Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Nil Nil
Saturday
June 10, 2006
My brain is fried right now, and there's not any good reason for it. I'm well-rested, thanks in part to a mid-morning nap. I'm completely sober, and yet I feel manic for some reason. Maybe it's something to do with the Imitrex I took earlier when I felt a migraine about to hit. It's bizarre.
Any restlessness I feel is not because of lack of entertainment. There were three entertaining World Cup games on TV today. And unlike four years ago, I don't have to stay up overnight, like I did for the USA/Mexico game from the 2002 World Cup. If you read that, look for the subtle dig at the Executive Meddler ("Lou, what's this story about?") -- I forgot that I had snuck that in there. Did you know that I still have nightmares about that woman and that year of hell in 2002 at WTSP? I'm serious.
|  | Thanks, Sweden: The rat tail haircut is back!
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The Sweden/Trinidad & Tobago game today was my favorite of the three. Games that end in a 0-0 tie make for easy lampooning by Americans, especially since major sports in this country have all but eliminated the tie (the NFL still has them, but they come into play only once every couple of seasons.) But in the World Cup, you have them in round-robin play, and they are very important. I won't bore you with the details as to why. There were numerous entertaining points in the game, including a heroic effort by the backup goaltender for T&T who was pressed into service right before gametime, the return of the rat tail to American network television thanks to Sweden's Christian Wilhelmsson, and the fact that T&T actually played better with 10 players than 11 (because once one of their guys received a red card.) It's like they knew they had to play a perfect game once they went to 10 players, so every move was done true to form, and they began playing as a cohesive unit.
The best was the reaction to the ending. The tie ending gave each team one round-robin point, but T&T celebrated like they had just won the whole thing, while Sweden looked crestfallen. It made me wish I was in Dortmund to give my special brand of condolence to some of those hot Swedish women who made the trip to Germany for the game.
Comcast has the 2004 Auburn/LSU game on right now on the Comcast Sports Channel, and who am I to turn away from that? Jason Campbell, Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown *and* Marcus McNeil all were on that Auburn offense... It's such a shame that they never got to play USC that season. Auburn went undefeated, won the SEC Championship Game, and found themselves on the outside looking in for the national title game. Ugh.
Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to watch one of the movies I rented from Blockbuster on Wednesday... or if I want to watch the rest of this game and wait for the Oilers/Hurricanes game tonight. Decisions, decisions, indecision...
Okay, who am I kidding? Donnie Brasco and Wall Street can wait. I forgot that LSU had Auburn on the ropes late in that game (9-3 with less than two minutes to go.) LSU's defense that year was pretty strong; it wasn't the 2003 co-national championship calibre, but it was still pretty sharp. In fact, LSU CB Travis Daniels nearly made an interception on the play before Auburn scored the go-ahead touchdown.
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