Daily Archives for August 4, 2008

Some Olympic sports you might enjoy for the first time

Rather than doing a big bulbous Olympic preview that most of you will ignore, let me instead approach the Olympics this way. I want you, the great readers of Fighting Talker, to watch a sport that you have never watched before. Here are some sports that I think are underrated and appeal to American sensibilities.

I tend to approach convincing people to watch the Olympics rather like I try to introduce my friends to all the Asian culinary delicacies I enjoy so much (such as this, this, and this). What I say is, “Well, if you like X, then you’ll surely like Y,” with X equaling some normal American food and Y being the exotic goodie I am prodding them towards. In that vein, here are some sports I think you might enjoy, introduced by the sports you already enjoy.

Continue reading →

Thank you readers

I just wanted to take a moment to thank Fighting Talker’s readers for giving the site its fourth consecutive month of readership growth. As you can see from the chart, this little blog has grown immensely from when I started it on a lark back in March.

Thanks again, folks. Be sure to keep reading and please, keep commenting.

Let’s all start watching Colorado, really

If I wear this red "power" tie, I might fool people into thinking that I know what I am doing.

I completely forgot about this but thankfully Fullback Files has reminded me that DC United fans have a whole sideshow to follow this season, cheering for Colorado to stink as much as possible in order for the draft pick received for Gomez to be as high as possible. For that degree of suckitude to take place, that requires coach Fernando Clavijo to not get fired.

So remember United fans, we want Colorado to stink as much as possible, but not so much as to require Clavijo to be fired.

I am getting ready for Arsenal

French midfielder Samir Nasri, Arsenals big offseason signing.

French midfielder Samir Nasri, Arsenal's big offseason signing.

You might have noticed how quiet I’ve been recently about Arsenal, my “other” team beyond DC United. Don’t be confused, I follow Arsenal obsessively, reacting with horror at every top player we decline to sign and praying that Arsene Wenger is right that a teenage Jack Wilshire can support Mathieu Flamini in the center of midfield.

Anyway, the reason I have been quiet is that I am absolutely certain that this is the year the Wenger’s arrogance and refusal to acquire depth will finally doom Arsenal to crash out of the top 4 – not forever, just for this season. Maybe I was wrong, but I thought we were finally done with Senderos after last year, evidently not.

Even more worrying is the prospect of Tottenham replacing Arsenal in the top 4. I think Spurs have done extraordinarily well during the offseason, and if they manage to get Andrei Arshavin they’ll have done that much better.

Ed and I will have more on the EPL season as it approaches. I am not going to do a full preview, because frankly what can my preview add that 30 other more-knowledable publications can’t? So I will be focusing Arsenal, Ed will presumably focus on Manchester United, and at least we’ll find common ground goofing on Lifton’s Liverpool.

PS: Our new home shirts, as seen above, suck. We have a simple shirt, red body w/white sleeves. Why does Nike insist on screwing around with it. The away shirt, on the other hand, is quite nice.