Football all the time

It didn't feel like it as the weekend was passing, but I realized that I ended up watching quite a bit of football this weekend. I caught Manchester City 3-0 over Wigan and Arsenal 1-0 over Swansea City in the Premiership. I also caught a large piece of the Palermo 4-3 over Inter barnburner in Serie A. In addition, I caught small chunks of several NCAA football matches and of a couple of NFL games as well. I guess it just didn't feel like a lot until after the fact because the only one I was close to seeing all of was City and Wigan.

That game might have been even more strongly dominated than the score would indicate. Wigan had a few good chances, but not very many. City had several close misses, including a post and a crossbar, as well as the missed PK and another deflected shot that only missed by a foot or two. I was kind of hoping Wigan would find a way to win, since I usually cheer for the underdog, but this dog allowed way too many chances behind their defenders. Aguero will get most of the ink for his hat trick, but only one of the three was really a good finish. The other two were him against the goalie, and his midfielders deserve as much credit for those (and for the chances others got) as he does. Still, it was an impressive display across the board. I hadn't realized how good City is; they're for real.

Gunners over Swansea was much less interesting. The Gunners did dominate, but not with lots of pretty chances. They just didn't allow Swansea to do much of anything. van Persie looked extremely good. I can't really remember anyone else jumping out at me.

Palermo and Inter was quite a game. Inter dominated the play the whole time I was watching (I think I turned it on very shortly after Palermo scored to tie it at two), but was unable to break through. Palermo was basically just trying counter-attacks, and was unable to sustain any kind of possession. But, largely thanks to some nice set pieces, it was enough for them. I was really impressed by Miccoli. He had the pretty, set-piece third goal, but also had a couple of really close calls on earlier set pieces. I can't remember noticing him in the flow of play, but those were some pretty free kicks. "Bend it Like Miccoli" might not have the same ring to it, but might be even more accurate, as he showed several different bends to his.

One thing I wondered about; it's been a long time since I've watched Serie A. They seemed to rely far more on long passes than one generally sees in international play or in the premiership. I wonder if that was just those teams, or if that's typically the case.

Oh, and with those jersey colors, a City/Palermo game would be pretty damned funny to watch. And might even have interesting play, as well.

As for the American football, it wasn't very interesting, as all of the games I watched pieces of were pretty well decided when I turned them on. It certainly was surprising to see Indianapolis and Pittsburgh get blown out, though. Time will tell if we're seeing a bit of a changing of the guard (and I certainly wouldn't mind if that were the case).