Pulled World Soccer Daily Premiership picks

UPDATE: The info that follows in this post has since been pulled from the WSD website. The link no longer works, but the picks are absolutely accurate.

UPDATE #2: WSD has now reposted their predictions for the upcoming EPL season table so I no longer have the scoop. I think that Steven was angered by my "cheekiness" and decided not to post the podcast of a show I was greatly anticipating.

I must begin by promising that after this post, I will try to limit the football/soccer commentary to post-game updates or weekend reviews of the Premiership.

I realize that a blog is intended to be read (an hopefully enjoyed) by people other than the author - because if you are writing for yourself, maybe a journal is better forum. Unfortunately I am painfully selfish so I am posting these following information solely for my use. If anyone else feels edified, that's icing on the cake.

Below are the EPL table predictions from World Soccer Daily hosts Steven Cohen and Howard Rogers. Those of you who haven't already clicked away from this post may notice that their predictions are wildly divergent. Slick should be encouraged by the similarities between his and Howard's picks. It is also interesting to note that though Steven is a life-long Chelsea fan, he is decidedly more pessimistic about his boys than Howard as a Man U supporter.

STEVEN’S PICK
Barclays Premier League Final Table
1. Liverpool.
2. Manchester United.
3. Arsenal.
4. Chelsea.
5. Blackburn
6. Tottenham
7. Portsmouth
8. Everton
9. Newcastle
10. Sunderland
11. Manchester City
12. Bolton
13. Reading
14. Aston Villa
15. West Ham
16. Middlesbrough
17. Fulham
18. Birmingham
19. Wigan
20. Derby County
Sack race: Billy Davies
Best buy: Florent Malouda
Biggest flop: Fernando Torres.
Player of the Year: Robin Van Persie
Dark horse: Blackburn Rovers.


HOWARD'S PICK
Barclay’s Premier League
1 Manchester United 89pts
2 Chelsea 87pts
3 Arsenal 76pts
4 Liverpool 72pts
5 Spurs 67pts
6 Blackburn Rovers 66pts
7 Portsmouth 61pts
8 Everton 59pts
9 Aston Villa 57pts
10 Newcastle United 56pts
11 West Ham United 54pts
12 Reading 53pts
13 Bolton W. 52pts
14 Manchester City 44pts
15 Sunderland 40pts
16 Middlesbrough 38pts
17 Birmingham City 36pts
18 Fulham 36pts
19 Wigan Athletic 30pts
20 Derby County 20pts
Sack race – Chris Hutchings, Wigan Athletic
Best buy – Ryan Babel
Biggest flop – Fernando Torres
Player of the Year – Cristiano Ronaldo
Dark horse – Blackburn Rovers (club), Eduardo da Silva (player)

EPL kick-off...Barclays can take a walk

I wanted to blog on Saturday's start of the Premiership's regular season, but I was beaten to the punch by my esteemed colleague Slicky.

Unfortunately, I am not going to give a prediction of the full table but I do need to make some calls on the top 7. For those who are even more newbie than I am, 7 is a magic number in the EPL as the top 4 teams are eligible for the UEFA Champions League which pits the top sides from all the professional national leagues in Europe. This is an amazing competition in which my boys from LFC have done well in recent years. The next three teams are eligible (depending on other competition results) for the UEFA Cup, a similar European competition for the next level of teams.

Slick has the following as his top sides:

1. Man U


2. Chelsea


3. Arsenal


4. Liverpool


5. Tottenham


6. Aston Villa


7. Portsmouth

My main problem comes not from his analysis but from his lack of imagination. His top 5 are exactly the same as last season! This is the first year that I will be following the EPL game-by-game and I WANT to believe that it will be unique. Thus, my imagination puts the MPG (a very prestigious sporting pundit) pre-season rankings as follows:

1. Chelsea


2. Man U


3. Liverpool


4. Tottenham


5. Arsenal


6. Portsmouth


7. Everton

Please remember that this is based upon part analysis and part imagination/hopefulness. I dislike Chelsea greatly but since I have no doubt that they are a better team than my Reds, I hope they win the league so my disdain can grow. I am trying to avoid increasing my aversion to Man U since I do like to watch them play. I think between Slick and I, it should be obvious why I place LFC and Spurs directly behind the giants and in that order. For reasons I cannot quite grasp, Arsenal is falling quickly out of favor in my book and I am sure that is OK with Slick (see North London derby). Portsmouth gets in almost solely based upon my having viewed them in the Asian Trophy final against Liverpool and I have to admit that Everton's position is largely based upon their position last year (does that make me a hypocrite?).

The EPL is back...or is it BPL?

Top-flight English football - now technically called the Barclays Premier League - officially reopened for business this past weekend as Chelsea met Manchester United at the new Wembley Stadium in the Community Shield. The season kicks off with this match up of the league champions (Man U) versus the FA Cup champions (Chelsea). In a surprisingly rough game for a friendly, Man U was victorious on PKs, riding three straight saves by their scarecrow-like keeper, Edwin van der Sar.

I got to watch the game with Slicky (the only person I know with the channels necessary to watch the EPL...oops, BPL) and enjoyed it greatly. As an added bonus, Slick and Texas Aaron went in together for my birthday and bought me an official Liverpool jersey for the upcoming season. Since I have not gotten around to having my team photo taken in my new kit, I had to resort to some cyber-trickery. The photo at left is actually my head on the body of the Reds (you don't mean communists, do you?)Norwegian defender John Riise. As I look at it, either Riise has a longer neck than I do or my photoshop wizard Paul gave me a bit of the stretch.

Back to Ukraine?!?

I hope that I have had a chance to personally talk with most of you who actually read this blog, but if not, I apologize for the surprise, which is...we are moving to Ukraine!

Since many of you already know that we have been seriously considering this for the past 3 weeks, I will take this opportunity to lay out why we made this decision.



Reason #1: The Calling

Since before Sarah and I were even engaged, we have both felt a call on our lives to participate in missions. While in Michigan I was a member of several teams, was a co-leader on a few more with the youth at Woodmen Valley Chapel and have been on Global Action trips the past 2 summers. I deeply value these opportunities and the lessons I learned about travel, teamwork and interpersonal interaction during difficult situations. Though eased to the back of my mind, I never completely lost the desire for a longer term overseas situation. I always assumed that with my Spanish skills, if this were to occur, I would find myself in Latin America. My faulty assumptions aside, both Sarah and I have been receptive to this type of situation for the entire span of our marriage.



Reason #2: The Passion

I hope that none of you is offended when I say that ever since I arrived back in the States almost 3 weeks ago, I have been yearning to return to Ukraine. I love Colorado Springs and I my local friends and family even more so, but what I experienced at the Hope Center in Kerch made me realize that I was being called to more than staying where I felt loved and comfortable.



Reason #3: The Opportunity

Upon his return to the office from his most recent jaunt around the globe (3 weeks ago Thursday), Lars asked how my trip to Ukraine was.

Half joking, I said, "Amazing! When can I go back?"

To which he responded, only 1/4 joking, "We have a position over there. Do you want it?"

To which I replied (now only barely joking), "Don't joke about that, 'cause I'll take it."

To which he answered (no longer joking), "Don't YOU joke about that, 'cause I'll give it to you."

As the weeks have progressed, we have seen doors continue to open and we proceeded to walk through them. In short, we have been given a chance to do something extremely meaningful and adventurous with little or no risk/downside. That is an opportunity that very few people are given.


We will miss seeing our Colorado Springs friends on a regular basis (we'll still be able to converse with all our friends frequently), but since the camp sleeps around 200, you are all welcome to come visit.

Ukraine Experience (part 2b)

I am hoping to get another report written in the next few days, but for now I have to point you towards one of my teammates Flickr account.


http://flickr.com/photos/jtwitmer/sets/72157601085681554/

Jeremy has quite a few shots that I would greatly recommend despite some ridiculous pictures of me.