All football post (almost)

Pretty big football weekend for Carolina Hellenic Blue.

Carolina opens the season as a ranked football team for the first time in years on Saturday, September 5th at 6:00 pm. The Heels take on The Citadel, a military school located in secessionville, Charleston, South Carolina. The Tar Heels will open with a team from the lesser football division (formerly Division 1-AA, now called the Football Championship Series division since they utilize a quaint method known as 'a tournament' to determine their national champion) for the third straight year.

I agree with many who say this is an important season for the Butch Davis version of the football Heels. Almost all the players on the roster are his recruits, and everything about the program has Davis' stamp on it.

And the Heels should be good. They return 8 of 11 starters on defense. On that side of the ball the Heels should be fast, especially at linebacker.

The main questions are on offense. Most pre-season talk has focused on an inexperienced corps of receivers. But for me the keys will be quarterback T.J. Yates' health and turnovers (HUGE football acumen here: the key to the team will be the quarterback and not making mistakes - brilliant!).

When healthy, Yates is an above-average athletic playmaker. I hope he can start 11 games this season. Plus, Greg Paulus's brother is his back up this year, and I'm just skeptical about anything Paulus related.

Last year, Carolina didn't turn the ball over than much, but they did so at terrible moments. A few drive-killing turnovers by Shaun Draughn, especially against Virginia Tech and Maryland, altered those games and perhaps even cost the Heels a 10-win season.

So it will be interesting to see how The Citadel game goes. Last season, another hyped Heels squad struggled to beat a Division 1-AA school in McNeese State. Carolina's defense should dominate the Bulldogs, but it will be telling to see how the offense plays tomorrow. A good start, say a 30-3 win, will demonstrate that the defense is as good as advertised AND give the offense confidence heading into the more challenging part of the UNC's schedule.

GO HEELS!

HELLENIC FOOTBALL

Greece plays a huge game tomorrow at Switzerland in a 2010 World Cup qualifying match. Ellas and Switzerland are tied atop their group with 13 points each, so the winner of tomorrow's game will have the inside track to qualify. The 2004 European champions should be easily leading their group, but Greece inexplicably lost to the Swiss at home earlier this year.

A win, and the 3 points, would virtually guarantee Greece's qualification for the 2010 World Cup (it would only be the second World Cup for Greece; they qualified but played embarrassing football in the 1994 World Cup here in the U.S.). But a tie, and 1 point, would not be the end of the world (cup) for Ellas. That's because Switzerland has a tougher schedule after tomorrow's tilt. While Greece goes on to play at Moldova before finishing at home versus Latvia and Luxembourg, 9 relatively easy points to pick up, the Swiss have games at Latvia and Luxembourg but finish at home against a tough Israel team. If any of those games end in a tie the Swiss will only pick up 7 points, giving Greece the group and a ticket to South Africa.

The game against Switzerland will be shown on a delayed basis on Setanta sports Saturday at 4 pm eastern. If you are in DC feel free to come by the house to watch the game with me and Evan. However, we have to leave right at 6 pm, right after the game should end, to go to a 7:05 Nationals game.

Please let me know ahead of time if you want to come over so I can have enough ouzo on hand.

GO ELLAS!

ONE LAST FOOTBALL NOTE

Interesting column today by Tom Boswell regarding the offensive nicknames (a term he uses in the column) and football game tickets. The column expands on a recent article in the Post that discussed the role of ticket broker that also debunked the myth of the long waiting list for season tickets.

The most shocking tidbit though was that the team sues season ticket holders who do not buy all their tickets. So which one is it, is there a waiting list for these sought-after tix, or do you have to take legal action to force a FAN to buy tickets? Either way, the ticket practices confirm all the spoiled and unlikeable rich-kid stereotypes about team owner Daniel Snyder.

I Hope This Run Continues

If Carolina wins their fifth NCAA championship this weekend it will conclude a great great week. Passing the lands bill, visiting the White House, Ariadne getting admitted and deciding to attend Burke next year, her performance in the Phantom Tollbooth where she was fantastic as Tock - she has a real gift for acting, and has great timing, facial expressions, can ad lib, and is funny and charismatic, but I'm biased -  Evan already hitting the cover off the ball and doing a good job in the play too, AND Carolina in the Final Four is almost too much for me to handle.

Villanova will be a tough game but one I expect Carolina to win in the same way they handled Gonzaga or Duke this year, especially the game at Cameron.  Don't be surprised if Carolina leads early, Villanova goes on a run to make it close or take the lead at half before Lawson and Ellington assert themselves in the second half and Carolina ends up winning by 12 to 16 points.  The Heels will end up wearing out the Wildcats, and Carolina's talent will eventually overwhelm Nova.

Not too much else to say about that game, but that won't stop me from making two more points.   One, Villanova has more scorers than Oklahoma did but I expect Carolina's defense to replicate what they did against the Sooners.  The Heels did a great job moving on defense and playing the passing lanes in the regional final win. 

And two, their improved defense is one reason the Heels should prevail but the most important factor is their resolve. I like the way everyone from Roy to the walk-ons has reference last year's flop in the first half against Kansas.  That memory has produced a very focused North Carolina squad, one that should handle Villanova tonight.

FINAL FOUR FULMINATIONS

•  I'm sentimentally picking Michigan State to defeat Ed and Jim's Huskies.  A state school representing an economically-battered state playing in Detroit is too sentimental of a story for me to pick against (at least in the semi-final).  Plus, everyone who plays for Michigan State is from Sparta so it's the only Greek squad in the tournament.
  
• Greece picked up 4 points this week in tying then defeating Israel in World Cup 2010 qualifying.  Greece leads their group but is essentially tied with Switzerland.  Mark you calendars for the first week of September when Ellas plays their home and home series against the inventors of the kookoo clock!
• I follow Greek soccer fairly close, and would like to do the same for MLS.  We usually go to a few United games, and the women's league is back this season so I bet we'll go to the two or three United-Freedom doubleheaders planned for RFK.  I think MLS would be better served if they moved their season up or back a few weeks.   Instead, they launch their season during March Madness and around opening day for baseball and no one, least of all ESPN or sports TV, seems to pay much attention.  I'd start earlier, in February if possible when the sports scene has a lull between the Super Bowl and March Madness/MLB opening day.
• Finally, congrats to Run-DMC for being admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The trio made their mark rapping over rock records, and their songs featured hip-hop beats and lots of guitar and became a bridge between hip-hop and rock and roll.  Their song and video for 'King of Rock' is a punk rockish kiss off to mainstream rock and roll, complete with a great anti-Beatles lyric that makes fun of John Lennon's death ('there's three of us but we're not the Beatles;" the Meatmen had a similar song called "One Down Three To Go").   Lots of punks/scenesters listened to Run-DMC, Public Enemy, etc. back then.  Ironic that their greatest 'hit' - their cover of Aerosmith's 'Walk this Way' ended their career. Covering a classic rock song cost them their street cred with hip-hop fans and with punk rockers, and both groups of fans stopped buying Run-DMC records after that album came out.