I know most people hate the movie “Rudy” with a white-hot passion, but watching Blackpool win the Championship Playoff match yesterday, and celebrate like mad men running around Wembley, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a quote from Rudy: “My job is to basically beat the shit out of you for the next 5 [...]
Archive for May, 2010
“A number of players tonight made statements; hopefully they’ll continue to make statements.” – Bruce Arena
Posted in Weekend Open Thread, tagged Sunday open thread on May 23, 2010 | 7 Comments »
“I love Blackpool. We’re very similar. We both look better in the dark.” – Ian Holloway
Posted in Weekend Open Thread, tagged Saturday open thread on May 22, 2010 | 6 Comments »
The winner of today’s Blackpool – Cardiff City match at Wembley will win 90 million British pounds (130 million American dollars), according to the fine folks at Deloitte. Yes, you read that right. 90 MILLION POUNDS. That is a staggering figure as a payout for one football match, honestly. So, let’s see what each club [...]
Champions League Final Roundtable
Posted in Champions League, Roundtable, tagged Bayern München, Champions League, Inter Milan, Roundtable on May 21, 2010 | 13 Comments »
In 26 hours or so, the Champions League Final will kick off in Madrid, on a Saturday, on major network television in America for the first time. This is the second or third most important game in soccer, and this year is no different. Sure the matchup isn’t as sexy as United-Chelsea (which sucked) or [...]
Your Weekend Preview: Mostly American Edition
Posted in Bundesliga, Champions League, Financials, General, La Liga, MLS, The Championship, USMNT, USSF D-2, Weekend Preview, Western Mass Pioneers, World Cup 2010 on May 21, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Estonia v. Finland (Friday) This match is too rife with nerdy possibilities not to preview it. Finnish and Estonian are two very closely-related languages- both being part of the Uralic language family. Did you know that? The “Eagle-Owls” of Finland are currently ranked 49th by FIFA, the Blue Shirts of Estonia are ranked 104th. Needless [...]
The Thursday Challenge: A Helping Hand
Posted in General, Trivia, USMNT, Whimsy, Wild Ass Guesses, World Cup 2010 on May 20, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Yesterday was a tease, there’s no getting around it, I was being a bit of a cheeky monkey. But, as promised, here is the additional information that I hope will allow you to find the answer on your own. Cuba 2 Romania 1, Stadium Municipal de Toulouse (1938) Wales 2 Hungary 1, Rasunda Stadium (1958) [...]
Last Call
Posted in Last Call on May 19, 2010 | 65 Comments »
Hello and welcome to another evening of fun and frolic here at Avoiding the Drop! There is plenty to discuss tonight in sports. New England Revolution are playing S.L. Benfica, one of the top Portugese teams, in a “friendly” tonight. There is plenty of baseball action across the country, and Los Angeles looks to duplicate [...]
MLS Pick’Em – Week 9
Posted in MLS Pick'em, tagged Boca Juniors, Chivas USA, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo, Juventus, Kansas City Wizards, Los Angeles Galaxy, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC on May 19, 2010 | 19 Comments »
Week 8 saw wins for Real Salt Lake, Colorado, Seattle, and Columbus. With their win, Columbus along with the Los Angeles Galaxy, remains undefeated. As far as our Pick’Em goes, one half seems to be the theme for Week 8. Half the games played were draws, and no one got more than half their picks [...]
FIFA Stops the Little Stop
Posted in FIFA, Refereeing, World Cup 2010, tagged FIFA, IFAB, Refereeing on May 19, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The penalty at the :50 mark was taken by Santos striker Neymar. In the video, you can clearly see the tactic; Neymar – who was sadly left off of the Brazilian national team roster – starts a slow stutter-step approach, comes to the ball, makes like he’s going to kick it…and stops. The keeper, sensing [...]
The Thursday Challenge: The Answer?
Posted in FIFA, General, Trivia, USMNT, Whimsy, World Cup 2010 on May 19, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Most of you that I heard from this week, like Andrew B., were able to figure out the first part of the challenge. Specifically, that each of the stadiums in question hosted a World Cup group stage match. But, as I said last week, that was the easy part. Something else also happened at these [...]
