Entries from October 2003 ↓

Charlton Scorers:
Paolo DiCanio 27′ (pen)

Arsenal Scorers:
Theirry Henry 39′

Thierry Henry’s wonder-strike free kick from 22 yards out cancelled out Paolo Di Canio’s earlier penalty conversion, as Arsenal drew with Charlton 1-1 at the Valley on Sunday.

The point sends Arsenal back to the top of the Premiership table with 24 points, one more than Chelski, who beat Manchester City on Saturday, and two above ManUre, who lost to Fulham.

In fact, Arsenal remain the only unbeaten side in all of English football, a fact that makes their abysmal record against European competition that much more perplexing.

Arsenal now turn their attention to the Carling Cup, and 3rd round adversary, First Division side Rotherham Utd. Rotherham currently sit third from bottom in the First Division, so it should be interesting to see what kind of side Arsene Wenger sends out on Tuesday afternoon. The match kicks off at Highbury at 2:45 ET.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom in NY last night…From NHL.com:

RECAP: 10/25/2003
Detroit Red Wings 1
New York Rangers 3

NEW YORK (Ticker) — The New York Rangers are trying to win back their fans. Performances like this only can help their cause.

The Rangers ended a six-game losing streak to the powerful Detroit Red Wings with a 3-1 victory as Petr Nedved and Bobby Holik scored goals and Chris Simon added two assists.

After an unprecedented six straight non-playoff seasons during which it has not had a winning home record, New York extended its season-opening home unbeaten streak to four games (2-0-2) before a loud and enthusiastic sellout crowd of 18,200 at Madison Square Garden.

“We’ve been pretty good at home so far,” Nedved said. “We didn’t start the season the way wanted to, but slowly we’re getting where we want to be. The last couple of games, we’ve had the crowd on our side now, and it’s much nicer to play with that. For the last while it’s been miserable play to at home because we didn’t play well.”

“The crowd is going to be there as soon as we play well and it seems like we did tonight,” added Holik, one of several Rangers booed on opening night. “These are great loyal fans. Of course they’re going to boo us when we deserve it and they’re going to cheer us when we give them reason. This is a great crowd and when we play like this, they’ll recognize our effort and support us.”

Booed in pregame introductions before its home opener against Atlanta on October 16, New York gave its fans a reason to cheer with 6:18 remaining in the first period, when Nedved took advantage of a mistake by goaltender Dominik Hasek and defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.

The Rangers, who had not played since Monday, doubled their lead when Holik finished off a give-and-go with Simon 6:49 into the second.

Less than seven minutes later, former New York defenseman Mathieu Schneider scored Detroit’s 10th power-play goal of the season. But the Rangers continued playing a physical game and got several key stops from Mike Dunham, who made 23 saves.

Captain Mark Messier finished off New York’s first win vs. Detroit in seven tries with an empty-net tally.

After posting a 17-18-4-2 record at Madison Square Garden last season, the Rangers have begun a season unbeaten in four straight games for the first time since 1992-93. They posted their first home victory over Detroit since March 21, 1997, displayed a physical presence and avoided undisciplined penalties.

“What we’re seeing it how much harder we’re working and I think it goes a long for the fans,” Dunham said. “Fans enjoy winning hockey, but they also like to see their teams work hard and give an effort out there. That’s what we did tonight again. They were a few times that Detroit couldn’t get the puck out of their zone - that was just hard work on our part. It’s encouraging and it’s fun to watch.”

“I was happy with the game, but I don’t know how to compare it,” Rangers coach Glen Sather added. “They played great from the beginning until the end.”

The Rangers scored first for the second game in a row. Alexei Kovalev’s dump-in caromed off the end boards. Hasek and Lidstrom let the puck lay near them as Nedved streaked through the slot and snapped a shot under Hasek’s left leg New York made it 2-0 after Simon checked Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk deep in own zone to force a turnover. Simon carried through the zone and Holik took his return feed before lifting a wrist shot under Hasek’s pads.

Moments earlier, Hasek came out of the crease and lost his balance, but stopped Messier on a breakaway.

With 6:41 remaining in the second and 19 seconds after Jamie Lundmark was called for hooking, Schneider netted his third goal as a Red Wing. After Lidstrom barely avoided being offsides, Tomas Holmstrom dished to Schneider, whose long slap shot trickled through Dunham’s pads.

Coming off his 62nd career shutout and first since his return to the NHL, Hasek stopped 29 shots. He also became infuriated late in the third when Holik wasn’t called for a penalty after barreling into the Czech netminder and knocking him on his back.

Playing its third game in four nights, Detroit has lost three straight road games for the first time since January 25-February 8.

“It’s tough on you. When you look at the schedule, we have a lot games with travel as well,” Lidstrom admitted. “We came out strong for like 10 minutes, then we seemed to back off and they just took the game to us.”

“I don’t think we had the energy,” Detroit coach Dave Lewis added. “In the second period we picked up the energy a little bit, but we didn’t have a lot of energy collectively as a group.

Three games in four night finally caught up to us.”

Marlins win World Series in six, Mike owes Scott the new Belle & Sebastian album.

.

You could see the writing on the wall Thursday night. Despite an amazing top of the ninth comeback by the Yankees in Game 4, the Marlins still went on to win the game in extra innings. The moment I knew the Yankees were not going to win this World Series was when Jeff Weaver came out to pitch in the 12th inning of that game. Weaver, who was awful all regular-season, and had not featured until this point in the post season as a result, gave up the winning homerun to some clown who had gone 0-for the century or something like that. It was then that I realized, 2003 was the year of the Floridians.

Things started out so well in the beginning of the year, when the Buckeyes of “The” Ohio State University finally put the University of Miami Hurricanes where the whole country wanted them -in the loss column - with an amazing win in the Fiesta Bowl. However, the promise of early January soon gave way to a darker reality, one foreshadowed by the 2000 Presidential election and the popularity of Grand Theft Auto, Vice City. It took only a few weeks for the land of Disney and Jeb Bush to re-assert it’s unworthy influence on the nation, when the faux-Oakland Raiders - the Tampon Bay Buccaneers - beat the real Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl.

It continued in the spring when the Tampon Bay Lightning won the division title in the Southeast, arguably the NHL’s weakest division. The “Bolts” went on to advance to the Eastern Conference semi-finals, losing only to eventual Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils, but still having a better season than the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders.

In late summer, the Philadelphia Phillies surrendered a good-sized lead in the National League Wild Card race, and then fell flat on their faces in a set of home and home series against the Marlins. Clinching the Wild Card was all the chance the Marlins needed. They went on beat the San Francisco Giants in the first round by not pitching to Barry Bonds, then paid off Steve Bartman in order to beat the Chicago Cubs for the National League pennant.

I was absolutely exhausted after the Yankees vs. Red Sox series, so I can only imagine how the players must have felt. Mentally, emotionally, and physically drained after fighting tooth and nail with their greatest rivals, they now had the unenviable task of playing Goliath to the completely unlikeable Davids of Florida. Florida’s slingshot took the form of the sneering, cocky Josh Beckett, who’s in desperate need of having that smirk wiped from his face.

Last night undoubtedly saw the end of an era in the Bronx. It’s sad to say, but still highly likely, that we’ve probably seen the last of Mel Stottlemeyer, Don Zimmer, and Lee Mazilli on the Yankee coaching staff. And if that’s the case, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Joe Torre call it quits. It would be a tragic end to an amazing run, and I for one hope cooler heads prevail. With George Steinbrenner at the helm cool heads seem to be woefully absent in the Yankee front office, and this winter is shaping up to the be the worst in the Bronx since 1981.

There can be only one good outcome from all of this…

The last time the Yankees lost in the World Series, Arsenal went on to win the Double. Let’s hope that history repeats itself.

- COME ON YOU GUNNERS!

(out of five)

The only place the Rangers have a realistic shot at winning the Stanley cup this year.

.Let’s just put it this way, Pavel Bure leads the league in goals with 30, and I’ve only played through Novemeber 23rd.

If I have one problem with this game, it’s that when I started the season, I forgot to change the skill level from Amateur (easiest setting) to Rookie. So, now when I’ve scored 5 goals in the first period, the system automatically switches the skill level to Rookie. However, the change only lasts for the duration of the current game, and does not carry over to the overall season settings. I tried changing the season settings, but it seems that the only way to do so would be to re-start the entire season. Otherwise, this game is absolutely fantastic.

The game-play itself is phenomenal, much more realisitic than other NHL simulations I’ve played in previous seasons. Rebounds, deflections, hip-checks, battling for loose pucks along the boards have all been worked in to perfection. This being an ESPN game, we have a duplication of a complete television viewing experience; and who better to provide the play by play and color commentary than arguably the best tandem in the business, Gary Thorne and Bill Clement. The play by play engine works very well, staying right on top of the action, and Clements observations are very timely and accurate.

ESPN NHL 2K4 comes with online capabilities, in which you can compete with other players from around the country on the Sega network. I logged on twice looking for a game, but could not find anyone available. This could partially have something to do with the time of day (well after midnight eastern,) so I will reserve judgement on the online play for another day.

Screen shots “borrowed” from gamespot.com - thanks guys!

WOOHOO!!!!

.Finally, after years of waiting, my favorite movie of all time, “Raiders Of The Lost Ark,” is now on DVD, along with two other pretty good flicks (”Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” & “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”) in a beautiful four disc set, collectively labeled, “The Adventures of Indiana Jones.” I’ve only watched Raiders, but if the other two look anything like it, I can unequivically say, “WOW!” The digital transfer is beautiful, the score sails, and the sound was crisper than I have ever experienced.

These are three of the most popular movies of all time, so it was no surprise that there were only ten copies of the widescreen set left when I arrived at Best Buy on Tuesday evening around 8:30.

I’m looking forward to watching the other two movies, as well as the much anticipated “behind the scenes” material on the fourth disc. So far, so great!

(out of five)

.What a bloody great movie this is!

Uma Thurman stars as “The Bride,” in “Kill Bill: Volume One,” Quentin Tarantino’s fourth feature film.

In keeping with Tarantino tradition, the body count is high, the profanity flies, and the soundtrack kicks. “Kill Bill” is a tour de force, with the familiar Tarantino storytelling devices, such as chapters and a non-linear storyline. I found the amount of blood in this film surprising, even with having had full knowledge as to the nature of the film prior to heading to the theater. Where other movies would have pulled away after the slash of a sword, Tarantino delights in showing the audience the aftermath of each hack and slice. The result is a mixture of elicited emotions - from revulsion to slack-jawed amazement.

It’s obvious that Mr. Tarantino has a certain degree of reverence for Asian cinema, and an affinity for all things Samurai. The fight scenes are a marvel; both horrific and beautiful at the same time.

The cinematography was exciting and inventive, and the acting sufficiently overdone - which meant that it was just right for the type of movie “Kill Bill” is trying to be.

I suppose what it all boils down to is this: I want to see this movie again, as soon as possible.