Here comes Round 3!!
First, let’s recap last weeks picks:
Week 2 Record: 5-6
Season Record: 9-13
All Time Record: 16-29
This weekend’s predictions:
Reading v Palace: 1-1
Arsenal v Newcastle: 2-1 Arsenal
Bolton v West Brom: 1-1
Everton v Portsmouth: 1-0 Everton
Hull v Wigan: 1-0 Hull
Man U v Fulham: 3-1 Man U
Middlesborough v Stoke: 2-0 Middlesborough
West Ham v Blackburn: 1-1
Aston Villa v Liverpool: 3-2 Villa
Chelsea v Tottenham: 2-0 Chelsea
Sunderland v Man City: 1-0 Sunderland
I just tried to refresh my google reader and was met with this:
This is bad. I usually count on google reader to fulfill every single one of my requests at a moment’s notice.
**UPDATE 1 MIN AFTER POSTING: My google reader is feeling better. You can all breathe easy again**
Sports, in my opinion, is the most powerful tool we have for bringing people together. It is a forum where everyone competes on a level playing field. On the playing field, race, religion, nationality… it can all be left on the sidelines. Wars have been halted to allow Pele to play football games. At the 2004 Olympics athletes from North Korea and South Korea proudly marched in the opening ceremonies together.
On the Crystal Palace squad there are players from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Argentina, Portugal, Australia, Austria, Barbados, France, and Finland. And that’s just a relatively small English team. Arsenal, a HUGE English club with a large worldwide following has players from Spain, France, Ivory Coast, Czech Republic, Croatia, the Netherlands, Mexico, England, Brazil, Wales, Cameroon, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Togo, Denmark, and Portugal.
What other forum brings together so many different people from so many different cultures, different countries and different experiences and makes them work towards a common goal and learn to work together and respect each other?
I absolutely love the Olympics. For two weeks athletes from across the globe compete against each other to determine who is the BEST IN THE WORLD. It is the pinnacle of athletics. There is nothing more meaningful that representing your country at the Olympics, and there is no greater honor than winning a gold medal. You can’t help but be moved to tears standing on a podium hearing your national anthem. It doesn’t get any better than that. For two weeks athletes, representing nations, treated each other with respect and showed that we all can get along… there really isn’t that much difference between all of us, despite what governments around the world try to make us believe.
The Olympics are the pinnacle of athletics because the vast majority of the events focus on just that – athletics. Nearly every single sport (especially the mainstream ones… football… American football… baseball… basketball…) is, at it’s most primal level, about speed and strength. We look at 40 yard dash times for prospects and how high they can jump. If you are strong and fast, you have a pretty good shot to be good at sports. The majority of events at the Olympics are about speed and strength. The 100 meter dash – speed. Shot put – strength. Marathon – speed. Weightlifting – strength. The list could go on. The Olympics are about finding the best PURE athletes, and that is why we are so captivated by them.
For two weeks nations watch and cheer their athletes on. We are moved to tears both by successes and by failures, but we are moved to tears over and over again. We feel pride when our athletes win, and we share in their sorrow when they lose. We jump and yell and scream at the TV during the races. We hold our breath when a gymnast flies through the air.
Nothing else can captivate the entire world like the Olympics. It is the greatest sporting event in the world, but it is so much more than that. You don’t even have to enjoy sports to enjoy the Olympics. We all owe a great thanks to all of the athletes, organizers, and to China for making it a truly moving and memorable Olympiad.
I will remember this Olympiad for many things, but first and foremost will be “insane” Usain “lighting” Bolt. The man is unbelievable. I’ve never seen anyone like him… and we might never see anyone like him again. I’ve never seen someone dominate on the track at the Olympics like he did. All I could do is watch speechless and in awe as he ran. Woah.
Here we go again!
Here’s where I stand as of today:
Palace v Burnley: 2-0 Palace
Blackburn v Hull: 2-0 Blackburn
Fulham v Arsenal: 2-1 Arsenal
Liverpool v Middlesborough: 1-0 Liverpool
Newcastle v Bolton: 2-1 Newcastle
Stoke v Aston Villa: 3-1 Aston Villa
Tottenham v Sunderland: 2-1 Sunderland
West Brom v Everton: 2-0 Everton
Man City v West Ham: 1-1
Wigan v Chelsea: 3-0 Chelsea
Portsmouth v Man U: 2-2
Yesterday I said goodbye to someone who’s become a pretty darn good friend of mine over the past year. My three? loyal readers will know who I’m talking about. She’s awesome – just a really a fantastic person, and I’m blessed (we all are) to be able to call her a friend. I’ll leave it at that for a couple of reasons. I don’t want to embarrass her anymore here, and I told her yesterday that I wouldn’t cry. I almost almost made it through the day. You know how when you have those emotions building up it only takes one thing to make them come flowing out? It doesn’t even have to be related to what caused the feelings to build up. Well last night I was watching an intense episode of West Wing and it proved too much… The episode brought them out, but I knew what the tears were really from. Anyway, the emotions swelled up again this morning and by leaving it at that I’m hoping to contain them.
But ya’ll know me, and ya’ll know that I’m not exactly one to mope around… and don’t worry… I’m not! This is definitely a good goodbye. That doesn’t mean I’m happy to see this friend go. The tears aren’t so much sad ones because she’s leaving, but happy ones because of what a good friend she’s become. I hope that makes some sense.
It’s been a longgg time since I’ve had a good goodbye.
So as I was watching the episode of West Wing last night that brought on some tears the lights in our house flickered – literally a couple of minutes after the tears. That might not mean much to many of you, but when my brother and I were growing up my mom always told us that when a street light or house lights went out or flickered that it was our grandparents (all of whom have passed away) saying hi. You can choose to believe it or not, but it made me smile and it’s nice to know they’re there for me.
And at least there’s finally something that will make going to Iowa worth the trip.
Welcome back to the Messman’s weekend football predictions. Every week I’ll give you my predictions for the scores of all Premier League games and all Crystal Palace games. My all time record at the end of the year last year was 7 correct picks and 16 incorrect picks (7-16). I’ll be looking to improve upon that. Here goes(!):
With the Premier League scheduled to resume this weekend, it’s time for my weekend football predictions to return! But first… here’s how I think the Premier League standings will look at the end of the year:
The World of the Mess 