Kyle Boller is doing his best impression of the Rams last three seasons, and that welcomes us to the latest football post. It may be the "calm before the storm" football post, with so many teams taking a bye before a huge game next weekend, but we'll still try to make it enjoyable.
Starting with my high school alma matter's bye week, the #7 Amazin' Barons are 5-0-0 and heading into league play next weekend against Marina at HB High School. With an amazing start to the season, outscoring opponents 193-78, all eyes turn to the upcoming league schedule. Can the Barons convert some big games and continue to stay ranked among the elite teams in the OC?
Guess what? The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame had a bye week as well this week, and moved up to the #25 spot in the National rankings. Finally, the recognition that we deserve based on the fact that we should be a 5-0 squad rather than the slightly less impressive 4-1 that we are. You have to hope that the Irish have been used the entire bye week to prepare for their upcoming match on Saturday. We have made no bones about the fact that the October 17th football game against the Trojans will define this season for Notre Dame. Finally getting a win against USC, and the Irish will only have one really tough game left on the schedule (BC). It would open the door for a 11-1 record and a trip to a BCS game (possibly the National Championship game?). The only thing standing in between the Irish and a return to glory is the #6 Trojans of USC. Next weekend, it is game on.
I know the answer to this question, but don't you think the Rams suck? The latest joke in this season's fixtures was a 10-38 drubbing against the Vikings. It was more painful than a regular loss for the Rams this year, being that Brett Favre did the job. I hate Favre. The Vikings were down 3-17 after the first half, getting only a Josh Brown field goal. The only shining glory was Marc Bulger coming back in for quarter number four, and connecting to Donnie Avery for a 27 yard TD pass that saved us from another zero TD effort. Man, what the hell is the deal with the Rams? My boys are pathetic. All of this, and the Ramies had 400 yards of offense. Again, are you kidding me? Although, was this game the triumphant return of our beleaguered and oft called out (by me) QB Marc Bulger? He filled in for Kyle Boller (20/31 for 209 and 1 INT) with a 7/7 88 yard afternoon with 1 TD. Maybe he's back to being Mr. Fantasy. Steven Jackson continued to disappoint (as I continue to think back on how we should have taking Julius Jones in the draft) with just 84 yards on 21 carries. Big Avery led all receivers with 87 yards on 5 catches and the 27 yard TD. Again, we have zero offensive weapons this season (I mean, we have a couple of weapons, but none of them seem loaded), and we're already playing for the #1 pick in early October. At a fun 0-5, the Rams head back on the road to take on the Jags of Jacksonville. They got blasted by Seattle this week (0-41!) to fall to 2-3. Does this mean that we are staring the Rams first big win of the year in the face? Probably not.
The more exciting football action was up in Edmonton this weekend, as the BC Lions nailed a 62 yard TD pass from Buck Pierce to Geroy Simon with just 12 seconds to go, to take the lead and beat the 'Mos. Everyone knew that Simon was going to get the pass, but the Yellow & Green still couldn't stop him, as he split to defensive backs to take the ball to the house in the latest epic CFL duel. The 34-31 late win saw QB Buck Pierce go 23/38 for 301 yards with 3 TDs and 1 INT, which more than solidifies that he may be the man of Jarious Jackson to lead the Lions back to glory before the season ends. Martell Mallett had a rough night, going for just 41 yards on 11 rushes, but Geroy "Born on 9/11" Simon had an epic outing with 9 receptions for 170 yards and 2 TDs. All of the University of Maryland is proud of their all time receiver. The studs of Vancouver footie are now 7-7, back to .500 after a long hard season, and their two game winning streak has pulled us closer to #2 Saskatchewan (8-6) and #1 Calgary (8-5). We're close! It's a Sunday night battle against Winnipeg (5-8) that stand between the Orange & Black and a 3 game winning streak.
It was World Cup qualifier weekend (big ups to the US, but the way), so the second half of the football post is going to be a quick one.
Celtic will try to regroup against Motherwell next weekend after last weekend's 1-2 loss to Rangers. We're still in first place by a single point, but a win against the Mothers will be crucial.
Newcastle got the weekend off after their 0-0 draw with Bristol City at St. Jame's Park. Next weekend is a Championship battle with Nottingham Forest. We're still in first place by 3 over West Brom, but we need to keep the pressure on to keep the relegation dreams alive.
Chivas USA didn't take the weekend off like a bunch of European wussies. Instead, they blasted Kansas City in battle of rivals 2-0. The win secured a playoff trip for the Goats, their fourth consecutive trip to the second season, and now anything is possible. Kansas City may have looked like the more dangerous squad throughout the 90 minute journey, but the only things that matter is what you put in the net. The game went the distance, through 72 minutes, before Chivas broke the deadlock with a thrilling Justin Braun nailing his second of the year. As if that wasn't tough enough, Anaheim's own Sacha Kljestan scored his fifth of the year just two minutes later. The double strike was enough to completely crush the dream's of Brandon's Wizards, and enough to make all of Goat Nation rejoice in the fact that we're in the playoffs. Zach Thorton was again just a crazy brick wall, earning just another clean sheet. In 24 games played, ZTB has 12 shutouts, and holds just a 0.72 GAA. Get off me! With a new team motto of, "Come Celebrate The Playoffs!" Chivas USA and their 13-9-5 (44 points) record are officially dead tied with Los Angeles and Houston for the top spot in the West. Who knew?! Next week we go head to head against last place San Jose (7-13-8, 29 points), looking for a chance to be all alone atop the Western standings. Ole!
In short, Chivas de Guadalajara won against UAG 2-1 over the weekend to improve to 4-4-3. Despite being 10 points back of 1st place, we're still #2 behind the upstart Toluca. Reynoso scored the first goal and my man Javier Hernandez Balcazar scored a 67th minute penalty to crush the UAG early lead. Next week, Santos. 2-2-3 Lazio got the week off, and go next weekend against Sampdoria (5-1-1) with dreams of stealing a win. Over in Ireland, Sligo blasted Galway with a thrilling and unexpected 2-0 win against Galway United. The win gets the Bit O' Red 33 points in their 31 games, pulling them up to #8 out of the 10 teams in the Premier League. If the season ended today, Sligo would go head to head against Drogheda (#9 at 28 points) to decide who stays in the top tier league, with the #10 Bray Wanderers being automatically relegated. Sligo gets a huge break this week, with a Tuesday battle against Bray! The win would put my boys into the safety zone. Let's do it.
Much love the the US team for securing their trip to the World Cup. As an American soccer fan, I'm damned proud.
0 comments:
Post a Comment