Always love the first game of the season. Especially when it's an epic away day. When you win 3-0 and pass the opposition off the park (like we did against Notts County in August). Town are now 2nd in the table following two hard-fought 1-0 away wins in a week. We beat Bristol Rovers on Saturday, and battled to a 1-0 victory against Brentford tonight. 9 games to go, 27 points at stake, currently on 66. 5 points off league leaders Brighton. Bring it on!
Great win for Man United tonight, 2-0 against Marseille, hopefully we can get a win on the weekend and get our title hopes back on track. The FA Cup semi-final will be interesting, can we possibly repeat the Treble of '99?
Yeah, in the bag, we need to be careful not to let leads slip again like we did at the start of the season but maintain our current form.. Rooney's looking more lively.
You two fine gentlemen will perhaps be excited to hear that your sort-of fellow countryman, Owen Hargreaves, is now back in training with the first team... Don't think we'll win all three this season, Hawky.
Anyone who thinks sport can't be art, search Gareth Bale animation on YouTube. If the right video comes up (sort of an impressionist animation of his hat-trick in the San Siro), sit back and enjoy. Best sporting video I've seen this year.
Good, I've missed him. I don't blame him for picking England because the Canadian national program is embarrassing. Most of our best athletes go into hockey. And yeah, winning all three seems unlikely. As long they take one, and two would be delightful. As would putting out Chelsea next round. In hockey news, I think the Leafs playoff push ended last night. After falling 3-0 to the lowly Panthers I don't see them going 10-2 the rest of the way. Tired or not they should have started Reimer. Of course, that I can even have a discussion of a Leafs playoff push in the middle of March is reason for optimism. Long live James Reimer, the new king of Toronto No we Leafs fans do not have unrealistic expectations
So . . . Shogun or Jones for tomorrow? I am really leaning toward Jones, even with the short prep-time. But maybe that's due to all I've seen him do lately. Still, Shogun is bad-ass if he's in shape.
A healthy Shogun is the best 205'er in the world. He can close the distance better than anyone Jones has fought so far, and somehow his guard remains underrated. If he's in the same shape he was in for the two Machida fights, I think Shogun knocks him out. If not, he'll have a hard time getting off his back. I'm picking Shogun.
Yah, the wrestling of Jones is one of the things that I think will carry the day. Still, I'd really like to see a 205'er defend the belt for more than a couple of times. Speaking of a 205 title changing hands frequently, I hope Hendo is able to defend. He's one of my idols. But with the UFC buying out Strikeforce, this will all get pretty interesting when the their deal with Showtime finally ends. Personally, I hope they are open to mixing fighters in the promotions before that time.
Shogun. Unfortunately for Jones, he's taking a huge step up in competition with this fight. Bader, Vera, and Bonnar are no where near the level that Shogun is, much less as dangerous and heavy handed a striker as Shogun is. I honestly believe that if Shogun cracks Jones just once that Jones spirit is gonna break a little. The man has never been hit cleanly by someone with Shogun's power. I think if Shogun connects, Jones is gonna realize that Shogun isn't someone he can just walk through like he did Vera and Matyushenko. However, Jones does pose interesting problems for Shogun in his wrestling. A lot of people bring up Jones' reach as being a potential problem for Shogun, but I don't think so. Shogun has always been the type to take a punch if it means landing one. And Jones hasn't yet shown that he has standing KO power. He has a long reach, yes. But he doesn't have power and he rarely utilizes it properly by throwing jabs from a distance and so on. He likes to get in closer than he has to. So his wrestling is going to be the only problem I forsee for Shogun. Jones does have great wrestling. However, Shogun is a BJJ black belt and has been training for such a scenario for the past few months. So I wouldn't be too surprised if Shogun gets taken down and either threatens off his back or manages to get the fight back up standing. All in all, I gotta go for Shogun. Jones' is gonna be the future MMA star, no doubt. But it's not gonna start tomorrow night.
With the Strikeforce LHW division looking the way it is, I think Hendo is gonna reign for a long time. Personally, I'm hoping they're willing to have their fighters fight in both organizations, similar to what Strikeforce and DREAM had going on. I'd love to finally see Overeem get a fight in the UFC.
Just got myself really fired up for this afternoon's match. On paper, it's a difficult one to be up for. We're second, they're second bottom. There shouldn't be any particular rivalry between us. But today matters. It's about revenge. Why do I dislike Swindon? First, their first team is comprised of rejects from L**ds. The keeper, the left-back, the central midfield pairing and the striker all came from the one club I truly loathe. Then we get to the meat of the issue: Jonathan Douglas's 'challenge' on Gary Roberts in September. Put bluntly, it was a disgrace. Two-footed, off the ground, shin-height, stamping motion. Roberts saw it coming and avoided the feet, but fell awkwardly and broke his arm. After the challenge, Douglas (ex-L**ds captain, incidentally) celebrated. Not that I'd expect anything different from a player Dennis Wise made his captain. He wasn't even booked. Same incident, Gary Roberts was abused as he was carried off. Swindon fans actually abused a seriously injured player. As low goes in football, that's damn close to the lowest of the low. Then they went home, made an animation about it and posted it on our boards, along with a charming message that they hoped he'd be out for a long time. So it's personal today. Every time Douglas gets the ball he'll run the gauntlet of a furious Galpharm (he's caved under the pressure here in the past - got sent off playing for L**ds). Town had better be up for it. I expect us to go out there and smash Swindon. I want to see us go out there and humiliate them with passing triangles, have them chasing shadows. I want to see them demoralised. I want to look over at the away fans and see them sat in abject silence as we run them ragged. I want to see posts on their message board reading 'embarrassed'. And if Douglas can leave the field in utter disgrace having been shown up for what he is, that'd top it all off. Feels like a local derby.
First DC United home game for the MLS 2011 season. After last season's abomination (made the record for most losses), it was really great to see the team take a 3-0 lead and come away with a win. Final score was 3-1 against the Columbus Crew. Looks like we have a really great team this year all around and they have a lot of chemistry on the field. I really missed soccer!
And depressing. My only bright spot tonight was Jim Miller. Shogun's always been a favourite of mine, and even though I've never been a big fan CroCop's fights these days are sad.
Rashad might have a chance. I won't be the one to say that Rashad couldn't outwrestle Bones. But if Bones gets past Rashad, he's going to reign for a very long time.
Been paying close attention to that Miller for a few fights now. He impresses me more and more. Barboza-Njokuani was pretty sweet too. I think Edson's a future LW champion. Also Faber-Wineland was awesome.
I don't see anything Evans can do that Jones can't do far better. Or anyone else in that division, for that matter.
Miller looked awesome tonight. I really want to see him fight for the title. Faber also needs a shot at Dominic Cruz.
To beat Jones, I think it's going to take a wrestler who can get inside his reach and keep him on his back. Outside of Phil Davis with a few more years of training and experience, I don't see many serious threats. Because he's so big for the weight class, Forrest Griffin would be an interesting matchup, but Forrest has been prone to TKO's on the ground, even from guard, so he's probably out. Rashad is fast for the weight class and has very good wrestling, but I'm not sure he'll be able to deal with the reach. I'd be interesting in seeing what Bones/Machida looks like. I think Miller is the best light weight outside of Maynard and Edgar. Not sure he can beat either of them for the title though. He might be stuck in Jon Fitch limbo. Edit: After Shogun, I almost forgot about the Faber fight. I hope he gets a shot at Cruz and wins. For all he's done I want to see him win a UFC championship.
I'd just like to stop in and say to all those English on here, that we stopped you from beating every team in the six nations
