I don't even know where to start

It's the last week of the season in the SPL. Can you feel the excitement? I can, but I know there is one guy who will not. That man is Stuart Dougal who, as of yesterday, has retired as a referee in Scotland. Judging from the reactions from both sides after his last match--Rangers-Aberdeen on Saturday--he waited one game too long to do so.

Dougal had a bit of a 'mare in that match, sending off a player from each side, but missing the call in both cases. Below you can see the replay of the incident that left the Dons a man down in the 18th minute.



Fine, fine acting there by Kyle Lafferty. Did you catch the wink to a teammate at the end? Dougal did end up evening up the sides in the 40th minute when he sent off Gers' Madjid Bougherra for kicking Aberdeen keeper Jamie Langfield in the head. I have found no video of the incident, but I do have this picture:


To be fair, the red card was apparently given on the insistence of the lineman, but no contact was made on Langfield by Bougherra's boot. Oops #2.

Obviously, these decisions rankled both sides. I, as an Aberdeen fan, am not going to say that they changed the outcome of the game. I will only say that the losses hurt both teams and the red card suspensions will hurt them some more.

But wait! The SFA has reviewed the evidence and, backed up by an admission for Dougal that he was wrong on both counts, look likely to drop the bans on Charlie Mulgrew and Bougherra. Further, the SFA are said to be mulling a ban on shameless diver Lafferty, though any ban will not take effect until next season. Rangers have also taken a stand on Lafferty, fining him an undisclosed amount and were also likely that catalysts for his public apology.

Also big on the public apology is referee Dougal. As noted above, he announced that he would retire a week earlier than previously expected. A fairly deflating end for a man who just last year got the plum assignment on the Scottish schedule--the SFA Cup Final. Dougal had also reffed two Intertoto finals and had been selected as a fourth official at both Euro 2004 and the 2002 Super Cup. However, this season had been particularly tough for him because of some injury concerns. Earlier in the month it seemed that he was destined to finish up his career with lower division matches until the SFA decided to give him the referee's equivalent of the testimonial. Of course, I don't think anyone involved in the selection will be sanctioned, only the referee who has admitted he was out of his element.

Finally, since I have your ear (or eyes), a word or two on the final weekend in the SPL. There are essentially three races to look out for on the final weekend. On Saturday, Inverness CT will host Falkirk in a last ditch relegation fight. Anything less than a win, and Falkirk will go down. ICT will likely go down with a loss, but can be saved if St Mirren pull a Norwich on the last day (lose by a bunch with everything on the line) while hosting Hamilton.

The Top Six finish up on Saturday. Rangers and Celtic, of course, are vying for the top spot. Celtic handed the reins back to Rangers with a draw against Hibs last week. Rangers will take the title with a win or a draw and Celtic draw or loss. Celtic host Hearts, who have nothing to play for, while Rangers travel to Dundee United who do. United need a single point to secure European play. Should they fail to produce that point, then the door is open for Aberdeen to sneak into the last European slot with a win. Aberdeen will have to defeat a suddenly in-form Hibernian squad at Pittodrie to even have a hope. The games will kick off at 8.00 AM EDT, so say a little prayer the night before for my beloved Dons, won't you?

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Hey, look! Non-CL stuff!

Please, please, please don't blow it tonight

I'm sure you all know this, but it's a pretty big weekend in the SPL. So big, in fact, that it starts tonight with not just one, but two matches. The rest of the weekend's slate finishes on the actual weekend. Weekend.

First of all, let's talk about the scheduling oddity that in no way was planned. Basically, there are three derbies this round, two natural and one media created. Tonight, Hearts and Hibernian take part in an Edinburgh derby while Dundee United and Aberdeen contest the so-called New Firm derby. That leaves--which those of you playing your scorecard at home already know--the Old Firm derby between Rangers and Celtic for Saturday.

Why oh why are there two matches on a Thursday night, you ask. Well, that's apparently down to the SPL not paying attention. Dundee United's main rival, Dundee FC, play in Scotland's First Division. Dundee FC's park is right across the street from United's. Dundee FC has had a home match scheduled for Saturday since the fixture list came out last summer. Even though United claim to have told the league about this conflict, no one seemed to note the clash until one day after the post-split schedule came out. That was the day the tie was rescheduled for the preceding Thursday, or tonight to you and me. The downside, for me at least, is that tonight's game--possibly the most important this season for Aberdeen--will not be televised (and therefore not streamed) since the Edinburgh tilt is the initially scheduled game for TV tonight.

So, yeah, it's a big game tonight for Aberdeen. They currently sit four points and three goals in differential behind tonight's opponent for the last Europa League spot from Scotland. A win tonight for the Dons could propel them into Europe. A draw or a loss and the hope is basically gone. United still have both Rangers and Celtic to play as well as a match against a Hearts club looking to hold onto third place. Aberdeen also have Rangers and Hearts left, but could--with a win tonight--leapfrog United with a further win over a playing-out-the-string Hibs side. It's a longshot, but it's there. Just wish I could watch it.

As for why Rangers and Celtic, the two clubs vying for the SPL title once again, play each other this early when a final day showdown could easily be scheduled--think Liverpool-Arsenal from Fever Pitch--well, it comes down to nervousness. Since the split has become part of the SPL schedule, the two clubs have routinely asked the league to refrain from making them play each other on the last day of the season. Oh, and the Glasgow police request the same, since a title-deciding, one-off match could incite some mayhem in the city.

Saturday's match will most likely decide the title. A win for Celtic would almost certainly wrap things up, as a four point lead with three games remaining should make them uncatchable. A draw or a Rangers win would keep the title race closer, but, honestly, whoever is in front after this weekend will probably win the title with only a few worrisome moments.

Anyway, at 3 PM EDT, Dundee United and Aberdeen kick off. I ask all of those who don't have a proverbial dog in the fight to help me out and say a little "Mon the Dons" to yourself during the game. Every little bit helps, yeah? Also, if you'd like, you can follow along here, assuming the page updates by then.

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Scotland Wrap Up 07/08

Because your internet access only goes so far, we are here to let you know exactly how things finished up in Scotland, and how that jibes with what we wrote at the halfway point. The top and bottom picks look pretty good, but the middle gets kind of murky. Oh well, no one is perfect.

SPL Final Standings
Celtic (89 points)
Right off the bat, here's one I got correct, and even for the reasons stated. Back in January, Rangers and Celtic were in a dead heat, and Rangers had two games in hand--aganst Gretna and St. Mirren. On the surface, it would look like Rangers had the advantage. Instead, as I astutely pointed out, Rangers were set to face some serious fixture congestion, and they did. As April and May unfolded, Celtic kept winning in the league, unburdened by cup runs. Rangers on the other hand were chasing an impossible quadruple. As Rangers were facing a need-to-win match seemingly every three days in the last month, they faltered, giving Celtic the title.

Rangers (86)
As mentioned above, Rangers were done in by their quadruple dreams. Back in January, they had just been knocked out of the Champions League into the UEFA Cup. I opined that they would go further in the UEFA Cup than Celtic in the Champions League, but I had no idea they would go so far. Rangers made it all the way to the final, where they lost 2-0 to Zenit St. Petersburg. What killed Rangers' ambition in the end was not the SFA, no matter what fans may think, but too many games in general. when the season ended on May 24 with a win over Queen of the South in the SFA Cup final, Rangers had not had a midweek without a game since March 22. From March 29 to May 24, Rangers played 18 matches. To their credit, Rangers were in every competition to the end, and could have pipped Celtic on the last day of league, if they had bettered Celtic's result. Celtic won, Rangers lost, and the dream was over. Rangers do finish with the cup double to hang their hats on.

Motherwell (60)
This is where the prediction start to look rather dodgy. In January, Motherwell had just lost their captain Phil O'Donnell after he collapsed and died on the pitch against Dundee United. I said that the death would cause Motherwell, at the time in third, to freefall in the standings and that a sixth place finish would be lucky. Boy was I wrong. Instead, all of the teams around them faltered and Motherwell turned out to be surprisingly resilient. For their season-long effort, the team will be rewarded with a UEFA Cup spot next season.

Aberdeen (53)
Sure, it was a homer pick, but it looked so good on paper. Based on their shock advancement in the UEFA Cup and their early activity in the January transfer window, I thought Aberdeen would easily end up third in the league. Instead they managed a pretty shocking fourth. I say a shocking fourth place because of how they got there. After Aberdeen was dumped out of the UEFA Cup by Bayern Munich, everything fell apart. Aberdeen was struggling with injuries at the time, with up to 9 first-teamers out of the lineup. The Bayern loss was in the middle of a 9-game non-winning streak where Aberdeen fell from fifth to ninth in the league with four games left before the split. Aberdeen got 9 of 12 available points, and pipped Falkirk into the top 6. From there, Aberdeen did well enough to overtake Hibs and Dundee United for fourth place. If only they had not met the beast that is Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup semis (after knocking out Celtic-away!).

Dundee United (52; +6GD)
First of all, for those of you who are not familiar with Scottish football, I have to say the following: This team is Dundee United, not Dundee. Dundee FC are another team entirely who actually play across the street from Dundee United. Dundee are currently in the First Division. Thank you for playing attention. Dundee United spent most of the season battling Motherwell for third spot. That is, until the split, when United decided winning was useless and pulled off two draws to go with three losses. All in all, a pretty good season for the Terrors, they just got done in by their poor run over the last third of the season. Ending the season pulling 14 points from 14 games is never going to get you into Europe.

Hibernian (52; +4GD)
Finishing sixth by way of goal differential was Hibernian. There is not much to say about Hibernian's season. Like Aberdeen, they had a good, early '08 run to get into the Top 6. Once the split occurred, they played as poorly as Dundee United. A perennial mid-table finisher finishes mid-table.

Alright, so I got the correct teams in the split, though I nearly dropped the ball on Motherwell. Let's speed through the bottom half, shall we?

Falkirk (49)
Poor Falkirk. Done in on the last day of the pre-split season by way of losing to Aberdeen 2-1 when only a draw was necessary. Though they had slim European ambitions, such a loss hits a team hard financially, as you miss out on a likely home tie against either Rangers or Celtic, or both, depending on how the regular season broke down. I must say, this was a pretty strong season for Falkirk. They challenged for a Top 6 spot until the last day and looked fairly dangerous all season long. If they keep it up, I would look for a fourth place finish out of them next season.

Heart of Midlothian (48)
Here is a team that did much better over the second half of the season, but still never got over the hump. Back in January, this team fell all the way to 11th place after five straight losses. Things looked bleak for the Lithuanian-backed club. However, they found some form and started to alternate wins with losses and climbed up the table. An eighth place finish flatters their mid-season form.

Inverness CT (43)
ICT never jumped out of the Bottom 6 all season, despite having ample opportunity to do so around the mid-season mark. A horrible run in February and March saw them take two points off of nine matches. Unfortunately, given their location and ambition, this is probably as high as we will see them finish in the next souple of years. Look for their manager, Craig Brewster, to move on to great things over the next decade.

St. Mirren (41)
St Mirren was another team that never got out of the Bottom 6. A big reason for that was their stunning inability to score goals. They scored 26 in 38 games, less than relegated Gretna. If not for Gretna's troubles, this would have been one hell of a lucky team to escape relegation.

Kilmarnock (40)
The team I bag on for being boring finishes 11th. Back in November, they had reached up to fifth place and looked to be doing very well. By the time January rolled around, Kilmarnock had already slipped to ninth and were sinking fast. Will be part of the relegation battle again next year.

Gretna (13)
What can I say about Gretna that I have not said already? Well, this: the team no longer exists as of today, June 3. Things started off rocky in the south and never got better. Their point total is artificially low because of a 10-point deduction for going into administration, but Gretna never were going to threaten to stay up. A sad end for a club that made a pretty fun run up the leagues, all the while engendering hatred from the rest of teams in the country.

Hamilton Academical take the lone promotion spot into the SPL, besting Dundee (remember what I said above?) by seven points in the First Division. It will be their first time in the Scottish top flight in 20 years. At the bottom of the First Division, Stirling Albion was relegated, while Clyde fought off Second Division challenges for their First Division place. However, since Gretna was demoted to the Third Division (and now out of the SFL entirely), playoff losers Airdrie United were promoted into the First Division, joining automatic promotees Ross County.

In the Second Division, Berwick Rangers were left for dead at the middle of the season, and Cowdenbeath joined them in going down. Arbroath won the playoff into the Second Division, with Stranraer taking the "Gretna back door" promotion. Those two join East Fife, who won the Third Division by a whopping 23 points, securing their promotion in March.

Finally, now that Gretna is out of the league entirely, who will be invited to the SFL? There have been four names bandied about, and I'll give them to you in the order of the likelihood they will get the invitation.

Spartans FC - This was the team who tried to buy their way into the league by taking over the debts for Gretna. They have a nice size stadium with all of the necessary trimmings to be allowed into the Third Division, though some may have taken offense to their gambit to buy their way in.

Cove Rangers - My pick for inclusion would be Cove Rangers. Scottish football has always suffered for too much congregation around the forty mile wide belt between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Cove Rangers are situated just south of Aberdeen, Scotland's third largest city. If the three East of Scotland League teams split votes, Cove Rangers may just slide in.

Preston Athletic - Word is they will change their name if admitted to the SFL. Don't hold your collective breath. Their stadium still needs expensive updating to get up to SFL standards, and with that being part of the reason for Gretna's demise, I think the SFL will be loathe to go down that path again so soon.

Annan Athletic - Truly on the list as a sentimental choice, as this team's home is rather close to Gretna. Stadium is up to snuff, I believe, but their election to the SFL is highly unlikely.

You need to go to the excellent billsportsmaps.com for the image at the top. He does some great work there.

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ü75's *NEW* Most Hated Team of the Moment: Queen of the South

Sorry, Liverpool. Your reign lasted only a couple of days. There is a new team that draws my ire, having beaten a team I follow in a game I expected my team to win. Usually this occurs in a knockout tournament, though sometimes a costly loss in league can trigger it. Some teams are exempt from being a MHTotM since they are always hated, like Chelsea, Manchester United, Rangers and some others. Still, until 9.30 AM on Sunday, I never thought I'd have to drop Liverpool to add Queen of the South as my Most Hated Team of the Moment.

Part of the reason a team becomes a MHTotM is because I am paying attention to the match. If I had no knowledge of Saturday's game until mid-afternoon (my time), I would just shrug it off and say, "oh well". Unfortunately for me on Saturday, that was not the case.

Saturday's game was a 12.15 kickoff Glasgow time, or 7.15 AM EDT. Since I had no expectations of being up at that time, I made no plans to follow the game. My son had a different idea of what time was appropriate for weekend wakeup, though, and chose 7.20 to start fussing. Seeing as I go to sleep around 2 and young'uns normal wake time is around 9, this was a tad early for me. I got him up, got a bottle ready, and plopped us both in my recliner.

Early morning Saturday TV is unfit for adults, even those with child-like tendencies. I flipped around for a bit before realizing there was not a damn thing on. I pulled up the menu to see if there was anything on the DVR that I could watch. Nope, just my wife's recording of Secret Life of a Soccer Mom. Then it dawned on me, Aberdeen is playing, and in a game they should easily win. I fired up my laptop.

By the time I got logged on, about 20 minutes had passed. I pulled up BBC's play by play, which always runs a few minutes behind. In another window, I pulled up SkySports live ScoreCentre. Uh oh, Queen of the South scored. Well, it was still early so I wasn't panicked. I refreshed the BBC page to get the writeup of how they scored. When I digested that, I went back to the ScoreCentre and saw Aberdeen tie the match up within 15 minutes. Alright, now we'll score a few more and get to the final. Halftime came, my son finished his bottle, and Aberdeen were said to be in control of the tie.

With my son playing around me, I settled in for the second half. I didn't have much time to settle because a goal came almost immediately. As you can probably guess, QotS scored it. I cursed (don't tell my wife). Four minutes later, Aberdeen leveled again 2-2. Three minutes after that QotS scored again. Jebus! Aberdeen then notched a third comeback goal six minutes after. Before the BBC liveblog could catch up, the dagger came. John Stewart, who started his career at Aberdeen and played there until 2006, scored QotS's fourth goal one minute after Aberdeen got their third. Despite Aberdeen hitting the crossbar and post in quick succession two minutes later, the SPL squad could not score again. 4-3 was the final, with five of the goals coming in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

This is the first ever cup final for Queen of the South who had previously only been to the semis once, 58 years ago. This season, they are mid-table in the First Division, safe from relegation, but almost 30 points behind the promotion challengers. Now, like Gretna two years before them, if the right team makes the final opposite them (Rangers in this case), QotS will be a lower division club playing in Europe. Bastards.

Yesterday, in my Google alerts, I came across a short blog post by an American who just moved to London. He caught the game, and was "thoroughly unimpressed" by it. He cites that it seemed like Scottish soccer was like Arena Football in that there was too much scoring. And here I thought Jim Rome told us Americans don't like soccer because there is not enough scoring.

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The Inevitable Letdown: Bayern-Aberdeen Liveblog

After last week's draw, Aberdeen travels to Munich this time to take on Bayern. Bayern hold the cards in this match up with a stronger team, 2 away goals and home field advantage. I'll be with you here until it gets to be too much for me, an Aberdeen fan, to bear.

image from mirror.co.uk

After the jump, some liveblogging. Feel free to join in my misery and send me emails to unprofessionalfoul@gmail.com.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
71.00 Goal Podolski. Now I get to stop paying attention, as well.

65.00 Nope. I'm calling it for this liveblog. If you want updates, go here. Thanks for stopping by. We'll do this again sometime, maybe for something I don't have to watch on a computer.

63.00 It looks like the feed just came back. Fingers crossed.

55.00 Feed gone again, possibly for good. Mackie booked for dissent. I wonder why?

49.25 Maybury over from 35. Shot looked good, but always just high.

48.00 Back with a better feed. Son is waking up. More interruptions to follow.

Kick Off Still no video. Will be stealing from other sources until I can see it myself.

Dammit Rangers tied it up in the 85th. Looks like they are going through.

HT Player seems to be giving me problems again. Hope to be back on it soon.

Halftime 2-0 Well, it could always be worse. Two goals off of setpieces give Bayern the lead. Both of the would have been saved if Langfiels spiked his hair with some strong gel. Beyond that, Aberdeen has, as could be expected, given up a lot of shots, with a couple of them threatening. Langfield has been superb when the ball is not going to the high center of goal.

Aberdeen need 2 to tie it up overall. I think they can sneak one in, but two is asking too much. Settle in, I'm getting some pizza, and be back in 15 minutes.

45.00 Lucio ( I think) off the post after a Langfield save. No injury time.

43.14 Kahn takes a back pass and almost lets it roll in goal. More for show than anything, there was no real danger.

42.00 Nicholson gets a yellow for dissent after the Bayern defender falls over Mackie and Makie gets called for the foul.

38.30 I take it back. Aberdeen has had their chances. 2 goals would bring extra time (3 goals and weep with joy). It's not black yet, but it's not looking good. Sagnol rolls around on the ground.

37.20 No way back now. Walker fires over from 35.

36.00 Van Buyten scores off the free kick. Langfield has whatever the opposite of a 5 hole is above his head. Two goals he should have saved. 2-0

35.00 Aluko gets a yellow after the German dives after taking two more steps. Who was it that did that horrible dive against Celtic last year? Some Italian. This was the same.

34.00 Just saw the Leverkusen mention. I was thrown because I did not see the stripes. Don't they usually wear stripes? And 5-0, wow.

33.00 If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd bet this ref was a crushed Real Madrid fan back in '83. Every time Aberdeen get forward, a defender goes down and gets the call.

31.20 Ottl's well struck shot from 25 easily saved.

30.00 Aberdeen are very much showing that they only have 3 in the back giving up lots of shots, but thankfully only one goal. I wish that 5 in midfield would get ahold of the ball more often.

28.00 A bit of sustained pressure by Aberdeen yields a counterattack for Bayern. The cross is headed behind by Considine. Van Buyten's header off the corner goes to Langfield.

24.35 End to end now. Luca Toni passes Zander Diamond and gets saved by Langfield on a 20 yard shot.

23.15 OOOOHHHH. Darren Mackie gets behind the defense, goes far post, and misses by 6 inches. Kahn was beaten, but to no avail. Aberdeen are finding space in the back of Bayern.

22.30 Aberdeen have a weak penalty claim denied.

20.00 The German onslaught has scaled back. More of an even game in midfield at this point.

16.45 Langfield redeems himself with a big one on one save on Altintop. Rebound shot goes wide.

15:45 Aberdeen is getting the wrath of the Spanish referee. Another talking too but no card. Bayern shoot weakly, and are in control.

13:55 Thanks to LB for the lineup update. Ribery has had a thigh strain, I believe.

11:25 Maybury pulls down an attacking Kroos 25 yards out, gets a yellow. And goddamn, Lucio scores on the free kick, right over Langfield's head. Embarrassing. 1-0.

5:00 According to SKY, Bayern are all over Aberdeen early. Podolski has already hit the bar and Aberdeen are backed into their own end. This will be ugly. Like Scotland playing the return leg against Netherlands in WC 2006 qualis ugly.

Alright, I have picture.

Kickoff Aberdeen is banged up again heading into the match, missing 4 first teamers. Bayern is a little better off than last week, but they are still missing Ribery. Starting Podolski over Klose seems to be a strange decision, but who am I kidding, he's still better than anyone on Aberdeen.

Kickoff Crap. Looks like we're not on here. Hold on while I try other options.

15 minutes until kick. I'm watching an old match where Levante (I believe) are demolishing Galatasary 5-0. Does anyone know when this match was? It says live, but I am sure it is not.

Lineups:
Aberdeen (3-5-2): Langfield, Considine, Diamond, Maybury, Foster, Nicholson, Severin, Aluko, Mackie, Miller, Walker

Bayern Munich (5-3-2) Kahn, Sagnol, Lucio, Van Buyten, Jansen, Altintop, Ottl, Van Bommel, Kroos, Toni, Podolski

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Uefa Cup Round Up

Yes, I know. It's not the glamour European event. But for the teams still in the tournament, it's pretty important. The UEFA Cup played the first leg of Round of 32 knockout matches this week. Most of the matches were played close to the vest, as is often the case in knockout phases. Still, there were some surprising scorelines, including one hell of a match played in northern Scotland.

A couple of teams more or less wrapped up their ties with resounding victories. Everton took a 0-2 away result against Norwegian side SK Brann Bergen. Werder Bremen ran Sporting Braga off the pitch 3-0, and Olympique Marseille did the same to Spartak Moscow. Sporting Lisbon defeated FC Basel 2-0 at home, while Fiorentina, Hamburg SV and Tottenham all took decisive away wins, beating Rosenborg, Zurich and Slavia Prague, respectively.

Other winners of home ties include Zenit St. Petersburg 1-0 over Villareal, Anderlecht 2-1 over Bordeaux, Bolton sliding past Atletico Madrid 1-0 and Benfica defeating Nurnberg by the same score. First leg draws were had by Galatsaray and Bayer Leverkusen 0-0, AEK Athens and Getafe 1-1, Rangers and Panathinaikos 0-0 as well as Aberdeen and Bayern playing to a 2-2 draw.

Alright, I've held out long enough. Now I'm going to talk about what I came here to talk about, Aberdeen's amazing match against the Bundesliga leaders. As you may recall, I was a little squirrelly going into the match. I held no real illusions that a banged-up Aberdeen squad could hold their own against an equally hurt Bayern. Boy was I wrong.

Aberdeen took it to the German giants from the first whistle. Aberdeen could have had a penalty in the first minute, as Ottl headed onto his own arm in the box while trying to clear. It wasn't intentional, but it did control the ball in a dangerous situation. The rest of the initial quarter hour saw Aberdeen play some quick one and two touch ball, unafraid of their much more fancied opponents.

Around the 15 minute mark, Bayern started to put their stamp on the game. Aberdeen was consistently pinned back in their own half, and certainly not helped by keeper Jamie Langfield's sudden inability to clear out of his own half. Aberdeen resorted to playing long balls up the pitch, hoping to catch out an out of sorts Bayern back line. Aberdeen did catch them out, but it wasn't from a hit and hope effort.

In the 24th minute, some quick linkup play on the right side of midfield saw Aberdeen streaming forward in numbers. After a soft shot was headed back out by Aberdeen, Sone Aluko controlled and passed out to Josh Walker. Walker curled the shot home from 24 yards, and I screamed so loud at my computer that my 7-month-old son started crying. I barely had time to console him before Luca Toni nodded a ball off to Miroslav Klose who made no mistake from 6 yards out. 1-1 in the 29th minute.

Bayern looked the most likely to take the lead over the next 10 minutes, with one point blank effort being scuttled over the bar by Klose. Aberdeen were on their heels and just waiting for halftime.

Or so I thought. In the 41st minute, Sone Aluko ran onto a Lee Miller flick on, deked a defender at the top of the box and scored easily. Aluko almost had a shot at another a minute later. He nutmegged Lucio, but seemed to be playing for the foul. By the time Aluko caught up to the ball, he was barely caught by a covering defender, otherwise he would have been in alone with the keeper again.

Halftime meant I had to leave my stream of the match and go through the rest of the day unaware of the result. When I got home, I feared for the worst. I figured a 3 or 4 goal German onslaught would have sealed the game. I fired up my computer to see that no such thing had happened. Other than Hamit Altintop following up his missed penalty kick and bundling it into the net, there was no other scoring. I will say this about the penalty, no matter what the Aberdeen site tries to say about the call, it was a definite penalty, and a stronger claim than the one Aberdeen had in the first minute. Maybury's arm was extended and it did stop a dangerous cross in the box. Unlucky, yes, but not a poor call.

One of my blogmates asked if this was a big upset, so I'll try to put it into general football terms. This scoreline is not as shocking as, say, Havant & Waterlooville twice leading Liverpool at Anfield. I'd put it more like a First Division club drawing Manchester United or Arsenal. There is a huge gulf in talent and money between the clubs, so the 2-1 halftime lead and even the 2-2 final are big deals. As I said yesterday, Bayern is full of international players, whereas even the Scots on Aberdeen don't sniff the Scotland squad. Aberdeen's two goal scorers were 18-year-olds on loan from lower rung Premiership squads. Even as a fan, I would not have expected this result and it leaves me buoyant and proud to wear my Aberdeen shirt today.

All happiness aside, reality comes back next week. The return leg is on February 21 in Munich. A 2-2 home result is tantamount to a loss when it comes to knockout stages. Aberdeen need a win in Munich, and as Bigus pointed out in yesterday's comments, that's not too likely for a British team to pull off.

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There's Only One Bernd Dreher

Ah, nostalgia. This is John Hewitt scoring the winning goal in the 112th minute against Real Madrid, securing the 1983 edition of the Cup Winners' Cup for Aberdeen. In getting to the final, Aberdeen also defeated European giants Bayern Munich in the semifinals, stunningly winning 3-2 at home after an away nil draw. This win over Bayern is considered by many Dons fans to be the greatest night ever at Pittodrie, though that may all change later on tonight.

Truthfully, there is no reason for Aberdeen to look for a result tonight. They are on horrible form in the SPL, while Bayern continue to maintain their hold on the Bundesliga. Bayern have Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose up top, while Aberdeen counter with Lee Miller. Aberdeen have zero internationals while Bayern are chock-full. Still, hope remains.

It seems that Bayern may have to start 41-year old squad keeper Bernd Dreher, owing to Oliver Kahn being sent home ill, and backup Michael Rensing having injured himself lacing his boots. It's not David Seaman worthy, but that's a pretty lousy way to claim to injure yourself. At least butch it up next time and say you were tombstoning.

The goalkeepers aren't the only ones thin for Bayern right now. Flu has decimated some of the squad as well, while Franck Ribery and Mark van Bommel are out with injuries. Plus, let's not forget that many of the players are German, and they never did well trying to invade the UK in the past, now did they?

Okay, I'm officially clutching at straws now.

Work will preclude me from watching the second half of this match, and I, for one, am thankful. I'll be blissfully unaware of the final outcome until about midnight Eastern tonight. I'll take that extra 10 hours of hope before I'm deposited back into the current malaise of following my club on the back end of what will be a 1-4 loss. You can take that as a tip from the West Ham training ground.
image courtesy virginmedia.com

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The Good, The Bad, The WTF

I'll admit, I am of two minds on this week's pick. The first time I saw this shirt, I though that no shirt could ever be worse. As time passed, and I saw the shirt some more, I came to admire the ballsiness of putting this mess on a shirt. It was better than those shirts that look like a Jackson Pollock knock-off. This was a Gustav Klimt inspired creation.

The fact that this jersey was once worn by the team I support above all others played absolutely no bearing on my change of heart, I swear.


This was the change strip from 1994-96. Luckily for me, having long since moved away from Scotland, I never saw this in the flesh. It wasn't until the interwebs made it possible for me to follow my club again that I saw these. I'm guessing your reaction was pretty close to mine. As in, "Who ever thought this was a good idea? It's horrible!" Or something like that. I submit to you, give it time. Let it wash over you. Bookmark this page and come back to it. You'll like it. You'll love it. You'll be the one guy on ebay that actually will pay for it.

Truthfully, this will probably not happen. You'll be like me and take another long hard look at the shirt. You'll admire the boldness of the print, but then you'll look at that stupid, striped collar and just know it will scratch your neck. You'll look at the badge and ask yourself just why it's so big on the shirt. Eventually, you'll just decide to cut out the middle man and get your coed-impressing Klimt T-shirt from ebay instead.

Aberdeen shirt courtesy footballshirts.dk
Klimt shirt is really from the ebays

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