Month: April 2010

mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 11, Episode 2: Get off my back!

Posted on by Beau Dure

We met our 14 fighters last time as they won their way into the house. Now we’ll see what they’re really like.

Clayton McKinney, who stands out with the brightly dyed hair typical of the Tom Lawlor-Seth Petruzelli Jungle MMA camp, leads the charge into the house. Did Lawlor tell him which room to pick?

Injury update: Chris Camozzi has an infection from breaking a tooth in his bout. McKinney has a shoulder problem.

Off to team selection we go, and both coaches look prepared. Dana White decides first pick with a coin flip, which seems too conventional. Shouldn’t they arm-wrestle or compare film resumes or something? Tito Ortiz wins and has the option of picking first fighter or first matchup. He goes with first fighter, and it’s Nick Ring, who indeed looked impressive and has good credentials.

Chuck Liddell picks Kyle Noke, the guy who has a couple of decent names on his fight record. Tito goes for experience with Kyacey Uscola, who’s 18-15. Chuck follows with Rich Attonito, which is a surprise because Kris McCray is still out there and because he won his prelim with less striking and more wrestling, impressing Ortiz.

Tito, smartly, picks Kris McCray, the undefeated pro who wins fights in the blink of an eye. Chuck takes Charles Blanchard.

Continue reading →

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soccer

What makes a soccer game change? Besides Messi

Posted on by Beau Dure

Barcelona was dominating Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal, taking a 2-0 away lead that could have been more. Then the game changed.

Why? What made that game change? What makes any game change?

I asked a couple of people who are in far better position than I am to know such things.

X, O, squiggle, goal
Ummm, coach? Can you possibly go over all that again?

Houston coach Dominic Kinnear saw some tactical changes:

“Two things happened that changed the game. One was Arsenal’s decision to play three at the back. The other was the insertion of Theo Walcott. Walcott’s pace to get in behind (the Barcelona defense) was huge.”

U.S. women’s veteran Brandi Chastain went with another angle:

“When the other team seems to be in control but is not putting away chances, you start to think, ‘Maybe we’re in this.’ And they start to become frustrated with the lack of finishing. Barcelona probably could’ve scored another two goals. That becomes frustration, and then you start to let down your mental guard. Then the other team gets a little bit of success, whether it’s possession or chances on goal.”

Matt Besler from the Kansas City Wizards figures Arsenal just had to turn it up a few notches:

“I think it was just the situation that Arsenal was in. The urgency that they had once they went down 2-0, they knew that being at home that they needed a tie or win, they really needed to go for the goal. I think that was the tipping point that helped them get some more energy and get more urgent. That’s why soccer is such a tough game. You can dominate a game for 70 or 80 minutes, but if you lose concentration for 10 minutes you can lose everything that you worked for.”

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cycling, general sports, mma, olympic sports, soccer

Wednesday now officially renamed Messiday

Posted on by Beau Dure

The top news from yesterday: The story from Barcelona quickly changed from “Hey, can Arsenal really win at the Nou Camp?” to “Do we go ahead and put Lionel Messi alongside Pele and Maradona?” The young Argentine, just three years removed from being hyped alongside Freddy Adu as one of the potential stars of the U-20 World Cup, scored four goals to silence any talk of Arsenal advancing to the semis. Inter Milan advanced past CSKA Moscow in the other Tuesday quarterfinal.

Also:

– Soccer: Speaking of four-goal outbursts, Cruz Azul waited until the last 20 minutes to turn an aggregate tie into a rout against Pumas in the CONCACAF Champions League semis. (The Original Winger – video)

– Soccer: Former D.C. United goalkeeping prospect Milos Kocic has turned up with Toronto FC, where Mo Johnston says he can learn from Stefan Frei and Jon Conway. Kocic, though, is a year older than Frei and therefore might not have much of a future there unless Frei gets snapped up by a European club at some point — which shouldn’t be out of the question. (Toronto FC “beta” site)

– Soccer: A far more curious story from Toronto — unconfirmed reports say Jim Brennan will abruptly retire as a player and join the front office. The club has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. ET “player announcement.” (Toronto Sun)

– Curling: Pete Fenson and the USA won their must-win against Italy to move into a tie for a playoff spot in the World Championships. (USOC)

– MMA: Suspended heavyweight Josh Barnett seems resigned to sitting out a year before applying to get his California fight license again, frustrated with delays in his appeal that he blames on California authorities. He’s been busy fighting overseas and working on his “film career” along with every other MMA fighter. It’d be a pity not to give the articulate Barnett a day in court to see if he can address his second U.S. doping offense. (MMA Junkie)

– Golf: Story too strange to pass up — John Daly didn’t qualify for The Masters, so he set up shop in August selling merchandise. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

– Soccer: And in this amusing video, Philly defender Danny Califf aims for a cup atop Danny Bonaduce’s head and misses several times, the last one catching Bonaduce flush in the face. Bonaduce also has been KO’d by Sugar Ray Leonard in the studio, so he takes the shot pretty well. But we’d fear for his safety if fellow Union defender Toni Stahl showed up. (The Offside Rules)

TODAY’S TV

– Now: Cycling, Tour of the Basque Country, Universal Sports webcast

– 2:30 p.m. ET: Soccer, Champions League quarterfinals, second leg. Manchester United-Bayern Munich is on Fox Soccer Channel. Bordeaux-Lyon is on Fox Soccer Plus, then replayed at 5 on FSC.

– 10 p.m. ET: MMA, The Ultimate Fighter, Spike. Check back for the recap by 11:30 p.m.

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soccer

Tales of soccer survival: MISL’s Milwaukee Wave

Posted on by Beau Dure

For a few years, indoor soccer was the dominant form of the game in the United States, with more than 10,000 watching the hybrid of hockey and outdoor soccer. Serbian-born Preki carved out a nice career in the indoor game before going outside with MLS and proving that his skills translated to a bigger field without those pesky walls.

These days, the outdoor game is alive and well, and indoor continues on its own path. The MISL went away for a while, leaving two competing leagues that eventually came together and became the MISL again, except last year, when the league was the NISL. The PASL, which operates a pro league and amateur divisions, opted to affiliate with FIFRA. No, not FIFA, the custodians of the World Cup. The PASL actually has its own U.S. Open Cup, with the reborn San Diego Sockers (first version immortalized in this not-quite-Super-Bowl-Shuffle video) traveling to take on the Louisville Lightning this weekend.

Anyway: The Milwaukee Wave led Sunday’s MISL final 6-0 in the third quarter. Then came a three-point goal by Monterrey’s Chile Farias, quickly followed by a two-pointer to make it 6-5. La Raza took the lead late in the third, made it 9-6 in the fourth and tacked on an empty-net three-pointer for a 12-6 win. (Video highlights)

Not the way any player, coach or fan wants to end a season, but after what Milwaukee went through last year, the city’s soccer community still has plenty to celebrate.

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basketball, cycling, olympic sports, soccer, sports culture

Tuesday tribalism (and news, not all about Duke)

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’re Americans, with a capital ‘A’, huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts! … We’re mutants. There’s something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us – we’re soldiers. But we’re American soldiers! We’ve been kicking ass for 200 years! We’re 10 and 1!

– John Winger (Bill Murray), Stripes

America may be the biggest and most powerful country the world has seen since Britain decided to quit naming most of the world after its monarchs, but we still love the underdog. No one’s making a movie about the big school with the great facilities that won the Indiana high school basketball championship as expected.

Once upon a time, Mike Krzyzewski and Duke were the underdogs challenging the long reign of Dean Smith and North Carolina in the ACC. No one had a clue of what was to come. True story: In a freshman dorm at Duke in the fall of 1987, someone said it was a shame we had all arrived after all the good basketball. And no one doubted it.

That’s changed a bit. The well-mannered runners-up with the unruly trend-setting crowd have become champions once, twice, three and now four times. By 2001, most people were sick of seeing Shane Battier on ESPN, no matter how likable and admirable the guy was. And seriously, what was up with that “Who’s your daddy Battier” chant?

Duke is also seen as a place of privilege, and as a standout Salon piece points out, Americans have mixed feelings about that. They’re not even consistent in how they apply that prejudice to basketball. Why would Duke be any more evil than Georgetown, another private school where the rent is a lot higher than it is in the crime-infested neighborhoods around Duke?

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mma, olympic sports

Combat Games: New era of sub-Olympic competition?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Everybody wants to get a sport into the Olympics, but the line is long and slow-moving. The IOC hasn’t even put women’s ski jumping in the Olympics, preferring to leave a couple of ski jump ramps idle for a few days rather than admit that girls can jump, too. If you’re getting in the line now — attention, MMA fans — you’re not getting in the Games anytime soon. The Summer Games are too big, and they’ll eventually run out of permutations of ice and snow for the Winter Games. (But wouldn’t you love to see “snowboard combined,” with halfpipe determining the starting order for snowboardcross?)

And that’s why something like the Combat Games makes sense on many levels in addition to getting some extra use out of some Beijing venues. The Combat Games will have the Olympic sports of boxing, wrestling, judo and taekwondo, along with several other forms of martial arts. One drawback is that the program is focused a little too heavily on Asian sports — grappling, which actually could get into the Games as another discipline of wrestling, isn’t listed. But the concept is good.

They’re also looking at the Mind Games (chess and … something else) and the Beach Games. Not bad.

USA TODAY colleague Jeff Zillgitt and I used to talk about inventing the Pub Games. Darts is a rising sport, and pool could use a boost.

Maybe the line has to be drawn somewhere, but it’s hard to argue with the idea of giving existing Olympic sports another good stage alongside smaller sports that deserve a chance to be seen. Just work on the mascots.

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basketball, cycling, soccer, tennis

Monday news: 1 week and counting, Coach K rumors

Posted on by Beau Dure

SportsMyriad is one week into its existence, and I’m keeping it in “soft-launch” mode for another day or two. The idea here is to do mostly original content, and that takes time to bring to fruition. When you’re still catching up on household things like paying taxes and trying to finish up an expense report for a former employer, that content doesn’t just spring up. And while you can’t tell from looking at it, I have put a lot of time into the “design” here.

Once I’m up to speed, you’ll still likely a get a weekday morning roundup. Like so …

NEWS

– Soccer: Sure, the big game had a couple of controversial calls each way, but Chelsea looked outstanding in winning at Old Trafford to leapfrog Manchester United and take first place in the Premier League with five games to play. Arsenal is still just three points back.

The lead also changed hands in Germany, with Bayern Munich beating Schalke. (AFP)

– Tennis: Andy Roddick took his first win at a “Masters 1000” tournament, the most recent name for the not-quite-majors, since 2006, beating Rafael Nadal in the semis and rolling past Tomas Berdych in the final. In an era dominated by Nadal and Roger Federer, Roddick should get full credit for trying everything he can to break the stranglehold. He even raised some money for Chilean earthquake relief over the weekend. The women’s winner in Key Biscayne: Kim Clijsters, who wiped out Venus Williams. (USA TODAY’s Weekly Net Post, a great roundup of the tennis scene)

– Cycling: Fabian Cancellara powered away from Tom Boonen for an epic win in the Tour of Flanders. Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and Tyler Farrar all finished with the lead pack. AP says Lance was thrilled with his ride, but is anyone concerned that Lance had no teammates there? (VeloNews)

– Curling: Rough going for Pete Fenson and the USA so far at the World Championships. (USOC)

– Rowing: Cambridge shocks Oxford to win the Boat Race. (Telegraph)

THOUGHTS

– College basketball: Mike and Mike this morning were all over two stories, both affecting me as a loyal fan of my hometown and alma mater’s teams. First was Donovan McNabb to the Redskins, about which I have no useful comment. The second: NorthJersey.com reports, in an anonymously sourced story curiously buried on their site, that the New Jersey Nets’ incoming owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, is prepared to offer Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski between $12M and $15M per year to be coach and maybe GM.

A few reasons why Coach K would be unlikely to move:

1. He doesn’t need the money. If you’re a pro football player with 5-10 years of peak earning potential, then yes, you go to the highest bidder. If you’ve been coaching for more than 30 years and can go another 5-10, you’ve already accumulated enough money to do pretty much anything you want to do.

2. He loves where he is. Durham is his family home. He works with Duke’s business school. He loves being part of a campus setting.

3. He’s healthy where he is. This is a guy who has been through hip replacement already. Want to put him through 82 games (plus preseason and playoffs) of flying all over the country?

4. He has already won at the “highest level”? Even if you consider the NBA a higher “level” than college basketball — debatable, considering how different the jobs are — Coach K has already won at what he would consider a higher level than that. The patriotic West Point guy coached Team USA to an Olympic gold medal that recent history has shown is no sure thing. Once you’ve done that with pro players, what’s the point of trying to prove you can do that in the NBA?

Dick Vitale, who may love Duke even more than this two-time graduate does, quickly dismissed the idea. He won’t be alone.

And speaking of great 30-year runs … happy anniversary, R.E.M.

Update: Didn’t take long to get the official Coach K denial of interest.

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soccer

MLS Week 2 wrap

Posted on by Beau Dure

Houston 2, Salt Lake 1 (highlights)
– The best that can be said about Brian Ching’s injury is that he clutched his hamstring and not his knee. Non-contact injuries can be the worst.
– Real coach Jason Kreis opted for Fabian Espindola and newcomer Alvaro Saborio, though the goals are coming from midfielder Javier Morales.
– Agreed with the first penalty, with Jamison Olave making contact and pulling Geoff Cameron’s arm. Not so much the second. Minor contact on Luis Landin at best, highly embellished.
– But to give credit where it’s due: Brad Davis smashed both PKs past Nick Rimando, who has a well-deserved reputation as a PK-stopper. See Playoffs, MLS.

Los Angeles 2, Chivas USA 0 (highlights)
– Switch Edson Buddle from the Galaxy to Chivas, and the game could’ve been 2-0 the other way. Chivas blew several chances, some in comical fashion.
– The L.A. lineup: Juninho is lining up at attacking mid behind Edson Buddle, with Alex Cazumba left and Landon Donovan right. Is that the long-term set-up? Where would Beckham go?

Colorado 2, Chicago 2 (highlights)
– Mirror images cancel each other out, with classy foreign strikers Collins John (Chicago) and Omar Cummings (Colorado) scoring from the run of play, and American aerial threats with underrated feet Brian McBride and Conor Casey scoring PKs. Both teams lined up with an empty bucket in the midfield — Chicago’s midfielders were defensive-minded Logan Pause and Peter Lowry; Colorado’s were Jeff Larentowicz and Pablo Mastroeni. Both teams have good playmakers on the wings.
– The Marvell Wynne Central Defense Experiment, Week 2: John beat him in the air on a corner kick for the first goal, and Patrick Nyarko outran him on the right to set up the PK, though the call was harsh. He also got a yellow in the 22nd minute.
– 11,641 isn’t what you like to see for opening day attendance. Particularly when it’s sunny and the players are in short sleeves.

D.C. United 0, New England 2 (highlights)
– Kenny Mansally will surely get Goal of the Week and may also get Player of the Week, but if Preston Burpo doesn’t get a foot to Santino Quaranta’s freekick in the first half, this is a totally different game.
– Talk about the Revolution being “undermanned” is overrated. They were missing Shalrie Joseph, which is indeed a big loss, along with long-term wounded Taylor Twellman and Matt Reis. Darrius Barnes, working his way back from a hip strain, was a late sub. But D.C. played without Clyde Simms, Marc Burch and Bryan Namoff. Not that big a difference, especially when D.C. is the team trying to rebuild.

And the shocker of the week …

Seattle 0, New York 1 (highlights)
– Bouna Coundoul won a goalkeeping duel with Kasey Keller? (To be fair, Keller had no chance on the Red Bulls’ deflected goal, and he had a couple of stellar saves.)
– New York assistant Richie Williams was signed to a contract extension earlier in the week, then took over for Saturday’s game when Hans Backe fell ill. Williams has served two stints as interim head coach in 2006 and 2009, compiling a winning record of 3-2-3 in ’09.
– The Red Bulls snapped a 27-game winless streak in road games, and they did in front of the usual 36K in Seattle. Here’s the irony: The Red Bulls are finally playing on real grass at home, and they snapped the streak on the fake stuff.

My Player of the Week ballot: Bouna Coundoul first, Kenny Mansally second

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basketball

Expand the NCAA Tournament AND make the regular season interesting?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Yes, it’s rare that SportsMyriad will delve into sports that already covered ad absurdium elsewhere, but being a fan of international sports tends to give you a perverse interest in how to organize leagues and tournaments. Should MLS be a single table? How much tradition would the Premier League wreck with a 37th game overseas? Is the Page playoff system the greatest playoff innovation ever? (Answers: Yes, a lot, and absolutely.)

So with the NCAA pushing a 96-team basketball tournament to national consternation, it’s hard to ignore the controversy without putting in a totally different idea.

And here it is …

Keep the tournament proper at 64 teams. Have play-in games that vary in number each year. The reason that number will vary: The play-in games will be for regular-season conference champions who didn’t win their conference tournaments and didn’t earn at -large bids.

This year, we had six such teams — Stony Brook (America East), Jacksonville (Atlantic Sun, which had a four-way tie), Weber State (Big Sky), Coastal Carolina (Big South), Kent State (MAC), Jackson State (SWAC). That would give the tournament three play-in games for a total of 67 teams.

The advantages are:

1. The regular season would mean something in every conference. As it stands now, in a lot of leagues, the conference games are meaningless. Any team in a weak conference has to make a big statement in non-conference games early in the season to have a shot at an at-large bid. When that doesn’t happen, the conference record means squat. Make the regular season a race for an NCAA bid, and it’s a bit more interesting.

2. The conference tournament would still be meaningful. Notice that no conference champion would play in the play-in games. So a regular-season champion still has incentive in the conference tournament.

Expanding to 96, mostly through at-large bids for the major conferences, accomplishes none of this.

And the NIT, now joined by the CBI and CIT, can be interesting. A North Carolina-Dayton NIT final is much better than a dreary matchup of ninth-place major conference teams for the right to be whacked in the “second round” by a top seed. The three non-NCAA tournaments do what football bowl games are supposed to do — create good matchups and a nice postseason treat for many schools.

Next week: How to fix the Champions League. What? That’s not broken?

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mma, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, tennis, winter sports

Friday headlines and the Weekend Watch

Posted on by Beau Dure

Not that those of us in the Mid-Atlantic will be inside on what’s shaping up to be a beautiful weekend …

HEADLINES

– Media: Best April Fool’s gag seen yesterday: ESPN to cancel Pardon the Interruption to expand Around the Horn to an hour, bring in more people sure to grate on your nerves and judge it with a decibel meter. (Sports Media Watch)

– Soccer: Houston came back to beat Real Salt Lake 2-1 with two penalty kicks in one minute, both against Jamison Olave. The second benefited from some embellishment by Luis Angel Landin, but RSL coach Jason Kreis is holding his tongue. In the second game of the night, Edson Buddle scored the only two goals in the L.A. superclasico as the Galaxy beat Chivas USA 2-0.

– Soccer: The biggest development in last night’s MLS games was the injury to Brian Ching, who’s essential to the Dynamo and very much in the forward mix for the World Cup. He fell hard, clutching his hamstring. Watch for updates.

– Swimming: As a teen, Chloe Sutton was one of the early U.S. success stories in the rough-and-tumble world of open-water swimming. Now she’s skipping college and winning in the pool. Interesting read on the winner of the 200m and 800m freestyle on day 1 of the Columbus Grand Prix yesterday. Universal Sports is airing the Grand Prix action. (USA Swimming)

– Rugby: Gotta love games decided on last-second drop goals. (AP)

– Soccer: Bobby Convey’s frustrations have boiled over in San Jose. (Mercury News)

– Soccer: West Ham is complaining that Fulham didn’t have its best players in the lineup in a loss to Hull, which is battling the Hammers in the EPL relegation zone. Hey, Dempsey played! (BBC)

– MMA: UFC’s June date in Vancouver, thought to be in doubt, has been confirmed. If you’re willing to pay expenses to send an MMA/Olympics writer back to Vancouver for a weekend, e-mail beau dot dure … (MMA Fighting Stances)

WEEKEND WATCH (all times ET)

A selective look at what’s going on …

All weekend

Curling – Men’s world championships, Universal Sports. 2006 Olympic bronze medalist Pete Fenson returns to Italy, and the Canadian Press frets that Canadian rookie skip Kevin Koe must open against against him.

Friday

1 p.m.: Tennis – Sony Ericsson men’s semifinal, FSN. Andy Roddick vs. Rafael Nadal in a matchup sure to draw more interest than the eventual final.

Saturday

7:30 a.m.: Soccer – Manchester United-Chelsea, ESPN2. Just the top two teams in the world’s biggest soccer league. Yeah, we know — Wayne Rooney will miss it.

9:30 a.m.: Soccer – Schalke-Bayern Munich, GolTV. Just the top teams in the world’s (second? third? fourth?) biggest soccer league.

12:30 p.m.: Tennis – Sony Ericsson women’s final, CBS. It’s a throwback – Venus Williams vs. Kim Clijsters.

12:30 p.m.: Rowing – The Boat Race. Yes, THE Boat Race. Oxford-Cambridge. If you know a legal way to watch, please drop us a comment. (AP preview, BBC preview)

9 p.m.*: Boxing – Did you have any questions after Roy Jones Jr. took a unanimous decision over Bernard Hopkins at RFK Stadium in 1993? Good news: They’re fighting again, just a few years beyond their peaks. *Main event will be after the Final Four games conclude. (USA TODAY preview)

Sunday

1 p.m.: Tennis – Sony Ericsson men’s final, CBS. Roddick-Nadal winner vs. Berdych-Soderling winner.

6 p.m.: Soccer – MISL championship, local TV and B2TV. Milwaukee Wave hosting Monterrey La Raza, which knocked out the Baltimore Blast in the semifinals. Milwaukee got a bye. (Milwaukee Magazine preview)

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