Odds and Sods for Oct. 18
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by Tyduffy
The Red Sox ' recent troubles have Dan Shaughnessy smiling, and smelling another book-selling opportunity. There is nothing like a heart-wrenching Red Sox loss to get the negative nancy in fine form, and on the front page of the Globe.
Drew Sharp misses the boat entirely on the issue of a playoff in College Football. As much as sportswriters salivate over the story potential of South Florida, no neutral fan wants to see the oligarchy threatened. The playoff is not about expanding opportunities. Its about having all of the best teams play each other and not having one loss in September cripple your season. Watch the ratings if South Florida makes it to the BCS title game.
In case you didn't hear about it, the Patriots are quite good. Here are some testimonials from Michael Wilbon here and Bill Simmons here. Not that the OddsandSods staff would ever be bold enough to predict that a team would go 16-0, but getcha popcorn ready.
England lost away to Russia 2-1 on the dreaded "plastic pitch." The loss places their qualification for Euro 2008 in jeopardy, as Russia sits 2 pts behind them with a game in hand. English pundits will obviously be upset (their gratis summer junkets to Austria and Switzerland now hanging in the balance.
Matt Dickinson of the Times talks about how the " vultures " will attack Steve McClaren and then proceeds to do so himself. The Sun along with others employed uber-witty "Iron Curtain" puns and BIG BOLD LETTERS. For a more reasoned analysis, read Kevin McCarra 's match report for the Guardian.
USA also won their friendly against Switzerland 1-0. It snapped a five game losing streak on European soil. And, finally given somewhat of a chance to play in the National side, Freddy Adu was actually quite impressive.
