Manchester United vs. Arsenal Wins Battle of the Bulge During Busy Weekend
Over the weekend, it seemed to be raining everywhere—in liquid form all over the Eastern seaboard and in leather form all over the world.
Manchester United won the battle of the bulge (in the ole onion bag) with an octet against Arsenal. That's the most the London club had given up in a league match since 1896, and the most allowed during a goal-filled weekend.
That 8-2 score at Old Trafford grabbed the headlines, but other teams were pushing the envelope of the nets from Valencia to Kashima. A search of the weekend's scores across the globe netted at least 17 matches that reached the joy of six or more.
Try these on for size: Manchester City 5, Tottenham 1; Real Madrid 6, Real Zaragoza 0; PSV Eindhoven 6, Excelsior 1; Valencia 4, Racing Santander 3; FC Cologne 4, Hamburg SV 3.
Even Major League Soccer got in on the act as Sounders FC thumped Columbus 6-2 in Seattle.
Was it still the preseason, or was it the 1950s? Either way, it was fun to watch and did loads to silence the "soccer's boring because there's not enough scoring" contingent.
This is not a diatribe about the need for more goals in soccer. It's just about how nice it is to have a change of pace once in a while. Will we stop loving the binary scores (1-0, 1-1, 0-0)? Of course not. They can hold just as much suspense.
Enjoy the barrage while it lasts.
