Oh Damn.
In a heart-crushing defeat to Ghana, the US is quickly eliminated from the World Cup. Realistically, I knew there was just about zero chance for the US to win it all this year, but this was a match they should have won. There SHOULD have been a 1-0 or 2-1 defeat to a superior Uruguay team awaiting us in the next round, but instead, they got outplayed by a quicker Ghana team who seemed to want it more. Outside of a few familiar faces (Landon Donovan, Tim Howard), the US just didn't have the fire in their eyes.
However, there is always the old Chicago Cubs adage, "There's always next year". Well, Next year is four years out in Brazil (Hooray for Games starting at decent times). WC Qualifiers are a couple years out. However, there wont be much excitement there. The US team is only getting better in a weak Conference with the other North American/Caribbean teams.
I'll probably post the occasional thing about the World Cup here over the next few weeks, but with no horse left in the race, its just bandwagon time. (The Netherlands is usually my go-to Bandwagon team, due to their awesome Orange jerseys, GO HOLLAND!)
---
In more bad news, The Angels lost in extra innings to the Rockies last night. It came down to bullpens, and while theirs was dominant, ours was far from it. If the Angels are going to win games in the second half of the season, they either need to do it before the Bullpen can ruin it, or pick up an arm at the deadline.
I also hate that I'm saying this, but I'm glad Eric Aybar will return to the starting lineup tonight. Wood has been struggling in the field, and continues to under-perform with the bat. Frandsen and Aybar need to anchor the left side of the infield while Izturis recovers from yet another injury.
---
Around the League, congrats go out to Edwin Jackson of the Arizona Diamondbacks who threw the fifth no-hitter (the fourth that's actually counted) of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays. Even though they continue to be one of the best teams in the American League, the Rays have now been no-hit three times in the last 11 months. Go figure.
---
In other Interleague action last night, the Yankees traveled to Los Angeles to play Joe Torre and the Dodgers. Before the game, members of the team from Torre's last season in New York, including Jeter, Cano, Posada, Rivera and Pettitte, went over to visit and shake hands with their former manager before the game. Noticeably absent from that pow-wow was Alex Rodriguez, whom Torre blasted in his book a couple seasons ago.
While not doing anything was probably the safe bet for Pay-Rod, it probably wouldn't have killed him to walk over to his former coach and shake his hand. A-Rod would have looked like the bigger man, and gotten a decent boost to his reputation from the baseball media.
---
For locals interested in going to the All-Star Game Fan-Fest at the Anaheim Convention Center, for the next few days, if you spend 20 bucks on Soda and Chips (Pepsi and Frito-Lay) at Vons, you get a voucher for two free tickets. Much better than spending 60 bucks and getting no soda OR chips, if you ask me.
---
Also, sign up for the All-Star Game 5k or Fun-Run, ya know... to help cure Cancer and junk. They recently announced that Jillian Michaels from The Biggest Loser will "host" it... whatever that means... So, if you like getting yelled at by a psuedo-celebrity, Sign Up Now!
No comments:
Post a Comment