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My Left Foot, what is with this reference to your name -- are you an admirer of Christy Brown?

The first Champions League final to be won the day after it started! Random piece of trivia for you!

Great win for Liverpool!!!!
Interestingly enough I was looking down at Liverpools team sheet to find all those South American players, you know, those with all that flair and skill and passion. Plenty on Milan's team but, golly gosh they didn't win the Champions League, Liverpool did. A European team full of Europeans!!!!!!!!

Have to admit I have no idea who Christy Brown is ? Can you explain ? Was she the person who hacked down Vierra in Foleys video topic "One for Kyle" ?

In all seriousness (for a change). I think you'll find that in the last couple of years (particularly when they were still involved in Champions League and looking to win the title - so perhaps not this year) Man Utd and others have been playing FA Cup matches with sometimes only 3-5 first choice players. The sponsors were really upset about it, but had no power and the FA are powerless on this topic. The reason was to avoid player burn-out / injuries.

The FA Cup Final viewing figures are no surprise though. It's the only game that's going on. There are no other league or lower division games being played or shown on TV at the same time.

It's also on Saturday afternoon live in the UK, which is like a Superbowl tradition. I think it's still on terrestrial TV (free) too.

In the past Games were rarely live in England except that one. Now they are live but they are spread the live TV games on pay-per-view and over the full weekend so viewing figures are impacted by people usually only getting to watch one or two games which means ratings are very spread out.

Even my Mum used to sit down and watch the FA Cup. She was from Sunderland and delighted in their 1973 1-0 win over Leeds (the then dominant English team). Sunderland were not even in the top division and this was a massive upset.

So although last weekends game had two (one) great teams with a lot of National support playing, I stand by my comment on the devaluation of the FA Cup, versus the Premiership. Of course the Premiership has also grown in stature at the same time as the FA Cup has fallen from grace.

By the way, my Father, my Father-in-law, my Brother and Brother-in-law all played in the FA Cup. My Dad reached the third round with Swindon Town. This was our families best showing. Unfortunately, I wasn't good enough.

Christy Brown is 'My Left Foot' -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097937/

REVIEW #1
Daniel Day-Lewis' almost impossible performance as a man with cerebral palsy earned him a well-deserved Oscar in 1989 for Best Actor over the heavily favoured Tom Cruise in 'Born on the Fourth of July' and Morgan Freeman in 'Driving Miss Daisy'. The Academy was still riding the wave of awarding Dustin Hoffman a second Best Actor prize a year earlier for his performance as a mentally challenged individual in 'Rain Man' and since Day-Lewis' performance was superior to Hoffman's, the Academy had to recognize him. Day-Lewis probably would have won anyway as his performance was hard to ignore and he had never received any acting nominations from the Academy before this film despite turning in great work in such films as 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' and 'My Beautiful Laundrette.'

As Christy Brown, Daniel Day-Lewis makes his character unsympathetic as he doesn't want you to feel sorry for him. He achieved the great success of being an accomplished writer and artist. Director Jim Sheridan directs the film like a series of home movies that millions want to see.

Brenda Fricker won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress as Brown's mother and she is the real moral centre of the film and this film proves that Hollywood is capable of choosing small, lesser known films for Oscar consideration and 'My Left Foot' is a film that is uplifting without being sentimental.

-- IMDB

REVIEW #2
Christy Brown is a spastic quadriplegic born to a large, poor Irish family. His mother, Mrs Brown, recognizes the intelligence and humanity in the lad everyone else regards as a vegetable. Eventually, Christy matures into a cantankerous writer who uses his only functional limb, his left foot, to write with.

-- Summary written by Reid Gagle

REVIEW #3
In this true story told through flashbacks, Christy Brown is born with crippling cerebral palsy into a poor, working-class Irish family. Able only to control movement in his left foot and to speak in guttural sounds, he is mistakenly believed to be retarded for the first ten years of his life. Later, through the help of his strong-willed mother, a dedicated teacher, and his own courage and determination, Christy not only learns to grapple with life's simple physical tasks and complex psychological pains, but he also develops into a brilliant painter, poet and author.

-- Summary written by David Mullich

"Interestingly enough I was looking down at Liverpools team sheet to find all those South American players, you know, those with all that flair and skill and passion. Plenty on Milan's team but, golly gosh they didn't win the Champions League, Liverpool did. A European team full of Europeans!!!!!!!!"

I though Crespo scored two goals... also the best goal of the night! Where was Shevshenko, best European player of the year????

Well soccer is like that, is the beauty of the game. Congrats to Liverpool. I heard that a team from Wales is going to give up their place in the next Champions League to let Liverpool play, thats good. Rafe Benitez is doing a great job with his boys.

Here is what I think about the game;


Well my knowledge, my experience as a player, and my culture (latino) are telling me that I should give my opinion.

I have many europeans friends, most of them from Italy and Spain. Also many South American friends, most of them from Argentina.

Spaniards and Italians are differents to Americans in that aspect. They don't care about rankings.

They think their leagues are the best in the world... I don't want to make a controversy out of this. Liverpool defeated Milan, and I give Liverpool all the respect they deserve. Anytime an English team wins the Champions League, Spaniards or Italians, says "they were lucky this time." I'm not kidding, I even think the same. The level of club soccer they play in Spain and Italy cannot be compared with any other league in the world. Teams like Real Madrid, Milan, and Juventus are almost always going for the Champions League.

There is a lot of things I would love to explain it to you about South American and Hispanic soccer, but people like... make me think that is not worth it! I'm not going to waste my time when people is mean, racist, and most of the time come out with very offensive comments.

Italians and Spaniards think that the most importants tournaments in soccer are; World Cup and Champions League. So the Argentinans and Brazilians think the same with Copa Libertadores and the WC. Their leagues is also important for them.

Liverpool won the Champions... that means Milan have to get rid of some old players they have, that means Capello (maybe the best soccer coach alive) have to bring some better players to Juventus. That's what it means for Italians.

Liverpol won the Champions league... that means that Madrid have get rid of Beckam, Owen, Figo, and maybe Zidane... That means Madrid is going to bring more Brazilians and Argentinians to the team. That also means that Madrid is going to start offering millions of Euros for Lampart or Gerard. That's what it means for an Spaniard.

Since Spanish League, and Italian leagues have more South Americans, people give this leagues the respect they deserve. I'm not saying that the Premier League is bad... I'm just saying that to get "recognized" by us (latinos) they have to have more South Americans players (where the best soccer in the world is played).

Is does not surprise me that Liverpool won the champions because they have 3 Spaniards, 2 players who used to play for Barcelona, a team with a huge ego, and Benitez who came from Valencia(after doing real good in la liga). Adding to that, I think Gerard was very important to the Spanish "Armada" Liverpool has. So I would not be surprised to see Gerard playing for Madrid next year... he is a "madrid-type," of player.

I hope I don't offend anybody, this is just a latino's point of view of soccer. Liverpool won, latinos think it was "lucky" too. The only non English team that has the latino's respect now days is Chelsee.

Thanks. Hoping you guys to see this post as an opinion and not as a threat.

Thanks for putting me straight.