Counter-Attack with Zach

An angry Pittsburgh sports fan ranting about everything

Author: Zachary

  • You Don’t Know What You Have ’Til It’s Gone

    Disclaimer: Today’s entry will be about soccer. If you have no wish to read about soccer, you can stop here—Friday is the NHL trade deadline, and I will have something more palatable for you next week. If you choose to continue reading, be aware that the language of soccer (herein denoted “football”, for consistency’s sake)… Read more

  • Too Little, Too Late? Maybe Not

    There were a lot of directions that I could take the blog in this week. I could lament the fact that the Penguins have lost two of their three games since the last entry, solidifying their “one step forward, two steps back” personality. I could complain that there is a schism growing within the Steelers’… Read more

  • One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

    Now that football season is officially over and the NFL draft is two months away, it is time to turn our attention to the NHL—at least until the MLB regular season starts up. While the latter is an annual traumatic experience for Pirates fans, the former has not been too much more successful this season. … Read more

  • Tear Down the Paywall

    There was very little Pittsburgh sports action and news in the past week (Arthur Smith being hired as the Steelers’ offensive coordinator aside), so I want to focus on a larger issue within the world of sports–the paywall. The dictionary defines a paywall as a system that prevents Internet users from accessing certain content without… Read more

  • “Something’s Missing, All Right”

    One of the most quotable lines from Seinfeld occurs in season 7, when the newly-engaged George Costanza and Susan Ross have their respective families meet for the first time over dinner. George’s father, Frank, inquires about the nature of bird relationships, “Let me understand. You got the hen, the chicken, and the rooster. The rooster… Read more

  • Returning to the Summit

    Outside of the second half of the Ravens-Texans game, this was a great weekend of playoff football. The other three games were close the entire way, with all three outcomes decided within the last two minutes (see: Jordan Love’s interception with 52 seconds left to grant the 49ers another NFC Championship Game appearance, Baker Mayfield’s… Read more

  • The Crash Landing at the End of a Turbulent Season

    I ask that you bear with me, as I am writing this in the immediate aftermath of the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Buffalo Bills and am still processing the full extent of what just occurred. This may come off as more of a rant than my entries normally do (which is saying something), but… Read more

  • Is Lucky the Result of Good?

    I would first like to apologize for an error in last week’s entry. I forgot to include the scenario in which the Steelers won, and the Jaguars lost as a possibility for making the playoffs. Indeed, that is what happened this past weekend. The Steelers—in a deluge of rain—narrowly escaped Baltimore with a win against… Read more

  • The 27-Hour Wait

    What a great way to ring in the New Year! The Penguins enter 2024 on the back of three consecutive victories, two of which were triumphs over the New York Islanders, a division rival against whom the Pens have struggled mightily in recent seasons. Manchester City arrive in the new year after consecutive Premier League… Read more

  • The Standard is NOT the Standard

    Truth be told, I was a bit more optimistic than I should have been going into Saturday. Manchester City were fresh off back-to-back wins, albeit against lowly Luton Town and Crvena Zvezda (also known as Red Star Belgrade). The Penguins had also won back-to-back games against the Coyotes and the Canadiens, the latter of which… Read more