Team USA Falters

Since 1990, the United States have had limited success in every other World Cup appearance.

That trend continued in 2006.

Ghana scored its second goal on a penalty kick in the 45th minute to eliminate Team USA from the tournament today 2-1. Ghana finished second in Group E behind Italy and will likely meet Brazil in the round of 16.

Team USA got all the help it could ask for from the Italians, who put a beating on the Czech Republic. Still, they were unable to defeat a team playing without two of its top goal scorers and a limited history in the World Cup.

What a complete disaster this was. They might have finished worse in 1998 - dead last - but this time they were coming off a fantastic performance four years ago and were actually starting the garner respect in the soccer world.

What makes it more embarrassing is that they were lucky and still got trampled. No one saw the Czechs completely flopping the way they did after blowing the US out in the opening game.

But it happened.

No one thought that all the Americans would have to do to advance was beat Ghana.

But it happened. And the US still blew it.

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UND to Take Tomahawk to NCAA

North Dakota state officials are prepared to take the NCAA to court for penalizing the University of North Dakota over its name and mascot.

The NCAA decided to ban the nicknames and mascots of 18 schools, including North Dakota’s “Fighting Sioux” name and Indian head logo last year.

The states attorney general, Wayne Stenehjem, is unhappy that some schools were forced to change its name while others, like Florida State, were given a pass.

The NCAA's executive committee, "more or less by fiat, decided that some institutions were going to be subject to this rule, and some institutions, for reasons that are not understandable, were exempted," Stenehjem said.

As I understand it, the difference between UND’s situation and FSU’s situation is that the Seminole Tribe of Florida is in full support of Florida State while a number of Indian tribes would like to get rid of the Fighting Sioux name.

It’s sad, but maybe if UND could put a perennial Division 1 power house on the football field each year, they wouldn’t have to deal with a name change.

In reality, no school or professional team for that matter should be allowed to be nicknamed after anything considered to be ethnically or racially abusive. You don’t see any teams called the “Colored Slaves” or the “Flying Hicks” around, do you?

Fighting Sioux... – Random Jottings
Leader Wants To Drop 'Fighting Sioux' Lawsuit – Cruel Kev’s Scuttlebutt

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England: An Ugly 2-0

It wasn’t pretty, but they’ll take it.

Peter Crouch scored in the 83rd minute and Steven Gerrard added a goal in injury time to lead England into the World Cup second round with a 2-0 victory over Trinidad & Tobago.

For the second straight game, the English team looked to be sitting back on defense as opposed to attacking its opponents. Meanwhile, Trinidad & Tobago seemed to be playing for a tie, in hopes of picking up a point the same way it did against Sweden last weekend.

With a win or tie on Tuesday, England will win Group B, and possibly avoid a meeting with the home team, Germany, in the round of 16. Germany sits in second place in its group currently, but should be able to defeat Ecuador to move into first early next week.

Now I’m not even close to an expert, but of all the teams considered favorites (Brazil, Argentina, Germany, England, Italy and the Czech Republic), I’d have to say that England looks the most vulnerable.

Wayne Rooney made an appearance in today’s game, but the guy broke his foot like a month ago. He can’t be fully healthy. The team’s big name striker, Michael Owen, has also struggled to regain form after an injury.

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Don’t Worry

Dan’s Take is still alive. I’m trying to come up with a new template for the page but it has been unsuccessful. I’ll try to post daily again right away.

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Royals Gamble With Top Pick

If you ever wondered what makes the Kansas City Royals such a miserable franchise, look no further than the amateur draft.

The team selected right-hander Luke Hochevar with its No. 1 overall pick of the first-year player draft, passing up a number of more logical players in the process.

Hochevar was a junior at Tennessee in 2005 when he won the Roger Clemens award as the nation’s top pitcher. He was drafted by the Dodgers with 40th overall pick last year, hired Scott Boras as an agent and proceeded to turn down a $2.98 million dollar signing bonus. Then, instead of going back to school and graduating, he elected to sign with an Independent League team.

It’s nice to see a kid pass up more money than any other 40th pick has ever received, drop out of school and still go No. 1 the following year.

I’m just hoping that the two sides already have a deal worked out, but according to Hochevar, they haven’t discussed money at all.

To me, that’s mind boggling. Here you have the laughing stock of sports, desperately in need of something good to happen, and they draft a Scott Boras client who has already sat out a year because of a contract dispute. It’s like they’re asking to be pissed on.

WAS IT THE RIGHT PICK? NO ONE REALLY KNOWS – Kansas City Star
Hochevar Goes Number One – Royal Reflections

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Despite All Efforts, Yankees Win

Tip your hat to the New York Yankees. They’ve won with the team concept. They’ve won with stars. Last year, they won with unlikely heroes. Lately though, I don’t know how they are doing it.

The Bombers put out a lineup yesterday that had a combined 26 homeruns, or five homers less than Baltimore’s two, three and four hitters. The Yankee batting order boasted three rookies, a utility man and a 90 year old Bernie Williams.

Yet a Johnny Damon homerun followed by a Chien-Ming Wang bullpen appearance still beat the Orioles yesterday afternoon.

I just don’t get it. Sheffield’s banged up, Matsui’s wrist is broken, ARod’s not feeling well, Chacon’s on the DL, Pavano may have given up. Even Mariano Rivera is hurting, leaving Kyle Farnsworth to blow ninth inning leads.

Everything that could possibly go wrong has for the Yankees this season. And they’re still leading the division.

That’s scary.

Replacement Yankees Are Winning Like the Real Thing – NY Times

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Ricky's Debut

Maybe Ricky Williams won’t tear up the Canadian Football League the way a former NFL rushing champion should.

Williams rushed for seven yards on four carries in Toronto’s first exhibition game last night as his team was blown out by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 31-3.

Williams said the biggest thing for him was being able to see the game and get a feel the tempo. On the other side, Hamilton didn’t even appear to take notice of Williams.

“Anytime we play the Argos we don't need any extra motivation,” Tiger-Cats coach Greg Marshall said. “Personally, I didn't even know when Ricky was in the football game. I don't know if our defense was even aware.”

An interesting side story…

It looks like Joe Theismann isn’t the only one unhappy about Williams playing in the CFL. Former Ole Miss star John Avery has not talked to the media since Toronto signed Williams to take his place as the team’s starting running back.

Avery should be pissed off. Despite being injury plagued, he might go down as the only player in history to have completed the trifecta, amassing over 1000 total yards for a season in the NFL (1998), XFL (2001) and CFL (2002).

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Your Saturday Boxing Fix…

• Unbeaten WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev makes his first title defense against Owen Beck tonight in Hanover, Germany.
  
  Valuev, whose manager should totally be Harvey Whippleman or Bobby “the brain” Heenan, is ten inches taller and 100 pounds heavier than Beck, who has lost two of his last three fights.
  
  I’m guessing Valuev wins.
  
  
• It’s sad to say but I’m not going to remember Roy Jones Jr. for being the best pound for pound boxer in the world at one time. I’ll remember him as the Brett Favre of boxing.
  
  Jones says he’ll finally give up fighting if he loses to Prince Badi Ajamu next month in Boise, Id. A loss would be his fourth consecutive, and would put the seal on a downswing comparable to Mike Tyson, with less trouble outside of the ring.
  
  For Jones’ sake, a loss might be the best thing. It would be an embarrassment for him to go after Antonio Tarver again.
  
  
• New Haven’s Chad Dawson remained unbeaten last night, capturing the North American Boxing Federation 175 pound title from Eric Harding in a 12 round unanimous decision. Dawson was knocked down in the first round but was in control the rest of the time.
  
  Said SHOWTIME analyst Steve Farhood: “Dawson was just too fast, too eager and too poised for Harding. The light heavyweight division is conquerable. I would not hesitant to put him in with one of the world champions.”

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