Tag: sports

This promises to be an enjoyable game, as well as determining whether
the home team is a legitimate contender for the title or not. The
Germans look fearsome; the USA looks tactically competent, but
insufficiently athletic and technical to hope for more than a draw
against Portugal and a possible second-place finish on goal
differential.

Great result for the USA, if they can beat Ghana today. Germany’s destruction of Portugal, complete with a red card and an injury, has Portugal reeling and should set the USA up nicely… if they can get at least one point from Ghana.

YOWZERS! 31 seconds in and Clint Dempsey nutmegs a defender, manages to pull the ball along with him, and slides it home off the post! 1-0 USA.

I’m enjoying the results to date. Here is hoping that the doughty Swiss can continue the theme. Hopp Schwiiz!

I didn’t actually think the English were bad, and Sterling is clearly a player to watch. But they simply weren’t strong enough to break through the Italian catenaccio-style defending. Some may find it boring to watch, but I’ve played with Italians long enough that I’ve come to respect the defense-first philosophy.

And Pirlo… what can you say about a playmaker still playing at this level at 35? It’s unbelievable. Remember, those midfielders are covering the equivalent of up to three 5k races in only 90 minutes, with only one break in the middle. Calcio isn’t as violent as MMA, NHL, or the NFL, but it is a brutal sport in its own way. There is a reason why even superlatively great players like Brazil’s Kaká are done as internationals at 32 and there is talk of England’s Rooney being washed up at 28.

UPDATE: Switzerland was robbed of one game-winning goal (seriously, what is it with these terrible assistant referees and their dreadful offsides calls?) but a PHENOMENAL slide tackle to stop a dangerous shot in the area, followed by a GREAT advantage call by the referee, led to a long counterattack and goal with 14 seconds left in injury time. 2-1 Switzerland!

I like Italy here, even without Buffon. I don’t think England is the first-rate team the English are so firmly convinced that it is. I don’t think Italy has it to win the Cup, but they should win the group.

We had our year-end 9×9 tournament today. What a disaster. I repeatedly felt like Lens watching Robben taking on two defenders and the goalie instead of simply passing the ball to the guy standing in front of the empty net. The important difference being that my teammates aren’t Robben and we scored only one goal in four games.

I put it down to too much World Cup watching. Everyone suddenly thinks they’re considerably better than they are. In any event, this would be your open World Cup post.

Mexico v Cameroon is first, but I can’t imagine Mexico having too much trouble with the Indomitable Lions. The more interesting game is the defending champions beginning their title defense against one of the traditionally second-rate teams of the tournament. If Spain blows the Dutch away, they may have a real shot at toppling Brazil in Brazil, especially after last night’s lackluster performance.

I do enjoy the Spanish style, especially the way they stretch the field horizontally with their wingers. But I’ll be pulling for the Dutch on behalf of our friends and two of my teammates.

UPDATE: Not a bad game by Mexico. Two goals disallowed for offsides, one of them wrongly. The goal that finally won the game was an excellent example of two important attacking principles: 1) put your shots on goal and hit them hard enough to create a rebound if the goalie stops it, and, 2) don’t stand and watch your teammates’ shots, follow them in.

UPDATE 2: TOTAL FREAKING FOOTBALL! That was an EPIC devastation of Spain in the second half. Diego Costa did nothing except win an unmerited penalty (albeit one that was all but impossible for the referee to see was a clever dive) and David Silva was the only Spanish player worth mentioning. First the Dutch successfully attacked through the air, then Robben took over completely as the field opened up. Crushing the defending world champions 5-1 is an impressive start indeed.

Brazil vs Croatia. The World Cup. The Groups. Discuss freely amongst yourselves.

UPDATE: Severely underwhelmed by Brazil. Croatia was the better team, and indeed, probably should have won 2-1 rather than losing 3-1. Instead, Brazil was gifted a penalty on a dive, then Croatia was robbed of a goal on a nonexistent foul before Oscar scored the finishing goal in injury time.

I did think Oscar’s kiddie-style toe-kick from outside the box was clever, though, as it caught the goalie completely off-guard. But it was surprising to see the that it was the Croatian midfield successfully playing keepaway, and not the Brazilians.

I would not be at all surprised if these Krav Maga snake oil salesmen ended up getting a woman killed one day:

 “Jab your fingers into his eyes.” That’s step one if you’re confronted by an attacker, at least according to Darren Selley, 35, my self-defence Krav Maga instructor. First go for the eyes, then put a knee between their legs (assuming it’s a bloke), using their strength against them. Once they fall to the floor, kick them in the groin. Threat: neutralised.

Darren and his fellow instructor Ricky are here to lead a special seminar on self-defence for women, organised by property maintenance company aspect.co.uk. We’re learning Urban Krav Maga, a blend of nine martial arts specifically intended for use on the streets.

It’s all about quick movements designed to cause maximum impact; breaking an arm, perforating an eardrum, knocking someone out. It’s perfect for most women because it doesn’t rely on brute strength and, as I discover, it’s incredibly easy to learn.

I have no doubt that it is incredibly easy to learn. Which only confirms my impression that it is actually worse than useless, because it teaches women to expect to incapacitate an attacker.

There is a very big difference between training and the real thing. There is nearly as big a difference between drill and full-contact sparring. I’ve fought more than a few karate students, up to and including black belts, who had never engaged in any serious sparring. With NO EXCEPTIONS, they weren’t much better than a complete neophyte.

Drill-based theory is based on the concept of control, and how if you are capable of delivering a strike that stops just short of someone’s face, you could just as easily deliver one that actually hits them. This is true. However, people “fight” very differently when they are essentially shadowboxing and they know their opponent is not actually going to hit them. Furthermore, it deprives the shadowboxer of learning how to take a shot, how to exploit and follow-up openings created, and how to use combinations. Fighting isn’t just about what you can do to the other party, it’s also about what the other party can do to you.

It is very, very difficult to make a precision strike at someone’s eyes. It is even more difficult to successfully knee a man in the groin when he is in a conflict situation. And even if one makes contact, it is likely that it won’t slow him down much, as adrenaline significantly reduces the amount of pain one feels in the moment.

It’s fine to teach women how to defend themselves. But firearms, and where they are not legal, knives, should always be a part of the self-defense strategy, and women need to understand that the odds are severely against them in a physical struggle. Learning technique is fine, but doing fake routines on unresisting opponents is worse than pointless. It takes years to become an effective fighter, so it is risible to suggest that a class or two is going to accomplish anything but instill a false sense of self-confidence in a woman.

I’m also very curious to know how one puts one knee between someone else’s leg using their strength against them. A knee strike is a hard technique, not a soft one. This sounds like pure marketing babble to me.

This is shaping up to be an interesting and wide-open Mondiale. Brazil would normally be the big favorites, as the home countries usually do well, but as one newspaper has commented, the corruption of the Brazilian government and the shameless fraud associated with the construction of the tournament stadiums has actually turned the majority of the Brazilians against the World Cup. This is a staggering achievement and is a testimony to the unvarnished corruption rife within FIFA.

Literally dozens of international friendlies and qualifiers are suspected of having been at least partially fixed; there are even some serious questions about the legitimacy of a number of games leading up to the previous World Cup in South Africa.

A soccer referee named Ibrahim Chaibou walked into a bank in a small South African city carrying a bag filled with as much as $100,000 in $100 bills, according to another referee traveling with him. The deposit was so large that a bank employee gave Mr. Chaibou a gift of commemorative coins bearing the likeness of Nelson Mandela.

Later that night in May 2010, Mr. Chaibou refereed an exhibition match between South Africa and Guatemala in preparation for the World Cup, the world’s most popular sporting event. Even to the casual fan, his calls were suspicious — he called two penalties for hand balls even though the ball went nowhere near the players’ hands.

Mr. Chaibou, a native of Niger, had been chosen to work the match by a company based in Singapore that was a front for a notorious match-rigging syndicate, according to an internal, confidential report by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.

FIFA’s investigative report and related documents, which were obtained by The New York Times and have not been publicly released, raise serious questions about the vulnerability of the World Cup to match fixing. The tournament opens June 12 in Brazil.

The report found that the match-rigging syndicate and its referees infiltrated the upper reaches of global soccer in order to fix exhibition matches and exploit them for betting purposes. It provides extensive details of the clever and brazen ways that fixers apparently manipulated “at least five matches and possibly more” in South Africa ahead of the last World Cup. As many as 15 matches were targets, including a game between the United States and Australia, according to interviews and emails printed in the FIFA report.

Apparently, it’s nearly as bad as the NBA during the David Stern era. As for the tournament itself, Italy’s slim chances just took a blow with the loss of Riccardo Montolivo. Spain is beginning to look a bit creaky and underpowered up front, and both Argentina and Portugal look more like potential semifinalists than potential champions. In the end, I think Germany and Brazil look like the two teams to beat, with a slight nod to Brazil for being the home team. Let’s face it, once the games actually start, the Brazilians are going to rally round their team.

Of the lesser teams, Switzerland looks solid. The USA has a decent young team, (although I would have brought Landon Donovan along in-case-of-emergency-break-glass purposes), but I can’t see them getting out of the Group of Death, not with Germany and Portugal in Group G. Ghana isn’t bad either, so it’s not inconceivable that the USA could go pointless despite playing well. Holland is good, but Van Persie isn’t enough to get them past the second round.

Unlike all the IT nancy boys who can’t resign fast enough when someone looks at them the wrong way, Donald Tokowitz has rightly told the NBA where it can stuff its fine and its attempt to steal his property. It’s interesting to see Michael McCann, SI’s sports lawyer, suddenly sounding considerably less confident concerning the NBA’s legal position, which he’d previously made sound almost unassailable:

The answer begins with perhaps Sterling’s best argument: the recording of his infamous, albeit private, remarks to V. Stiviano was likely unlawful under California law, and the NBA is attempting to throw him out based on the recording. If the NBA was suing Sterling in a court of law, the recording would likely be deemed inadmissible under rules of evidence. But, as Sterling wisely acknowledges, the NBA’s internal system of justice doesn’t follow courtroom rules of evidence. The NBA constitution makes this clear, and Sterling has agreed to follow that the league’s rules.

Sterling attempts to counter this argument by claiming that the NBA cannot contract around substantive due process protections under California law. One of those protections, Sterling argues, is the right to privacy, and Sterling cites several cases where the right is treated as paramount. Sterling therefore contends that even if the NBA can, as a matter of procedure, rely on evidence that would be inadmissible in court, the league can’t, as a matter of due process, violate his right to privacy.

Expect the NBA to counter with several arguments. First, Sterling’s answer does not cite a case where a privacy right was used to reverse the decision of a private association. While the absence of a clear precedent does not nullify Sterling’s claim, the NBA would argue it weakens Sterling’s contention. Second, the NBA would likely insist that California law does not apply. The NBA’s constitution repeatedly references New York law as the state law governing league matters. And unlike California, a two-party starte where both parties must consent to a recording, New York is a one-party state whereby it is lawful to record another person so long as one party consents. From that lens, the NBA can maintain the privacy right under California law does not apply.

It’s also fascinating to hear everyone claiming that the NBA’s internal system of justice somehow trumps state and federal law just because the owners agreed to it. I mean, we all know that no judge has ever overturned a prenuptial agreement or a business contract, right?

I suspect the league will have a very hard time claiming it had to act for fear of damage that never actually happened. Silver would have been smarter to let the players boycott first, then step in, as there would be actual damage to which he could point. But, since it’s entirely theoretical now, Tokowitz can point to the full stadiums and TV ratings and very credibly argue that no harm has been done by his continued ownership of the team.

And once the lawyers start citing every racist and sexist statement ever made by anyone connected to the NBA, many of which will be much worse than what Tokowitz said, the league is going to have a tough time arguing its actions were not prejudiced and arbitrary. Especially if the lawyers can dig up any evidence of a preexisting discussions concerning how to get rid of the Clippers owner.

Of course, all of this could just be a bargaining chip meant to drive the purchase price up. If the price is $2 billion+, we’ll know it worked. But I hope the old bastard means it and does fight to the bloody end. The thieves in the NBA head office deserve it.