. . . . . . The Daily Soccer . . . . . .

Another dreary Saturday here on the East Coast allowed me to cozy up on the couch between errands and take in a wide variety of soccer:

Arsenal-Tottenham

The last North London derby at Highbury with the last Champions League spot on the line (With the new FSC commentator finally figuring out how to pronounce “Tottenham”, someone should explain to him that it’s not called “Highberry") . With the 2nd leg of their CL semi at Villareal looming on Tuesday, Arsene Wenger decides to rest Henry and Fabergas with the hope that he doesn’t have to use them at all. Unfortunately, that doesn’t end up being the case as he brings them both on at the hour mark.

A bit of controversy as two Arsenal players (Gilberto and Eboue, I believe) collide while trying to tackle Michael Carrick and while they try to recover, Spurs play on and get a goal from Robbie Keane from a cross by Edgar Davids. The Gunners are furious as Lehmann and Pires confront Davids while Wenger and Martin Jol square up with each other on the sideline. They thought that Spurs should have played the ball out until the teams were equal which I don’t agree with. If the injury was caused by a Spurs player, Arsenal would have every right to complain, but since it was due to the action of one of their players, I have no problem with what Tottenham did.

The Gunners equalized later on another superb effort by Henry. Even though I’m not an Arsenal fan, I can’t get enough of Henry. He’s pure class in everything he does (on and off the pitch) and I hope he resigns because I just enjoy watching him so much. Here’s hoping that he has a strong WC for France so he can get the proper recognition as the best player in the world after Ronaldinho.

Spurs deserved the draw and now control their own destiny. If they win their final two games, Arsenal cannot catch them even if they take max points from their remaining three fixtures. Considering that they play at Sunderland and at Man City before Highbury’s farewell vs. Wigan, there’s a good chance that they collect the full nine. What could be the fly in the ointment for Spurs is if Arsenal wins the CL. UEFA has said that they would allow Arsenal to defend the crown, but would not allow Spurs to be in CL (unlike last year with Liverpool and Everton) and they would have to settle for UEFA Cup. This is BS! The spots for the CL should always be determined by a team’s performance in the previous season and that should be honored always. When a team wins it all and wouldn’t qualify from the league performance (like Liverpool), they should be granted an exemption. It’s not fair to the team who earned their spot by playing well all year to keep them out because a team that they outperformed in their league happened to win the previous year’s competition. UEFA made the right decision last year and should stick with that precedent.

Chelsea- Liverpool

With the rain continuing to fall, I bucked up $16 to watch this FA Cup semi on PPV. I knew that it would be a good match when Chelsea kept Liverpool waiting in the tunnel before kick-off. While you could see that it bothered some of the Reds players by watching their facial expressions (that’s why I love the cameras in the tunnel), they did not let it get to them and came out sharp. Chelsea went with an extremely defensive line-up with Duff, Robben & Joe Cole all on the bench which hurt them. It also didn’t affect Liverpool as Kewell and Gerard got up the wings with ease. By time that Mourinho had decided to scrap this approach, he was already down 1-0 and ended up going down two goals before he fully deployed his attackers. Robben was especially dangerous, marauding down both sides and showing signs of the impact player that he was last year. Drogba, after a terrible first half miss, scored a courageous goal by winning a header while being punched in the head by Pepe Reina. However, Joe Cole missed an absolute sitter and the Reds deservedly moved on.

Oh, poor Mourinho, only one trophy this year (I’m assuming that they’ll get the point they need to clinch the EPL). It has to drive him crazy that his team absolutely dominates Liverpool in the EPL and aside from last year’s League Cup Final where Gerard scored an own goal, cannot beat Rafa’s boys in any other competition.

DC United-Red Bull

This game was a huge disappointment. Aside from the game being played in terrible conditions with the worst surface (aside from gravel) for soccer to be played on, the Bulls were absolutely inept. They looked lifeless and DC took it to them.

A stupid goal celebration by Alecko, what was he thinking? Red Bull just invested a shitload of money into MLS and he carries out that juvenile act? Just absolute terrible and showed a total lack of class. I don’t care if it was a team decision that the first goal scorer would do that. What’s next? If someone scores vs. the Galaxy, will they do that with a Bud? Or if you find the net vs. FC Dallas, can you take a bat to a stereo purchased at Radio Shack?

Anyhoo, this game really stunk and I checked out after that rocket by Epren. What a cracking strike!

Last thing about that game…how much longer do we have to endure Dave O’Brien? He doesn’t sound anything remotely like a soccer announcer and he’s so bad that he makes Christian Miles seem like Martin Tyler. He referred to the six yard box as the “six foot box”. Now, I understand that anyone can make a mistake, but the fact that he just didn’t call it “the box” makes him sound like an utter tool.

Another time, Chris Henderson had a scoring chance and scuffed his shot. Instead of saying that exact phrase or that “it was not a good effort”, he said that it wasn’t “a good kick”. Now, when’s the last time that you heard a real soccer announcer say that? He’s so awful that he shouldn’t even be allowed to announce MLS, much less the WC. The only saving grace for me is that I’ll be in Germany for the first two US games so I won’t have to listen to him until the Ghana match. Here’s hoping that ESPN comes to their senses, but I’m not going to hold my breath. (George)