“Bye-Bye, Bushy”

From the Ecuadorian perspective, today’s Arsenal v. Villareal Champions League match–won by the hosts 1-0 (Toure)–gave a chance to watch goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. The Arsenal ‘keeper is the newly-minted No. 1 for Ecuador Group A foes Germany. Lehmann had a pretty good outing, although he wasn’t terribly tested for most of the game. But if you received the English-language ESPN2 feed, then you know that the most important part of the match was commentator Tommy Smyth’s ongoing fascination with a wayward squirrel who ran around the pitch during the first half. From “Ooooh, I thought he was gonna score” to calling the lil’ rodent for offside, Smyth was in rare form. By the end of the ordeal, he had even named the squirrel for its big send off: “Bye-bye, Bushy!” Nice.