More Olympic stuff

Congratulations are in order to several US teams. Women's Soccer won their semifinal against Japan to advance to the Gold Medal Game on the 21st against Brazil. Also playing a Gold Medal Game on the 21st will be Women's Water Polo, who downed Australia for the right to face the Netherlands in the final. That Soccer wound up against Brazil is not suprising - both teams are powerhouses, but that Water Polo got the Netherlands in the final was - the Dutch went just 1-2 in pool play, if you'll pardon the unintentional pun, but pulled off suprise upsets in the first two rounds. This kind of reminds me of when the Maryland basketball team made it to the finals and played an Indiana team that came out of nowhere to get to the championship. Of course, we all know what happened then...

Also having a gold medal match on the 21st in the women's beach volleyball pair extraordinaire of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, who swept Brazil to play the winner of the other semi, which pits the two Chinese pairs against each other.

On the other side of the coin, the Men's Beach Volleyball pair of Gibb and Rosenthal were bumped out of medal contention, as well as Women's Field Hockey. So, for those of you keeping track at home:

Still alive: Baseball, Softball, Men's & Women's Basketball, Men's & Women's Beach Volleyball (1 team each), Women's Soccer, Men's & Women's Indoor Volleyball, Men's & Women's Water Polo.
Eliminated: Men's & Women's Beach Volleyball (1 team each), Women's Field Hockey, Men's Soccer

No team: Men's Field Hockey, Men's & Women's Handball

Later on this morning, Baseball looks to lock up a spot in the semifinals with a win over Taiwan (7 AM Eastern); Women's Basketball plays their quarterfinal against South Korea (8), which should not be competitive; and finally, Women's Indoor Volleyball has their quarterfinal against Italy (10).

In the sports where the US is not active: Men's Field Hockey wraps up the preliminaries this morning. The Netherlands and Australia appear to be the two teams to beat; they have played each other, and the game ended in a 2-2 draw, the only game either team failed to win outright. Women's Field Hockey goes straight to the semifinals, where Germany will play China and Argentina will play the Netherlands. The Krauts and the Dutch are apparently the two powerhouses there (the US women do have one more game remaining - the 7th place game against Spain at 11 PM Eastern tonight). The Men's Soccer Semis are taking place this morning. Nigeria and Belgium are playing now, Nigeria is up 1-0 as I write this, and Argentina will play Brazil in a game with a lot more than just a shot at Olympic Gold on the line. The Handball quarterfinals are just getting underway: Women's this morning, Men's tomorrow. France was the only unbeaten team in pool play on the Men's side, for the Women, Norway and Russia appear to be the powerhouses. In fact, Norway has already beaten Sweden comfortably and advanced to the semis.

Ok, that's all for now. I'm going to watch the Baseball game for as long as I can.

Monday Morning Olympic Games

By the time I'm done this entry, the Taiwan and Korea game will be over. Taiwan is about to come up in the bottom of the 9th down 9-8.

Here is a run down of all the team sport games being played this morning.

In baseball, in addition to the Taiwan/Korea game, Japan has already shut out Canada 1-0. Cuba will play the Netherlands at 6:00 AM Eastern, and the US will play China starting at 7:00. Huge game for the United States.

Korea gets the first out of the inning.

In softball, the Netherlands, who had been winless in the tournament, spoiled Taiwan's medal chances with a 4-2 win. The US blanked China, 9-0, to finish 7-0 in prelim play. China's medal hopes are also shot. Later this morning, Japan will play Canada, whose spot in the medal round is not safe, and then Venezuela will play Australia. If Canada loses and Venezuela wins, Venezuela will play the US in the semifinals, and Canada will be done. If Canada wins or if Venezuela loses, then the US will play Canada, and Venezuela is out. Either way, the other semi is set between Australia and Japan.

Korea holds on to win, 9-8. Good news for the US.

In men's hoops, Croatia dismantled winless Iran to secure a spot in the quarterfinals. The Aussies pounded former Maryland Terp Sarunas Jasikevicius's Lithuanian team to earn themselves a trip to the quarters. Lithuana already had clinched the top seed coming out of their group. Greece is currently beating the tar out of China, but both teams are already in the quarters. Angola will take on Spain at quarter of 5, the US will play Germany at 8, and Argentina vs. Russia starts at 10:15. Assuming Greece does not collapse epically, here is the way the quarterfinal round will look: US vs. Australia, Spain vs. Croatia, Argentina vs. Greece, and Lithuana vs. China.

In men's beach volleyball, the US put a team in the semifinals when Rogers and Dalhausser advanced over a German team. Georgia has a team in the semis after they got past a Netherlands duo. Later, one of the two Brazilian teams will take on a couple of Austrians, and finally, the other US team of Gibb and Rosenthal will take one the other Brazilian pair. Could we be headed towards an all-US final?

In women's field hockey, Germany got a free pass to the semis by beating Japan to win their group. Korea topped South Africa in a meaningless game between two previously winless teams. Later this morning the US will play Great Britain at 6:00, Spain and the Netherlands starts a half-hour later, Argentina will play New Zealand at 8:30, and China will play Australia at 9:00. The US has to win to have a chance at medaling.

The big game for US fans should be the women's soccer semi-final against Japan, which starts at 9:00, after the other women's semi between Brazil and Germany - a 6:00 start.

Men's indoor volleyball has quite a few matches of importance going on. Bulgaria, Brazil, and Poland all won, over Venezuela, Germany, and Russia, respectively. Egypt and Serbia are playing right now, China will be playing Italy later, and the US will take on Japan at 10:00. Regardless of what happens, the US will play Serbia in round one of the quarters. The China vs. Italy match is important for the other seeds.

Finally, it's a big morning in men's water polo. Italy slipped past Serbia, Hungary crushed Canada, Australia and Montenegro tied, and the US beat the Germans, 8-7. With their win and the Serbian loss, the US has won their group and gotten a free pass to the semifinals. Spain is currently up 5-0 over Greece, and China will play Croatia later on. Hungary has the other free pass for winning Group A. The quarters are set: Spain will play Serbia, for the right to face the US, and Croatia will play Montenegro, with the winner facing Hungary.

Greece held on against China in basketball. I'm going to bed.

Exciting news

My blog is back. I'm not going to do the personal, politics, sports thing anymore, though. This is going to be whatever I feel like writing about, whenever I feel like writing about it. You know, kind of like an actual blog.

Right now, I'm watching the Olympics. Only our cable box is busted, so I've been watching over the internet. NBCOlympics is a really awesome place to watch a bunch of the events that you don't really get to see on TV, such as team sport games not involving the US, and archery and sailing and all that. They also broadcast USA basketball games on there, even though they are broadcast over the air, so that's pretty cool.

Anyway, right now I'm watching Korea play Taiwan in baseball. And my God, Korea's uniforms are absolutely hideous. I think they wear them to distract the other team.

Team USA baseball should be made up of minor league stars. How could that not be a good idea? It would be great for MLB - the team would be like a showcase of tomorrow's talent, rather than just a collection of college players who may or may not succeed in their professional careers. I'd love to watch Matt Wieters, for instance, tearing it up right now in Beijing.

Softball looked really good earlier today. I hope all of the Nationalists obsessing over the medal count remember that the US pulls in a ton of gold medals in women's events because of the man-hating, feminazi bitches and their damned Title IX that they love railing about.

The Korean centerfielder almost had a ball bounce off his head, like Jose Canseco. How did the US lose to these guys???

Speaking of man-hating lesbians, Ellen Degeneres has to be pumped. Her wife has to be on the short list of world's hottest lesbians. I've got her right behind Jennie Finch (it's only a matter of time before she comes out). Do you think the reason Jennie Finch is such a great pitcher is because all of her opponents are distracted by how much they want to have sex with her? I say it's a solid theory.

Korea is leading 9-8 in the 7th inning, by the way.

Korea's uniform pants have a horizontal blue stripe running across their ass for no reason. It's almost like those short shorts girls wear that have something written across their ass, which really ought to just say "hey, look at my ass" - I mean, who are you trying to fool? - except that these are dudes. Playing baseball. And if you're going for sex appeal, the rest of the unifrom can't be as distractingly hideous as the Korean one is. I think it was just a horrible idea, which is pretty much what the whole costume is. Horrible.

Taiwan, on the other hand, looks really sharp. 30 points to whoever designed that one.

Korea was up 8-1 in this game. Taowan came back to tie it, and now Korea is winning again. Taiwan is at bat, with the guy who hit the ball who which almost killed the centerfielder at 3rd, and 2 out.

Ouch. Taiwan just took a called strike 3 that was ridiculous. At least 6 inches outside.

If Korea holds on, they move to 5-0, and Taiwan falls to 1-4. Japan already beat Canada to send them to 1-4. Assuming Cuba beats the Netherlands later on this morning - and that's a fair assumption - that will mean that the US will almost assuredly have a spot in the quarterfinals if they beat China in the game after that. If Taiwan came back to win the US would then have to win their next game, which would be against Taiwan, to secure the final spot. That would be some pretty good drama. So, I'm split on who to cheer for. Korea does need to be punished for these uniforms, as well. I can't overstate how awful they are.