Watched Way Too Many Games On TV Today

Thanks to TiVO, two games played in Europe, a late afternoon start, and other factors I ended up watching 4 sporting events today - in their entirety - in between regular Saturday/parenting gigs (getting a hair cut, raking the front yard with Evan, going to dry cleaner and hardware store, buying a birthday present at Politics and Prose, and driving Ariadne to two events).  


In the end, two were worth watching and two weren't.  In order, I watched:

• The U.S. men's soccer team lose a snoozer of a friendly against Slovakia, 0-1.  I know, Bratislava in November is a tough place to play (tell me something I don't know).  The U.S., playing without Landon Donovan (busy with the MLS playoffs) and injured players Charlie Davies and Oguchi Onweyu, looked listless and unorganized as coach Bob Bradley mixed in some new players.  It was a boring loss and a pretty bad game to watch.  But it was only a friendly, though it does give all my Slovakia friends the right to talk smack at work on Monday.
• That firecracker was followed by Greece's 0-0 tie with Ukraine - in Athens - in a very important 2010 World Cup qualifying playoff game (shown live at 1 pm via Setanta Sports).  Ellas looked tight and tentative while the Ukraine was content to - successfully - play for the tie.  The Hellenic squad succumbed to their serious and stern Byzantine Greek side instead of being ruled by their active and happy-go-funky Classical Greek side.  And I think we all agree, in sports, it's better to play happy-go-funky than stern, and it showed today in a lackluster tie.   So in order to qualify for the 2010 World Cup Greece needs to win in Ukraine on Wednesday, or tie and win on away goals (for instance, a 1-1 tie means Greece advances since they would have scored more away goals that Ukraine).
• Things picked up at 4:30 when I started watching Carolina host Miami.  The Heels led 20-7 at half time thanks to a 77-yard interception return by Kendric Burney.  However, in the third quarter Miami came back and every Heel on the planet - even Bratislava! - felt another FSU-style collapse was eminent.  As it has all season, once again the defense bailed Carolina out as Burney picked off another pass that was eventually returned for a touchdown by Melvin Williams; Burney fumbled on the run back but Williams caught it in mid-air and ran 44 yards for the score.    The defense was the story, but give some credit to the offense too.   When Carolina needed one more drive to ice the game the offense drove 60 yards on 11 plays while eating up more than 5 minutes to ice the game.  It's Carolina's 5th straight win over a ranked team - third overall - and continues the post-FSU loss renaissance.  And the Heels are now bowl eligible.
• Finally, wrapped up the night with the Wizards losing to John Kuester's Detroit Pistons.  Behind newly signed Earl Boykins the Wizards roared back from an 8-point halftime deficit to lead for most of the second half.  But down the stretch Ben Gordon and Will Bynum (who played against each other in the 2004 National Championship game - vote in the poll please!) got hot and Gilbert Arenas of all people had two big turnovers.   The Wizards have now lost 6 in a row, and it appears that Arenas' timing and touch are not back after missing most of the last two seasons.  The Zards also need Star Heel Antawn Jamison back in the line up.

That's enough now.  I'm tired from all the time spent on the couch.