13,000 tickets sold for Saturday thus far. Come on, good people of Huddersfield! Get the Galpharm sold out! Let's have a special atmosphere come Saturday lunchtime, something that will intimidate the opposition and inspire those in blue and white stripes.
Play-off semi-final first leg tomorrow. Can't actually wait. Get the feeling that come Sunday morning I won't have any voice left from singing! I am nervous, mind. We've never won at home in the play-offs, and considering their home record it's essential we win by 3.
Game 7 of Philadelphia/Boston is going on right now. Incredible game so far. Boston won the first 3 games of the series. They also opened a 3-0 lead tonight. Going into the 3rd, the game is tied. Should Philly win, it would be only the third time in NHL history a team has come back from 3-0 to win a series. There were also 3-0 comebacks in both the major junior OHL, and minor league ECHL this season. But it happening in the NHL is the real story, could be a chance to see something that happens only once a generation- if it happens at all. Also, if the Flyers win the 7 seed will have home ice in the next round. I'm pretty sure it's happened before, but never in my memory. edit: Philadelphia wins! 4-3 Game of the year, and the best series I've seen since 2002 Leafs vs. Islanders.
As much as I hate the Celtics (or any teams out of Boston or near there really), I hope they demolish the Magic since they beat the Bobcats.
Well, if you hate Boston teams tonight's your night. Oh, and I was wrong in my previous post. This will in fact be the first time in NHL history that the 7th seed meets the 8th in the Conference Final. Edit: Because the collapse of the Bruins isn't hilarious enough already, the minor league team that blew a 3-0 series lead is Boston's ECHL affiliate.
I've just about calmed down and stopped panicking from this lunchtime's match against Millwall. The words I'm searching for are 'debacle' and 'incompetent', although I'm not talking about the football. I'm talking about the policing of the Millwall fans. How the WYP can call themselves a law-enforcement force is beyond me. No segregation before the game, not dealing with problems during, and then allowing a contingent of Millwall fans to surge across a segregation area inside the ground at the final whistle. It's a miracle that no one was hurt by those fans, who were eventually stopped by stewards (first time they've done something useful). Outside the ground at the end, Millwall created trouble and hundreds of their fans needed shepherding back to the coaches. This is the FIFTH time this season Millwall have been involved in disturbances. Match itself was a 0-0 affair. Town shaded the chances, Millwall possession. Following one incident, however, I propose a change in the laws of the game: referees should send players off for diving. One of their lads tried it on, and just got a stern word in his ear. Also: can linesmen please learn what is and isn't offside. Novak had a perfectly good goal chalked off because that clueless cretin on the touchline doesn't know that a player can't be offside if the ball's played to him by an opposition player. Doesn't help that retard in the middle also hasn't a clue about the laws of the game. Now to go to the Den and try to tame the animals that inhabit it. I get this horrible feeling that if we win they'll kick off and half our team will be ruled out of any trip to Wembley because their fans will invade the pitch and kick our players into hospital.
Brewers: 15-21. I am NOT happy with this. And what makes it worse is when the Packer players do batting practice with the Brewers. Rodgers and Tauscher did a while ago and got 3 homers between them; Bulaga did it a few days ago and got 14 homers. Our football players would do better on our baseball team. As my civics teacher says, the Brewers have major league pitchers with minor league skills.
What Lee Clark's teamtalk for tonight should be: "Right lads, we've worked hard this season. For nine months we've battled and fought and come out as one of the top six, and we've deserved it. Now that nine months is going to come to a head in this one game tonight. We know what Millwall are like. We know they'll be thinking exactly the same way as us. We know they'll believe they're the ones who deserved to go up because they finished third and only missed out on the last day, but we know that they need to beat us to get within 90 minutes of that promotion. "We know we're up against it tonight. They'll have 15,000 fans out there baying for blood and they'll be roaring their team on, but we've dealt with twice that number this season. Remember Elland Road, when we played Leeds off the park on their own patch. The Den may have a reputation, but we won't be cowed by that tonight, because we'll stand as a team and we'll hold firm. We'll silence the Millwall masses and give our own fans something to sing about. "Tonight we have to be fearless. Tonight all our work comes to fruition. Stand as men together against Millwall. Fight for each other in the battle it will be. Don't shirk a challenge. Want it more than them. Every challenge should leave a Millwall man knowing he's in a battle. We have to believe tonight. Strong minds and positive attitude and we'll be fine. "And when you step out onto that pitch, I want you to look over to the fans at that end. They've been down here for so long that they've forgotten what it is to be in a higher league, but they still come in fantastic numbers and give us the support. Fight for yourselves. Fight for each other. But above all, win it for those thousands who have travelled tonight. Give them a trip to Wembley." Town til I die.
I just had to rectify the distinct lack of Aussie sports in here. Go Bulldogs! (fyi -your new favourite footy team) That is all.
1. Smithies 2. Peltier 16. Williams 5. P. Clarke (c) 35. Trotman 7. Roberts 19. Pilkington 8. Kay 25. Drinkwater 17. Rhodes 21. Novak Subs: Eastwood, Collins, N. Clarke, Robinson, Simpson, Goodwin, Eccleston. You can expect regular updates. People who actually live near me can expect regular updates in the form of varying chants. Come on, Town. 9 years of hell - let's get within 90 minutes of ending it tonight.
Yep, that hurt. That really hurt. Town still have the ability to put me in tears. And I've just seen two incidents from the game. First, on 13 minutes, Neil Harris, their talismanic striker, punches Neal Trotman in the head. Should have been sent off. Second, and most infuriatingly, their right-back went in on an appalling 'challenge' on Gary Roberts' standing leg, from behind, with both feet off the ground with studs raised. The first is a red card, the second's a criminal offence. It was deliberate thuggery and he shouldn't just be missing the Wembley final, he should be serving time in one of Her Majesty's Prisons. It was awful. AND THE REF DIDN'T EVEN GIVE A FOUL!!!
Amen to that I literally just had one of the best soccer weekends ever!! And it's put me in a fantastic mood. It was a very much needed pick-me-up after all the stress of AP's, lack of sleep, high school issues, and soccer crap that's been going on. After a horrible 4-0 by the Galaxy (which I'm actually kind of glad I missed-I'm pretty sure it saved me, and you guys, from a boatload of ranting and anger) Sounders went to play the Red Bulls on Saturday, and what a game it was. Start to finish every player played one hell of a game. Everyone played fantastically-even the ref wasn't tooooo horrible Throughout the game the Sounders had the better of the chances, with most of the game being played in the Red Bulls half and most of the shots being on their goal. While the game was fantastic though, no one scored. Montero-usually a starting player-was benched this game for not putting in enough effort when he didn't have the ball. He got subbed in around the 80' minute and you could see how it effected him. Only a couple minutes in and he practically scored, it was very obvious that he had jumped right back to maximum effort. The best moment of the match came at the 85' minute when Evan's (who was EVERYWHERE during the play and had an AMAZING game) sent a beautiful pass to Montero that-in a great display of his technical skill-he bounced from his chest, to his thigh, to his left foot and then shoot right between the goalie and the post while being pressured and jostled from behind by a defender. Needless to say he scored one of the best goals I have ever seen right there. And it just got better and better with the Sounder's holding on to that lead and winning 1-0 after 5 minutes of stoppage time. It was one of those fantastic games that even if it had been a tie, us fans would have been thrilled given how they played and who they played (eastern conference, potentiall MLS leaders) but that win was amaing. It gave them an essential 3 points moving them from last to 6th in the western conference-or in other words, right back in the mix
Brewers 15-24 so far this season. I'm not even gonna put a anymore. Their record suffices enough to explain my anger.
Oh, Tom Clarke... It's another serious injury. Anterior cruciate ligament has gone in his other knee. Likely looking at all of next season out, and with him being out of contract at the end of next season it looks like the end of his Huddersfield Town career. He's suffered rotten luck with injuries. When he was 18 he ruptured his other ACL, and took the best part of 2 years to recover. Back then he was the prodigy from the Academy. He was an England under-19 international, tipped for a massive future in the game, Premier League, possibly full England honours. Then he suffered the injury and only re-established himself in the team at the end of last season. This season he looked to have cemented a place in the first XI at last, and then he suffered a medial ligament injury down at Bristol Rovers that put him out until December. He returned, and made 25 appearances in all, playing at both right-back and central midfield. Then came a 50/50 v Millwall on Saturday and he left the field on a stretcher. I hope it isn't the last we see of what could have been the best player Town have produced in a decade, but I fear it is. Tom Clarke. HTFC 2005-present. 65(15) appearances, 2 goals.
We're spending how much on a new central midfielder? This Arfield bloke had better be worth £400,000. I expect Steven Gerrard in blue and white stripes or I hope we've kept the receipt... Yes, I'm demanding from players we spend big money on. Add to that he's a Scotland international I expect him to basically be the Messiah, with a third extra free.
Well in good news Evgeni Nabokov will only get the chance to single handedly lose one more game before he's gone forever.
Lost to the Twins last night..... but I'm not that upset about it. It was a nail-biter, down to the wire game. Hart played AMAZINGLY last night. Dove against the wall to make catches, throwing all over the place, he was amazing last night. We lost 7-8, but we played like we MEANT it, and that means a lot after that lazy playing and losing streak.
Nabokov status: worse than useless How is there no call when with two minutes left Toews wraps his arm around a Shark forechecker's throat? 3 weak calls on the Sharks in the third, and this doesn't get called? Ridiculous. As unlikely as it may be, I'm cheering for the Flyers in the finals.
Sounders lost 1-0 in a game that for all intents and purposes really should've been a sounders win (they had 18 shots on goal to San Jose's 3 for the entire game...it was really only luck that ended up determining the outcome)
