But No Opinion On The Jol Situation: The Suns' Steve Nash On Possible Future Spurs Plans

No one will ever doubt Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash's well-documented love for Tottenham Hotspur, and the following linked article in the Guardian about Nash's dreams about ownership of a sporting club not surprisingly sidesteps any questions about the farcical removal of MarTin Jol as club manager since it does mention that he has met and befriended a couple of board members instrumental in Jol's departure. Of course, that's just the dark side of my nature talking, I know that Nash is keen to see Spurs succeed as much as the next Yid, and while this current bit of unpleasantness will soon fade from the front pages of our memory, the appreciation of what Jol was able to accomplish in his tenure will never be forgot.




GUARDIAN ARTICLE

Oregon 24 USC 17: One Game At A Time

It was a clear, crisp and lovely fall afternoon in Eugene yesterday as the Ducks held on to defeat the U.S.C. Trojans 24-17. The "biggest" game in the history of Autzen Stadium (at least until this weekend, when the undefeated Arizona State Sun Devils roll into town, the first ever clash of Top 5 teams here).



The bottom line of the game is that Oregon converted the turnovers they created from U.S.C. into touchdowns, while the Trojans could manage but three points on two early Oregon turnovers deep in their own territory. The first Oregon turnover came on the opening kickoff, when Andre Crenshaw was blasted at the 21 yard line; the Oregon defense then showed the caliber of play that they brought to the game on this series, holding the Trojans, on a 4th and 1 call at the 12 yard line, to a one yard loss.



The other turnover came very early in the second quarter, when a punt from Greg Woidneck careened around the field and struck a Duck in the back of the leg, which the Trojans recovered at the 33 yard line of Oregon. From my vantage point, we could see returned Aaron Pflugrad yelling and pointing at his blockers to get out of the way, but with as loud as Autzen was yesterday (up to 127 decibels according to a story in today's Register-Guard), it was understandably hard to hear everything that was going on around. On this series, the Trojans got a couple of first downs and actually had a goal-to-go series, but the defense buckled down again and held the Trojans to a field goal.



Those two critical series were the reasons why Oregon won the game, and even though the stats ledger shows that the total yardage measure was won by the Trojans, they got about a third of those yards in the last five minutes. Oregon's offense, on the day, performed most consistently over the game, and those scoring drives enabled the ball-control offense to take a large chunk of time off of the game clock.



Other memorable plays that stuck in my mind: Walter Thurmond III shedding a block quickly and upending a Trojan receiver, after the reception, for no gain in front of the Oregon bench; Oregon tackle Geoff Schwartz showing decent hands on an option toss from quarterback Dennis Dixon for a three yard gain (obviously not a designed play, I would think, but the crowd was initially stunned at first, and then roared its approval), and the critical 3rd and 17 yard reception the Pflugrad made at the start of the fourth quarter as the Duck drove the field en route to the touchdown that would make it 24-10 with about 11 and a half minutes left in the game. The Ducks defense was also able to get fairly substantial pressure on Trojan quarterback Mark Sanchez, and while they weren't always able to get to him, it certainly disrupted the timing of the Trojan offense; however, Sanchez is a mobile type who turned these plays into something other than tackles for loss.



Dixon had a great game directing the offense, apart from the odd series that led to the Ducks second quarter field goal, a series in which he and receiver Jaison Williams didn't appear to be on the same page as far as positioning on the field went. With the injuries to the Oregon wide receivers, the focus of defenses on Williams as a downfield threat has led to the emergence of tight end Ed Dickson as a viable threat over the middle of the field, one more weapon in the Ducks offensive arsenal. I'm also amazed at how confident and sure-handed that Pflugrad has shown himself to be, especially when returning punts. Andiel Brown sprained an ankle on the first punt return of the game, not to return, but Pflugrad has shown a knack for snatching the ball cleanly whilst able to take a hit (he got popped pretty good one time in front of us).



And of course, how could we not mention the two critical interceptions that Matthew Harper made, the first that snuffed a Trojan drive that might've tied the score at 17 late in the third quarter, and of course the final one, where he slid up in front of Fred Davis to seal the hard fought victory. Of course, the students rushed the field before the game was officially over but that was a small moment of inconvenience on such a glorious day.



The Trojan fans we met were great, big kudos to the Trojan defense, running back Jonathan Stewart got his 103 yards, on 25 carries, absolutely earning everything he made. I can't say that if the two teams played again that Oregon would win, but I can say that it would be as lively and engaging as this one was, with the winner coming down to who made the least amount of mistakes. Fight on Trojans, especially this week against the Beavers!




It was nice to see that the Washington Post sent a writer to cover the game, his story is HERE along with a NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE, while the ESPN story is HERE. Also, it certainly doesn't hurt the Ducks when the news is out today that ESPN GAME DAY WILL ONCE AGAIN BE HERE. It's never too early to be loud and proud, as well as being a little bit drunk at 7 a.m. , judging from the evidence on hand last month. Gotta love college football and the craziness that goes with it. Go Ducks!!!!

Belotti On Jim Rome's TV Show

I would never consider myself a clone, I listen to Rome's radio show for a bit in the morning, mostly to hear some talk about a sports subject or for an interview with a particular person. Some of the clones who call are sometimes pretty funny, spouting off their views on any number of random subjects which are tenuously connected at best, though it seems a knowledge of popular culture and current news helps to figure out slightly where some of these people are coming from (figuratively).



I was driving around for work today when I heard that Oregon head coach Mike Belotti was going to be the guest on Rome's TV show, Jim Rome Is Burning, but I was nowhere near a television set tuned to ESPN between 1:30 and 2 p.m. PST, so here is the interview that was missed.

Martin Jol Is Gone......

Just came across on the BBC page; I'm a bit sad as I really liked the guy, but after the disastrous start to this season.......... (more later...)




BBC




A story about how Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp believes Berbatov was helping to add to Jol's problems is HERE, it's hard to disagree that Berbs has been disinterested this year.





Yikes, the tension that was running between the Tottenham board and Jol makes for some grim reading, from the BBC Sports Editor Mihir Bose, whose blog account is HERE.

Seahawks 33 Rams 6

In a 180 degree turn from last year's NFC west game between in Seattle between the Seahawks and the St. Louis Rams, an exciting game 24-22 victory for Seattle that went down to the last minute, the game played on Sunday the 21st at Qwest Field was one of the worst sporting events I've ever seen in my life, especially the first half.


Seattle scored a touchdown on their first drive of the game, a one yard pass from Matt Hasselbeck to Will Heller, and both teams added a field goal for the 10-3 half time score, but it was most certainly a game in which the offense went missing for periods at a time, with Seattle finishing the half with something like 168 yards and St. Louis with something like 50, from what I remember. In fact, the Cardinals didn't break the 100-yard mark until late in the third quarter, an awful performance punctuated by a lousy running game (they certainly do miss Steven Jackson) and some short passes by the just-returned-to-the-lineup-with-sore-ribs quarterback Marc Bulger that often weren't that close to the intended receivers.



The Seahawks weren't much better, particularly in the running game, as the fans continued to vent their frustration with running back Shaun Alexander for a variety of reasons (speaking not as a Seattle fan, I can think that maybe one play where the boo-birds were heard was due to lousy play calling, but whenever Hasselbeck or Maurice Morris had either made a bad play or was in in check running the ball, there was no reaction that I could hear).



Things livened up a bit at the start of the second half, when Nate Burleson returned the opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown, a nice reprise from last year's game when he returned a punt 90 yards for the winning score. The Rams were able to move the ball a bit better in the second half, particularly through the air, and were able to get another field goal (as well as missing on another one), but four turnovers, leading to 13 Seahawk points, in the second half doomed whatever meager chances that they had for a comeback.




The win puts Seattle in first place, at 4-3, in the "lowly NFC West" (hey, that was the headline on Sunday's Seattle Times!), while the Rams remain winless at 0-7, and showing no inclination on this particular day that a win is something within their grasp this season. However, the week before, the previously winless New Orleans Saints came to Seattle to claim a win, so who knows how the Rams respond in this age of NFL parity once they get Jackson back and begin to block effectively again? As for Seattle, it was revealed that Hasselbeck was hurting, which affected his play, but I for one can't honestly expect for him to lead this team very far into the playoffs if the ground game continues to produce paltry results. The Seahawks defense was very good for the game, but seeing as how the Rams were very one-dimensional (and limited) in their offensive attack, I'm not sure that's that much of a compliment.




ST.LOUIS REPORT



SEATTLE REPORT



ESPN

Oregon 55 Washington 34

Okay, so I was a bit off from my pre-game prediction of 28-17 to the Ducks (not on this site); both offenses played very well to blow past that point total by midway through the third quarter. In fact, some of the offensive numbers that Oregon put up were staggering....


. 465 rushing yards, a new team record, beating the record of 446 set in a game versus Washington State in 2001.


. 1 yard away from having 3 players with 100 yard rushing games (Jonathan Stewart finished with 251 yards on 32 carries, third string tailback Andre Crenshaw had 113 on 15, and quarterback Dennis Dixon had 12 carries for 99; it was funny to hear midway through the first quarter that Fox Sports Seattle announcer Brian Davis announce early on, after Stewart was limited to a three yard gain, that "maybe the Huskies have figured out" how to defend the running back. No further comment necessary)


. 39 first downs and 92 snaps for the offense.




I'd figured that the Huskies weren't going to lie down for this game against their southern rivals, and even though the Ducks marched down the field fairly easily for 2 touchdowns in the first quarter, Washington quarterback Jake Locker responded with an 82 yard touchdown pass to Anthony Russo to bring the Dawgs back to within a one-score distance. The ballyhooed fact of Washington being outscored 56-0 in the third quarter was quickly put to rest as Locker successfully answered a Ducks blitz package by hitting Louis Ranking on a screen pass that wound up, 43 yards later, for a Huskies touchdown that knotted the score at 24 early on in the third quarter.


The Ducks then responded with their defense, Jairus Byrd intercepting a Locker pass, on a Husky drive that might've nette them the lead, near the goal line that spurred the Duck offense on a 94 yard drive for which they took the lead for good toward the end of the third quarter. The Ducks continued to grind out the yards on the ground as the Washington offense continued to stall. Locker is very good, but is still a sophomore; there were more than a couple of plays that he which had me realize what the Ducks opposition was facing with his running skills. Best of all was holding Washington to a field goal after Locker had busted out a 47 yard run deep into Oregon territory, which made the score 41-34 with just under 6 minutes to play. Husky coach Ty Willingham then attempted an onside kick which gave the Ducks excellent field position, and less than a minute later the Ducks had scored, and the game was over, for all practical intents and purposes.


I was very happy to see senior receiver Garren Strong make his first career touchdown reception, the first score of the game, as Dixon distributed the ball evenly amongst his receivers (even though Derrick Jones was suspended for violation of team rules, and Dixon overthrew his targets a couple of times, there was nothing to suggest that the he was about to revert into his form from the latter part of last year, even after Washington had tied the score in the third quarter).



Oh yeah, another number to make everyone smile: apparently the 465 yards rushing that the Ducks accumulated in the game is 192 more than Notre Dame has..........in an entire year. Now that's a tangible stat I can get behind.



ESPN RECAP

Lucky Dube, R.I.P.

Shocking to tune into WORLD HAVE YOUR SAY today and hear about the senseless shooting, in front of his own kids, of South African reggae star Lucky Dube in a bungled carjacking attempt. Hard to say if this will further confirm the world's attitude about how crime-ridden South Africa is, especially with preparations for the 2010 World Cup proceeding as planned. The sad truth, also, is that it once again took a "name" victim to highlight social conditions that have gone on for too long and claimed countless other people who deserved more than the moment's notice we tend to give them when skimming over world reports in the media. That being said, this is still a huge loss for the music world and South Africa.







AFRICAN REPORT

I Knew It (But My Boss Didn't!)

Well, this really isn't a case of believing what I want to believe, I'm sure there are lots of people who will claim that people will twist the results of any university survey to suit their own views. Still, the announcement from a British university that says that swearing at work can have a positive impact on the workplace may be hard to fit into the category. Unless one works at a child-care facility, of course.



BBC STORY

Robbo To Miss Newcastle: Be Careful What You Wish For?

One fairly consistent worry from Spurs fans for the past couple of years is the number of lapses that goalie Paul Robinson has exhibited on the pitch. allowing balls into the back of the net that really had no business going there. (On second thought, add fans of the English team in general to that list of those who hold their breath way too often when Robbo's in goal).



At any rate, the news out of White Hart Lane is that Robinson had suffered a calf strain on international duty, which means that back up goalie Radek Cerny will finally get a chance to be in the starting line-up this coming Monday night at Newcastle.



With the woeful start that Spurs have had the season, done in part by some of those lapses, the least that could be done, in the view of many fans, is to have let Cerny have a shot and see if maybe Robinson's lapses were down to an overall lack of confidence; maybe a short rest could do him and the team some good. Well, we'll all be finding out this coming Monday. Come On You Spurs!







SPURS STORY

Oregon 53 Washington State 7

A lovely fall day for football turned into a nightmare for the visiting Cougars as the Ducks took advantage of three early Alex Brink turnovers to spark an amazing first half of play from Oregon, winding up at the break with an insurmountable 40 to 0 lead.



I know Brink would've loved to have performed better in his hometown debut (also his finale as well) and I do not begrudge him at all the motivating factor of not being offered a scholarship by the hometown college team. The big issue is that early on the Cougars moved the ball between the 20's fairly well, but two poor throws and a fumble by Brink, in their first four possessions, put the defense in a bad position. Oregon, having a very good offense, made the Cougars pay for those mistakes and things just snowballed out of control quickly for Washington State.


The first play for Oregon, after Brink's first interception, was a 42 yard touchdown run by Jeremiah Johnson, and the other big touchdown highlight was Jaison Williams turning a short screen pass into a 52 yard run down the sideline in front of the Cougar bench. The bad news for the Ducks on this day were major injuries to receiver Cameron Colvin (broken ankle, gone for the year) and a sprained knee for Johnson (who looked to be in good spirits despite being on crutches for the second half; fingers crossed for good news from an upcoming MRI). (MORNING AFTER EDIT: From what I've read, the prognosis for Johnson isn't very good, apparently Belotti mentioned that JJ was probably done for the year at his post-game press conference, but I somehow missed that announcement with everything else that was going on).



About the only stats I remember are that Oregon had 390 yards of offense in the first half, the Cougars with only 130, and Alex Brink had 115 passing yards in the first half, and added 136 in the third quarter but only managed to get one touchdown. That being said, Brink did make some great throws and he had some receivers who could make a hard catch, but the Cougar drives would invariably bog down to the pressure from the Oregon defense. I'd read that the Cougars had only allowed nine sacks in the first six games of this year, but Oregon hurried and got to Brink whenever it had to.



It was another upsetting day in the college football world, a lot of Duck fans were buzzing because Kentucky (and ex-Duck coach Rich Brooks) was giving #1 L.S.U. a run for their ranking, IN WHICH L.S.U. EVENTUALLY LOST, and for the fact that the Oregon State Beavers knocked off the #2 California Golden Bears with a good ball-control offense that performed largely error-free when it most needed to this year, with that games recap right HERE; the funny thing about that game is that I had to give my brother a play-by-play description of the last two minutes as he was making his way back home from Santa Barbara to Burbank; the joy in his voice as I informed him that Kevin Riley ran to the middle of the field rather than the sideline as time was expiring was the best thing I've heard in a long while. He told me he was gonna wear a Duck shirt and a Beaver hat whilst going about his business in the Southland tomorrow, what an Oregonian! Good on ya bro, it was indeed a pleasure describing those crazy last plays of the game.





DUCK RECAP

Mekons At The Aladdin

Great show in Portland last night, more words later when I'm more able to, but I did manage to jot down the set list,.... (thoughts of the show are now at the end)



Give Us Wine Or Money
Dickie Chalkie And Nobby
Heaven And Back
Oblivion
Thee Olde Trip To Jerusalem
Tina
Millionaire
Diamonds
The Hope & Anchor
Cockermouth
Abernant 1984/5
Ghosts Of American Astrounauts
Hole In The Ground
Perfect Mirror

Encore:
Powers & Horror
Wild And Blue
Slightly South Of The Border
Hard To Be Human




Yes, a very good show, including an energetic and appreciated set by the Sadies (I did not know they were playing later on that night at Dante's, so if Jon or Sally joined them onstage to play, it was at that venue, I'd heard that they had joined them onstage a couple of days earlier).



Anyway, there was no Tom at the show, he had flown back home a couple of days earlier with regard to the imminent birth of his fourth child. Way to go Tom. I suppose Tom's absence meant the removal of a couple of his songs from the set that had been played earlier, such as Fletcher Christian, but I do have to say that Lu did a very good job taking the lead on Heaven And Back as well as singing backup on most of the other songs.



The new songs from Natural were wonderful, with a special nod for the haunting version of Perfect Mirror that closed the set. Rico's singing on Diamonds was another highlight, as was Sally performing The Hope And Anchor. Of course, Jon's wonderful dancing whilst performing Cockermouth is already something of a legend, yet another twist of the slightly unexpected from this band


All of the older songs sounded fine in the semi-acoustic format as well, with Ghosts Of American Astronauts standing out. Still, hearing classic tunes such as Tina, Abernant 1984/5, Hard To Be Human and Hole In The Ground isn't exactly a waste of time after all of these years either, and the smallish crowd, many of whom had never seen the band before I don't believe, reacted very appreciatively. The couples waltzing during the encore of Wild And Blue was something to see, preceded as it was by four Mekon men (Jon, Rico, Steve and Lu) performing Power& Horror in the theater alcove stage left, with both Jon and Steve holding the curtains back at times so that Rico could be seen playing his accordian.



I got there early enough to get a decent parking spot and to have a meal at the Lamp just before the doors opened, it was nice to see the band troop in after the soundcheck and have their drinks and meals sitting next to me (I wouldn't think of going up to anybody in a situation like that, so I let them be; they all looked to be in good spirits waiting for the clock to pass and the show to begin).




A top night out, there's still no other band I appreciate more, on various levels, than the Mekons. When they go, it will be a big loss in the music world; it's just great enough to appreciate them whilst they are here.

The Mekons At The Aladdin October 9th

The band from which I "borrowed" the name of my blog will be gracing the city of Portland with a show on Tuesday night at the Aladdin Theater, being billed as "A Quiet Night In With the Mekons". This means that they will be sitting for most of the show, from accounts I've read so far, and mixing in choice cuts from their recent, acoustic-based album Natural with classic tracks from their 30-year career.


Added good news is the fact that the Sadies will be opening, also doing an acoustic set. Perhaps we will be lucky enough for Mekon Jon Langford to sit in with the openers and sing a song or two from the great album that they recorded together a few years ago, Mayors Of The Moon.



The 25th anniversary show they played at Berbati's back in 2002 was great, and all indications are that it will be another great night of music, one of which I will eagerly partake of. With the fact that the band members are living in various scattered quarters of the world, there's no guarantee they'll ever tour again together, or even make another record, so enjoy them while you can.






ALADDIN SHOW PAGE

Liverpool 2 Spurs 2: "Anfield's A Library!"

Well, it was for the most part as the Spurs supporters up north sang that song, to the tune of La donna è mobile, several times as they cheered the visitors on. However, it took an injury time header from Fernando Torres, in addition to another mistake from Spurs goalie Paul Robinson, to balance out a couple of goals from Robbie Keane on either side of the half time break and eke out a point.



Both Spurs goals were headed to Keane from Dimitar Berbatov, and Keane deftly sliced in-between the Liverpool defense to put the ball in the back of the net.


The first Liverpool goal came early on as Andriy Voronin knocked in a ball that rebounded on a free kick that Robinson failed to catch, and with the Spurs poor away performance, especially against the "big four", the sign of another long, dreary afternoon seemed immininent, seeing also that Gareth Bale had missed a goal on a free kick by mere inches earlier on.



However, Spurs defended well for the most part, Micheal Dawson repeatedly clearing balls out of danger at the back, though there wasn't much both he and Robinson could do about the late Torres blast.



Spurs still haven't won a league match at Anfield since August of 93, though they did manage to draw, also 2-2, a couple of years ago. The two Spurs goals were the first given up in the play of the game, the previous two goals allowed, against Aston Villa and Chelsea in the first two matches of the year, came on penalty kicks, and the Reds were on a streak of five games plus of not having allowed a goal at all.




Certainly both sides had their chances to really take control of the game, but that's not the way things worked out today, Robinson did make a couple of fine saves, and Liverpool goalie Jose Reina was forced out of the box a couple of times in order to thwart a couple of Spurs chances. At any rate, once Spurs had the lead at 2-1, it was nice to see them continuing to push forward and fight for another goal. The Liverpool crowd grew a bit restless in the last 20 minutes or so, but the good Spurs defense turned the home side away several times with excellent positioning. That is, until the dying moments of the match. All told though, it was an exciting one to watch and probably the deserved result. Come On You Spurs!




MATCH STATS




6 P.M. EDIT: To the shock of just about no fan of the Lilywhites, Spurs have been revealed to be the team in the EPL that causes their fans the most stress, the study and story is HERE.

Cracking News: New Wallace & Gromit Short For Next Year

Not much of a cheese lover myself, but I do love Wallace and Gromit, and I just noticed the BBC STORY with the good news of a new short to be made for the Beeb.


Also good to see that whatever pressures on creator Nick Park and his animation company, Aardman Animation, may have felt with its former U.S. partner, Dreamworks Animation, THAT LED TO THE BREAK-UP OF THE PARTNERSHIP, are now gone, and Park is now making the film for "myself" and "those who love Wallace and Gromit". Well done lad.

Goodbye To The Tube

Maybe I'll date myself and announce that I do like to watch music videos periodically (or at least have the television on as background noise while I go about my business), but it was still a bit sad to see that The Tube (Channel 303 on Comcast) ceased operations today.



It's no use complaining too much about the ever-changing way in which people consume music and videos these days. Services such as YouTube, or perhaps the official site of any artist, or maybe the video channel on Winamp have emerged as the new vehicles to see something in particular. As these choices were more about what the viewer wants, rather than the airer, such a fate was probably predictable; I'll still miss the randomness of the playlist programmed by something other than me, which might even necessitate the changing of the channel briefly when something odious aired.


Of course, making money, or at least breaking even (I've seen a post elsewhere that reported that the Tube was losing money hand over fist), would've been nice as well, but as television is indeed a business, there comes a time when one has to pull the plug.



THE TUBE

Mets To Fans: We Care A Lot

Having been on the Mets mailing list, and dealing, all season long, with various e-mails such as voting for what song David Wright should come to bat to at Shea, the season ending note we got today was an open apology to Mets fans.



It starts:



Dear Mets Fan:


All of us at the Mets are bitterly disappointed in failing to achieve our collective goal of building upon last year's success. We did not meet our organization's expectations -- or yours. Everyone at Shea feels the same range of emotions as you -- our loyal fans -- and we know we have let you down. We wanted to thank you for your record-breaking support of our team this year.

Equally important, Ownership will continue its commitment in providing the resources necessary to field a championship team. Omar will be meeting with Ownership shortly to present his plan on addressing our shortcomings so that we can achieve our goal of winning championships in 2008 and beyond.

You deserve better results.

Many thanks again for your record-breaking support.













Obviously, it now appears that, like it or not, a version of "blow it up and build it again" will be undertaken this offseason, and who's to say at this moment if the return of manager Willie Randolph is one of those changes. For a start, let's hope they start with the pitching staff, or next season will be a lot worse than this one.




In other Mets news, the gent who caught Barry Bonds' record breaking 756th home run in San Francisco is now blaming himself for the Mets spectacular late season slide, the New York Post article is HERE.