Sports Blog

It was an interesting weekend for sports.  The marquee event the U.S. Open had rain and bad weather all weekend so it needed to end today.  Tune in if you can as big names like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are still lurking for the win.  It has been a surprising tournament so far as two unknown players (Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes) have been pacing the field.  The first two rounds they were playing unbelievably well, but they started to fade back toward the field in the 3rd round leaving an opening for others to win on the final round Monday.  I would say that its all up in the air right now and the player that shoots best today will win the U.S. Open.

In soccer, Team U.S.A. pulled off one of the most improbable runs to the Semifinals in the Confederations Cup with help from Brazil. Needing just about a miracle to happen, it just did.  The only way the U.S. could advance to the next round after losing the first two games to Italy and Brazil was with a win over Egypt and an Italy lose to Brazil.  Not only that they needed to make up the 6 goal differential tie-breaker.  Brazil did their part beating the Italians 3-0 giving way for the U.S. to advance if they won 3-0 also.  And they did, playing their best game of the tournament.  It was very exciting to watch as both games were going on simultaneously, but you could tell that the players on each field knew the score on the other.  When the U.S. game went final there was pure jubilation amongst the players as they knew they pulled off the improbable.  They’ll take on number one in world Spain on Wednesday in the semis.  It will be a very tough game and I don’t see the U.S. advancing, but we will see.  In the other semifinal Brazil will take on the host South Africa.

In baseball, the College World Series has its two final teams as LSU will take on Texas in the Final series.  It will be a good match up between two college baseball powers.  Keep an eye on it during the week.  In the MLB, there were some good inter-league series with my personal favorite, the Freeway Series between the Angels and Dodgers.  The series concluded on Sunday night with the Dodgers pulling the 5-3 victory and World Champion Kobe Bryant was in attendance enjoying the game.

Image Source: Getty

Monday was a very slow day in sports.  The NBA and NHL just ended their seasons,  Baseball had only two games on in the MLB and the NFL is still at least a month away. There was some good news as the College World Series was getting into elimination games and an international soccer tournament was just getting under way.  The rest of the week should get a lot better in sports.  Here’s the list of top 5 sports related events to watch this week.

5. Laker Championship Parade

Sport: NBA
When it’s on: Wednesday, June 17 @ 11 a.m. Pacific Time

The Lakers clinched the NBA Championship last Sunday in Orlando. The next logical step for any champion is to have a parade.  But, when you’re the Lakers, you have a victory parade that costs about $2 million.  This will be a big event for LA not so much for Lebron James (I just had to put that in there).  This event is so big that they had to have it in a football stadium to make room for all the people they are expecting.  The thing to watch for will be what Laker busts a Mark Madsen and embarrass themselves.  My money is on Pau Gasol!

4. College World Series

Sport: College Baseball
When it’s on: All week starting today @ 11 a.m. Pacific Time

I know college baseball doesn’t get all the publicity that football and basketball does, but the CWS is always fun to watch.  It’s a tournament where any team is capable of winning and many times the unexpected does happen.  The last four champions where not even ranked in the tournament.  It’s a fun event to watch even if you don’t have a team.  You can just pick a designated team and have fun watching till the end.

3. MLB
Sport: MLB
When it’s on: All week

The baseball races are starting to heat up right about now with teams finding out if they are contenders or pretenders.  This week should especially be fun to watch with many AL-NL rivalries taking place because of inter-league play.  Some interesting match ups include:  Cubs vs. White Sox, Dodgers vs. Angels, Astros vs. Rangers.  It’s always fun to watch two teams from the same state or city battle for bragging rights amongst fans.

2. Confederations Cup

Sport: International Soccer
When it’s on: All week for group play

International Soccer is one of my favorite things to watch.  The passion that the players and fans have for the game is almost unmatched.  This tournament although not that big (only 8 team) should be fun to watch because of world powers such as Spain, Brazil and Italy.  The U.S. is also in the tournament looking to make a statement, which should give the average U.S. fan something to root for.  The U.S. has a lot of work to do after losing to Italy in their first game to make it to the next round, but it should be fun to watch anyway.  Some great match-ups to watch for: U.S. vs. Brazil, Italy vs. Brazil, Spain vs. anyone.  I just love to watch the way Spain plays.

1.U.S. Open

Sport: Golf
When it’s on: Starts Thursday, June 18 @ 4 a.m. Pacific Time

This is the main event of the week.  All eyes will be on Tiger Woods to see if he can defend his Open title.  He played really well in the last tournament with his come from behind win. This year’s course is said to be very difficult.  So, it will be fun to watch these pros smack the ball around and look average.  Any one can win on a course like that, but my money is still on Tiger.  It will be exciting to watch.

Source: AP Photo

Congrats to Tiger. 

Even with a hurt knee he still pulled it off!

Image Source: theage.com.au

Here’s what happened this weekend in sports:

Will it be Tiger or Mediate? The two will face off today in an 18-hole playoff (Noon EST) to decide who will win the 2008 US Open title.

Tiger usually wins when he is up the day before, but he was struggling yesterday because of his hurt knee, but I’m pretty hopeful he will be able to do his thing today.

Lakers win game 5 – I honestly thought they weren’t going to pull it off & I know die-hard fans were pretty disgruntled because of their horrible performance during game 4, especially with sports casters reminding them that no team has ever come back when down by 3-1 to win a title.

So, basically the Lakers will make history of they pull it off. The refs were pretty lenient on the Lakers especially in the last few minutes of the game.  Anyway, I’m sure the Celtics would rather win their final game at home.  :)       

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the LifeLock 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race! Before this long anticipated victory he was on a 76 race losing streak!

He actually was supposed to run out of gas way before the finish line according to his pit crews estimations, but miraculously he an out of gas just shortly after crossing the finish line.

Turkey beats the Czech Republic to make it to the Euro 2008 Quarterfinals. Turkey’s team captain, Nihat Kahveci, scored two goals in the last three minutes of the game. Pretty awesome.  Check out the game highlights here.

Image Source:  NBA.com, ESPN.com, Boston.com, Telegraph.co.uk