Weekend in Review

Ok, we are officially into the busiest sports month of the year. We have the baseball playoffs, beginning of the NBA and NHL and of course midseason college and pro football. Throw in a whole lot of soccer and my weekends are jam-packed. As a supporter of many teams, weekends like these can either be glorious or miserable, so I have started to hope that the wins and losses even out and that I finish the weekend even. So how did this weekend go? Let's see

• Sounders - Clinched a playoff birth with a 2-1 victory over Kansas City. Things may be at an all-time high with the rave green with their recent 9-1-2 MLS run and subsequent US Open Cup Championship (I'll subtly not mention Champions League). They continue to be the shining like of my sports teams.
• Baseball - Just a sorry state of affairs. The Phillies and Yankees are headed towards a showdown in the WS as they both swept their first round series. Man I hate them both so much. Only positive is that the Mets fired Minaya and Manueal and hopefully are going to go in a new direction.
• Devils - Not the best opening weekends ne could have hoped for. I knew there was a potential that they would give up some goals (Marty losing a step + untested defenseman), but giving up 11 goals in 2 games hurts a lot. Some were saying NJ might contend with Washington, but if Saturday's 7-2 drubbing is any indication, they have a long way to go.
• UW football - Yuck. Just yuck. As I mentioned previously, games against ASU and OSU would help define the season. By losing to the Sun Devils, they pretty much have to win 2 of 3 against Arizona, Oregon and Stanford to be near the top of the league. They let a great opportunity slip away.
• Georgia football - Good news: They clobbered Tennessee 41-10. Bad news: Lane Kiffin wasn't the recipient. Good news: They have Kentucky and Vanderbilt the next two weeks and forseeably could move to 4-4 (3-3). Bad news: Even if they get past those two, they still have Florida and Auburn on the schedule.
  
• NFL - Carolina sucks. Turning to fantasy football, I decided to drop Malcolm Floyd and instead play Mario Manningham this week. I lost by 25. Floyd had 213 yards and 1 TD, good for 27 points. Man I hate fantasy football sometimes.
• Nets - It's only preseason, but the boys from the swamp are 3-1. Derrick Favors is proving all the critics correct: He has the talent, but needs some seasoning. In his first two games, he combined for 11 fouls in 37 minutes. He is not ready to be starting but with Troy Murphy possibly sidelined for a week who will be getting minutes at PF?
• USA soccer - I didn't see any of the game, but I hear that Stuart Holden and Jermain Jones played real well together. I know they are not going to help the problem we have at forward, but it would be awesome if they could get a hold of the final two midfield positions, alonside Donovan and Bradley.
• Other random college football - Rutgers beat Big East contender UConn 27-24 at home. Bucknell lost to Penn 31-10 at home to move to 0-5 on the season. Army beat Tulane (who beat Rutgers the week before, go figure) 41-23.
  

So in all, it appears that it was a pretty crappy weekend for my teams. A Sounders win can mask a lot of negative in other areas, but not 11 goals against in two games from the Devils, a UW loss and stupid Yanks-Phils.

Oh, and on a side note, I almost got thrown out of my first men's league soccer game. To be perfectly honest, I didn't d anything malicious, but the ref wanted to gain control of the game by making an example out of me for my foul from behind, mere minutes after my stopper got into with the other team. I got him to change his mind, but unfortunately there was nothing I could do to get him to change the scoreline: a 4-0 loss. Ouch.