9.08.2010

My favorite season.

I love the fall. 


Cooler weather, the Pacific NW rain starts up again (which I actually enjoy) and plenty of sports to follow make it my favorite season of the year.  Here are four reasons that reaffirm my feelings:

- European soccer leagues are in full swing.
- MLS playoff push on full force.
- MLB pennant races are starting to take shape.
- College and NFL football kicks off their respective seasons.

This weekend is the unofficial beginning for my favorite season.  It is no coincidence that this sentiment is directly tied to the beginning of the 2010 NFL season.  Tomorrow night the Saints and Vikings kick off yet another season of America's new pasttime.  My Browns open the season away to the Tampa Bay Bucs.  Both teams are in full rebuilding mode as they start 2010.  The Bucs continue to bank on their second year QB, Josh Freeman, to lead them to something more than 4 wins this year.  While the Browns new era is led by someone that is quite revered here in the Pac NW, Mike Holmgren.  New QB, Jake Delhomme, had a pretty decent preseason, but the jury is definitely out on whether or not that can translate into regular season success.  Either way, the Browns have more talent (rare) and I feel are the better team in this matchup.  Plus, how can a true fan not open the season riding a wave that sort of resembles optimism.

PREDICTION: Browns 23, Bucs 13

The Premier League gets back to business after a break that allowed some Euro 2012 qualifiers to be played and some local English teams to get supported (click on this link- its a great read).  Liverpool are away to transfer window dynamos Birmingham City (8 a.m. PST on FSC).  My favorite Merseysiders scraped by against EPL new boys, West Brom two weekends ago and recently lost Dutch goal-scorer, Dirk Kuyt to a shoulder injury while he was away on national team duty.  It definitely has not been a great start to the campaign for the Reds.  I'd like to be encouraged by Roy Hodgson's transfer window signings, but only one thing truly has me encouraged about the Reds' chances on this particular weekend- the Spainard dubbed El Nino.  Fernando Torres scored a brace for Spain last week and that could only mean good thing for Liverpool.

PREDICTION: Liverpool 2, Birmingham 1

My beloved Rave Green are set to entertain the reigning MLS champions, Real Salt Lake tomorrow night.  RSL is probably the best club in the league right now (this FC Dallas hype is really getting out of hand).  However, the Sounders definitely have a chip on their shoulders coming off a sobering and unexpected loss to New England over the weekend.  All I know is that I cannot WAIT to be with 36,000 of my closest friends tomorrow night signing and chanting my heart out.  I want to say that we'd be cheering our club to victory, but I'm not entirely sure with RSL's form at the moment.

PREDICTION: Sounders 2, RSL 2

And finally, the Ohio State Buckeyes host the Hurricanes of Miami University on Saturday.  This is a "re-match" of the 2003 National Championship game in which most pundits feel a pass interference call decided the winner of that game.  Let us not forget that those teams played a full overtime period to decide that game after that famous pass interference call (and Ohio State was victimized earlier in the fourth quarter by an incorrect out of bounds call on a 3rd and long pass play)...but let's focus on the here and now for a second.  The quarterbacks in this game, Terrell Pryor and Jacory Harris, are tremendously talented and are coming off great starts to their 2010 campaigns last week (both around 250 yards and 3 TDs).  While the media and most people are focused on that individual matchup- this game will be decided by which defense plays better.  I feel that my Buckeyes definitely have the BETTER defense...and may actually have the FASTER defense in this game.

PREDICTION: Ohio State 31, Miam 24 (no OTs needed this time)

Enjoy the weekend everyone...and DTRT. 

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