EPL/Rudy/Hoosiers Mash-up

With an HDNet “Rudy” and “Hoosiers” double feature early last week still on my brain, my EPL thoughts this week will be reflect two of the finest sports flicks of my generation.

I realized that Lucas Leiva is the “Bizarro Rudy”

• Rudy – loyal

Lucas – red carded for spiking L’Pool teammie Javy Mascherano in the Olympics.

• Rudy- pasty

Lucas – Brazilian, yet still pasty

• Rudy – makes everyone around him better.

Lucas - may cause Gerrard break to break a Phil Collins record over his head in the middle of a game. Possibly “No Jacket Required.”

I had forgotten that Vince Vaughan was in Rudy. (Admit it - you forgot/didn’t know that) He played the selfish player that Coach Parseghian didn’t like.

Vaughn: “First practice and this guy is playing like it’s the Super Bowl. Coach Parseghian: “You just summed up your entire sorry career at Notre Dame”

That guy.

After this week, can’t you see Darron Gibson turning into that guy at Man U? Goals mid week in the Carling Cup and versus West Ham this weekend and they were bombs from waaay out.( BTW, I love the Brits calling a shot from 40 yards out as “optimistic.” They would clasify Jessica Simpson’s weight as “healthy.”) Watch Gibson start to get a little lazy, have some folks buying him a few pints and he starts thinking he is little bit better than he actually is - fast forward a year or two and suddenly Gibson gets the next “remember that one guy?” status with David Bentley/Gareth Bale.

[Aside #1: Isn’t odd to realize the Vaughn/Favrau pairing happened in “Rudy” before “Swingers?” I wonder if they first made Gretsky’s head bleed on Sega in an ND dorm room.]

Luckily for Gibson, he has SAF as his manager who as more than a little Coach Norman Dale from “Hoosiers” in him (“Darron, foooor passes before you shyooot! How many passes?” “Four!”) As SAF gets older and more crotchety, if he ever goes postal on one of his players (my vote: Berbs, after he rolls his eyes one too many times), he could totally resurface coaching Indiana high school soccer. “Foorst of all, lets be really fiiriendly, my name is Alex. Second of all, your coooching days aayre oovar.”

[Aside #2: How weird is it that the “bad townie coach guy” in Hoosiers is the same actor that played the “bad coach that didn’t want to play Rudy?” Lets call him George Devine. Even more odd, he played the “aging pitcher that sabotaged Cerrano’s voo-doo stuff” in “Major League.” George is the Billy Zabka (Karate Kid, Back to School) of sports movies.]

Request of the week: Can we get announcers to start using “Friday Night Lights” nomenclature to describe players? Instead of “the starting keeper for the US”, we can hear Tim Howard referred to as “America’s GK 1.”

Fantasy Picks to Click: I didn’t steer you wrong with Dindane last week, so lets stay with “the best striker versus crappy team on the road” theme and go with Chuco this week versus West Ham.

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