Suitcase of Courage

F109 Looking ahead

We've got three races in the books in the brave new world of Formula 1 and so far none of them have been even a bit boring. The tables haven't just been turned, they've been kicked over, broken, and thrown in a wood chipper. Honda Brawn is out front with Jenson leading the championship and Red Bull, despite lacking a trick diffuser, are nipping at their heels. Williams continues to have a super quick car but things keep on going pear shaped during the races. It must be infinitely frustrating. Meanwhile McLaren, Ferrari and BMW have been lost at sea, with Ferrari looking the most hopeless so far and sitting at the bottom of the points table.

However, only those with very short memories will believe that we won't see a resurgence at some point this year by one of the traditional powerhouses. They've all got such incredible resources at their disposal that you know they're working 24/7 to close the gap. Brawn and Red Bull are well funded but staying ahead will be a real challenge. (although Ferrari, having yet to score, may write this season off and go for next year, ala Honda08)

The enticing situation that this presents is one where we have absolutely no idea which driver or team will come out on top come November. Sure, Button, Barrichello, Brawn, Branson and the Bulls are racking up wins and points right now, but if we see the likes of Renault and McLaren move to the top at some point we could end up with 4 or 5 drivers from 3 or 4 teams battling for the championship. Last year we asked how the past few seasons could get tighter, now we're wondering just how competitive F1 can possibly get. Things seem like they're getting tighter and tighter at the pinnacle of motorsports.

Bos vs. Impey

I'd imagine most have seen this by now but if you haven't its worth a watch. Theo Bos appears to grab and throw Daryl Impey, wearing the leader's jersey, into the barriers during the final three k of the Presidential Tour of Turkey (I've never heard of it either, but now everyone has because of this...) causing a spectacular crash. Bos has so far avoided sanctioning and Impey remains in the hospital in Turkey.

Now for the hills

After last week's spectacular trio of cobbled races in France and Belgium, its time for a different type of rider. Last year they were won by some of the best.
Damiano Cunago wins Amstel Gold

Damiano Cunego Amstel Gold Race 2008
Uploaded by maple16

Kim Kirchen takes Fleche Wallonne

Arrivée de la flèche wallonne 2008 "mur de huy"
Uploaded by lomgchamp

Alejandro Valverde wins L-B-L

Arrivée de liège- bastogne-liège 2008
Uploaded by lomgchamp

Right? I meant left....

Ok to post since both walked away, but wow, what a crash. Rally is danger!

5 Things: Summing up Round 1 of the Quarters

5 Things Champions League Special:

 

Summing up Round 1 of the Quarters

 

1.        FC Porto and Manchester United – Advantage Porto. Porto took the game to United and got two away goals. United were sloppy, very sloppy in possession. United were lucky to get the draw (2-2). Football knows that United had a lead late, but United just gave away too much possession. Football looks forward to the second leg for a few reasons. First no British side has ever won at Porto. Second if United are to win they will need a player to channel Roy Keane from Turin in 1999, who could possibly step up? Third Football has another opportunity to see the Brazilian Hulk. While watching the game Football thought it too Funny that a Hulk is alive and playing football in Portugal.  (You wouldn’t like me if I were Angry!)

 

2.        Arsenal and Villareal – Advantage Arsenal – sort of. Football thinks the North Londoners have the goods to play Spoiler. With a precious away goal things looked good, then there was the news on the Gallas situation (out for the rest season). Arsenal have CF4 back and looked to be clicking on all cylinders. Too soon to tell what this Gallas injury will do to them.

 

3.       Chelsea and Liverpool – Big Advantage Chelski . Liverpool can get back to the business of the winning the Prem Title.  This could have been 5 or 6 to 1 were it not for Pepe Reina.

 

4.       Barcelona and Bayern Munich –  Super Advantage Barca - Klinsi, thanks for coming. Barcelona called off the dogs in the second half. Football sees a Catalonian Victory lap at the Allianz Arena.

 

5.        If that weren’t enough – Liverpool and Manchester United both play relegation strugglers in the prem this weekend and Relegation Six Pointers with Stoke City v Newcastle, Pompey v West Brom and Middlesbrough v Hull will certainly begin to clear up the relegation puddle. 

Hinault crushes Roubaix 1981

Check out this awesome video of 'the Badger' winning in the Roubaix velodrome on his first try. Who will we see victorious this weekend? Put in your guess here.

Paris Roubaix 1981
Uploaded by blogdenikkos

5 Things Return

5 Things!

Football Recap Champions League First Legs                       

Please bear with Football as he refines his efforts.

1. This is why we watch the EPL. Injury Time.

The Managers made subs late in their games and both subs produced game winners. In the process Sir Alex Ferguson may have made a legend of a 17 year old from Italy who had just started to become a factor in the reserves under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (a man who was no stranger to scoring important goals).

Yossi Benayou came through for Rafa Benitez to send Liverpool to the top of the table for almost a whole 24 hours. Of course that ended when the 17 year old virtual unknown scored for Manchester United. However Rafa’s most important work of the weekend may have been to remind the United team that the pressure is indeed on them.

2. The Drop. West Brom are going back to the Championship. Who will be joining them? Right now odds favor at least one of the Northeast teams with Newcastle Struggling, Boro limping and Sunderland aimless it will most likely be a return to the Championship for one or more of these teams. However, don’t count any of them out. The Sunderland Players were in this fight last year, granted they had Roy Keane to drive them on. Newcastle seems just too important to spend any time playing anywhere but in the EPL. Boro, has the experience in Manager Southgate, but need to start winning matches. Football has predicted that Stoke, Hull and West Brom will go down. Football stands by those predictions, even in the face of potential disaster in the North East.

3. International Break. Football tends to shy away from writing about International matches because it gets tough to stay objective. The US played awfully in Central America and still rescued a point. There hasn’t been a rescue from such a lost cause since Nikki Sixx got brought back to life in the incident that gave us the Motley Crue classic “Kick Start my Heart”. The US came back to the States and Jozy Altidore and some other guys dismantled Trinidad and Tobago.

In Europe, England won again even in their new Kit. More important to Football somehow a German Official sent off an Italian for an incidental contact foul, and the Irish quickly went down a goal due to terrible defending of Paul McShane, John O’Shea and Richard Dunne. Yet somehow, probably a result of the luck of the Irish the Bhoys in Green secured a point after Robbie Keane and maybe Noel Hunt got on the end of a Shay Given long ball.  Football is excited, just the possibility of the Irish getting to South Africa seemed so far fetched a year ago I’d have laid odds that the economy would recover before the Irish Football team would.

4. MLS is back and Seattle keeps winning.  Football can’t comment on the MLS. It pains him to see the new stadium in Harrison, NJ slowly getting built, and of course the team to occupy that stadium finding a spot in the basement of the league.

5. Champions League Quarters!

Chelsea and Liverpool – If you are a casual fan of the game watch these matches. History suggest no disspointment!

Arsenal and Villareal – Arsenal are peaking at the right time, and Football is losing his mind over the fact that again the Master of Economics has found that winning formula.

FC Bayern and Barcelona – Are the German Giants for real? We’ll find out. Barcelona is for Real. In Football’s opinion Barcelona is the only team not from England who can win the Champions League.

Manchester Utd and Porto – It defies logic to bet against United. Porto has the potential to beat United, if the United that Played against Fulham and Liverpool before the break show up. 

Spring Classics fantasy championship

One of the most exciting months in cycling is coming up in April, Spring Classics from Belgium, France and the Netherlands.  Just as we're doing with the F1 season this year, we're now accepting guesses for April's six northern classics over at Cracklyfinger.com (brought to you by SofC!)

Here they are, with last year's winner.

April 5th - Tour of Flanders - Stijn Divolder
April 8th - Ghent Wevelgem - Oscar Freire
April 12th - Paris - Roubaix - Tom Boonen
April 19th - Amstel Gold Race - Damiano Cunego
April 22nd - Fleche Wallonne - Kim Kirchen
April 26th - Liege Bastogne Liege - Alejandro Valverde

Here's how it works: Head over to our fantasy site here, sign up if you haven't already, and then enter two guesses for each of the six Spring Classics. We've entered a few of the favorites for these races to choose from but if you want to guess on someone we've forgotten you can easily add them, and others will also then be able to choose them in the future. Our points system for cycling looks like this:

1 - 20
2 - 16
3 - 12
4 - 10
5 - 8
6 - 6
7 - 4
8 - 3
9 - 2
10 - 1

So, if your two choices finish 3rd and 7th you will get their combined tally, in this case 12 + 4 = 16 points. You are allowed to guess right up until race day for each event but won't be able to see what other people's guesses are until after the results are posted. The site will automatically generate and update a leaderboard throughout April. If we get a bunch of people guessing we'll even come up with some prizes for the end!

Come May we'll be holding the same deal for the Giro, and the whole system should get better and better the longer we play with it. Enjoy!

Officially a Bromance

The kids are obviously having fun while dad rests up in Texas.

A look at the diffusers

Thanks to the Australian TV producers we got a great look at the major difference between the two schools of thought on diffuser designs. So far it looks like Toyota, Williams and Brawn are getting a huge advantage from theirs. Check out how much simpler the ones on the McLaren and Ferrari are.

First the slow ones:

Ferrari

McLaren

and now the good ones:

Toyota

Williams

Brawn