At Least We've Got a Good Head of Hair: Week 2 in the Barclay's Premier League

Week two is done and dusted, and farlieonfootie's regularly insightful and often irrelevant insights on the Premier League are here for your reading pleasure:

o You've got to hand it to the English, who use their own language better than any other speakers of the mother tongue -- no surprise there, in that they invented it.  But just try to imagine an American broadcaster describing the scene in Cardiff, as the home team walked onto a Premier League pitch for the first time in over 50 years, by saying "[The atmosphere] borders on the febrile." A US announcer talking in such a manner would soon find himself on the unemployment line for "talking over the heads" of his listeners. Instead, we say well done Jon Champion.

 

On our Shores....the Head of Hair Rules

 

o Meanwhile, over on our shores.... Does NBC's Kyle Martino have one fine head of hair, or what?! The part alone is worth whatever amount NBC are paying him to offer his opinions on the Barclay's Premier League. But overwhelming evidence to the contrary,  don't confuse Martino with a certain hair obsessed primadonna:  We're willing to bet he doesn't have an assistant whose job is to fluff and heat up his sweaters with a hairdryer so they're just the right temperature....

o And then back to England again: Steve Bruce is looking more like Jabba the Hut every week now.

o If you looked up the term "scrappy" in the dictionary, you couldn't possibly come up with a better definiton than this: a game of football in which Marouanne Chamakh, Charlie Adam and Ryan Shawcross score all the goals.

o This Spurs side is going to be good this season -- Daniel Levy has bought well -- but at times on Sunday they looked a bit like 11 people who hadn't met each other more than an hour prior to kickoff.

Thoughts from a Cup-filled Weekend: FA Cup Round Three

photo by Matthew Wilkinson	via PhotoRee

Thoughts from a Cup-filled weekend:

o If you dropped in from outerspace, or were watching, say, from the United States, it may have been difficult to tell which was the top flight team when Newcastle fell to Gus Poyet's Brighton Hove and Albion on Saturday. Then again, if the Magpies keep up their current form, the two squads may be playing each other again next year -- twice -- in the Championship.

o Somehow the all-Premier League ties just don't carry the same type of "magic" as the David vs. Goliath contests.  No doubt West Ham vs. United was an excellent game -- how could you not admire Joe Cole's inspiring return to where his career began, and Robin Van Persie's artful catch and release in stoppage time -- but for our money we'd much rather be watching Liverpool vs Mansfield Town any day of the week, especially when the "bigger" team has to travel to the smaller side's ground.

o And speaking of Liverpool vs Mansfield Town, did you take a look at that pitch?  That's what this FA Cup thing is all about.  That pitch was pure goat patch, and Liverpool had to go in there and make the best of it.  Tiny Mansfield almost pulled off the upset of the round, but a helping hand from Liverpool's Uruguayan superstar was enough to see off the Stags and put the Reds through to the next round.

o Of all the parties involved in the latest Suarez brouhaha, however, it was ESPN which managed to embarass themselves the most -- quite a feat, this, given that both Luis Suarez and the Liverpool FC press office were involved.  After ESPN commentator Jon Champion  branded Suarez' latest piece of handiwork "illegal," "nefarious," and the "work of a cheat," the political correctness police pressured ESPN into disciplining their announcer for offering his forthright opinion on the matter.  Compounding their error, ESPN then went on to extol their right to free speech, as follows: 

"We take our responsibility to deliver the highest standards of coverage to our viewers," said an ESPN spokesman. "ESPN's editorial policy is for commentators to be unbiased and honest, to call things as they see them (italics added). Inevitably this can involve treading a fine line on occasion, especially in the heat of the moment."

o To which we say, we guess you can call 'em as you see 'em, as long as you're not being critical of Liverpool FC.