White Suburban Punk

Could this be the moment that Liverpool is finally turns their season around?  They beat Wolverhampton at Anfield last week, 2-0, on goals from Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun, despite looking rather lackadaisacal in the match.  Gerrard’s goal was an incredibly brave diving header in the box, after which he celebrated like he had just saved Liverpool’s season, and he may have done just that.  Benayoun’s goal to put the game away was a typical one for him, great ball control and patience, and then a clinical strike.  But of course, the Reds were expected to beat the Wolves, particularly at home, and especially after the Wolves had a player red carded.

Yesterday was a chance for revenge on the road against Aston Villa, who beat Liverpool at Anfield in August, 3-1, and started them on the road to ruin in 2009.  The game was played in a driving snowstorm, and was chippy and entertaining in the first half despite a 0-0 score.  Both former US goalie Brad Friedel for Villa and Pepe Reina for Liverpool made fanstastic first half saves.  But the second half was even better.  Both teams played at a high tempo, with Villa pouring it on early, and Liverpool late.  Just when it looked like Villa would earn the draw, El Nino, Fernando Torres, popped loose with a ricochet ball and scored like only he can, with a great finish at 93 minutes.  With that goal, Torres became the fastest ever Liverpool player to 50 goals with the club.  Huge win.  Liverpool are now in seventh place, just two points behind Aston Villa in sixth, and four points out of the coveted fourth place spot.  In fact, after the game, coach Rafa Benitez promised Liverpool fans they would finish in the top four.  The only bad news from this game was that defender Glen Johnson apparently tore his MCL late in the game, which could be a significant injury not just for Liverpool, but for the England National Team.  Next up for Liverpool is fourth place Tottenham at Anfield on January 10, although they play Reading in the FA Cup before that.

Photo from ESPN Soccer Net

Wisconsin put together an impressive, punishing, dominating performance in the Champs Sports Bowl to beat Miami, 20-14.  Supposed 2010 Heisman Trophy candidate Jacory Harris, despite his “star” haircut, actually looked scared most of the game, and was completely outplayed by Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien.  Both QBs were under pressure most of the night, but Tolzien was cool and calm, consistently stepping up, delivering the ball, and taking the hit, while the only thing consistent about Harris was panic.  Wisconsin really doesn’t do anything fancy in the passing game, but it looked like their receivers got open fairly easily, despite Miami’s alleged EXPLOSIVE SPEED, which was apparently negated by temperatures below 50 degrees.  After all, everyone knows it’s impossible to run when it’s in the 40s.  The classic look on TV was the Miami players huddled on the sidelines in front of heaters while the Badgers wore short sleeves.  And that was really the essence of the game — the Badgers were far tougher than the Hurricanes.

Miami had quite a few gadget plays, especially in the first half, which seems to indicate that Randy Shannon knew his team couldn’t win straight up.  ESPN made a big deal that John Clay averaged just 67 yards per game against ranked teams Ohio State and Iowa, but he finished with 22 rushes for 121 yards and two scores.  Miami proved that they don’t belong with the Big Ten’s ranked teams.  Unfortunately, Clay doesn’t always play like that.  He kind of seems to have Laurence Maroney syndrome in big games, far too tentative.  But he was fierce and punishing from the very first carry last night.  Just a sophomore, he insists he’s coming back next season.  If he learns the lesson from last night, there’s your 2010 Heisman candidate.

On offense, Wisconsin loses only tight end Garrett Graham to graduation.  He really didn’t have a great game.  I saw a couple of key blocks he missed, and he had the inexcusable fumble in the end zone when the Badgers were about to ice the game.  The other tight end, Lance Kendricks, was huge, catching seven passes for 128 yards, and he had several key blocks to spring Clay.  On defense, Wisconsin loses DE O’Brien Schofield, both starting defensive tackles, and safety Chris Maragos.  The defensive line recruiting has supposedly been strong the last couple of years, and the secondary is still pretty deep.  JJ Watt returns at the other DE.  Maybe Todd Blackledge can learn the names a little better next year.  He kept calling Kendricks Kendrick, and JJ Watt JJ Watts.

More numbers: Miami came in to the game 27th in the nation in scoring and 36th in total yards, averaging 412.5 yards per game.  They finished with 249 yards, and 79 of those were against the prevent defense on their 4th quarter TD drive.  Jacory Harris was 16-29 for 188 yards and was sacked five times.  Tolzien was 19-26 for 260.  Miami had 61 rushing yards.  Time of possession was 39:15 for Wisconsin, 20:45 for Miami.  Brad Nortman had three punts inside the 10 yard line for Wisconsin.

So Wisconsin returned to the scene of the crime (last year’s loss to Florida State on the same field, 42-13), and avenged it in a big way against a highly overrated (#15!) Miami team.  The weak ACC is now 1-3 in this year’s bowls, the Big Ten 1-0.

Photos from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Patriots win an ugly one in Buffalo, but a win is a win at this point.  Especially on the road.  Randy Moss’ comments after the game were hilarious.  I wonder if there will be any talk that Wes Welker quit on the team after his quiet day.  Laurence Maroney continues to look good, really fighting for yards.  I had to admit I was worried after the Bills’ first drive, but then they reverted back to what they are, and the Patriots defense played well against an awful team.  Jacksonville is up next, and supposedly New England still has an outside shot at the #2 seed if San Diego loses its final two games.  I still can’t figure out the Patriots offense, though.  The same personnel as 2007, but it sure doesn’t look like it.  Is it all Brady?

Liverpool lost to last place Portsmouth, 2-0, over the weekend.  They now sit in seventh place.  Javier Mascherano got sent off for a bad tackle, and he managed to strain his MCL on the play, as well.  So he’s suspended and injured.  I don’t know if it can really get any worse for this team.  Wolverhampton is next in the Premiership on Saturday.  They drew a Romanian team in the Europa League, which will start in February.

The Champions League draw also took place, with Inter Milan getting Chelsea, The Chosen One’s current team and former team.  And AC Milan drew Manyoo, David Beckham’s current team and former team.  Should be interesting.

The Landon Donovan loan to Everton went through.

So Mike Lowell is back with the Sox.  Both player and team must be thrilled.  If he’s going to be ok by Spring Training, why didn’t the Rangers just go through with the trade?  They’d only be paying him $3 million.

The Cubs traded Milton Bradley to the Mariners for Carlos Silva.  So the M’s continue to improve, while all the Angels have done is sign Hideki Matsui.  That also means that Jason Bay will not be going to Seattle.  I’ve got to think that he’s not real psyched to play for the Mets, with the big ballpark and circus atmosphere.  I hope I’m wrong, but I still think the yankees are going to swoop in.  Speaking of, Brian Cashman claims that the yankees will “almost certainly add a starter by New Year’s,” according to the New York Post.  But no one seems to have any idea who that would be.

Coco Crisp is going to the A’s.

Bill James projects your Opening Day first baseman, Casey Kotchman, to hit .272 in 372 at bats (122 games), with 9 HR and 52 RBI in 2010.  His best year was 2007 with the Angels, when he played in 137 games, hit .296 with an OBP of .372 and slugged .467.  He finished that year with 11 HR and 68 RBI.  The next year he was traded (with a prospect) to the Braves for Mark Texeira and hit his career high 14 HR.  He was considered a top prospect by Baseball America for a number of years; in 2002 he was ranked 22nd, 2003 13th, 2004 15th, and 2005 6th.  He’ll be 27 years old in February.

Glen Davis will supposedly return to the Celtics in early January.

Everyone’s favorite whipping boy, the Big 10, has seven teams in bowl games.  Only two are favored to win, Minnesota by 2.5 over Iowa State, and Penn State by 2.5 over LSU.  The other five are underdogs.  Wisconsin is 3 point dogs to Miami, Ohio State 3.5 to Oregon, Iowa 4 to Georgia Tech, Northwestern 7 to Auburn, and Michigan State 8 to Texas Tech.  Does the fact that 5 of the teams are underdogs prove the conference sucks, or if they have another bad bowl year, can Big 10 fans say, “yeah, but 5 of the teams were underdogs?”

In the wake of the Mike Cameron signing, rumors persist that the Red Sox would consider sending Clay Buchholz and Jacoby Ellsbury to San Diego in exchange for Adrian Gonzalez.  I can understand Padre GM Jed Hoyer asking for Ellsbury, but I seriously doubt Theo would bite.  Ellsbury is the only legitimate speed on the team and should continue to progress into a consistent lead off hitter.  The only move Ellsbury should make is to left field.

According to FanGraphs.com, 36 year old Mike Cameron was the third best defensive center fielder in baseball last season, based on Zone Rating, or UZR, at 10.0.  This measures the number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs, outfield arm runs, double play runs, and error runs combined.  Jacoby Ellsbury was last in baseball, at -18.6. 

Offensively, Cameron may not be as much as a drop off from Jason Bay as the media projects.  2009 statistics:

Admittedly, Cameron’s stats are from the National League, but it’s not as big a discrepancy as one would think.  And Bay’s 2009 zone rating was -13.0.  It looks like he’s going to disappear into the abyss that is the New York Mets.

Meanwhile, what the hell is happening to the Disney Angels?  They’ve lost their ace, John Lackey, their sparkplug, Chone Figgins, and apparently will lose their aging superstar, Vlad Guerrero.  They did sign Hideki Matsui, so I guess all is well.  Their division rivals, the Mariners, have taken Figgins from them and added Cliff Lee to King Felix.  And the Mariners led the AL in ERA last year. 

Liverpool beat Wigan yesterday at Anfield, 2-1.  Once again no clean sheet, after Wigan scored one minute into second half added time.  Liverpool goals came from David Ngog and Fernando Torres, who came off the bench.  Ngog is looking better and better every game.  The team played with much more spirit and verve, unlike the seemingly indifferent play in the Arsenal game.  It was a very entertaining game, pretty open, chippy, and lots of scoring chances.  Torres now has 35 goals in 37 league games at Anfield.  Next up is at Portsmouth on Saturday.  Liverpool still sit in sixth place, 13 points behind Chelsea.  By the way, Fox Soccer has “upgraded” their website, and it’s a total disaster.  It was obviously done by people who have never surfed a sports website in their lives.

The US will play Honduras in January in a World Cup tune up.  Fine, but they would be much better off playing teams they haven’t played before, non-CONCACAF teams.

Wisconsin basketball beat Cal Poly 90-42 last night.  Not quite like in football in 2008, when Cal Poly took UW to overtime and only lost because they missed two extra points.

More Randy Moss analysis: From Merril Hoge, via Michael Vega at Boston.com: 

John Lackey and Mike Cameron to the Sox.  Sweet.  Lackey as a #3 starter?  That’s pretty freaking good.  It’s great that Theo kept these moves so quiet, too.  Just last week I wrote that I wished Lackey was more on the Sox’ radar, and it turns out he was.  I guess Theo isn’t writing off 2010 after all.  Lackey will fit in great with Beckett, Youk, Pedroia, and Victor Martinez.  I really like this plan of attack — there’s no way we’ll ever be able to outslug the yankees, but we could outpitch them.  And improving the defense is key to that.  Jason Bay never seemed like a particularly bad outfielder to me, but the defensive metrics apparently say otherwise.  And Mike Cameron is unquestionably an excellent defensive outfielder.  He can play any of the outfield positions, too, allowing Tito great flexiblity to sit Ellsbury or Drew against tough lefties.

I would also be fine with Adrian Beltre at third base.  Again, excellent defensively, but don’t expect too much with the bat.  If the offense is as bad as the Boston media says it will be, they can always try to add something during the season.  I’m afraid to mention it, but Big Papi claimed he was going to come into camp next year in the best shape of his life.  Just sayin’.

I guess an Adrian Gonzalez deal could still be in play, maybe even more so since they’ve added a quality starter without giving anything up.  It seems that would create a very left handed heavy batting order, though, without a real right handed power hitter.  Still, that would be a nice problem to have.

Ah, Randy Moss.  Sixth in the NFL in receiving.  Opponents double team him so much that it allows Wes Welker to have an absolutely crazy day.  In fact, Welker is #2 in receiving yards and Moss #6 in the league.  And Moss is #5 in the NFL in receiving touchdowns.  Not bad for a quitter.  Sure, his production Sunday definitely didn’t pass the smell test.  So he had a bad game, but the team won.  It appears the coach is behind him, the QB is behind him, and the rest of the team is behind him.  He’s still a captain.  As the Young Fresh Fellows say, everything’s gonna turn out great.

The Patriots should retire Kevin Faulk’s #33 when he retires.

The Celtics have won 11 in a row and have the best record in the NBA.  When is Big Baby coming back?  I thought it was supposed to be December.  Anyway, the only win over an elite team was opening night against Cleveland, but they’re definitely beating the teams they should beat, and looking good doing it. 

Big 10 to add a twelfth team?  I think it would be a good thing at this point.  It could even help in recruiting, and of course an elite conference shouldn’t be sitting home watching everyone else play.  But divisions will be awkward, especially for football.  Do you go east/west, or north/south?  I would think that Michigan and Ohio State have to be together, but then do you include Penn State with those two?  And who exactly is the twelfth team?  Notre Dame, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Missouri?  Don’t even freaking joke about Rutgers.

Liverpool lost to Arsenal 2-1, this weekend, and the misery continues.  They didn’t even look passionate, which is extremely worrying.  So far this year, they’ve really risen to the occasion against the big teams, but not so in this game.  The Europa League draw is Friday.  Juventus and Marseille joined Liverpool in dropping out of the Champions League.

Flight of the Conchords is over after two seasons.  Great show, but probably a good decision.  How far could these guys really go before things got tired?  It was just too creative to go on for too long.  Hopefully they’ll come up with some one-off type stuff, and maybe some HBO specials.

On another TV note, Friday Night Lights has been incredible this season.  Best show on television, bar none.

The news from Patriots camp is pretty insane, with the two losses in a row, the inability to win in someone else’s stadium, the four players being sent home, Adalius Thomas essentially blasting BB, and now Brady supposedly has a rib injury.  Things really seem to be falling apart, but BB has four games to rally them.  It’s been a confusing year.  They still have so much talent on offense, but stunningly can’t execute, especially in crunch time.  I think Bill O’Brien has to get a lot of blame for the play calling.  It seems that whenever they start running the ball effectively, they immediately go away from it.  Please come back, Charlie Weis.  The defense has probably played about as well as anyone could have expected, with the youth and all the new players.  Adalius Thomas and Derrick Burgess appear to be bums, and the lack of a pass rush is killing them.  Any secondary would look bad put in that situation.  It’s incredible that they’ve already lost as many games this year as last year, especially considering how Matt Cassel has played this year.  Four games to get their act together, get back to basics, and PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.

The Sox are reportedly close to consummating the deal trading Mike Lowell to the Rangers.  Great guy, 2007 World Series MVP, but the team just has to have better defense on third base.  Of course, they now have to replace his bat, too.  I would think they’re either going to trade for Adrian Gonzalez or sign Adrian Beltre.  If they trade for Gonzalez, Roy Halladay is obviously out.  My guess is that Jason Bay will re-sign here, but if not, I don’t think they’ll get Matt Holliday.  LF would probably end up being a platoon between Jeremy Hermida and somebody like Xavier Nady. 

Is everyone excited about Marco Scutaro?  No.  Boof Bonser?  No, but I’ve actually always liked him.  He was a first round pick in 2000, and is now coming off shoulder surgery.  Good risk, but probably not lots of upside.  After the yankees traded for Curtis Granderson, if they get Bay or Matt Holliday or, god forbid, Doc Halladay, just forget 2010 and 2011.  Although Doc is probably out for them now after trading away one of their top prospects in the Granderson deal.  They could sign John Lackey, though, which would be almost as bad.  I’ve always liked him; it’s too bad the Sox don’t seem to be looking at him any closer.  Theo did have a comment about 2010 being a “bridge” to the future, and it’s getting to the point where no one will be able to compete with yankees next year anyway, so why bother.

The only good news this offseason has been the report that Peter Gammons is leaving the four letter network to join MLB Network and NESN.  Welcome home, Commish.

Badger football doesn’t get a New Year’s Day bowl game after the Outback Bowl bizarrely picked Northwestern.  Sure, they beat the Badgers, but we had a better overall record.  Anyway, I much prefer the matchup against Miami.  Better team than Auburn, and Miami is a team I truly hate.  Incidentally, ESPN’s 30 For 30 show is doing “The U” this Saturday night.  I’ve watched all the episodes so far of this thing, and it’s really good.

Badger hoops got themselves ranked after beating Duke, and then lost in OT at UW-Green Bay.  Harsh, but it looks like UWGB is actually a pretty good team, so hopefully that loss won’t look so bad later in the season.  Marquette is up this Saturday at 6:00 Eastern on ESPN2, in Madison.  Gotta win that one.

Badger hockey is on a nice roll, and they look like they could be for real this season.  They’re #11 in the country now, and they play at #3 North Dakota this weekend.  Friday night’s game will be televised on the NHL network, and I think they usually use the Badger announcers for those games.  The trend this year is for the Badgers to massively outshoot their opponents, at least with shots that reach the goalie.  Five of Wisconsin’s six defensemen have been drafted in the first two rounds of the NHL draft.

Liverpool finished up their Champions League schedule with yet another hard luck loss, this time to Fiorentina at Anfield, giving up the game winning goal basically at the death.  They play a huge game against Arsenal Sunday at Anfield.  I think it will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel.  It looks like Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard will both start for the first time since October.

Everton is supposedly in talks to get Landon Donovan on loan from the MLS.  Hopefully it happens, but I’m skeptical.  The league owns all the contracts in the MLS, and they have a history of asking for exorbitant sums for players on loan.  It would be great for Landycakes, though, and I would be really curious to see how he performs in the Premiership.

That’s all I got.

The World Cup Draw went down today in Capetown, with Charlize Theron hosting.  Because she’s from South Africa.

Here are the groups, with each team’s FIFA world ranking.

Group A:                                                                 

South Africa 86

Mexico 15

Uruguay 19

France 7

Group B:

Argentina 8

Nigeria 22

South Korea 52                                                          

Greece 12

Group C:

England 9

USA 14

Algeria 28

Slovenia 33

Group D:

Germany 6

Australia 21                                                                   

Serbia 20

Ghana 37

Group E:

Netherlands 3

Denmark 26

Japan 43

Cameroon 11

Group F:

Italy 4

Paraguay 30

New Zealand 77

Slovakia 34

Group G:

Brazil 2

North Korea 84                                          

Ivory Coast 16

Portugal 5

Group H:

Spain 1

Switzerland 18

Honduras 38

Chile 17

Host South Africa will kick things off on June 11 v. Mexico. 

England is reportedly thrilled with their draw, and the US v. England game will be great to watch, the first game for each team, on June 12. 

Group G is clearly the Group of Death, with Brazil, Portugal, and Ivory Coast, three teams in the top 16 in the world. 

Italy looks to have the easiest road through of all the seeded teams. 

The top 2 in each group advance, so if the US can get second place, they would play first place in Group D, probably Germany, in round 2. 

But that’s getting a bit too far ahead of things.  188 days until the first match.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Unranked Wisconsin upset #5 Duke, 73-69 last night in Madison, giving Duke their first loss of the season and first loss in the ten years of the Big 10/ACC Challenge.

Duke played their typical game.  They bitched.  They moaned.  They flopped.  They delivered cheap shots.  They are the Thierry Henry of college basketball.  But this time, THEY LOST.

Wisconsin played with unbelievable passion and intensity for the entire 40 minutes.  Every player made big shots, fought for rebounds, and played stellar defense.  I was worried about an emotional letdown after the Badgers started the game with incredible intensity, but that’s the great thing about college basketball.  These guys can actually keep it up for an entire game.

Uncle Brent and Bobby Knight called the game on the four letter network, with Holly Rowe interviewing Badger coach Bo Ryan both at halftime and at the conclusion of the game.  Coach K?  Didn’t hear from him.  Frankly, I don’t blame her for preferring to interview the interesting, charismatic, humorous guy rather than the automotron.  Of course, any game called by Uncle Brent is a BIG GAME, and he didn’t disappoint.  And Knight is always interesting, even though he confused Trevon Hughes and Jordan Taylor several times.

Hughes led the Badgers with 26 points, including 19 in the second half.  It seemed like every basket he made was huge.  He also had zero turnovers.  Jon Leuer had 17 points and 7 rebounds, while redshirt freshman Ryan Evans was the energy guy and defensive stalwart and finished with 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Kyle Singler led Duke with 28 points, including a couple of ridiculous heaves in the first half, but he scored only 11 in the second half.  Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer came in averaging 18.5 and 16.8 points per game, but finished with 13 and 10.

Wisconsin finished with 17 assists and 5 turnovers, while Duke had 11 of each.  Wisconsin is now 2-0 this season vs. the ACC, having defeated Maryland in Hawaii last week.

The Big 10 finally won the Challenge, so maybe now they can get a little respect, and maybe even a ranking for the Badgers.  All the preseason prognosticators had Wisconsin failing to make the tournament in March, but Bo Ryan is the man.  Best damn coach in the country.

This Is Why Duke Sucks video