Checking in with Arsenal: With Thanks to Nick Hornby and ESPN

All hail ESPN for airing live soccer matches from England and Spain this year! Rather than having to settle for lesser North American leagues, the average American viewer can now watch the world's best every weekend. My team, Arsenal, faced off against its long-standing North London rival Tottenham today. The Gunners (good guys) handled the Spurs easily, 3-0.

Naturally, this begs the question of how I come to have a favo(u)rite English soccer (football) team (club/side). I shall apologize in advance for using American English in my posts about a sport that is far more important in other countries and for which they use a different word. I am what I am.

I grew up playing soccer and basketball, though I don't claim to have been particularly good at either. Due to those experiences they are, at least on a certain level, the sports I know best. I know how difficult it is to be good at them and have seen gifted players up close and personal - usually running over me. The US is, of course, the cradle of basketball so there's no lack of high-quality games to watch on TV or even live. While I lived in New York, I need only have walked a few blocks to the public courts to see some of the best pick-up players in the world. Soccer is another matter. While I can wallow in the World Cup every four years, top-flight club matches are harder to find.

When we first moved to Vermont, our cable package included Fox Sports World (now called Fox Soccer Channel). Live English Premiership games were on every Saturday morning. While I have only spent about four days total in London, the English have played an important role in my life. Some of my best friends are English. And I don't mean that in the apologetic sense in which one might say "some of my best friends are Yankees fans." More to the point, I don't often see some of the people I love most in the world because they live in England. Add to that the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and I suppose one could say I'm a genuine Anglophile.

An added bonus with soccer is the fact that my wife likes it, too. She has a bit of a fetish for bald French players so Fabien Barthez and Thierry Henry were favorites of hers at the time. We started watching without much of a rooting interest at all, though we agreed that Manchester United qualified as the evil empire. We also both read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch that year, a memoir in which the novelist recounts his personal history as an Arsenal fan. In sports and in life, I love a good story above almost all other things. The triumph of the king's nemesis makes for a terrific narrative. I couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon as Arsenal grabbed the title away from mighty Man U in 2004. I've been hooked ever since.

When we moved into a house, we switched to satellite with a package that didn't include Fox Soccer. While ESPN has carried Champions League matches, they are on in the middle of the week, usually just finishing up when I get home from work. No more Saturday morning games until ESPN came to the rescue this year. Now, all is right with the universe.

Arsenal's looking well so far this year. They've slid a bit in the past few years but seem eager to threaten the top of the table this time around. They're at the top of their group in the Champions League as well. The diagnosis to this point is strong in the front, questionable in the back. Today's result should be encouraging. Can't wait until the next game. Thanks again, ESPN!

All Part of My Fantasy: Fear the Turtle

Score for the week: Squid 72.38, Special Dinner 53.82
My MVP: Vernon Davis (TE, San Francisco) with 7 receptions for 93 yards and 3 touchdowns
Melodrama: Eight of my nine starters played in the 1 p.m. games and just one in the 4:15. SD had three in the Sunday night game. So, despite the fact that I built up a big lead in those early games, I still had to wait to see if he'd catch up. Stranger things have happened. Fortunately for me, not this week.

I had a lot of friends on the swim team in college and I knew Special Dinner through that crowd. He and a group of friends, including Roppongi Moose, had a fantastic food column in the campus newspaper. They reviewed dining hall meals as well as local restaurant fare. He also was lead singer in a punk band. A colorful guy!

Davis has been an aggravating player for me. Up to this point in the season, he has had his best games when I had him on the bench. But today's was a career-best performance for the former Maryland Terrapin. I also had big weeks from Philip Rivers (QB, San Diego), Ryan Grant (RB, Green Bay) and the Colts' defense. I am now 2-5 and gradually clawing my way up the standings.

So, the I-5 World Series didn't work out. We get the I-95 Series instead. My rooting interest is the kiss of death this year so my apologies to Phillies fans but I'm not sure I could ever pull for the Bronx Bombers. The problem with always pulling for the underdog is that they usually lose. If at the beginning of the season, you'd asked me for the last World Series matchup I'd want to see, it would have been this: defending champions vs. all-time championships leader. Boring!

That said, I'm sure the series on the field will be great.

Checking in with the Capitals: Canada Is the Answer

Caught a bit of the Caps/Thrashers game tonight. I have discovered the secret to Capitals glory: they inevitably score when I leave the room. I missed three goals in the first period tonight, though one was disallowed. Caps won 5-4 without any goals from their first line. I'd say that's a good sign going forward.

So, what will be DirecTV's next move once the free trial of Center Ice ends after Saturday? I sure hope they sort things out with Versus in time for the playoffs. In the meantime, perhaps they'll do a free trial of their sports package, too.

What they really need to do, and I can't imagine it wouldn't be loads cheaper, is to cut a deal to get the Canadian Broadcast Company. No one would miss Versus if they could have Hockey Night in Canada instead. And if they get the French channel, too, my daughter can grow up watching soccer in Spanish and hockey in French. Who wouldn't want that? Canada's got plenty of great shows. Is This Hour Has 22 Minutes still on the air?

All Part of My Fantasy: Don't Over-Think

Score for the week: The Kicker 83.78, Squid 44.40
My MVP: Derrick Mason (WR, Baltimore) with 7 receptions for 97 yards and a touchdown
Melodrama: Going with Hasselbeck over Rivers at quarterback. Huge mistake.

So, The Kicker got his sweet revenge and then some. The lesson for me this week is don't trust what you read. Everything I read going into the week said that Hasselbeck was a great play as he was going against the weak Cardinals. Rivers, on the other hand, was facing the as yet undefeated Broncos. Hasselbeck was coming off a huge game last Sunday but was absolutely abysmal this time: 10 completions, 110 yards passing, 2 yards rushing, 1 interception, 5 sacks and a lost fumble. Rivers hardly had the game of his life but was still good for 20 completions, 274 yards, 1 touchdown, 5 sacks and a lost fumble. 7.28 fantasy points as opposed to 0.09. I still wouldn't have survived the "Biggest Fantasy Blowout" of the week but it still would have been the better play.

I am a novice at this game and I'm sure I will gain a better understanding of the ins and outs with time but it's easy to see the dangers of over-thinking. This week in particular, conventional wisdom wasn't worth much.

Checking in with the Capitals: Fifth Graders Think They Know Everything

Caps beat the Nashville Predators tonight in a shootout win. Ovechkin was the Washington offense this evening, scoring both regulation goals plus the only shootout goal. Varlamov, standing in for the the injured Theodore, saved all three shootout shots by the Preds. That guy is tough as nails.

For those who don't already know, I'm an elementary school music teacher by day. I teach in a small town in Vermont - what I thought would have been serious hockey country before we moved here. It has been my experience, however, that baseball reigns supreme in this part of the world. Little League? Huge. Red Sox? Revered as gods. But there certainly is a hockey element. Plenty of my students play, though NHL allegiances are all over the map. There's a trio of hockey players in one of my fifth grade classes. One is a Montreal fan. Another likes Pittsburgh. The third ran off a laundry list of the teams he likes. I noted a glaring absence:

"I didn't hear the Caps in that list. I think we may have problems here."

"We don't like Ovechkin," they all agreed.

"What's not to like?"

"He's a show off!"

"Oh, and Crosby isn't?"

"He's not as bad."

The legendary Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell once wrote that he's never known more about sports than he did in the seventh grade. Maybe they know better than I do. Is Ovechkin the player whom fans of other teams love to hate?

All Part of My Fantasy: Victory at Last

Score for the week: Squid 44.43, The Kicker 39.86
My MVP: Matt Hasselbeck (QB, Seattle) with 18 completions for 241 yards, 4 touchdowns, 23 yards rushing and 1 sack in his first week back from injury
Melodrama: Watching the minutes tick away in tonight's game. For once, I actually got what I needed on Monday night. The Kicker had the Miami defense and Dustin Keller, one of the Jets' tight ends. I needed a poor game for both and that's exactly what happened. I just needed the clock to run out to win.

Through some mysterious quirk of Yahoo! Sports's scheduling system, I am forced to go up against The Kicker two weeks in a row. We're not even in the same division so I'm not sure how it happened. I would consider The Kicker to have been one of my closer friends in college. We met early. We lived in neighboring dorms freshman year. We were on intramural basketball teams together and would also sit through varsity games together. The Kicker is a world-class, though never vulgar, heckler. He was, in fact, the one who encouraged me to go after the PA announcer job. He and I kind of look alike (poor guy). Our own wives think so. I've even had to look at some photos twice to be sure which one of us it was.

I haven't seen The Kicker for quite a few years now. I think the last time was our wedding eight years ago. Between us, we've fathered four daughters since then. There is talk of getting together sometime this winter. It's definitely time.

It does feel good to finally win.

Checking in with the Capitals: Green Opens His Account

Caps lost again tonight, this time in a shootout, 3-2 to the Devils. So, at least they get a point out of the game.

Defenseman Mike Green scored his first goal of the season tonight. Green may be the key to the Caps' season. Today's also his 24th birthday. At a very young age, Green is already one of the best offensive defensemen in the league. He was an all-star last year but was a bust in the playoffs. A better performance from him could mean a deeper run this year. Maybe the Olympics can provide some inspiration. Green is also likely to be a key player for Team Canada.

Rockies are out of the playoffs so I need a new pony. Go, Angels! In fact, I'm pulling for an I-5 World Series now so go, Dodgers, too!