Saturday afternoon was FA Cup 3rd round day for both my football interests. Plymouth Argyle lost to Arsenal as expected at the Emirates Stadium but it was far from a humiliation. Plymouth held their own in the first half thwarting every Arsenal attempt on goal with Argyle keeper Romain Larrieu making some top notch saves. Lukasz Fabianski denied Paul Gallagher in the 34th minute tipping his shot over the crossbar. The deadlock was broken just 53 seconds after half time; Robin Van Persie heading Samir Nasri’s corner kick goalbound from inside the six yard box. Arsenal scored their second exactly four minutes later; Nicklas Bendtner beating debutee David Gray to the ball to beat Larrieu for the second time, although the Manchester United loanee was wrongly credited with an own goal. Karl Duguid got one back a minute later to dampen Arsenal’s celebrations converting Luke Summerfield’s free kick from close range. The game was put beyond the reach of Argyle in the 84th minute; Van Persie doubling his goal tally beating the Argyle defense to the ball after his initial shot was parried to make it 3 – 1. Argyle never really looked like winning the game and were comprehensively outplayed by the Premiership side. But Karl Duguid gave the traveling fans some hope; a good performance considering the gulf between Premiership and Championship clubs, so well done to the lads!
Liverpool beat Championship play-off hopefuls Preston North End 0 – 2 at Deepdale. The game wasn’t quite as one sided as it should have been with Liverpool being top of the Premiership and Preston being 27 places lower but a win is a win no matter how it comes. Albert Riera found the the top left of the net from the edge of the 18 yard box from Xabi Alonso outswinging cross in the 24th minute. Liverpool then had to wait until the death to make sure of the result as the home side doggedly defended their lines. Fernando Torres scored with virtually the last kick of the game tapping in Steven Gerrard‘s pass from close range. Liverpool
face fellow Merseysiders Everton in the 4th round of the FA Cup to be played during the 23rd – 25th of this month which should be a good game, Merseyside derby’s are always good games, mostly in Liverpool’s favour.
Erin and I have decided to apply for our marriage licence with a view to get married before my Tourist VISA expires on the 20th. There really isn’t much to go back to the UK for as I have no guaranteed way of making money. Even whether I have a roof over my head for the month I would have been back. And I already consider Kansas to be home (at least for the immediate future). But the main reason is that neither Erin or I want to be apart for a whole month as I can’t change my ticket reservations without severe financial penalties. I would almost be paying for my ticket again. Of course all this depends on how quickly we can get the licence and book an appointment with a judge to sign the marriage licence. In theory the licence should be granted within three working days so if we apply on Thursday when Erin next gets a day off work we should be able to collect the licence the following Wednesday as the day we apply doesn’t count, neither do weekends. Which will give us 6 days to arrange an appointment within a judge.
Now for something that was advertised on television by Lubbers Chevrolet/Ford car dealership a few days ago urging people to buy American. The advert featured a quote from many years ago when Harley Davidson owners said “they would rather ride a Harley than any rice burner”. Erin looked at the television disgustedly saying “I can’t believe that they just aired that” – I inquired about what she meant and she replied they said “rice burner” and that it was a derogatory term for Asian people and that she hoped they get sued. I looked the term up on Wikipedia and found it to be in reference to imported Japanese cars originally and later the term was attributed to cars (of any nationality) that has been cosmetically modified to appear “tuned” without any performance increase, reference: UK[Chavved Up]. I still don’t see what all the fuss is about, it’s slang for imported cars rather than a slur on any race or nationality as far as I can see, I just think that it’s a PC overreaction to something that really is nothing. I understand where Erin is coming from but I don’t share her opinion but this is the land of “sue first, ask questions later” – an attitude that I really don’t share or like, sadly it’s everywhere these days!