Entries from August 2006 ↓

Have a great one McD!

In today’s draw in Monaco, Arsenal were drawn into Group G along with Portugese side Porto, Russian club CSKA Moscow, and Hamburg of Das Bundesliga.

The draw in full:

Group A
Barcelona
Chelski
Werder Bremen
Levski Sofia

Group B
Inter Milan
Bayern Munich
Sporting Lisbon
Spartak Moscow

Group C
Liverpool
PSV Eindhoven
Bordeaux
Galatasaray

Group D
Valencia
Roma
Olympiakos
Shaktar Donestk

Group E
Real Madrid
O. Lyon
Steau Beucharest
Dynamo Kiev

Group F
ManUre
Celtic
Benfica
Kobenhavn

Group G
Arsenal
Porto
CSKA Mosco
Hamburg

Group H
AC Milan
Lille
AEK Athens
Anderlecht

Also during today’s ceremonies, Arsenal’s “Mad” Jens Lehmann won European Club Goalkeeper of the year. Congratulations to Jens!

They left it late, but Arsenal scored twice to add to the 3-0 lead they had built two weeks ago in Croatia to defeat Dinamo Zagreb 5-1 on aggregate in tonight’s Champions League 3rd Round Qualifier.

Freddie Ljungberg captained the side for the first time in his Arsenal career as Thierry Henry and Gilberto both started on the bench.

Arsenal found themselves trailing on the night after only 12 minutes, an Eduardo goal giving the travelling fans a flicker of hope.

However, it was Freddie’s night, as the Super Swede’s perfectly placed downward header sped past the diving Zagreb keeper to level the score after 77 minutes.

Theo Walcott made his second appearance in as many games, and proved just as influential tonight as he did on Saturday against Aston Villa. With his back to goal, Thierry Henry controlled the ball at the top of the penalty area, and found an open Walcott to his left. Walcott then sent a perfect low cross back across the face of goal, finding an on-rushing Mathieu Flamini who took one touch before smashing the ball into the net and giving Arsenal the win on the night.

So, the Gunners are in tomorrow’s draw for the first group stage of the Champions League. Based on Arsenal’s history in the competition over the past few years, they find themselves seeded, thus avoiding some of the stronger sides of Europe. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any strong non-seeded sides, especially as a quick glance finds names like Bayern Munich.

The draw can be followed live starting at Noon ET tomorrow on UEFA.com

PS - Three cheers for Boro!

Well, at least one member of U2 thinks it’ll happen. While in Sarajevo for the Sarajevo Film Festival, Bono spoke to Bosnian TV about a number of subjects. The one I found most interesting was this little nugget:

“I would like to think that we’re doing our best work now. We’re about to make a new album for next year, and it’s the most important thing. We like being in a room with each other. We like playing. Something happens when we play, we have some sort of chemistry. And Edge, right now, is on fire. He’s really rockin’. He’s playing guitar like I’ve never seen him playing guitar. So, I like to think that the best is yet to come.”

Good quotes, but I seem to remember similar comments long before both ATYCLB and HTDAAB came out, so I’m not holding my breath.

In a turn of events that can only be described as “truly stunning”, the New York Yankees today completed a five game sweep of the Boston Red Sox, in Boston. To quote MLB.com:

Before this weekend, the Yankees had swept the Red Sox in a five-game series at Fenway Park just twice in their history, doing so in 1927 and 1943.

They won the World Series in both of those years.

New York accomplished the rare five-game sweep again on Monday, but the Yanks will have to wait another couple of months before they can try adding another title to the franchise’s total of 26 World Series titles.

The Yankees closed out the improbable weekend with a 2-1 win over the Red Sox, marking the first five-game sweep for New York over Boston since Sept. 28-30, 1951, at Yankee Stadium. The previous two five-game sweeps in Boston came in June 1927 and September 1943.

What more can I say? I was thinking the Sox would use the home-field advantage to take the series 3 games to 2. For the Yanks to take all five games is just unbelievable. Who am I kidding? It’s fricken’ great!

The Yanks went to Boston with a slim 1.5 game lead in the AL East, and now they’re 6.5 up. The season’s far from over, but a lead like that, and the way it was created, makes this Yankee fan smile

Listened to this one on Sirius Radio yesterday, and from the sound of things, Arsenal dominated the match, yet had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.

The big news from the match was the debut of Theo Walcott. The 17 year old came on as a second-half substitute for Freddie Ljungberg. Freddie was a monster in the first half, but, coming off an injury, it was clear during the second half that he’s not at full match fitness. So, Theo was introduced to thunderous applause from the 60,000 + at Ashburton Grove.

What a debut it was. Within moments of coming on the pitch, Walcott had a run at the Villa defense which generated a scoring opportunity. This seemed to lift the team as a whole, and about six minutes from time, Alex Hleb found Walcott open on the left side of the penalty area. Walcott sent a beautifully weighted ball back across the face of goal, which was headed down by Robin van Persie, deflected, but only out as far as Gilberto, who smashed the ball into the top netting for the equaliser.

Next up for the Gunners is the second leg of the Champions League 3rd Round Qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb. Arsenal take a 3-0 lead into this home match, which means that apart from a total meltdown, passage to the Group stages is all but assured. Look for a very young side to take the pitch this Wednesday. Kickoff is at 3:05 PM ET. No television coverage of this one here in the US, but you can listen online at Arsenal.com.