SB Nation User Blog: Luis (Tribe Fan in London)

OT: English Soccer Player does a Jensen

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:13:34 -0000

OT: English Soccer Player does a Jensen

Just saw this and thought of ol' Stomp doing it a year ago now...those were the days...

And I apologise for the horrific use of the english language by our youth....often Brits like to crticise Americans for mangling the English language but its nothing compared to a British youngster these days!

Some thoughts on Euro 2008

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:38:26 -0000

Now that its all over, I thought I would just start some discussion on it...see how some people saw it.

Overall I thought it was a fantastic tournament, and much better than the last. For once it was interesting to see a team win with a positive style of football. We all now Greece did it last time doing the complete opposite, and in a general sense you feel that even big teams these days have become to pragmatic, thinking that winning is the ultimate goal...which I guess it is.

I thought Spain were really good throughout, although the Dutch maybe produced the performances of the tournament. Their dismantling of the Italians and the French were amazing, and makes the Russian's display all the more amazing.

It was all shown that sometimes you have to be able to drop the older names. This is strange for someone of my age (28), because the players I have followed for most of their careers are now getting to end of those careers, and its easy to sometimes hark back to the good days. You can forget to take of those rose-tinted glasses and actually see their performances for what they are now. Aragones was brave enough to do it for Spain by dropping Raul, and look at the results. To some extent Van Basten did the same by dropping Seedorf. Where I'm going with this is that 2 powerhouses of the sport didn't do the same. France in particular were a national team in desperate need of cutting ties with the old guard. It was almost sad seeing some of their greats reduced to being run ragged by Italy. But Domenech brought it on himself. Can you imagine what they could have done with the likes of Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna marauding down the wings rather than Abidal and Sagnol...although Abidal isn't old, just very crap! And Makelele should have been replaced with Flamini some time ago, I would imagine Mathieu would have brought some much needed energy to a midfield that looked tired and bored most of the time.

Anyway, some final thoughts:

Player of the Tournament: Ballack - although the Germans didn't win it, I think they would never have got that far without Ballack carrying them most of the way.

Young Player of the Tournament: - Has to be Fabregas for me, everytime he was chucked out there he changed the game and showed what a good player he is, and his poise for taking that winning penalty against Italy was admirable. It can't have been easy for such a young player who has never taken a competitive penalty before.

Game of the Tournament: Holland v Russia - When you consider how awesome the Dutch had been, it was astounding to see the Russians toy with them. A large part of this was due to the Dutch not really showing up, but a large part of that has to Hiddink's tactics.

Biggest Disappointment: Fake Ronaldo - for all the hype that surrounded him, and the Portuguese team as a whole, he never came close to what he is capable of.

Surprise of the Tournament: - The Turkish refusal to give up...I mean seriously how many times were they going to do it. I guess the bigger surprise was that the Germans then did it to them.

Biggest let down after building so much hype: Shared between David Villa and Andrei Arshavin - each had to 2 great matches, and then pratically disappeared. Was Arshavin even on the pitch against the Spanish?!?

Biggest Laugh: Petr Cech dropping that Turkish cross...best keeper in the world my ar*e!

Arshavin to either England or Spain

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:48:22 -0000

Arshavin to either England or Spain

The way he opened up his body to score the 3rd goal the other night was amazing...I'd love to see him in an Arsenal shirt, but looks like it'll be Spain, shame that.

Somewhat OT: US College Team Touring the UK

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:01:55 -0000

Hey guys,

A team from John Hopkins University is touring Europe and will playing the Great Britain national team round the corner from me on Friday

I'm going to head down there to watch, and was wondering if any of our resident minor league/college ball experts had any tips for anyone I should be watching out for...in particular anyone who may have been an Indians draft pick! Unfortunately I have no idea who they're bringing with them but hopefully it'll be a strong team.

I know I could do it myself, but wouldn't have a clue where to start.

Cheers guys

Pronk Up for Top Hitter Award

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:52:43 -0000

Hey guys,

Travis has been nominated by MLB for the Top Hitter award in their 2006 This Year in Baseball Awards.

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/awards/y2006/tyib/index.jsp

Obvioulsy he's up against some tough competition, but its a fans vote so we should do all we can to make sure the result is pronktastic. I've been doing my bit at work, but I'm only one man!

Just to generate a little discussion, if you couldn't vote for Travis, who would you go for? I'd have to say Pujols, I don't know all about the numbers, but I know he's a scary SOB when he steps up to the plate... (I left Jermaine Dye out of the poll because there weren't enough spaces, and he's a White Sox!...that's if this works, its my first attempt at one)

Poll

If not Pronk for Top Hitter then who?

Justin Morneau

1 votes

David Ortiz

1 votes

Albert Pujols

17 votes

Carlos Beltran

0 votes

Lance Berkman

1 votes

Miguel Cabrera

1 votes

Alfonso Soriano

1 votes

Ryan Howard

5 votes

Derek Jeter

1 votes

Joe Mauer

1 votes

29 votes | Poll has closed

Jason Johnson Traded to Red Sox

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:36:47 -0000

Nothing too exciting, we're getting a PTBNL. and giving up some cash

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20060621&c ontent_id=1516249&vkey=pr_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle

Anyone who knows the Sox system have any thoughts on who it could be or who would be worth trying to get?

Jose Flores

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:10:09 -0000

Hey guys,

Been watching some of the spring training games and I was wondering what the deal is with Jose Flores?

Who is he? I'm assuming he has no chance of making the team but how come he's still about and why hasn't been re-assigned etc yet?

I might be a bit ignorant about the whole thing, but isn't he just taking ABs away from others?

I know its a dull topic, but with few fights for position you have to get interested by the small things.

Jacobs Field

Luis (Tribe Fan in London) — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 09:14:14 -0000

Hey Guys,

Been reading with much interest from across the pond and I'd love to thank Jay and Ryan for all the hard work which allows me to stay up to date from over here in the UK.

I've got a question that I was hopeing someone could clear up. I heard a few months ago that the naming rights on Jacobs Field were for 10 years and were due to be up this year. Is this true and will the name be changing?

I'm interested because my local football (soccer) team is opening a new stadium named after an airline and I hate it, but I understand the realities of business.

Any idea who might take the rights and when?

Here's hoping it won't something as bad as Petco Park or Minute Maid Field.

By the way, the Crisp-Marte deal, not sure about it but agree risk had to be taken. I would have hated to see Marte go on to be an all-star if we hadn't got him.