Wednesday, October 6, 2010

MLB starts postseason with a bang

The start of the Major League Baseball postseason began with an amazing performance by Roy Halladay in the Philadelphia Phillies 4-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

Halladay pitched a complete game and pitched a no-hitter in the postseason. It's just the second time a pitcher has pitched a no-hitter in the postseason. The last time it happen was in 1950.

The performance overshadowed the Phillies' 1-0 lead against the Reds in the division series and it can be a motivation boost for the Phillies to jump on and capture another World Series Championship.

Earlier in the day the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays opened up their division series and the Rangers took Game 1 with a 5-1 victory at home.

The Rangers were lead by their ace pitcher, Cliff Lee who pitched seven innings and allowed one run on five hits.

The day ended with the defending champs, the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins opening up their division series.

The game started with the Twins leading 3-0 after five innings, but the Yankees rallied back to tie the game after six innings.

Mark Teixeira put the Yankees up in the seventh inning with a two-run home run.

The game is currently in play as the Yankees are up 6-4 in the bottom of the eighth.

Friday, June 18, 2010

USA robbed of a win

Today was the worst day for the FIFA World Cup.

The first match was a unexpected upset as Serbia defeated Germany 1-0.

The Germans were favorites in the match, but they could not get nothing to fall for them.

Not too long ago, the Germans defeated Australia easily in a 4-0 victory.

The second match was USA vs. Slovenia.

Slovenia was on a roll after they won their first match.

It was a difficult match for USA because they had to switch roles of being the underdogs in their first match against England, to being favorites in this match.

Slovenia scored two goals in the first half. USA allowed the pair of goals by poor defense.

As Slovenia relaxed with their two goal lead, the Americans stormed out of halftime and scored a pair of goals of their own.

As the match was tied with less than 20 minutes left in the game, the Americans scored again, but the official who was calling the match, called off the goal because he said an American player committed a foul during the play.

The Americans showed frustration and anger because after the replay was shown multiple times, no where did it show that an American committed a foul.

The Americans were basically screwed a goal and a win.

The third match of the day was England vs. Algeria.

It was a perfect opportunity for England to get a win and keep the Americans hopes of advancing out of group play low.

But the match finished in a 0-0 draw and neither England or USA could make progress in the group standings.

The Americans group is a weak and pathetic group. It does not have great teams and England has shown they can hardly score a goal. All four teams are not great and the two teams who advance from the group, will surely be knocked out in the first round of the final 16.

Group C standings: Slovenia has four points, England and USA both have two points and Algeria has one point.

Next matches for Group C
: England vs. Slovenia on June 23 at 7 a.m. on ESPN 2. USA vs. Algeria on June 23 at 7 a.m. on ESPN.

Lakers go back to back

The Los Angeles Lakers repeated as NBA Champions last night after defeating the Boston Celtics 83-79.

What a game it was for the Lakers.

The team started off bad on the offensive side. Missing shot after shot, especially Kobe Bryant.

They trailed by nine points after the first quarter and scoring only 14 points.

It continued to look bad in the second quarter and Lakers fans started to get nervous and scared that it was going to be a sad ending to the season.

The Lakers managed to cut the Celtics lead to four points by halftime, but Bryant continued to shoot poorly from the field.

After the game, Bryant said that he let the hype of the game and what was on stake, get the best of him and he was lucky that his team was able to pull him up.

The second half started to become a nightmare for Los Angeles, as the Celtics lead grew to their max high, 13 points, but the Lakers continued to play hard.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson, was asked what did he say to the team during the Celtics run, and he said that he told the team to keep rebounding the ball.

His players listened as Bryant (who was not effective offensively) had 15 rebounds to finish the game.

Pau Gasol, the Lakers true MVP of the finals, finished the game 19 points and 18 rebounds.

The Lakers had 23 offensive rebounds.

The Lakers came out in the fourth and made a magnificent come back from the free throw line and was led by Gasol.

The real player that had a big contribution to this win was none other than Ron Artest.

Artest, the player who had a horrible percentage from beyond the arc in the playoffs, hit a huge three pointer for the Lakers down the stretch, after Rasheed Wallace hit a big three to cut the Lakers lead to three.

It was a wonderful ending for the Lakers. Not only did the Lakers went back to back, but they also got the big payback on the hated Celtics.

As a Lakers fan, I am so excited to see the Lakers succeed and watch them get another championship.

It was a long season and as hard it is to repeat, the Lakers did it.

Now it is a summer of partying and showing the pride and love of being a Lakers fan.

When the new season starts in Novemeber, the quest for a three peat starts.

Lets do it again Los Angeles!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Substitutions win the game for Mexico

The game of the day in the 2010 World Cup was the 2-0 Mexico win over France.

The two teams were playing with a lot on the line. Both teams were playing for a chance to keep their chance to advance from the group alive.

Yesterday Uruguay defeated South Africa easily, 3-0 and had first place spot in the group.

Either Mexico or France could join Uruguay with four points, but they also could have remained tied with a draw in today's match.

The first half was quite with a 0-0 tie going into half.

Mexico made a few substitutions after the half and it would turn out to be the best move from Mexico's coach Javier Aguirre.

The first sub, Javier Hernandez, scored on a open net after beating the defenders and going around France's goalkeeper.

France thought it was a offside, but the sideline officals called him onside and Hernandez continued on to finish the goal.

The second sub, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, scored the second goal for Mexico after one of the France defender's was caught slide tackling a Mexican player inside the goal box, and rewarding the Mexicans with a penalty.

The Mexicans are now tied with Uruguay with four points, and France is tied with South Africa with one point.

As long as Mexico and Uruguay can finish their match with a draw than both teams will move on into the final 16.

The scenario is easy, but the challenge for Mexico and Uruguay is to win the top spot in Group A, because neither team does not want to face Argentina (the top team in Group B) in the first match of the final 16.

(The winner of Group A faces the second place team in Group B and the winner of Group B faces the second place team in Group A. The same goes for Group C and Group D, Group E and Group F, Group G and Group H.)

Earlier in the morning, Argentina murdered South Korea in a 4-1 victory.

Argentina were clearly favorites to win Group B, and it was no surprised they easily defeated the Southern Korans.

The other match of Group B, Greece vs. Nigeria, was a exciting but it was it was not a good game.

Greece won the game 2-1.

Group A standings: Uruguay and Mexico with four points and France and South Africa with one point.

Group B standings: Argentina with six points, South Korea and Greece with three points and Nigeria with zero points.

Biggest game of the season

After a grueling NBA Finals series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, the series comes down to one single game at Staples Center tonight.

The series has been marvelous as both teams have shown that they can rebound from a bad loss and win a game with full dominance.

The Lakers faced elimination in Game 6 and played specular as they held the Celtics to 67 points!

The Lakers cannot let their guard down after that impressive win. If they want to repeat as champions; they must repeat what they did in Game 6 and raise up the notch ten times more then the Celtics.

I am confident the Lakers will prevail in Game 7 and win the NBA's Larry O'Brien Championship for the second time in two years.

It has been a amazing season for the Lakers and winning Game 7 against their arch rivals would just be the perfect ending to the season.

Without Kendrick Perkins, the Celtics will be vulnerable inside the paint, so the Lakers must pound the ball inside to the big man for as long as they can.

The Lakers motto for the series has been, "No rebounds, no rings."

That's exactly what the Lakers also need to do, rebound!

Rebound, rebound, rebound Lakers.

Lets go Lakers. Lets get us another banner!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Spain falls to Switzerland

Spain loses to Switzerland.

Something that no one thought would happen, but the unthinkable happen and it came true.

The favorites to win the 2010 World Cup opened up its run to the cup with a 1-0 loss to Switzerland.

Spain and Switzerland had a competitive first half as both held a 0-0 draw for the first half.

Seven minutes into the second half, Switzerland scored the only goal of the match when Gelson Fernandes put the ball into the net after a loose ball stood inches from the goal line, and Spain's goalkeeper feet away from recovering the ball.

Spain had multiple chances to even up the score and take the lead, but they could not convert against the strong defense and goalkeeping from Switzerland.

Switzerland's victory is the biggest upset thus far in the World Cup.

The other match of the group featured Chile and Honduras.

Chile controlled the entire game and had tons of chances to score.

Chile's only goal came at the 34 minute mark by Jean Beausejour.

All the groups have played a match each, and now it started back to Group A.

Host country, South Africa, got back on the field after splitting a 1-1 draw with Mexico.

The team played Uruguay, a team who also had a draw in its first match with France.

Uruguay beat South Africa easily 3-0.

Diego Forlan scored twice for Uruguay and Alvaro Pereira scored in the closing minutes of the match.

Group H current standings: Chile and Switzerland with three points and Honduras and Spain with no points.

Next matches for Group H
: Chile vs. Switzerland on June 21 at 7 a.m. on ESPN. Honduras vs. Spain on June 21 at 11:30 a.m.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Italy is not the same 2006 champions

The 2006 FIFA World Cup Champions, Italy, kicked off its campaign to defend its title against Paraguay today.

The match finished in a 1-1 draw.

Paraguay had no fear against the older and slower Italy team as the two teams had a heated battle for the first 25 minutes of the match.

Paraguay scored first at the 39 minute mark when Antolin Alcaraz connected with a header while being bodied up by two Italian defenders in the air.

The team celebrated by dancing in a big circle, but got back into the match as they tried to defend the one goal lead.

The Italians tried to get back into the match, but kept being called offside.

The second half continued to be like the first half, but Italy kept pushing to even up the score.

The Italians got their chance at the 63 minute mark when Daniele De Rossi scored off a corner from a teammate.

Both teams kept their composer for the remainder of the match and they had to settle for a draw.

There were two other matches that were played before this match. Japan defeated Cameroon 1-0 and Netherlands defeated Denmark 2-0.

Current standings for Group E
: Japan and Netherlands with three points each and Cameroon and Denmark with no points.

Next matches for Group E
: Japan vs. Netherlands at 4:30 a.m. on June 19 on ESPN and Cameroon vs. Denmark at 11:30 a.m. on June 19 on ESPN.