Because Sports Is All That Matters

- World Cup elimination play started on Saturday. I correctly picked 13 of the 16 teams to advance out of group play. The 3 I guessed wrong were England, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Togo, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. all didn't surprise like I wanted them too. England has shown that you don't have to destroy the opposition to advance, just score one more goal. Their next opponent though Germany has been very very strong, that will be a great match. In the first 4 elimination games there have not been any penalty kicks, but that doesn't mean games haven't been exciting. I'm a busy guy who had to work all weekend, but today I watched the Netherlands vs. Portugal game and it was astonishing. There were 16 yellow cards, including 4 players sent off. To the right shows van Bronckhorst of Netherlands being sent off in injury time of the 2nd half as Portugal realized that they survived this horrendous match. I was cheering for the orange of Netherlands, but Portugal is a very legitimate team. Portugal will go up against Argentina next round and that match could be a match good enough for the World Cup final. It's a shame that Portugal will be without possibly 3 of their players. Two sent off with red cards and Cristiano Ronaldo was injured in the match. Ronaldo should be able to return though. Tomorrow we will see if whether underdogs Ghana and Australia can do anything in their matches against Brazil and Italy - exciting it may be.


- It's a shame that this will be such a large topic of conversation for this World Cup, but it is undeniable that the referees have played a major role in this World Cup and have been a distraction. There are numerous instances of questionable calls made. The first two that come to mind would be basically everything the ref did today in the Portugal v. Netherlands match and also the call on the United State's Oguchi Onyewu that allowed the penalty kick that lost the U.S. the game. It was stated before the World Cup that the refs would be cutting down on the physical play, but many calls have been disputed. Soccer refereeing is definitely a difficult job with all the acting, faking, accidental fouls, foreign players of different styles, etc. I just hope that the refs at least don't make mistakes in giving out red cards and allowing goals, that's the least I ask for.


- The College World Series has been going in case you haven't noticed, which is possible since the World Cup is on, MLB games are on, and apparently people watch golf on TV. Right now North Carolina is losing 11-7 to Oregon State in Game 2 of the best of 3 World Series, which UNC leads 1-0. A win by OSU means that the champion will be crowned tomorrow night. I do suggest that everyone watch the game tomorrow (unless of course UNC comes back and wins tonight). College baseball is exciting. Watch college kids play baseball like its life or death and there is no tomorrow. UNC won game 1 on a wild pitch steal of home to take the lead and then there closer came in a threw a bunch of fastballs to end the game. If you like baseball at all, that should sound like a good game to you. Tomorrow is sure to be an exciting game. It will be like watching an entire series of the MLB World Series wrapped up into one game without the cockiness and attitudes of the players in the Majors and also there will be small-ball.

UPDATE: There will be a third game in the World Series tomorrow at 7 PM EST on ESPN. Watch it and you'll enjoy a good baseball game.

- "Wife Beating" - add that to the list of horrible things that have happened to the Phillies this season. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Myers' current troubles are a bit more of a problem than Jon Lieber's, Cory Lidle's, Gavin Floyd's, and Cole Hamel's combined. Hopefully Randy Wolf Superman abilities.