Soccer Birthdays:
Cameroon’s Geremi, Mexico’s Israel Castro, and Argentina’s Martín Demichelis all have claims on December 20, but today we take a moment to talk about our favorite air rifle-toting left back: Chelsea’s Ashley Cole. In addition to being a world class defender who has a ridiculous seven FA Cup winners medals, Cole has given us an amazing transfer saga (his move from Arsenal), one of the higher profile celebrity relationships (Cheryl Tweedy), and an affinity for attacking interns. Legendary stuff here. Let’s wish him a happy 31st.
Big Important Stories of the Day:
UEFA’s going to commandeer your attention mid-day when they make the draw for this year’s Champions and Europa League knockout stages. For the big show, 16 teams will be drawn against each other - first place group finishers against second, no matches between teams from the same federation or group stage packet. For Europa, same rules apply except there are 32 teams, and the celebrity presenters are far less attractive.
RASNoD (Random American Soccer Name of the Day: Walker Zimmerman
*Ahead on the blog today:
It’s a Noah Davis day, so in addition to jumping in on the UEFA-y stuff, our Designated Player will be unloading the week’s worth of thoughts he’s stored up during his time away from the blog. That said, it’s always nice trick for us partners in crime to put out a list of re-set topics and see if our mates can hit them. So how about ...
- best MLS home openers for 2013,
- Aron Johansson, and ...
- the best and worst things about Krasnodar?
What you should watch on TV today:
Spain’s back in action, so if you have access to it, check out the Real Sociedad-Sevilla match that kicks off at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Else, I strongly recommend going out and catching Silver Linings Playbook. I know it may look like a “pass” from the outside, but it was the best movie I’ve seen all year. Im probably watching it again right now.
Background noise while blogging today:
Speaking of movies, I went and saw The Hobbit on Friday (skip it and thank me later), but it did inspire me to re-watch The Fellowship of the Ring. Has a movie ever had as spectacular a prologue as Peter Jackson’s first Lord of the Rings offering? The answer is no, reader. The answer is no.
We’ll leave you with this:
It’s a beagle puppy playing with a baby goat. Your Thursday is going to be amazing:
*Always subject to change; you know how it is