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Premier League Final Day: Too Many Balls in the Air

May 22nd, 2011 · 2 Comments · soccer, The National

Ten games all kicking off at 4 p.m. in England. Five teams facing potential relegation.

It’s almost too much to follow, if you are trying to keep up the image of actually working — at work.

All I know at halftime of those 10 games is this:

Blackpool can avoid relegation if the current scores hold.

I know that because our Manchester United fanatic, who is also the “football editor” at The National, has the ManU game on our big-screen TV, and as the Tangerines (it’s not a bad color for a uniform, believe it or not) walked off at half, they were still in the Premier League for next season by dint of goal differential.

It’s bad enough to keep track of four teams in a tight World Cup group when they are playing two games at once …

It becomes geometrically more difficult when you are trying to track five teams who are involved in four games. (Relegation candidates Wolverhampton and Blackburn are playing each other.)

As I suggested the on this blog the other day, relegation is great fun. I wish the big American sports had a way to figure it out.

Anyway, at this moment, the Blackpool fans at Old Trafford are very happy … but also very nervous.

To see who made it and who didn’t … check the final standings here, and see who the three poor saps at the bottom of the list are.

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2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Ian // May 23, 2011 at 9:46 AM

    LOVED IT. It was amazing to watch, and in the U.S., it was possible to have all 10 games on at the same time, if you had enough screens:
    — United-Blackpool were on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com
    — Tottenham-Brum on FSC
    — Wolves-Blackburn on Fox Soccer Plus
    — Stoke-Wigan on foxsoccer.tv and ESPN Deportes
    — Everton-Chelsea on ESPN3.com and foxsoccer.tv
    — Citeh-Bolton on ESPN3.com
    — Villa-Liverpool on ESPN3.com and foxsoccer.tv
    — Fulham-Arsenal on Fox Sports en Espanol
    — Newcastle-WBA on ESPN3.com
    — West Ham-Sunderland on ESPN3.com

    At one point in the second half, I had United-Blackpool on my main TV screen, Tottenham in the PIP, Wigan on a Firefox browser and a multi-screen of Citeh, Newcastle, Villa and Chelsea on a Safari browser.

    The only matches I didn’t watch at all were Wolves (I don’t pay for FS Plus) and Arsenal (because why…)

  • 2 Chuck Hickey // May 23, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    The great Ian Darke was beside himself on the ManU-Blackpool match about all the constant changes.

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