The Joys Of Fandom: The Arse Vs. Spurs

Got to love the enthusiasm that these two chaps exhibit as the commentators for Fanzone for their respective teams in Wednesday's north London derby between the gooners and Spurs. Here are the video highlights of the two watching the action. Yelps of joy, screams of gibberish, badge kissing.....and topless nudity...it's all there. Well done Spurs man, way to actually get on those arse girls! :laugh:





YOU BEAUTY!

Selita Ebanks

What a lovely vision for the November model in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar. I'd buy whatever it is she's selling. Might be a tough month to concentrate on my writing and spelling rather than staring at her as O ho dnpiy ,u eptl@/

Arsenal 4 Spurs 4 :Shut Up Cesc

Given the nature of a possibly drunken Cesc Fabregas quote in which he replied that current EPL strugglers Tottenham might be lucky to earn a point off the Arsenal ladies team, it was very nice to see the good guys rally to produce two goals in the last four minutes to earn a vital 4-4 draw at the Emirates, shocking gooners the world over.

The quote from Fabregas: "They would do really well. I`m sure they would get a point!" Looks like they did Cesc, I suppose you'll be donning a skirt for the rematch later this season at White Hart Lane, in hopes of getting another point, eh?



Ex-gooner David Bentley (pictured above in post match glory) scored a lovely goal to open proceedings, lofting a ball from 35 yards over the stretched arms of Manuel Almunia, who wound up letting the ball into the net after attempting to knock it over the top (doubtless Jens Lehman would've made the play!)


The play after that for the most past favoured the home side, and ended in a 1-1 draw at the close of the half. Arsenal put two past the always creaky Spurs defense in the beginning stages of the second half, Darren Bent managed to get one in in the 67th minute, but Robert Van Persie immediately replied to give Arsenal the 4-2 lead with just over a half hour left.


Jermaine Jenas pulled one back for Spurs in the 89th minute, and Aaron Lennon knocked in a rebound from fellow Spur Luka Modric in the dying moments of extra time to give Spurs the much needed point. Arsenal may have played better overall for longer stretches of the game, but not when it mattered most, and Spurs made them pay for it, although once again Arsene Wenger continued to bemoan the "inexperienced" nature of his side when it comes to the heat of contested matches. Umm, okay, AW, whatever you say.

With such a rally, Harry Redknapp has certainly demonstrated a new belief in the players for Spurs: play hard and just see what happens. Much as I liked Juande Ramos, I don't thin this comeback would've been possible under him. At any rate, Liverpool visits White Hart Lane this Saturday (thankfully I'll be able to watch this one live), so we'll continue to see what the resurgence under Harry truly means. Come On You Spurs!!!!





CESC: HEY LADIES




BBC , SOCCERNET , GUARDIAN.

Spurs 2 Bolton 0: Spurs Win As Ramos Is Sacked

Plenty of time for fans to sort out who is more to blame for the woeful start Spurs have gone through, with Chairman Daniel Levy and Director of Football Damien Comolli getting a lot of heat for questionable transfer practices, and for coach Juande Ramos, whose playing formations and game substitutions brought puzzlement to many Spurs fans.
The news broke just after midnight on Saturday that Comolli, Ramos along with assistant coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez were relieved of their positions by Levy just hours before Sunday's home match against Bolton. Even more stunning was the announcement that Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was to be appointed as the new manager, a real whirlwind of news that contrasted starkly to insignificant things such as replacement strikers for the departed likes of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane.


Harry made it to North London in time for the game, though he did not select the starting lineup, development coach Clive Allen took responsibility for that matter. The game was a vital one that Spurs needed maximum points from, with looming matches at Arsenal and home to Liverpool this coming week providing stern tests as to the true impact of Redknapp on the underachieving side.


I only caught bits and pieces of the match online, but what I saw looked pretty good on the offensive side of things, in combination with the 'hold your breath' antics of the defensive backline and goalie Heurelho Gomes that usually raise one's blood pressure.



Roman Pavlyuchenko scored his first EPL goal in the 17th minute on a lovely cross from David Bentley to give Spurs their first lead of the season. Darren Bent scored the other on a second half penalty kick to seal the win, the first of the season for the team.

As noted above, we'll see how the team reacts to the upcoming difficult matches this week, but for the next couple of days, the arrival of Redknapp has certainly given Spurs and their fans some breathing room. Come On You Spurs!



BBC , SOCCERNET , GUARDIAN REPORT ON RAMOS & REDKNAPP

Signs At Work: What Else Are You Gonna Do?

.........at the local roadside bar? Just don't break all of the commandments in one night, tiger.

Stoke City 2 Spurs 1: Screaming Awful Bloody Mess

All four of the adjectives above were useful in describing parts of what happened at the Britannia Stadium Sunday, a match in which Spurs continued to founder at inopportune times.


After an opening period of 15 minutes where the two teams sorted themselves out, Spurs found themselves in hot water when Gareth Bale drew a straight red card for cutting down Tom Soares in the penalty area, and Danny Higginbotham knocked in the penalty shot to give the home side a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute. Spur goalie Gomes did correctly guess the position of the shot, but failed to slow down the ball as it entered to his left by the post. Of course, the red card on Bale meant an immediate ejection, so Spurs were left to play 10 men for the rest of the match.


Things for Spurs turned around soon after, typified by their good fortune by being a tad bit offside, but not being penalized, as Darren Bent leveled the score just a few minutes later. For the rest of the half, Spurs were indeed the better team on the pitch, moving the ball around nicely and getting a couple of decent shots on goal, all of them being from a distance however, giving their keeper Thomas Sorensen good looks at the shots.


Rory Delap knocked in a beautiful (and well-defended) cross from the right to give Stoke the lead again, and it was at this point that the home side played as if they knew had the man advantage on the pitch. Spurs efforts to score in the second half were similar to the ones in the first half, with nothing particularly close near the goal.

Micheal Dawson made a bookend for Spurs in the red card department by receiving one for a studs-up tackle on the shin of Mamady Sidibe in extra time, and with Spurs having trouble scoring goals with 11 men most of the season, the task of getting one in the final 4 minutes or so was daunting indeed.


As for the adjectives, screaming could have been used for the grimace on Gomes near the end of the first half after a collision on a Stoke corner, but I couldn't quite tell what might have happened to produce such a reaction; after a visit from the physio, he remained in the game and finished strong.


Awful is the word to describe what happened to Spurs defender Vedran Corluka midway through the second half in a collison with Gomes, taking a knee to the head and knocking the defender to the ground, where he remained motionless for several minutes. Corluka was given an oxygen mask and carted off the field, but apparently not immediately taken to the hospital, as the commentator noted that his condition was not of a very serious nature.


Bloody is the fate of Sorenson, the Stoke goalie, after an accidental collision with Alan Hutton left him with his fluid streaming down his face, the injury time for both players were the reasons that there were 11 minutes of extra time, a figure not often seen.


The mess Spurs now find themselves in is dead bottom of the table, with just two points from their first eight games, with fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester United coming up in the very near future. How much further Spurs can sink remains to be seen, but for now, the view isn't a very good one.



BBC REPORT , GUARDIAN REPORT

Oregon 31 UCLA 24:Bizarro Night At Autzen

An underwhelming performance by the Ducks over a determined UCLA team was the end product of Saturday night's encounter in Eugene. For almost the entire game, the Ducks had the lead and held the Bruins at arms length, but could never quite put the visitors away until game's end.


Some of the "bizarro" aspects of the game: Duck quarterback Jeremiah Masoli rushed for 170 yards on 24 carries to lead the Ducks offensive attack. On the other side of the coin, he connected on just 5 of 19 passes for 42 yards (24 coming on one touchdown pass, 11 on another) for one of the most woeful passing efforts seen at Autzen in a long while. Of course, it didn't help matters when a number of balls he threw were dropped by the receivers, but the lack of consistency in developing drives certainly worked to the advantage of the UCLA defense.


It wasn't just Ducks on the offensive side unable to catch a thrown ball, it seemed like there were at least 5 opportunities there for Duck defenders to thwart UCLA drives, only to let the ball slip through their hands, almost as if they couldn't quite believe that Bruin quarterback Kevin Craft would've thrown the ball straight to them.


More worryingly, the Ducks missed their first two field goal efforts (Matt Evenson made his third) on seemingly convertible kicks, although it seemed to me that the snap on the first one was low.


Bruin coach Rick Neuheisel, seeming to know that he was outmanned for this game, called for a review on the spot of the ball very early on, which he subsequently lost and was charged a time out for, and then attempted an onside kickoff early in the third quarter after the Bruins had scored their first touchdown to cut the Duck lead to 14-7. An offside ruling negated the Bruin recovery of the ball, which lead to a short field for the Ducks to score their third touchdown of the game that made the score 21 to 7.


The Bruins cut the lead to 21 to 14 on their next drive after an interception of a Craft pass in the endzone by Jairus Byrd was nullified and Byrd was given a pass interference penalty instead, replays to the contrary notwithstanding much to the displeasure of Duck fans watching the scoreboard; Kahlil Bell, who had been helped off the field earlier, ran the ball from the two yard line near the end of the third quarter.


Things turned really awkward on the next Bruin possession near the beginning of the fourth quarter; a deflected Craft pass off of Terrence Austin landed in the hands of Byrd, a hit from T.J. Ward on Austin, who was leaping to catch a high Craft pass, created the opportunity for Byrd to make the play. Quite unfortunately, Austin landed awkwardly on his head and laid on the turf for a few mintues, although in the immediate minutes after the hit, he was able to make movements in a significant fashion, it was the hope of those watching that the stillness of his movements once the trainers had arrived were purely of a cautionary measure.


At almost the same time, from my location on the north side in section 13, from the corner of my eye I noticed some activity across the field from me as a couple of bodies were in motion falling down toward the field. A fight between a couple of Duck fans resulted in an unfortunate incident where the two of them spilled over a sideline barrier and one of them landed on his neck apparently; that man was subsequently carted off the field in a brace while the other man was carted off by the police. The combination of events took about 13 minutes as the Autzen crowd, still rightly upset by the blown call at the end of the third quarter, descended into an eerie silence, at first from the fervent hope that Austin was not seriously injured, and secondly trying to figure out what was happening behind the Bruin bench.


As odd as it may sound, in all of my years as a season ticker holder on the north side, I had never really noticed that section of the stadium before, and about half an hour before, for the first time, I had noticed some people running along the length of the barriers behind the vistors bench and wondered aloud why they were allowed to do so, the barriers being at least six feet above the field level below.


The Ducks got a field goal out of this exchange to give themselves a two-score lead, which would prove to be the decisive factor in this game. The teams exchanged punts for most of the rest of the fourth quarter, until LaGarrette Blound broke a tackle and ran down the right sideline for 69 yards to give the Ducks a 31-17 lead with three minutes to go in the game; some lazy defending by the Ducks in the remaining time allowed the Bruins to score their last touchdown, and a final onside kickoff by UCLA was recovered by the Ducks to seal the victory.




ESPN

Signs At Work

Seen at a local ramen joint, a reminder that gyoza babies need their beauty rest.

Here Comes The Rain

Looks like the first significant weather system of the fall will roll into Oregon this weekend, giving us some needed rainfall. Let's hope the owner of this unfortunately damaged vehicle I chanced upon earlier today will find a suitable place to park to keep the temporary repairs for this sun roof in working order. This pic was taken after we had some scattered showers over the area today.