Monday, December 31, 2007

Oregon 56 South Florida 21

The solid victory in the Brut Sun Bowl today, over the number 25 ranked South Florida Bulls, was a very nice way for the Oregon Ducks to rid themselves of the doledrums that accompanied the three game losing streak that ended their 2007 regular season.


The Ducks exploded in the third quarter for four touchdowns, expanding on an 18-14 lead to blast the game out of reach for the Bulls, who were trying for their first 10 victory season in the 11 years of the schools football program. The Ducks themselves were trying to break a four-game bowl losing streak, not having one since the 2002 Fiesta Bowl when Joey Harrington was the quarterback.


Duck tailback Jonathan Stewart, in what may have been his last appearance in a Duck uniform, certainly gave the Oregon fans a performance to remember gaining 253 yards on 23 carries, his big run of 71 yards answering the sole South Florida touchdown nicely late in the first half.



Redshirt freshman Justin Roper continued his steady play from the Civil War with a more than respectable showing on a national stage, completing 17 of 30 passes for 180 yards and four touchdown passes to guide the Oregon offense nicely (only four punts for the game), and the opportunistic Oregon defense aided the cause by intercepting four Matt Grothe passes, returning two of them for touchdowns and setting up the offense in excellent field position on the others.


I personally expected a full-game battle much like the first half featured, and South Florida put together some good, time consuming drives that put points up on the board. Particularly striking was the drive that culminated in a touchdown on a pass from Grothe to Taurus Johnson, a play in which he escaped the clutches of Duck defender David Faaeteete to avoid a certain sack and instead wound up making a great pass to Johnson at the 2 yard line. Grothe also made a key scramble, on a 3rd and 18 play, earlier on the drive with a 22 yard run that brought to mind the abilities of injured Duck quarterback Dennis Dixon.



However, if the philosophy of the Duck defense in the first half was one of the usual "bend but don't break" style, that approach was scrapped for a more aggressive style in which they allowed only two Bull first downs, those occurring on separate drives. Oregon got their four third quarter touchdowns in a matter of about six minutes, a period in which the Bulls seemingly lost their idea of what to do on the field. How else to explain the lackadaisical way that Johnson was carrying the ball before being tackled and fumbling it, a play which set up the Ducks second touchdown of the quarter, a 15 yard pass from Roper to tight end Ed Dickson? By falling behind 32-14 at that point, and with no running game to speak of, the Bulls were forced to pass, and on the next offensive possession by the Bulls, Grothe threw a ball into double coverage, which Walter Thurmond III returned 25 yards for the score that settled the game for all practical purposes.



The bad news for the Ducks was the incredible number of dumb penalties, a Sun Bowl record 13 of 'em for 138 yards, most of which seemed to lengthen South Florida drives.



At any rate, it was a great way to end a very interesting Oregon football season, one that had the Ducks reaching for the top of the mountain; even if it did take some time to recover from the key injuries, this was still a helluva season, one I'll always remember for the good and the bad, and as I always say to the rodents in my area, if I want to feel bad about myself, I'll just start wearing orange and black. Thank you Ducks, and all of the seniors, for a memorable season! Can't wait for the 2008 to start already!



Also have to note down what Rece Davis of ESPN said at the start of the halftime show of the Oregon State/Maryland Emerald Bowl game on Friday, after a Sean Canfield pass was picked off in the end zone to snuff out an Oregon State drive late in the first half: "maybe the worst pass attempt in organized football history!". I was in a Nyquil daze at that point of the evening, what I had seen of the game up until that time wasn't helping to keep my eyes open, so I had to ask my Beaver coworkers if that was indeed what he had said; they all nodded and shook their heads at the memory. Actually, I'd change the description for that pass attempt to "college history", the memory of Miami Dolphin kicker Garo Yepremian trying to throw the ball in Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins is probably worse than that one.



ESPN SUN BOWL RECAP

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Tottenham 6 Reading 4; Berbatov Strikes For 4

Not on FSC, but it was on Setanta, so it was back to following the match via GameTracker again (not a bad way to follow today's crazy action, from what I've gathered from other quarters).




The seemingly usual Spurs approach to facing prosperity reared its ugly head again as they gave up three (!!!) goals via set pieces and shoddy goalkeeping, so it was up to Bulgarian superstar Dimitar Berbatov to strike for four (!!!!) goals to pace Spurs to the come from behind victory.



The match was tied at 1-1 at the half, which barely hinted to the breakneck pace yet to come. That would include eight goals in the last 40 minutes or so, three goals in six minutes, six goals in 17 minutes, and seven of them in 20 as both teams fell behind and then rallied to take the lead in front of the White Hart Lane crowd.


Robbie Keane missed another penalty, but Jermaine Defoe knocked the rebound in, and Steed Malbranque had a beautiful shot sail to the back of the net in the midst of the second half scoring orgy. Berbatov's goals came in the 7th, 63rd, 73rd and 83rd minutes, whilst for Reading, Dave Kitson, who was a fan of the Spurs growing up, had a brace within five minutes to lead the Royals charge for a 4-3 lead in the 74th minute, just before being answered by Malbranque, Defoe and Berbatov's goals in the latter stages of the game. At that point, watching the Gametracker was kind of maddening, it seemed that every time the page refreshed, another goal had been scored (which obviously was the case, but even as porous as Spurs backline has been at time this season, there was still no reason to think before the match that Reading would put up four on them!).



It was certainly a very hard fought victory, and Berbatov certainly looked a bit tired at the end of the match, but it was a vital three points taken against the team that was in front of them in the standings. COYS!



ESPN REPORT



DAVE KITSON ON FACING SPURS

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Tottenham 5 Fulham 1

Always sucks having to work on Boxing Day and miss all of the football, but seeing as how the Spurs/Fulham match wasn't going to be on TV in my household, there was no great loss in forgoing following the match live online, particularly since the visitors had been in bad form as of late.



The good news: Ledley King was back on the defensive line and Robbie Keane and Tom Huddlestone both netted a brace of goals to lead the attack past the indeed-woeful visitors. Keane's goals were more the benefit of placement, the first of a rebound off of a missed kick and the second a deflection from a shot on goal from Dimitar Berbatov, but Huddletstone's goals were nice shots that, maybe, a better keeper might've kept out. Jermaine Defoe ended the home side scoring with a goal late in the contest to send the home crowd very happy indeed.


The only good news for Fulham came with the goal scored, on a rebound, by Clint Dempsey, the rest of the afternoon, at least from the highlights I saw, was that of being hopelessly outmatched. That was Dempsey's second goal against Spurs, his sixth for the season, and the third time his goal was the only scoring. In those games, Fulham lost twice and forced one draw. With the loss on Wednesday, Fulham is now in the relegation zone at the halfway point of the season.



However, there was more good news from the south coast with the Arse drawing nil all with Portsmouth, losing first place in the EPL to Manchester United, who thrashed Roy Keane's Sunderland 0-4. This is definitely not a bad thing at all. The match I watched a lot of was quite entertaining indeed, with Aston Villa visiting Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Anybody who thought this one would end up a 4-4 draw would've made a lot of money, particularly with the home side who hadn't scored that many goals in a couple of months.



Villa took a 2-0 lead via an error from Chelsea goalie Petr Cech in addition to a good shot, but the Blues came storming back to a 3-2 lead after playing some aggressive football, the quick strike by Alex in the 66th minute to take the lead was a lovely bit of skill indeed on a quick pass from a teammate before the defense was cognizant of what was happening.


Some questionable defending, particularly by Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho, with an thuggish two-footed tackle on a Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor allowed the game to deteriorate into controversy as well as the 4-4 draw, which probably left neither side particularly happy with the outcome.




SPURS SITE REPORT



POMPEY/ARSE


CHELSEA/VILLA



Anyway, the next match, at White Hart Lane, is this Saturday against Reading, who have yet to win away from the Madjeski this year, compiling an 0-3-6 record so far. This is not a time for the Royals, a scrappy team that I kind of pull for, to change that record. COYS!.

Big Boffo Box Office: $384.00. Eight Theaters.

That's the reported box office take of Jessica Simpson's latest movie venture,Blonde Ambition. The amount of screens playing this movie certainly define the term, limited engagement, even for Simpson's home state of Texas. Dallas Cowboy fans, pissed off with the woeful performance their team played against the Philadelphia Eagles on December 16th, losing 10 to 6, which Simpson attended wearing a Tony Romo jersey, certainly have as good a reason as anybody to avoid this cinematic debacle heading straight to DVD; count me as one who can't even be bothered to watch Jessica in her Daisy Dukes when the remake of Dukes Of Hazzard is on HBO. There are many other things that would benefit from my time and money than anything that features Ms. Simpson. Sad, really, cause I actually did like her Irresistible single. More details, and some math for the numbers, is HERE.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Mmmm! Mmmm! Mmmmm! (That's Good Snake Soup!)

A much more appealing report on creatures being used in food for human consumption than Dan Aykroyd's Bass-O-Matic skit on Saturday Night Live. This National Geographic video shows how snakes are prepared as part of a popular soup. I would certainly try this soup if I were in Hong Kong, not so sure if I'd try eating live baby octopus as they do in South Korea though.






VIDEO

From The Jam In Oregon Gig Shocker!

With the news from NEARLY ONE YEAR AGO about Jam bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler getting back together with a couple of other lads to play Jam songs, the new group, known as From The Jam, have now added some newly written tracks and are in the process of reworking early Foxton Jam tunes for their first U.S. tour since the group's end in 1982 when group founder and main songwriter Paul Weller quit.




Personally would've loved to have seen The Jam around the time of the Setting Sons/Sound Affects era, so I'm still not sure how to respond to revisiting a lot of those songs 25 years later, especially without Weller. The date, at this point in time, is set for late January so there's still time to debate the relative merits of this association. However, playing Weller tracks such as Strange Town and Going Underground versus Foxton tracks such as News Of The World and London Traffic would seem to scuttle the option of attending the gig.




CMJ STORY





PRESS RELEASE





ALADDIN THEATER PAGE




Dec. 23rd EDIT: January 30th, a Wednesday night, at the Aladdin Theater is the place to be, big thanks to the passionate fans who've pointed out to me how good this experience will be.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Pete Maravich Video


Channel surfing on Tuesday night, I decided to spend a little time at NBA TV and catch the highlights of the Trail Blazers/Jazz game, won by the Blazers in Utah by a score of 97-89.



The team looked good in a place the franchise has traditionally never done very well at, but as it was apparently Heritage Week on NBA TV, the hosts of the show introduced another segment of highlights after that game, the latter coming from a January 8, 1978 game in Portland between the Blazers and the then-New Orleans Jazz, won by the Blazers 122-100. Besides the usual sickening feeling that one gets around these parts from watching that well-coached team perform, in comparison with some of the massive collection of underachieving players that had been performing up until the last couple of years, there was Pete Maravich in his prime, a wizard with the ball and a true thrill to watch play.



Being as I used to be a huge basketball junkie back then (heck, I was even a fan of the American Basketball Association, and still regret to this day the fact that the Blazers traded away Moses Malone), I was shocked that I had never seen the play that made me sit upright; a 60-foot underhanded pass from the right of the key down the court to a streaking Gail Goodrich in the paint, for a perfect layup just ahead of an effort to block the shot by Maurice Lucas. As the excellent mix video shows, Pistol Pete had made that move before, it's right before the Blazer highlight at about 5:50 mark of the video, almost near the end. Still, this video is really worth viewing, in spite of some of the horrible uniforms that teams had back then, such as those by the Atlanta Hawks, where Maravich first played (pic above).







Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Because Inter Are The New Knights Templar?


News that a Turkish lawyer is suing Italian football club Inter Milan for wearing a kit whose shirt resembled a red cross on a white background which would be considered ”offensive to Muslim sensibilities” as these shirts apparently recall the Crusades. Not just suing the club is enough for this gentleman, he's also seeking to overturn the results of Inter's match with Turkish side Fenerbahce as well, which is when the Italian club wore the new shirt. Have to wonder why the St. George's Cross flag hasn't come under more scrutiny by this point in time. The rest of the story of this PC-world gone mad, from the London Times, is HERE, a pic of the new strip is on the right, photo by Marco Bucco.

Rangers 0 Lyon 3: Laughing At The Gers

(Apart from DeMarcus Beasley, that is, who didn't play). Always love the Wednesday UEFA Champions League lunchtime kickoffs, it was a bit of a surprise to see that Rangers/Lyon was televised here rather than Roma/Man United, but it sure promised to be an entertaining match, what with Rangers only needing a draw to advance to the next round.



Don't think I'd seen a game from Ibrox televised before, and I'm sorry to say that the home side's performance was not one for the ages. Sloppy defending and a general lack of attack up front combined with careless possession of the ball all added up to much anxiety for the home supporters. How Sidney Govou missed a shot after slipping behind the defense only 3 and a half minutes into the game, I'll never know, but he quickly rebounded a save from Rangers goalie Allan McGregor 16 minutes in to give the French side a well-deserved 1-0 lead, which would be the half time score as well. However, for the first 25 minutes or so, there was a palpable lack of confidence from Rangers about how to attack with one striker that made it a bit hard to watch. The second part of the half went a bit better in terms of defense and offense, but there were no serious enough chances that weren't turned back with a good defense and some goaltending.




The second half went like the latter part of the first half, but Jean-Claude Darcheville, the Rangers striker with an injury problem that led to the team starting with just the one striker upfront, and who came off the bench late in the game, missed a point-blank shot in front of the net that might have tied the match. Karim Benzema for Lyon then finished off the home side late in the match with a couple of beautiful goals that totally crushed any spirit the home side had left, and Darcheville compounded his night by drawing a red card for stomping on the ankle of Lyon's Kim Kallstrom a bit later.



All in all, it was definitely not the best CL match I'd ever seen, especially one with advancement riding on the line, so the flatness of the home side was definitely something to wonder about. Still, my Celtic buddies are well pleased with tonight's result, so a Hail Hail shout out to them would be in order, though delighting in the misery of others, especially your bitter rival, isn't something one should repeatedly enjoy doing. Right?



SCOTSMAN STORY




RECAP

Sunday, December 09, 2007

I Remember When He Would Sign For Nothing

This'll make a coworker of mine, a Boston Red Sox fan who played baseball for the Beavers, roll his eyes and shake his head: after signing with agent Scott Boras, JACOBY ELLSBURY WILL BE CHARGING $125 FOR AN AUTOGRAPH at some autograph sessions. A simple but effective photo shop of the new dark-side business duo is HERE.

Friday, December 07, 2007

No More 'Naked Twister' Nights


A CNN ARTICLE about a Dallas, TX suburb banning sex clubs in residential areas. Too much traffic in these areas according to the local naysayers, it's quite odd that people easily willing to swap bodily fluids can't manage to either come up with a good carpooling idea or split a cab to the house. If such a banning comes to this area, I'll most certainly have to come up with a new bedroom décor. Drat it.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

The Friends Of Snuggles Care: Negativland's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Apparently it's been 20 years since U2 released The Joshua Tree, with the usual remastered and expanded edition soon to be available for U2 consumers to buy for the fourth or fifth time. Can't forget the legal controversy over Negativland using samples from the U2 song, mixed with some choice Casey Kasem outtakes where he's swearing up a storm trying to introduce the band's debut song on American Top 40, and some various sound clips from a number of sources. A brilliant subversive montage that certainly adds another dimension to the song.






The audio version for this clip is the Special Edit Radio Mix, where Kasem really goes ballistic, with his rants (and other 'found sounds') on top of the songs rhythm track which features a kazoo playing the vocal lines. It's not the A Capella Mix, the version featuring a nasally-voiced man ad-libbing the songs lyrics at literally face value (love the bit about the STP and 409 cleaners). The audio is NSFW!







Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Calm After The Storm


Well, I certainly enjoyed the 60 degree December day today, as opposed to the numerous showers I took yesterday while working outside, but I knew in my mind that once again the valley for the most part was spared the worst of the latest winter storm to hit the Pacific Northwest. Checking out the newspaper pictures and television videos of the wind and water wreckage from the Oregon coast to Vernonia to Woodinville, WA still had me shaking my head. The news that a lengthy stretch of 1-5 in Washington near Chehalis, under 10 feet of water according to ABC News, had been closed added to the road congestion woes that included the highways leading to the coasts as well as the various sections of U.S. 101. Good luck and godspeed to those affected by the storm, I know we got off light. :(





I-5 STORY




The photo was taken by Rob Finch of the Oregonian on 101.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Tottenham 2 Birmingham 3: Throwing It All Away (Again)

Thought a nice respite from the Civil War loss would be to catch Spurs hosting former Rangers (and Scotland) coach Alex McLeish's debut with the Blues, getting cosy on the couch while a wind and rain storm batter the coast and valley.


What I got was the all-too-common defensive meltdown as Spurs let a 2-1 second half lead slip through their fingers to absorb a shocking 3-2 defeat to the visitors, aided a bit by a dubious red card handed out to captain Robbie Keane in the 68th minute with the score knotted at 2.



How in the world Spurs didn't have the lead at half is the classic story of those "unlucky" football days: they moved the ball and created more scoring chances much better than the visitors did, but found themselves on the wrong end 1-0 thanks to a penalty kick from Gary McSheffrey via a dumb takedown from Younes Kaboul; the shots that Spurs did take either sailed over the top bar or were cleanly fielded by Brum goalie Maik Taylor.



Keane scored for Spurs early on in the second half, also on a penalty kick from the same area, when Dimitar Berbatov was leveled, and then hit again just 3 minutes later on a superb pass from Tom Huddlestone. That pass, from out in the midfield, was cleanly controlled by Keane, who then fluidly tapped the ball into the net past Taylor for a 2-1 lead in the 53rd minute. With the superbly confident way that Spurs continued to attack, it certainly seemed that a much-needed victory was on its way (though how Berbatov wound up hitting the post on a point-blank shot just a couple of minutes later showed that the "unlucky" factor was really about to him home in a big way).



Cameron Jerome then tied the score with a lovely shot in the 62nd minute, creating the chance mostly by himself against two Spurs. Then came Keane's red card, forcing the home side to play the last 25 minutes or so with 10 men, and it was really no surprise to Spurs fans when Sebastian Larsson launched a rocket shot from long range in injury time to complete the meltdown.


By my reckoning, in EPL matches anyway, that makes four injury time goals conceded by Spurs this year, costing the team eight points, those matches would be losses to Sunderland and Blackburn as well as draws with Fulham and Liverpool. Of course, Spurs have netted one back, in a draw with Aston Villa, but the fact remains that the calamitous defending Spurs have exhibited this year must certainly take a toll on the team's mental attitude: having to score 2 or 3 just for the possibility of one point isn't always a given, even with all of the money spent on the strike force up front. Grrrrr.






ESPN RECAP

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Oregon St. 38 Oregon 31 (2OT)

Not much to say tonight (will add more to this post tomorrow) other than to say that right now I'm totally wiped out after rooting like hell for the Ducks. A bit more high scoring game than most people thought it would be, in my mind there were a couple of things that I hadn't really expected, one of those being Oregon doing a decent job running the ball against the stout Beaver defense. The other would be the Oregon State offensive line giving enough protection and time to their quarterback so that he could complete passes at critical times.



Both teams had good play and bad plays, it was great to see both sides respond to the challenges of the game and adjust accordingly. Tis a shame that someone had to lose such a fierce battle where neither side wilted, but those are the rules (and fortunes) of college football these days. Tip o' the cap to the Beavers for making the plays they needed to win the game, and to the Ducks for showing a lot of heart, especially with fifth string quarterback Justin Roper playing the majority of the game.