Sports Round-Up Of My Teamses

Rangers lost 5-3 to Atlanta Thursday night. Looked really sketchy until late when they scored a couple of garbage time goals. All 3 goals came via the powerplay in the 3rd period by Girardi, Shanahan & Gomez, respectively.

Rangers lost in a shootout to the Bruins on saturday after a 0-0 game. Does King Henrik get a shutout for a 1-0 shutout loss?? B/c the shootout goal is not an offical goal scored I believe that is a shutout... shutout with a "loss." Strange days indeed! Most peculiar, momma.

Next up for the Rangers, Sindey Crosby, the Prince of Wails, & his Pirates of Pittsburgh on Tuesday. With Bettman's princess on display bet on pro-Penguin refereeing! Waaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

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Arsenal shutout Bolton 2-0 on saturday. Goals came from Kolo Toure & substitute Tomas Rosicky. Didn't see the game only heard bits & pieces of the last 20 minutes or so but it sounded like Arsenal dominated after the hour mark.

Arsenal's next match is their home Champions' League match against Slavia Prague of the Czech Republic. With Arsenal being at home they'll no doubt be expected to bag all 3 pts.

Rangers Play Atlanta Tonight

All the ladies can find me at Mother's tonight watching college foozball & Rangers' hockey. On dat HD tv. Boy, dat's fancy stuff dat HD is. So clear. Like clarity.

Rangers have gotten off to a so-so start with their record being 2-3 after 5 games. Curiously it's been their offense that's struggled a bit early in the season with the defense & specifically King Henrik Lundqvist playing well only allowing more than 2 goals once, 3 in a loss to Ottawa in their last game.

Hopefully the 4 day break will give the Rangers plenty of jump in tongiht's game & time to have gained some more cohesiveness on offense. Let's Go Rangers!

NHL action! It's puckin' awesome!

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On football world soccer variety, the Unied States beat Switzerland yesterday 1-nil in a friendly. Michale Bradley, son of head coach Bob Bradley, scored the winner late in the game after some good work down the right side & keeping the initial clearance in by Maurice Edu.

Overall the United States played ok & the rain on the fast pitch didn't really allow either team to get into a groove for any extended portion of the game.

It was the 1st time the US has won on European soil since the fall of the Holy Roman Empire or something.

There was almost a brewhaha before halftime with Oguchi Onyewu & Marco Streller of Switzerland with a little push & a fall & a lot of hands out in the "what I do?" gestures.

Freddy Adu also came on as a late substitute for only his 2nd cap. Danny Szetela made his international debut as well.

-- U.S. Men’s National Team Game Report --
Match-up: USA vs. Switzerland
Date: October 17, 2007
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: St. Jakob Park – Basel, Switzerland
Kickoff: 2:30 p.m. ET
Attendance: 16,500
Weather: 64 degrees; rain

Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
USA 0 1 1
SUI 0 0 0

Scoring:
USA – Michael Bradley (Clint Dempsey) 86th minute

Lineups:
USA: 24-Marcus Hahnemann (18-Brad Guzan, 46); 6-Steve Cherundolo, 22-Oguchi Onyewu (2-Dan Califf, 46), 3-Carlos Bocanegra (Capt.), 7-Eddie Lewis (9-Danny Szetela, 84); 5-Benny Feilhaber, 13-Maurice Edu, 4-Michael Bradley,17-DaMarcus Beasley (11-Heath Pearce, 31); 20-Taylor Twellman (25-Freddy Adu, 77), 8-Clint Dempsey (29-Robbie Findley, 90)
Subs not used: 23-Jay DeMerit
Head Coach: Bob Bradley

SUI: 1-Pascal Zuberbühler; 2-Johan Djourou (25-Steve Von Bergen, 17), 3-Ludovic Magnin (Capt.), 5-Xavier Margairaz (22-Hakan Yakin, 46); 11-Marco Streller (31-Blaise Nkufo, 46), 13-Stephane Grichting, 14-David Degen, 16-Tranquillo Barnetta (17-Christoph Spycher, 75), 27-Gokhan Inler, 29-Stephan Lichtsteiner, 35-Fabio Celestini (33-Gelson Fernandes, 46)
Subs not used: 12-Diego Benaglio, 37-Germano Vailati
Head Coach: Jakob Kuhn

Stats Summary: USA SUI
Shots 9 8
Shots on goal 5 3
Saves 4 3
Corner Kicks 3 4
Fouls 25 16
Offside 3 0

Misconduct Summary:
SUI – Marco Streller (caution) 45th minute
USA – Oguchi Onyewu (caution) 45.
USA – Maurice Edu (caution) 53.

Officials:
Referee: Frank de Bleeckere (BEL)
1st Asst.: Peter Hermans (BEL)
2nd Asst.: Danny Huens (BEL)
Fourth Official: Nicole Petignat (SUI)

Sierra Mist Man of the Match: Carlos Bocanegra

I Curse Thee, Chris Neil!

Many STDs for you this year! Genital warts! And um... general loose stool for the entire season!



Eat it, Neil! Fear The Wrath which no doubt hath now wrought! The Shiznit is expected to be out at least 4 weeks with a grade 2 shoulder separation.

Haven't seen any of the 1st 2 games but the New York Rangers have started out 1-1 with a 5-2 win over Florida & a 2-0 shutout loss to Ottawa on saturday night.

Other Sports Quick Update

New York Rangers' new season starts on Thursday evening against the Florida Panthers. The Rangers have finalized their opening roster & I'm glad that both Marc Staal & Ryan Callahan made the 1st roster for the opening season!

No surprises in net as King Henrik & Valiquette make the team as netminders. Montoya probably would've made it except for the cap hit he'd entail for the Rangers if he made the roster.

Hopefully the Rangers can build on their late season success & go beyond their 2nd round exit to Buffalo last year.

It's almost GO time!

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Arsenal have already played 7 EPL matches & somewhat surprisingly have 6 wins & a draw to head the EPL heading into October.

Without Thierry Henry who was sold off to Barca in August too. A case of addition by subtraction perhaps? No doubting Thierry Henry was obviously one of the best strikers in the world during his time at Arsenal but the Gunners also had a propensity to rely too much on his goalscoring perhaps. So now with him not in the side maybe it's a case of the younger Gunners stepping up & assuming more of the leadership & goalscoring roles, especially Cesc Fabregas.

They've also made a great start in the Champions' League by beating other favorite in their group to advance, Sevilla, 3-0 & face Romanian side Steaua Bucharest tonight.

All goalz are belonging to Cesc Fabregas

New York Rangers Trade Matt Cullen

Well, the Cullen 2nd line center era ends after only one year in Rangerland with the New York Rangers trading Cullen back to his former team the Carolina Hurricanes today for defenseman Andrew Hutchinson, center prospect Joe Barnes & a 3rd round pick in next year's draft.

I guess this move either frees up cap space to sign Sean Avery who b/c of Cullens' departure, the signings of Chris Drury & Scott Gomez, may be moving to 3rd line center. Or perhaps youngster Brandon Dubinsky is setup for taking the 4rd line center spot. Or maybe another move brings somebody in. Who knows? Interesting days indeed in Rangerland.

Rangers Make Big Splash In FA Market

While some will be nervous at the Rangers splashing cash in Free Agency will be a harkening back to the overspending of the late 90s & early 00s, I couldn't be happier at them signing Chris Drury. He's not nearly as skilled as Jagr, but Drury is just one of those athletes that has it. It being that certain trait for somehow, some way being on winning teams or just making a team better not through overt statistical output but through those unquantifiable intangibles.

Drury is not going to score 50 or even 40 goals. He may only score 25 but he's the kind of cat that 20 of those 25 will be in key situations or to win a game.

The Rangers also signed former Devil, Scott Gomez. While I'm not a big fan of Gomez, that has more to do with him being a Devil & not necessarily anything with his game.

I do like these signings b/c both of these guys can play much more of a two-way game than Nylander could.

Next order of business for the Rangers is to re-sign His Shiznitness, Sean Avery, who is an RFA, along with The King, Henrik Lundqvist.

Sweet Pic

Found this sweet pic of a playoff game between the New York Rangers & Buffalo Sabres while cleaning out my inbox. I love the starburst of the light in the background. It's like the Light of God or something:

Starlight, Starbright