Congrats Rio!

2016 here we come!

heartbreaking

sunday was a momentous day for the US men's national team. they faced Brazil in the Confederation's Cup Final. why was this big? because it was the 1st ever time the US made it to a FIFA sanctioned final. FIFA is the international governing body of world football. they also organize the World Cup. it was also big because at the end of the 1st half, the US was beating Brazil 2-0. 2-0! do you know how crazy that is? the US, which is ranked #14 in the world, leading the #5 ranked Brazil. not to mention a few days earlier the US defeated Spain 3-0 in the same competition. Spain is ranked #1.

back to the game. at the end of the 1st half, the US had everything in their favor. they were controlling the game, they had momentum, they were shutting down the Brazilian offense, not to mention penetrating the Brazilian defense. the US defense was working beautifully as a unit. it was amazing to see. but then, the 2nd half happened. Brazil quickly scored their 1st goal, followed by a 2nd. then, with less than 10 minutes to play, they scored their 3rd.

what happened? the US has a lot of growing up to do. they lack consistency, stamina, and the ability to hold their own against the world powers of football for 90 minutes.

if you missed the game, you missed history. hopefully the US will take the lessons they learned from this match and use them as they gear up for the World Cup next year.

ga oranje!

if you're not aware of this, then you're probably not a world football fan, but world cup qualifiers continued this past weekend. the 2 countries i am pulling for are, of course, the u.s. and netherlands. mainly the netherlands. i was disappointed with the way the u.s. played. by all accounts, they should have defeated el salvador, but they tied instead. the netherlands, on the other hand, soundly defeated scotland 3-0. catch highlights from both matches below. and yes, the highlights from the netherlands match are in dutch.

Netherlands vs. Scotland in Amsterdam




U.S. vs. El Salvador in San Salvador

NCAA and Pac-10 Referees

I just need to say how much I hate Pac-10 referees and the NCAA referees. I think they are biased for California Teams, especially Stanford and USC and I think they are also biased for the entire SEC.

Jerks!

ASU Sports!

Hats off to Arizona State for it's Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball and Women's Gymnastics! Good luck to the basketball teams as they make their way to the big dance. And good luck to the gymnastics team as they aim for the Pac-10 championship title.

ASU Baseball

And... the ASU Sun Devils baseball team is playing Fresno State this weekend in the Super Regionals. Wouldn't it be cool if ASU swept this series too???

a wonderful moment in sports

This week has been a great one for Julie & I, at least in the world of sports and the teams we follow. Julie's beloved alma mater, Arizona State University, won the National Championship in the College Softball World Series! This is the 1st time they've won that trophy in their history. The men's baseball team at ASU is playing for their respective championship title tomorrow. Go Sun Devils! And, as I'm sure some of you witnessed, the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup last night when they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2. This was the 4th time in 11 seasons they've accomplished this. In the words of Bill & Ted, "Most triumphant!"

3 sad results

yesterday was a sad day in the wide world of sports for me. 3 teams that i follow played, and all 3 lost. the detroit red wings played game 3 of their best-of-7 series in the stanley cup finals against the pittsburgh penguins, and lost 3-2 in pittsburgh. then, the detroit pistons lost in a heartbreaker to the boston celtics 106-102 in boston. they are now down 3-2 in that best-of-7 series in the eastern conference finals. and finally, in probably a result i should have expected, the US men's national football team lost 2-0 to England. please note that when i say "football", i'm referring to the sport known here in the states as "soccer". american "football" should be called "throwball". the only real consolation is that this game was only a friendly, but it would have been nice to beat (or at least tie) one of the world's historical football superpowers.

next up...today the Netherlands play Denmark in another international friendly. hup holland!

brian

>>>>UPDATE<<<<
am i a nerd? yes i am. final score in the Netherlands vs Denmark match, 1-1. goals came from Ruud van Nistelrooij (NL) and Christian Poulsen.