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6434. alistairconnor - 11/14/2009 3:50:31 PM 
Unexpectedly, New Zealand have qualified for the World Cup in South Africa next year (the one that counts : soccer, my dears.) They beat Bahrein 1-0 for the privilege. The last time, indeed the only other time they qualified, was Spain in 1982.
At least I'm guaranteed a team to cheer for. France (champions 1998, lest we forget) aren't even qualified... yet. They have to knock out Ireland to make the cut. First leg in Dublin tonight, second in Paris next week.
6435. alistairConnor - 11/19/2009 12:11:15 AM Soccer again tonight. Lots of cars honking in the streets earlier, I look at the flags: it's Algeria who's qualified.
France won 1-0 in Dublin on Sunday. And now we have the return match : 1-0 to the Irish at full time, so now we're having extra time. Electric. From what I've seen, the Irish deserve to qualify... for balls and determination alone. 6436. alistairConnor - 11/19/2009 12:13:52 AM And while I was typing that... France scores! A head by captain Thierry Henry.
And the goal is contested... the Italian coach of the Irish is going ballistic...
But it's 1-1 for the moment, which qualifies France for the World Cup... but there's another quarter of an hour to go... 6437. alistairconnor - 11/19/2009 1:57:51 PM 
Well! I overlooked it last night (I was cooking dinner at the time), but Thierry Henry apparently took himself for God, or for Diego Maradona...
France's winning goal was set up by a deliberate handball by our national Titi... as depicted unequivocally above...
The Irish armed forces are rumoured to be mobilising, to come and teach us a lesson. Or more reliably :
The Irish justice minister demanded a rematch today after a blatant handball put France into the World Cup finals. Dermot Ahern lashed out at the governing body Fifa after the Republic of Ireland were beaten by a controversial extra-time goal illegally set up by the France captain, Thierry Henry.
Come on fellas. It's only a game, you know.
6438. vonKreedon - 11/19/2009 5:59:10 PM Any chance that they get a rematch? 6439. alistairConnor - 11/20/2009 1:10:22 AM Fifa told the Irish to get stuffed. They've got the result they wanted.
It hurts me to be cynical about the French football team. I don't know if you remember, I waxed lyrical about the 1998 team, I became French in identifying with them. Thierry Henry is the last survivor of that glorious era... 6440. wabbit - 11/21/2009 1:56:03 AM from SI: FIFA rejected Ireland's request to replay its World Cup qualifier against France on Friday, but Thierry Henry said a rematch would be "the fairest solution" to resolve the furor over his extra-time hand ball that set up the deciding goal.
Turning down an appeal by the Football Association of Ireland as well as pressure from lawmakers and football figures in both countries, FIFA said it could not interfere and the referee's decision to allow the goal stands.
"The result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed," FIFA said in a statement. "As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final."
Henry used his left hand to keep the ball from going out of play, then passed to William Gallas, who headed in the decisive goal. At the time of Henry's handball, which went unpunished by Swedish referee Martin Hansson despite fervent appeals by Ireland players, the match was 17 minutes from reaching a penalty shootout.
The 1-1 draw at Stade de France put the French through to next year's World Cup in South Africa 2-1 on aggregate... Henry should ask them to rewrite their statement so it reads WILL not, not CAN not.6441. wabbit - 11/21/2009 2:05:05 AM Ok, the Patriots screwed the pooch last Sunday. Tom Brady had to waste a time out because the wrong guys were on the field. But I'm not convinced Bill Belichick made the wrong call. He gambled, yes, but Brady might have pulled it out. Not the call I would have made, but it isn't my call to make. It didn't play out. Oh well. Nobody died, it's a FOOTBALL (American style) GAME, not brain surgery. We won't have home field advantage during the playoffs. Deal with it.
Week 10 recaps. 6442. wabbit - 11/21/2009 2:13:33 AM Good for her - the Michelle Wie era has, at long last, begun. After years of injury and controversy, too much hype and money and not enough birdies, Wie won her first pro tournament Sunday afternoon at the LPGA's Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Typical of Wie's highly melodramatic career, the win didn't come easily, as she survived a final round dogfight with a half-dozen of the game's biggest names, ultimately making five straight nerve-jangling pars and then a gorgeous birdie on the final hole to close out a two-stroke victory over Paula Creamer.
Along the way Wie displayed both her awesome talent and her enduring star power, reminding everyone what all the fuss was about in the first place. It was a deeply personal triumph, capping a period of tremendous maturation on and off the golf course.
Padraig Harrington is an Irishman and a sportsman, so it's no surprise he has an opinion on France's controversial win over Ireland in the final World Cup qualifying match this week...
At the Euro Tour's Dubai World Championship finale, reporters asked Harrington how he felt about Henry's handball considering Harrington plays a sport where players routinely call penalties on themselves.
"Golf has a different attitude," Harrington said. "If somebody makes a mistake and ... putting your hand out as a reaction is a mistake, the great thing in golf is if we do do something wrong, we hold our hand up and say, 'Hey, hang on a second, didn't mean to do that, sorry.' You go back and you take your penalty."
Soccer is obviously a different sport and Harrington said he understood that players don't call penalties on themselves. (Although Henry did say a rematch would be "the fairest solution" to the controversy.) It was what happened after the game that really irked him.
"Celebration of the cheating was particularly galling, and that's as far as it goes," Harrington said.
6443. wabbit - 11/21/2009 2:18:11 AM RIP Bobby Frankel Bobby Frankel possessed a gift for coaxing top performances out of ornery, high-strung thoroughbreds, a gruff Hall of Fame trainer who was hard in his dealings with humans but gentle with the animals in his barn.
Frankel died of cancer Monday at his home in Pacific Palisades, jockey agent Ron Anderson said. He was 68.
Frankel had been running his stable by phone for most of the year while undergoing treatment and concealing details of his illness from most of his colleagues, a remarkable feat in an industry fueled by gossip.
"He was a secretive guy,'' Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said from Santa Anita. "He's from the old school of training - nobody needs to know your business.''
Frankel began his career at Belmont Park and Aqueduct in New York, one of the cheap hired hands who walk horses around the barn after morning workouts. He took out his trainer's license in 1966 and won his first race with Double Dash at Aqueduct that November.
He built an early reputation as "King of the Claimers,'' taking the cheapest horses and turning them into high-priced stakes winners.
Frankel saddled 3,654 winners and earned $227,949,775 during his 43-year career, according to Equibase. He was second only to D. Wayne Lukas in money won, and they were the only trainers to earn more than $200 million...
6444. wabbit - 11/30/2009 7:30:26 PM  In what has already been a banner year for Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees shortstop can add another honor: Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year award. Jeter was chosen as the magazine's 56th honoree (the Dec. 7 issue will hit newsstands on Wednesday) and becomes the first Yankee to be named SI's Sportsman.
Jeter's selection caps another outstanding season for the 35-year-old team captain and future Hall of Famer. In 2009 he batted .334 while leading the Yankees to their fifth World Series title in his 14 full seasons, their first since 2000 and their record 27th in franchise history. On Sept. 11 he passed Lou Gehrig's franchise mark for base hits, which now stands at 2,747. In 2009 Jeter led the American League by reaching base 289 times, finished second in the league in hits (212), third in batting average and on-base percentage (.406), fourth in runs (107) and eighth in stolen bases (30). He was named an All-Star for the 10th time, including the sixth time as a starter, while winning his fourth AL Silver Slugger as the best hitting shortstop in the league and his fourth Gold Glove as the league's top defensive shortstop.
In 15 postseason games Jeter lived up to his reputation as a clutch player, batting .344 with a .432 on-base percentage, three home runs and six RBIs. He batted .407 in the World Series to lead the Yankees to a six-game victory over the defending world champion Philadelphia Phillies. During the Series, Jeter was named the American League recipient of the Hank Aaron Award, given to the best hitter in each league, and the winner of the Roberto Clemente Award, given to the player who best displays skill on the field while giving back to the community off it...
6445. wabbit - 11/30/2009 7:50:40 PM Hey Tiger, wtf? Like Jake Mariotti, I figured this was a late night 7-11 run and maybe you hit the brakes to avoid squashing a furperson. But maybe there was something else going on since he hasn't actually said that, or anything like that. Is TMZ right? Whoever Tiger's 'people' are, they are giving him terrible advice and he needs to find someone else who has a better handle on this kind of thing. Maybe he should call Letterman. 6446. judithathome - 12/2/2009 5:32:31 PM I can't stand schlock shows like TMZ...they take such delight in taking down the talented and famous and I tend to think it's because they resent anyone more talented than they...which is almost everyone.
That said, Tiger was an ass to rely on such bad advice. One need only look to Hillary Clinton's lousy presidential campaign to see what listening to the wrong people can get you.
It's just a shame that he will probably retire from the game on this ridiculously sour note.
And I suppose it's too much to ask that celebrities' private lives be kept moderatly private. 6447. iiibbb - 12/3/2009 5:04:11 AM As someone who doesn't give a flying flip about famous people... I can't understand why such a large proportion of our population does. 6448. wabbit - 12/3/2009 4:57:37 PM Celebrities can have all the privacy they want. Plenty do. But when you wake up the neighbors on a public street at 2:30am, privacy is pretty much out the window.
Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass what Tiger does with his pee-pee. I hope for his wife's sake that he's careful. I *do* care about lying. If you promote yourself as being one thing and get caught being something else, pony up the stones to be a man and take your lumps. Making excuses for Tiger (or any other public figure) trickles down. I don't want my nieces believing that this is acceptable behavior.
Tiger has been telling the publicity machine that is a very large part of his income that the reason he isn't in the tabloids is because he is just a boring family man. Two words for Tiger: Gary Hart. Don't bait the press. You will lose.
Now that he's fessed up, he'll have a year of public humiliation. The various mistresses will make a quick buck and be rightfully scorned as the losers they are. If he's very lucky, his wife will forgive him and not sue his selfish ass and get custody of the kids. And if he can live up to his word, the public will get over it and he'll be forgiven. 6449. judithathome - 12/3/2009 8:23:16 PM Trust me, she's already forgiven him...she'll leave his ass after after 10 years and a day of marriage and retire happily with her pre-nupped tewnty millon. 6450. wabbit - 2/8/2010 4:48:01 PM Better late than never -
Roger Federer was all smiles after rather easily beating Andy Murray 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (11) for a fourth championship in Melbourne and 16th Grand Slam title overall. While Murray missed a chance to end a drought for British men at Grand Slam tournaments that stretches all the way to 1936, Federer became the first Dad to win a major singles title since 2003. He also now can aim at a true, calendar-year Grand Slam, something no man has accomplished since 1969.
Federer had only recently discovered he was to become the father of twins when he lost the Australian Open final in five wrenching sets against rival Rafael Nadal last year, then broke down during the presentation. This time, Federer was in control of the action pretty much throughout against Murray, and afterward, it was the 22-year-old from Scotland whose voice was breaking and who was choking back tears.
"I can cry like Roger," Murray said. "It's just a shame I can't play like him."
Compounding the emotions for Federer in Australia a year ago: He missed a chance to tie Pete Sampras' then-record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles. But Federer didn't have to wait long. He matched that mark a few months later at the French Open, where he also completed a career Grand Slam by winning a major on clay to go with his grass and hard-court titles...
Serena Williams won her second straight Australian Open championship, ending Justine Henin's hopes of a Grand Slam title in her return from retirement with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory Saturday.
Williams withstood a determined challenge from Henin before securing her fifth Australian Open title overall and 12th Grand Slam singles championship, tying Billie Jean King. King was at the stadium on Saturday night to take part in a pre-match ceremony to honor the 40-year anniversary of Margaret Court's four Grand Slam tournament wins in 1970. Williams' five Australian titles is the most by any woman in the Open Era, since 1968, surpassing the four held by Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles. Court holds 11 Australian Open titles overall, most coming before 1968.
Henin, who had most of the crowd support at Rod Laver Arena, couldn't match her fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters' feat of winning in her Grand Slam comeback tournament. Clijsters won last year's U.S. Open in her return from a two-year retirement after getting married and having a daughter...6451. wabbit - 2/8/2010 4:48:27 PM New Orleans, the city that survived a death blow from Katrina, and Drew Brees, the quarterback whose career was jeopardized by a horribly timed shoulder injury just as he sought to make a real name for himself in the NFL, withstood one last dose of adversity Sunday night at Sun Life Stadium. But what's a 10-0 first-quarter deficit in the Super Bowl when you've already been where Brees and New Orleans have been?
"It's unbelievable," said Brees moments after the Saints' 31-17 Super Bowl XLIV win over the Colts was in the books.
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning picked up his record fourth NFL MVP award this season, but Brees got the honor that really matters in his head-to-head duel with No. 18: The Saints are Super Bowl champions, and Brees was one of the game's biggest no-brainer MVPs of all time.
After a first quarter in which he and his team looked a little awed and a little out of sync, Brees steadied himself and turned in one of the most proficient performances by a quarterback in Super Bowl history. And because of it, New Orleans scored 31 of the final 38 points over the last three quarters and claimed the franchise's first NFL championship in 43 years of existence.
Brees was 32 of 39 overall for 288 yards, with two touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 114.5 QB rating. He also finished the game on a mind-boggling 29-of-32 hot streak -- which included a late first-half spike to stop the clock and a second-half drop by Reggie Bush. Brees completed his final 10 passes -- the second-longest streak in Super Bowl history -- and his 32 completions tied New England's Tom Brady for the most ever (Super Bowl XXXVIII). He simply got better and better as the game wore on, and so did the Saints... 6452. wabbit - 2/13/2010 5:04:49 PM  The Winter Games have begun. Sadly, they got off to a sad start. On Friday, 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili had one turn left in his final Olympic training run when he lost control of the sled. His body went airborne and his upper body smashed into an unpadded steel pole as his sled continued skidding down the track. The IOC said Kumaritashvili was pronounced dead at a trauma center in Whistler.
The danger of the Whistler track has been talked about for months -- particularly after several countries, including the U.S., were upset with restrictions over access to the facility by nations other than Canada, some noting it could lead to a safety issue. Some sliders, especially those from small luge federations, saw the world's fastest track this week for the first time.
"When you are going that fast it just takes one slip and you can have that big mistake," U.S. doubles luger Christian Niccum said Thursday, when asked about track safety. "All of us are very calm going down, but it you start jerking at 90 mph or making quick reactions, that sled will steer. That's the difference between luge and bobsled and skeleton, we're riding on a very sharp edge and that sled will go exactly where we tell it to so you better be telling it the right things on the way down."
Technical officials of the International Luge Federation were able to retrace the path of the athlete and concluded there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track. Based on these findings the race director, in consultation with the FIL, made the decision to reopen the track following a raising of the walls at the exit of curve 16 and a change in the ice profile. This was done as a preventative measure, in order to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again. The FIL will resume men's training Saturday morning with two full training runs prior to the competition taking place as scheduled at 5pm.
Along with luge, today's schedule includes womens' ice hockey, ladies' freestyle moguls (yes, I noticed), ski jumping, short track and speed skating.
Vancouver Olympics
6453. alistairconnor - 2/13/2010 5:10:25 PM Winter games.
Having foolishly parked the car at home last night, I couldn't make it back up the hill this morning to take the girls back to their mother's. So they bravely set out on foot : three miles or so through the heavy snow.
I kept them company for the first stage, and dropped in on some friends. We watched the opening of the winter Olympics : parade of nations, always fun. And we saw their friend Marie, French biathlete, housemate of their niece, who is also a biathlete, but who didn't make the Olympic team.
I'll be looking out for her. It's nice to feel connected.
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