'd like to quickly point out that the Rams signed Oshiomogho Atogwe to a one year deal. Last year he had a career high 109 tackles with five interceptions and eight forced fumbles (three recovered), and it is a very solid pickup to keep the defense on the up and up. In other news, Notre Dame has signed on to play Army at the New Yankee stadium. Not that big of a deal, but it should be a fun Irish win. 

Meanwhile, the BC Lions finally figured things out at the QB position, and it worked for a 40-22 Lions win over the Eskimos this weekend. This time around, Jarious Jackson of Notre Dame fame got to start the game, and he was on fire. JJ passed for four touchdowns, including two to Geroy Simon, and he finished with 362 yards in place of the injured Buck Pierce. The fan poll asks the question: If Buck Pierce is healthy, should he start for the Lions next week? "No, go with Jarious Jackson" has 70.6% of the vote, including me. Geroy Simon and Paris Jackson were the two crazy receivers, with the former getting 122 and 2 TDs and the later getting 126 and 1 TD. The first win of the season brings the record to 1-2, with Saskatchewan (BOO!) leading the West at 2-1. Next week our boys try to get to .500 against hated Calgary in a Friday night clash at home. 

A couple of news stories coming out of Newcastle. First off is that Joe Kinnear will not be coming back to be the manager. I think last post I talked about the rumor that Joe would get another chance, but now that rumor has been squashed. Meanwhile, Michael Owen is firing back at Newcastle critics for talking so much crap on him while he was at St. James' Park. Hey Owen, you sucked, get over it. I hope you continue your overrated run with Manchester United, so the fans can realize how it isn't as darling of a signing as they are all pretending it will be. We may not have a coach, my August 8 against West Brom, the start of the Championship Division season, continues to loom. 

Another week goes by, another player from the French club Nancy has been signed by Celtic. This time around it is 23 year old Landry N'Guemo. If N'Guemo has a solid season, Celtic can make the Cameroon native a permanent fixture around Glasgow. He should be happy to be back with Marc-Antoine Fortune, who came to the Hoops last week. New boss Tony Mowbray may be pulling  a lot of his known players, but I'm having a pretty good feeling about this upcoming season, especially because ESPN is reporting that players from Rangers are starting to shake in their boots. 

Hey, Chivas USA continued to suck! At least they've been consistent lately. This time is was a 0-2 loss to the New England Revolution, on a game that I finally got to watch on TV. Bummer. On the day that I learned our boys traded my guy Atiba Harris for Marcelo Saragosa, I had to watch them drop their seventh in their last eight MLS games. Damn. The Revs got goals from Kheli Dube and Steven Ralston in the match to send our boys down, which keeps us from getting any points since a June 6 win against Seattle (the game we went to?). Chivas did control a great deal of the first half, earning a 0-0 tie at the 45 minute break point, but New England seemed to dominate the entire final 45, and it paid off with two goals to break up the fun. Zach Thorton made a couple of nice saves in the second half, but it just wasn't enough. Even a 65th minute substitution of Sacha Kljestan wasn't enough. It was an offensive attacking effort this time around too, which I guess goes to show that pushing hard doesn't necessarily work either. The Goats had Galindo, Lillingston, Nagamura, and Chukwudi Chijindu playing almost as 4 forwards for much of the match, with Jonathan Bornstein pushing up as an attacking midfielder as well. The defense just couldn't hold off New England. At 8-6-3 (27 points), the slump from Chivas has sent us free falling in the Western Conference table. Chivas now sits in fourth place, trailing Houston (32), Seattle (28), and even the Galaxy (27 points). Fifth place Colorado is only 3 back at this point. Thanks to the All-Star break, Chivas has to wait until August 8 against Colorado to turn things around. Will they even right the ship, or are we headed to a tough finish after the most amazing start in club history? Don't forget that the 2009 All-Star Game (in Sandy, Utah- the home of the HBO series "Big Love") features the MLS All-Stars going toe to toe with Everton FC (bring it Jon). There isn't a single Chivas starter on the All-Star team, but it looks like Jonathan Bornstein and Paulo Nagamura are set to be backups against Everton. Who knew that Becks would actually play for the Galaxy against AC Milan? Maybe he isn't the biggest douche in the world. No, wait, he is.

We are now just 6 days away from Chivas de Guadalajara's season opener against Toluca.