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2010 World Cup: England’s competition is prepared


Photo from fOTOGLIF

Earlier this week at the FIFA World Cup Draw, England and the United States wound up in the same pool. This British press prematurely celebrated, claiming their national team should have no trouble against the likes of Algeria, Slovenia, and their friends from across the pond.

The competition thinks otherwise, and they want England to know about it.

Easy. That’s what the English hacks think of the group. They see virtually no chance of an upset, no chance for the Algerians, the Slovenians or the Americans finishing atop the table.

Alexi Lalas, who played for the U.S. when it defeated England in a friendly in 1993, is unimpressed by it all, at least according to the Sun.

“We can play off the fact that England always thinks they are better than they are,” Lalas said.

Former Slovenian star Zlatko Zahovic was even more scathing.

“For me, England is not one of the favorites,” he said.

“They are a team full of stars and egos. They cannot possibly spend a month and a half together without friction.”

This is the kind of trash talk — bland or not — that the World Cup needs in the following months. Now Landon Donovan needs to hit the podium and lay down some slams.

Check out FIFA’s World Cup site to view the rest of the draws.

NFL Week 12 ROY Power Rankings

Percy Harvin keeps gaining momentum and votes here with every TD catch from Brett Favre. But it’s still a pretty wide-open race here for NFL rookie of the year.

1. Percy Harvin, Minnesota Vikings—Against the Bears, Harvin had another outstanding game—6 catches for 101 yards and a TD. Brett Favre might have more weapons than he’s ever had before, but none of them are more dangerous than this rookie.

2. Knowshon Moreno, Denver Broncos—In the last three games, Moreno has averaged almost 6 yards a carry. And if you noticed the moves he was busting against the Giants, you know he deserves to be high up on this list.

3. Jairus Byrd, Buffalo Bills—He’s now gone three games without a pick, but still has 8 of them.

4. James Laurinaitis, St. Louis Rams—His 75 solo tackles not only rank at the top for any rookie, but that ranks Laurinaitis fourth in the NFL right behind Curtis Lofton, Jon Beason and Patrick Willis. Damn.

5. LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles—Brian Westbrook has some mighty big shoes to fill, but so far McCoy is filling them.

Honorable mention: Hakeem Nicks, Giants; Johnny Knox, Bears; Ryan Succop, Chiefs; Michael Oher, Ravens; Matthew Stafford, Lions; Beanie Wells, Cardinals; Jeremy Maclin, Eagles; Brian Cushing, Texans

NFL Week 12 COY Power Rankings

Just like Drew Brees, we have to give Saints’ coach Sean Payton love for the way his team manhandled the Patriots on Monday night. It wasn’t so much the fact that the Saints’ offense resembled an arena league team again, it was the way their defense made Tom Brady and company look terribly average—and of course, beatable.

1. Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints—Once again the fact that Payton gave up a quarter million dollars of his own money to lure Gregg Williams to run his defense was a stroke of genius, because this defense is suddenly shutting people down. And by people, we mean guys named Brady, Moss and Welker.

2. Jim Caldwell, Indianapolis Colts—The bottom line is, no matter how much talent the Colts have, or how they have had to come from behind a lot lately, they still have a rookie head coach who is 11-0 and has already clinched the AFC South.

3 Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals—It’s positively mind-blowing to think that the Bengals are not only sitting in first place in the AFC North with a 2-game lead on both the Steelers and Ravens, but that they have run the table in their own very tough division at 6-0. Don’t think these guys won’t make some noise in January.

4. Brad Childress, Minnesota Vikings—When you have guys named Favre, Peterson, Allen and Harvin making you look good, it’s easy to say anyone can be Brad Childress. But remember, he stuck his neck out to bring in half of those guys, so we prefer to use the words “borderline genius.”

5. Josh McDaniels, Denver Broncos—We like the fire this guy displayed last week when he dropped the F-bomb on national TV, but we also like the way he has won at least 3 more games to this point than we all thought he would.

6. Jeff Fisher, Tennessee Titans—We had to add one more name in here this week, because turning a team from 0-6 into 5-6 and a dark horse playoff contender takes more than sticking Vince Young under center.

Honorable mention: Ken Whisenhunt, Cardinals; Jack Del Rio, Jaguars; Wade Phillips, Cowboys; Mike McCarthy, Packers

NFL Week 12 MVP Power Rankings

Well, we can’t ignore what Drew Brees did to the Patriots on Monday night, can we? It doesn’t even really matter what Mr. Manning and Mr. Favre did. Oh, those guys are all bunched up here, but consider that in their biggest game of the season so far, the Saints’ Brees threw for 371 yards, 5 TDs to five different receivers, and zero picks in leading them to a 38-17 dismantling of New England in the Superdome. Yikes.

1. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—See above. Brees now leads the NFL in both QB rating (112.6) and touchdown passes (27). He’s even rushed for 2 scores for good measure. And oh yeah, the Saints are 11-0 and starting to think about Miami in February.

2. Brett Favre, Minnesota Vikings—Funny how Favre is not getting the love he should from sportswriters in the MVP conversation. Well that’s ridiculous, and you can count this writer among those who think he is extremely deserving. Against Chicago last Sunday, Favre threw for 392 more yards, with 3 TDs and no picks. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 24 TDs to 3 interceptions on the season, and his team sitting at 10-1 and in line for a first round bye.

3. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts—Our apologies for dropping Peyton from #1 to #3 here, but he keeps flirting with disaster each week before bringing his team back. Sure, they are 11-0 just like the Saints, but we don’t feel particularly happy about those 11 interceptions so far.

4. Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans—800 yards in the month of November. 800 yards. Are you freaking kidding me? Apparently LenDale White was not in uniform against Arizona last Sunday because of being late to a meeting. I think it was more like Jeff Fisher didn’t want to make the mistake of putting White in the game for any reason, so he kept the guy in street clothes. And how about this sick run by the Titans?

5. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers—His numbers are damn near close to the guy he replaced in Green Bay, Mr. Favre…a.k.a. #2. 3136 yards, 22 TDs, and just 5 interceptions. Imagine if Rodgers (44 sacks) wasn’t running for his life most of the time.

Honorable Mention—Philip Rivers, Chargers; Adrian Peterson, Vikings; Maurice Jones-Drew, Jaguars, Reggie Wayne, Colts; Cedric Benson, Bengals; Jared Allen, Vikings; Tom Brady, Patriots; Randy Moss, Patriots; Miles Austin, Cowboys; Vince Young, Titans; Andre Johnson, Texans; Elvis Dumervil, Broncos; Darren Sharper, Saints

Six-Pack of Observations: Texas squeaks by Nebraska

Here are six quick-hit observations from Texas’ unimpressive 13-12 win over Nebraska in Saturday’s Big 12 Championship.

1. What was that?
Unless you’re a Texas fan, this was a freaking dud of a championship game. Both teams combined for 308 yards of total offense, which is the lowest combined total in Big 12 history. It was almost maddening at times watching these two teams try to move the ball forward. In fact, this game turned out to be the “B Channel” of the night, because the ACC title match was 10-times the game that the Big 12 championship was. What an unimpressive win for Texas.

2. That said, nice kick.
On a day when there were multiple extra points missed, you have to stand back and appreciate the 46-yard game-winning boot that Hunter Lawrence made as time expired. With so much on the line, Lawrence could have folded like your favorite futon in college. But instead, he rose to the challenge and converted the biggest kick of his collegiate career.

3. What a performance by Nebraska’s D.
If Nebraska had anything resembling an offense, then they win this game walking away because their defense was outstanding. For the defense to overcome three turnovers and an absolutely putrid effort by their offense and only give up 12 points was amazing. Coming into this game, the Longhorns were averaging 43 points a game and had the 11th best offense in the nation. Yet, Nebraska made Texas look like a team that had never played a down of organized football. They whipped their ass in the trenches and at times, McCoy’s only option was to take a sack or throw the ball away because he had limited opportunities to make plays. This had to be the single best defensive effort by a team this season that wound up losing.

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