Month: November 2012

mma

The Ultimate Fighter 16, Episode 10: Team Jacob vs. Team Carwin

Posted on by Beau Dure

So the ratings are down again. That’s surprising. Isn’t a Twilight movie the perfect lead-in to a men’s-only show about people fighting without vampire teeth and sparkles? Going from Team Jacob vs. Team Edward to Team Nelson vs. Team Carwin doesn’t do it for FX viewers? These kids today … can’t understand them.

While we’re complaining about strange decisions on or about The Ultimate Fighter, let’s peek over at TUF: Smashes, the thoroughly entertaining UK-vs-Australia matchup you really should be watching online. I’ve never understood the logic behind making semifinal matchups. Usually, Dana White brings in the fighters and coaches, then fakes everyone out by going in a different direction. That’s what he did here.

Australia earned three of the four welterweight spots, so two Aussies will need to face off. Two of them immediately said, “Oh, I just want to beat up British scum, sir!” Benny Alloway did it differently. Asked who would be the easiest win, he said Xavier Lucas. That makes sense, since the X-Man was the one who got the free pass to the semifinals after teammate Manny Rodriguez was hurt in his win, replacement Aussie James Vainikolo couldn’t shed a whole bunch of weight in a few hours without spending the rest of the season in hospital, and the Dana White/George Sotiropoulos brain trust stuck it to the UK’s Valentino Petrescu once again.

So Alloway was probably correct, but not politically correct. And word leaks back to the house, and he’s in trouble.

(But first, Dana incorrectly tells the X-Man that both Aussies picked him! That’s not really what Robert Whittaker said.)

Then we get the logical semifinal matchups — Alloway vs. new enemy Xavier Lucas, plus Robert Whittaker against remaining Brit Brad Scott. What? Oh, no — we actually have Alloway vs. Scott, while Lucas and Whittaker have to face each other.

The lightweight bracket had a head-scratcher as well. All four UK fighters advanced, but Mike Wilkinson was injured. Rather than give Colin Fletcher a bye to the final or give Team UK a replacement, Dana White brings back Richie Vaculik, one of two healthy Aussies. Dana says he’s doing that because Team UK broke the rules by obtaining and using a phone. But Colin Fletcher is one of the UK fighters who stayed away from the phone. (Norman Parke and Brendan Loughnane, the other semifinalists, were guilty as charged.)

If Vaculik gets lucky against Fletcher and gets to the final, it’ll be a travesty. Fletcher is clearly the class of the lightweight fighters, and he didn’t break any rules. (It’s still OK to go streaking around the tennis court, right?)

Smashes rant over … back to the USA, where we’re at that point of each TUF season when we realize the bout between the coaches isn’t going to happen …

First, Mike Ricci justifies his decision to fight Canadian buddy Michael Hill, saying this is a competition, and the people in the house are just numbers to him. Danny Downes has already pointed to the problem that undermines Ricci’s case: He’s wearing sunglasses inside. What is this, a poker tournament?

But we go over to the intra-Carwin matchup first, where Bristol Marunde, being a veteran and someone with functioning eyes, realizes that Neil Magny has a longer reach than he does. They’re not just teammates — they’re bunkmates.

Hey, we didn’t see the weigh-in? How do we know they made it?

Round 1: Marunde fares pretty well, ducking under Magny’s punches and throwing uppercuts. Magny keeps backing up and finally falls prey to a takedown. But Magny gets up, and somewhere along the way, Marunde got a cut in his eyebrow that seems to be bothering him.

Round 2: Magny gets slightly the better of the standup, but Marunde catches a kick and kicks Magny’s other leg out from under him. Then he lands in Magny’s guard. After 30 seconds or so, he stands, but Neil isn’t able to kick him away and get up. Marunde tries to leap down in side control but can’t get it, and Magny stands. Then Magny gets a takedown of his own, getting into Marunde’s half-guard. And Magny is better able to land some punches and the occasional elbow. Marunde flips over and escapes, then comes out firing with 30 seconds left.

No sudden-victory round. It’s unanimous for Neil.

Seems a little harsh to me. I thought Bristol might have won the first. Dana White says he gave that round to Magny but could see the case for Marunde. But if you’re a fan of 10-10 rounds or the half-point scoring system, then Magny wins 20-19 or 19.5-19. Under the 10-point system, it’s questionable but not unjust.

Marunde is happy with his performance. And he should be. Probably the best fight of the season.

Immediately to the second quarterfinal, and this time, we see the weigh-in. Igor asks for a towel screen so he can make 171. Carwin is very confident in Igor.

The staredown is interesting. Igor, a bit taller, gets his nose in Colton’s face and nods his head. Colton shakes his head, as if they’re saying “Yes” and “No.” They bump noses, someone says not to (bleeping) touch me, someone says I’m gonna touch you tomorrow, and Igor shoves. Colton gets right back. Igor shoves again. They’re broken up.

Somewhere in there, Colton said something that was bleeped. And maybe that bleep means something bleeping different in Brazil.

“Roy’s sitting on the bench ordering popcorn and peanuts and egging it on. What a dick.” Wow! Something quotable from Carwin! That should really set the tone for his fight with Nels … oh … right.

Outside the case, Igor should be scared to fight me, Colton says. He’s in the military. And there’s some special military stuff that you can’t use in the cage. Like groin shots.

The tale of the tape tells us Igor has a five-inch reach advantage and much more experience.

They do not touch gloves.

Round 1: Igor, who apparently did not see the “Keys to Victory” saying he needs to keep the fight standing, goes for the takedown. But Colton takes him down. Colton spends the next four minutes deftly switching between dominant positions, occasionally pausing to punch Igor a few times.

Round 2: Colton gets him down again, and unless Igor pulls off a submission somehow, this going to be Colton’s fight. Igor does not. This is not a hard fight to judge.

Next week: Look, will you just watch? The fights are getting better. The drama in the house is interesting. Maybe the editors will even let us see the Diaz brothers when they show up to coach with Nelson.

0
mind games, mma, olympic sports, soccer

Monday Myriad: Bye-bye, Beckham

Posted on by Beau Dure

Admit it. You never thought David Beckham would be here as long as he was.

When I spoke with him in 2008, a year into the “experiment,” he was saying all the right things. Then over the years, he stuck with the Galaxy but had trouble convincing fans of his commitment to the team.

But in 2011, the last year of his original contract, he once again won over the fans (and maybe teammates). Winning MLS Cup didn’t hurt. And then he signed a two-year extension.

I can imagine fans clamoring for Grant Wahl to write Part 2 of The Beckham Experiment. But at this point, is there any doubt that the experiment worked? MLS is in infinitely better shape today than it was in 2007, and while plenty of other factors are at play (Seattle, other expansion, other business deals), Beckham’s presence surely has helped.

Elsewhere in myriad sports …

MLS: Beckham’s Galaxy held off the Sounders on what Taylor Twellman insists was a legit handball call. And the Dynamo sprayed beer all over their locker room at RFK Stadium.

The waiver draft gave Real Salt Lake another Duke alum.

Premier League: Tactics man Jonathan Wilson wonders if West Brom’s decision to split their management jobs between two people instead of one All-Encompassing Man of Total Power is paving the way for a prolonged stay in the top flight.

Field hockey: Should North Carolina’s seniors be disappointed with only one title out of their four appearances in the final? Or was Princeton due?

Chess: Just call the Kosintsevas the Williams sisters of chess. Nadezhda beat Tatiana in the women’s world championship. She’s the only Russian in the quarterfinals. China has three.

Wrestling: Good showing for Greco-Roman Americans.

Figure skating: Fairfax County’s own Ashley Wagner is two-for-two on the Grand Prix circuit after her Trophee Bompard win in France, ensuring a U.S. presence at the Finals. Christina Gao has a spot in the top six in the standings, with fellow Americans Agnes Zawadzki and Mirai Nagasu among those who can knock her out this weekend. It’s a safe bet Meryl Davis and Charlie White will get there in ice dance. Caydee Denney and John Coughlin might make it in pairs.

Jeremy Abbott, second in France, is clinging to a spot in the top six of the men’s standings (note all the guys with 15, 13 and 11 points who are competing in Japan).

Speedskating: U.S. top-five finishes in the World Cup opener in Heerenveen, Netherlands:

– Heather Richardson, 1st, 1,000
– Heather Richardson, 2nd, 500 and 2nd, 500. Yes, they raced that distance twice.

That is all. Didn’t see Shani Davis in the results.

Bobsled/skeleton: Huge U.S. weekend. Steven Holcomb was first in two-man and second in four-man. And Katie Uhlaender won the women’s skeleton.

Cody Butner and Chuck Berkeley took second behind Holcomb and Steve Langton in the two-man.

The U.S. women’s bobsledders were fourth, fifth and eighth. Olympic track and fieldsters Lolo Jones and Tianna Madison had the week off.

More Olympic sports: Good results for the U.S. field hockey men and a few other athletes; see the roundup.

MMA: GSP beat up Condit, Tom Lawlor got robbed, and strikes to the back of the head are still illegal.

In Bellator, Marcin Held held a toe hold … OK, that’s awful. Anyway, Held got Rich Clementi to tap to a toe hold and Dave Jansen won a split decision over Ricardo Tirloni in the lightweight semifinals. Also, Marlon Sandro beat TUF alum Dustin Neace. Remember the fight where Akira tapped but said he didn’t? That was Neace.

Champions League tomorrow!

2
soccer

Single-Digit Soccer: Pelada and the love of the game

Posted on by Beau Dure

A couple of seasons ago, when I gathered one of my youth teams for our first practice, I told them I had the best toy ever invented. Around the world, you could find people who have no concept of a Wii or an Xbox, but if you handed them this particular thing, they would be happy to play for hours.

Then I held up a soccer ball.

This exchange is one of many reasons my players consider me an eccentric. They don’t realize that the rest of the world sees soccer not as something to be played in a designated hour when their parents get them to a practice field, but something to be played anytime and anywhere.

I thought about that contrast when I did something I’ve wanted to do for two years but somehow hadn’t found the time. I watched the film Pelada, in which former Notre Dame player Luke Boughen and fellow Duke alum Gwendolyn Oxenham travel the world and hop into as many pickup soccer games as they can.

They do their best to keep the film unpredictable. No one’s going to be surprised that a trip to South America will turn up some passionate soccer games. Boughen and Oxenham find a few twists. In Brazil, they find a group of grumpy old men who fuss at each other on the field in their Sunday games but bury it all to have a beer or two afterwards. In Bolivia, they bribe their way into the site of some epic pickup games — a local prison.

They don’t do much in Europe other than helping the police locate the people who sold them counterfeit Euro 2008 tickets. But the African and Asian legs are fascinating. In Kenya, they find a man who reclaimed a trash dump as a soccer field and has put in so much work on the project that people assume he’s being paid to do it. In China, where the national team is a quadrennial disappointment, they find some freestylists whose moves blow away the trick-loving Boughen. In Tokyo, where space is scarce, they find rooftop soccer.

Their idealism is challenged in Israel and Iran, in scenes that nearly made me want to rip the COEXIST sticker off my car. In Israel, Arabs and Jews share a soccer field, but it’s an uneasy coexistence. When Boughen scores for a Jewish pickup side, the Arab team refuses to believe it — even after consulting the documentary crew’s camera. In Iran, the filmmakers are summoned before a government body when word gets around that Oxenham, dutifully covering her hair in a headscarf, has played a pickup game with men.

But on the whole, it’s a happy film. It shows how deeply this game is entrenched in the world and how much joy it brings. (I’ll confess that I was hoping, for sake of diversity or perhaps for my own ego, that they would find some players who play as badly as I do.)

If that doesn’t convince you to watch the film, let Ray Hudson persuade you:

So as a fan, I found the film a lot of fun. As a player, it made me wish I had kept up my foot skills or at least my cardio.

How about as a coach of young players? What can I learn from this film on that front?

It’s tempting to ask what I can do to get my teams to love the game as much as Oxenham and Boughen love it. But *I* don’t even love the game quite that much. I was a promising U14 sweeper who quit playing because I wanted to run track, play chess and act in plays instead of dealing with the guys on the high school soccer team. Now I show my love for the game by coaching a couple of youth teams and hoping my adult indoor team can use me in goal rather than in the field, where I’m winded after a few minutes.

The accusation against most youth coaches is that we’re “joystick coaches,” always yelling at kids to spread out and pass. (Or worse, “boot it.”) The prevailing thought is that if we ease up a bit and “let the kids play,” they’ll love the game a bit more and play it a bit better.

Here’s the problem: Young kids in the USA gravitate toward magnetball, with a mob of kids chasing the ball. By the time we grow up and play small-sided games as adults, we spread out and play a style more akin to Pelada, though we still have the occasional showboating jerk who steps up at forward and never thinks about helping out on defense. But you’re not going to roll a ball out to a group of 7-year-old Americans and see what you can see in Pelada.

I’m not sure whether 7-year-olds in other countries have better instincts. We don’t see a lot of kids in Pelada. But we know we don’t have as many neighborhood pickup fields here as they do in the other countries in Pelada. Nor do our kids watch quite as much soccer.

It’d be an interesting contrast for the Pelada crew come to one of my practices. The kids are easily distracted. They usually prefer punting the ball as far as they can to trying any of the fancy moves most players have in Pelada. I spend a lot of dealing with players whose parents want them to try a team sport. Or some players who are indifferent.

Some will become travel soccer stars. Most won’t. But I hope they’ll all enjoy the game well enough to appreciate it, watch it, maybe play it a little.

Because, frankly, my 30-and-over team needs some help.

 

0
soccer

Essential women’s soccer updates

Posted on by Beau Dure

Too many important reads today to leave it all on Twitter:

1. Charles Boehm puts the timeline of a new league announcement at or before Dec. 1.

2. What’s taking so long? Andy Crossley investigates and comes up with most of the answers.

3. Jerramy Stevens is out of court, but police are still investigating his incident with fiancee Hope Solo, Kelly Whiteside reports.

To put the Solo timeline in perspective, check the bonus chapter from her book, released online. Adrian, the man who had been with her through a lot of difficult times, was still with her family when the U.S. won gold in August. What has happened in the last three months? I have no idea, and I’m not speculating.

The soccer-related question is this: Is Solo going to play in the new league?

2
soccer

The Chivas USA delusion

Posted on by Beau Dure

Starting with a confession: I was wrong about Chivas USA. I thought the brand name would draw fans. I thought they’d come up with enough Mexican or Mexican-ish players to compete with a different style.

That didn’t go so well. After an awful first year, they became competitive under the non-Mexican coach Bob Bradley and stayed competitive under Preki, who grew up about as far away from Mexico in the geographical and cultural sense as possible.

Their best players were mostly U.S. college alumni: Ante Razov, Brad Guzan, Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein and Jesse Marsch. They had a couple of solid Mexican players in Francisco Palencia (briefly), Claudio Suarez and Ramon Ramirez, but everywhere else, they were a basic MLS team.

In the past three years, they’ve ceased to be competitive. The personnel decisions haven’t been great. The good news: Their Academy program is solid, getting good marks in most categories in U.S. Soccer’s tough evaluations.

So now owner Jorge Vergara is going back to the club’s shallow roots, pledging to be more Mexican and less like a typically physical MLS team.

They may eventually get out of their ground-sharing situation at the Home Depot Center, which would be a step in the right direction. But it may not be far enough to get out of the shadow of the Galaxy.

Turning away from the “physical” style in MLS would be attractive. But it’s not as if Chivas USA was a nice, friendly team when it was more Mexican. They were third in the league in fouls in their debut season. (They dropped off over the next couple of years, then led the league in fouls under Preki in 2009.)

They didn’t work — on the field or at the box office — as a Chivas de Guadalajara “B” team of sorts. They were a bit better as a more conventional MLS team with a couple of prominent Mexican players. Put that team in an area in which fans can’t or don’t get to many Galaxy games, and you have a strong MLS presence.

Has Vergara learned enough from his first attempt with the team to do it a little differently this time? We’ll see. But it’ll depend on whether he goes back to what works, not what didn’t.

0
mma

The Ultimate Fighter 16, Episode 9: Friends and fighting

Posted on by Beau Dure

In life and The Ultimate Fighter, stepping up and apologizing is a Good Thing. From a utilitarian perspective, apologies add much to the greater good. They free society of the need to do excessive policing, allowing that society to focus on more positive efforts. They also establish norms of decency that reduce the risk of society members being victimized.

Dana White might not be a utilitarian philosophy student, but he appreciates a good solid apology. So when he brought in James Chaney to confront him about potentially biting Jon Manley in the previous fight, he was impressed that Chaney immediately confessed and said he was sorry. White reiterated that there’s no place for biting in fighting, but with Chaney showing nothing but remorse, White accepted the apology.

In the house, things aren’t resolved in such a civil utilitarian fashion. Julian Lane says something about the military that his buddy Colton Smith doesn’t like. Colton says he’s doing something positive with his life. Julian says he is, too. Colton is surprised to hear that acting “a fool” on television is “positive,” and he piles on. “OK, Junie Browning.”

Oh, it’s on. Maybe you can call a TUF castmate “Chris Leben,” after the show’s original meltdown artist. Maybe even “Jamie Yager.” But “Junie Browning”? Oh, Julian doesn’t like that one bit.

Dom Waters steps in “Junie”/Julian’s way but says in confessional he was tempted to let ’em go.

Colton actually handles everything himself. He repeats “Chill, man” about 15 times. He then tells Julian, “We started this together, we’ll finish this together.”

We do see a bit of friendship in the house. Fellow Canadians Mike Ricci and Michael Hill like each other. This is what we in the media business call “foreshadowing.”

Moving on to meet this week’s fighters: Dom learned MMA late in his military career. Ricci learned it from a Renzo Gracie book, practicing moves with his buddies, then from Georges St. Pierre.

Carwin thinks Ricci is the most technically sound fighter in the house and just needs to watch for Dom’s power … zzzzzzz … huh? Hey, Carwin said something funny! He jokingly says Mike’s kind of a pretty boy! That’s a joke, right?

At no time in the prefight buildup or the first round did Dom look like he was going to win this fight. He spends most of the first round refusing to throw his fists. Mike does a little bit more but doesn’t do anything huge. The only thing that happened — Mike landed a good kick to the liver.

Second round: Dom presses Mike face-first to the cage. Finally gets takedown. Roy Nelson yells, “Use your bony elbows, Dom!” But Mike easily drags himself to the cage and wall-walks his way up.

But Dom wears him down along the cage, drags him down and briefly has his back. Unfortunately, Dom’s grappling is just a little sloppy, so even after pressing him to the cage again and dragging him down, he lets him back up.

Again Dom pushes Mike down onto all fours and makes a bit of an effort for the choke. As time runs down, Nelson yells at him to give up on the choke and pound him, which Dom does.

We’ve got a third round, to no one’s shock. Dom looks passive again but suddenly shoots for a single-leg takedown. Mike tries to defend by grabbing a guillotine, but Dom picks him up and slams him, landing in side control. Somehow, he gives up that position, and Mike ends up on top in Dom’s guard. From there, Dom just fades away.

So Ricci advances. Meanwhile, half of the UFC’s welterweights are calling Dana White asking to matched up with either of these guys.

Dana White brings in all the fighters to ask them which castmates they want to fight. This is usually an exercise in predictability. If a couple of guys hate each other, they’ll say so. Otherwise, they all want to prove to Dana that they’ll fight anyone.

But we get one shocker. Mike Ricci wants to fight Michael Hill. And Hill is dumbfounded when he comes in to say he’ll fight anyone except his best buddy and fellow Canadian, only to hear from Roy Nelson that Ricci picked him.

This is so un-Canadian. Rush has had the same lineup since 1975. Loverboy is still touring with its debut-album lineup except for late bass player Scott Smith. Ricci and Hill’s split is the worst Canadian in-fighting since Bob and Doug McKenzie last told each other to take off.

The quarterfinal matchups are interesting in another sense:

Bristol Marunde vs. Neil Magny. Team Carwin’s most impressive fighters in the first round. Neil isn’t happy.

Igor Araujo vs. Colton Smith. They hate each other for reasons I can’t quite remember.

Joey Rivera vs. Jon Manley. Teammates and buddies, a little puzzled to be matched up.

Ricci vs. Hill. Ricci says he beat the top pick on Team Nelson, so let’s fight the second. But Hill was also the least impressive winner.

Next week: More people hate each other and fight each other. They have to plow through six fights (four quarterfinals, two semis) in the remaining episodes, so the drama in the house won’t have much time to play out.

0
olympic sports, winter sports

Monday Myriad: U.S. athletes slide well

Posted on by Beau Dure

Our sleds are better than yours.

You may have heard Lolo Jones got second in her World Cup bobsled debut with driver Jazmine Fenlator, but U.S. success went farther than that. Elana Meyers and Tianna Madison, the latter also a track and field Olympian, took third.

The men weren’t bad, either. Steven Holcomb/Steve Langton and Cory Butner/Chuck Berkeley finished 1-2 in the World Cup two-man opener. Holcomb was second in the four-man, with Nick Cunningham taking third in just his third World Cup race.

The skeleton crew had a few top-fives: John Daly and Kyle Tress 4-5 in the men’s race; slider/weightlifter Katie Uhlaender fifth in the women’s race with the best time of the third run.

Figure skating

Gracie Gold at Skate Canada last month: 151.57 points, seventh place.

Gracie Gold at the Rostelecom Cup over the weekend: 175.03, second place. Just 2.16 out of first. That’s what skating insiders would call “an improvement.”

Agnes Zawadzki also had a bit of an improvement, posting a personal-best 166.61 for third place.

Caydee Denney and John Coughlin also reached the podium, finishing third in pairs. Ice dancers Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani were fourth.

The men didn’t do quite as well. Johnny Weir had a rough time in the short program, then withdrew. Richard Dornbush was sixth.

Alpine skiing

Well she’s … speedy and 17! Our U.S. ski-slalom queen!

Yes, she’s far too young to get that Stray Cats reference, but Mikaela Schifrin was on the World Cup podium this weekend, finishing third in a slalom somewhere near the North Pole. Ted Ligety was 13th in the men’s race.

Wrestling

Big win for Tervel Diagnev over Russia’s Magomedgadzhi Nurasulov, who scored less than 0.05 points for every letter in his name, at the New York Athletic Club Invitational. Austin Trotman also beat one of the invited Russians and was named outstanding wrestler of the meet.

Basketball

Ready for a World Cup that won’t be sullied by the Netherlands’ negativity? Basketball is moving its world championship to soccer’s off-years and rebranding it as a World Cup. Better than World Series, at least.

0
soccer

MLS playoffs: Left brain and right brain battle

Posted on by Beau Dure

SCENE: A BRAIN

Did you see last night’s games? That was AWESOME! Joe Willis coming on and saving a PK in D.C. United’s win, Rafa Marquez melting down, and then that Mario Martinez goal for Seattle? Are you KIDDING me?!

Are you kidding ME? This is making a total mockery of the regular season, just like the MLS playoffs always do. Fifth-seeded Houston just needs to get past D.C. United to reach MLS Cup. The Galaxy went sleep-walking through the regular season again, and now they just need to get past Seattle. What a joke!

Hold on, Buzz Killington. Everyone knows the rules before the season starts. If Houston and L.A. manage to turn it on late in the year when it matters, can we blame them?

So what’s the point of the regular season? Home-field advantage in the second leg? Terrific. All four home teams lost. Bet you feel great for those home fans, Mr. Emotional.

I forget — are you the logical half or the sarcastic one? Look, tell the Chicago Fire the regular season didn’t matter. It’s a league of parity, and then the big games at the end matter.

It’s still not fair.

Sorry, but ultimately, it’s a game. Postponing a game AFTER everyone made the trip from D.C.? Maybe THAT’S unfair. All sports have upsets in the big moments. But all the world’s most important soccer championships are decided by playoffs.

Wrong! The Premier League, La Liga …

The Champions League, the World Cup. You can’t complain about San Jose exiting early unless you’re also willing to gripe about the Netherlands knocking out Brazil in 2010. 

But the World Cup doesn’t have other options. You can’t take all the world’s international soccer teams and have them play in a 200-team league unless you suddenly invent Star Trek-style transporter technology.

That’d be cool!

Let’s focus here. MLS could play a standard balanced schedule in the time it takes to do the regular season and the playoffs. And they could take the Open Cup more seriously.

That’s fine for England. That’s how things evolved. Here, everything builds toward the playoffs, and those games become appointment viewing. With 19 teams in the league now, no one has time to browse all the highlights, much less watch all the games. 

No one else cares. You’re the geek who used to vote in the Player of the Week balloting, so you figured you at least had to check out every highlight.

Whatever. But these games get everyone talking. We got texts last night from a youth soccer parent asking why Bill Hamid was sent off and why Kenny Cooper had to retake the kick. How often does that happen during the regular season?

You’re saying that’s a good thing?

Yeah! It’s contagious excitement! You’re not going to get that for a thrilling seventh-place battle between the Sounders and the Galaxy.

OK, fine. It’s exciting. But I’ll have trouble calling this year’s Cup winners “champions.”

Hey, the Supporters’ Shield is good, too. And I’ll grant you that the playoffs would be fairer if they’d adopt that Page system we’ve been pushing all these years.

You know that’s never going to happen. And what’s to stop another team like Colorado from snoozing its way to another title?

You can snooze through a regular season, too. You take the good with the bad in this sport.

Fine. I’ll just become a track and field fan.

Oh, you mean the sport where it all comes down to what you do at the Olympics? Quick, name the Diamond League winner in the men’s 200.

Um … Usain Bolt?

Wrong! Nickel Ashmeade.

Who?

Exactly.

Sounds like waste material at a quarry.

So you feel any better?

Feel? I THINK, pal. And I think this could still be fairer.

OK, fine. Can we at least agree that Marquez getting sent off last night was good for everyone involved?

Deal.

4
mma

War Machine and the courts

Posted on by Beau Dure

When you hear that an MMA fighter has gone to jail twice after tweeting his way out of the UFC, changing his name to War Machine and spending some time in the porn industry, you might not have much sympathy for him.

But the fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver (he still answers to Jon and says “War Machine” is just for legal reasons) is more complex than that. And you have to wonder what his case says about the legal system.

Granted, we’re only getting Jon’s side of the story. In this interview, he claims his plea deal was tossed aside because the judge had a lot of preconceptions about him. We’ll never get the other side of the story. If I could ask questions of judges, my coverage of the WPS-Borislow lawsuit would have been a little different.

What we do know is his past. He had a troubled past. And yet on The Ultimate Fighter, he showed a lot of heart — in the cage and in the house. Underneath the nickname and some of the bluster, there’s a good guy with a promising future as a fighter.

So the questions are:

– Did Koppenhaver, already having served time for incidents in 2010, really need to go back to jail for an older case he thought he had finally settled?

– Was jail the best place for someone who had already served time and seemed to be getting his life and fighting career back on track?

– Was the judge biased against Koppenhaver because he’s an MMA fighter?

– Has his second jail stint reduced the odds of Koppenhaver turning the corner and living a productive life from now on?

Worth an investigation. Again, I wish judges could be questioned.

 

0
olympic sports, winter sports

Luge thoughts: Uphill in Sochi

Posted on by Beau Dure

A few members of the U.S. luge team checked in today from Sochi (or, technically, Rzhanaya Polyana), and we learned the following:

– The track has some substantial uphill portions, which can be a bit of a challenge for people getting their bearings. “It does kind of affect your vision coming uphill to a crest, especially going blind into a curve,” said doubles slider Matt Mortensen and his echo. “That curve goes back downhill.” (On a related note: Phone connections from the mountains were a little spotty.)

– It’s not a particularly difficult track. (Easy for them to say, sure.) Finding speed might be tough.

Want to see for yourself? Here’s 2010 Olympian Chris Mazdzer when he got some time on the track in March (the big uphill is between Turns 14 and 15, so … count carefully):

– Mazdzer says construction is still going on at a frenetic pace, but at least now, you can see progress on things like windows.

– Erin Hamlin says, in response to a question about fears from the fatal accident at Whistler in 2010, that she feels quite safe on this track.

– It’s relatively warm in the area at the moment, which makes the track a little frosty.

The U.S. men’s team had a rough time last winter, but Mazdzer posted a few good results after missing the first three World Cup races. Then 17-year-old Tucker West, the best of a promising group of young sliders, tied Mazdzer for first place in the recent national championships. Ties don’t happen often in a sport timed to the 0.001 of a second.

The women welcome back Julia Clukey, who had surgery to correct a spinal condition in 2011. She upset former world champion Hamlin in the national championships.

Mortensen and Preston Griffal will be the top U.S. doubles team in the absence of Christian Niccum and Jayson Terdiman. Niccum is recovering from surgery and may be back for the World Championships. Both teams were in the World Cup top 10 last season.

Audio is posted at USALuge.org. You may need to change a “1” from a “2” in the URL to hear Part 2.

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