False Labor & False Hope & Your Player of the Day

We went to Livonia yesterday to watch the France v Netherlands match w/ my dad @ East Side Mario's, a good Italian place on Plymouth Rd. It's one of the best Italian chains around, but the mussels definitely leave something to be desired. They served them w/ a marinara sauce, but I would always prefer some sort of creamy garlic & herb number. The whole time we were there Stephanie was having contractions which got stronger & stronger throughout the afternoon & evening. On the way home they were coming every 5 minutes & by 6:00 they were getting really intense. I was certain yesterday was the day, but then by 8:30 everything had stopped, we watched some iCarly w/ the kids & then an episode of Man vs Wild (a separate post about this show will be coming soon!). This week on Man vs Wild: Bear Grylls eats weird shit
As far as the French game is concerned, they got their asses handed to them by the Dutch. At this point, it's hard to determine who will be able to beat the Oranjemen. In their 1st 2 game they have 7 goals which have been scored by 6 different people. And to make matters worse, those 7 goals were scored against Italy & France... the World Cup finalists just 2 years ago. This isn't like slipping a few past Cyprus or The Faeroe Islands. The Dutch have apparently been reading this book because they are the real deal @ the moment, but as long as France can beat Italy on Tuesday, they should be through to the next round... unless of course The Netherlands play their 2nd string & lose to Romania since they've already clinched 1st place in the Group of Death. I think France can bat Italy, but they have to get off more shots & play the right strike combo: Henry & Anelka or Benzama & Govou... w/ Gomis playing behind them & Ribery free to roam wherever he wants. I'm afraid, however, that all this is just prolonging the agony & Raymond Domenech will rue the day he went w/ Makelele over Flamini, Sagnol over Sagna, Toulalan over Nasri, & Anelka over Ben Arfa. Plus, there has to be a central defender in France who is younger than Thuram. He's 36 for Christ's sake. Squillaci is the center back for Lyon, he's 28 & @ the height of his career, yet Thuram, who retired from international football 4 years ago is starting again. Pretty soon, he'll be needing a little go-cart thing like Great Mable & Ms. DeRosset.That said, I am again unable to bestow the award you've all been waiting for a French player. Furthermore, The Netherlands have made it impossible to single out 1 player. We then need to look to the Italy v Romania game to find out man. While Italy had more chances, they were held to a 1-1 draw (they would have lost had Buffon not saved a PK w/ 10 minutes left). While Buffon came through on that occasion, some Romanian dude came through repeatedly on the other end of the field, keeping them in the game which means your Visions of Ypsi Player of the Day for Day 7 is Bogdan Lobonţ. He is not to be confused w/ Lobot... he hates it when people confuse him w/ Lobot! Here he is looking weirdly like "Mad" Jens Lehmann