Euro Final

This was a sight I was excited to see. After screwing England, and now working on ManU, it was great to see Portugal go out. I can't stand Ronaldo as an athlete, although I respect his talent immensely. Me first players don't lose all the time but they should!

My predictions for round two were way off. With the exception of Spain over Italy in penalties which I predicted, my picks went downhill. I was surprised at the Holland result, but they have been chronic underachievers for years. So my Spain v Holland matchup spectacular could never have happened. But the German team have been surprising with their attacking flair. Schweinstieger, Podolski and Klose have been working very well together. Two suspect defences in the Final may make for a better than expected final.

My prediction will have to be Germany to win. I can't see Spain shutting down their counterattack and Iniesta has been very disappointing. However, Torres could be the wild card if Spain can play to his strengths of attacking at pace. Germany is better equipped mentally for the occassion and I would expect a 3-2 or 2-1 game in their favour. PS, I would have predicted both semifinals correct if anyone was counting.

Euro 2008

Never one to toot my own horn.. I just want to draw attention to my picks for the Euro quarterfinals. 100% accuracy guaranteed, including my darkhorses the Russians and the surprise Turks who upset the Czechs in an amazing game. I usually can't get one game correct. The odds must have been ridiculous. Here are my picks for the next round:
Portugal in overtime against Germany. Should be fun watching them mass defend Ronaldo.
Holland over Russia 2-1.
Croats over turks in what will be a discipline free game.
Lastly, Spain over Italy in penalties..

Everton Complete Successful Year

A huge victory for Everton FC yesterday with a win over listless Newcastle. Minus Martins and Viduka, this Newcastle team was a shadow of their squad from even last week. Owen was mediocre and EFC showed another great example of what a good squad they can be. There are some changes that need to be made and hopefully 2-3 young players will establish themselves next year. That being said, 5th place and UEFA Cup is a big accomplishment for this squad, especially with how they have missed Cahill and Arteta this year.

Yakubu can be a great striker in this league, but he will need to prove that he can go day in and day out for the Blues to be successful. There is a great base to develop in this team, but there will need to be some cash spent to make the next leap. Everton needs 1-2 bona fide superstars to prove that they can be in the Top 4 and Champion's League. EFC need Cahill to play the system they played for a lot of the year, but they also need other options to break down teams on the wings. Right now there is no player like Ronaldo who is confident enough to beat players all day long. This is going to be an interesting offseason for Moyes.

Everton Season Drawing to Close

The last few weeks have been hectic in the football calendar. Everton have been producing poor form over the last few weeks. Coupled with some key injuries, the squad has shown its lack of depth. All the games have been competitive but we have lacked that killer instinct from the first six months of the season. Arteta and Ossie have been sorely missed while Aj's injury piled on the problem.

As I have noted previously, there is a need for more good squad players. We can't compete to win against the big clubs yet and results recently have put us needed a result in the last match. While I am totally confident this will happen, it would have been a lot better for many Evertonian's hearts to wrap this up a while ago. I said that Aston Villa were the squad to watch and they are definitely up and coming if they can lock down some good squad players. Similar to Everton in this regard and I think it will be the same teams locked in battle for these spots next year, depending on how loose owners are this summer.

Man Utd has been impressive as has Chelsea and these upcoming two games are ones to relish. I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks and watching a exciting final from Russia.

Another win for VP Common Sense

So one of my writing heroes is Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy. I absolutely look forward to his articles on sports every week and enjoying Celtics and Patriots commentary with a "homer" view. His

VP of Common sense stories are hilarious and I believe that we need to incorporate this position into our City. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/index. His VP would look at all sports decisions, trades, punishments and make sure they make sense to everyone.

If we had this, we would have stopped dumping polluted water into our harbour, knowing it would eventually have to be cleaned up. We would have worked with the school board as soon as things looked like they may go pear shaped. We would not release transit plans to the public before they were confirmed. HRM would have implemented better transit years ago preparing for the growth of downtown and created bike paths, more reward for carpooling and better buslines. Lastly, we would not have even opened the Cat Bylaw question. Thanks to that one neighbour who had 47 cats running around her property and prompted this ridiculous waste of time.

I am happy to declare for VP Common Sense and take all the huge wages along with it.

Transit Trouble

I have written before about lack of vision and how it can be resolved. Why is there now a new five year plan? It is crazy that HRM councillors can be planning for certain things and then do another reverse. Why wasn't this worked on five years ago. At work, if I reversed on a project after 1 year, I would have to answer some serious questions about my research and decision making. Peter, check out my transit plan:
Get the new garage built for Halifax to stop deadheading
Express buses: Spryfield/ Herring Cove
Clayton Park
Preston
Eastern Passage
Musquodoboit
Hubbards

Bus Lanes
Bike Lanes
Extra ferry to go faster and transport more people
No Buses on Spring Garden

Everton trouble?

Here is your player of the season. The more it is examined, it is really up between Lescott and Howard. He only allowed 1-2 cheesy goals this year. Lescott scored 9 this year. Lescott was a beast coming out of the back and Howard kept us in so many games this year. Yak scored, but not always against the Big clubs and in UEFA. Arteta missed a lot of time. If we can secure a draw Thursday, then I would say we are in the clear for 5th place. Portsmouth is trouble though, the Blues need to win out after Chelsea or at least secure 7 points in the last four games for 5th. All hope for overtaking Liverpool is gone as they seem to be peaking in time for Champion's League. Chelsea might be in trouble next week.

Depth of squad killed us with no Ossie or Artie.. Need those players fit and we need more depth. 3-4 players in the transfer window and making sure we are healthy for next season are key.