The week in review

Well, since I've been lazy, and haven't posted in a while, I have plenty to catch up on, so here we go...

U-M improved their record to 2-0 with a convincing win over Central Michigan, 41-17. We didn't show any improvements through the air (although we caught the ball better), but we continued our ground dominance. I would like to believe (looking at the world through my maize n' blue sunglasses) that we were not showing Notre Dame (our next opponent) anything, but I guess time will tell on that one. Our defense looked outstanding again, and I think that this Saturday's matchup will be a good one. Hopefully, we'll come out on top, but it will be close.

The Lions took to the field for their season opener on Sunday, and lost a close one, 9-6, to the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks. Our defense looked pretty good, but our offense was out of sync for most of the afternoon. I think that there is real potential there, but it may take a few games to realize it. One thing I do know, however, is that we must run the ball better if we want to see any improvement from the 5-11 team of last year.

Arsenal drew at home against Middlesborough, 1-1, and although it's very frustrating to have 2 points from 9, it is good to know that we dominated this game from start to finish, and just lacked the quality on the final ball, that would've seen us secure all 3 points. James Morrison opened the scoring when William Gallas/Johan Djourou failed to keep tabs on the midfielder's run on the give and go, and a reply from the spot by Thierry Henry saved the day. Although we should've found a winner, since 'Boro were down to 10 men for the last 1/2 hour.

Midweek produced a better result, as we opened up the Champions League group stages with a 2-1 win over 10-man Hamburg SV. Van Persie won a controversial penalty in the 10th minute, which saw Hamburg's starting keeper sent off, and Gilberto converted the proceding penalty, to give the Gunners the early lead. New summer signee Tomas Rosicky added a 2nd with a wonderful strike from 30 yards out early in the 2nd half (see goal here), to insure full points would be awarded to the visitors. Sonogo grabbed a consolation goal for Hamburg in stoppage time, but the Gunners are top of Group G, as CSKA Moscow and FC Porto drew 0-0 from the other tie in the group. If Arsenal can beat Porto at home in a fortnight, they will almost certainly advance to the knockout round.

And last but not least, my Tigers....*sigh* if we could only hit the ball, we would be in much better shape. Unfortunately, we have been hitting like crap, and our 3-7 record over the past 10 games, and our horrible August/September record (right about the time that Polanco went down with an injury) will attest to that. The good thing is that we still have a 1 1/2 game lead in the Central division, and 3 games over the White Sox in 3rd place. 16 games to go. I think we'll make it, but we may be crawling across that finish line. Oh well *we're all behind our baseball team...*