Half

My favorite things about West Ham goals is that that the scorer seeks out other WHU players to hug and celebrate with rather than run off by themselves to self-aggrandize.

At 42 minutes, the announcers state, "Surely West Ham can't give this one away today."

Didn't they do their research?

What a half! Nice run by Spector and the General was big in the air.

Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!Tapedelaysonofabitch!

Bethel College Football Trick Play

Never a doubt! (Where's that sheepish emoticon?)

If Allen Iverson had played soccer, he would have been Zavon Hines' hero. Now, Zavon is mine. What a game!

The EPL better stock up on lower leg casts as he will be breaking a lot of ankles over the next few years.

______ can _______ !

Cole can be a scorer in the EPL.
Diamante can be a huge factor for WHU this season.
Zola can change his ways a bit.
Spector can throw the ball in without endless soul-searching first.
Hines can run faster than you (an most everyone else as well).
Parker can keep his hair perfect the entire match, or at least the bit he is on.

What an ending! My throat still hurts today from the yelling. If WHU can somehow translate the last twenty minutes of that match to an entire contest, there will be no worries about the table position.

Friday Ramble

Lucas Neill finally found a new home. It appears he "trusted his feelings." Aww, isn't that sweet? I don't have the heart to go through the article and replace all the "S's" with "$" but I know many of us see those there anyway. He did play well in the second half last season, overcoming his lack of foot speed with some chippiness and light thuggery to help WHU keep the scores down when we had such a hard time scoring ourselves.

After Wigan, I didn't have the heart to write. I don't know if it is even more disappointing to watch such a performance when you have to wait for the delayed broadcast or when you can see it live. I think it is worse waiting. First off, I have to avoid the internet and watching any other soccer until the game is shown to be sure I don't inadvertently catch the score. Then, there is just the extra anticipation that goes with waiting eight hours after you know the match had already kicked off. When they end up losing, you get the double blow of the loss and seeming waste of effort to see the game rather than just logging in and viewing the Gamecast on ESPN while it was live.

Last year, the one point against WBA was intolerable. Is Wigan this year's WBA?

My career as a soccer coach is going fantastic. I like yelling at six year-olds for an hour. Who knew?

Liverpool is a 12:30 p.m. start for us. Youth soccer is over at 12:00. We'll hit the Rosewood Dairy Bar for lunch, then the Cock N' Bull for the match. There will be three Hammers and probably 20-30 guys wearing red jerseys and talking of past European Championship glory. Should be fun.

Early Breaks

It is cruel to start the season only to have a break so soon after. At least England looked good and the US won. I can't wait until Saturday action starts in a few days.

The transfer window closed without too much damage in my mind. Losing Collins is not good, but it appears Diamanti may be impressive. I don't think I ever recovered after the January window last season with all the speculation about the club basically folding shop and losing everyone. This time around, I knew better than to believe what I read in the papers.

Speaking of Saturday, I am coaching a U5 and a U7 team. This should be fun.