Soccer Leftovers?

There probably is no such thing, as soccer in all it’s forms is too sweet a nectar to be considered leftovers but I’m battling a flu bug in Florissant. It’s slowed me down even more than the chemical in turkey so we’ll all have to deal. Especially when there have been 1300 visitors to this website in the past three days. I hope most were family and friends reliving the recent playoffs but lets get some more current content up.

Mom has AT&T Uverse, not something I’d recommend due to technical issues we’ve had, but this weekend free channels mean I’m getting plenty of international soccer. If you have Fox Soccer Channel, then Sunday 10:00 am – Arsenal at Chelsea: The London Derby is a must-win for the Gunners, who are in danger of losing touch with the Top Four with a loss. The Blues need a win to stay ahead of Liverpool and keep its lead on ManU. The Lampard-Fabregas battle is always a can’t-miss encounter per Ives.

Speaking of the EPL, American goalkeeper Brad Friedel of Aston Villa made a record 167th consecutive Premier League appearance Saturday against Fulham. The 37-year-old, who started the streak in August 2004 with Blackburn, overtook the previous record set by Portsmouth’s David James in April. He earned a third straight shutout in the 0-0 draw. This is an EPL record, not an American in EPL record. Pretty cool.

And here’s something from the LA Times

“If you took a map of America where Obama is strongest and laid it over a map of where soccer has its biggest appeal, you’d see an incredible overlap… The blue states on both coasts are very soccer-friendly as well as huge areas of support for Obama, where as the center of the country is full of people who are the enemies of soccer and Obama — white, 50-and-over guys who listen to talk radio and only care about football or basketball.” – Joe Roth

Joe’s interesting for a few reasons – he’s a movie producer and the new owner of the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer. Check out the whole article.