Loge Level

I was posting this because it’s pretty ridiculous. (Link) Mr. Donegan’s point that Hicks and Gillett should show more respect to Benitez because of the Champions League victory might be a fair one.  However, his claim that this is happening because they are American is preposterous. I see no difference in the Liverpool situation than what happened at Tottenham, Newcastle, and Chelsea.  And unless I’m mistaken none of those clubs are owned by Americans.

Great Britain and the United States; two nations divided by an ocean and a wildly differing view of the manager’s place in the hierarchy of a sports team or, if you prefer, sports franchise.

Over here, team managers enjoy great power and influence for as long as they occupy the office. The great ones become legends. They have stands named after them and gates erected in their honour; Shankley, Paisley, Busby, Stein and, when he retires no doubt, Ferguson.

It’s different in the world of North American baseball, where the team manager is the guy who picks the team, executes the match-day tactics and, if he has a strong personality or a death wish, isn’t scared to challenge the club’s general manager or owners - aka. the real bosses - about the club’s signing policies. Nothing more. In baseball, the great managers are no longer exalted, they are treated like day workers, to be summarily dismissed at the owner’s whim, as Joe Torre, who brought great success to the New York Yankees, discovered to his cost at the end of the 2007 Major League Baseball season.

Once upon a time British football fans could afford to ignore this particular quirk of the American sports world. No longer. The recent influx of American money in British football has meant an influx of American attitudes, most notably at Liverpool, which has now been owned by the American pair of Tom Hicks and George Gillett for nine months.

For the next few weeks these two British Imports will be vying for our attention. Because of this Loge Level has decided to match up the two and choose which will most likely be the most successful.

Earnings

Beckham - $250,000,000
This is the reported value of Beckham’s new contract which runs for five years.

Harry Potter -1000 Galleons
Harry won this money by winning the Tri-Wizards tournament.  The amount is roughly equivalent to $5000 (Link)

Major edge here to Beckham 

Number 7

Beckham - Jersey Number

Harry Potter - 7 Books

Edge - Push

Best Friend

David Beckham - Gary Neville

Harry Potter - Ron Weasley

Edge - Harry Potter - While Neville is a solid defender its impossible to pick against Ron Weasley who’s loyalty and Wizard Chess skill has contributed directly to Harry’s success. 

Movies

David Beckham - Bend it Like Beckham and Goal! Trilogy

Harry Potter - 5 Movies so far

Edge - Potter - While we can think Beckham for introducing us to Keira Knightley that is still not enough to compete with the Potter movie franchise.  Which just this week set a new record for a Wednesday opening. (Link)

Best known for

David Beckham - His right foot

Harry Potter - Living

Edge - Beckham - This category has to go to Beckham.  There is no denying that his ability with his right foot has come from years of practice and refinement.  This is in contrast to Potter who greatest achievement was simply living.  A point driven home by this Slate story.

Nemesis

Beckham - Diego Simeone (Famous for getting Beckham sent off in the 1998 World Cup)

Potter - Voldemort

Edge - Potter - Beckham obviously has a legit complaint with Simeone but its nothing compared to Voldemort killing Harry’s Parents. 

Girlfriend/Wife

David Beckham - Posh

Harry Potter - Ginny

Edge - Push - Initially this would look like a winner for Beckham, but has Posh’s star has been fading Ginny’s has been on the rise.  Given a strong showing in book  7 this category could eventually swing to Potter. 

Lego Representation

Beckham Key Chain

Harry Potter

Edge - Potter -The Beckham key chain is pretty cool, but its no match for the entire Harry Potter line of toys. 

Role Model

David Beckham Gets kids on the soccer field and off the couch.

Harry Potter - Gets kids to read

Edge - Push

Winner 

And the winner is Harry Potter.  No matter how successful David Beckham is in bringing soccer to the masses it is unlikely that he could ever have the cultural impact of the Harry Potter franchise.

No, Liverpool’s defeat to AC Milan in the Champions League Final hasn’t crushed Allenby For Heisman’s will to type. Buying a house and moving, however, certainly did. But that’s sorted, and we’re back.

Where to start after a month away? With the CONCACAF Gold Cup, of course. The tournament wrapped up on Sunday with the United States beating Mexico, 2-1, in Chicago. But A4H! isn’t here to offer stale match analysis, we’re here to point out that the TV ratings for the event were a success (this news is also a bit stale, admittedly).

Yahoo! Sports, via the Associated Press, reported on Tuesday that Spanish channel Univision’s coverage of the Gold Cup Final attracted 41% more viewers than NBC’s coverage of the decisive game five of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The United States’ 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Mexico on Sunday received a 2.5 fast national rating on Univision, the network said Tuesday. That translates to 2.83 million households, nearly double the 1.48 million homes that watched the 2005 Gold Cup final between the United States and Panama.

This year’s English-language telecast was on the Fox Soccer Channel, which is available in about 30 million homes and is not rated.

Anaheim’s series-ending 6-2 victory over Ottawa in the Stanley Cup on June 6 received a 1.8 rating on NBC, which comes to 2,005,000 households.

SoccerAmerica also reported Tuesday that Univision’s coverage of Mexico’s Gold Cup semifinal victory of Guadeloupe was Thursday’s most-watched program.

Last Thursday’s Mexico-Guadeloupe in the Gold Cup semifinals was viewed by 4,024,000 persons age 2+ on TeleFutura, making the most-viewed program of any kind on that network.

Amazingly, TeleFutura captured the No. 1 rank for the Thursday 10-11pm time slot, outdelivering all other broadcast networks, English or Spanish, among adults 18-34 (1,600,000), adults 18-49 (2,800,000), men 18-34 (1,000,000), men 18-49 (1,900,000) and men 25-54 (1,800,000). TeleFutura also outdelivered the combined prime-time audiences for the entire night of CBS and ABC among men 18-34 (554,000).

We’re not here to slag off hockey. (Trust us, as soccer fans, we know what it’s like to constantly have our favorite sport denigrated.) Or to claim some watershed moment for the growth of United States soccer. (After all, common sense tells us that most of the viewers watching on Univision were primarily interested in Mexico.)

We just want to point out that this is another example of soccer’s potential as a spectator sport in the United States. We’re not daft enough to think that many of those watching Team Mexico on Univision will tune in to, say, ESPN2’s Primetime Thursday coverage of Major League Soccer. But at least MLS is doing more to attract a Latino audience with its inception of the SuperLiga and its TV deals with Fox Sports en Español and the Univision family of networks.

Onward and upward!

Yesterday, former UK midfielder Michael D’Agostino was named to the Canada Under 20 World Cup Roster (Link).  D’Agostino is following in the footsteps of former Wildcat Riley O’Neill who played for the team.  O’Neill is currently playing for SV Wilhelmshaven where he managed to score a goal in his first start (Link).  Unfortunately the team finished 19th in the German third division and were relegated.

Former goalkeeper, Andy Gruenebaum is playing profesionaly for the Columbus Crew.  Gruenebaum started the first 10 games of the season for the team, recently however the Crew have went with Will Hesmer.

This wasn’t quite the inverse of the 2005 Champions League Final. While Allenby For Heisman!’s beloved Liverpool were the better team, they certainly weren’t dominant the way Milan were for about eighty percent of the 2005 match. Nevertheless, it’s hard to look past the fact that the team that deserved to win in 2005 lost, and the team that deserved to win in 2007 lost. That must go down as the story of these two matches.

While Manchester United made Milan look like 1970 Brazil in the second leg of their semi-final tie, Liverpool made the Italians look ordinary. Indeed, the Merseysiders had the better chances in the first half and looked quite comfortable until Xabi Alonso was judged, a bit harshly, to have felled Kaka on the edge of the area in the dying minutes of the first half. Andrea Pirlo struck the ensuing free kick toward Pepe Reina’s far post, and the Liverpool keeper looked to have it covered. But the ball fortuitously struck Pippo Inzaghi’s arm and bounced into the Liverpool goal, wrongfooting Reina and allowing Milan to take the lead into the half.

Depending on who you support, the deflection may or may not have been a handball. After seeing the replay, we thought it was. But, in the interest of candidness, after seeing it in real time and before seeing a replay, we didn’t even know the shot was deflected. So we really don’t have much room to criticize.

Here it is; you be the judge:

We’re a bit torn. Our first thought is that Pippo is an opportunist not against bending the rules. But, then again, is he quick-thinking enough to do that intentionally?

Milan tacked on a second goal after Liverpool, chasing the equalizer, subbed the superb Javier Mascherano for Peter Crouch. The Argentine’s absence allowed Kaka to finally find the space that had eluded him all night, and his through ball was expertly finished by Inzaghi in the eighty-second minute.

Liverpool finally found the net in the eighty-ninth minute after Dirk Kuyt headed home Daniel Agger’s flick off of a corner. For a moment it seemed like a comeback was on the cards. But then . . .

[WARNING — POTENTIAL SOUR GRAPES] the assistant referee signaled only three minutes of stoppage time. Let’s see, in the regular forty-five minutes of the second half, there were two goals, five substitutions, two stoppages for injuries – one for Inzaghi and one for Alessandro Nesta – and a fan running onto the field. And all we get is three minutes?

But wait, there’s more, we didn’t even get to play the minimum three minutes of stoppage time. The referee blew the match dead about two minutes, forty-five seconds into stoppage time, after a Milan substitution, we might add.[/WARNING — POTENTIAL SOUR GRAPES]

Enough of that, though. After the oping goal, it seemed that this simply wasn’t Liverpool’s night. That’s football. The most talented team often doesn’t win, and the team who plays the best on the day regularly doesn’t win. That’s what makes football unique. And that’s what makes it wonderful.

Congrats to Milan. They’re a classy side, despite their match-fixing benefactors.

Roll on August. Give us an out-and-out goal-scorer, a left-winger (or a fit Harry Kewell), and a left back whose priority is defending, and we’ll be genuine title challengers (oh, and cover for Carragher and Agger — assuming Sami Hyypia leaves). Until then . . .

When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the Storm there’s a golden sky
And the sweet, silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone.
You’ll never walk alone.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone.
You’ll ne-ever walk alone.

Onward and upward!

There have been a lot of weird stories concerning Chelsea and animals.

Most recently there was this one concerning a parrot.

A blue-throated Amazon parrot called Chelsea, who screeches whenever anyone mentions Manchester United, has been stolen from his cage.
Chelsea was taken from a garden in North Street in Mears Ashby, Northamptonshire, early on Tuesday. (Link)

Which came on the heals of Jose being arrested for hiding his dog from the police.

JOSE Mourinho’s dog was flown on a private jet to Portugal yesterday at a cost of £20,000. Yorkshire terrier Leya — which had been wanted by authorities over fears it had broken rabies rules — was whisked away from Heathrow by Mourinho’s wife Tami.

The pooch had been hidden since a police raid on Tuesday night by Mourinho, who was arrested and cautioned for obstructing cops. (Link)

While earlier in the year Frank Lampard was in the news when his French mastiff had puppies.

In November Frank Lampard showed that his principal loyalty lies with his French mastiff, Daphne. He refused go to with the Chelsea team to a hotel as Daphne had gone into labour and he demanded to be at the birth. (Link)

CHELSEA superstar Frank Lampard is looking for a lucky fan to give a new home to his two nine-week-old French Mastiff puppies.

The puppies, a boy and a girl, were a part of a large litter born by the England midfielder’s adult dogs Daphney and Rocco. (Link)

It’s been three long weeks since Allenby For Heisman!’s beloved Liverpool Football Club defeated Chelsea at Anfield to book a place in the club’s second European Cup Final in three years. Familiar opponents AC Milan await the Reds. The Jai Lucas/Patrick Patterson recruiting announcements took our minds off of the match for a bit, but we’ve pretty much been thinking about it nonstop since Dirk Kuyt drilled that penalty past Petr Cech on May 1.

We’ve even dreamed about it. We’re very superstitious at A4H!, and the only thing that gives us solace about the dream we had Thursday night is that there’s no way another Liverpool/Milan Champions League Final can end up 3-3 at the end of ninety minutes.

Anyway, here’s what happened: We were stuck at work (looks like we’ll be able to take the afternoon off now, though, fingers crossed) working away at our computer, staying off any Web sites that would give away the score of the match, when – out of the blue – we realized we forgot to set the DVR to record the match. The best way we can describe it is to say it was like the feeling you get when you’re halfway to your vacation destination and you remember you’ve left the garage door open.

We had this realization at about 5.15 p.m., or about thirty minutes after the match would normally be ending. We immediately logged onto ESPN’s Soccernet (not trying to namedrop, that’s where the dream took us), and the headline stated that the score was 3-3 at the end of regulation, and that extra time was being played. There was a picture of Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler (no one is expecting him to start in the final), and the caption said he had scored two of Liverpool’s goals, both from the spot.

As soon as we realized the game was still going on, we sprinted upstairs to the conference room to tune into ESPN2. We immediately looked to the corner of the screen and saw that Milan had scored in extra time, and that the score was now 4-3. We also saw that the extra time had already been played, and the game was now in added time. But Liverpool had won a corner, and Stevie Gerrard whipped it, where a towering Sami Hyypia met it spectacularly and headed the ball down into the corner. Clarence Seedorf was manning the post, but the ball somehow squirted between his legs and across the line before he could hack it out! But the linesman didn’t give the goal! He ruled it didn’t cross the line! And now the referee is blowing his whistle, and the match is over! And then we wake up. What a crap way to start the weekend, eh?

So. That’s that. We hope it doesn’t mean anything, and by airing it, we hope to lessen any negative impact it might have.

What to make of the game, then? Well, we don’t really do predictions (part of that whole superstitious thing). Heck, we don’t even know what formation Rafa will play. Dominic Fifield at The Guardian seems to be thinking either 4-4-1-1 or 4-5-1 as he’s reporting that Gerrard play off of Dirk Kuyt. He’s also reporting that Momo Sissoko left training with a hamstring injury. That would suggest a midfield of Zenden, who passed a late fitness test (or perhaps Harry Kewell or John Arne Riise with Alvora Arbeloa slotting in at left back), Xabi Alonso, Xavier Mascherano, and Jermaine Pennant. The Times’ Matt Dickenson tips Pennant to start at right wing as well.

We won’t have any qualms with whatever formation Rafa trots out or whoever he has in the XI. The man knows what he’s doing and we’re confident he’ll give Liverpool a chance to claim its sixth European Cup. That’s all you can ask for.

That’s a pretty lame prediction. So we’ll go this far: whichever team’s central starts shine brightest will win. For Liverpool, that means Masch and Alonso must limit Kaka and Pirlo yet still pace the Liverpool attack. Gerrard must combine well with Kuyt and not let the Dutchman become isolated in attack. He must also win his duel with Gattuso. But all of that’s probably rubbish. With all the prematch hype arround Gerrard and Gattuso, Masch and Kaka and Pirlo, expect Zenden to win it for Liverpool or goalshy Gilardino to grab a hattrick for Milan.

Over the last month, Allenby For Heisman! has had bachelor parties, youth soccer games, weddings, rehearsal dinners, an injury, a friend’s concert, a sickness, and a growing pile of work, but when Patrick “The Basketball Jesus” Patterson signs with Coach Billy Clyde Gillispie and the University of Kentucky, we make time to break out a Mixed Bag Thursday.

 On with the news:

–It’s a Great Day to be a Wildcat.

Let’s get right down to it. The first day of the workweek brought Black Monday, but UK fans have forgotten all about that now. In case you’ve been living under a rock, The Basketball Jesus, the most coveted unsigned recruit in the United States, signed a letter of intent to play amateur basketball for A4H!’s beloved Wildcats on Wednesday in his hometown of Huntington, West Virginia. The Basketball Jesus picked UK over Florida and Duke. 

Now, we have our doubts about whether The Basketball Jesus can live up to the absurd hype that surrounded his signing, but that’s really a moot point. Even if he flops, and we don’t think he will, we’re just not expecting a Gregg Oden- or Kevin Durant-like freshman season, his signing means the Cats are back among the nation’s basketball powers. And, wow, it feels fantastic. This is the most excited we’ve been about a UK recruit since Tim Couch, the Pride of Hyden, committed to the football Wildcats all those years ago. But don’t just take our word for it, take a look at what these proper journos have to say about it:

The Louisville Courier-Journal’s Eric Crawford [Link]

It’s not wise to put too much importance on any one player. And it’s still way too early to know just how good Patterson is. But his signing has significance beyond points and rebounds. Here’s what Patterson means to UK.

He solidifies the possibilities for next season. All of a sudden, defenses will have to be more honest in dealing with the Wildcats’ perimeter threats. He sends a message. By choosing the Wildcats over Florida and Duke, he helps return a little glitz to the name. The top kids watch each other. The best guards watch where the best big men go. And the other way around. He keeps the fans happy. Gillispie’s arrival changed the vibe around the program. Patterson’s signing ensures that the good mojo will last through the summer. With a fan base as large and rabid as UK’s, that’s important.

The Lexington Herald-Leader’s John Clay [Link]

Kentucky has its mojo back.

That’s what Patrick Patterson did yesterday. That’s what the 6-foot-9 forward from Huntington, W.Va., accomplished the second he told a waiting hoops world he would play college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats.

Just like that, Kentucky has momentum again. . . .

True, you can argue Patterson’s worth is a tad overrated, that the overwhelming publicity surrounding yesterday’s announcement had more to do with drama and timing — the final blue-chip prosect yet to reveal his college choice — than the degree of his talent.

Patterson is good.

But is he that good?

Doesn’t matter. Not now anyway. Perception is reality. Perception was, Kentucky couldn’t cut the recruiting mustard anymore. Big-time prospects said thanks but no thanks, and matriculated at Carolina, or Kansas, or Florida, leaving Kentucky to wonder what went wrong.

We’ve said it before, we’re absolutely positive we’ll say it again: Billy Clyde = Legend.

Guess Who’s Back: Patterson to Kentucky [KentuckySportsRadio.com]

Newest Signing Gives Gillispie High Marks [Louisville Courier-Journal]

Forward Progress On Recruiting [Lexington Herald-Leader]

–Does Rupert Murdoch own Gannett?

According to Sunday’s edition of the Courier-Journal, us Wildcat fans are sick, twisted, and pathetic. And quite possibly cheaters. This is because we have fans who post things on potential recruits’ Facebook and MySpace pages, something the CJ finds remarkable. (Despite the fact that fans of tons of other schools do this, too.) One such potential recruit was Beas Hamga. These dirty, conniving fans had the nerve to post scandalous things like “Come to UK and you’ll be a rock star!” and “I love UK, I’d love to see you wearing Wildcat Blue” on Hamga’s Facebook and MySpace pages. We say “things like” rather than list actual examples because the CJ story didn’t list actual examples.

According to Hamga’s guardian and AAU coach, Mark Adams, posts like this mean one thing, and one thing only: Cat fans were making under-the-table pitches to bring Hamga to the Bluegrass.

“But when somebody on there says, ‘We graduated from Lexington, we go to every game and we’d love to see you there,’ then it’s pretty obvious what it is.”

Or, as the CJ more eloquently states:

Beas Hamga, a talented post player searching for a college, made an official visit to the University of Kentucky this weekend.

But his AAU coach and legal guardian, Mark Adams, is questioning some of the motivation behind the Cameroon native’s sudden interest in the Wildcats.

According to the story, Adams said there were between one hundred and two hundred posts from UK fans on the sites, something the CJ apparently didn’t verify, despite the fact that there’s, you know, quite a difference between one hundred and two hundred. It’s the same as the difference between zero and one hundred, in fact. But, really, why would you verify Adams’ words? AAU coaches are notorious fountains of truth and integrity. Adams also said there were posts from fans of other schools, but that the number of UK posts dwarfed these posts. No, that wasn’t verified, either.

Anyway, it’s good to know the story had a happy ending. Hamga decided against coming to UK and signed with UNLV instead. Now, Adams won’t lose any sleep about Hamga drowning in the cesspool that is the Athens of the West because the Cameroonian will be spending his formidable years in wholesome Las Vegas, Nevada. We’re sure the fact that UNLV has had no UK-like run-ins with the NCAA over recruiting violations provides Adams with tremendous piece of mind.

Guardian Alleges UK-Tinged Web Pressure On Hamga [Louisville Courier-Journal]

Not a Coach? Then Leave Those Prospects Alone [Louisville Courier-Journal] (We wonder if this applies to journos, too. Probably just fans.)

–It’s only a loan,
It’s only a loan,
In ancient Greece,
We’ll bring it back home

If you care about the world’s football, you no doubt know A4H!’s beloved Liverpool are back in the Champions League Final for the second time in three years. They’ll face AC Milan, the same club they famously defeated on penalties after staging an outrageous comeback from three goals down. [YouTube]

We’ve got another wedding-packed weekend – when will it ever end? – but we’re promising a preview and review of Wednesday’s match.

That’s all the time we have for now. Onward and upward!

Perhaps Allenby For Heisman! is being a massive bit presumptuous, but maybe, just maybe, Dear Reader, you logged onto LogeLevel.com last Thursday in search of a Mixed Bag of goodness from yours truly. And when you saw nothing from A4H!, you were no doubt filled with disappointment.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, A4H! felt the same way watching the conclusion of the first leg of the Manchester United vs. AC Milan Champions League semifinal on Tuesday.

The scene: In front of an uncharacteristically boisterous crowd at the Theatre of Dreams, Milan cling desperately to a 2-2 scoreline that will set them up nicely for the second leg. The Italians have been on the back foot since their midfield general, Gennaro Gattuso, was stretchered off with a foot injury in the fifty-fourth minute. United scored the equalizer minutes after and are pressing for the winner. Yet Milan are hanging on, and when the match enters stoppage time, it looks like they’ve done it. But then Ryan Giggs wins the ball deep in his own half and surges forward into acres of space. This doesn’t look good, A4H! thinks to itself.  Giggs then splits the Milan defense and plays Wayne Rooney into right side of the box. As the ball runs past Rooney’s right, he swivels and hammers it, first time, into Nélson de Jesús Silva’s – better known as Dida – near post. Dida gets nowhere near it as he’s horribly out of position. And for that, A4H! says thanks for nuthin’, Nélson de Jesús Silva.

A4H! simply doesn’t understand Dida. It’s nothing personal, of course, He seems like a fine man and is undoubtedly a committed footballer – remember how he didn’t miss any time when he got hit with that flare back in the 2005 Champions League semis against Inter? It’s just that, well, he’s not very good, and yet he’s managed to be the number one goalkeeper for one of the best and richest clubs in the world – Milan – and the best footballing nation in the world – Brazil – for several years running. He does make some world-class saves, like yesterday’s stop against Darren Fletcher. But he’s had more than his share of gaffes. He was at fault for United’s first and third goals yesterday, and while I’m glad he didn’t, I still think he should have stopped Vladimir Smicer’s goal in the 2005 Champions League Final.

But yesterday wasn’t all bad news for a United hater like A4H! The makeshift backline Sir Alex Ferguson sent out did provide one instance of comedy gold to allow Kaka to score his second. As the ball is bouncing, Kaka is running side-by-side with United’s Gabriel Heinze. The Brazilian stoops forward to head the ball away from Heinze and then, oddly, checks his run. And here’s why: out of nowhere, United’s Patrice Evra comes flying in – literally flying, he’s jumping for some reason. Evra flies past Kaka and slams into Heinze, knocking him over. This leaves Kaka alone in front of goal and he calmly strokes the ball past Edwin van der Sarr.

The second leg will be played at 2.45 p.m. Wednesday, May 2 at the San Siro. It will be televised live on ESPN2.

Rooney’s strokes of genius give defiant United the edge [The Guardian]

Now for today’s other talking points:

–America <3's LFC

As you’re probably well aware, the first leg of the other Champions League semi will be played between A4H! favorite Liverpool and Chelsea at 2.45 p.m. today at Stamford Bridge. This will be the fourteenth meeting between the two clubs since Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho arrived in 2004. Chelsea have won six, Liverpool have won four, and the other three were draws. The clubs have played four times in the Champions League, with Liverpool winning once – thank you Louis Garcia! – and the other three resulting in nil-nil draws. So don’t expect a repeat of yesterday’s 3-2 thriller. It’ll be tight, hotly contested, and most likely goalless.  

Off the pitch, the war of words between Jose and Rafa appears to have reached unprecedented levels. For whatever reason – and it’s undoubtedly the fact that Rafa has delivered a CL title to Liverpool while Jose has failed to do the same for Chelsea – no one seems to get under Jose’s skin quite like Rafa. Jose’s latest remarks are that Rafa has reduced Liverpool to a cup team – cos we were on the cusp on winning the Premiership before he arrived, weren’t we? – and that the Reds will target Chelsea striker Didier Drogba to get the Ivorian suspended for the second leg – much like Chelsea did to Xabi Alanso back in 2005, perhaps?

There’s no point in responding to Jose’s nonsense. The man himself doesn’t believe it. A4H! doesn’t even think Jose does it to unsettle his rivals. He does it simply to deflect as much attention as possible from his gazillion-pound squad. Of course, that doesn’t mean it would be for the worse if he just shut up.

As for the match, A4H! had a bad feeling about the tie. Many Liverpool fans are way too confident. They seem to assume that we simply have Chelsea’s number in the cups. But surely the Blues are due some luck in one of these knockout games?

As the astute reader notes, the previous paragraph states that “A4H! had a bad feeling.” It’s past tense because it all changed when Ms. A4H! made us watch American Idol last night. The final contestant belted out Gerry & The Pacemaker’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to thunderous applause and unanimous praise from the judges. No doubt this is a sign of great things to come for the Reds. A4H! is throwing caution to the wind. We’re gonna win it six times!   

Liverpool will try to get Drogba banned, says Mourinho [The Guardian]

Liverpool are just a cup team now is the message from Mourihno [The Guardian]

 –Crew News

A4H! was at work until very late on Thursday and then out of town for the weekend, so there was no preview or recap of Columbus’ 2-2 draw against the New England Revolution on Thursday. The game’s major talking point was Andy Herron elbowing Jay Heaps. Steven Goff of the Washington Post confirmed yesterday that Herron will be suspended and that Heaps and Shalrie Joseph will not – despite Heaps forearm shiver to Joseph Ngwenya’s face and the hand Joseph thrust into Herron’s face. Yay for consistency! Rumors are that Herron will receive six games, which seems excessive. The elbow was dirty and premeditated and Herron deserves a suspension of some sort (three games seems fair), but Herron definitely got popped in the back before he delivered the blow, which seems like a mitigating circumstance. The disciplinary committee must have taken Herron’s prior disciplinary problems into account.

Herron Suspended [The Washington Post]

More good news for the Crew: They got knocked out of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup last night by LA Galaxy. A4H! wants to like the Open Cup. It’s the only trophy the club has won, and who doesn’t like knockout tournaments where anyone can enter? But now that Major League Soccer has changed the qualifying rules – since Columbus finished last in the east last year they had to win last night and again against New York just to play in the proper competition – it’s hard to take seriously. A4H! is all for giant killing and upsets, but all the MLS clubs should enter the competition after the introductory rounds, like England’s FA Cup.

Youthful Crew lineup nets uninspiring loss [Columbus Dispatch]

 –Billy Clyde = Legend

Parade All-American Alex Legion will be playing at Rupp Arena next fall. It doesn’t look like the kid was even considering the University of Kentucky until Billy Clyde came around, and viola, we’ve got him in a UK uniform.

Big ups to the mayor of the Athens of the West, Jim Newberry:

“Lexington’s first-year mayor contributed to the signing of Legion. By coincidence, Newberry was meeting with Lee Todd last week when Legion came by the UK president’s office as part of an official recruiting visit.

Conveniently, Legion has an interest in politics. ‘My son has a 3.8 grade-point average and wants to major in political science,’ his mother, Annette Legion, said. ‘He’s interested in being a senator or mayor someday.’

Rightly or wrongly, Legion and his mother, who accompanied him on the UK campus visit, interpreted Newberry’s presence as Kentucky basketball doing its homework.

‘You guys had the red carpet out,’ the player’s mother said. ‘The mayor and the president of the university. That was something for my son.’

Gillispie brings Legion to Cats [Lexington Herald-Leader]

That’s it for today. C’mon you Reds!

According to the always entertaining Sports By Brooks, the LA Galaxy is trying to add recently-retired Zinedine Zidane. Remember him? If not, let YTMND remind you. I’ll let A4H break down the ramifications of such a move in his next article.

I’m proud that I didn’t resort to a Scientology joke when writing this post. Wait. Oops.

This site has a cool comparison of the two goals.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1r5c9_comparativa-gol-de-messi-y-maradona 

So, long time between posts. A4H! was stuck at a conference the last two days where I ran into some old friends who were disappointed with the lack of posting. There has been no posting because I didn’t really know if anyone was reading, and it seemed egocentric to carry on. But there are at least two readers out there, so it’s once again fingers to keys for me.

–The big news today, of course, is that Billy Donovan isn’t coming to Kentucky. But I’d decided about a week ago that he wasn’t coming, and A4H! is over the whole Donovan Thing. He’s a great coach, and it would have been brilliant if he’d come. But he didn’t. So I move on.

Now to answer the question on the tip of your tongue: who is A4H!’s pick for UK coach? Billy Gillispie with a bullet. I’ll admit to knowing little to nothing about this guy before the NCAAs started up. I’d really only looked at box scores, which told me that Texas A&M didn’t exactly score a ton of points. And I knew they were very good defensively. This led me to assume Gillispie was a Ben Howland/Tom Izzo/Tubby Smith type. Those guys are all good coaches who have had great success. But A4H! hates that brand of basketball. It’s ugly. It puts me to sleep. And the most gifted kids don’t want to play it.

Anyway, that was my view of A&M. Then I saw the Aggies play twice in Rupp Arena in the first and second rounds of the NCAAs, and I remembered that sometimes it’s a good idea to educate yourself about things before making up your mind about them. (While good practice, this, sadly, disqualifies me from ever appearing on “Around the Horn,” “PTI,” and any number of sports radio programs.)

The Aggies push the ball. They get up and down. They look for good looks in transition. But if those looks aren’t there, they run a patient halfcourt set and don’t settle for bad shots. I think UK fans would have no qualms with his style.

By all accounts he’s a good Xs and Os guy, he’s a workaholic, and he’s a scratch recruiter. What’s not to like?

I now make the following Allenby For Heisman! guarantees: If UK hires Billy Gillispie as coach, we will be hugely successful within three seasons, and he becomes a legend. Fact.

(For further reading on the man and other candidates, check Crazy Gregg Doyel, who also hearts Gillispie (and is becoming an A4H! favorite; something I definitely didn’t foresee)).

That’s UK basketball out of the way. Now a few random thoughts:

–Liverpool FC demolished Dutch club PSV Tuesday in the first leg of their quarterfinal Champions League tie. My beloved Reds now have one foot in the semifinal.

–Speaking of knockout tournaments, I’m watching Major League Soccer side Houston Dynamo take on Pachuca of the Mexican first division in the CONCACAF Champions Cup action on Fox Soccer Channel. Houston took a two goal advantage into this game and looked set to reach the finals of the competition. But Pachuca has already scored twice in the first twenty minutes. Houston is falling apart. It’s looking like an all-Mexican final.

–I’ll be in frigid Columbus Saturday night to watch my Crew open the 2007 MLS season against Red Bull New York. Expect a mini-report early next week. (FYI: Columbus’ status as a massive club has been confirmed.)

That’s all for now. Onward and upward!

In the spirit of continued US soccer dominance over Mexico, I present this “dos a cero” tee shirt.

Link: USA 2 Mexico 0 (USA Today)

Related Posts: Kobe Shirt (12/6/2006)

So A4H! has been away for a bit. The list of excuses runs long: work picking up, training a new pup, indoor seasons overlapping, trying to keep fitness-related resolutions, mourning the passing of another football season, and so on. Anyway, no time for that, so let’s get right to it.

–We begin today with A4H!’s beloved Liverpool Football Club. The Mighty Reds were 2-1 winners over West Ham yesterday at Upton Park. This puts a four-point buffer between LFC and Arsenal – who don’t play another league game until Saturday (and by that time ‘Pool could be seven points clear). The win – Liverpool’s ninth out of its last ten league games (A4H! told you talk of a crisis after the cup losses to the Arse was silly, didn’t he?) – closes the gap on second-place Chelsea to a razor-thin two points and cuts ManYoo’s lead to eight points. Of course, both clubs are expected to extend their leads today; Chelsea host Blackburn while ManYoo host Watford, who are bottom of the league. Nevertheless, crazy things can and do happen in the beautiful game. And who doesn’t want to see a three-horse title race? Come on Watburn! Come on Blackford!

And no, A4H! certainly didn’t forget that the transfer window will slam shut today. The Reds have been in the thick of that, too. Today’s big news is that FIFA have given ‘Pool the green light to sign West Ham’s Argentine midfielder Javier Mascherano (hereinafter Mash or Monster Mash, for spelling-related reasons and as a nod to ol’ No. 24) [Link]. I’ve got a couple of thoughts on this. First, it doesn’t bother me in the least that FIFA waived it’s silly rule about not allowing a player to compete for more than two teams in the same season (the Mash turned out for Brazilian club Corinthians in July and West Ham this EPL season). Maybe I’ll feel different if fans of other English clubs or big European clubs can provide an example of lining up a player, and then being unable to sign the player because of this rule. But I haven’t heard of such a situation. Second, I also don’t mind that the Mash was a massive flop for the Hammers. I saw him play this summer for Argentina in the World Cup and he was good. The player has quality, there’s no disputing it. Whether he can shine in England is certainly a valid question, but Liverpool will provide a better opportunity than West Ham for him to prove it. (Scary thought: if he does come good, how does Liverpool accommodate the Mash, Gerrard, Alonso and Sissoko? Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we?) Also, it should be noted that the deal for Mash isn’t official yet.

Today’s other big Liverpool news is that Dubai Investment Capital’s proposed takeover of the club off. DIC have ended negotiations after the club rejected their offer yesterday. [link] The club is analyzing a rival offer from US businessman George Gillett, who owns the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens (yes, the NHL is still around, no, I don’t know what channel Versus is, yes, A4H! sees the irony in a soccer fan poking fun at the NHL’s irrelevancy). As A4H! sees it, there must be something the public doesn’t know about this. The DIC offer seemed almost too good to be true. DIC promised to wipe out existing debt, fund the building of a new stadium, and provide a sizeable transfer kitty. If you’re going to go down the road of selling out to foreign investment (which is a whole other topic best addressed in another post), DIC seemed like the perfect partner. Gillett’s offer, on the other hand, didn’t provide as much financial information and proposed a ground share with Everton. I don’t know what to make of it, but perhaps the DIC offer really was too good to be true?    

–Let me throw in some other Yanks Abroad EPL news: Brian McBride won’t be coming back to MLS this year. He signed an extension with Fulham. Can’t say that I blame him. I would have loved to have seen him back in the States, but this year he’s been the best player on a team playing in perhaps the best league in the world. Why would you walk away from that? … Status Quo’s favorite Yank, Clinton Deuce “What it do?” Dempsey, completed his move to Fulham and has already turned out three times for the Cottagers, though he’s yet to start. In his debut, Deuce fanboys report that he executed the bestest backheel ever! … Oguchi Onyewu finally got his Premiership move. He was linked with loads of clubs, and if you believe his agent, turned down moves to Fulham, Middlesboro, and Real Madrid (which one doesn’t look like the others?), but ended up signing on loan with Newcastle United. He should see plenty of time there as they don’t have a decent center back. It’s a big (perennially underachieving) club with plenty of resources, so Gooch certainly has a shot at success. Best of luck to him with the Barcodes!

–And now for something completely different. A4H! is in the process of writing a cheesy, clichéd sports movie script (is there any other kind?) about a rag-tag soccer team who enter the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup and, against all the odds, progress all the way to the finals. When they get there, they’ll face David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy. (There’s no question that his people will give this the OK. Simon Cowell will love it.) We’re in the developmental stages right now, but so far I know this: (1) the team’s best player has to be a Johnny Foreigner who speaks little to no English; (2) there will be a sweet montage scene where the team gets it all together; (3) there will be some bending of the soccer ball; (4) there will be a fat kid and said fat kid will likely be hit in the groin area at least once; (5) all this movie needs to be a sure fire hit is one of the Frat Pack to star – paging Vince Vaughn, the Brothers Wilson, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, and Steve Carell. 

–That’s it for today. But I hope to offer my take on the Basketball Wildcats and Super Bowl XLI (by the way, if you’re scoring at home, both of A4H!’s picks made it) by the end of the week.

Onward and upward!