"Very First Time" - Pieces of a Dream, 1997

If you think you are having a bad day today, put yourself in the shoes of poor Gordon Strachan...

Last night was his first outing as new manager of Scotland's Celtic Football Club, in a European Champion's League match against a team called Artmedia Bratislava. Frankly, I'd never heard of Celtic's opponents before last night. Now everybody in Britain knows who these guys are. They crushed Celtic by an astonishing score of 5-0 in the first of two match-ups the two teams will have. The other one will be next week, in Glasgow. It seems nearly impossible that Celtic can can perform well enough in next week's match to get the chance to advance to the next round of Champions League matches.

Strachan is one of my favorite sports personalities here. He seems like a very interesting fellow without the massive ego of so many UK football managers. (Both Mourinho and Ferguson immediately come to mind...) I hate that this has happened to him.

I may have to be prepared to do a lot of praying during next week's match.

Here is the BBC's take on last night's game, and here is another one from London's "Daily Mail" newspaper.

Janet

Listening To: "From Hell to Breakfast", Various Artists (a Sugar Hill compilation of Texas singer-songwriters)