Today is the opener of track and field’s Diamond League, which will be the best competition we have in this non-Olympic, non-World Championship year. (Watch on Universal Sports at noon ET.)
I’m excited, and I know most of you aren’t.
I think part of the problem is that we don’t really know what qualifies as a “good” performance. We see that someone ran the 100-meter hurdles in 12.62 seconds. That doesn’t capture the imagination.
So I’m experimenting with a chart that will help you figure out what’s what. You’ll see the world records (some of them set in an era of sketchy or nonexistent drug testing), the best performance of the 10th-best performer of all time, the U.S. record, the best performance of 2013, the best performance of the 5th-best performer of 2013, and the best performance of 2014 (through May 7).
Then you’ll see what the complex IAAF scoring tables, set by statistical analysis way above my mathematical abilities, tell you are elite-level performances — the 1,300- and 1,200-point levels. In several disciplines, no one has ever reached the 1,300-point level. But in most disciplines, a 1,200-point performance is needed to win.
Then I tossed in the worst time (or distance or height) of the winning Diamond League performances from 2013. Take those with a grain of salt. Every now and then, you get a sprint into a headwind, a field event in driving rain, or a “tactical” distance race in which everyone goes slowly (by their standards) and figures they’ll win with a big kick at the end.
But those Diamond League marks can sometimes tell you we’re about to see things rev up in a big way. See those events in which the best performance of 2014 (so far) is worse than the worst winning performance of last year’s Diamond League? Yeah. Time to go faster, higher, farther.
Best roundup of a neglected competition format: The year in college track and field dual meets, from DailyRelay.com.
Best roundup of the rest of the track and field world: Again, DailyRelay.com, which has a few words to explain why Meb Keflegizhi’s Boston win wasn’t a shock, an upset that could shake up the LaShawn Merritt-Kirani James rivalry in the men’s 400, a stunning U.S. performance in the men’s 5,000, the bewildering application of justice in the Tyson Gay doping case, Christian Cantwell’s rebound from 2013 in the shot put … just read the whole thing. We’ll wait.
Most accessible track circuit debut: Fans are close to the action in the new American Track League. Music by Velveteen Playboys — that’s Friend of SportsMyriad Paul Souza in the awesome suit.
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Boldest women’s sports projection:
Pro hockey league flourishing/Olympic gold 4 non-North American team: "Where do you c ur sport in next 10 years? 20 years? #WSFCELEBRATES40”
The women’s team took silver, beating Ukraine in the semis and losing to Russia in the final.
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Biggest U.S. beach volleyball event: July’s ASICS World Series of Beach Volleyball combines the competitive heft of an FIVB event with some uniquely American trappings.
Worst spelling of “unforced”:
We just got our butts kicked by Brazil. It hurts. Too many enforced errors. Lots of learning to do!… http://t.co/0XzsTCBnro
— Kerri Walsh Jennings (@kerrileewalsh) May 3, 2014
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Cutest dog: Lindsey Jacobellis already had a dog before she left for the 2014 Olympics. That’s the one on the right. The one on the left is named Sochi, for obvious reasons. (HT: For The Win)
Worst undying controversy: So it wasn’t the suits that caused the US Speedskating flop in Sochi! It was altitude training, skate polishing, and the fact that the skaters weren’t used to … well, the suits.
Least impressed person in wake of US Speedskating report: Unless something is seriously lost in translation, Shani Davis has had it with the federation. (HT: @nzaccardi)
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Least surprising world champion:
China sweeps World Team Table Tennis Championships: TOKYO, May 5 — China overcame the shock upse… http://t.co/dHJrHDfMgj <–Full Story
Over the winter, Seattle coach/GM Laura Harvey was elevated to mystical status. Soft-spoken and youthful, the veteran of England’s top-level game somehow pulled off deal after deal.
If you see this woman approaching, be careful to avoid trading away your house for the rights to a player still in Sweden.
Women’s soccer fans joked that Harvey was making another deal at every waking moment. On a panel with Spirit coach Mark Parsons? Surely offering her backup right back for Diana Matheson. Reading the paper? Surely perusing more trade options. Ordering at Panera? Maybe they would take a fourth-round draft pick for Erika Tymrak and some soup in a bread bowl.
Those were the jokes when we didn’t see how all these deals would pay off. What can we say now that the Reign have won their first five games?
The fifth was in many respects the most fortunate of those wins. After all, this was the first game Seattle has won by less than two goals. The Washington Spirit had Seattle on its heels for portions of the game, causing some confusion in central defense. One defender nearly kicked Hope Solo in the head on a muddled clearance. And for the first time this season, the Reign — please sit down and brace yourself — surrendered a goal in the run of play. (Washington has scored both goals Seattle has given up this year — the first was a penalty kick in their prior meeting in Seattle.)
But Seattle never backed away from its simple strategy.
“The old adage of ‘attack’s the best form of defense’ is something we definitely employ,” Harvey said.
And the lineup was attack-minded in every sense. Maybe you could call it a 4-2-3-1, with Jess Fishlock and Keelin Winters at holding mid and Beverly Goebel, Nahoma Kawasumi and Kim Little buzzing around behind target forward Sydney Leroux. But it really looked a bit more like a 4-1-2-3. And if that wasn’t enough for the attack, right back Elli Reed constantly streaked up the flank and put in dangerous crosses while defenders were occupied with everyone else.
“As an outside back, it’s pretty much expected of you today to get forward and get crosses off,” Reed said. “This is a nice big field, so it allowed me to get forward a bit more.”
Five, six, maybe seven attackers at once. Could Harvey explain that concept to Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho, Europe’s best-paid bus-parking attendant? The former Arsenal women’s coach laughed. “You can’t knock him — he still might win the Premier League!”
It’s fun to watch, especially against a team like the Spirit that’s willing to go toe-to-toe with the Reign. And that style attracts players.
NWSL Player of the Month Kim Little: “I know Laura very well. I worked with her for three years at Arsenal. I love the way that she wants to play football.”
Spirit coach Mark Parsons countered with a novel move, playing the irrepressible Crystal Dunn at attacking midfield to tie up Fishlock and Winters. Sounds crazy, but he was right. Fishlock was involved in some chippiness in midfield but wasn’t much of a factor, nor was Winters.
That just left room for Seattle to press on the wings.
“Yes, Seattle were tired on a long trip, but they’ve got sheer quality everywhere,” Parsons said. “They’re a Dream Team. They’re an absolute Dream Team all over the pitch.”
And apparently quite fit. Seattle has played four games in 11 days — two at home, one in atrocious conditions in New Jersey, then last night’s game. (At least the threatened rain never materialized — the evening was pleasant.) A lot of coaches would rotate players in those circumstances.
Not Harvey. Six Reign players have played all 450 minutes this season. Three more have played at least 440. Take away the one change Harvey has made in her starting lineup (Megan Rapinoe went 90 in the one game for which she has been healthy and available), and non-starters on the team have played a total of 79 minutes.
Harvey: “The reason why I haven’t rotated the side yet is that when you’re winning games, it’s hard to.”
Like Yoda, this coach is.
Leroux scored her first goal of the season last night, pouncing on a Spirit giveaway and getting just enough space past Tori Huster to fire far post past Ashlyn Harris. She doesn’t mind seeing seven teammates open their scoring tally before she did.
“It felt, in Boston, a little bit like me and Heather (O’Reilly) and a few others had to really be on point. With this team, I feel like we have so much depth. Every single player on the field is unbelievable. That’s no discredit to Boston at all, but I do feel Seattle is the team to beat right now, for sure.”
Harvey, looking ahead to the next game in a tough schedule in May, disagrees.
“Portland-Seattle is a great rivalry. Portland are champions. They are who they are for a reason. They were the best team in the league last season, and for me, they’re the favorites for the league this season no matter what results have been so far.”
Yes, that next game is in Portland. The Northwest rivalry. Defending champ vs. unbeaten team. No. 1 vs. No. 2.
(Opens Google Calendar — makes appointment for 10 p.m. ET Saturday.)
Here’s what FIFA rules say: “Each goalkeeper must wear colours that distinguish him from the other players, the referee and the assistant referees.”
That seems to allow some wiggle room — if you’re wearing black socks along with your teammates, are you really not distinguished from other players? If the ref is wearing red socks, do you have to change to blue?
Typically, goalkeepers these days wear some insane green or yellow shorts and socks that no one else would wear. But I did find at least one instance of a keeper wearing similar shorts to those of his teammates in the Bundesliga and another from the Premier League.
But let’s get back to the NWSL. What do the rules really say?
10.2.3 GOALKEEPER UNIFORM AND EQUIPMENT The goalkeeper’s uniform should feature different colors than her teammates, opponents and the Game Officials’ uniforms. The Goalkeeper uniform and equipment will conform to FIFA. The goalkeeper’s dominant jersey color(s) will be completely different than her Team’s jersey color(s) and that of the opponents Team. While the goalkeeper’s shorts and socks may be the same as the rest of her Team, the League Office strongly encourages the Goalkeeper to wear an entire outfit that completely contrasts that of her Team’s. Each Team should carry an extra, unnumbered Goalkeeper jersey for a Player not normally a goalkeeper who is substituted at goalkeeper for whatever reason.
So … someone was telling Hope Solo the wrong rules?
Huddersfield Town GK jersey from 20 years ago, courtesy oldfootballshirts.com
One note: Colors are all determined well in advance of each match, and the referee is supposed to enforce them. Another possibility: The same ref who failed to look at the assistant refs frantically signaling an obvious offside call or hand out cards for blatant infractions (Veronica Perez’s judo throw, Solo’s repeated refusal to put the ball back in play while the ref waved his hand) made another procedural mistake.
In any case, lines were crossed somewhere along the way.
Update: OK, we can’t blame the ref. Or NWSL rulemakers. Or WPS, retroactively.
I can just bring these to the Soccerplex, you know.
Seattle and Washington currently have only two colors of goalkeeping socks — black and white. That left only three colors — red, black and white — to be worn among Seattle’s field players, Seattle’s goalkeepers, Washington’s field players and Washington’s goalkeepers. Someone had to match socks. So the league consulted with PRO, which oversees officials, and they determined that if someone had to match, it should be Seattle’s goalkeepers and field players.
As far as I can tell, this action violates neither the letter nor the … um, spirit … of either the FIFA Laws of the Game or the NWSL rule book. And fortunately, no one attempted a jiu-jitsu leglock during the course of the game. (Veronica Perez completed a throw that was closer to judo, not jiu-jitsu.)
Seattle’s “berry” goalkeeping socks have not yet arrived.
The next time an NWSL keeper is in Washington and needs socks, please let me know. A few of my socks are pictured here — solid green, red-and-black stripes. I also have a few pairs of solid black and could possibly dig up some blinding yellow.
Duresport.com 