2011/12 Spanish La Liga Predictions

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Top 3:

  1. Barcelona – Lionel Messi  is arguably the best player in the world on arguably the best team in the world.
  2. Real Madrid – Cristiano Ronaldo is arguably the best player in the world on arguably the best team in the world.
  3. Valencia – 3rd place is Valencia’s again as long as they can fend off Villarreal.
*This is the same top 3 as the 2010/11 and could be the same top 3 for years to come.

Regulation Station:

  • Granada – Sorry, thanks for playing.
  • Real Betis – Better luck next time.
  • Rayo Vallecano – Hello, goodnight.

2011/12 Italian Serie A Predictions

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Top 3:

  1. AC Milan – Already an amazing squad. Pato can only get better, I don’t see anyone matching up well with them.
  2. Napoli – Get big or go home, its time for Napoli to become an even bigger player in Serie A.
  3. Internazionale – Inter could easily become #2 with their lineup, however, I’m putting them at #3 based on the assumption that Wesley Sneijder will be gone in the very near future.
Relegation Station:
  • Bologna – I had a sandwich today, it was bologna, goodbye.
  • Atalanta – Welcome to the Serie A. They’ve already been fined 6 points. Serie B will be welcoming them back very soon.
  • Novara – This will probably be a short stay in Serie A, maybe they can prove something, but they barely got moved up.

2011/12 German Bundesliga Predictions

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Let’s talk Bundesliga for a quick minute. Here are my predictions for the 2011/12 season.

Top 3:

  1. Borussia Dortmund – After mediocure seasons in 08/09 and 09/10 Dortmund won the Bundesliga last year. Once you get a taste for winning you never want to give it up. I think they are out to repeat.
  2. Bayern Munich – You can always find more offense. I think the lose of Miroslav Klose will be negated once Manuel Neuer settles down on the new team.
  3. FC Schalke 04 – After a poor showing in 10/11 and a good run in the Champions League, I think Schalke can be an upper echelon team this year.
Relegation Station (these teams will be in the playoffs for relegation):
  • Borussia Mönchengladbach – They just can’t fight it forever, they will be back in the mix this year.
  • VfL Wolfsburg – Only hear because of Deigo’s picture in FIFA Ultimate Team.
  • Hamburger SV – Losing Ruud van Nistelrooy is like losing a kidney. You don’t need it, but it still sucks that its gone.

Rugby World Cup 2011 Demo Impressions

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What I know about the game of rugby couldn’t even fill this sentence. After playing the demo of Rugby World Cup 2011, I know one thing, I want to learn more. The last rugby game I can remember playing was EA Sports’ Rugby 2004, and all that did was leave a sour taste in my mouth.

Continue Reading…

On The Ice Friday – Calgary Hitmen

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The Calgary Hitmen of the WHL take their name and colors from, founder, part team owner, and WWE Hall of Famer, Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Initially there was a lot of criticism of the Friday The 13th-esque logo, including push back from would be sponsors. This lead the team to use an alternate logo for their first season. Eventually the fans won out and got this (the original) logo back as the teams primary.

In my opinion the logo is more Ninja Turtles’ Casey Jones then Jason Voorhees style. Overall I think it’s a pretty simple jersey, but sometimes simplicity is best. If I ever find myself in Calgary, I’ll definitely pick up one of these jerseys.

EA Sports Season Ticket

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EA Sports is always looking for a way to make a buck, their newest way is the EA Sports Season Ticket. For $24.99 per year (365 days) or / 2000 MS Points you get the following for FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, and NCAA Football series:

  • Early Full Game Release: 3 days before their scheduled retail release, you’ll be able to download and play the full version of participating titles
  • 20% discount on downloadable content for participating EA SPORTS titles, beginning with Madden NFL 12
  • Premium Web Content for Free: beginning with FIFA 12 Creation Centre
  • Exclusive Membership Recognition: Identification in and out of game
Lets break this down piece by piece.
  1. Being able to download games 3 days before the release is a pretty cool idea, the only problem is that you need to pre-order all your games to make sure they get there on release date because if not you’re going to have a useless, presumably large file on your hard drive. Speaking of a large file, I can only assume this downloads are going to be in the neighborhood of 4gb +, so if you do plan to spend the money, hopefully you will have a fast enough connection to make getting the game early worth it.
  2. 20% discount of all paid DLC is probably a bigger deal then it may seem. FIFA made somewhere around 70 million off of FUT packs last year, so being able to save 20% off those could be huge if you are into boosters or Ultimate Teams. Also, this takes a little bit out of the sting of the very pricey Tiger Woods Course DLC.
  3. From what has been said so far, premium web content for free may just be the same things you were getting for free with pre-orders.
  4. Exclusive membership recognition, are you kidding me? That sounds as good as turning your Twitter avatar green.
Depending on how many games you buy, it seems like it might be a half decent idea. I plan on buying everything but Tiger Woods, so that breaks it down to about $6.25 per game. I’m probably an edge case but I would be willing to pay that just to get into the game 3 days early (don’t get any ideas EA). So to me the 20% discount on DLC is a bonus which would also pay for itself in FIFA Ultimate Team Packs.

What do you think? Is this just a money grab or do you think its a good idea?

On The Field Friday – Boise State Football

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There may not be a more distinctive field in the NCAA then Boise State’s own Bronco Stadium with it’s iconic blue turf. Sadly, because of that turf the Mountain West Conference considers Boise State’s all blue uniforms to be an “unfair advantage”.

Initially I thought this was really stupid. In retrospect, I kind of understand where the problem may lie. When I first heard of this I assumed it was because the uniforms were causing confusion on the field, but I don’t think that is the real issue.

The real issue arrises from the coaches watching the game from their booths. A common scene on the sideline is a coach talking to their QB and showing the pre-snap formation of the defense. My assumption is that those side-line printers aren’t that good, and because of that the players are bleeding into the field, making it very hard to show his player the formation.

As you can see from this picture, even when not printed on a page, its actually kind of hard to see the players.

All in all, do I think it’s stupid?

– Yes

Will it have an impact on the games played at Bronco Stadium?

– No

Best of luck to the Boise State Broncos.

Did you know…In March of 2011 the NFL passed a rule that no stadium may have a field that is not colored green, that rule is known as the “Boise rule”.