Chelsea v. Club America: Road Trip

It took me about a week to finally post these, but I’ve got media from the Chelsea v. Club America soccer match at the New Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The two teams were playing in a preseason friendly in the lamely-named World Football Challenge.

A buddy of mine’s company that he works for and his dad owns has season tickets to the Cowboys, so he was able to purchase the seats for us.

We asked him to get the $50 seats for us and it turns out that his dad bought the lower level seats and paid the difference for us. The result was that we ended up sitting closer to the field than we ever will again for a sporting event at New Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

So the following is the pictures and a video of our night at the match.

Yep, we parked about a mile away. But it still cost us $20. Thanks Jerry Jones.

If you look close to that red car, there's a middle-aged couple making out in the parking lot. Classin' it up.

We walk into the Stadium and immediately are offered $8 beers. Nah, I'm good.

This was the view from our seats. Luck doesn't even being to describe it.

If you hadn't already heard, this stadium is huge.

Those two water bottles? $5 each. It's not from the fountain of youth, I checked.

You know, just watching some soccer in HD. How many Best Buy gift cards would I have to save to get that?

Hey there's players out there warming up. Must be getting closer to kick-off.

Single-file lines everybody.

For some reason Garth Brooks was there. And for some reason there was a coin toss. And for some reason Garth Brooks did the coin toss. Confusion all around.

It just ain't a soccer match without smoke in the stands.

In the end, Chelsea won 2-0 and won the World Football Challenge. That trophy is definitely going in their museum.

Asia Trophy Final Matchday – Spurs v. Hull City

AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan

Spurs beat Hull City 3-0 in the final of the Asia Trophy in Beijing today. Robbie Keane scored a double and Aaron Lennon added a late goal to fill the scoreline.

Spurs looked in control for all but a ten minute spell midway through the second half. Heurelho Gomes did a great job in goal during that time, as he faced a barrage of shots from Hull, making several nice saves. He still looks shaky when the ball is in the air, though. I made a point to watch when Spurs were defending corners to see how he has progressed in that area, especially when the squad is weak in the back, but Spurs did not allow many corners today. The jury is still out.

The weak spot for the team on Friday had to be Pascal Chimbonda. His defense wasn’t too bad, merely mediocre, but his offense was downright awful. He made many bad passes and his first touch was terrible.  Every time the ball came to Pascal you could almost guarantee it was going to stop moving for a long period of time or be turned over.

Tom Huddlestone and Vedran Corluka did a respectable job as the two starting center backs, though. Huddlestone continues to show his versatility for the team, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with him when Woodgate, King and Dawson are all fit. Will he go back to the bench? Will he like it? Probably not on both counts.

But despite the efforts of Huddlestone and Corluka, Harry needs to bring someone in ASAP. Those two can play the out of position at the center back during the preseason and against a team like Hull City. But when the Premiership campaign starts next month against Liverpool, there had better be two natural center backs marking Fernando Torres.

Offensively, the team did a great job of controlling the possession in the first half, with the exception of the times where the ball went to Chimbonda. Luka Modric was the man who ran the show too. He lead Keano perfectly for the first goal and continued to direct traffic on offense.

The only downside to Modric’s play today was the chances he took with some of his passes. He made the occasional, “not many players can make this pass, but I think I can,” play. But you have to respect the confidence, it will come in handy this year.

Keano and Jermain Defoe were what you expect: good, solid. Keano scored the first goal thanks to a pin-point pass from Modric and scored the second on a penalty drawn by Defoe. Both players did an excellent job controlling passes and getting shots off in traffic. The more I watch Defoe, the more I think he could be one of the top scorers in the Premiership this season.

The best part of the game, however may have been the post game interview with Harry Redknapp and Robbie Keane. The interviewer asked Keane a question and and referred to how great Tottenham played in this Asia Trophy tournament. When Harry heard that, you could see his facial expression change and he winced a bit.

As great as Tottenham played against West Ham on Wednesday and Hull City today, Harry knows that this team can play better and needs to to compete for a Europe place this season. That’s the manager I want leading my club.

Asia Trophy Matchday – Spurs v. West Ham United

Spurs defeated West Ham 1-0 early this morning. It was the first game in the Asia Trophy for both teams and took place in Beijing. I forgot how early the match was going to be on and did not get up to watch it.

Jermain Defoe was the lone goal-scorer in the match, after he took a cross from Aaron Lennon and slotted it home in the 75th minute.

From all accounts Spurs deserved to win this contest easily and did so despite the appearance of a slim scoring margin. They take on the winner of Hull City and Beijing on Friday (as I write this, it’s currently 1-1 at the half between the two teams).

Maybe I’ll be able to wake up early enough to watch the Championship match.

[Update: Spurs will take on Hull City on Friday in the championship. Hull defeated Beijing on penalties to advance.]

Wembley Cup Matchday – Spurs v. Celtic

Reunited and it feels so good. (Nick Potts/PA)

Tottenham finished up the first-ever Wembley Cup by losing to Celtic 2-0 on Sunday. It was a rather weak effort. Spurs gave up two goals in the first half and never got on the board. The effort in the second half was a much better one from Spurs, but the damage was done.

The midfield play was sloppy during the first 30 minutes of the match. Luckily the midfield play improved as the game went on. I see the midfield being one of the strongest parts of the team this season. Luka Modric is a star, Wilson Palacios is an excellent defensive midfielder, and Aaron Lennon was voted by the fans as the team’s player of the year last year.

The question is what Spurs will do with the left side of their midfield.

Modric manned the left side at the end of the Premier League campaign last season, with Jermaine Jenas playing as the central attacking midfielder, and did a respectable job. Modric has the ability to play anywhere in midfield, but he is more effective in the middle, playing just behind the strikers. But with the lack of a left-footed player able to start, he has been forced to the wing.

The possibility of Spurs signing Ashley Young from Aston Villa is there. Villa signed Spurs’ target Stewart Downing from Middlesbrough a couple of weeks ago, maybe in anticipation of Young leaving for Spurs. Rumors are also swirling about central midfielders Jenas and Tom Huddlestone leaving, which means signing a left winger a necessity.

I like Jamie O’Hara, but I don’t think he has the ability required to play on the left every game, if Spurs are to challenge the top four.

The weakness for Spurs against Celtic was the middle of the defense. Tottenham defenders Ledley King, Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Dawson are all out with injuries, forcing Spurs to start Pascal Chimbonda and Dorian Devrite. Chimbonda’s natural position is on the edges, but he put in a decent performance.

Devrite, however, was the weak link. He was in no man’s land on the first goal by Chris Killen. Killen was unmarked on a cross by Paul Caddis and headed the first goal past Heurelho Gomes. Devrite was again burned at midfield by Georgios Samaras who streaked downfield and slotted one past Gomes.

Devrite doesn’t appear to be a player who will be having much of an effect on the first team this season.

Darrent Bent probably won’t be having much of an effect on Tottenham’s first team this year either, unless it’s in an opposing team’s jersey. Bent missed three solid chances at goal in the first half before being taken on at halftime in favor of Jermaine Defoe.

Spurs completed their signing of Peter Crouch on Monday and Bent left the team’s flight to Asia for the Asia Cup just before the flight took off, apparently to complete his transfer to Sunderland. It looks like this long-running transfer saga is mercifully about to end.

Spurs take on West Ham in a friendly in Beijing tomorrow to continue their preseason.

Spurs to Sign Peter Crouch

Crouch should be joining Spurs sometime this week.

It is being reported today at multiple media outlets that Spurs have agreed to a fee of around £10 million with Portsmouth for striker Peter Crouch.

I’ll have more this week on how this affects Spurs’ other transfers this summer and where Crouch will fit in Spurs’ lineup.

Memorial Day Miracle

Happy late Memorial Day.

SXSW, Ron Artest and New Orleans

Things are slow at the SXSW headquarters right now. Painfully slow at times. I’d explain all the things I do during the day to make the time pass during the day, but I’m afraid somebody from work would read this blog and I’d get in trouble. We’re in a recession right now and I can’t afford to lose my job, despite how uneventful it is right now.

But on the up side, I’m not stressed and I’m sleeping and eating and doing things normal people do. So there’s that.

I’ve been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs when I’m not at work, in fact I’m watching them as I type this, and I’m frustratingly happy. I enjoy watching the NBA Playoffs, and the NBA in general. So that makes me happy.

 However, the officiating in the NBA right now is utter crap. It’s kind of like the NBA leaving a bag of flaming dog crap on our porch, ringing the doorbell, and watching from the bushes.

And Skip Bayless on First Take is the equivalent of us answering the door.

It’s not necessarily that they’re making bad calls (but they are), it’s that the calls aren’t consistent from game t0 game. A lot of times they’re not consistent from quarter to quarter. And whenever the game starts to get physical, a barrage of flagrant fouls are called. The vast majority of which aren’t anything close to being flagrant fouls.

And then Ron Artest gets thrown out.

Poor Ron-Ron, he just can’t catch a break. You run up into the stands and mistakenly beat the shit out of one douchebag in Detroit (when you meant to beat the shit out of a different douchebag), and all of a sudden everybody thinks you’re going to go ape shit whenever you commit a hard foul.

The refs just need to treat Ron-Ron like every other player on the court and call him the same. Unfortunately it looks like the NBA has created the “Artest Rules.” #FREERONARTEST

I’m going to New Orleans this weekend with the girlfriend.

I wanted to take some sort of vacation after SXSW was over, but I don’t have any money. So I decided just to take a long weekend and go somewhere not too far from Austin.

And being a young, relatively-healthy, recent college graduate, what better city to visit than New Orleans?

The answer: none.

So I scored a good deal on a hotel for the weekend and looked up some fun things to do there. I’d look up bars to go to, but I figure I’m going to end up a Bourbon Street anyway. And from there, I seriously doubt I’ll remember anything I pre-planned when it comes to bar hopping.

It’s going to be an interesting experience.

What Vegas needs to put odds on, is the amount of time I’m actually going to spend doing things after my first night at Bourbon.

Right now I’ve got stuffed planned for during the days. But I have a feeling after the first night, I’m going to wake up at 3 pm and order greasy food. Then I’ll probably take a nap until it’s time to go back to Bourbon.

As of right now, I’ve got about four things planned as daytime activities on Saturday.

Vegas has the over/under currently set at 1.5.

I’d take the under.

Quick update

I was planning on doing a running log on tonight’s NBA action and my thoughts as it goes on, but I had an idea for a project today and so I’ll be dedicating my time to that tonight.

I’ve got another post in the works that I started last week, and hopefully I’ll be able to finish it soon. As long as it’s up before the NBA Playoffs are over, I should be good.

I’ve also got another Bleacher Report article that I started and haven’t finished. I like the idea behind it, but it’s going to take a lot of work and editing to get it right.

I did fall of the wagon on my “one post per week” quest. Three out of four ain’t bad though. I’ll be back with some updates in the next few days.

Another week, another article

I’ve got another new article up on Bleacher Report about Mo Williams’ impact on the Cavaliers. I also have one from last week about the NBA’s divisions if you missed that one. And all of them are up on the Articles page of my blog.

If you’re keeping track at home, I am still on pace for my one article per week goal that I set for myself last week. I know it’s not the loftiest goal in the world, but I’ve gotta take baby steps here.

I am excited about the NBA Playoffs starting, but at the same time, I’m watching way too much TV. I watch TV all night when I get home from work and all day during the weekend. Plus I’m getting behind in my shows and the DVR is giving me the big middle finger because of it. Plus, my girlfriend is probably tired of me staying up late to watch games even though they’re blowouts.

But it’s totally worth it. April might be the best sports month of the year and I can’t get enough. I’m just happy things aren’t busy at work any more so I can handle all the extracurriculars.

Reggie Miller is inadvertently wrong

I was watching the Celtics – 76ers game last night on TNT and Marv Albert and Reggie Miller were calling the game.  When the issue of Ray Allen’s suspension from last night’s game because of elbowing Anderson Varejao in his Brazilian twig n’ berries on Sunday, Reggie Miller adamantly claimed that the suspension was wrong because it was an “inadvertent elbow.”

Now I’ve had elbows for a long time, and I’ve gotten knocked down playing basketball many times before too. But I don’t think my elbow has ever “inadvertently” fired back that quickly into someone’s groin.

Who knows, maybe Ray Allen has a nervous twitch when he goes down on all fours.