Notes from a busy sports weekend

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Five hundred and fourty seven sports related text messages, several beers, wines and copious amounts of snacks later...

Saturday 2:30 pm Irish time
Rugby test match
Ireland v South Africa
So it’s official. Ireland is now the greatest rugby team in the world! Taking a step back, it’s dangerous to run away with hyperbole, but you can not understate the terrific Irish weekend win over the World and Tri-Nations champions, South Africa. Whatever about the fact they are world champions, perhaps more in context, the South Africans spent the summer just passed beating New Zealand and Australia to win the prestigious Tri-Nations. So with Ireland beating them Saturday, that makes us the greatest Rugby team in the world right now, correct?

Saturday 3pm Irish time
English Premiership
Sunderland @ Wigan
This ‘09/’10 Sunderland side are proving to be an odd little enigma of a team. They have gone to Old Trafford and earned a 2-2 draw. They have beaten both Liverpool and Arsenal. They are 8th in the Premiership and a good run away from possible European competition placings at seasons end. And yet, they are still losing very unusual games. Perhaps Wigan were always going to be playing out of their skins to make up for losing 9-1 to Spurs last week, but this is still a game Sunderland should have won. Very disappointing result. Perhaps the Wigan players were also trying that extra bit harder as it was their ex boss, Steve Bruce, standing in front of the Sunderland bench? You can make a few excuses, but at the end of the day, vastly superior Sunderland squad beaten by a team that’s going to be fighting relegation at seasons end. Kind of mystifying.

Saturday 5pm Irish time
College Football
Clemson @ South Carolina
Have you played ESPN’s streak for the cash as yet? What’s amazing is how often over 90% of those picking a certain game get it totally wrong. This was one of those situations. Clemson, ranked in the top twenty, were chosen b an amazing 96% of those picking on the game, and yet South Carolina absolutely walloped them. I assume people playing ‘streak’ are just too lazy to investigate the games they are picking on and instead just go with the flow? The flow, as those rich bookies would testify to, is very often wrong. 96%! That’s a whole lot of streaks busted!

Saturday 745 pm Irish time
Rugby test match
France v New Zealand
Sports can twist your brain around sometimes. France recently beat South Africa who spent the summer whipping New Zealand all around the place, so, naturally, New Zealand stroll into France and wallop their hosts. Where’s the logic in that?

At least we were treated to the uplifting French national anthem and the brilliant Haka pr-match.



Sunday 4pm Irish time
English Premiership
Arsenal v Chelsea
Another odd result from a topsy-turvy weekend. Yes, Chelsea have assembled an impressive array of free agents. They have no doubt cobbled together an expensive array of physical talent. However, who could have seen Arsenal get turned over so heavily on their own patch? In a derby game no less. The separating factor was Didier Drogba, who proved that when he is focused, he is one of the greatest goal-poachers in the world. Arsenal missed Van Persie badly, you could even say they missed Bendtner too. All in all, who, apart from the most blinkered of Chelsea fans, could have predicted 3-0 to the blues?

Sunday 6pm Irish time
Spanish La Liga
El Classico (Barcelona v Real Madrid)
For all their billions of euros spent in the last few seasons, what exactly is the point of Real Madrid? They aren’t going to win anything in ’09. They are certainly not very entertaining. What’s the point? At least previous incarnations of the ‘Galacticos’ were wildly fun to watch, Zidane, Backham and (the real) Ronaldo were a joy to behold. This time round the Galacticos have a distinctly stale look to them. Kaka has lost his pace and will to win at an alarmingly speedy rate. Ronaldo (the new, less enjoyable one) looks completely lost. Barcelona were reduced to 10 men with the softest red card you would care to see, and still bossed the game to the end.

One final thought on that one, Lionel Messi is the single greatest player in world football as we speak. Well, other than Andy Reid, of course.

Sunday 6pm Irish time
NFL
Indianapolis @ Houston
How wafer thin are Houston? How many years are we going to have to put up with them being labeled dark horses only for them to fall flat on their faces? It’s one thing to lose a big lead, but at home, in a crucial game for your season, to throw that lead away was just pathetic. On the flip side, the Colts just keep on winning. Anyone remember the start of the season when pundits were writing them off left right and center?

Sunday 9pm Irish time
NFL
Chicago @ Minnesota
After watching 76,978 hours of sports on a given weekend, the last few games can turn into a bit of a jumbled mess of memories. One thing stood out here though. Whatever you want to say about the guy, Brett Favre is a pretty impressive individual. He throws the football harder than most if not all quarterbacks in the NFL and is leading the Vikings on a seriously focussed looking playoff drive. Vikings/Saints NFC showdown? Yes please! Now that would be dramatic.

Anyway, if you enjoy good sports, good theatre and what not, you kind of have to admit, it’s a good thing Favre didn’t retire, right?

Yay, Brett!

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Happy Turkey day, baby. (He hate me)

Normally on this date annually Boston Irish prints its annual Buzzkill piece on how the only real Americans were the victims of Genocide over the last few hundred years, and you should all feel guilty (yes, including me) for watching the Lions shock the Packers 38-36 (you heard it here first!) when no one is acknowledging the plain and simple fact that a massive genocide was perpetrated over the course of four hundred years.

Fun times for all!

Previous Buzzkill Thanksgiving entries;
2008
2007

Naturally, people really don’t much care for that, and the torrents of abuse are always plentiful, varied and vitriolic.

This year, Boston Irish doesn't have the energy for the inevitable abuse, so will be just saying 'Happy Thanksgiving', eating some delicious home made pumpkin pie and enjoying the football in good company.

You know what is amazing though? The sheer level of hatred and anger out there in the vast cluster-fudge that is the Internet. It’s not just the Turkey day piece. No way, José. Sports, believe it or not, is an incredibly divisive subject. I would chance a guess that of all the e-mail Boston Irish has drawn since its inception in 2006, the vast majority has been argumentative, hateful anti-fan mail.

Hey, let’s have a look at the highlights, why not, in the spirit of Genocide day.

Death threats
Naturally top of the bill was a death threat, that came in late 2007. It had to be the most poorly thought out death threat of all time. It was anonymous, poorly spelt and quite unspecific in nature. It took me a while to figure out why the e-mailer was so angry. Goodness me though, it was expletive laden and very hateful. The funny thing was, it was so poorly spelt it never really got under my skin. It was almost as if an angry Orangutan had taken the time and spent the effort to become proficient in typing but slacked off on the whole spelling side of things. Still, you haven’t lived unless you have had at least one death threat in your life, so, we can check that box off at least.

Jets fans
Oh those poor little Jets fans. They get so wound up, angry and frustrated. In many, many ways, Rex Ryan is the perfect coach for the J-E-T-S, as he mirrors much of their fan base. Fat, unruly, seemingly pretty uneducated, Ryan has been blazing a trail of trash-talking glory this NFL season, all with very little impact on the standings in the AFC East. The Jets had their day in the sun early in the year when they won their Superbowl (as they called it) and are now reduced to side notes with a generally humorous slant. Rex Ryan crying in the locker room. Rex Ryan eating twelve cheeseburgers at one sitting. Rex Ryan’s pants ripping during a team meeting. The Jets, their coach and their fans are a side-note in ’09, and goodness me, their fan base is angry. Boston Irish has received a slew of poorly written, hard to decipher ‘hate mail’ from Jets fans over the years, none more so than in ’09. The following three emails are from angry little Jets fans, all received in the last three months, all from different IP addresses.

Now that's a beer belly

Subject: ‘You can suck off and die in hell’.
Highlights: ‘You think you are all that patriots fans but yu (sic) are not all that patriots suck jets rule JETS JETS’

I like to picture someone from Holland saying the above, in a really bad Euro-English accent. Try it, it’s fun.

Subject: ‘The Patriots suck and so do you’
Highlights: ‘Mark MY words the Patriots WILL get beaten by the Jets in round two and the Patriots WILL finish behind the Jets. Tom Brady can watch while Mark Sanchez leads the Jets to the Superbowl just like Brady did the Patriots in 01’

Jets fans seem to really like the word ‘suck’. Is there some deep underlying meaning behind this? Sadly this fan WAS wrong ABOUT the GAME last SUNDAY (Capitals rule!).

Subject: ‘Why do you bother?’
Highlights: ‘In five years time Mark Sanchez will be on the cover of every magazine and Tom Brady will be a nobody’

Odd one this, unsure as to why this Jets fan took the time to send me this email, was this scary premonition meant to upset me in some shape or form? You know, the Internet is such a crazy place really, it’s funny to think someone took the time to sit down and write a long, boring (believe me, the above was the only interesting part) email to someone they don’t know based on an amateur article on sports.

Then again, that’s the entire reason we keep this blog, communication, therefore you have to reason you take the bad with the good. Plus, those Jets fans are kind of funny in an angry-ant kind of way. Quite angry, but essentially harmless.

NASCAR fans
For people that spend an inordinate amount of time watching cars go round and round in circles, NASCAR fans can sure generate volumes of angry emails. Tip to all aspiring writers, don’t ever take on NASCAR, the retribution will be massive, aggressive and very, very poorly spelt.

Yankees fans
You would think, with the heavily Boston slanted content of this blog, the majority of abuse would emanate from the keyboard of Yankee fans. Far from it. There has been much more e-mail from those angry little Jets fans over the years. Instead, there have been basically two Yankee fans who launched long propaganda campaigns over the course of weeks, starting out aggressive, angry and bitter, eventually becoming dull and boring. Snap judgment, from a small cross-section, Yankees fans appear much better at basic manipulation of the English language than, for example, Jets fans. Is this thinly veiled comment on New Jersey and it’s populace?

Of course, no Yankee fan will ever be as angry as this guy.



English people
Saving the best for last. You really never know you have been verbally abused by an English person until about seven hours after it actually happens. You know that Simpsons where Homer meets Ricky Gervais, and he listens to him waffle on for ages before finally exclaiming, ‘You take FOREVER to say NOTHING!’ People who read this, I give you English people! Taking a step back, where do all these angry English e-mails come from? Simple. My father, brother and I have always taken great pleasure in the demise of any English sports team. Soccer, cricket, Rugby or whatever, it doesn’t matter. It is funny when England loses. It’s funny when the English cricket team loses to a minor cricket nation and the English press screams headlines akin to ‘England’s failures may be because they are hopeless’. It is funny when England get knocked out of the World Cup.


Why is it so funny? That’s simple. If you lived in Ireland in the 80s you were suffocated by British sports on TV. The Charlton and golden Irish rugby eras had yet to begin, and Sky Sports was just a pipe dream. Instead we had to suffer arrogant British sports commentators on the BBC or UTV. You know the drill, a British athlete in a 20 person field in a track event? Even if the British athlete finished fifth, theirs is the name you would hear most. Soccer? Don’t even get me started. British sports pundits, who we had rammed down our throats for decades before the sports media explosion, were always convinced they would win whatever tournament they were playing in.

So it is easy to see why any British sporting demise is greeted with glee in my family household.

Thing is, they don’t take it very well, the Brits. Cue reams, stacks, truck-loads of angry emails whenever Boston Irish says anything bad about the UK.

Well, chin up, limey. Just wait until the World Cup next year! We can have a good go at each other then.

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving.


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Be Thierry Henry for a day!

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Now is your chance to be like Thierry, and put Ireland out of the World Cup with your thieving, sweaty little palm. You don't even need help from William Gallas, cut out the middle man, just slap the ball into the net yourself! Mon dieu, what fun!!

Hours of fun on the horizon, we at Boston Irish managed 75 as out best score as yet. Beat that, Thierry! Once you are finished, you can compose your own completely hollow apology to the Irish nation! Va-Va Voom!!

Thierry considers using his hand, again!

Play the Thierry Henry hand-ball game

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The Sports Karma Gods wreak terrible retribution on NFL Sunday

The Sports Karma Gods can be a little lazy. You never really know what kind of mood you are going to get them in. Let’s face it, the French soccer team got away with about twenty seven various infractions over the course of their World Cup qualifier the last two weeks. The Sports Karma Gods must have had a bowling tournament going on, or something. Maybe they were assembling some flat pack.

Who knows.

Thing is, every now and then they are very much awake and absolutely paying attention. When they are in that state, woe betide any athlete or team that breaks the many, varied and complicate rules of Sports Karma.

Quick digression. The theory of Sports Karma is evolutionary in nature, it’s in it’s embryonic stages and still formulating a solidity. Every so often something new comes to light. Seeing as the Sports Karma Gods occasionally appear to take time off, maybe it’s less of a ‘thunder and lightning’ kind of thing, maybe it’s more of a Civil Service atmosphere up there? Maybe those in the Sports Karma department of whatever God is in charge is in fact full of Civil Servants? When they haven’t had their coffee or cigarette or red bull, they simply ignore the paperwork piling up on their desk. When they have had their bagel, Danish or whatever, they are slamming down a big stamp with capital red lettering screaming ‘RETRIBUTION REQUIRED’ on everything that passes their way.

The two cases below definitely got the red ‘retribution’ stamp.

In the Ravens/Colts game, one of the big fat Raven linemen put an absolutely disgraceful late hit on a Colts tight end. It was a cheap shot below even most cheap shots in terms of filth. Elbow right to the kidneys, coming after a 350lb body slam. Amazingly, thankfully the Colts TE wasn’t badly hurt. Actually, question for you, why aren’t players ejected for dirty hits in the NFL? Most sports, you do something like that, you are out of the game. Why is this allowed in the NFL?

Either way, the Sports Karma Gods were watching. One barely missed field goal later, off the boot of the Ravens kicker who was otherwise perfect, and the dirty Ravens season is to all intents and purposes over. The NFL playoffs will not miss the cheap-shot Ravens and their moronic leader, Ray Lewis, who should be in wrestling or something, he is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Watch him play. He leads the NFL in arriving late to get a half-credit for a tackle once someone else does the initial grunt work. Plus, he is getting kinda chubby, no?

The second case of Karmic retribution was absolutely beautiful in its simplicity. Those idiotic Steelers. They had Kansas where they wanted them. They were piling on the points and moving the ball with ease. Instead of just working hard, picking up the win and going home, Hines Ward and Heath Miller, amongst others, had to go and do something stupid. Both of them mocked the Kansas ‘Tomahawk Chop’ after they scored, making fun of Kansas and Arrowhead stadium in particular. Well, whoever was manning the desk at the Sports Karma department was paying full attention.

You can almost picture them taking a sip from their hot cup of Joe and raising their eyebrows, ‘Really, Pittsburgh? Really?’ SLAM – big stamp with glaring capital red writing comes crashing down on the paper work, retribution required!

Sure enough, Kansas caused one of the shocks of the day coming roaring back to beat the Steelers.

Do not mock the Arrowhead Tomahawk chop! Do not anger the Sports Karma Gods, they are often actually awake and paying attention!



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Games I would like to see replayed.

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It's all the rage. Everybody is doing it. Thierry Henry wants the Ireland v France handball contest, I mean, World Cup Qualifier, replayed. Yeah well, there's a bunch of games I want replayed too, Thierry.

"Naturally I feel embarrassed at the way that we won and feel extremely sorry for the Irish who definitely deserve to be in South Africa," said Henry. "Of course the fairest solution would be to replay the game but it is not in my control.''

The games I want replayed. I expect the French tourism industry, teachers union and, oh, I don't know, the French stamp collectors union, to get firmly behind me.

Brady takes a short break

Game 1: Superbowl XLII
Tournament: NFL playoffs
Main protagonists: New England Patriots v New York Giants
Why it should be replayed: Well that's simple. Destiny against some guy who probably doesn't even play football anymore catching a bad pass off the side of his lid.
Potential outcome of replay: Patriots winning 14-10. Me not ending up drunk on a beach in Mexico after having been thrown out of a theatre for attacking some Dallas fans.
Chances of it ever being replayed: Actually not bad. Aren't about half the Giants doing time? The Patriots could argue that, well, they don't really have an argument but they could try the Peter Griffin tactic of spreading their arms wide and whining 'Commmme ooooooooooooon? eh? eh?'

Oh Grady, what the hell were you thinking?!

Game 2: Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS
Tournament: MLB Playoffs
Main protagonists: The Boston Red Sox v The New York Yankees
Why it should be replayed: It should be replayed because of the Grady Little factor. Any other manager would have used his bullpen and the Sox might have won the World Series in '03.
Potential outcome of replay: Wait a second, maybe this isn't such a great idea. If the Sox won it all in '03, then they wouldn't have had the pleasure of humiliating the Yankees 4-3 after being 0-3 down in '04. Maybe we should take this one back?
Chances of it ever being replayed: Is Grady Little still even alive?

Game 3: Ireland 1 Spain 1 2002 World Cup
Tournament: The 2002 World Cup
Main protagonists: Ireland, Spain, Roy Keane etc..
Why it should be replayed: Ireland played the game without probably their best player, Roy Keane, who threw all his toys out of the pram and went home because, well, no one really knows or cares anymore. Poor Roy doesn't like spending too much time in the same situation. He gets bored easily, with his enormous brain. Bless.
Potential outcome of replay: Ireland win 2-1 in normal time and the greatest party Dublin has ever seen goes on for at least one more game. More than any other Irish team, that incarnation actually had a chance of making the World Cup Final. Sadly we may never ever get that close again.
Chances of it ever being replayed: Well, it was about a thousand years ago, so, probably slim enough.

The player of the game (left) - no further comment required

Game: Sunderland 2 Manchester United 2
Tournament: The 2009/2010 English Premiership
Main protagonists: The glorious under dog heroes of Sunderland AFC v those fat cat bullies Manchester United PLC.
Why it should be replayed: Because United got their jammy equaliser about 79 minutes into injury time.
Potential outcome of replay: Sunderland win 2-1 and my brother and I make about a zillion euros on several Sunderland related bets.
Chances of it ever being replayed: Not bad at all. Sunderland need to prove that the ball hit off a United players ass, face, knee and elbow, and that the goal was scored after injury time had elapsed, and that aliens really do exist, and that Elvis is still alive. If they can do that, maybe!


Game: Uzbekistan v Bahrain
Tournament: 2006 World Cup qualifier
Main protagonists: Uzbekistan v Bahrain
Why it should be replayed: The referee made a "technical error" after a penalty had been awarded
Chances of it ever being replayed: Wait a second, this was replayed!!


Your move, Fifa.



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The legacy of Thierry Henry

Every red blooded male has the fantasy. No, not that fantasy, behave! One where they score a crucial goal for their country of birth. That’s just one of the reasons soccer is the global game, whether the American sporting media likes it or not (credit where credit is due, they are slowly, ever so slowly copping on). All over the world, from Dublin to Dubai, from Cork to Copenhagen, boys score brilliant goals on fields, streets and in back alleys, embellishing their moment with lusty fantasies of that goal actually pushing Ireland, Saudi Arabia or Denmark to the World Cup Finals. It can be a screaming shot, nestling in the top right hand corner of the net. A brilliant header from a great cross, powering past the keeper, or a cheeky back heel. Whatever way the goal came about, much celebration and adulation would surely follow.

Let’s just say, as a young lad in France, that is decidedly not how Thierry Henry drew it up. In his wildest fantasies of driving France to a World Cup, he never, ever imagined a scenario where he would basically illegally push the ball back in play with his hand, handle it again to position it, and then cross for the winning goal in a crucial World Cup qualifier.



Dublin, Cork or Galway have all been crossed off the Henry’s travel plans for the near future. He is persona-non grata on the Emerald Isle.


Here’s the kicker. You have to wonder, will Henry come to regret his action, or, non-action, for the rest of his life? Non-action? Absolutely, he could have acted in a way in which many who have followed him for years in the English Premiership would not have been too shocked.

If you have enjoyed Henry’s brilliant play and crucial goals (oh, that stunning beauty against Manchester United!) and his apparent honesty and class, can’t you see the following?

Can’t you see him handle the ball (twice), cross for the goal, only to suddenly turn, waving his hands, his face a stern moment of recognition of fault? Can’t you see him approach the referee and put a hand on his shoulder, and gently explain that he couldn’t help himself handling the ball, however the goal should be disallowed. Much like the goal, it’s not the stuff of fantasy, is it? You can actually see the above happening, because of the player himself, and his perceived character.

Instead, Henry is left with, well, what, exactly? Sure, crucial ‘goal’, certainly. However, what next?

Diego Maradona. How do you remember him? If you are English, you remember him for the ‘Hand of God’. Look how things ended up for him. Does he look happy? Not so much. Sure, he is managing Argentina for the moment, however he is making more enemies than friends, and can you forget the Elvis like decline in the nineties?



How will last nights cheating incident affect the legacy of Thierry Henry? Let’s call a spade a spade here, Henry cheated, badly, and his cheating had a rather dramatic effect on the outcome of the World Cup qualifier.

For my money, this will not sit well with the French man. He has already come out and admitted he cheated.

The Barcelona striker said:

"The ball hit my hand, I will be honest. It was a handball, you can clearly see it. [Sébastien] Squillaci went to jump with two Irish players, I was behind him and the next thing I know the ball hit my hand. It was a handball, but I'm not the ref. I told [the referee] but he said to me the same: 'You are not the ref.'"

Watching sports you tend to a get a feel for players, possibly completely erroneous, however you definitely create a short list in your head of players you would imagine double as decent chaps. Niall Quinn, former Ireland and Sunderland player, clearly a pretty decent fella. Didier Drogba, same again (don’t laugh, check out his incredible charity work in the Ivory Coast for a quick re-shaping of your opinion on him!). I never, ever thought I would say this but, Peyton Manning? Kinda strikes you as a good guy, no? Personally, prior to last night, I would have had Thierry Henry firmly entrenched in that group.

Once the buzz has worn off, once the celebratory hangover has faded, Henry will be left with the fact that one of the greatest movements of his career will be based on a lie. He cheated, and hundreds of millions of soccer fans around the world will, this morning, alter their opinion on the lad. ‘Henry, oh, great player in the nineties, but, ultimately, a cheat.’

Of course, for millions of Manchester United fans, last night only confirmed what they already knew.

As the Stretford end chant goes, ‘’same old Arsenal, always cheating.’’

At least we will always have Robbie Keane's wonder goal.

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One night in Vicar Street

Today’s belated and relatively last second announcement that the main Irish television station, RTE, has finally secured rights to Wednesday’s crucial World Cup qualifier against France brought back memories. Specifically, memories of the 2000 European Championships qualifier Ireland played in the psychotically vociferous Ataturk stadium in Turkey, November 1999.

You know what, today is actually the exact anniversary of that game, it was played 17th November 1999.

The circumstances were oddly similar, at least in terms of TV rights. With a night to go, the Turkish football federation was playing hard-ball, and demanding a ridiculous figure from RTE for the rights to show the game. RTE stood their ground, and never caved, meaning the game was not shown on Irish television. My phone rang at around lunch time. Old friend Enda on the other end of the line. He told me he had managed to secure two exclusive tickets to the Vicar Street Club for that evening’s showing of the match. I was confused. RTE weren’t showing the game! He told me all would be revealed later.

Vicar Street, that evening, was a carnival. Guinness T-shirts commemorating the event were handed out at the door. The lads from Aprés Match, a popular football sketch, did a brilliant, hilarious, warm up piece. The club was absolutely packed, hundreds of die hard supporters giddy at the prospect of seeing a match basically no one else was going to get to see in Ireland, thanks to those stinking greedy Turks. A big screen was pulled down on stage, Enda and I gripped our pints nervously, word spread in whispers that the venue had figured out how to ‘grab’ a Norwegian TV stations feed of the game. Sure enough, the match appeared on the screen, a little sketchy in terms of quality visually, but, vastly superior to the alternative, nothing.

Before you even managed to finish the line of thought that began ‘How am I going to understand Norwegian commentary…?’ a voice came from the back of the club, booming over the hubbub and general excitement. George Hamilton, the voice of football on RTE, had agreed to commentate live at the venue while watching the game. Who’s George Hamilton? Think Don Orsillo, but even better.

The first half was a tense 0-0. After drawing in Ireland the week before, 1-1, the boys in green had to score to go to the European Championships. Half time came, and the club wheeled out the Aprés Match boys again, this time with Liverpool legend Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock in tow. You would pay good cash money to attend an event like that these days! Remember, this was all free, well, except the pints, of course. The half time show was hilarious.

The second half was nerve wracking, tense and, ultimately, disappointing. The game finished 0-0. Oddly enough, the atmosphere in the club was almost, well, up beat. Those present had seen a game they thought they wouldn’t get to, the entertainment had been superb, unlike anything they had experienced before really.

Here’s hoping that’s the story this coming Wednesday night. Superb entertainment, unlike anything we have experienced before, namely a 2-0 Irish win in Paris!



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Lasagna Diarrhea angers the Sports Karma Gods

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Every now and then a sporting figure has the gall to anger the Sports Karma Gods, and whenever they do, retribution is akin in experience to watching Kevin ‘Skillachio’ Kilbane play football. Messy and painful.

You need look no further than the New York Jets in the NFL for a recent example of players and coaches angering the Sports Karma Gods. The Jets played New England earlier in the season, and whipped themselves into a crazed frenzy, declaring the game ‘our Superbowl’. Well, be careful what you wish for. The Jets won that game, and haven’t won since, their decline in the AFC East only slightly faster than Rex Ryan’s reputation as a decent coach.

Eh up, trouble at mill

On Saturday night in Dublin the Irish soccer team cruelly lost their World Cup first leg qualifier 0-1 to a pretty mundane French side. Ireland, lacking any creativity whatsoever in midfield, struggled to create chances. They did give 100% commitment though, and were unlucky to lose to a deflected goal. After the match Keith Andrews, who quite literally ran his socks off, watched as France’s Lassana Diarra approached. Andrews has said he was expecting Diarra to shake hands and perhaps say, ‘hard luck’.

Instead, Diarra challenged the Sports Karma Gods and perhaps gave Ireland an extra little bit of juice for the engine come the second leg in Paris on Wednesday night. Diarra made a disparaging comment in front of several Irish players and caused a pretty heated melee that left a bitter taste in the mouths of many in the Irish squad.

Andrews comments after the event were measured but potentially revealing.

‘’ I was hunkered down a little bit when the final whistle went and I saw him walking towards me and I thought he was going to shake my hand. But he made a remark and I lost my head a little bit. You don't expect that from a fellow professional. It's a massive two-legged tie, only halfway finished, so for someone to come out like that and say something was bitterly disappointing. But our lads are aware of it and we'll see what happens on Wednesday."

So far nobody knows exactly what Diarra said. It would appear from the vague comments coming from the Irish camp that it was perhaps racist in content. Trappatoni, Ireland’s manager, had this to say;

‘’It was an insult to the Irish people. I cannot say the sentence, it's very bad. You cannot insult all the people."

Diarra would appear to now be denying everything, however with several of the Irish players and indeed the Irish manager all providing the exact same story, it seems Diarra is backtracking as fast as he can realizing he may have gone too far.

One of the ironies of this is that Diarra had a terrible match. He appeared to be allergic to the ball, losing it with great frequency. He provided basically nothing to the French side. He has, however, perhaps provided something of substance to the Irish team, a little extra motivation ahead of the massive clash Wednesday night in Paris.

The Sports Karma Gods will get the final say in this one. Diarra can only hope they will go easy on him.


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Ridiculous sporting weekend, ridiculous!

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Oh Man. What a weekend of sporting action we have ahead

We at Boston Irish will be adopting this pose for much of the weekend

Really, I mean, there is almost too much going on. Enough chit chat. Let's make a list.

..all times Irish time!

Saturday

• 4pm: Russia v Slovenia World Cup Qualifier Setanta Ireland
• 5pm: Brazil v England Soccer friendly ITV1
• 5.00pm: Tennessee at Mississippi - College Football ESPN USA
• 8pm: Ireland v France World Cup Qualifier RTE2
• 8.30pm: Iowa at Ohio State - College Football ESPN USA

Sunday

• 3pm: Ireland v Australia Rugby test match RTE2
• 6pm: Bengals @ Steelers NFL Sky Sports 2
• 9pm: Cowboys @ Packers NFL Sky Sports 2
• 125am: Patriots @ Colts NFL Sky Sports 2

Now that's a diverse, juicy and potentially wildly entertaining sporting weekend!



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Dive! Dive! Dive!

Houston, we have a problem.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

With Liverpool basically admitting they cheated their way to a 2-2 draw with Birmingham on Monday night, the Football Association in England is scrambling to basically cover the incident up.

From the Guardian;

''Benítez revealed he had questioned Ngog on the legitimacy of the penalty award. "I asked him about the penalty and he said maybe it wasn't. I haven't seen a replay but I spoke to him about it," he said.''

There are several interesting points coming from this. First of all, it would appear Soccer, and in particular the English Premiership, has a real problem with 'simulation'. Sometimes in life you have to look at yourself or something you enjoy doing/watching and admit to fault, error. For years I would get angry at ESPN's Sports Guy for making fun of diving in soccer, the fact of the matter is, he is kind of right about it. There is a massive problem with diving in football, and, it is getting worse. When teams are openly admitting they are cheating, as Liverpool have, the issue is nothing but serious.

First question would have to be, why hasn't there been the dramatic media outpouring of disdain that followed Eduardo's dive against Celtic in the Champions League earlier this season? Why is it that N'Gog's dive is being dealt with more mechanically, more factually and with less adjective and vitriol? Does this point to a clear anti-Arsenal bias in the UK's sporting media? It certainly would appear to.

Next question would be, whatever happened to the FIFA experiment where two extra referees were placed at either goal line? That seemed like a good idea, and would definitely help referee's in determining penalty box incidents, which are always going to be the most inflammatory decisions they will have to make on game-day. Was that just phased out, or did it never get past infancy?

There is a very simple answer to all this. Ban the player for five matches. Fine them a weeks wages. The Premiership could lead the way in world football by initiating something along these lines. All matches are reviewed on completion so if a player has dived to win a penalty and clearly done so, ban him, let him sit on the sideline for five weeks and contemplate his actions. If the English FA are anyway serious about cutting 'simulation' out of the game, they will do something about it. If not, they won't, simple as that.

Here's hoping they take some sort of action, or the game we know and love will drop to the level of nothing but WWF like farce.



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Ireland v France - initial rant

This coming Saturday Ireland play France in one of the biggest games seen on this Emerald Isle in years. The winner of the two leg, home and away affair will go directly to the World Cup next year in South Africa. The loser will sit at home and watch.

Ireland will go into this game without three huge midfield players in its squad. Stephen Ireland is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum, no one really knows the full story. Stephen Reid is fit and playing high level football but still on the outside of the Irish squad looking in. There seems to be a breakdown in communication there between the Irish manager and Stephen Reid.

Then there is Sunderland's Andy Reid.

Listening to a soccer show on the radio on Saturday, Mark Lawrenson made a great point, he asked, why is Reid not even in the squad? What happens if we are chasing the game in Dublin or France, and we need some creative spark off the bench, surely it would make sense to have a player of Reid's level of skill and creativity ready to go in case we need him? Truly, is there anyone on the Irish bench who can create chances and take set pieces at Reid's level? The answer is absolutely not.

Wait, didn't that guy used to play for Ireland?!

It's not just Mark Lawrenson, there are many pundits out there taking notice of Reid's superb recent form in the Premiership, a league many people call the best soccer league in the world.

This from the Guardian report on Sunderland's controversial 0-2 loss to Tottenham on Saturday;

Sunderland's football, by contrast, often sparkled, with Andy Reid the most imaginative player on the field.

This from ESPN;

The theme that less is more has been epitomised by a slimmed down Andy Reid, now producing arguably the best form of his career.

This from an ESPN soccernet 'team of the week' article;

Sunderland will feel hard by after losing a game they dominated 2-0 at White Hart Lane on Saturday, but former Spurs midfielder Andy Reid's lower lip may be protruding a little further than most. Darren Bent won and then missed a penalty, of course, but Reid was superb in providing the creativity and came extremely close to scoring one of the goals of his career when he chested the ball down and struck a dipping drive from 35 yards onto the post.

Perhaps the most quietly damning critique of the current Irish manager’s squad was in the Irish independent. When you read the below, bear in mind that Reid has recently pulled the strings in midfield for a team battling the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham. Top class opposition, top class football.
From the Independent;

As it happened, a significant number of Trapattoni's squad weren't wanted by their club bosses at the weekend. Kevin Kilbane, Paul McShane, Stephen Kelly, Eddie Nolan, Darren O'Dea, Darron Gibson, Liam Lawrence and Andy Keogh were all unused substitutes for their respective clubs.

That’s nine players in their respective teams who didn’t even see the pitch, whilst Reid was earning plaudits for his performance against Spurs.

Reid's behaviour in the face of his ridiculous ommission from the Irish squad, both on and also off the field, has been absolutely commendable. It is only a shame that he is faced with a stubborn old man who has run out of excuses for keeping him out of the squad and is now gambling Ireland's entry to the World Cup on a selfish and stupid whim.



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Joey Porter and his big fat mouth

Oh Joey. Maybe you should work on your tackling instead of running that big fat mouth of yours.



0 tackles. None. Nada. Zip. Should be interesting to see what he has to say about that this week.


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Fire Fatty!

Kids can be so cruel!

On Saturday Notre Dame lost to Navy. Some of the fans were, well, unhappy with this development, and head coach Charlie Weiss. Look closely!


Of course, the other side of the sign just might say 'I call the kettle black!''.




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The one about the team that bought a World Series.

Things that you can do for $450 million.

• Launch a Space Shuttle.
• Create an affordable housing scheme in England.
• Pay off all federal employees holiday pay.
• Buy yourself a Major League World series trophy by spending $458 million in the offseason.

Why bother with the time consuming process of drafting players, bringing them up through the minors and moulding them into a good team, when you can just open your fat wallet and spend $458 million pre-season and ride your free agents to the most boring World Series title ever?

Since 2001 the New York Yankees have spent $1.5 billion on their collection of free agents that doubles as a baseball team. That's $500 million more than any other team (yes, even the Mets!) in Major League Baseball.

I would rather be watching College Football.

There are consolations of course. Perhaps all baseball fans who are sickened by the Yankees and their ridiculous spending sprees and $2,500 front row seats should turn to the Florida Marlins as a sign of hope for the future. The Marlins are far ahead of all other MLB teams in terms of dollars per win ratio. As we said here before;

''The Florida Marlins are really incredible. On a paltry ’09 total salary figure of $36M the Fish have managed a superb 72 wins (to date of article). What that means is every win has cost the Marlins $.50M. Now that is serious bang for your buck.''

For Red Sox fans, the consolation is heart warming when you think about it. While the Yankees have a squad of over-paid and over-thirty veterans, the Red Sox are stocked to the brim with a bunch of home grown players that should help the Sox dominate the AL East for years to come, while the Yankees save for their next insane spending spree.

The Yankees have nothing to match the incredible home grown talent collection that is Daniel Bard, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jonathon Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Michael Bowden, the magnificent Jon lester, Jed Lowrie, Manny Delcarmen and the wildly talented Clay Buchholz.

And yes, that list is going to help me sleep at night.

You can have your purchased World Series. We got Danny Bard.

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Mailbag 04.10.09

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Mailbag
Sifting through the inbox

Well over due a mail bag, inbox pretty stuffed the last couple of weeks. Don’t you people have anything better to do?! Wait, scratch that, it’s November, possibly the quietest month of the year, bar maybe late January? Is there anything worse than late January, you haven’t been paid in ages, the Christmas buzz is long gone, the weather is awful and the next holiday is Saint Patrick’s day. May as well be running uphill into a frosty shower.

Various mailers – ‘Where can you watch NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL etc in Dublin?’

You would not believe the number of emails we get on this. In the last two weeks alone, there has been about ten emails asking where people can watch the WS, the NFL or even NBA. The funny thing is, there are some bars that are catering for the NFL in particular. Other sports, not so much. This is going to take an entire piece on its own to answer, should have something up by Friday so check back for a list of the best places to watch the NFL and the best streaming sites to watch NFL, NBA and MLB.

Brian – Boston ‘Who you got tonight?’

I have to admit this World Series has won me over. The Phillies are fun to watch, great pitching, gritty players, the Chase Utley show, and one of the better home crowds in Major League ball. Thank Jeebus. Jehovah, Allah, Buddha or whoever it is you believe in they at least made it a relatively competitive series. Pedro has every chance to build on his strong 8 strikeout start earlier in the series, and if he can eek out a win tonight in the zillion dollar house that A-Fraud built, well, imagine how highly strung the Yanks would be in game 7? Pretty highly strung. Someone told me once that something similar may possibly have happened in 2004 although that has to be confirmed. Phillies win a 5-2 stunner tonight and then over power the stunned 200 billion dollar Yankee squad 10-2 in game 7 on the back of 6 RBIs off the bat of rejuvenated Ryan Howard. Cliff Lee coming out of the ‘pen for 4 shutout innings of relief. Just remember, you heard it here first.

G – Dublin, Ireland I got your email via your blog online. I was wondering if there are any teams around the Dublin area in which I could play baseball with?

There sure are! The best way to get involved in the Irish Baseball league is to contact the league administrator. The league is now finished for 2009, however 2010 promises to be another exciting season. There is a ‘B’ league for players new to the game or just looking to swing a bat on a weekend (and not get arrested for same). The ‘A’ league is higher level, more competitive and still fun. Winter training normally starts in January, details of that will be posted here and on the official Baseball Ireland website also.

John – Ireland

I have spent years creating the Look Around Ireland website and am trying to promote it as best I can, so...Is it possible to get a link from your Blog on your other choice links to my website with the link words Ireland Travel?

Look Around Ireland
The Online Guide to Ireland
www.lookaroundireland.com

Done and dusted, John!

S - California
‘You are the least intelligent person I have ever met. What is your favourite Bloodhound Gang song?’

Great question! Thanks for the compliment, also. People do not understand the Bloodhound Gang. They see a bunch of lunatics playing 'noise' and making bad jokes. That's fine with me. I prefer that no one likes them actually, have them all to myself that way. They can rock out with the best of them, and they clearly don't take themselves very seriously at all, as evidenced by songs like 'Ralph Wiggum'.

If I was forced, gun to my head, to pick a favourite tune of theirs right now as we speak, I would have to say ‘Pennsylvania’, an anti-love song to the Gang’s home town.

…and remember - ''if you were not entertained, you did not drink enough booze!''

This is actually the 1,000th posting on Boston Irish, that’s pretty incredible really. The project started as practice for an eventual turn to sports journalism, and it has ballooned into a monster now, as evidenced by the four figure number of postings, and the 70,000 + unique IP addresses that have paused on this site at some stage or another in the last couple of years. At the end of the day it’s all about communication and the sharing of ideas. Its priceless being able to communicate with friends and like minded people all around the world, and its fun being able to hash out ideas on sports and related topics, hopefully doing so in a sometimes entertaining manner. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and continues to stop by.

Hope you sometimes find something enjoyable within.

Twins right pistol flush aces omaha seven fourty two - hut!

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A new play to digest, enjoy and think about. Twins right pistol flush aces omaha seven fourty two - hut!

It's the Raiders, baby, so you know it's good.
This is exactly, totally exactly, how they drew it up.





There.Was.No.Gain.On.The.Play
The Raiders should change their official website to www.therewasnogainontheplay.com


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The power of the 'Stache

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Item A on the agenda, did you know there was an 'American Mustache Institute'?

Well, there is, and it is ''Protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against, mustached Americans''

It also has an annual "Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year" and award that claims to be ''recognizing the person best contributing to the Mustached American way of life over the past year''

This years winner? Arizona Diamond Backs reliever Clay Zavada.


Zavada's acceptance speech;

''Thanks to Quicken and the American Mustache Institute as this is an honor, especially to beat out some great people like Captain Sully Sullenberger, who is an absolute hero," said a modest yet good looking Zavada, who in 51 innings for the Diamondbacks in 2009 struck out 52 batters with a 3.35 ERA. "I am humbled that so many people in America care about mustaches and have been amazed at all of the support I've gotten, especially from my grandma who was really fired up about me winning."

Cleveland Brown also received votes however was ''disqualified because (he) violated a clause that required the winner to sign an ethics agreement as well as actually exist in real life''

Cleveland Brown - disqualified

Best part of all this? Other than Zavada's impressing lip sweater? None of the above was made up in any shape or form. None of it! Entirely legit.

Clay Zavada - impressive