The Bitterness (?) Of Younes Kaboul

At this point in time, as another lackluster season draws to a close, the relative merits of what has gone right and wrong with Spurs is being debated, by both team officials and the fans, as a guide as to what to try and improve for next season. The firing of Marin Jol is one aspect, colored a bit by the injury factor at the time. The hiring of Juande Ramos brought a new attitude, a bit of a swagger that helped in Spurs triumph in taking home the Carling Cup earlier this year.


Now today comes word that a favorite of Jol's , Younes Kaboul, who hasn't played regularly for the past month or so under Ramos, has blasted Ramos, saying that Spurs would have won the Carling Cup even if Jol was still the coach.


I'm going to give the Frenchman a bit of a break on this one, what he's saying in this newly published article just shows a man who is clearly frustrated at his lack of playing time. One thing that I think might be behind Kaboul's words is that, no matter who the coach is, Spurs have been amazingly inconsistent all season, and that the brusque style of Ramos is bound to wear on a player who has fallen out of favor for whatever reason; I'm guessing that Kaboul sees other reasons for the inconsistency and lashed out when he'd had enough. He probably shouldn't have lashed out publicly like he did, but that's irrelevant now. KABOUL STORY


Going to dwell on the good things that he's done in his year here (highly unlikely he'll be back after this outburst), such as his dramatic injury time goal against Aston Villa in the amazing 4-4 draw back at the beginning of the year.

Tottenham 1 Bolton 1: No Clinical Finishing Here

Spurs managed their fourth straight 1-1 draw as they statistically dominated visiting Bolton but had very little to show for their efforts except for the one point.


This draw was different from the previous three in that they came from behind in this one. Bolton scored first, in the opening minute of the second half, when a misplayed clearance sent the visitors onrushing the goal, the result being that Stelios Giannakopoulos knocked the ball in from close range amidst a tangle of fallen bodies in front of the goal.


Spurs replied just a few minutes later as Steed Malbranque chipped in a pass from Robbie Keane to level the score. The rest of the match was a continuation of what had transpired in the first half, with Spurs unable to finish the chances they were given.


An unremarkable game, even if Bolton were fighting to stave off relegation as Spurs really have nothing to play for other than their pride. That being said, it wasn't like the match was a trivial exhibition, both teams were trying hard to win, it's just that the shots didn't fall today as they sometimes do.



SOCCERNET REPORT.



The really good news is that Croatian midfielder Luka Modric is now a Spur, having watched the match from the directors box today and choosing the team over Newcastle. Heh heh heh. STORY

And There Was Much Rejoicing: Sports Talk Is Back On The Air

Couldn't quite believe my ears today when, at the end of the Writer's Block show on 1320, host George Schroeder announced that the much missed Sports Talk, a local call in show hosted by Steve Tannen, would return to the air next Monday, having been canceled a bit more than a month ago by KPNW.


The announced time slot for the show was given at noon to 2 p.m., currently where the Dan Patrick show is now heard, albeit on a three-hour time delay. Having appreciated his return to radio, I'd resigned myself to never hearing from Mr. Patrick again. The one factor that I had not counted on was the news that the programming director of 1320 was dropping the Jim Rome show instead, moving Patrick's show into that time period.


Can't say I'll miss Rome terribly, I get annoyed at times when he will chide his listeners for one particular thing, telling them to grow up and never do that again............but he won't let the subject drop and will continue to talk about it for several more minutes. Besides, if I have a need to hear Rome (and there are times when I do, but I find myself wishing he would take more vacations so that we could hear the Sklar brothers instead), I will just turn to 1240 Joe Radio for that fix.


The excellent Duck Sports News, a great compendium of Duck information, has some more information on the story HERE, including the press release from Cumulus Broadcasting announcing the change.


Welcome back Steve, you were most certainly missed this past month, especially during the NCAA men's basketball tourney!

Avram Grant's Monosyllabic Obfuscation

Can't let slip by a transcript of the great "interview" Chelsea coach Avram Grant had with the press after last Thursday's win at Everton. The dour man is certainly in the unenviable position of having to had replace the loquacious Jose Mourinho as the man who took charge of a club in fight for both a Premiereship and Champions League title midway through a season. Seeing as though both the majority of fans (and the press as well) have not embraced him as a competent manager of a top club, it was probably inevitable that this outburst was bound to happen. The interview lasted a bit more than five minutes, and here's a sample question and answer.







You seem lost for words by the performance. Are you more satisfied with the performance or the victory?

Both.



More of the cat and mouse game, from the Independent, is HERE

Wigan 1 Tottenham 1: Same Old Sad Song

Another familiar theme dominated the match at the JJB today, another similar verse in a season-long song of defensive shortcomings. That would be Spurs grabbing an early lead, only to see the lead evaporate rather shortly afterward, with the majority of results ending in a draw or loss (this was the third consecutive draw by that score achieved in that manner, and the fourth game in a row in which Spurs scored first, that one being the 1-4 disaster at home against Newcastle at the end of March).



Dimitar Berbatov, wide open in front of the goal area, knocked in a great pass from Aaron Lennon in just the sixth minute to give Spur the lead, but Emile Heskey, just five minutes later, replied on a run that caught Spurs a bit flat-footed defensively.



The rest of the match saw a ton of blown opportunities on both sides, a bit frustrating when Spurs were on the offensive, and a bit unnerving when the Latics, especially Marcus Bent, caused havoc in front of Spurs goalie Radek Cerny. Bent knocked paint off the bar on a driving shot midway through the second half that had me cringing seeing as how wide open he was, luck was definitely looking out for Spurs at that time.




SPURS REPORT

Shunsuke Nakamura's Goal Vs. Rangers: Are You Kidding Me?

Great to see the Bhoys win a crucial match to keep their SPL title hope alive; what I'll remember though is the amazing strike by Celtic's Nakamura, his quick corralling of the pass and then the subsequent twisting blast shot on goal with his left foot is a thing of beauty. C'mon the hoops!

Manchester United 2 Arsenal 1: SURPRISE.....IT'S HARGREAVES!!!

Gotta love Owen Hargreaves for sinking the Gunners faint league title hopes with a wicked free kick that no one on Arsenal(save for maybe Robert van Persie, who made a half hearted jump) even made a move to block. That kick was the final of two second half goals for the Red Devils at Old Trafford as they overcame a 0-1 deficit for the victory.


It's true, the visitors did outplay Man U for large parts of the game, but both teams missed golden opportunities to score, and some good work from the goalkeeper and the defense is always essential to success; that part of the game isn't just luck, as Arsene Wenger trotted out the latest version of "we outplayed them, we were just unlucky, etc" for everyone afterward.



Also gotta love the fact that Arsenal's annoying goalie Jens Lehmann (RIGHT, NOT A BITTER MAN AT ALL), who declared earlier in the week that WERE HE IN GOAL, ARSENAL WOULD NOT HAVE LOST IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCH VS. LIVERPOOL just stood there with the rest of his teammates on the Hargreaves free kick.




The lovely, lovely goal, which made me laugh out loud for the first time since, errr, Tuesday I suppose, is linked below.


COULD RONALDO HAVE DONE ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

Because Love Hurts, Stinks And Bites ( Don't Forget It's A Heart Disease As Well)

Cheers to the KLOO listener, Lori in Stayton I think, who, on the station's Friday 4 p.m. SELECT A SET, a regular programming feature where a selected listener gets to pick three or four songs that the station will air, went for a set that dealt directly with matters of the heart.


Can't recall ever hearing a thematic set before, but something maybe has gone amiss in that person's life, for KLOO listeners were treated to Love Hurts by Nazareth, Love Stinks by the J. Geils Band, Love Bites by Def Leppard, and Heart Of Stone by the Rolling Stones. Surely a nice cheerful way to roll into what's going to be a fantastic weekend, no?


John Cooper Clarke's wonderful Heart Disease Called Love was obviously not in the stations vast music library, that certainly would have been a perfect addition to the songs selected. There's no video of that song that I could find, so here's another classic track from the Bard Of Salford in a similar vein, entitled Tw@t. This post is dedicated to an ex-roommate of mine, not because he was or is an idiot, far from it, but because once he heard my twin-grooved 45 back then, he would have me play it at parties constantly. Ain't love grand? (this is the uncensored version, with language probably NSFW).

New York Mets 4 Phillies 3 (12 Innings): He Was Clearly Safe. Err, Maybe.

Much better played game than the poor showing that what happened on Wednesday, the Mets edged the Phillies 4-3 in the 12th inning as Angel Pagan drove in Jose Reyes from second on a ground single to shallow center field.


There was controversy on that play, as Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth quickly got the ball to home plate, where catcher Chris Coste was waiting, the plate blocked with his left leg. Reyes slid past Coste's leg and reached out to touch the plate with his hand, either a split second before or after the catcher had applied the tag, depending on which team you were rooting for. Since umpire Ted Barrett was right there, I'll go with his call on this one.


Only the Mets Aaron Heilman had what could be called a rough outing, giving up two runs in the eighth inning which allowed the Phillies to tie the score at 3, but the rest of the staffs did reasonably well indeed, though Mets starter John Maine did give up five walks in his six innings.


The new outfield additions to the Mets were largely responsible for the offensive output tonight, in addition to the game winning RBI by Pagan, right fielder Ryan Church opened the score book with a two run single in the fourth. Carlos Beltran got the other RBI in the sixth by driving in Pagan.


The Phillies got two solo home runs, one from Pedro Feliz and one from Ryan Howard, as well as the tying run in the eighth that came via a walk, a single, and a fielder's choice.



The Milwaukee Brewers are next for the Mets starting tomorrow, so Let's Go Mets!



ESPN RECAP

New York Mets 8 Phillies 2: Wrap The Gift Up, We'll Take It

Good God, even as a Mets fan that third inning, an inning in which the Mets scored six runs, was a bit painful to watch. Not that the amazing ineptness in which the Phillies exhibited early on could ease any of the pain from last season's choke-job, but it helped a bit tonight.


Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick walked six Mets in the first two inning, allowed no hits, yet found himself trailing 1-0 thanks to the first of four Phillie errors. The Phillies scratched out the tying run in the top of the second on a series of singles, but Mets starter Mike Pelfrey got out of a jam by inducing a couple of ground balls to end the inning.


The Mets got their six runs in the bottom of the third on four hits, three errors, and a wild pitch (their was another walk, but no runs scored because of that one). Two of the Phillies errors were on substitute shortstop Eric Bruntlett, filling in as Jimmy Rollins was injured. Bruntlett booted two balls that could easily have been double plays, and those errors led to the last four Mets runs of the inning, the first Phillie error of the inning was on catcher Carlos Ruiz, who made a throwing error to third base to load them up when the score was just 2-1 Mets with one out.



The Mets got that second run by opening the inning with three consecutive hits, but then the wheels really fell off, and with Rollins out and Ryan Howard still struggling at the plate, the game was over for all intents and purposes.







ESPN RECAP

ASPCA: Go Orange For Animals April 10th

I love my pets, and I love the ideas that the American Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals stands behind with the relationships between humans and their pets. However, as a dedicated Oregon fan, I don't own any orange at all for their ASPCA Day tomorrow, a day in which wearing the colour will show support for their cause; I hope the orange lettering in my New York Mets hat will count.



ASPCA DAY

Liverpool 4 Arsenal 2

Okay, I hustled through work to catch as much of this as I could, which wound up being the last 30 minutes. What I saw in the final third of the match was an exciting display of football that left me a bit breathless when trying to take in what had just happened.


What I missed was the opening goals from either side, the first half strike from Arsenal's Abou Diaby being slightly more impressive than the header from Liverpool's Sami Hyypia.



What I did witness was a superb blast from Fernando Torres, who corralled a long ball near the box to deliver a rocket in the 69th minute to give Liverpool the lead at 2-1. However, as Arsenal has proven all season long, they are at seemingly at their best when behind late in the game. There was one particular exchange not long after the Torres goal when Liverpool goalie Pepe Reina made a poor clearance, and the next few anxious minutes were spent defending against the Arsenal comeback, with the Liverpool defense shining. One notable exception came when Emmanuel Adebayor completely misplayed a sitter, sending the ball wide right of the goal when the position of Reina showed that had the ball been on target, he would have no shot at stopping it.



Adebayor made amends in the 84th minute, when he was the beneficiary of some dazzling moves from Theo Walcott, who made a long run down the right side of the field leaving Liverpool players in his wake and delivered a perfect ball for him to send home. Though my dislike of Arsenal is no secret, I just had to shake my head at the timing and brilliance of that play; it was certainly a well deserved equalizer.



However, even as Arsenal were still celebrating what seemingly would have been the goal that sent them on to the Champions League semi-finals, Liverpool quickly struck back and in the next minute, Kolo Touré brought down Ryan Babel inside the penalty area. Steven Gerrard drove the penalty into the left side of the goal over the outstretched arms of goalie Manuel Almunia to give the home side the lead back again, whilst Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was shown to be clearly fuming about the ticky-tackiness of the call.


Behind at that point, Arsenal had as many men as they could spare up front, which lead to the final goal that happened in injury time, as Dirk Kuyt linked up with Babel on a breakaway play, and Babel beat Almunia one on one to make the choruses of You'll Never Walk Alone that would echo around Anfield even sweeter.



The bad news is that Liverpool will now face Chelsea for the umpteenth time in recent history for the Champions League semi-finals, so it's highly doubtful we'll see a thrilling goal scoring match as the one we did today. Anyway, congrats to Liverpool for knocking Arsenal out of the Champions League race, well done lads!



ESPN REPORT

Hakeem, Ewing, Riley, Dantley & Vitale: Put 'Em In The Hall Of Fame

Congrats to those gentlemen, in addition to Pistons owner William Davidson and coach Cathy Rush, for their selection into the Basketball Hall Of Fame. Can't say that I was a rabid fan of any of them, with the possible exception of Olajuwon, as they battled the Blazers over the years, but they were very good at what they did indeed. Besides, I've always liked this 1972 Topps basketball card of Riley.



ESPN STORY

Atlanta 3 New York Mets 1: A Game Of Inches

Thanks to the contractual obligations that MLB and Faux have placed on all Saturday baseball games that take place in the same time frame that their regional telecasts air, we were not lucky enough to have been witness to a game in which the Mets lost 11-5, a game that we'll charitably write off as just one of those bad days at the office. And yes, with the current InDemand schedule as it is set right now, there will be no Saturday Mets games for THE REST OF APRIL, barring an act of God.


Today's game, the finale of the short series, Friday's scheduled opener having been rained out and being slated to be played on May 20th, really was a game of inches. However, that's not to undermine the excellent pitching performances that occurred; Johan Santana made his second start and did very well, allowing just one run on seven hits through seven innings. Braves starter John Smoltz did even better, giving up two hits in five innings, while the bullpen gave up just three more in its duty.



The inches came into play in the latter stages of the game, first with Braves first baseman Mark Teixeira's home run over the right field fence that barely cleared it, reminiscent of Carlos Beltran's shot against Florida last week that was taken away by the umpiring crew.



The game was put away in the bottom of the ninth, with Mets runners on first and second and two men out. Catcher Brian Schneider sharply lines a drive over first base and seemingly down the line for a game-tying double. Of course, in situations like this, the first baseman is playing on the line to prevent such a thing from happening, and in this case, Teixeira quickly made an instinctive play on the ball, one that certainly looked like it might succeed in getting past despite his defensive positioning. It was not to be, Teixeira made the play, tossed the ball to pitcher Rafael Soriano covering the base, and that was that.


A disappointing series in a number of respects, what with the shaky pitching from starter John Maine and the bullpen on Saturday, along with the fact that Jose Reyes and Luis Castillo went 1 for 18 in these two games, drawing no walks in the process either. But, the Mets have also allowed just 10 runs in their other four games, so it's not likely that what happened on Saturday will become a weekly occurrence. Still a lot of ball yet to be played though, so it's time to ponder about what happened in Atlanta, but not dwell obsessively over it.



METS RECAP

New York Mets 13 Florida 0: Emptying The Bench

After last night's extra inning heartbreak, the Mets bounced back in fine style with a 13-0 thrashing of the hapless Marlins, a game in which almost everything bounced the Mets way.


The defense picked the Mets up in the bottom of the first, as Ryan Church made his presence known by perfectly playing the carom of a Hanley Ramirez hit off of the wall, quickly getting the ball into second to get Ramirez out as he tried to stretch the hit into a double. Church then followed up that with a 2-run homer to right field in the top of the second to spark the onslaught of the young Marlins pitching staff. Church's home run was the first for the Mets this year.


All of the Mets starting position players had at least one hit, and all of them, excepting second baseman Luis Castillo, drove in at least one run, an excellent showing of the potential of this line-up. In left field, Angel Pagan continued to impress with his overall game, and continued his timely hitting shown throughout this series.



Starting for the Mets, Oliver Perez scattered five singles over six innings and kept the Marlins in check for most of his impressive stint, while the rest of the Mets bullpen allowed just one more single to complete the shutout.



Going back to the RBI's, both Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado drove in their first runs of the year.



David Wright had a monster game, delivering the Mets second home run in the sixth with a tremendous blast to center field that brought in three runs as the Mets blew the game wide open. In Wright's previous at bat in the fifth inning, he drilled a ball to left center field that most certainly would have been a home run in most other parks, but the tall score board there stood in the way and the result was a ground rule double.



The only thing that did not bounce the Mets way came in the previous inning, when Beltran's home run was ruled a ground rule double, even though replays showed that the ball clearly bounced off of the metal railing behind the fence rather than the fence itself. Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez came out to argue the point, and winning the argument was the high point of the game for the Marlins.



There were also some fine defensive plays for the Mets as well; besides Church's play, Wright also made a couple of tough diving stops on the line to get the Marlins batter out, and Castillo also made an acrobatic leap over a Marlin in the fourth inning on a double play to end their turn at bat. However, Castillo did get charged for an error in the next inning when he dropped a line drive on purpose in an attempt to get another double play, getting the error when he threw the ball wide of Jose Reyes on second base. That was about the low point of the game for the Mets.



Now it's on the Atlanta to face the Braves for a key weekend series. Let's Go Mets!




RECAP

Florida 5 New York Mets 4: Anxiety Already

Actually, once again, it's a long season, and this is just game two. However, the comfort that Mets fans felt after Johan Santana's performance was undermined by the reality of Pedro Martinez's fragility tonight, as the veteran right hander left the game in the fourth inning due to a strained hamstring. Combine that with the fact that Pedro did not have his best stuff to start the game (he found himself on the wrong end of 4-0 after two innings), and the hope that he can be a somewhat reliable number two or three starter is starting to look less likely.


Martinzez started the game off by hitting Hanley Ramirez with a pitch, a situation made worse by the two-run homer that Dan Uggla followed with. ( I could've sworn that a Marlin fan shown briefly celebrating the hit was dancing around with both middle fingers extended, before the camera cut away.). The second wasn't much better, with Luis Gonzalez leading off with a home run, and Ramirez driving in another run with a triple.


Martinez certainly looked to have settled down in the third, and had retired the first batter in the fourth, when he pulled up lame in the field. By that time though, the Mets had rallied to score three runs in the top of the inning with four straight singles and a couple of sacrifices, and added the tying run in the next inning. The rest of the regulation innings was dominated by strong middle relief pitching from both sides.



The bad news night for the Mets came to its conclusion in the bottom of the tenth, as Robert Andino hit a two-out walk-off homer, off of Matt Wise, to give the Marlins the victory.


The fun fact I learned tonight from the Florida Fox crew came during an interview with Florida starter Rick VandenHurk's dad, as the family hails from the Netherlands. Interrupting the dad's scorekeeping ("Wait........was he safe?" "Go ahead and mark the strike down, and then answer the question" ), it was revealed that they both supported PSV Eindhoven in football, almost certainly the only time that the club's name will ever be aired on Fox Florida.



ESPN RECAP