What a weekend for soccer! I wish I could share the same excitement when talking about how my picks did last week, but oh well. As Cam and Gabe always say, 'we don't dwell in the past...there's more game on the board today!' So we roll the dice again this week. I talked about it on the show and I feel like the Hull City bandwagon stops at my house every morning, and I'm fighting myself not to get on board and start driving it, but they are playing some very entertaining football. To think that nine weeks into the Premier League season, Hull needs just 16 more points for the rest of the season to avoid relegation is crazier than the thought of Martin O'Neill heading to strip clubs with John Carew. Chelsea's prolific unbeaten run at the Bridge also came to an end, and to be honest I'm disappointed it wasn't a Hull or a Stoke that handed the Blues the devastating loss. But props to Liverpool for playing some very classy title-worthy soccer. In the Serie A the Torino derby was a bore and a waste of the middle of my afternoon, and Roma looks like the Tottenham of Italy right now. One more loss and we'll start seeing mob hits courtesy of Luciano Spalletti. Obviously, I do not mean that literally, but that guy really scares me and I would be afraid bad things would happen to me as a player playing poorly on his team. In Spain, Villarreal and Atletico put on what I'm told to be the best damn match of the weekend, so I am patiently awaiting a Setanta mid-week replay.
As for the Pick Em Challenge, I am happy to say there were no perfect cappers last week. I'm only happy to say that because I am awful right now and can't buy winners at the moment. Brandon is back to his winning ways and KJ appears to be opening up quite the gap on James and me. Here's how we all did this week;
Kristian Jack - 4/5
Peanut - 4/5
Sam - 4/5
Brandon in St.Louis - 4/5
Sam in Sacramento - 4/5
James Sharman - 3/5
Ghetto in Ottawa - 3/5
charleybfromtheycity - 3/5
Miguel in Toronto - 3/5
Tom Newton - 3/5
Ricardo M. - 3/5
Pierre in Toronto - 3/5
Pizzola - 2/5
Brendon Lynch - 2/5
O.G.G. - 2/5
Breaks - 2/5
James: Abroad - 2/5
Dunlop - 1/5
S-Double D in Windsor - 1/5
J. Houdini in Montreal - 1/5
To see the full contest rules, check the original blog. http://hardcoresportsradio.com/blogs/brendandunlop/archive/2008/09/19/more-picks-for-the-wknd-and-contest-rules.aspx
STANDINGS (Wins - Losses)
Brandon in St. Louis 19-11
Ghetto in Ottawa 17-13
Kristian Jack 16-14
James Sharman 15-15
Ricardo 14-16
Dunlop 12-18
S-Double D 12-18
Peanut 12-13
Sacramento Sam 12-8
Pierre in Toronto 11-19
Miguel in Toronto 10-10
J Houdini in Montreal 10-10
Pizzola 10-5
Brendon Lynch 9-6
Breaks 8-22
O.G.G. 7-8
Tom Newton 7-8
Toledo_Ted 7-8
Fitzy 6-9
charleybfromthecity 6-4
Sam 4-1
James: Abroad 2-3
Crow 2-3
McFly 2-3
There's no Champions League action this week, and considering how badly I did with it last week, I'm putting my faith in the Premier League and La Liga. There's midweek action all over the board so feel free to double up, as both Kristian and James are looking to bank on the demise of Bolton. Good luck Hardcores! Here's what we like;
Dunlop
EPL - Newcastle vs. West Brom (DRAW +240)
EPL - Hull vs. CHELSEA (-225)
La Liga - ATLETICO MADRID (-175) vs. Mallorca
La Liga - Athletic Bilbao vs. VILLARREAL (+120)
Bundesliga - Bochum vs. HOFFENHEIM (+120)
James Sharman
EPL - ARSENAL (-225) vs. Tottenham
EPL - Bolton vs. EVERTON (+175)
EPL - Bolton vs. MAN CITY (+138)
La Liga - VALENCIA (-175) vs. Racing Santander
Serie A - Chievo vs. LAZIO (+130)
Kristian Jack
EPL - Bolton vs. EVERTON (+175)
EPL - Bolton vs. MAN CITY (+138)
EPL - MAN UTD (-500) vs. West Brom
EPL - CHELSEA (-500) vs. Sunderland
La Liga - Valladolid vs. SEVILLA (+125)
Peanut
EPL - Stoke City vs. ARSENAL (-225)
EPL - Bolton vs. MAN CITY (+138)
La Liga - VALLADOLID (+188) vs. Sevilla
Serie A - AC MILAN (-450) vs. Siena
Bundesliga - Bochum vs. HOFFENHEIM (+120)
Post your picks up here.
So what did you think of today's show? We got to a lot of England talk and tried to understand how a team can fire their coach and then hire/pay a lot of money to another team to take their coach. Farewell to Juande and hello Harry at White Hart Lane. I'm looking forward to the songs that the Spurs faithful will sing on the weekend. We continued that conversation with former Portsmouth and Trinidad keeper and current ESPN analyst Shaka Hislop and he told us what it was like to play under Harry Redknapp. We also asked about a few other controversial figures he was worked with in the past in both Kevin Keegan and FIFA VP Jack Warner. Travis Payne submitted another report and we're happy to say that even though the MLS season is over, he'll stay on as a part of the HFS team through the winter. Catch the replay tonight at 9pm EST or hear the podcasts anytime, just check the show page for the latest.
Posted
Oct 27 2008, 03:05 PM
by
Brendan Dunlop