Tottenham 1 - 1 Portsmouth

Well, that was a much better performance. Of course, somehow Spurs always find a way to disappoint. Anyway, we're now officially out of the relegation zone on goal difference. Strike up the band!

For those of you who don't know...Tottenham and Portsmouth like to trade managers and players between themselves. Our current manager Harry Redknapp and forward Defoe used to manage/play for Portsmouth this season. Sol Campbell (aka Judas) used to play for Spurs before he suddenly moved to our arch-rivals Arsenal and now wears a Portsmouth jersey. Point being, all this familiarity added more drama to the already important league game.

It was a wide-open game. We out shot them 29-12. If it weren't for some spectacular saves by James we would have tonked them. Basically we dominated the game. However, 30 minutes in Roman got tackled hard from behind. So hard, that I heard the tackle on television. He had to come off on a stretcher and I hope his ankle isn't broken. Then, right before halftime, our captain King had to come off with a hamstring injury. Did I mention that our goalie has a strained groin? It's so bad that he doesn't even take the kicks anymore. Problem is, we don't have anyone else. He's our best option even though he's injured.

So, after dominating the game and not scoring, the game was perfectly setup for...a goal on a deflection. The ball grazed the bottom of Bale's foot and instead of stopping it or slowing down, it merely re-directed the shot perfectly an inch inside the post. All of a sudden we were down 0-1 and wounded. The commentator said that "we'll get to see what Tottenham are made of now", and to that end we fought well. Defoe finally scored, and had a pretty good game otherwise. However, I was left with a feeling of disappointment when the late winner was sent wide. It was just Bent and the goalie James...and although completely unmarked, Bent sent his header from 5 feet away (aka a "sitter") "wide right".

There were a lot of good things to take from this game. In typical Spurs style though, they seem to excite to only to disappoint either through a dominating performance and then injury or letting in a goal, or coming back to almost win it but falling incomprehensibly short. As one podcast said this week, "we're all serving our life-sentence at White Heart Lane". We can't leave even if we wanted to.

Ice Skating

We went ice-skating at Sertich with Headwaters Saturday night. It was a really good time. Although I skated a lot in college, I hadn't gone ice skating in over five years. I guess since Stacey and I mainly lived in California and Hawaii before moving back to a state that actually has a winter, we never really thought about going ice skating together. The good news is that nobody in our group fell the entire night! Amazing, really. At one point we stopped for a photo-op...and I captured this great shot of Stacey. It's a great picture of Stacey and I particularly like the fact that she is the only one in focus.

Wingsuit Base Jumping

This is sick! I've always wanted to visit Norway, the "homeland", and this video shows why. It's beautiful. Oh, and maybe I'll try out a wingsuit while I'm there too!

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Getting Worried

I’m really getting worried that Spurs may go down this year…or, if not, it’s going to be a real nail-biter and it’s going to go down to the wire. If you take the average number of points that it took to avoid relegation over the past 7 seasons, the magic number has been 37.

After 21 of 38 games, Spurs have 20 points. If you project our current points per game through the end of the season, that means we'll end up with 36 points. Also, if you look at our remaining games we have some very difficult opponents at the end of the season. Our last 10 matches we will play Villa, Chelsea, United, Everton, and end with Liverpool. Additionally, Newcastle (our bogey team) and some difficult away games round out that list.

If the results go the same way as they did in the first half of the season against our remaining teams, we’ll end up with 18 more points for a total of 38. If I project what I think will happen in our remaining 17 games, I come up with 38 points too.

What does this all mean? We’re officially in a relegation fight and we really have no margin for error. Unless we perform better then expected (or as the past has proven), we could very easily get relegated. It’s time to push the panic button.

Thank You

Dear Dad and Mom Johnson:

1) Thank You

2) Thank You

3) Thank You

4) Thank You

5) Thank You

6) Thank You

7) Thank You

8) Thank You

9) Thank You

10) Thank You

You'll have to use a secret decoder ring to decipher this message. :)

Happy Anniversary

Happy 32nd Anniversary Dad and Mom (a few days late)! It will always be remembered as the anniversary when you passed a guy with a pet llama. Careful - they spit!

Does WHL Serve Coca-Cola?

"Less than a classic"...are the words the commentator used to describe the match between Wigan and Tottenham this morning. I love it when the English make their point indirectly. "Well, I wouldn't say it was the BEST game I've ever seen!"

Here's the problem with Spurs (and I why debated even wasting my time watching this game). They played for over an hour and a half against Wigan and couldn't even muster ONE legitimate shot on goal despite the return of Defoe. Sure, the official stats show there were 2 shots on goal, but I'm pretty sure the goalie could have sat in a lawn chair the whole game. They weren't shots. Spurs can't score. Gone are the days when it was end to end action. Now, the entire game stalls at midfield. Of course, in typical Tottenham and relegation form fashion, they held the opposition to nothing until the very last minute of the game. 90th minute, corner kick, header, goal, bottom 3 of the table. This is not the team nor organization that it was advertised to be.

The announcer ended the game with his own classic: "At the start of the season Spurs were supposed to be challenging for a top 4 spot and the Champions League. Right now, they're on track for a top 4 spot in the Champion...ship.

Daddy's Girl

...on a rocking horse made by my grandpa. These photos were taken 30 years apart:

iToonage

I spent last night sampling/downloading music while Stacey was at Bible study. That’s right…although I had the BCS National Championship game on the television I probably spent 2-3 hours solely “surfing” iTunes. iTunes (ok, digital music) is pretty amazing when you think about the entire process/package and how it all works. Alas, I disgress.

Remember back in the day when you heard someone say they like all kinds of music? At first, I thought this was just a teenager-like way of being non-committal and trying to please everyone. Well, maybe I’m still in high school on the music front. After I finished downloading the next round of songs I’ll be listening to over the next few months I realized that my music tastes vary greatly.

I’ve heard that revealing what’s playing on your iPod is supposed to be very personal (i.e. it probably makes people feel vulnerable). It’s probably true…but I’m probably more willing to be embarrassed for the sake of self-realization. I’m not sure what these songs say about me (other than I like variety), so I tried to group them and figured we could decide for ourselves.

Britney – Bebo Norman (Christian pop with a message, 102.7 material)
Whatever You’re Doing – Sanctus Real (Christian, but the cool kind)
Love is Here – Over and Underneath (Christian alternative)
By Your Side – Over and Underneath (Christian alternative)
Forever – Chris Brown (r&b dance mix)
Shake It – Metro Station (alternative dance mix, with a hint of 80s)
Everything – Michael Buble (adult pop vocal, 106.3 and VH1 material)
Love Story – Taylor Swift (teen country-pop crossover love song)
White Horse – Taylor Swift (country ballad)
Fall For You – Secondhand Serenade (alternative)
You Found Me – The Fray (alternative/pop)
Gives You Hell – All American Rejects (alternative)

Right, it’s much clearer now…I guess I like alternative music with some soul and an edge and that has a touch of teenie-bopper sappiness with a funky dance beat and Christian lyrics. Oh snap!!! All hail DC Talk!!! I’m going to cry now.

FA, Carling, and Defoe

With all my Villa posting lately, I wanted to assure the one reader who may care (but probably not) that I haven't forgotten about Spurs.

On Friday Spurs beat Wigan 3-1 in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. It was a slow start, but in the second half Spurs put it together and banged three past the opposition. The celebration was cut short though when we drew Manchester United in the next round.

Today we hosted the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final against Championship-side Burnley. Of course, I mis-read what day the game was being played (I thought it was tomorrow) and saw the final score at work today. I frickin' hate that...it's one of my pet peeves, finding out the score of a game I wanted to watch when I got home. After 45 minutes of a very entertaining game, we were halfway to Burnley down 0-1 on an away goal. However, our fortunes turned quickly, and in the span of 20 minutes we put 4 past the lower division side. We've basically all but ensured we'll be heading back to Wembley Stadium to defend our current Carling Cup title. It should be a cracking game. Unfortunately, the final is probably also going to be against Manchester United...which at face value seems like a loss. However, that's what we thought last year when facing Chelsea. That's the beauty of a one-off game - despite the fact that United are the current World, European, and English champions, Spurs could still beat them in this one game.

Additionally, it was announced that Jermain Defoe is coming back to Tottenham to join his old manager and old team. Old is relative, considering Redknapp was his manager at Portsmouth less than 3 months ago and he was a Spurs player about a year ago. Personally, I'm very glad he's back. Not only do I think he'll be a great addition, but he previously left Tottenham out of necessity and not because he wanted wanted to stop playing for the club. He's loved by the fans and I'm glad he'll finally get the chance to be our number 1 choice at forward.

Considering Spurs will be facing Matt's Ukraining club in February in the UEFA Cup, and Villa in the next round if they both win...and that they'll be fighting a relegation battle as well as playing in the Carling Cup final, the first 5 months of 2009 are going to be very entertaining.