bullets13

we cooked up a bunch the other day, and i didn't really like it too much. it was a bit too fishy for me. most everyone i've talked to really enjoys it.

This game was a joke. Guatemala might be the dirtiest team I've ever seen. Carlos Ruiz might be the dirtiest player I've ever seen. The ref was terrible. For every foul he called against Guatemala, he missed two more. Anytime the US committed a hard foul, they got a yellow. Then the Guats tried to start a fight after the game. It was ridiculous. USA won 1-0. They dominated the first half, and were on their heels the second, but pulled it out in a game that finished 10 vs. 10. The USA was hindered by an extremely wet field, and an extremely dirty opponent. Everytime they got any rhythm at all, the nearest Guatemelan would push, kick, or hit the person controlling the ball. More often than not, the ref did not call it. There were very few offensive opportunities for either team in the first half. Steve Cherundulo got a second yellow card in the 59th minute to take the US down to 10 men. He deserved both cards, but he picked up both cards in frustration after blown calls by the ref. Just a minute later the Guatemalens went down a man as well, when one of their players took about a 10 yard run up and speared eddie lewis in the face about a second and a half after Lewis had gotten rid of the ball. With all of the blood spouting out of Lewis' face, the ref would've looked too suspicious had he not given the red. Shortly there after, Bocanegra headed a corner into the bottom corner to put the US up 1-0 (Gooch was essentially tackled on the play, leaving a pretty big hole for Carlos to run into). After that, the US did a solid job of holding their backline and keeping the Guats from having too many chances. Towards the end of the game a shot was deflected in, and after Howard slid over to collect it, Ruiz reached backwards with his left foot and brushed his cleats across howard's face, who dropped the ball. Guatemala scored, but it was called back for the foul. Not surprisingly, Ruiz did not even get a yellow card (much less the red he probably deserved), but Howard was quickly awarded a yellow for yelling at Ruiz when came over and tried to make nice. Ahh... i hate games like this, but it is the States' first every win at Guatemala in a qualifier, so that's a dang good start in their quest to make WC 2010.

i'd rather watch synchronized swimming than oklahoma football.

man is good if you are facing a team with a bunch of good outside shooters, and feel that you can control their big men down low without double teaming too much. the zone is more effective if you need to double down low, but you're guys really have to hustle to avoid allowing tons of wide open shots outside. both defenses have their strengths and weaknesses, so it's important to evaluate your opponents before you decide which to run.

Tevez was home because of a death in the family... he should be back for the next game or maybe the one after next.

i was wondering the same thing

if it didn't make so much sense, i would belittle them.

Hull, no question. but seriously, Chelsea looked unstoppable today (even though Drogba and Schevchenko were hurt), pounding Portsmouth 4-0, and Man U and Arsenal were not that impressive. Liverpool will be good, but i see them as 3rd or 4th. I'm going to say that Chelsea wins, not based on this one game, but on the fact that Man U will be without Ronaldo until October. If they can avoid digging themselves into too deep a hole while he's gone, they'll certainly be in the running at the end of the year.

there's no swimming or olympics forum. the subject said it was off-topic. this is the second post you've made in this thread. find another thread if you hate this one so much.

this is a good result for the hawks...

I made a league on on espn.com because it wouldn't let me join a random league. league name: SETX sports password: soccer hurry up and join, the games start tomorrow.

ha.

how's that?

this is going to probably hurt a little bit. if HJ can come up with a decent showing, however, it will be a nice confidence boost going into week 0.

PNG 30 BH 10

yes

not in this division. not only do they have to catch two great teams in the cubs and brewers, but they also have to catch a very good St. Louis team. besides catching these teams, they also have to play them. often. if they were in the west, they'd be tied for first right now, and if they were in the east, they'd still have an outside chance. as it is, they've dug themself much too deep a hole to crawl out of this year, and don't have the consistency with their pitching staff to keep winning as they've done the past few weeks.

you're right, davies did hit the bar at the end. I wasn't real pleased with the choices that Novak made. when you're down a man, your best chance is to use speed to get a breakaway. instead, he takes jozy out and leaves McBride in. Also, he waited until the very end of the game to put in Davies, who with his speed drew a PK and a free kick that led to the shot that hit the crossbar. It seemed like Novak didn't really try that hard to tie the game up until he realized it was the only way they were going to advance. I don't understand why they didn't try to get the equalizer earlier on, when they knew there was a possibilty that a loss would knock them out.

I have a ton of respect for Lumberton, and the turnaround they made last year, but Dayton is the better team. Lumberton had a great team last year, and managed to beat Dayton, but had they played 10 times, I bet Dayton would've won 7 or 8 of them. This year, Lumberton will be good, but there very well could be a slight dropoff from last year's team. I expect Dayton's team to be as strong or stronger than last year's team. Dayton wins this matchup.

i want to vomit. Michael Orozco is an idiot. He got a straight red in the 3rd minute for what was closer to a nudge than an elbow. I won't say it should not have been a red, but i think it was light enough, especially considering the situation, to warrant only a yellow (although the Nigerian player went down like he'd been hit by a truck). Regardless, what the hell was he thinking? Combining this with his unimpressive play throughout the tourney, i'll be happy if i never see him in a US jersey again. The US looked fantastic, despite being a man down. They were on their heels in the first half, and gave up a goal due to a tremendous individual effort leading to a cross and easy tap-in. In the second half, they were the better team throughout, having two chances that probably should've been finished to tie the game at one early on in the second. By the 75th minute, the US was playing on dead legs, and gave up a nice goal when Parkhurst basically just fell over when the Nigerian player made a simple cut, and subsequently curved the ball into the corner inside the back post. The US earned a PK in the 89th minute and converted, making the score 2-1. They subsequently earned a freekick just outside the box, which was headed goalward by Fehlheber (i think) and smashed off the crossbar. Had it gone in, it would've marked one of the greatest comebacks in Olympic soccer history. This is very unfortunate for the US, who certainly played well enough to win the group. If not for a freekick goal by the Netherlands in the 93rd minute against them the game before, they would've taken three points from that match and won the group. As it was, they came into today's game needing a tie or a Netherlands loss/tie to advance. Obviously, playing a man down for THE ENTIRE GAME made a tie pretty difficult for the States, but they damn near pulled it off. To make matters worse, the Netherlands beat Japan 1-0 on a terrible PK call in the 74th minute, meaning a US team very deserving of a quarterfinal berth is instead packing their bags. The good news for the US is that we've got some fantastic young players who are capable of breaking into the full side in the near future. I was very impressed with Marvelle Wynn, Sascha Kliestjan, and Stuart Holden. Throw Freddy into the mix, and some of our USMNT midfielders better start watching their backs. Guzan was also fantastic, and should be the heir apparent when Howard calls it quits (unless he surpasses him).

this weekend we killed the specs early wading on the bayside, and afterwards i helped my little cousins fill a cooler with croaker at rollover. there were some guys fishing the rocks below the bridge there, and they hooked up a lot, but lost most of their fish and lures due to hangups.

obviously, due to simple math, the bigger schools with more players will have more kids using steroids. also, at the smaller schools, it would be harder for a player to use steroids without someone finding out. I played for a 3A school and graduated in 2001, and i didn't know of any of my teammates who used. obviously, there had to have been a few, but it certainly wasn't a widespread problem. i did hear about several baseball players using steroids, but as i didn't play baseball, i don't know that to be a fact.

He never sleeps. I think he has a surrogate or clone. actually, he's siamese twins, although they do a pretty good job of editing that out of the picture during newscasts.

WB, but by less than most people think. i think later in the year, when WB has a chance to get clicking, they would probably win by more, but at the beginning of the year, Ozen's atheleticism will keep them close in what will likely be a messy performance for both groups after the long layoff between meaningful games.

I think Lumberton loses 3 games this year, but HF isn't one of them.