Lest we forget, here’s Maranakis having marched onto the pitch following a result he didn’t like, remonstrating with the manager of a team over which he has no influence because he wrote down - before this happened - that he doesn’t know who this Forest person is.
If Palace gets booted, meaning Forest would take our place in the UEL, this would be Exhibits A thru Z in the subsequent lawsuit.
Good start.
Lunaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Luna is a pesky little guy.
He does have a touch of the pissant about him.
There is a long history of pesky little guys in soccer. Craig Bellamy and Dennis Wise come instantly to mind…and already my skin is crawling.
Of Wise, Sir Alex Ferguson once said “he could start a fight in a phone box.”
Agyemang needs to watch a couple of days’ worth of JP Mateta game film.
When your opponent, in desperation, throws on a bunch of attackers, the thing you do not do is accommodate them by putting on a bunch of defenders.
You stick to your guns and use the mismatches to your advantage. Your opponent will be a defensive catastrophe.
On to the finals.
Honduras isn’t here just to make up numbers. Mexico has a game on its hands.
…and a fight.
I love the British GP and I love Silverstone as a track. When I first moved out from home to share a house with a mate of mine, the living room was dedicated to a Scalextric version of that track.
One of the cool things about Silverstone is that it has so much history that all the corners (and some of the straights) have names. So drivers are rounding “Copse” and heading to instead of navigating Turns 9 & 10.
Of course, this means that, unless you have the entire track name sequence memorized, it’s hard to follow exactly where they are.
Never fear: Great Uncle Limey has you covered:
Abbey (Turn 1): Named after the ancient Luffield Abbey, near which the corner is located.
Farm (Turn 2): Originally a straight section of the track, it’s now a fast kink and named after a nearby farm.
Village (Turn 3): A new corner introduced in 2010, named after the village of Silverstone.
The Loop (Turn 4): A sharp left-hander, named for its shape.
Aintree (Turn 5): Honors the Aintree Racecourse, which also hosted the British Grand Prix.
Brooklands (Turn 6): A nod to Brooklands, the first purpose-built race track in Britain.
Luffield (Turn 7): Another corner named after Luffield Abbey.
Copse (Turn 9): A fast, flat-out corner, named after a small wood.
Maggotts (Turn 10): Named after the Maggotts Moor field near the circuit.
Becketts (Turn 11): Named after the chapel of Thomas Becket, located near the track.
Stowe (Turn 15): Named after Stowe School, located south of the circuit.
Club (Turn 17/18): Named in honor of the Royal Automobile Club.
Woodcote: Named after Woodcote Park, a country club owned by the RAC.
Wellington Straight: Named after the Wellington bombers stationed at Silverstone during WWII.
Lionesses start their Euro defense against a young and talented French team. They start well, have a goal chalked off for being offside by an armpit hair, and then concede two quick goals.
Game ends 2-1 France, and was thoroughly entertaining (save, for me, the result).
The British GP is poised for a drama-filled race (lights out at 9am CDT).
Verstappen has compromised cornering for straight line speed by running noticeably less wing that his rivals. He rode that to pole position, with the McLarens right behind him on the grid.
Will his tires hold out long enough to hold back the McLarens? Maybe. Because it just started raining.
So it stopped raining and the sun came out. The expectation is that everyone will start on intermediate rain tires, but the crossover to slicks will come very quickly.
Silverstone is so fast that missing the crossover point is crushing. Last year, Piastri stayed out one lap longer than his teammate and it cost him 4 places.
It’s also possible - as we have seen before - cars diving into the pits after the formation lap to put on slicks before the start.
Verstappen will be praying for a dry race because a wet track destroys his speed-first strategy.
Oh, and more rain is forecast to hit about 30 minutes into the race.
Lights out in 10 minutes on ESPN.
A number of the runners near the front bailed into the pits for slicks before the starts.
This race had everything….
The McLarens finished 1 & 2 as usual, but their places were swapped by an arguably harsh penalty for Piastri, meaning that Norris won his home GP for the first time.
The wet, dry, wet, dry conditions meant that anyone timing their tire changes had a chance to make hay. Step forward Nico Hulkenberg in the much (and deservedly) maligned Sauber, who started last on the grid and finished 3rd for his first podium appearance in an F1 career spanning over a decade and 270 races.
Verstappen spun from 2nd during a restart behind the safety car under wet conditions. His no-downforce strategy may have worked in a fully dry race, but the rain - which had been forecast correctly for days in advance - undid the gamble. The fact that Red Bull is reduced to throwing Hail Marys like this shows you how far off the pace the car is.
As to Piastri’s penalty, he was dinged for “driving erratically” behind the safety car. When the safety car’s lights go off, control of the line of cars transfers to the race leader. No one can overtake until the start/finish line. The safety car’s lights went out quite late in the lap, Piastri hit the brakes because he needed space to let the SC peel off into the pits to be able to accelerate to race speed, and Verstappen in 2nd had to jink around him in order to avoid driving into Piastri’s gearbox.
Unfortunate circumstances all around. It’s not the SC’s job to give Piastri any special consideration, it’s Piastri’s job to work with what he is given; just like every other driver. The penalty options were 5 or 10 seconds, and Piastri got the latter. The McLarens finished 5 seconds apart so, in a way, we were robbed of a battle for the win.
Still it was entertaining from lights out to chequered flag, thanks to weather that only a British summer’s day can supply.
US up 1-0 after only 5 minutes in the Gold Cup final. Idiot organizers did a huge pyrotechnic show pregame and NRG is filled with smoke.
Chris Richards. 
The field looks to be in worse condition than the old Texans grass trays that injured everybody
Cutting up pretty badly.
He always reminds me of Phil Lynott
