Tuesday 9 April 2013
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Despite some Flyers hopes Jaromir Jagr traded to Bruins
In 34 games with the Stars Jaromir Jagr scored 14 goals and assisted 12. (USA Today Images)
Lets All Pretend Emma Watson Is Her Slutty Role
In the excitement surrounding Emma Watson's first sexy film role in The Bling Ring British GQ has decided to imagine Watson is her Bling Ring character. Photographer Mark Seliger presents Watson In Character Out of Control as you've never seen her before styled as a thieving Valley vixen in a midriff baring freakum dress and with a constellation of tattoos. A savvy choice for the magazine given the level of excitement over Watson's turn as a bad bad girl. For the public Watson's role will be like the moment when you finally have sex with someone after imagining it a hundred times. But in this case it's the milder but more titillating thrill of turning a wholesome starlet into a slut even temporarily.
Real Madrids Cristiano Ronaldo leads domination of Galatasaray
There is another match to come but Real Madrid would be entitled to feel that their work here is done. After six successive seasons without winning a single knockout tie in the tournament they consider their own a third successive Champions League semi final beckons for Jos Mourinho's team thanks to an ultimately comfortable victory over Galatasaray.
Fatih Terim the visitors' coach was left complaining of two possible penalties that were not given one for a handball by Sami Khedira in the first half the other for a foul on Burak Yilmaz by Sergio Ramos at 2 0. Maybe Madrid's name affected the referee he said. He lacked courage.
Terim's side started boldly but that may also have been part of their undoing when the final whistle arrived the game had long since ended as a contest. So too in all likelihood had the tie. Cristiano Ronaldo Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higua n scored to put Madrid in a position so strong that Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos could seek out the yellow cards that see them sit out the second leg and arrive clear of cards in the semi final.
They need a miracle but there are miracles in football Mourinho said. The history of football is full of miracles so why can't they dream of a miracle. I have enough experience to understand that we have a very good result but it is not over and I will try everything in my hands to persuade my players that it is not over.
After the game Terim admitted that the difference in quality between the two sides was too big . Before it he had insisted that his side would be true to their attacking philosophy promising We'll play in a way that will make our supporters proud. Didier Drogba started up front alongside Yilmaz the Champions League's joint top scorer with Wesley Sneijder behind. Felipe Melo sat at the heart of midfield with Hamit Altintop narrow to one side and Inan Selcuk to the other. At left back the winger Albert Riera. On the right Emmanuel Ebou was more winger than full back.
Madrid had conceded more goals than any other team left in the competition on 11. But the question was whether Galatasaray's formation devised since the arrival of Sneijder and Drogba in the winter and Terim's bold philosophy which has deeper roots would leave Galatasaray exposed to Madrid's deadliest weapon the counterattack. When granted space there are few sides like Mourinho's. They like to attack said Ronaldo and that suits us. So it proved Madrid had the lead after just nine minutes.
Alonso slotted the ball to Mesut Ozil who played off Benzema and then rolled a neatly weighted pass into the area between the centre back and right back positions. Ronaldo territory in other words. The Portuguese dashed in took one touch with his right foot and lifted a lovely delicate shot over Fernando Muslera and into the corner with his left. It was his 32nd goal in just 37 Champions League appearances for Madrid his 191st in 189 games overall.
Galatasaray swiftly had the chance to equalise when Yilmaz let Ebou 's pass run between his legs to Drogba who turned Rapha l Varane sharply on the edge of the area only to strike well over the bar and just after that Ozil was wriggling away from challenges and finding Ronaldo in the area once more. This time Semih Kaya made the challenge but with Sneijder then sending a shot spearing wide at the other end this was looking like the open game that Terim had promised but few in Spain truly expected.
Only quarter of an hour had gone and speaking of unexpected Michael Essien had already nutmegged Sneijder and Altintop had turned Ronaldo. The chances kept coming too. Ozil's shot was saved by Muslera. Drogba's long range effort was half saved by Diego L pez. Ebou tried to pull one back for his fellow Ivorian. And Sneijder's header came back off Khedira. Yet the momentum was Madrid's and they had a second just before the half hour when Essien's cross from the right swung into the area and Ronaldo leapt for the ball.
Although he failed to reach it the jump turned into the decoy of a volleyball player at the net. Rising with him both Ebou and Kaya missed it and it dropped for Benzema lurking just behind. There had been a doubt about whether he or Higua n would start but he controlled and scored his 30th goal in 50 Champions League games from close range.
The semi final beckoned already Madrid were finding space and control although there was a warning on the stroke of half time when L pez stopped Ebou 's shot the full back looking more useful in Madrid's area than his own.
A new half suggested a new approach Terim replaced the largely ineffective Sneijder with Gokhan Zan and went to three at the back. If that theoretically freed up Riera and Ebou to advance up their wings with greater freedom they largely had anyway and it looked more like an attempt to limit the damage and return to Istanbul intact 2 0 would be recoverable three might not. To start with it appeared it could work. Ronaldo's shot easily saved by Muslera was the first moment of note in the first 15 minutes of the second period.
The sensation was a fleeting one.
Soon after Alonso scooped a clever pass into the area for Angel Di Mar a whose finish spinning to face goal and taking the shot on the bounce was weak. What progress Galatasaray made was tentative and although Madrid kept possession and kept looking for their opportunity they partly settled into a new slower and more patient routine. There was little sense in exposing themselves to an away goal and another home one arrived anyway. Galatasaray's plan if that is what it had been lay in tatters.
Higua n had not even been on the pitch 10 minutes when Alonso's free kick found him to the right of the penalty spot and twisting his neck he turned his header into the net.
Notre Dames Skylar Diggins gets one last shot at elusive title
Skylar Diggins has been to the Final Four twice before. She's even played in the championship game two times. But the Notre Dame senior has never hoisted the NCAA women's basketball trophy.
Diggins will get her final shot this weekend. The Fighting Irish advanced to the Final Four for a third straight year by defeating Duke 87 76 Tuesday night.
It's an opportunity the two time All American relishes.
I want to win a championship for Coach Muffet McGraw bad Diggins said of her coach who has led the Irish to one national title (2001) in 25 seasons. When you have a coach who believes in you so much I'd do anything for her.
The first thing she had to do was help dig Notre Dame out of a major deficit. The Irish trailed by as many as nine in the first half with Diggins on the bench much of the time after picking up two early fouls.
She returned to the floor with about eight minutes left in the half and hit three three pointers in just over two minutes to trim the Duke lead to just one. But the Blue Devils finished the half on a 5 0 run which didn't sit well with the Irish leader.
I think they were outworking us said Diggins who finished with 24 points. I've never seen that from my team. ... I couldn't wait to get in that locker room. We had to light a fire.
Diggins did her part hitting another three pointer early in the second half to spark a 15 2 run that put Notre Dame in control for good and ready for yet another showdown with rival Connecticut in the national semifinals.
Notre Dame has defeated the Huskies the previous two years in the same round and swept their three game series this season. But a high stakes game against one of the most storied teams in women's basketball is never easy.
We're enjoying the moment right now Diggins said when asked about the looming showdown with UConn. We'll talk about that later.
ALSO
Kevin Ware of Louisville tweets he'll 'be back by next season'
Mike Rice fired as Rutgers coach after airing of practice video
What would happen if Mark Cuban actually drafted Brittney Griner
Alan Ashby apologizes (kind of) for Yu Darvish remark on Astros broadcast
(AP)
No matter what Houston Astros broadcaster Alan Ashby meant to say he should have known better.
Ashby issued a conditional apology Wednesday a day after he jokingly suggested that Yu Darvish losing a perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning should force a guy to learn some of the language here in America. Probably as in $ % I just lost a perfect game
Watch the broadcast here to get a better idea of the context.
Darvish was raised in Japan and while teammates say his English is conversationally excellent (he tries to speak Spanish too) he prefers to do interviews in Japanese with a translator. His understandable choice also can give an unfortunate impression to some that he doesn't care to learn English. And misconceptions like that can set off all sorts of ugly populist alarms.
Even if Ashby is ignorant of Darvish's linguistic agility what he said was silly and colleague Geoff Blum even said as much in the booth at the time. Here's a transcript of the relevant part of the broadcast via the Four DVRs blog in the Houston Chronicle
Blum Man. Gosh that has got to be a tough pill to swallow.
Ashby That ll force a guy to learn some of the language here in America.
Blum Some of the more inappropriate language. I m loving it. They probably learn that instantly coming over here. But that was a fantastic performance.
Of course Japanese ballplayers playing in North America know how to swear in English. Profanity (can be) one of the first thing anyone learning a new language picks up. Ichiro's famous (NSFW) Two rats in a sock quote is a good example of this.
The Astros must have heard people complaining about Ashby's joke because they made him apologize. Here's his official statement which reads like a monologue that hostages are encouraged to announce at gunpoint
I'd like to apologize if my comments last night were misinterpreted or construed as insensitive. I have the highest respect for Yu Darvish he's a great player and his performance last night was outstanding. He showed a great deal of poise in the face of a difficult moment last night which speaks to the strength of his character.
That's a new low for the I apologize if I offended anyone brand of apology and it probably won't help Ashby with the crowd that will be mad at him no matter what. Regardless Ashby is one of the more popular players in Astros history and this is going to be no more than a dubious anecdote in his TV career. And there should be little doubt he means those platitudes about Darvish's character.
Doing live TV is tough and coming up with entertaining and pertinent remarks off the cuff is tough. As anyone who hangs out on Twitter knows it's easy to be offensive on the spot. Ashby should have said something like Is Yu swearing to himself in Japanese right now That would have been OK politically funny enough and wouldn't have painted Darvish as the ignorant foreigner.
And it should be mentioned There have been far more offensive things said about foreign ballplayers than this. Heck you should see the scroll of ignorant tweets that Public Shaming on Tumblr compiled about Darvish just from Tuesday night. That'll really give people something to complain about.
Baseball is back Interact with AnswerDave MikeOz Townie813 and bigleaguestew on Twitter along with the BLS Facebook page
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)