World Cup Quarters

The World Cup quarter finals are on Friday and Saturday for those still interested. The schedule:

Brazil vs. Netherlands, 0830 CDT, Friday

Uruguay vs. Ghana, 1300 CDT, Friday

Argentina vs. Germany, 0830 CDT, Saturday

Paraguay vs. Spain, 1330 CDT, Saturday

For you all out on the west coast, that time thing is a killer--the morning games will start for you at 0630!

A Germany-Netherlands final would cover two of my four Western European heritages!

Just In: USA Loses to Ghana 2-1 in Extra Time

Asamoah Gyan celebrates his score in extra time. It was a nice goal. He controlled a long ball, evaded US defenders and nailed a hard shot over US goalie Tim Howard who had come out to cut the angle. (AP photo)

The United States soccer team lost today 2-1 in extra time to Ghana. The US again let in early goals--at the 5 minute mark of the first 90 minutes and 3 minutes into the 30 minute extra time period. They were able to respond to the first goal by Ghana with a Landon Donovan penalty shot in minute 62, but despite putting pressure on Ghana late, could not put it all together for a goal to equalize in the extra time. An equalizer would have sent the match to penalty kicks.

A nice run for Team USA, but they need to figure out this early goal giving up thing. In the early rounds, when teams may not be as good, or as good as they are going to be, you might be able to get by with this, but once you reach the round of 16, most of the bad teams are gone. US soccer has not arrived quite yet.

LeBron to New York?

Image from ESPN

The New York Knicks have sucked for a long long time. A long time. The Knick fan in me would love to have LeBron James in a Knicks uniform. It would be a start to real opportunity to vie for the championship--at least to make the playoffs!

I feel for Cleveland though, big time. Here you have a child of Ohio, your very own homegrown superstar. You don't want to let him go but do you have what it takes to keep him? The part of me that loves my medium sized city wants Cleveland to keep LeBron and keep trying to surround him with the supporting cast that will help the Cavs go all the way.

So, here it is. New York or Cleveland. Everyone else, blow off.

U.S. Soccer Wins, Advances to Round of 16

Landon Donovan after scoring the winning goal Wednesday. (AP via the New York Times)

In World Cup soccer, the U.S. has advanced to the round of 16 with an exciting win over Algeria, scoring in extra time. Both teams had excellent chances to win throughout the game--Algeria hit the crossbar in the first half and U.S. missed an open net in the second--but finally the U.S. prevailed. The United States and England are the advancers out of the group. The U.S. will play a second place team from another group. The complete brackets for the round will not be established until first round play is concluded Friday. Now, it's a one and done tournament. While the U.S has had success in the World Cup, advancing through the first round with modest regularity, it is the first time for the U.S. to advance since 2002.

Now, I don't know a blessed thing about soccer and which teams are good, but it's always exciting when your country's team does well in an international event. I don't know if we have even a little chance to win this thing. But still--Go USA!

Royals: Just Not Very Good

With tonight's 2-1 loss to the Nationals, the Royals now fall below .500 in Ned Yost's games. They were swept by the Braves in Atlanta in the series before this one. The last three games they lost, they lost by very small margins, and just couldn't quite put it all together. Tonight they left a bunch of men on base and finally lost when Mitch Meier struck out looking with men at first and third in the ninth.

Just. Not. Very. Good. Doesn't it stink to be having Mitch Meier hitting with the game on the line in the 9th inning?

This Just In: Lakers Win NBA Championship

The Los Angeles Lakers have defeated the Boston Celtics 83-79. Celtics led most of this game, with the Lakers coming back in the fourth quarter to take the lead, then hold on through a Celtic rally in the last few minutes. The Celtics really did miss big man Kendrick Perkins--Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace took most of his time, and did begin to suffer with fatigue and foul problems. The Lakers presented a real team effort, especially in that critical fourth quarter.

This may be the end for the Celtics in this configuration as they are definitely getting old together. It will be interesting to see who stays and who goes for the Big Green.

So, now, a rest, and then we will keep an eye on the NBA draft and its "Silly Season".

Baseball All Star Game Coming to KC in 2012

Commish Bud Selig announces the news we all knew. (KC Star photo)

Assuming the Mayan calender isn't right, and we aren't having the Apocalypse, the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star game will be played right here in little old K.C. at our renovated stadium. The rumor for this got out about two weeks ago, but today it was made official in a news conference--just before the rains came.

A nice feather in the city's cap and a fun event to boot.