*UPDATED, 11:42 PM. Lotta pain on Saturdays. Sometimes we can revel in others' pain. The University of Tennessee has a hump problem with the University of Florida the way that Manchester City does with the Champions League. The "Rocky Tops" led most of the game and much of that most by two touchdowns but could not hold on, losing again to Florida 28-27. Ahh, let's have a pity party, one, two, three. No.
On the other hand...The University of Texas, so excellent for many years, so arrogant every year through excellence or wretchedness, are going through an excruciating period. They fired their athletic director for his arrogance, they are coached by an excellent, humble man who has not been able, yet, to turn the tide and tonight they suffer terribly with another loss, and of the most excruciating kind. Oklahoma State's winning score was set up for them when Texas tried to punt the ball away, deep in their own end of the field and with under one minute to play. The ball was snapped perfectly to the Texas punter, hitting him right in the hands, and the poor kid let the ball squirt through his hands. He scooped the ball off the field and got off the punt which went for a net -6 yards. Excruciating to see that happen to a young person. Texas now has one win from four games and excellent coach-good man Charlie Strong is not going to be given many more opportunities to turn things around.
...
It is Saturday, day of happiness for (half of) all sports followers. As last Saturday God has chosen Manchester City and all its followers, including me and my chitlins, to be the bug to His windshield this day.
Was it not real? Those days, so recent yet so distant feeling now when the cognoscenti were proclaiming the EPL title City's? Now my son tells me if the Buccaneers win they are in first place. The undersigned cognoscente saw this coming with the UCL loss to Juventus. I did not read any reports on that match and have not read any on City at all since. It is too painful. I saw a headline today, before the Tottenham match, on Joe Hart's health. My son told me Kompany has been out, I had not known.
I do not believe that even those key factors explain this, the turn was too abrupt, City was built with redundancy to weather injury crises. The difference is too stark. It is team-wide. A team-wide explanation is needed. It is there. The Juve loss inflicted a psychic injury to the whole club. The UCL has been the last frontier to completion of the Manchester Revolution and it alludes "us" still. At 1-0 at the Etihad on the run of form City had had to that point, to surrender two second half goals and lose, European success alludes City still but, more importantly, to lose the first UCL match of the season and to lose it that way, what are the City players to think than that "We are not good enough"?, and that is an injury to their beings as soccer players, to the club as a soccer competing collective. It is not an injury that can be compartalized to one individual, it is team-wide.
City players are good enough, the team collectively is good enough. This team, these core players, have won everything else and they proved their mental toughness in the 2012 QPR match. They will turn this around. They will turn this around when they turn their heads around. The angels will rise again. In commiserating today I sent my son and daughter a text, "We are City forever. Win or lose, we are City forever." My daughter texted back four blue hearts.
A more enduring laughing-stock, indeed a perennial, is Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, which last Saturday won the Criminals Cup by losing to the state university of Pennsylvania. Today the "Scarlet Faces" play the University of Kansas, those are two of the ten worst tackle football teams of scholars on the whole earth.
Good news this Saturday! Islam's Hajj ended. Only 880 pilgrims died.
On the other hand...The University of Texas, so excellent for many years, so arrogant every year through excellence or wretchedness, are going through an excruciating period. They fired their athletic director for his arrogance, they are coached by an excellent, humble man who has not been able, yet, to turn the tide and tonight they suffer terribly with another loss, and of the most excruciating kind. Oklahoma State's winning score was set up for them when Texas tried to punt the ball away, deep in their own end of the field and with under one minute to play. The ball was snapped perfectly to the Texas punter, hitting him right in the hands, and the poor kid let the ball squirt through his hands. He scooped the ball off the field and got off the punt which went for a net -6 yards. Excruciating to see that happen to a young person. Texas now has one win from four games and excellent coach-good man Charlie Strong is not going to be given many more opportunities to turn things around.
...
It is Saturday, day of happiness for (half of) all sports followers. As last Saturday God has chosen Manchester City and all its followers, including me and my chitlins, to be the bug to His windshield this day.
Was it not real? Those days, so recent yet so distant feeling now when the cognoscenti were proclaiming the EPL title City's? Now my son tells me if the Buccaneers win they are in first place. The undersigned cognoscente saw this coming with the UCL loss to Juventus. I did not read any reports on that match and have not read any on City at all since. It is too painful. I saw a headline today, before the Tottenham match, on Joe Hart's health. My son told me Kompany has been out, I had not known.
I do not believe that even those key factors explain this, the turn was too abrupt, City was built with redundancy to weather injury crises. The difference is too stark. It is team-wide. A team-wide explanation is needed. It is there. The Juve loss inflicted a psychic injury to the whole club. The UCL has been the last frontier to completion of the Manchester Revolution and it alludes "us" still. At 1-0 at the Etihad on the run of form City had had to that point, to surrender two second half goals and lose, European success alludes City still but, more importantly, to lose the first UCL match of the season and to lose it that way, what are the City players to think than that "We are not good enough"?, and that is an injury to their beings as soccer players, to the club as a soccer competing collective. It is not an injury that can be compartalized to one individual, it is team-wide.
City players are good enough, the team collectively is good enough. This team, these core players, have won everything else and they proved their mental toughness in the 2012 QPR match. They will turn this around. They will turn this around when they turn their heads around. The angels will rise again. In commiserating today I sent my son and daughter a text, "We are City forever. Win or lose, we are City forever." My daughter texted back four blue hearts.
A more enduring laughing-stock, indeed a perennial, is Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, which last Saturday won the Criminals Cup by losing to the state university of Pennsylvania. Today the "Scarlet Faces" play the University of Kansas, those are two of the ten worst tackle football teams of scholars on the whole earth.
Good news this Saturday! Islam's Hajj ended. Only 880 pilgrims died.
