How Long It's Been: Arsenal Saved a Penalty

Yesterday, in the 1st leg of the UEFA Europa League Round of 32, Arsenal defeated Östersunds Fotbollsklubb, away to them at their 9,165-seat Jämtkraft Arena in Östersund, Sweden, at 63.2 degrees North latitude, just south of the Arctic Circle. (That is neither an exaggeration nor a joke.)

The Swedish team was trolling Arsenal on Twitter, showing them pictures of the snowy conditions in their hometown.

In the last 5 years, Arsenal have faced pyromaniacs in Athens, 2 different sets of lunatics in Istanbul, and actual war criminals in Belgrade. Did Östersund really think Arsenal were going to be intimidated by a little cold?

They weren't. Despite a makeshift lineup due to injuries, and to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang being "cup-tied" because he'd already played for Borussia Dortmund in the competition this season, Arsenl won 3-0, starting with a goal by Spanish left back Ignacio "Nacho" Monreal, who has now scored 5 goals this season -- an astounding number for any defender. There was an own goal off an Östersund defender, and Mesut Özil added another.

Someone tweeted, "Lionel Messi career goals against Ostersund: 0."

Messi's okay, but can he do it on a cold Thursday night in Sweden? Özil did.

Let's not forget that Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dive, and Özil doesn't. And that they've never won the World Cup, while Özil not only did it, but beat Messi to do it.

Arsenal will play the 2nd leg of the Round next Thursday, at home, at the Emirates Stadium in North London.

In stoppage time, Östersund were awarded a penalty. This surprised no one. A consequential match? With Arsenal as the opponents? As the visitors? When goals will be at a premium in the 2nd leg? Never mind that it was almost pointless: Of course, the penalty was awarded.

David Ospina, Arsenal's 2nd-string goalkeeper, saved it, preserving the 3-0 lead as the final score.

Arsenal's starting goalie is the former Chelsea legend, Czech keeper Petr Čech. As James Goldman pointed out in the British tabloid Metro last month:

For a goalkeeper who famously played a starring role in a Champions League final shootout, the former Chelsea star has an appalling record when it comes to facing spot kicks. On Wednesday evening, Eden Hazard became the 15th player to face Petr Cech from 12 yards during his Arsenal career and the 15th player to score past him. Even more embarrassingly for the 35-year-old, he has contrived to dive the wrong way on 12 occasions and four times in succession.

Indeed, Ospina's stop was the 1st time Arsenal had stopped an in-game penalty -- not to be confused with penalty kicks ending a drawn cup tie -- since March 11, 2014. At home, in the 2nd leg of a UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie, Polish keeper Łukasz Fabiański (now with Swansea City) stopped one of the best strikers in the world,Thomas Müller. It didn't matter, as the match ended 1-1, thus 3-1 to Bayern Munich on aggregate.

The reason Fabiański was in there in the first place is that Arsenal's starter, Wojciech Szczęsny, had been sent off in the Munich leg, forcing manager Arsène Wenger to put in Fabiański and take off an attacking player, Santi Cazorla, and losing 2-0. In Germany, where Bayern seem to win the Bundesliga every year, this is known as Der Bayern Dusel -- the Bavarian Luck.

Petr Čech, by all accounts, is a good man. But, a few weeks away from his 36th birthday, he is no longer a viable goalkeeper for a top-level European soccer team. Given his performances for Arsenal over the last 3 seasons, including Arsenal's tumble out of the Premier League's Champions League places, his purchase price from Chelsea of £10 million has gone from absolute bargain to absolute ripoff.

Arsenal hadn't saved a penalty since March 11, 2014. That's 3 years, 11 months and 4 days. How long has that been?

*

Since then, Arsenal have brought in Čech, Ospnia, Aubameyang, Alexis Sánchez, Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers, Danny Welbeck, Krystian Bielik, Gabriel Paulista, Jeff Reine-Adélaïde, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding, Lucas Pérez, Shkodran Mustafi, Sead Kolašinac, Alexandre Lacazette, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

And they've sold Fabiański, Szczęsny, Alexis, Debuchy, Gabriel, Tomáš Rosický, Bacary Sagna, Johan Djourou, Abou Diaby, Nicklas Bendtner, Kieran, Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Thomas Vermaelen, Lukas Podolski, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini, Serge Gnabry, Ignasi Miquel, Benik Afobe, Park Chu-Young, Ryo Miyaichi, Thomas Eisfeld, Yaya Sanogo, Jon Toral, Francis Coquelin, Theo Walcott, and (this was painful) Olivier Giroud. 

(If you can't pronounce some of that, don't worry about it.)

And, while Arsenal finished 2nd in 2016, they finished 5th last season, their 1st finish outside the top 4, and thus the Champions League qualification, since 1996. The team currently sits 6th in the Premier League table, 8 points out of 4th, and a whopping 27 points behind League-leading Manchester City.

However, since then, Arsenal have won the FA Cup in 2014, 2015 and 2017, and, this season, have reached the Final of the League Cup, have all but advanced to the Europa League's Round of 16, and qualifying for the 2018-19 Champions League is still possible -- though, thanks to a recent rule change, they would qualify automatically if we win the Europa League.

Soccer legends Dave Mackay, Ron Springett, Howard Kendall, Gerry Byrne, Jimmy Hill, Cyrille Regis, Jimmy Armfield, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Johan Cruyff, Cesare Maldini, Carlos Alberto, Raymond Kopa, Hilderaldo Bellini, Gyula Grosics, Fyodor Cherenkov, Udo Lattek, Zito, Josef Masopust, Alcides Ghiggia, Ignacio Zoco, Márton Fülöp, Pavel Srníček, Slobodan Santrač, Hannes Löhr, Viktor Tsaryov, Piet Keizer, Karl Stotz, Roberto Ferreiro, Todor Veselinović, Cheick Tioté, Waldir Peres, József Tóth, Manuel Sanchís Martínez, Feliciano Rivilla, Hans Schäfer, Henning Jensen, Liam Miller, Arsenal legends David Herd and Don Howe, and, a soccer legend in a way, Malcolm Glazer have since died.

So have these legends in other sports: Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe, Yogi Berra, Jean Béliveau, Arnold Palmer, Jake LaMotta, Roy Halladay, Viktor Tikhonov, Moses Malone, Jonah Lomu, Mal Whitfield, Bob Foster, Dolph Schayes, Nate Thurmond, Věra Čáslavská, Sammy Lee, Miruts Yifter, Milt Schmidt, Darrall Imhoff, John Kundla, Bobby Doerr, Jana Novotná, Johnny Bower and Jo Jo White.

So have actors Mickey Rooney, James Garner, Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Lee, Dick Van Patten, Patrick Macnee, Omar Sharif, George Kennedy, Anton Yelchin, Kenny Baker, Gene Wilder, Robert Vaughn, Alan Thicke, Miguel Ferrer, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Roger Moore, Adam West, Martin Landau, Robert Guillaume, Jim Nabors. So have actresses Lauren Bacall, Luise Rainer, Anita Ekberg, Maurren O'Hara, Patty Duke, Florence Henderson, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher, Mary Tyler Moore and Jeanne Moreau.

So have comedians Joan Rivers, Robin Williams, Don Rickles, Dick Gregory and Jerry Lewis. So have directors Wes Craven, George Romero, Michael Cimino and Jonathan Demme. So have TV show hosts Terry Wogan, Bruce Forsyth and Monty Hall.

So have music personalities Ian McLagan, Joe Cocker, Lesley Gore, Ben E. King, B.B. King, Ornette Coleman, Cilla Black, Scott Weiland, Lemmy Kilmister, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Maurice White, George Martin, Merle Haggard, Prince, Neville Marriner, Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell, George Michael, Chris Cornell, Gregg Allman, Glen Campbell, Tom Petty, Fats Domino, Della Reese, Mel Tillis, David Cassidy, Johnny Hallyday, Keely Smith, Dolores O'Riordan, Hugh Masekela, Dennis Edwards and Vic Damone.

So have writers Maya Angelou, Gabriel García Márquez, E.L. Doctorow, Oliver Sacks, Jackie Collins, Umberto Eco, Harper Lee, Elie Wiesel, Edward Albee, William Peter Blatty, Yevgeny Yetvushenko, Sam Shepard, Peter Mayle and Ursula K. Le Guin.

So have Playboy baron Hugh Hefner, fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, scientist Henry Heimlich, murder-cult leader Charles Manson; astronauts John Glenn, Edgar Mitchell, Gene Cernan and John Young; 1963 scandal-producer Christine Keeler; and 1983 nuclear war-preventer Stanislav Petrov.

So have American political figures Mario Cuomo, Antonin Scalia and Nancy Reagan; British political figures Tony Benn, Ian Paisley, Denis Healey, Geoffrey Howe, Antony Armstrong-Jones, and the sitting Dukes of Marlborough and Wellington. So have former Australian Prime Ministers Edward Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser. So have former German Chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl.

So have international leaders Wojciech Jaruszelski, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Lee Kuan Yew, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Shimon Peres, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Manuel Noriega. So have Kings Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Rama IX of Thailand, Kigeli V of Rwanda and Michael I of Romania, and Emir Khalifa of Qatar.

And so has my father.

The World Cup has since been held in Brazil. So has the Olympics. The Olympics are now being held again, in Korea.

The Mayor of London, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the President of the United States, the Mayor of New York and the Governor of New Jersey have all been replaced.

The following shows have debuted on American TV: Fargo, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Last Ship, Tyrant, Girl Meets World, The Leftovers, Married at First Sight, Rush, You're the Worst, Skin Wars, Madam Secretary, Scorpion, NCIS: New Orleans, Black-ish, How to Get Away with Murder, Jane the Virgin, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, Empire, Fresh Off the Boat, Better Call Saul, Secrets and Lies, Younger, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Royals, Lip Sync Battle, Grace and Frankie, Sense8, Quantico, Dr. Ken, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Chicago Med, Making a Murderer, Shades of Blue, Billions, American Crime Story, The Real O'Neals, Queen of the South, Better Late Than Never, Bull, Designated Survivor, The Mick, Riverdale, Big Little Lies, The Good Fight, Chicago Justice, 13 Reasons Why, Dear White People, Claws, 911, Our Cartoon President; and the baseball show Pitch.

Also, the historical dramas Turn: Washington's Spies, Penny Dreadful, The Alienist and The Crown; the Full House update Fuller House; the completely unnecessary and absolutely fatuous Big Bang Theory prequel show Young Sheldon; the awful reboots of The Odd Couple, MacGyver and Dynasty; the somewhat better reboots of One Day at a Time and S.W.A.T.; and the Archie reboot Riverdale.

Also, the Star Trek tribute The Orville and the insult Star Trek: Discovery; the fantasy shows Forever, Outlander, Z Nation, Star Wars Rebels, The Librarians, The Man in the High Castle, 12 Monkeys, Fear the Walking Dead, Lucifer, American Gothic, Stranger Things, Westworld, Constantine, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Wynonna Earp, Preacher and American Gods; and the superhero shows Gotham, The Flash, Agent Carter, Daredevil, Blindspot, Supergirl, Jessica Jones, Legends of Tomorrow, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Superhuman, Inhumans, The Punisher, Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighers, Black Lightning, and the reboot of The Tick.

Airing their finales were How I Met Your Mother, Being Human, Warehouse 13, Dora the Explorer, Drop Dead Diva, True Blood, Chelsea Lately, the update of Dallas, Boardwalk Empire, Ben 10, Sons of Anarchy, The Newsroom, White Collar, The Colbert Report, The Mentalist, Two and a Half Men, Parks and Recreation, Glee, Cougar Town, Justified, Mad Men, Hot in Cleveland, Phineas and Ferb, Key & Peele, Hannibal, the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, America's Next Top Model, The Mysteries of Laura, The Good Wife, Castle, Mike & Molly, The McLaughlin Group, Rizzoli & Isles, The Vampire Diaries, Workaholics, Bones, Duck Dynasty, Grimm, Sleepy Hollow, Black Sails, Girls, 2 Broke Girls, Bates Motel, Reign, Pretty Little Liars, Orphan Black and The Mindy Project. Jay Leno handed The Tonight Show over to Jimmy Fallon.

The Number 1 song in America was "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. St. Vincent released her self-titled... 4th album. Shakira released her self-titled... 10th album. Lea Michele released Louder. Prices of pretty much everything have stayed relatively stable, although wages have also remained stagnant. For everybody, it seems, except athletes and CEOs. Sony PS3 and Wii were battling it out to be the leading home video game system.

In the late Winter and early Spring of 2014, there was a revolution in Ukraine, with a pro-Russian leader removed, before Russia started to intervene, including an annexation of the Crimea that Ukraine was powerless to prevent. President Barack Obama put new economic sanctions on Russia, proving that he could wreck a country's economy -- just not his own. In retaliation, Russian President Vladimir Putin hijacked America's next election.

Belgium became the 1st country in the world to legalized euthanasia for terminally ill patients of any age. Malaysia Airlines Fight 370 disappeared over the Gulf of Thailand, and neither it nor any of the 239 people on board has ever been found. Boko Haram captured 276 girls from a school in Nigeria. The Korean ferry MV Sewol sank, killing 304 people. And the Catholic Church canonized Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.

Shirley Temple, and Sid Caesar, and Sir Tom Finney died. Bodhi Green (son of Megan Fox & Brian Austin Green), and Apollo Rossdale (son of Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rossdale), and Tristan and Sasha Hemsworth (twins of Elsa Pataky & Chris Hemsworth) were born.

March 11, 2014. Łukasz Fabiański saved a penalty by Thomas Müller. An Arsenal goalkeeper saved a penalty.

It took nearly 4 years, but now, it has happened again.

As long as Petr Cech is Arsenal's 1st choice keeper, don't expect another anytime soon.

Nine Hours of Sports Intensity: 2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad

April 12, 2014 will go down as one of the most tense days of sports I've ever had.

It could have been considerably more tense than it was.

Here was the schedule:

* 12:00 -- Well, 12:07, a tribute to the Hillsborough Disaster, which occurred 25 years ago, 6 minutes into the 1989 FA Cup Semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest: Arsenal vs. Wigan Athletic, FA Cup Semifinal at Wembley Stadium.

* 1:00: Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The rivalry in North American sports.

* 7:00: New York Red Bulls vs. D.C. United, at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The Atlantic Cup, for fans of each side their biggest rivalry, even though most New York Tri-State Area teams' biggest rival is either a New England team, a Philadelphia team, or another Tri-State Area team.

Arsenal needed to defeat the Cup holders (defending champions) to advance to the Final, vs. the winner of tomorrow's match between Hull City and Sheffield United, in order to break their drought of not having won a trophy in 9 years.

It's not like North American sports, where only one team wins it all: There's several trophies available, depending on your level, and Arsenal were up for 4 of them in January, 3 of them in February, and 2 of them in March, but now, the Cup is it.

The Yankees and the Red Bulls are both early in their seasons, and have time to make up for mistakes at this point. The Arsenal are close to the end, and need that trophy very badly. As much as I dislike DCU, and as much as I hate the Red Sox, I would have gladly sacrificed wins in both of those games to get Arsenal the win this afternoon.

*

Wigan won the FA Cup last year, shocking Manchester City in the Final, on a stoppage time goal by Ben Watson, in a 1-0 win. This was shocking not just because Man City were the defending Premier League Champions, and won the Cup the season before, and had a shot of winning both trophies again; but because Wigan were on the verge of "relegation."

This is something unknown in North American sports: If you finish in the last 3 places in the Premier League (or "the Premiership"), you get bumped down to the second division, known as the Championship. And if you finish 1st or 2nd in the Championship, and win the playoffs for teams 3rd through 6th, you get promoted to the Premiership.

Wigan did, indeed get relegated -- although they are probably going to reach the promotion playoffs this time. And they got into this year's Semifinal by once again beating Man City, this time in Manchester. (Man City are, however, the team most likely to win the Premiership.)

Arsenal reached this point by beating North London arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur, then 3rd-division Coventry City, then Liverpool, then the other Liverpool team, Everton, in the Quarterfinal. So while their Semifinal and, if successful, Final opponents wouldn't have been among the elite, they had a tough hill to climb to get there (Coventry notwithstanding).

But since the new Wembley opened in 2007, Arsenal hadn't won there, losing a 2009 FA Cup Semifinal to Chelsea and the 2011 League Cup Final in stunning fashion to Birmingham City. They hadn't won at the site since 1999, taking the Charity Shield at the old Wembley, which opened in April 1923, the same month as the original Yankee Stadium, and closed in 2000, demolished to make way for a much-needed new national stadium for England. (Arsenal had won FA Cup Finals at the interim site, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, in 2002, '03 and '05.)

Arsenal led the League for most of the season, but injuries to 5 key players -- centreback Laurent Koscielny, winger Theo Walcott, and midfielders Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere -- have seen them tumble from 1st to, for the moment, 5th place, with 4th place being necessary to secure a place in next season's UEFA Champions League. (Their chances of finishing 4th, if you follow the advice of Woody Paige of the Denver Post and ESPN, and "Look at the sched-u-le," are actually better than that of the team that has passed them for the moment, Everton.)

Without those 4 midfielders (Walcott counts), the slumping Santi Cazorla, the suddenly old Mikel Arteta, and the well-meaning but awful Mathieu Flamini have had to play, and have not been up to the task. And Tomas Rosicky, once great but now quite slow (if still great in the attitude and workrate departments), is also now injured.

As a result, forward Olivier Giroud has gone from being one of the best strikers in the world in the 1st half of the season to a struggling player in the 2nd half. He has borne some vicious attacks from Arsenal fans in social media, and so has manager Arsene Wenger for not buying a new striker in the summer and January transfer windows.

Which is stupid: Fellow London powers Chelsea, with all the money at their disposal, also need another striker, and they didn't buy one, proving that, if one good enough for Chelsea's name and money wasn't available, then one good enough for Arsenal's name (better than Chelsea's) and money (not) wasn't available, either.

Fortunately, Ramsey is back. And Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, hurt earlier in the season, stepped into the Walcott role. Between them, they made a huge difference today. And while he's still quite raw, rookie Yaya Sanogo started in place of Giroud, and played with a considerable amount of poise for a 21-year-old who's never played at the top level in a major European country before this season.

Still, Arsenal blew a lot of chances in the 1st half. In the 2nd half, in the 63rd minute, Per Mertesacker -- the 6-foot-6 centreback affectionately known to Arsenal fans as "the Big Fucking German" -- made a critical mistake, tripping Wigan's Callum McManaman in the penalty area, and Wigan were rightly granted a penalty shot, which Jordi Gomez converted.

Wigan led 1-0, and on Twitter, the invective against Wenger by those who want him out was matched by the sadness of those who want him to stay, but figure now, with another trophyless year, he'll want to leave, so as not to have to put up with that kind of crap anymore.

The Wenger Outers act as though some other manager brought the Double in 1998, a UEFA Cup Final in 2000, another Double in 2002, an FA Cup and nearly another Double in 2003, the unbeaten "Invincibles" League title in 2004, another FA Cup in 2005, the Champions League Final in 2006, and the new Emirates Stadium whose 60,000 seats allows Arsenal to compete much better than beloved old Highbury with its 38,000 seats.

And they act though, after the '06 Final, this aforementioned wonderful manager left, and then this cheap, stubborn old Frenchman came in and brought Arsenal to "mediocrity." Finishing no worse than 4th for 8 straight seasons, reaching a Champions League Semifinal and 2 other Quarterfinals, and reaching 2 League Cup Finals is hardly "mediocrity," or even "decline."

They also fail to take into account all the injuries, bad officiating decisions, and disloyalty shown to him by certain players, notably centreback Ashley Cole in 2006, forward Emmanuel Adebayor in 2009, midfielders Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri in 2011, and forward Robin van Persie in 2012).

And they think that spending truckloads of money is the answer. Well, Tottenham spent £110 million in the summer transfer window, on 7 players, including £26 million on striker Roberto Soldado, who has scored exactly 2 goals from open play in League games this season. Clearly, simply spending a lot of money on hyped players is not the answer.

Anyway, Wenger took the trying but ineffective Lukas Podolski off, for Giroud, and there was a significant amount of booing from the 50,000 or so Arsenal fans in the crowd of 82,185. This was disgraceful, since it's hardly been Giroud's fault that he's gotten so few good passes since the New Year, and Giroud has hardly been the player most at fault for Arsenal's tumble from the top of the table and their exit from this season's Champions League.

Wenger also replaced injured left back Nacho Monreal (normally the backup) with Kieran Gibbs (normally the starter but deemed not sufficiently recovered from his most recent injury to start).

Having 82,000 fans means that there were about 8,000 empty seats, which was also disgraceful, considering, A, how many Arsenal fans wanted to go; and B, how rarely Wigan has played at Wembley. You don't let such an opportunity go to waste.

But in the 82nd minute, Oxlade-Chamberlain fired a shot, and Wigan goalkeeper Scott Carson, who'd been playing very well, could only deflect it, and Mertesacker redeemed himself by heading in a tying goal. Sorry, forgot to "speak English" there: An equaliser. (Not "equalizer." Not in Britain, anyway.)

Suddenly, all the despairing Arsenal fans seemed to believe again. The Wenger Outers, however, remained unconvinced. Reminders of the 2011 League Cup Final, when Koscielny and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny collided and allowed Birmingham's Obafemi Martens to score a last-minute winner, abounded.

Despite 5 minutes of 2nd-half stoppage time, such a late winner did not come for either side.

Up until 1993 -- when Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday at old Wembley in a Thursday night replay after a draw in the Final the previous Saturday afternoon -- there wouldn't have been extra time (which is what overtime is called in this sport). The game would have gone to a replay, just as it would now if it was in an earlier round (albeit at another neutral site, as opposed to earlier rounds, which would be at one team's home ground, and then, if a replay were necessary, at the other team's ground).

And, through the pair of 15-minute halves of extra time -- which included Wenger taking off Ramsey, still not ready to play a full 120 minutes, for Kim Kallstrom -- neither side seriously threatened to score. Both teams played with a lot of guts -- and when a team with more talent than guts doesn't get the job done, a team with more guts than talent, like Wigan, can surprise.

So 120 minutes gone -- 128 minutes, if you count stoppage time -- and no winner could be found.

Penalty kicks. Every fan's least favorite way of settling a soccer game -- unless you're playing the national team of either England or the Netherlands, both notorious for missing penalties in knockout games. Packed to the gills at the Blind Pig in New York's Greenwich Village, I yelled, "Gentlemen, start your coronaries!"

Lukasz Fabianski, a much-maglined backup these last few years, first to Manuel Almunia, and now to fellow Pole Szczesny, has started every FA Cup game for Arsenal this season. Arsenal's chances rested not just on the feet of up to 5 attackers, but in the hands of a keeper most Arsenal fans (including yours truly, also of Polish descent) would, not that long ago, not have trusted at all.

Wigan won the toss, and elected to kick first. Gary Caldwell fired... and Fabianski stopped it! Arsenal fans were elated, thinking that, now, they had a chance... if no Arsenal players missed.

Arteta, whose only saving grace this season has been being Arsenal's penalty taker, stepped up, and sent it home. "One-Nil to The Arsenal!"

Jack Collison stepped up for Wigan... and Fabianski stopped him, too! Kallstrom, the only signing Wenger made in the January transfer window (and that, a loan), who'd barely played since the transfer was made (partly due to injury), stepped up... and hit it! It doesn't count as "his first goal for Arsenal," but it put the Gunners a step closer to winning the game.

Jean Beausejour was next for Wigan, and he converted. 2-1 Arsenal. And Giroud, the much-despised, made it 3-1 Arsenal.

If Fabianski could stop James McArthur -- not to be confused with James MacArthur, the actor who played "Danno" Williams on the original Hawaii Five-O -- it would all be over. But he couldn't. 3-2 Arsenal.

It was now all up to Cazorla, who'd been so good last season, his 1st for Arsenal, but weak this season...

He made it! 4-2 Arsenal, and the game! Arsenal were through to the Final on May 17 at Wembley!

For millions of Arsenal fans all over the world, jubilation. For many, myself included, more like relief.

All the trauma of the last few weeks faded away. All those calling for Wenger to be fired, for Giroud to be sold, shut up for the rest of the day.

One more game, and we've got that trophy.

Whereas, if we'd lost, it would have made the rest of the Arsenal season that much more tense (with only 4th place left to play for), and the rest of the day (I would've really, really needed a Yankee win) considerably more tense... maybe even nasty.

*

At one point during the game, I saw the ESPN crawl say that the Yankees were leading the Red Sox, 4-2. As I said, I would have sacrificed a win against The Scum (a nickname inspired by English soccer fans, who usually call their team's arch-rivals that, including Arsenal on Tottenham and vice versa) to win the Arsenal match.

As it turned out, I didn't have to. Hiroki Kuroda wasn't great, but the bullpen got the job done, including Matt Thornton. Just last September, seeing a lefty pitcher in Pinstripes, wearing Number 48, with 2 men on base, and David Ortiz at the plate, in the top of the 7th inning, with less than 2 out, would have sent me to my knees in prayer: "Please, God, don't let Boone Logan blow another one!"

But Logan is gone, to the Colorado Rockies, and good riddance. This was Matt Thornton, and he blew a called strike 3 past the big fat lying cheating bastard. And, as usually happens when Ortiz doesn't get his way, he argued with plate umpire John Tumpane, to no avail. Thornton then allowed a hit that let 2 runners score (put on base by a tiring Kuroda), but that was as close as the Sox got.

Carlos Beltran hit a 2-run home run (his 2nd of the season) in the 1st inning. In the 3rd, back-to-back homers were hit by Brian McCann (his 1st as a Yankee) and Alfonso Soriano (his 3rd of the season). McCann homered again in the 6th. Kelly Johnson homered in the 8th (his 3rd of the season, surprisingly sharing the team lead with Soriano).

Yankees 7, Red Sox 4. WP: Kuroda (2-1). SV: Shawn Kelley (2). LP: John Lackey (2-1).

7-4! We beat The Scum, 7-4! We beat The Scum, 7-4! We beat The Scum, 7-4!

These 3 games have been played in an average of 3 hours exactly. These are the Yankees and the Red Sox? Well, it's at Yankee Stadium II, not at Fenway Park.

The Yankees have now taken 2 of the first 3 games in the series. It concludes tomorrow, the Sunday night ESPN game, 8:05 PM, Ivan Nova vs. Felix Doubront.

*

I was already physically and emotionally drained. Good thing there was a 3-hour gap between the end of the Yanks-Sox game and the RBNY-DCU game at RFK. (That's a lot of initials.)

I would have settled for only an Arsenal win, but now I had that and a Yankee win over the Red Sox. Could "Metro" make it 3-for-3, against their (or, at least, their fans') most hated rivals?

No. David Arnaud scored in the 4th minute, and Metro's best chances came with a pair of near own goals by D.C., one in each half. Despite 57 percent possession and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry leading the line, they couldn't break through, and it ended 1-0 to their enemy.

Attendance: 12,364. On December 22, 2006, I saw the Devils play the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center. These are 2 teams that, historically, have had attendance problems, and are not each other's 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd rivals... and the attendance was 13,744, a bad figure, but still nearly 1,400 more than tonight's DC-NY game.

(The Devils won, 4-1: Travis Zajac, Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta and Zach Parise scored; Martin Brodeur stopped 35 out of 36 shots, with Chris Clark -- not Alex Ovechkin -- scoring the Washington goal.) 

Arsenal won, Yankees won, Red Bulls lost.  Hey, 2 out of 3, in this context, is pretty damn good.

However, the Red Bulls have now played 6 matches in the young MLS season, lost 4, drawn 2, and won exactly none.

This is not good.

Their next game is on Wednesday night, at home, to the Philadelphia Union, who aren't doing a whole lot better. A win is a must.