The FA Cup and, um, some other stuff

Middlesbrough 2 - 2 Manchester United
Not a bad game, but I would have enjoyed it more if (a) I hadn't been quite so massively hung over and (b) United hadn't contrived to nearly fuck it all up. Please learn to defend set-pieces, boys. It'll make life so much easier for all of us.

And don't think I didn't notice you lining up with Wayne Rooney on the left again. I can only assume that the formation (sort of a 4-2-3-1) was designed to minimize the impact of having to play John O'Shea in midfield, but that still doesn't explain why you'd play both Rooney and Ryan Giggs out of position in the process. And yes, I will keep harping on this until Sir Alex stops doing it. Sorry, but it's Monday and I'm cranky today.

Finally, George Boateng needs to stop whining about the penalty. This is not like the rec league I play in where they let girls use their arms to protect their boobs. In the real world, if you raise your arms to block the ball, and it hits them, it's handball. End of story. Suck it up and take the shot to the face. I'm sure that making it through to a cup semi-final would've dulled the pain.

Other results
Plymouth Argyle 0 - 1 Watford
Blackburn 2 - 0 Manchester City
Chelsea 3 - 3 Tottenham

I didn't see any of the other FA Cup matches. But I did catch a couple of other very good games instead:

• Barcelona 3 - 3 Real Madrid: Which featured three goals in the first 12 minutes, Barca going down to 10 men before half time when Oleguer was sent off, a complete and utter lack of defending by both sides, Iker Casillas making his Iker Casillas face roughly 10,000 times, Leo Messi being amazing and scoring a hat-trick, and the GolTV commentators having an aneurysm live on camera.
  
  
• Inter 2 - 1 Milan: Which featured Ronaldo scoring against his former club, being whistled at every time he touched the ball, and finishing the 90 minutes looking like he was about to keel over and die; Zlatan Ibrahimovic beating the geriatric Paolo Maldini for pace (shocking, I know) to set up the equalizer and then scoring the winner; Dida flapping at the ball repeatedly like a giant Brazilian chicken; and, sadly, nobody smacking Materazzi upside the head just for the fun of it.

I keep thinking about for signing up for digital cable so that I can watch more of the European leagues, but I already watch way too much football as it is. Plus, I suspect I would find it very hard not to reach into my TV and punch the commentators in the face, because most of the ones on FSC and GolTV seem to be given over to hyperbole, dubious turns of phrase, and talking out of their ass on any given topic. Even more than your average pundit normally does, that is. At least the guys they have doing the Italian matches on TLN (which I do watch sometimes) are relatively restrained. They stick to actually telling you what's going on, with the occasional snide remark about the players and bemused comments on those mad Italians. I like that much better.