Starting 11 of the Year

With the calendar about to turn to 2009, its time to name the second annual Only Time Will Tell Starting 11. During the course of year the members of the Only Time Will Tell staff have watched countless games to develop this list.

Goalie: Iker Casillas Real Madrid. Back stopped the Spanish Champions and the Euro 2008 Champions. Not a bad year.
Defenders: Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid. Can play in the center or out on the outside.
Defender: Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United. Lifted the EPL Trophy and Mr. Big Ears.
Defender: John Terry, Chelski. Sure he missed the penalty but overall still one of the best.
Defender: Jose Boswinga, Chelski. Fixture at Porto before moving to the bridge. Was one of the few bright lights for Portugal at the Euros.
Midfielders: Franck Ribery, Bayern Munich: By far the best player in Germany.
Midfielder: Marcos Senna, Villarreal. Was the anchor of the Spanish midfield during the Euros and has been an anchor for his club.
Midfielder: Iniesta, Barcelona: During the La Liga season he was ok but during the Euros he was amazing.
Midfielder: Ronaldo, Manchester United. What do you say. Simply amazing.
Forwards: Fernando Torres, Liverpool. First season in the EPL was the stuff dreams are made off.
Forward: Zlatan Ibrahimovic: Inter Milan. Was ok during the first part of the year, but the second half has been his been special.

Manager of the Year and It's not the Special One

The manager of the year is a shocker.

What a Sunday!

A week ago, it looks like the Eagles chance to make the NFL's second season were done, but after a dramatic day the Eagles are flying and the Cowboys are crying. Here is how the papers all over the country covered the final Sunday of the NFL season.

Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philly Daily News

The Trentonian

The Courier Post

Fort Worth Star Telegram

Dallas Morning NewsPioneer Press

Boston Herald

Chicago Sun Times

The Tampa Tribune

Rocky Mountain News

The San Diego Union Tribune

The Miami Herald

The NHL got something right

Leagues all over the world are doing their best to make their television networks the best that they can be. One sport might have already started a network that is going to succeed, NHL Network.

The network, which started a year ago, continues to grow. Last year the networks showed the Memorial Cup. This year the network is fully covering the World Junior Championship. The championship, which is being held in Canada this year, is something that hockey fans have only read about in The Hockey News and on the Internet.

In addition to the world juniors and the Memorial Cup the network has covered college hockey and minor league hockey. The network also offers shows like NHL on the Fly and a broadcast of the XM Radio's Hockey Show. In the future the network could look at working with European Leagues and creating a game of the week type event.

While hockey might be lagging behind other sports in popularity, their network might top of other leagues.

Jose Clause

A Christmas message from the Special One.

Could things be turning for the Aztecs

For the first time in a while, San Diego State appears to be taking college football seriously. I know what people are thinking, San Diego State, why the hell is are you writing about that. Over the last couple of weeks the Aztec Nation has been getting really excited.

First the administration goes and hire Ball State head coach Brady Hoke (right) to lead the football program. Last year Hoke was talked about as the possible head coach at Michigan. Sure the school paid a lot for Hoke, but it shows the commitment that the school is making to improve its terrible football program. Hey if you can win at Ball State, San Diego State might seem like a breeze.

The second reason why things at SDSU are looking up is because Hoke then went and hired Al Borges as the his offensive coordinator. Borges, who took last season off, last was the offensive coordinator at Auburn in 2007. Borges joined the Auburn staff in 2004. Auburn was 33-5 in the three seasons Borges was the offensive coordinator. Borges was one of the guiding lights behind Jason Campbell's development as a quarterback on the plains. He was was the leader of the 2004 Auburn offense that featured running backs Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams. Borges is from the Bill Walsh School of Offense and likes to run a balanced offense.

So with a commitment from the administration the Aztec football might start to turn the corner of the next couple of years.

Merry Christmas to All

The gang at Only Time Will Tell would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope that everyone enjoys what Santa has left under the tree for them.

Christmas in the Premier League

Jump on the Merry Go Round

Wow, that is the one word to describe the coaching merry go round this year. From the mess at Auburn to coaches that no one has heard of getting jobs.

Let's start with mess at Auburn. Did race probably play role in the choice not to hire Buffalo's Turner Gill, maybe. But Auburn has always been a difficult job. Tubs did a great job but a falling out with key boosters and a bad season will lead you to be shown the door. People want to kill Gene Chizick, but just remember he was the D-coordinator when the Tigers went undefeated a couple of years ago. So its not like he is unfamiliar with the situation on the plains. To make the Auburn situation even crazier Iowa State goes and hires Paul Rhoads, the recently fired D-coordinator at Auburn under Tubs.

Wow is there something that binds the schools in Ames and on the great plains of Alabama. Auburn is a job but you have to have the perfect mix of wins and political skills, if not you will be treated like Tubs.

I have already made my view of Tennessee's hire of Lane Kiffin known, one name Bill Callahan.

Then there is Bowling Green, Urban Myers old gig, they fire their head coach and then turn to Dave Clawson. Yes the same Clawson, who turned the Tennessee offense into one of the worst in America. Kill the offense get a job that is a great idea if you are an administration.

The one hire that might interest me the must is Dan Mullen at MSU. I'ts a hire that will get both recruits and the fan bases fired up. Mullen has been Tim Teabow's pal at Florida and with a little help should make the Bulldogs offense fun to watch. Mullen has the energy that is needed to make MSU a bowl team.

And just think there are a few other jobs out there that might get filled, so that should be fun.

Manchester United: A year in trophies

The trophy case at Old Trafford grew a lot bigger this calendar year. Four large important trophies made it to the case.

Here is a look at the trophies. It all started in early April at Wigan lifting the EPL trophy and ended in Japan lifting the World Club Cup a couple of days ago.

Premier League Champions

Champions of Europe

FA Community Shield

Champions of the World

Lets hope that 2009 provides the same amount of the trophy as this year did. Thanks to Manchester United web site for the photos.

Jose on the Champions League Draw

Could things between Sir Alex and the Special One be heading south.

OTWT: UEFA Cup predictions

During its history the UEFA Cup has been the red haired step child to the Champions League, but this year in its final year as the UEFA Cup, it has some interesting match-ups in the the Round of 32. There are a couple of former European Cup winners and even some up and coming clubs.

Here is how I see the round going:

• Paris St Germain v Wolfsburg: PSG, the only top flight club in Paris has shown a rebirth this year after a couple of years battling relegation.
  
• FC Copenhagen v Manchester City: Manchester City, the only question is what will the roster look like after the January transfer window.
  
• NEC Nijmegen v Hamburg: Hamburg.
  
• Sampdoria v Metalist Kharkiv: Sampdoria
  
• Braga v Standard Liège: Standard Liege, could be a team that makes a run deep into the knock of rounds.
  
• Aston Villa v CSKA Moscow:Villa, this might be one of the hardest ties to call. I would not be shocked if the former UEFA Cup champions beat the rising English team.
  
• Lech Poznan v Udinese: Udinese
  
• Olympiakos v St Etienne: Olympiakos
  
• Fiorentina v Ajax: Fiorentia
  
• Aalborg v Deportivo de La Coruña: Aalborg
  
• Werder Bremen v Milan: Milan, maybe Golden Balls will make an appearance in the knock out stages.
  
• Bordeaux v Galatasaray: Galatasaray
  
• Dynamo Kiev v Valencia: Valencia
  
• Zenit St Petersburg v Stuttgart: Stuttgart. Zenit look like a team that could care less to be there.
  
• Marseille v FC Twente: Marseille.
  
• Shakhtar Donetsk v Tottenham: Donetsk. I think that Harry will be more concerned with the Premier League rather then the UEFA Cup.
  

The match ups are really not that bad, some are really interesting.

OTWT: Champions League Predictions

After a slow start to the Champions League, UEFA has some cracking Round of 16 games. Today's draw showed what kind of event the Champions League can be.

Here are some predictions for the Round of 16

• Chelsea v Juventus: Chelsea on away goals.
  
• Villarreal v Panathinaikos: Villarreal, who would have thought that the Yellow Submarine would have an easier game then group winners United.
  
• Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich: Munich.
  
• Atletico Madrid v FC Porto: Atletico Madrid
  
• Lyon v Barcelona: Barcelona, the class of Europe right now.
  
• Real Madrid v Liverpool: This has two 0-0 legs and pens written all over it, but I guess Liverpool advances, cause they never drop ties that go to penalties, just ask Chelski and AC Milan.
  
• Arsenal v Roma: Roma, I think this season gets away from Arsenal really quick.
  
• Inter Milan v Manchester United: Out of all of the second place group teams this was the one that no United fan wanted to see. As a United fan, I want to pick United, but something tells me that Inter and the Special One might pull this one out. I could see a situation where Jose is running down the touch line at Old Trafford just like he did when his Porto beat United in the Champions League a couple of years ago.

Just by the look of the round of 16 draw, this could be a year where a smaller team like a Porto or Sporting could make a run deep. But lets hope that the knock out stage is more interesting then the group stages.

Late nights with Berba

The NBA does it, the NFL does it, the NHL does it, and Major League Baseball is in the process of doing. All of the major sports have decided to go into the TV network business, now the EPL might be doing the same thing. Premier League heads have said that they would explore the idea of creating their own network, if they do not receive the type of bids that they would like for their television rights.

A Premier League Network could offer great program from reserve matches to weekly shows on different clubs, but their are a couple of shows that I would like to see on the schedule if the league decides to move in this direction.

Here are some of the possible new shows the network should explore:

• Late Nights with Berba: With the emotion of a piece of paper, the United forward could host a talk show that would cure insomnia. Vampires are also welcome guest.
  
• Cooking with Rafa: The Liverpool manager shows the world how to create the best pie and then eats everything that he makes, quality TV.
• Tanning with Phil Brown: The Hull City manager shows everyone the best way to get the perfect tan.
  
• Emirates Street: A combination of Sesame Street and the Arsenal Youth Academy. Wenger, is joined by Viera and Big Bird to teach children all types of things like their ABCs and passing skills.
  

Any other shows suggestions are welcomed.

Changing of the Guard

Last year Juventus made their return to Serie A with a team of older veterans. During last season the likes of Nedved, Del Piero, and Camoranesi did the Old Lady pround returning her back to the Champions League. As the season went on the older members of the squad started to slow down and show that the end of their career was coming.

But this year the old guard has been joined by some talented kids coming through the Juventus youth system. Sebastian Giovinco, Claudio Marchisio (pictured above), and Paulo DeCeglie have given the Old Lady some zip. The trio has given the squad a fresh outlook and fresh skills.

During Juventus win over AC Milan on Sunday Marchisio gave a man of the match performance. He was all over the midfield making key passes and providing a joint of speed , that has been needed for the last couple of years. While DeCeglie helped provide width on the wing. Both showed that they will be wearing white and black for a long time.

Giovinco did not appear in the game but clubs from all over have been around Turin trying to get the 21 year old away from Old Lady. Arsenal and West Ham have been two of the most rumored destinations for the talented attacking midfielder. Giovinco oozes attacking talent and would be a great partner for Marchisio in the Juventus midfield for the next generation.

So as the some of the old guard begins to drop a step the next generation of the Old Lady is ready to break through.

Professional Taigating: Christmas in the City

On Saturday, part of the Only Time Will Tell Tailgating Crew took a trip to big city to see the holiday sights and sounds. There was no shortage of sports related sites int he big city.

Lebron James looks down on the city, Knicks fans hope that he is in the city for good in 2010.

It's snowing golf balls at New York Golf Center

The NBA store was into the Christmas Spirit.

Mr. Met is really excited about K-Rod and J.J. coming to the Mets pen.

Gary Carter in tall bobble head form, not that good.

The Game

The Game?

Need a midfielder head to Standard Liege

During the summer transfer window, Everton was rumored to be going after a couple of different players, but those did not pan out so they turned to Belgium and paid what could turn out to be 15 million pounds to Standard Liege for Marouane Fellaini.

At the time the Toffee fans voiced their pleasure saying it was a complete waste of money for such an unproven player. But as the season has gone on the supporters have fallen in love with the player that has one of the best uni brows in the world. His hard tackling, hard working style have been one of the surprises for Everton.

Fellaini success at Everton has many other EPL teams looking to Belgium for midfield help. Manchester United, Chelski and Arsenal have all been rumored to be in for Standard Liege's Alex Wistel. Wistel is versatile, he can play on the right and the left and can also play in his natural position of defensive midfielder. If teams are going to get in the race for Wistel its going to cost more then Everton paid for Fellani.

A couple of teams have also been rumored to be in for Standard Captain Steven Defour. Defour is know as a play making for midfielder with great vision. He will not come cheap either.

Standard Liege has a developed some great midfielders over the last couple of years and by selling them at the right time has allowed them to rule the rule the Belgium League.

EPL review in song

Chris Cohen sings about the EPL at the quarter pole mark, like always quality.

The Future

The kiddie Corps at United is starting to grow. First it was Rafeal, Rodrigo Possebon and now two little Serbs are on the way. United are on the verge of signing two of the most talked about Serbs in recent memory. United look set to seal a deal for Serbian starlet Adem Ljajic after he travelled to England alongside Zoran Tosic, according to Sky Sports.

Here are the videos of the two in action

Adem Ljajic, the little Kaka.


Zoran Tosic, Bambi.


The pair together

Only Time Will Tell Bowl Predictions

After an ok regular season, soon bowl season will here. Here is Only Time Will Tell officials predictions for the bowl season.

BCS Bowl Games

Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi: Penn State vs. USC: USC
FedEx Orange: Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech:Cincy
Allstate Sugar: Utah vs. Alabama: Alabama
Tostitos Fiesta: Ohio State vs. Texas: Texas
FedEx BCS National Championship Game: Florida vs. Oklahoma: Florida

Other Bowl Games

EagleBank: Wake Forest vs. Navy:Navy
New Mexico: Colorado State vs. Fresno State: Fresno State
magicJack St. Petersburg: Memphis vs. South Florida: South Florida
Pioneer Las Vegas: BYU vs. Arizona: BYU
R+L Carriers New Orleans: Southern Miss vs. Troy: Troy
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia: Boise State vs. TCU: Boise State
Sheraton Hawaii: Hawaii vs. Notre Dame: Notre Dame
Motor City:Florida Atlantic vs. Central Michigan: Central Michigan
Meineke Car Care:West Virginia vs. North Carolina: North Carolina
Champs Sports: Wisconsin vs. Florida State: Wisconsin
Emerald: Miami (Fla.) vs. California: Miami
Independence: Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech: Louisiana Tech
Papajohns.com:NC State vs. Rutgers: Rutgers
Valero Alamo: Missouri vs. Northwestern: Missouri
Roady's Humanitarian:Maryland vs. Nevada: Nevada
Texas:Rice vs. Western Michigan: Rice
Pacific Life Holiday: Oklahoma State vs. Oregon: Okie State
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces: Houston vs. Air Force: Houston
Brut Sun: Oregon State vs. Pittsburgh: Pitt
Gaylord Hotels Music City: Boston College vs. Vanderbilt: Vandy
Insight: Kansas vs. Minnesota: Kansas
Chick-fil-A: LSU vs. Georgia Tech: LSU
Outback: South Carolina vs. Iowa: South Carolina
Capital One: Georgia vs. Michigan State: Georgia
Konica Minolta Gator: Clemson vs. Nebraska: Clemson
AT&T Cotton: Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech: Texas Tech
AutoZone Liberty: Kentucky vs. East Carolina: East Carolina
International: Buffalo vs. Connecticut: Buffalo
GMAC: Tulsa vs. Ball State: Ball State

Best non-BCS game: Holiday Bowl, look out scoreboard.
World non-BCS game: Liberty Bowl
Player to use bowl game to start next season Heisman Trophy campaign: Zac Robinson, QB, Okie State.

Mascot Madness: Crazy Races

Terrible mascots racing on big wheels what could be better.

I guess I was wrong

A couple of weeks ago, I sat here and said that it was over for the for Mc5 and the birds, but boy was I wrong. First they beat the Cards on Thanksgiving night and then yesterday afternoon they beat the Giants at the Meadowlands. So I guess this means the season is far from over.

Here is how some papers covered the game in the swaps of Northern New Jersey:

New York Post

Philly Daily News

So this means that I'm going to have to keep interested in the rest of the season. Which should be fun.

Professional Tailgating: The Last Dance

The Scarlet Knight had his final dance of the regular season on Thursday night against Louisville. Here he is going shaking this groove thing.

Managers on the Edge

Don't mess with Roy Keane's dogs, its easy to understand why.

Professional Tailgating: The Final Game

So the Rutgers home season is over and what a roller coaster ride it was. Starting the season by looking like a Sun Belt team and ending the season as one of the hottest teams in all of country. So it all ended on Thursday night with game against Louisville and the Tailgating Crew was there.

Every one's favorite Turk checks in to see if Galatasary won their UEFA Cup on Thursday

Endy in the Outfield is dressed for a Carling Cup Quarterfinal at Millwall, rather then a college football game.

The red shirt freshman are waiting for their chance next season, BJones.

Saying good bye to the Stadium for the final time this season.

Simply The Best

Shocker Ronnie won the Ballon D'or. Here is the cover from France Football honoring their selection as world player of the year.

The Worst Fake FG ever

One of the worst fakes ever plain and simple.

I never thought that I would see that

With the growth of the EPL, people in the United States are starting to care about soccer. But that does not explain what I saw at a restaurant in South Jersey a couple of days ago. The wife and I went to this place called Tailgaters, which had really good food, and there were two soccer jerseys hanging on the wall and not you typical Liverpool, Chelski, Arsenal, or United jerseys. On the wall was an Italian league team jersey and a Greece Super League team, yes a Green Super League Team.

Inter Milan, the Italian league team

Panathinaikos FC: the Greek Super League team

It was weird to see a soccer jersey on the walls but a Greek Super League team just blew my mind.

William the Mole

William the Mole and Jose the Vulcan, what fun.

Bill Callahan Part II

Sometimes coaching choice make sense and other times they make no sense at all. On Friday Tennessee decided to hire Lane Kiffin to be their coach. That one makes no sense at all.

This situation reminds me of when another traditional power decided to hire a former fired Raiders head coach. A couple of years ago Nebraska, wanting to change the direction of the program, hired former Raiders head coach Bill Callahan. The hire was a complete disaster and made the program review what it wanted to do.

Making the wrong hire can set back a program for years. I hope AD Mike Hamilton knows something that I do not know, cause this has potential to be great comedy. Which as a Tennessee hater would be great.

No Shirt and Tie: No Service

Maui, Anaheim, Orlando.

While all are located in very different sections of the country, college basketball coaches think that they are the same. Every week of Thanksgiving college basketball teams head to the three cities for their annual holiday tournaments. While the tournaments offer some great basketball, one thing that is lacking is stylish coaches.

While wearing a camping shirt in Maui is part of being part of the Maui Invitational, some college coaches have taken that rule to Anaheim and Orlando. Coaches at the two tournaments have decided to all wear golf shirts or camping shirts.

I understand wearing a Hawaiian shirt at the Maui cause that is part of the cultural, but wearing one at the other two tournaments make no sense. Come on some of these college coaches are making more then $2 million a year the least that they can do is wear a shirt and tie to a game, hey you don't even have to wear the sport coat.

Look out in the stands

Cheerleader Gets Knocked Out By Bad Shot - Watch more Free Videos

This is not the greatest shot in the world, but the cheerleader found out how hard the ball was struck.

Thank you

So this is it I guess, the era is over.

The last decade has been great to be a fan of the birds, from the domination of the NFC East to the Super Bowl it has been a great time to be a fan. But now the era appears to be over after Andy Reid decided to bench Mc5 for the second half the of the Bird implosion to the Ravens.

It always painful to see the end of something, like a relationship, it never seems to the end the way that you think it would. At the start of the year, I like most Birds fans thought that this year would be a great season even maybe a trip to Tampa for the Super Bowl. But it has not happened like that, the tie versus the Bengals and then the mess that was Sunday, have made the season almost painful to watch.

If this is the end, its been a great roller coaster ride for the Reid/Mc5 era.

From draft day, where some birds fan wanted the best pot head in the world, Rickie Williams to the loss to the Bucs in the NFC Champions game during the last game at the Vet, to the Super Bowl, to the T.O. mess, to Jeff Garcia saving the season it has been a ride that many people including myself will never forget.

This has been the best era for the birds ever, anyone who says differently is dead wrong.

Reid is one of the few coaches in the history of the NFL to have over 100 regular season wins. His coaching tree is continuing to grow with two current assistance having head coaching jobs and Jimmie Johnson being one of the most respected assistants in the league. When he took over almost a decade ago, he did things right, draft Mc5 out of Syracuse and then built a great team. Remember that Mc5 is the only QB from that 1999 draft class to still be a player in the league, and Dante Culpepper does not count. When people start talking about how bad Reid has been just remember it could have been Jim Haslett.

As for Mc5 where do you start, he is the best QB that the Eagles have ever seen and there is no arguing that. He has been the face of the franchise and done things that a decade ago seemed unreachable. If this is the end of the road in green for Mc5, it was great decade and it will never be forgotten.

So if this is the end, thank you again and let the overhaul being.

Professional Tailgating: Is this Alaska?

I'm not a big fan of the cold, so yesterday's Rutgers vs. Army game was a little tough on the bones. The Only Time Will Tell Tailgating Crew was there for the fun. The cold does strange things to people, it makes people make weird fashion choices.

Endy in the Outfield shows a place for the tailgating crew to keep warm.Quincy Carter's coke habit cooks some breakfast

Tomorrow Quincy Carter's coke habit will be catching Opilio crab
Is this the next mayor of Wasilia, Alaska

If Rutgers is looking for a new kicker this guy might be the guy.