Blog Update

There won't be any new posts over the weekend (I know it's the highlight of your day) as I'm going to be away for a few days. But I promise Underneath the Stars (I've realised I have fallen short of my plan to mention the blog title in every post so this is an attempt to get back on track) will be back with some interesting articles on Monday. One of which is a take on next weeks round of international friendlies & why the football calendar needs a serious overhaul. I won't give anymore away but I'm sure you'll all be eagerly awaiting the next entry on Underneath the Stars (I've just doubled my tally in one blog). And yes I do have serious (bracket) problem, though I'm seeking professional help.

Have a great weekend & in the meantime enjoy some eye candy with the delightful Yvonne Strahovski who plays the beautiful Sarah Walker on NBC's Chuck.

Friday Five

A slight alteration on this weeks favourite links, which as you can see has been re-named Friday Five. As I've mentioned previously I'm a big music fan and as I haven't had the opportunity to do a music related entry so far, this weeks post will link to five favourite music videos.

White Collar: Bottlenecked

Alongside a regular review of Chuck one of the other shows I will be following on this blog is White Collar. White Collar is a new show that first aired on 23rd October 09 on the USA network. Its debut season has gone very well with the show garnering a lot of positive reviews as well as receiving good viewing figures.

The show centres on the story of Neal Caffrey, a white collar criminal who ends up working for the FBI. The charasmatic Caffrey played by Matthew Bomer strikes up an unlikely partnership with FBI agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) as they solve white collar crimes in New York city.

Last Man Standing - A Change to the Red Card rule

Yesterday's Champions League tie saw a pivotal moment in first half stoppage time when Salomon Kalou fell in the penalty area following pressure from Walter Samuel. If the referee viewed the incident as a penalty he would also have had to send off Samuel as he was the last man. After looking to his linesman for assistance the referee decide there was sufficient doubt not to award the penalty. This decision drew a lot of criticism from ITV's commentators & studio guests, though the Chelsea coaching staff took the setback particularly well. One of the points made over & over again by the ITV team was that Kalou had nothing to gain by going to the ground. Well that's not true in the slightest. If the referee had deemed Samuel's challenge worthy of a penalty Chelsea would have obviously got another goal scoring opportunity as well as seeing their opponents reduced to ten man for the remainder of the match. That is more than sufficient cause for Kalou to consider going down.

Rooney: The new Messiah

I compiled this just after Manchester United v AC Milan Champions League tie last week but as I was unable to confirm some statistics I didn't publish it.

Wayne Rooney's two goals in Manchester United's 3-2 victory against AC Milan has once again produced the obligatory love in from the nation’s finest journalistic minds. But given that both opportunities were pretty straightforward is the analysis of Rooney's role last night or in fact in the wider context really accurate.

Feature Reading

Apologies for the late posting of this weeks Friday five though I promise it will be earlier next week. As always I welcome any link suggestions in the comments below.

Champions League Preview

After a two month hiatus the Champions League is back. For this year the format has changed slightly with the first leg ties spread out over two weeks rather than being held on the same week. Tuesday's fixtures sees AC Milan v Man Utd & Lyon v Real Madrid. For this round of fixtures I will stick to previewing ties involving English clubs.

Feature Reading

Something that will become a regular feature on Friday's is a link to the top stories, articles or video clips of the week. After a week of painstaking research I'll compile a list of my 5 favourite links. Now I know that this sounds like an arduous task but fortunately for all readers of this blog that's the level of dedication you can expect from me.

Chuck v the Mask

One of the shows I intend to do an episode by episode review is Chuck. Currently well into its third season Chuck is probably my favourite TV show on at the moment. For those of you who are unaware of this show here's a quick synopsis. 

Chuck is a show about how a normal guy (Charles Bartowski or Chuck for short) gets involved in espionage courtesy of an email sent by an old college friend. The email contains government secrets that are 'downloaded' into his brain. The government sends two agents, Sarah & Casey, to protect and work with Chuck. The secrets in Chuck’s head allow him to access information & as of season three skill sets, a la The Matrix.

Super bowl XLIV Match Analysis

Super bowl XLIV was a fitting finale to another great football season. The top two teams in the league produced a high quality match that ended with first time champions in the form of New Orleans Saints.

The first thing to note is that the victory for the Saints was no upset.

Super bowl XLIV Match Report

I had hoped to do a preview for Super bowl XLIV as it's always more fun imagining the possibilities pre game than evaluating a standard win after the event. I never got the time to do so, but fortunately on this occassion the game lived up to potential. A game of high standard & close scoring ensured it was a tension filled right up to the very end.

Australian Open Final analysis

Roger Federer’s straight sets victory over Andy Murray in the Australian Open Men’s Final was superb as it was surprising. Given their head to head record most commentators had predicted a tight battle with all most as many tipping Murray to prevail as Federer. So that raises the question of why the final was as one sided as it proved.

Writing is Fun

I wrote a little bit yesterday about what you can expect to find in this blog but I did not touch on my reasons for starting it. Now you may or may not feel that this is relevant but hopefully it will add to your appreciation of this blog. 

Welcome to Underneath the Stars

Underneath the Stars is a new blog full of musings on subjects as diverse as cricket to indie music. It will attempt to balance a serious approach that hopefully offers a thought-provoking take on subjects as well as a lighter look at things. I want this blog to be fun & informative though I can't make any promises on either front. I am hoping this will be an interactive space & would love to receive your thoughts & feedback on anything posted here as well other material that you feel is relevant to this blog.