Random rantings and ravings about the Los Angeles Dodgers, written by a small consortium of rabid Dodger fans. With occasional comments on baseball, entertainment, pop culture, and life in general.
Wow, what a brutal conclusion to a game that almost had the US advancing to the knockout round; instead, we face Germany in the final group game with tons of scenarios to play out. But Nate Silver over at FiveThirtyEight.com says we're still in very good shape to move on:
The United States was seconds away from defeating Portugal on Sunday when Michael Bradley, normally one of the steadiest American players, mishandled a ball in midfield and gave Portugal a last opportunity. Silvestre Varela took advantage, scoring on a header.
But the 2-2 draw was a result the U.S. might have been happy with before the match began. It improved the Americans’ odds of advancing to the knockout round of the World Cup. Those chances are up to 76 percent, according to the FiveThirtyEight forecast, an improvement from 65 percent before Sunday’s match.
That 76 percent figure may even be slightly low, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. Still, the U.S. will not be guaranteed advancement unless it manages at least a draw against Germany on Thursday in Recife, Brazil. If the U.S. loses, the Portugal-Ghana game, which will kick off simultaneously in Brasilia, could cause heartbreak for Americans. You may want to have two screens at your disposal for Thursday’s matches.
The U.S. has essentially three ways to advance to the knockout stage:
The easy way. First, it could draw or beat Germany. That might not sound so challenging, but the Germans are the third-best team in the world, according to ESPN’s Soccer Power Index. Our forecast gives the U.S. a 14 percent chance of a win and a 22 percent chance of a draw — but a 64 percent chance of a loss. As a bonus, however, the U.S. will advance first from Group G if it beats Germany. That matters because the first-place team from Group G is likely to face Russia or Algeria in the Round of 16 — while the second-place team will face a stronger side in Belgium.
The almost-as-easy way. Next, the United States could lose to Germany but advance if Ghana and Portugal draw in Brasilia. Our forecast puts the chance of a Ghana-Portugal draw at 29 percent.
The hard way. Finally, the U.S. could lose to Germany but advance because it edges either Portugal or Ghana — whichever team wins in Brasilia — on goal differential or another of FIFA’s tiebreakers.
After losing the opener by watching the bullpen crumble, the Dodgers settled down and secured wins late in both Saturday's "beat LA" game as well as today's matchup. With Hyun-Jin Ryu dealing six innings of four-hit, 1 ER ball (1 BB, 2Ks), the Dodgers notched a run in the first off of Adrian Gonzalez' fielders choice, and then got another in the second off of Dee Gordon's RBI single to right, which scored Scott Van Slyke from home but was nowhere close enough to score A.J. Ellis from second (Ellis, described as "lumbering" by Vin Scully on the call, was easily tagged out at home to end the inning). The two Dodgers runs held up, though, and the Dodgers took the game (and the series) and remain four back of the Giants.
Meanwhile, in Manaus, the USMNT edged back from a 1-0 deficit to take a 2-1 lead over Portugal. But Michael Bradley got his pocket picked in the fifth minute of stoppage time, and Portugal scored the equalizer to end the game 2-2. A difficult result for the US team, which now looks to its final Group match against Germany to determine whether we advance to the knockout round.
2-1 is better than 2-2. I'm glad the Dodgers game didn't end up in a tie.
Ellis photo: AP / Don Boomer
UPDATE: From the comments, here's how Tim Howard's pose appeared to SoSG Nomo:
The first thing to go was the pitcher's mound, which was shrouded in black cloth before being jackhammered into fine dust.
Then came the infield, with the grounds crew digging deep into the dirt to create trenches running from foul line to foul line, and filling them in with sod and covering it with grass.
By early Friday morning the transformation was complete and the field at Dodger Stadium, among the most handsome and stately in baseball, had become a soccer pitch.
In its 51-year history, Dodger Stadium has welcomed the Beatles and the Harlem Globetrotters. It was where Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass, where the Three Tenors performed musical miracles and where bullfighters, ski-jumpers and monster trucks competed.
But until Saturday, no one has ever played soccer there.
"This is going to be a challenge," says Eric Hansen, the Dodgers' assistant director for turf and grounds. "This is new to us."
Spain's Real Madrid and English Premier League club Everton will have the honor of playing the first soccer match in stadium history when they meet at 5 p.m. in the semifinals of the International Champions Cup. Italian titlist Juventus then meets the Major League Soccer champion Galaxy at 7:30 in the second game of the only doubleheader to be played at Dodger Stadium this summer.
The conversion from baseball diamond to soccer field required 12,500 square feet of new sod and Bermuda grass, which took Hansen and his crew of nine two days to place, smooth and outline. The temporary field, which is about 210 feet wide, runs parallel to the right-field line starting just outside the third base coaching box and extending 315 feet to the warning track in right field.
Because the soccer field will encompass the area where the pitcher's mound and most of the infield sits, the mound was removed and the area below it leveled and covered with grass. The skin of the infield was also topped with grass but only after three-quarter-inch ditches were carved, making the new sod level with the adjoining outfield grass.
The new field, which was rolled with a 11/2-ton roller, isn't completely level — the area around the former mound has a noticeable slope and much of the usual infield area feels squishy underfoot. The temporary grass is also a much lighter green and has a different cut.
"You do the best you can with the time you have," says Hansen, who also covered the white foul lines with a green turf colorant.
Good luck, Real Madrid (vs. Everton) and LA Galaxy (vs. Juventus)!
Who's up for this match? No, I mean really, who is up? Because it's 5am PDT when this game kicks off (the USA / Japan gold medal game kicks off at 11.45a), so you're going to have to be up early if you want to be able to see Laure Boulleau's last game this Olympics.
France has not lost this Olympics when Laure Boulleau has played (she's coming in off the bench, due to what I'm sure are coaches' calls rooted in pure jealousy). They're a mediocre 2-2 when Laure hasn't played. All the more reason to get Boulleau in the game today, especially facing a pissed-off Canadian team reeling from its heartbreaking loss vs. the US. Let's go, Laure!
While this is a Dodgers (and Puzzle Championship Series) blog to the core, I know many of you out there enjoy watching 22 Europeans run around and fall down a lot for an hour and a half, just as I do! With that in mind, the Sons of Steve Garvey are happy to provide a place where those with that shared interest can discuss the nuances of the aforementioned falling down. Your SoSG Euro 2012 Watching Thread starts...NOW!
MADRID -- Real Madrid has signed a 7-year-old soccer prodigy from Argentina who goes by the name Leo -- just like Lionel Messi. Leonel Angel Coira signed with the Spanish club and will begin training Sept. 6, Madrid spokesman Juan Tapiador told The Associated Press on Monday.
Coira told the Argentine sports daily Ole last week that his idol is Messi, the Barcelona forward who is also Argentine and goes by the name Leo. Coira said he prefers to pass rather than score. He already has a Facebook page featuring photos of his visit to Real Madrid. Madrid reportedly made the push to sign Coira because Spanish league rival Atletico Madrid was also pursuing the youngster.
Barcelona signed Messi from the Argentine club Newell's Old Boys as a teenager and he has gone on to win the World Player of the Year award two times. He also has helped Barcelona win 15 trophies, including three Champions League titles and five Spanish league championships.
Reading Sunday's Bill Plaschke article on the US Women's World Cup Team, "Putting together a sports team of winners? Men need not apply", I was flabbergasted by Plaschke's gross generalizations of women athletes as selfless team players, versus male athletes of conceit and egotism.
Plaschke has daughters of his own, so he is probably aware of the women's suffrage movement in this country of almost a century ago. But there was his article, based in a premise that implied a lack of understanding of gender equality in the first place:
With their status often based on nightly highlights and rich endorsements, the men's team athletes in this country are increasingly about themselves. How many times do you see a team achievement overshadowed by an individual celebration? How many times is their biggest competition not on the playing field, but their locker room, everyone wanting their touches, their moments, their fame?
Perhaps because they receive little of the attention and none of the riches, most of our women athletes are all about one another. Our most hyped women's soccer star, Mia Hamm, never acted like a star. Our most glamorous women's basketball player, Lisa Leslie, was forever leaning down to give credit somewhere else.
Perhaps Mia Hamm never acted like a star because, rightfully or wrongfully, her salaries and endorsement contracts weren't as astronomically lucrative as her male counterparts (including her husband, former Dodger Nomar Garciaparra--who also was a pretty nice guy on and off the field despite being a star in his own right). Or perhaps Hamm is just a nice person, like plenty of other male athletes.
Perhaps Lisa Leslie was leaning down to give credit somewhere else because she is so frickin' tall, too.
But wait a minute, Plaschke can't be simply insinuating that women athletes are more compassionate, right? Because we wouldn't want to be obscuring the exciting accomplishments of our national team with a heaping scoop of gender stereotyping, I assume.
"I liken the situation of our women athletes to that of this country's new immigrant populations," said Donna Lopiano, former longtime chief executive of the Women's Sports Foundation and one of this country's most influential women's sports figures. "Those immigrant populations were given an opportunity they had never been given before, so they embraced it, and just outworked the opposition until they prevailed."
Lopiano, who has coached men's and women's volleyball teams, said a basic belief difference between the genders is also a factor.
"Women have a higher level of sensitivity and recognition that they might not be able to overcome errors with strength, speed or reaction," she said. "Men always think, oh, I'll get there."
In other words, women athletes believe they need one another, and men sometimes don't.
Men also don't stop for ask for directions. Or put the toilet seat down. Or drink Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers. Plaschke has this whole men-women thing all figured out.
Come on, Plaschke. Surely you can appreciate the US Women's team for what it is: a fierce, resilient, accomplished, intimidating, masterful, and impressive group of incredible athletes who are even more potent as a cohesive team. They have been an absolute joy to watch and cheer on throughout this 2011 World Cup tournament, among many others, and I'm proud of them for their inspiring performance on an absolute level, not a relative one.
And even though they didn't win Sunday's final against Japan, I still hope they hold their heads up high and walk as champions.
Unless, of course, you want to write an article assuming that the US players lost because they were soft, weak, and emotional.
Oh, and if I did want to make a relative comparison between the US Women's Soccer team and any other mens team, I'd say that the US Women's Soccer team is pretty damn tough, gender irrespective. this video kinda says it all.
Here it is, the 2011 Women's World Cup Final, featuring our own awe-inspiring USA team vs. Japan. This intrepid Son attempted some investigative reporting trying to unearth the Laure Boulleau equivalent on the Japanese national team, but frankly there was no Laure Boulleau equivalent. They do have a Karina (Maruyama), but she's no SoSG karina. IMHO I'd have to go with forward Mana Iwabuchi:
But then, of course, who am I to judge individuals. Especially with pictures like this out there:
But enough distractions. All of our attention is on our awesome Team USA (in sooooooo many ways). Go USA!
Everyone liked the Laure video yesterday, so here's another one. Witness how cute Laure Boulleau's laugh is (0:47, among other places)! And that's when I don't even know what she's saying!
I'm happy for the US and all (congratulations on advancing to the Women's World Cup Finals!). But I'm really feeling bad for Laure Boulleau. I would expect she'd need comforting right now, so I am happy to offer my services. And I'll learn French.
As another commenter in that forum remarked, "La petite Laure est très sympa".
Fresh off a death-defying escape vs. Brazil in the quarterfinals, the US team goes on to face France, who knocked off England last round (also in PKs). Let's go storm that Bastille, ladies.
3/28 vs. DET (W, 8-5 (10)): Sax
4/2 vs. ATL (W, 6-5): AC
4/27 vs. WAS (W, 9-2): Dusty
5/17 vs. LAA (L, 2-6): Sax
5/31 vs. NYY (W, 18-2): Dusty, Sax
6/3 vs. NYM (W, 6-5): Nomo
6/15 vs. SF (W, 5-4): AC
6/17 vs. SD (W, 8-6): Dusty
6/18 vs. SD (W, 4-3): AC
6/22 vs. WAS (W, 13-7): AC, Dusty
