Watch it the first couple of times to see that shot. Then keep watching it over and over to watch the Georgia St. coach fall out of his chair. Over and over. I hope he \”did it for the Vine,\” because this may be the most perfect Vine of all time, forever.
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Sports in the Courts: Jeff Wilpon answers the allegations
It has been seven weeks since former Senior VP of Ticket Sales for the Mets, Leigh Castergine, accused her former boss of discriminating against her for being pregnant and unmarried. The team’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Wilpon, was accused of numerous disparaging comments. Today, Wilpon and the Mets filed their answers in federal court in response to Castergine’s complaint. You can read Wilpon’s answer here; the answer filed on behalf of the Mets makes the same response. The same law firm is representing both defendants. Wilpon’s response in short, “[none of it is true].” Above all, Wilpon...
Continue reading...What’s a Mob to a King? World Cup Final Preview
First things first: You’re going to watch this game. You have to watch this game. Even if you haven’t watched a minute of this World Cup, even if you’ve never watched a minute of soccer in your life, even if you think watching a minute of soccer is a waste of a minute, you’re going to watch this game. You’re going to watch it because everyone else is. You’re going to watch it because a Sunday afternoon with friends and beer is only made better by watching strangers run around, developing allegiances to those strangers whose names you’d...
Continue reading...I’m Sorry Ronaldo, Klose’s For Real: World Cup Recap and Netherlands-Argentina Preview
/taps mic I’m Sorry Ronaldo! Klose’s for reeeeaaaal! Never meant to make your country cry, Die Mannshaft won it sieben-eins. The US conceded six goals in four games. Costa Rica gave up two in five. Germany has let four in over six. Reiging (until Sunday) World Champions Spain saw seven balls roll over the line in their three group stage matches, as did Portugal. It took Algeria and Switzerland a fourth game to reach that total. Only Honduras (eight), Australia and Cameroon (nine each) allowed more than seven goals over the course of this world cup. Those last three teams finished 30th-32nd in the tournament. Yesterday, in capitulating...
Continue reading...When It’s Over: World Cup Recap and Brazil-Germany Preview
Five days. It took me five days after the USMNT lost to Belgium to be able to read any of the many obituaries, encomia and tributes that followed in that match\’s wake. It took me five days before I could begin to think on the accomplishments of the US team and reflect on what had happened. It took me five days to get over it, to move on from it. As I watched the games on Friday and Saturday, as the quarterfinals became the semifinals, I did so not really believing the next game wouldn’t feature Dempsey, Howard, Bradley and Jones. Their...
Continue reading...World Cup Preview: Belgium vs. USMNT
People will say that the US is lucky to be in the Round of 16. They’ll say, as we did, that Pepe, the Portugal centerback, had just as much to do with getting the US to the knockouts as anything any US player did. They’ll note that they faced a weakened Portugal and lost to a German team that really didn’t have much to play for in their match, the score as close as it was because the Germans didn’t need anything more than the 1-0 win they ended up with. They looked anything but convincing against Ghana, switched off at two...
Continue reading...This Is How We Die
We do not choose to die. But we do. It is an inevitability. It is the inevitability. Death comes for us all, some sooner and some later. Some die quietly and peacefully, some fight and rage until the last capitulation. But still we die. Death is not honor, so much as it is science. One can die honorably only in the sense that a flower is honorable when it turns to fruit, as a rock is honorable when worn to sand by the sea . We look at the world as it is spread before us, and know that it is...
Continue reading...It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye, Except to Greece: Weekend World Cup Recap and Monday Preview
Spain, Italy, England, Uruguay. Mexico, Cameroon, Croatia, Australia. Honduras, Ecuador, Japan, Cote D’Ivoire. Bosnia, Iran, Ghana, Portugal. Russia, South Korea, Chile, Greece. Gone. Flights booked, bags packed, tears shed, shirts exchanged. Every one of those teams came with the hope of playing in the Grand Final on July 14, and every one of them was sent home at least two weeks early. Those first four teams up there are former World Champions: Spain and Italy having been the last teams standing at the previous World Cups in 2010 and 2006 respectively, broken at having crashed out so soon. Some countries...
Continue reading...The Knockout Game (not that knockout game): Weekend World Cup Preview
Yesterday was probably the happiest I\’ve ever been after watching my team lose, and J Reed\’s post yesterday in its aftermath summed up my feelings in words better than I could have put together (ed. note: that can\’t possibly be true). Because of the way the group stage is set up, all the US had to do yesterday was not lose badly, and they\’d see themselves through. Ghana helped by losing to Portugal, who needed to make up considerably more goals than the Black Stars would have. The US weathered the first fifteen minutes, which was one wave after...
Continue reading...Thank God Pepe Was an Idiot so the U.S. Could Advance, or WHOOO DID WE WIN THE WORLD CUP YET?
Sunday, I was ready to celebrate the U.S. advancing to the next stage of the World Cup. I was watching USA-Portugal at my favorite local, managing to get seats at the bar because I’m overly punctual and anxious. Portgual was looking if not worse for wear, at least potentially beatable. I was surrounded by perhaps a hundred rabid and drunk-since-brunch USA fans, a group that was made more fun by the addition of about ten unafraid Portugal fans. It\’s always more fun watching your side win when fans of the opposing side are nearby. Because schadenfreude. Then Portugal score that first...
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