The end of the world...

So as of right now, the Spanish part of Johannesberg is in raptures as is Spain and most Spanish fans have tears in their eyes. After years of underachievement, La Furia Roja have the mythical double, the European and World Championship simultaneously. All credit must go to a wonderful Spain team coached by a the truly talented Vincente Del Bosque. How must the owners of Real Madrid feel, as they dumped Del Bosque after winning everything you could win at club level.

However, spare a thought for the talented losers, the Dutch, who proved that they could combine steel with talent and have it equal success. There were many questions about this Dutch team from the goalkeeper to the front, but led by the marvellous Wesley Sneijder (another Real cast off) they fought Spain tooth and nail for 116 minutes only to lose to a wonder goal by Andres Inestia.

As wonderful as the world cup was, it will be forever marred by the frankly appalling officiating, encapsulated in the finals by the truly befuddling Howard Webb. It seems as if his appointment was solely to appease English anger at what happened in the Germany game. While he is a good official, he managed to sum up all the problems of the officiating at the world cup in one game. Spain while a wonderful team, emphasized any and all contact the Dutch engaged in, quite often falling at the merest "contact" at all, and shockingly were allowed to take liberties that were not afforded to the Dutch. Yes Van Bommel and De Jong could both have walked by half time, but Puyol should have walked for his foul on Robben at the 60th minute. Quite frankly, the antics of some of the Spanish players were bordering on the revolting and Sergio Busquets needs to decide if he wants to officiate or play the game.

The world cup is a memory now, and one that will live on forever for some and won't be able to be forgotten soon enough for others. For me, the shameful officiating is going to be the major thing I remember, and that is a shame, because I would rather remember the outstanding play of Sneijder, Villa, Mueller and Forlan to name a few, than remember the bungling of Larrionda, Webb, and Rosetti et all.

The rebuilding of the Three Lions

First of all, for the purposes of full disclosure, I am a rabid England fan, always have been and always will be. Unfortunately, cheering for England, is like cheering for the Maple Leafs (which I never will do), fans live in hope rather than expectation.

It frankly is embarassing that teams like Spain, Germany, Holland, Brazil and Argentina, to name a few can put together teams that are competitve at the world level and England cannot. You have players who regularly compete at the top levels for their clubs but cannot do it in an England shirt. This is not a problem strictly related to England but is disgraceful none the less.

Now onto the rebuilding process. Fabio Capello's neck is on the line here, and I'm going to give Don Fabio a little help. First of all, pick based on form not on names. The big names haven't done it, get rid of them and pick 11 players who would die for the shirt, and believe me they are there. I would rather see a less talented England team that has pride then what passed for a team in South Africa.

Second, pick players who value the ball. What do 3 of the final four in the World Cup have in common? They will pass you off the park if given the chance. They have realized that without the ball, you can't do anything, so they value the ball. Possession is 9/10 of the law Fabio! Third and here's the key pick players in familiar positions. Does Holland tell RVP to play attacking midfielder? Does Spain tell Xabi Alonso to play as a striker? Does Germany tell Phillip Lahm to play as a right winger? Nope, no and no. Why is it only for England that players play in positions they either can't, don't want to or never have? That recipe is doomed to fail! With that said, here is my England starting eleven moving forward in a 4-3-2-1 formation.

GK-Joe Hart
LB-A Cole
CB-Michael Dawson
CB-Rio Ferdinand (if fit) if not Ryan Shawcross/Gary Cahill
RB-G Johnson
CM-Michael Carrick
CM-Owen Hargreaves
CM-Frank Lampard/Steven Gerrard (for now)
LM-Adam Johnson
RM-James Milner
S-Wayne Rooney
Bench-Ben Foster-will get regular work at Birmingham, Agbonlahor, Bent, Ashley Young, Shawcross/Cahill, Lampard/Gerrard

Any thoughts?

The NBA-Where terrible officiating happens.... and its not alone

Well here we are onto round 2 of the NBA and NHL playoffs. The question must be asked, has the officiating been any worse than this year? Answer nope. As an avid follower of the NBA, and to a lesser extent the NHL playoffs, I've been frankly stunned at how bad its been.

Ask Dwight Howard how bad it was during the Charlotte series. The NBA defensive player of year was repeatedly called for foul after foul, for get this, playing defence. Now I know the NBA is where amazing happens, but quite frankly the officiating in round one spun quickly from the amazing to the embarassing. It was almost as if the refs had determined ahead of time to not let him play. As we spun off to the Western Conference, it was almost as if the refs decided that the young Oklahoma City Thunder wouldn't be allowed to beat the Lakers in Los Angeles, then decided to chuck the homecourt rule and let the Lakers run rampant in the paint in Oklahoma. I mean some of the calls were mindboggling to say the least. As for Denver/Utah, the Nuggets should just have stayed home, as it became extremely clear that for the refs only one team fouled. I mean Carmelo didn't even get the two or three borderline calls that usually go to superstars, while nameless rookies got calls for falling down or being in the same vicinity as Denver's basket.

I usually avoid talking about the NHL officiaiting because I'm convinced there is no hard and fast rule, they just make stuff up as they go along, but last night a penalty shot was called for shoving the puck under the goalie in the Detroit/San Jose series. Stupidly, I assumed that you had to close your hand on the puck, but not according to the refs last night. Oh well, round one is over and hopefully it can't get any worse.

TFC and the Chad Barrett Condundrum

Well TFC got their first win of the season, and that's great, but Preki insists on putting Nick Garcia in his team. How many times over the course of his TFC career must he the reason that the team concedes a goal? He makes Attakora look over his shoulder constantly wondering if he's going to be chasing down yet another school boy error by his partner and Garcia is suppose to be the senior defender! He wins nothing in the air and so bad that he doesn't even go forward on set pieces! Preki (with no more choice in my opinion) finally subbed him at half time. Bring back Jim Brennan or Serioux to partner Nana or leave Cann with him, but please leave Garcia on the bench or in the stands!

Now onto Chad Barrett. When do we do with Mr. Barrett? A striker who seems incapable of putting the ball into the net no matter how open he is. A striker with good, in fact very good runs, but lacks the composure to hit the target and put the ball in the net. Barrett, who has drawn comparisons to Wayne Rooney (in terms of physical appearance, and temperament) struggles with the basic currency of a striker, goals. I like Barrett, but if he can't improve his finishing, much like Garcia, he needs to be placed on the bench. Preki needs to make the decision and he needs to put the ball where it belongs, in the back of the opposing teams net.

Get it done Chad!

The terrible threes, fantasy sports and the EPL title race

Well, just when I thought that my wife, girlfriend whatever and I had avoided the terrible two's with our son, we got a rude awakening today. He's closer to three than two, but boy has he all of a sudden decided that behaving is something he'll do when he's good and ready. Its strange, at school he behaves, when he's at his grandparents or for all you Italians out there, his Nonno and Nonna's he behaves, but if you tell him he can't do or have something look out! Its like a hurricane, it hits leaves a trail of devastation and then moves on. I don't negotiate with him though, its just instruction, then consequence, he has to know that he doesn't make decisions in our house yet.

God, fantasy sports are killing my love of teams. I play fantasy football, hockey and basketball, and I find myself paying more attention to my individual players than the teams I support. Its insane. I've even found I have to pick players from teams I loathe in some cases to remain competitive in my leagues. It can be traumatizing. My fantasy football team didn't do very well, but I won my fantasy hockey league and came second in fantasy basketball, because I ran out of games with a week left in the season, next year game management is a priority for me. Oh well, it can be quite profitable if you make the right decisions.

On to the title race, well, Tottenham blew Arsenal right out of the title race today by winning a league game for the first time in 10 years at White Hart Lane today. By losing the North London Derby, Arsenal have left the title race a straight fight between Manchester United and Chelsea. With Chelsea four points up on United, it would seem its the Blues title to lose. However, here is where it gets interesting. Tottenham is one point behind Man. City for the final Champions League spot, they need to beat (or get a better result than City does) this weekend, to give themselves breathing room as Spurs do have to come play at Old Trafford before the end of the season. This makes the standout games of the weekend, the Manchester Derby, (City/United) and the London Derby (Spurs/Chelsea). Well I know which two teams I'm cheering for!

Later, I'll post again after the games this weekend! Feel free to follow me on Twitter if you want. I won't be upset if you don't though!

Its been awhile......

I'm baaaaackkkk!!!! I took some time off from blogging but I'm back now. Well, what's new? Hmmm, my son is turning three in July, I know time flies, and I'm switching schools at the end of this year. I've been at my current school for six years and its time for a change. I'll leave with good memories and bad memories of course, but I'm not afraid of change. I'll be interning as a principal again this summer, and hopefully in the not to distant future I'll be promoted permanantly.

Oh and I'm doing this brand new workout program I just got, and well in a word, its awesome. I just started it, and I've added 20 pounds to my day 1 lifts, its awesome. I'm currently sitting at 22.2% bodyfat, I want to get down to 20% so I still have a little ways to go 8lbs of fat to be precise. I also want to get down to 220lbs, and I'm at 225 right now. When I get to 220, I'll of course want to keep dropping. Well that's all for now, I'll be posting some EPL thoughts on Thursday after the North London Derby.

Talk to you soon!