any cfl fans watching the green riders and ticats game??? fuck the cfl game is so awesome when done right. ticats down 23-0, just tied the game on a blocked punt then ran it in from the 7. im a green riders fan but im so happy for the ticats this year.

Fuck yes! Saints are not longer undefeated. Go you fucking mighty Dons.

I would've loved to have seen St. Kilda go undefeated all year. But now they might drop a few, now that they've dropped one after winning 19 in a row. Bad time of year to be losing games, if that indeed happens to St. Kilda.

Yes, but the important thing here is that Essendon won, beat the top team when no-one else could.

Dons 4 premiers 2009

I'll go out on a limb here and assume you're an Essendon supporter. While they'll make the 8, I do think St. Kilda have the ascendancy to win the premiership. Despite the loss, they're still way on top of the ladder, and are still very difficult to beat. If they don't win it, it's a year wasted.

I'm a St. George-Illawarra Dragons supporter in the NRL (seeing as I live in the Illawarra, it's expected). They're also on top of the table, and if they don't win it, it's a year down the drain. I'm quietly confident, but I'm keeping my head and emotions in check.

REALLY??? what gave it away?

But seriously, I don't think Essendon will win it, but i'm always hopeful for some ridiculous upset in which we do.

Upsets can always occur, so you never really know until the time comes.

fuck brandon league, his stupid tattoos and his floppy ears right the fuck to hell. hes blown 2 games in a row. why does cito keep this fucking goof around. hes NEVER been good. NEVER. arrrrrrgh!!

Tottenham 2 - 1 Liverpool. Another classy performance from the boys in white; lets disregard a few penalty appeals.

Brilliant game - on the edge of my seat. It was time someone brought the Saint's streak to an end. This pleases a Geelong fan like me



Though I hate to admit it, I thought we played terribly. Spurs seemed to play much better all around, and seemed to play with more passion and feeling than we did. Full credit to Spurs, and if Liverpool play too many more games like yesterday, it'll be a long season.

They seemed to have no will to win until towards the end, spending most of the match in their own half. It was all very reminiscent of their mid-season, last season. Which, as you well know, was the main reason they couldn't win it.

Nevertheless, TOTTENHAM KICKED YO' ASS!

Where are all the NFL fans? I know you're lurking somewhere.

I'm here. I've had enough of this baseball and soccer bullshit .

I would hardly say we were slaughtered. It wasn't really a case of how good Tottenham were. It was a case of how bad we were because we were WOEFUL in the first half. Seriously. I watched every Liverpool game last season and that was the worst 45 minutes I've seen from us all year long.

We kept giving the ball away. Bable was nowhere to be seen, completely anonymous. No cohesion. Torres didn't look interested. We didn't look at all fit. Injuries galore. We were awful. We picked up in the second half, which shows we should probably be better against Stoke on Wednesday, but it was very disappointing. I have no idea why Riera didn't travel and I cannot wait for Aquilani to be fit.

We should drop Gerrard back into midfield, where he makes more of a difference. Use Yossi Benayoun, who looked really good when he came on, as a second striker behind Torres and Gerrard can drop back into the center. Riera on the left, Kuyt on the right and Mascherano holding, we will improve.

I don't think we have any money left, but it would be nice if we could buy a decent second striker as Voronin isn't up to standard.

Yeah, a fucking sports thread! Die-hard Man United fan, though I think we'll struggle obtaining the premieship this year. At least if we're playing like we did against Birmingham.

Hockey fan as well. Carolina Hurricanes is my team.

NHL pre-season in a month.

Summer is almost over, and I couldn't be happier.

At the local betting agency, Manchester City are $1.85 to win this years Premiership and Manchester United are $5 or something. Bizarre, I never thought Man CIty would be expected to rise that rapidly.

Man United have been written off by most experts due to the lack of both Ronaldo and Tevez. I can understand the Ronaldo argument, but not the Tevez one. He did an okay job for us last year but he was nowhere near outstanding or anything like that. Except for maybe the match against Blackburn in the Carling Cup. Good Riddance I'll say. I don't think people should underestimate us though. We showed that we can live without the big C against Valencia during the last game in pre-season. Great effort, and very entertaining match. I do understand the sceptics though. He was obviously extremely important for us.

As far as Manchester City goes, I do understand that people have major expectations for them. I don't think they'll break into the top four though. Not from what they showed in their opening match against Blackburn anyway. That result lies. Blackburn deserved a point.

Are there any Scottish guys here by the way? Wanna talk about the Norway-match?

Man City only have a bright future ahead once the team starts melting together, but hopefully not at the expensve of the Reds

We'd better put in a far superior performance against Stoke City if we want a hope in hell of a good season, but we played terribly against them last year. Delap's throw-ins are insanity

He has the strength of a giant in his arms, and he's bloody accurate too.

I don't think City will break in at all, and as you say, their team will have to learn to play together. I don't think Hughes can handle all those egos at once either. So don't worry, Liverpool will probably be top four this year as well, even though they looked even tamer than I expected against Spurs.

Jeez, all ready? I didn't realize it started so soon. I don't follow hockey that closely, but it makes the NFL off season seem that much longer.

Your situation is rather like ours. You lost Ronaldo, we lost Alonso and everyone is writing us both off. One thing you can count on is you can never write off United. I HATE United for that. Always coming up with fortunate 1-0 victories in games that matter. You weren't spectacular against Birmingham. You probably edged it, but come on, its Birmingham. I hope you play as mediocre as that until the end of the season (whilst we pick up, hopefully).

I agree about Man City. Most people do. They don't have the right manager. Hughes is a good manager of "smaller" teams (like he was at Blackburn) because they don't have the egos, the money or the pressure. When I look at their side, I really don't see what the fuss is all about.

- Richard Dunne is a mediocre defender.
- Robinho is talented, but lazy. He goes missing in away matches.
- Tevez doesn't score often.
- I've always thought Barry was overrated. He'd been with Villa, a mediocre side, for many years, often going unnoticed ... FOR A REASON!
- Toure has been poor in recent times. It might be because he wanted to leave Arsenal though.
- I don't rate their defense at all.
- They're like a lesser Real Madrid. Good going forward, susceptible at the back.

I watched the Norway-Scotland match. I don't care for Scotland, so I was amused by the thrashing. They were AWFUL (though the sending off contributed).

Stoke tomorrow. Hope to god we perform better.

Who is your team of choice? Me being Canadian and all, I am a die hard Leafs fan.

insert Leafs suck joke here ________

Capitals

And on the side note, Brett the Diva has returned...again. I told everyone it would happen and that he temporarily stayed retired just to skip training camp.

Losing to Wolves, at home no less, was not the result I was looking for...

OOOOOH a Caps-fan. Damn, you and I will have our fights during the upcoming season Canes-fan here.

The Caps are a lot like the Redskins. They win when they're not supposed to and lose when they should win. They get cocky and start going easy because they won 1-2 or 3 games in a row and they end up letting the opponent get back in the game. Being a DC sports fan can be very frustrating at times...

Thoughts on the Haynesworth signing? Also I'm sure you guys would have enjoyed the time of the Wizards with MJ, that would have been a good 2 years of basketball.

Favre to Vikings, not particularly shocking but caused a stir when I logged onto the interwebs and read that story 1st up

I like the signing, but I'm weary...Synder has a history of giving huge contracts to big name free agents and then they end up under performing (Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Jeff George, Jason Taylor, etc.) either by virtue of the fact that our coaching staff is fucking stupid and don't know how to play to our players strengths, or they just aren't good fits for the system.

If Haynesworth can replicate what he was doing in Tennessee, I'll be happy. I don't expect him to be a sack machine, that's not what his role is. His role is to stuff the run and collapse the pocket while drawing double teams. I'd also like to see him play out a whole season without getting injured.

The AFL final 8 race is hotting up. Very important game between the Bulldogs and the Cats this week, that'll go a long way in deciding the order of the lower parts of the 8 (with St. Kilda already guaranteed top spot and Geelong guaranteed second).

I'd prefer to get the Bulldogs in the qualifying final, Collingwood I think will be an ace of spades in the finals series this year and believe me, I hate those pricks

The very last spot, with Essendon, Sydney, Hawthorn and Port Adelaide competing for it will be interesting - hopefully Essendon have it in the bag.

I'm hoping that as well, but we tend to fuck up, so we'll see how we go i guess.

Sydney are long odds to make it, I reckon. They have to win their last two and hope Essendon and Port lose both their games. They only have a mathematical chance now, and that means they won't make it. Even if they do, they'll be cannon fodder for the stronger teams.

4-0 against those filthy slimy Stoke bastards!!!! (I have a beef with that entire town )

I only watched till half time due to being too tired to watch the second half, but boy I learned Glen Johnson's name very, very quickly last night, what a goal at the 45th minute! GO YOU REDS!!

We played much better than at Spurs. I love it how, after one bad performance, ON THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON, we were already written off. The media is pathetic. I cannot wait to see the reports on how United are missing players after their 1-0 defeat to Burnley last night. I cannot stand the reports on our games. I can't wait until the "we're missing Alonso" reports die down.

Johnson is a good player. Probably attacking more so than anything. In a recent England game, he assisted 3/4 of the goals. He's great going forward. Kuyt makes the space, Johnson runs into it. Also, if you can, watch the 3rd goal. Cannot believe you missed that! Gerrard did a Cruyff turn - was lovely. Good team performance against a team that likes to "park the bus" and settle for a draw.

We now have 5 games we can win without too much of a problem - then the big game against Chelsea. I'd be ecstatic with 15 points from the next 5 games, but 13 will suffice.

Jeremy Jarmon was a great pick for the Skins, too. They won't regret getting him and I suspect he'll get some good minutes as a rookie this season. He was going to be first team all-SEC this season if it weren't for a stupid mistake. The Redskins are going to be great up front this season.

Jarmon is definitely looking like a value pick. Now all we need is some offensive performance. Watching Peyton Manning torch the Eagles secondary tonight makes me remember what a real offense looks like.

I've noticed that Man U always play terribly in the first few games, that is why I tipped Burnley to win - at $10, if I'd placed a bet I'd have received $200!!!!! Damn!! Heh.

If the game wasn't on at 5am here I'd have been able to stay up, but I was just too exhausted. Anyway, I'll try and get my hands on footage of the other goals. To be fair on the media, the first game WAS quite abysmal, but you just can't make an assumption after one game.

im very excited for football season this year, the patriots offence is going to be unstoppable with their new key additions, Fred Taylor and Joey Galloway. Does anyone else agree?

Two guys way past their prime that haven't really contributed much in a while? No, I don't agree about the new additions, but I do like their offense since Tom Brady is back and looking good, Randy Moss is still there, Wes Welker is there and they've got a deep stable of running backs although none of them are exactly stars.



If Jason Campbell can step it up and be a bit more consistent so they can not run so much, maybe utilize a wildcat package with umm... whatever his name is who played quarterback in college who is now the #2 reciever and not run Clinton Portis raw by the end of the season they'll look pretty good by playoff times. Being in that division is tough, though.