Avoiding the Drop

A Few (Not All) Matchday #5 Lineups

November 24, 2009 by Magnakai Haaskivi

So today’s a pretty big day if you’re a fan of either Liverpool or Barcelona. Sadly for me, I like both of them; that means that there’s a fairly good chance that I’ll follow that epic 38-37 Browns loss on Sunday with the elimination of one or both of the soccer teams I follow from the top tier of the Champions League.

Here’s the scenario in Group E: Liverpool needs to beat Debrecen AND have Fiorentina lose to Lyon in order to make their home fixture against the Viola in two weeks mean anything. If either of those doesn’t work out, than I’ll have to start posting the Europa League schedule come January. And while they wouldn’t be mathematically eliminated should Lyon and Fiorentina draw, they’d be in a situation to have to start making up a seven-goal difference between themselves and Fiorentina. So, um…go France!

Posted in Champions League | Tagged UEFA Champions League | 7 Comments »

The Thursday Challenge: A Reminder and a Notice

November 24, 2009 by thefuseproject

There was a lot of chatter (HOORAY!) in the comments section of the most recent Thursday Challenge, but so far only two of you have actually emailed your answers to avoidingthedrop@gmail.com. If you went through all the trouble of tracking down all of (or even some of!) the stadiums featured in the aerial photographs, why not send your answers in so you can get some credit for them? Midnight tonight- or thereabouts- is the deadline to be included in tomorrows “answers” post.

As for this week’s Thursday Challenge, there may not be one. I have to come up with it tonight (I’m leaving directly from work tomorrow for my sister’s place tomorrow) or it won’t get done. Normally, that wouldn’t be an issue, but my indoor match this week (cough, 40+ league, cough) was moved from Monday night to Tuesday night, so there’s a bit of a time crunch. We’ll see. Most likely none of you will be in any shape on Thursday to answer any questions anyway.

Here’s a few things that you should know about my impending Thanksgiving: It will be held at my brother in-law’s restaurant (which will be closed for the day), the “lounge” will be open- and free- all day and showing American football, there will be “monkey bread,” “steak bomb nachos” (the recipe for which can be found in the first of the Phoenix Pubs two recent “Last Call Recipe Nights”), and a turkey that weighs over 50 pounds (the scale in the kitchen only goes up to 50 pounds), and finally, there will be handmade favors, place cards, and who knows what else courtesy of my wonderful and “thorough”* younger sister, Beth.

Mmmmm….

*fastidious? OCD? detail-oriented?

Posted in General | 6 Comments »

About Last Night

November 24, 2009 by Magnakai Haaskivi

What you missed while perusing the jellyfish family album…

Posted in About Last Night | Tagged Arouna Kone, Bayern Munich, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, FC Unirea Urziceni, FC Zürich, Juventus, KILLER JELLYFISH!, Liverpool, Louis van Gaal, New Zealand National Team, Qatar, Real Madrid, Ryan Babel, Sevilla, Tottenham Hotspur, Vedran Corluka, World Cup Bids | Leave a Comment »

Fun with Wenger – The Sunderland Loss

November 23, 2009 by Two Yellows

Bent, take that terrible goal and get OUTTA HERE. Arnie Wagner sends out emails to the supporters after each league match. God bless his French heart, he does it week in, week out, win or lose. Let’s have fun with the latest one, FJM-style.

Dear Supporter,

I was asked after Saturday’s game whether we missed Robin van Persie but I don’t think we can blame that for our 1-0 defeat.

No, we cannot blame a goal-less game on the loss of our leading goal-scorer and striker/talisman. Nope, shouldn’t ever even DREAM it.

We lost a game where we can only fault ourselves because we didn’t score, some players were not at their best and we gave a goal away on the only situation where Sunderland could score – on a set piece.

International breaks make me want to cry. Cesc, Andrey, Gallas…too many minutes for their countries to try to make a useless Summer tournament. Steve Bruce, you fat piece of gob, your lot can ONLY score on set pieces, which we don’t even WORK ON. So there.

I believe it’s more down to the fact that we made a big mistake on their corner because the game was there for the taking in the last 20 minutes. But of course, when you’re behind, it makes it more difficult.

I just said I don’t work on set pieces. ARE YOU DEAF? Oh, and by the way, this is the part where I start the “they played negatively after their RIDICULOUSLY FLUKE OF A CRAP SET PIECE GOAL” bit.

Posted in Whimsy | Tagged Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, FJM, Fun with Arsene Wenger | 2 Comments »

So Who Does the African Cup of Nations Hurt Most?

November 23, 2009 by Magnakai Haaskivi

Last week, a lot of stuff happened. There was that Thierry Henry thing. The placenta healing thing. The Russia getting knocked out of the World Cup thing. The U.S. men sucking at soccer thing.

All of those were pretty important. Unfortunately, in our distraction with those things, pretty much everyone missed another potential big deal: the draw for the African Cup of Nations was held Friday.

Now here’s the thing: I don’t know anything at all about African soccer. This really isn’t my fault; there’s not an easy way to watch. In fact, outside of internet streams (whether paid or otherwise), I’m pretty sure there isn’t ANY way to watch the tournament itself. The qualifiers were next to impossible to find, especially if you were looking for an English feed. What little African soccer I’ve seen has been entertaining, but it’s definitely hard to find.

So rather than break down who’s going to win when Burkina Faso faces Togo on January 15th, I figured I’d cover this by telling you the information you need to know: which players are likely going to be gone during the African Cup of Nations? Your team-by-team guide is after the jump.

Posted in African Cup of Nations | Tagged African Cup of Nations | 2 Comments »

Henderson Cup Wrap Up

November 23, 2009 by Adam

Fall2009Tigers.jpg picture by AvoidingTheDrop

Pictured L to R - Austin, Zeke, Tyler, Spencer, Nick, Hunter, Brad, Seven, Edwin, and Coach Marc

We here at Avoiding the Drop love the game in all it’s forms, from the Champions League final seen by millions worldwide to kicking a ball against a wall in a back alley. This weekend we were fortunate enough to have one of our field correspondents Kevin at one of the biggest U-10 tournaments of the season, the Henderson Cup. This is his account of the tournament from the view of the Henderson Tigers.

The Henderson United Tigers had an outstanding regular season this year, going 9-0-0 and had high hopes for capping that season off by raising the Henderson Cup Trophy this weekend.

Posted in Youth Soccer | Tagged Henderson Cup, Henderson Tigers | 5 Comments »

Wigan to Refund Fan’s Ticket Prices

November 23, 2009 by Magnakai Haaskivi

In case you missed it, yesterday Wigan got picked up and broken over Tottenham’s collective knee. Wigan’s not had a great season, but it’s not been terrible, either; still, any time you lose to another team 9-1, fans start thinking things like “Why the hell did I travel to see these bastards play?”

In order to mitigate those kinds of feelings, Mario Melchiot has announced that the Wigan players plan on at least taking the financial sting out of the loss.

Posted in English Premier League | Tagged Tottenham, Wigan | 4 Comments »

And the winner is… The Elite(?) Eight

November 23, 2009 by thefuseproject

Well, no doubt the “losers” of last week’s pairings will sigh with relief when they see that they are not the biggest failures in current American soccer.

You remember the rules, vote for the player who has done the least with his ability. Or, to put it another way, vote for the biggest disappointment in each pairing. Continue Reading »

Posted in Commentary, General, Homerism, MLS, Whimsy | 4 Comments »

UEFA Champions League: Matchday #5 TV Schedule

November 23, 2009 by Magnakai Haaskivi

This week, while you’re planning to visit family (or, worse, planning for them to arrive), you’ll probably find yourself at some point wondering what it was you forgot to do. At “Avoiding the Drop”, our public service to you is to help make sure that “remember to set the DVR for Champions League matches” isn’t that thing. Times and matches are up after the jump.