Entries from March 2006 ↓

A Steven Gerrard error gift wraps all three points for the Gunners.

Arsenal came out firing on all cylinders, dominating possession and taking more of the chances. The hard work paid off after 20 minutes when Cesc Fabregas sent a beautiful through ball to a streaking Thierry Henry who took two touches, then blasted the ball to the far side and in. 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Despite the dominance, Arsenal couldn’t find that second goal that would put Liverpool away. As a result, the visitors grew in confidence, and sure enough they earned an equalizer around the hour mark. Despite gaining possession from what seemed to be a blatant foul, Steven Gerrard blasted a shot from 30 yards out which Jens Lehmann parried, unfortunately it went straight up in the air, and Luis Garcia beat the Arsenal defense to the ball and headed it in for the equalizer. The tide seemed to be turning, but with about 10 minutes left, Xabi Alonso was sent off for a second bookable offense, and just like that Liverpool were down to ten men.

The pendulum swung back in Arsenal’s favor, but still no goal. That was until Gerrard’s error. The England midfielder sent a backpass to his keeper, not seeing that Thierry Henry was lurking near. Henry intercepted the pass, side-stepped the keeper, and sealed the victory for the Gunners.

The win, coupled with Sp*rs loss to Chelski yesterday sees the Gunners move to within 2 points of an automatic Champions League spot.

Next up is Charlton Atheltic at home. Kickoff is at 10AM ET, but the match won’t be shown until 3PM ET on Fox Soccer Channel.

Today was the St Patrick’s Day Parade here in Wilmington. AOM was there. Click the image above for parade goodness.

EDIT 3:30 PM the next day: Firstly, I’m going to explain some of the pictures. The guy in the Westbrook jersey, (image 5); well, we were just in awe of the mullet, and had to capture it in all its’ glory. Image 26 was a case of mistaken identity. Steve had asked me to take a picture of the girl in Image 27, but he hadn’t specified which butt when he first made the request, thus the superflous ass shot. Lastly, image 39 is the moment Bender told Josh that he Deb and Allison were heading to the beach. I think you can see that Josh was a bit surprised by that to say the least.

Alright, that explains the pictures, now for the day itself. Due to popular demand, I’m going to expound on the occasionally R rated details of yesterday’s events. Since this is generally a PG to PG13 rated website, I’ll ask you to highlight to read those parts:

The day had an early start, as Steve McD arrived at 10 AM for Guinness and eggs. However, once he arrived, we decided that we’d rather have pancakes. After a filling breakfast ,we made our way over to Josh’s to meet Josh & Burke. The four of us made our way to St. Patrick’s on King St. We each purchased a commemorative “bottomless” mug for $10, and waited the 30 minutes for the beer to be tapped. We were joined by several hundred others, as the room quickly rose in temperature. We were serenaded by a bagpipe brigade, which helped pass the half-hour. Finally, with beers in mugs, we made our way back outside. The parade was a blast, as more and more familiar faces arrived. Bender & Deb arrived, as did Jamie, Sarah and the baby.

The general concensous was that the Delaware State Police’s Drum & Pipe Corps put on the best performance of the day with their renditions of “Danny Boy” and “Amazing Grace.”

At the conclusion of the parade, the party scene shifted to Trolley Square. Deb’s friend Allison had come down from Philly and being the only one who had nothing to drink, drove us down there. The first stop was Catherine Rooney’s which was packed to the gills. The Logan House across the street was bursting at the seams too. It was awesome.

I had been watching my alcohol intake, as it was my plan to make it to Philly to catch Mitchell’s set at the Pontiac Grille. In fact, around 6:30, we headed back to Josh’s so I could get my camera. However, when I called Wooly to find out what time he was heading up to Philly, he explained that he couldn’t go, as his nephew had been taken to the emergency room. Well, since I wasn’t going to Philly anymore, Josh convinced me to come out for one more beer. We met Bender, Deb & Allison at the Logan House, where there was hardly any room to move! We were only there for ten minutes when Bender, Deb & Allison left for the beach, and it was back over to Rooney’s for Josh, Burke and I.

This is when things got interesting.

Earlier in the day, I had purchased some beads featuring the Irish flag. They were pretty cool, and I was thinking I’d wear them again on Friday, the actual St. Patrick’s Day. Well, we hadn’t been back at Catherine Rooney’s for more than twenty minutes when a young woman apparently thought my beads were pretty cool too. She walked up to me, lightly grabbed my groin, and asked, “Can I have your beads?” To say I was taken by surprise would be an understatement. I replied, “Well, I was kinda hoping to hold on to them until at least Friday.” At this, she moved in, and proceeded to shove her tounge down my throat. I couldn’t very well deny her the beads now, could I? I took them off and placed them around her neck. She kissed me again, rubbed my crotch a second time, and said “Thank you!” She then ran off out of the pub and across the street. I just stood there stunned.

I finally regained my senses and made my way back outside. Once outside, I found Josh & Burke, both of whom were talking to a girl we knew from some previous pub crawls. It quickly became apparent that this girl couldn’t stand on her own two feet! I helped her stand up straight, and propped her up against the wall. At this point she told me she loved me and leaned in to kiss me. Thinking it might be rude to deny such an advance, I kissed back. I guess she liked it, because she then told me she wanted me to walk her home after she finished her beer. So, there I stood keeping this girl from falling on her face when some woman from the News Journal or Spark or somewhere walked up and took our picture! Wonderful!

I continued to hold her up, when she turned to me and said, “Why are you being so good? I’m not so sure I want to take you home now.” I had to muffle a laugh. There was no way I was going to hook up with this girl, especially under these conditions. I was just going to do a good deed and make sure she got home safely.

She then got it in her head that she wanted to Josh to walk her home. Josh told her he would walk her, but that’s it, as he’s married. She wasn’t having it. Josh then recommended me again, saying, “Mike’s a good guy.”, to which she replied, “That’s the problem.” Thankfully, another friend came up and took over propping her up. Bullet dodged.

Around 9:30 PM, I decided that I’d had enough. I had planned ahead, packing my iPod in with my camera. Jamming to the Dropkick Murphys, I had a great walk home, fueled by a dinner of Doritos and Sunkist Orange Soda. Yum!

I was so tired, I fell asleep before 11.

A crazy day, but a fun one indeed.

In today’s quarterfinal and semifinal draw for the UEFA Champions League, Arsenal were drawn in the quarters against the grand old lady of Italian football, Juventus. Juventus of course is where Arsene sold ex-captain, midfield general Patrick Vieira during the summer. It’s a tough draw to say the least, but at this stage, they’re all tough.

The first leg is played at Highbury on March 28, with the return leg in Turin on April 5. Should the Gunners advance, they’ll face either Inter Milan, Ajax or Villareal.

Here’s the rest of the draw:

Lyon v. AC Milan
Inter/Ajax v. Villareal
Benfica v. Barca

The Rangers only made one move at the NHL trade deadline today, picking up defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh from the Anahiem Mighty Ducks in exchange for a third-round draft pick. It’s an interesting addition, as Ozolinsh has just returned to the ice from a 20 day stint in the league’s drug/alcohol rehiblitation program.

Ozolinsh does bring some scoring touch to an already fairly solid defensive core, so this may just work…

Nobody f***s with the Jens.

Mad Jens was unbelieveable tonight, making two huge saves, to propel Arsenal past Real Madrid via a 0-0 draw tonight at Highbury. Coupled with Arsenal’s win two weeks ago (or a fortnight for you Brits) in Madrid, the aggregate score was 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Chelski and Liverpool both lost yesterday and today respectively, which means that the Gunners are the only English team left in the competition.

The draw for the quarters and semis is on Friday, and here are the teams Arsenal might face in three weeks time:

AC Milan (Italy)
Barcelona (Spain)
Benfica (Portugal)
Juventus (Italy)
Lyon (France)
Villareal (Spain)
Inter Milan (Italy) or Ajax (Netherlands)

So, the Oscars were last night, and since I didn’t really have a rooting interest in any of the categories, the night quickly devolved into a “Who’s the hottest chick at the Oscars?” event.

I’ve narrowed it down to three:

Jennifer Garner

Keira Knightly

Jessica Alba

Oh yeah, some people won some awards too:

Best picture: Crash

Best director: Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain

Best actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote

Best actress: Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line

Best supporting actor: George Clooney - Syriana

Best supporting actress: Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener

Best animated feature film: Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Best foreign language film: Tsotsi (South Africa)

Best original screenplay: Crash

Best adapted screenplay: Brokeback Mountain

Best documentary feature: March of the Penguins

Best music (song): It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp - Hustle and Flow

Best music (score): Brokeback Mountain

For more, check out the following sources:

CNN , BBC, E! Online, Yahoo Movies

and of course,

Oscar.com