barcelona at valencia - october 17, 2009

congratulations to the great diego maradona for getting the great albicelesti into the world cup! (pregame)

a great springboard attack brilliantly led by hernandez and he should have scored!...his legs start to get the collywobbles right at the end (2')

pep guardiolas boys off to a nervy start here, again chamelon eyes finds his target. (3)

phil: even without david villa, the mighty mites are very dangerous (4)

abidal cool as the centre seed in a cucumber at the back post. (31)

cigar in that old mans mouth, he loves what he's seeing! (33)

sarah palin tackle, there wasn't uych there (44 re banega kick on keita)

real madrid - sevilla, october 4, 2009.

the atmosphere in this stadium is thicker than treacle (1')

again its saint iker that comes to the rescue brilliantly...his defence found out again, (7')

its not a bad hit from fabiano but wonderful link of play from the white shirts, team football. it all leads towards luis fabiano and he's always gonna pull the trigger. (13')

absolute goal jmachine this sevilla team has been of late, 8 goals in the last 2 commpeteive game. they are on fire. (18')

was ray going to say that fabiano was going for SOMEBODYS ball when he kicked casillas?

it would make leb yashin come back from the dead is what it would do WHAT A SAVE...the save is beyond miracles when we see it again, the man walks on water. iker casillas, what a goaltender. (48')

the madridistas get down at the altar of iker casillas...the game's back on (49')

this was one of the best games i've watched in a long time. by the time the second half got rolling i got way too involved. jumping out of my seat, shouting...forgetting to take any notes! please feel free to add any of your favourite moments from the second half to the comments!

atletico madrid - zaragoza, october 3, 2009.

Was it a shot? It doesn’t matter because that’s a shot. And its accurate and its beautiful (jurado scores 2’)

A wonderful paly this by sabrosa a good look at him there…ex barca of course and all that skill and talent and pedigree came out in that run (11’)

Atletico Madrid knows where the danger is, and they know where Real Zaragoza’s bread is buttered. And its in the form of that man that’s on the deck, Aguilar (12’)

This is extremely naughty, Cleber comes through full of malicious intent, on a good player as well. (23')

The razor’s still glinting through the dark moments for Atletico Madidi, and its always that man with the big surgical knife, Forlan. (62')

Wonderful bravery by el Kun he doesn’t back away from the yellow shirts he entices them on, all over him, 4 around him. (65')

Reyes does absolutely brilliant here to set up Maxi the run is exemplary, this pass is absolutely world class…perfection from Antonio! (89')

scotland v. macedonia - world cup qualifier, september 5, 2009

"thats what they call the hampden roar, and it will be raucous here today, the scots with their heads on the chopping block."
pregame

"the locker room is beckoning for george burley, and it will be his waterloo."
45'+2

"the johnny walker is flowing now, and scott brown, they're toasting him all over this stadium...it's a diamond header!"
scott brown makes it 1-0, 55'

"it was a different kind of glasgow kiss, this one."
reliving scott brown's goal when he is subbed off, 73'

"scott brown and jimmy macfadden, johnny walker is calling your name."
end game

spain v. belgium - world cup qualifier, september 5, 2009

i managed to get cable installed at my new flat in time to watch the spain-belgium world cup qualifier yesterday. going forward i will time stamp these, but here are some highlights from the game, relating entirely to spain's many goals! there was a nice one about belgium's netminder gillett making a save and the posts helping him out, but the phone rang and i missed part of it. if someone got it, post it in the comments!

"xavi hernandez, getting better all the time. 29 years old now, the wine is absolutely at its zenith in that bottle."
xavi makes a trademark play into the area, which almost results in the first goal

"typical david villa isnt it, a wonderful touch to control it, draws that defender in on him and makes him gamble. matador football here from david villa...its a napalm penalty."
david villa draws a penalty

"...hes engaged the brilliance, what's it gonna be like when he's married to it?!?!"
david silva's first goal of the night

"its gerard pique and its a route! again, david villa's fingerprints all over it, and gerard pique the barcelona boy joins in the party!"
gerard pique makes it 3-0 for la furia roja

"it's silva living up to his name, truly truly quicksilva!. punishing hit from distance, again, trademark valencia accuracy."
david silva nets again

mea culpa...

i messed up when i organized this weekend/today. i was sure the barcelona game was being shown on goltv, but it turns out i was wrong. so now i have to watch the game on my computer, in addition to not having anything from ray to share today! i see that goltv is rerunning the real madrid game from the weekend that i know ray was working on, so i'll try to watch that, otherwise, i'll be back next weekend for the next round of games. sorry everyone, i'll be updating my google calendar for the next round!

new hudsonia is all ready to go! our first entry will be on the barcelona-sporting gijon game on monday afternoon. do it!