Sports Void

I have fallen into a sports void. I think its just that time of the year. Basketball just ended, and by the way I would like to congratulate the Los Angeles Lakers on their achievements. It isn't every team that can injure 8 police officers and cause over 18 arrests due to arson and disturbing the peace, just by winning 4 basketball games. Kudos there.

Anyways, there's no basketball, its not late enough in the year to start talking about football, although that's not going to stop me in the following stanza.

If the Chargers don't win the AFC West this year, I am starting a petition to send them to Las Vegas. The Chiefs can't seem to get anything right, they traded away their best player (Tony Gonzalez). The Broncos are trading away all 11 offensive starters (Cutler gone, Marshall on the way out). And the Raiders are... crap. Oh and one last thing, keep an eye on the Atlanta Falcons next year... I just have a feeling.

Anyways, there's no football yet, and its just late enough in the year that the Padres have given up on their temporary attempt at competency.

I have just been notified that they are currently 9-23 on the road. That is god awful. I would check and see if the Nationals have a worse road record, but I fear that if they do not, I might put a reclining chair through our sliding glass window. It has also come to my attention that they are last in run-scoring. This doesnt surprise me in the least, but it irks me none the less. Adrian Gonzalez has lost grip of the homerun crown to Albert Pujols, and Heath Bell will soon drop the saves lead to Brian Wilson. To top it off, they are laying yet another egg in interleague play this year and, with the ridiculous pace the Dodgers are setting, are already 15 games behind.

Anyways, baseball sucks and even though I am not a hockey fan, at least I had the comfort of that storyline.

Congratulations Crosby.

Anyways, that's over too now, so what's left in the sports world? I'll tell you what! Soccer!

I'm not talking MLS, I would not be caught dead watching any MLS game, because honestly its like we are taking a big, fat dump on the game. I'm talking about World Cup qualifying and the Confederations Cup. I know that the US team isn't great in comparison to other countries, but we took the best from the MLS (which I will admit shows RARE flashes of competency) and put together a somewhat decent group. And I feel a connection to that team, America's team. I want them to do well, as we all should.

But they weren't doing well. We were put in a group with Brazil, Italy, and Egypt. For those who don't remember, Italy won the last world cup, and its usually a safe bet that Brazil will be a fair opponent. We lost to both of them, 3-1 and 3-0 respectively. So we limped into the final group game today against a scrappy Egypt team, fresh off a 1-0 win over Italy. This left the window open about 2 centimeters for the US team. Brazil was out of reach at 6 points already, but Italy and Egypt both had 3, so if the US won, and Brazil beat Italy, the standing would be as such:

Brazil - 9 points (3w, 0L, 0T)
Italy - 3 points (1W, 2L, 0T)
US - 3 points (1W, 2L, 0T)
Egypt - 3 points (1W, 2L, 0T)

This could very well happen, no one would be THAT surprised. However, this would not be enough for the US. In the event of a tie, the team with the best goal differential advances. After 2 matches, the US had a goal differential of -5, Egypt was even, and Italy was at +1. So it didn't look good. First the US had to beat Egypt by at least 3 (and had mustered only 1 goal so far in 2 games... on a penalty kick) as the US's goal differential would rise to -2 and Egpyt's would fall to -3. Secondly, Italy would have to lose by at least 3 goals, to match the -2 for the US. So... maybe a 1 or 2 percent chance? Right? Here are the scores from today:

US 3, Egypt 0
Brazil 3, Italy 0

... Someone up there likes us.