UG Sports - 3: British Invasion

Alright ladies and gents and boys and girls, settle down for yet another special edition of UG Sports. Today we will be discussing stuff that happened (and will happen) across the pond, so in honor of that savor this youtube video:




We will focus almost exclusively on football today. Yes that football.

More than a month after the FIFA World Cup, parched soccer football fans finally got to quench their thirst last week as the English Premier League began its new season.

On the day of the opener, Arsenal manager (and strangely, very appropriately named) Arsene Wenger made the headlines by calling the league's new squad rules "ridiculous" and "paralysing" (note my use of the British spelling). This season, the league has decided to limit each squad to 25  members, with at least 8 domestic (i.e. British) players to promote growth of football in Britain. Of course, Wenger is French and that is reason enough to discount his irritation. As is widely known, the French have been jealous of the British since the dawn of civilization.

The opener was fairly dull. Tottenham Hotspur(yes the Brits have a thing for funky team names) drew drowsily (see what I did there?) with Manchester City 0-0. City goalie Joe Hart played an important role in this game though, saving a bunch of potential goals.

Stewart Downing scored the first goal of this season in Aston Villa (no relation to the car that James Bond drives) crushed West Ham (that's the one west of East Ham) 3-0.

Some ho-hum games followed. Chelsea pounded West Bromwich Albion 6-0. In other words, the usual.

On to the widely anticipated Sunday clash: Arsenal v. Liverpool. Liverpool recently hired a new manager, Roy Hodgson. The man has a football resume the length of your right arm. Arsenal is still led by Arsene Wenger. Seriously, the guy's been around the club long enough to count as a piece of furniture.
It was a pretty exciting game, to be honest. Would have been infinitely more exciting for Liverpool fans if goalie Pepe Reina hadn't made a mess of things by letting an own goal in. Liverpool had things pretty much under control despite Joe Cole (transfer from Chelsea, no relation to the controversial Chelsea player Ashley Cole) being sent off in the first half. They almost cruised to FT on David Ngog's goal until the disastrous own goal happened. Oh well.



And someone finally had enough cojones to call David Beckham too old to play for England again. Cheers.