U.S. Open - Thursday round-up

Today was a good day. All of my favorites advanced except for Gael. Vania, my temporary favorite (as in not on my sidebar) lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne, but that was expected. They say that Gael was sliding on the court, which is not good at all. He needs to learn how to stay on his feet and then he can do well on hard courts. Lindsay served two bagels, while my other girls won in less impressive fashion but still in straight sets. Novak had a tricky match with Mardy Fish but pulled through in 4. Richard killed Gilles Simon.
Today's big upset was Martina Hingis going down to Virginie Razzano. I saw a bit of her first round match and she didn't look as dominating as usual, not like Wimbledon (I forgot how far she got, so don't know if this argument works). It's not as big as Ljubicic going out in the first round, but still pretty major, since many consider Hingis like a genuine top 5 player, while Ivan is not rated so highly. Really, I hope Ivan and Nikolay Davydenko get pushed out of the top 10 once Richard and Novak get up there. They are capitalizing on the fact that other players get injured more often and clean up the remaining points. Really, Grand Slam results should matter more, right?
Tomorrow I'll be busy but I'm sure I'll find some time to check up on Lindsay and Sveta since they play 3rd round matches tomorrow. I really need cable NOW.

Red's in style.

All the cool kids are wearing some.


Gael's all the way, shorts and shirt.


Rafa must style his pants and his headband.


James rather do a red sleeveless.


Feli says that red makes him look pretty.


Novak says that you wish you were so hot in a red shirt.


So does Marat.


Dmitri says he started it.


Lindsay's in red...


Maybe Amelie is in red too. Probably orange.


Serena says that all she needs is a red headband.


Sveta and Vania believe in the red skirt power.


Lucie Safarova, Lauren Albanese, Jamea Jackson, Aiko Nakamura, and Daniela Hantuchova also believe in the red skirt power (and won!).


And Jie Zheng won too.


What's up with Elena's polka-dot skirt part?


Philippousis (lost) and Moya (won) show that old guys can style too.


Even the "have-beens" Hewitt (won), Srichiphan (won), Coria (lost) believe in the power of the red.


Red might have helped Ryan Sweeting, Nicholas Massu, Nicholas Mahut, Fernando Gonzalez, Gaston Gaudio, Tomas Berdych, and Jonas Bjorkman win.


Too bad, the power of the red didn't save you (from losing and being obscure names once again).

U.S. Open - Monday roundup minus Andre

I'm proud of my favorites; they all pulled through. Novak stopped making stupid errors (I think that was why he lost the first set) and even threw in a bagel when he finally found his form. Svetlana continued to ride rollercoasters, but she won and that's all that matters. Richard had a solid 3-set win. Lindsay's shoulder was supposedly fine. The results say she was in good shape. Vania won probably because Alicia self-destructed, but that's fine with me. Now off to day 2! Interesting matches (too bad Feliciano decided to kill Ivan 6-3, 6-3, 6-3):

• Mark Philippoussis vs. Rafael Nadal - is Mark fit enough? Will Rafa find his form? I have no clue if this will be a 3 set drubbing or a 5 set marathon.
• Shenay Perry vs. Eleni Danilidou - will Shenay have another good Grand Slam run? Eleni is a tough opponent.
• Marat Safin vs. Robin Vik - will Marat make it to round 2 so we can have a Safin vs. Nalbandian match? Oh wait, we better guarantee Nalbandian to come through too.
  

Also playing are Gael Monfils (against Michael Russell), Ana Ivanovic (against Vera Dushevina), Amelie Mauresmo (against Kristina Barrois), Dinara Safina (against Yulia Beygelzimer).

Sidebar Update

So I updated and added pictures to the side bar. 28 instead of 20 now. The new additions are: Xabi Alonso (soccer, Liverpool FC and Spanish National team), Jonathan Bornstein (soccer, Chivas USA), Richard Gasquet (tennis, France), Ana Ivanovic (tennis, Serbia), Joachim Johansson (tennis, Sweden), Sacha Kljestan (soccer, Chivas USA), Gerard Pique (soccer, Real Zaragoza from Manchester United and Spanish U-19), and Cristiano Ronaldo again (soccer, Manchester United and Portugal National team).

U.S. Open begins tomorrow

Finally the last Grand Slam of the year. It's time for these youngsters to cap their breakout year with a strong showing. Then all of us won't remember how they all lost early in Australia. I'm not even going to try and pick favorites on the women's side. On the men's side, they are obviously Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Of course I want Lindsay to do well, but she retired on Saturday because of a sore shoulder so I hope she is okay tomorrow. Others I want to do well are obviously Amelie Mauresmo, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils. I'm also liking Ana Ivanovic, who should be up on my sidebar on my next sidebar update.
I think I'll be blogging every day or every other day on tennis since this week is International Week for soccer in Europe. For tomorrow, here are the matches I'm keeping track of (can't watch because I don't have USA).

• Donald Young vs. Novak Djokovic - please triple bagel Donald! Just kidding...Novak just needs to win and show Donald that he isn't worth the hype.
• Vania King vs. Alicia Molik - wonder if Vania will be impressive like last year? Or will she still play well and go against a resurgent Alicia?
  
• Klara Zakopalova vs. Lindsay Davenport - will Lindsay's shoulder be alright?
  
• Feliciano Lopez vs. Ivan Ljubicic - they met in the first round of Wimbledon this year (I think) and it went to five sets. Probably Ljubicic will win, but still interesting.
• Andrei Pavel vs. Andre Agassi - how's Andre holding up?

Also, Sveta goes against Sandra Kloesel and Richard goes against Phillip Simmonds. Yay for day 1!
*I still can't believe Mario injured himself on vacation and is missing this! WHY?*

And I'm like a hedge fund manager (a soccer post)

Really. I realized, after I picked my teams, that I definitely have picked teams all over the place. Sometimes I've picked the top two teams of the league (which can be a bore), teams that are on the way down, teams that are boring midtable teams, and teams that just suck. Let's see...my EPL teams are Arsenal, Everton, and Reading. Arsenal should be a top 4 team once they relearn how to score goals and get all their injured men back, Everton is average and doesn't look like it'll do that well unless the God's make every controversial penalty go their way, and Reading is fighting for its Premiership life. I mean, I'll be esctatic if Arsenal take the Champions League title or the Premiership title (or both!) even if Everton and Reading both get relegated. I'll even be happy if Everton gets relegated if Reading doesn't. Really, my goals for each team are completely different, and it makes me feel like a hedge fund manager.
With the Spanish and Italian leagues starting soon, I'm going to be stretched to actually catch all the leagues. So I'm going to be a bastard and drop some. I'm dropping the Championship, the SPL, and the Portuguese leagues. I think 8 leagues are plenty enough. I'll probably catch the Portuguese teams in the Champions League stuff. It's easiest to catch EPL and the Mexican leagues on TV, but I hope to watch a Eredivisie match soon. Bundesliga matches are on quite a bit on livestream channels, so I will probably watch some of them too. I really hope to see La Liga on TV, but if not, on my crappy livestream apps.
Another thing. I obviously picked my teams a bit too early, and picking two or three from each league isn't always the best thing to do. That means teams will eventually be dropped. For example, I picked both River Plate and Racing Club, and then found out that they're rivals (I think pretty big ones too) after reading an ESPNdeportes article. And Hannover 96 is really, really bad right now, especially since Per Mertesacker left. And Bayern Munich is falling apart.
BUT Reading has been a good choice so far. They play nice attacking soccer, somehow manage to throw tons of guys in the box, have Seol Ki-Hyeon who has been awesome (and Bobby who hasn't been that awesome), and they take risks. Too bad the town/city/?? didn't even fill the house for their first game. Come on, where are the fans?
And finally the random side note. I am completely obsessed with Jonathan Bornstein and the Croatian language right now. These two are not related in any way, but they both make me happy. I would totally root for Hadjuk Split because of Niko, but there's no way I'll be able to see Croatian leagues on TV. Really, I can only find news about the team off the official website, and that's written in Croatian.

The Premiership begins

Finally the Premiership has begun! It blasted off with a 1-1 draw between Sheffield United and Liverpool. Then my Reading boys got a 3-2 victory over Middlesborough! Everton squeaked a win with a controversial penalty, and Arsenal started off slowly and came back to tie Aston Villa. Supposedly Cesc stomped on the referee's foot? Youtube needs to put up a video now!
I have been a very, very bad fangirl. I missed Niko's birthday on Sunday. He turned 22. But I didn't miss the Italy-Croatia friendly on Wednesday. Niko played the 2nd half of this friendly (and looked as hot as ever). Seeing Bobby Convey today, I still think Niko is 10x hotter. But I have to content myself with the fact that I'll see 1000+ more of Bobby than of Niko. Bobby still needs to work on his crossing, by the way, but he'll learn soon.
Everything else in the sports world seems to be falling apart. Actually, only in the tennis world. Roger Federer loses in the 2nd round to Andy Murray in straight sets! He missed so many shots that I couldn't believe that it was Federer on court (until he then made a spectacular shot...oh well). Andy Murray was good, but not spectacularly good, which made the win a surprise if you just saw the score. But Murray deserved it. Then Juan Carlos Ferrero decides to get off of his lazy butt and beats James Blake, Rafael Nadal, and makes it to the final of Cincinnati! What the hell?
Kuzy lost to Hingis in the QF, but she's finally back! I hope she has a deep run in the U.S. Open. Mauresmo should be playing next week? I miss her. U.S. Open a week from Monday!

A Heartbreaking Sunday

Today was a bad day. First, Hannover 96 loses to Werder Bremen by conceeding 3 goals in like 11 minutes, when before they were leading 2-1. Then Richard Gasquet starts off by winning the first set against Roger Federer before losing the next 2. They were both so bright before they came back to earth. And River Plate ended up tying after a 3-1 (?) lead. Then there was the German roleplay that wasn't long enough. I really don't know how much more we can BS.
And it didn't help that Friday and Saturday were good days sports-wise for me. Bayern Munich won their opener (and were a bit lucky too), Chivas USA beat Chicago (I like Chicago, but Chivas more), Guadalajara won, and friendly-wise Reading beat Feyenoord. It sucks when my teams go against each other, especially if I don't really prefer one to another, like Crystal Palace vs. Leeds today, etc., because I don't know who to root for. I guess it's more draining to put all your support behind one team, but it also much more fun. I mean, I watched a bit of today's Community Shield match between Chelsea and Liverpool, and I enjoyed it but I didn't care who won. (By the way, Liverpool did. 2-1.) But it is also draining to look for info on teams and leagues, especially if they aren't deemed as "important". That's why finding stuff about Croatian football frustrates me, because no one else seems to care! Niko Kranjcar's Hadjuk Split is 3-0 and top of the charts, but I only found that out after a bunch of browsing. Maybe I need to find new sites? Also I have trouble finding things on Portuguese and Belgium leagues. Premiership is nice and all, but there is some nice soccer in other places too.

Friendlies and Qualifying Fun

In the U.S. we have friendlies. Across the ocean we have Champions League Qualifying. We had tons of football on Wednesday and nothing today, so I decided it's time to start a rant.

1. Friendlies first. MLS All-Stars beat Chelsea 1-0. I was surprised how much of a headline this caused. It's funny how so many people made judgements without watching the game. Chelsea could have been tied with MLS at the end. MLS could have been up 2-0 or 3-0. If Chelsea wasn't so tired (and played with more heart), they could have won. If MLS could have finished some of their good chances, such as Chris Albright's, they might have spanked Chelsea. Memorable moments were DeRosario's goal and Jaime Moreno slipping the ball between John Terry's feet. The one thing that this game proved was that MLS has a decent offense, but they need to work on offense.
2. Then D.C. United draw with Real Madrid, 1-1. This probably was a better game than the All-Star game. Supposedly Freddy Adu helped set up United's goal. Adu was a bit under his usual game at the All-Star game, so people will keep thinking that he is really overhyped (which he is somewhat). Adu is still too cocky, but he's dating JoJo, who is probably the hottest teenage pop-star right now, so I think I'd be up in the clouds too.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo has a hat-trick in his first game back from the World Cup. Good for him. Supposedly he didn't try a step-over until the 30th minute. I don't know, Ronaldo isn't Ronaldo without the step-overs. But it is good that he wasn't diving, and that he has Manchester United fans' support.
4. FC Barcelona draws with Club America 4-4. Supposedly the end was quite crazy. But Barcelona shouldn't have stuck themselves in a 4-1 hole in the first place. They also drew with Guadalajara on Sunday. I watched Guadalajara vs. Toluca earlier that day, in which Guadalajara lost 1-0. I still don't think Guadalajara should have sent its first team to play the Barcelona friendly and leave its second team to play a league game. Now they lost 3 points. Their second string was pretty good, but they now have extra pressure to win their next games.
5. Chelsea ties Celtic 1-1. I could only get a few minutes of livestream for this match, in which I saw the Celtic goal (luckily). I think Chelsea's crazy in only playing one game in the U.S., then 2 games in a row. Fortunately for them, they didn't get spanked. They actually won against Feyenoord.
6. Did I rant yet about Reading's insanely easy pre-season friendlies? I don't think they are getting good practice for the Premiership by thumping teams 10-1, 6-1, 4-1. Nicely enough, Convey and Hahnemann are back, and Convey scored a goal. Whatever happens this season, Convey will be getting good experience and hopefully help himself to a more secure spot on the U.S.'s WC 2010 squad.
7. Now for UEFA Champions League. The highlight for me was Arsenal's 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb, because Cesc had a hat-trick! He had a wonderful dance after his second goal, which you can find on YouTube somewhere. Also you can hear his post-match interview at BBC.co.uk. He has such a nice voice, and very good English for a Spaniard. Reyes didn't play since he might leave...I really hope he doesn't. Then Ajax won, Benfica tied, Hearts lost. They have another leg, and whoever wins the aggregate moves on. I hope Hearts can pull out a result!
8. Copa Libertadores - I managed to find a very bad-quality livestream of this match when there was about 30 minutes left. This is also a two-match thing, so Sao Paulo can come back. If you don't know by now, Internacional won 2-1 over Sao Paulo.
   

I'll be back soon with more sports ranting probably on Saturday or Sunday.

The Final Team Pick list

Here it is. These are the teams that I'll be following this soccer season.

• Argentina - Racing Club, River Plate
• Bundesliga - Bayern Munich, Hannover 96
• English Championship - Crystal Palace, Leeds
• English Premiership - Arsenal, Everton, Reading
  
• Holland - Ajax Amsterdam, PSV Eindhoven
• Italian Seria A - Palermo, Roma
• La Liga - Atletico Madrid, Villareal
• Mexico - Guadalajara, America
• MLS - Chicago Fire, Chivas USA
  
• Portugal - Benfica, FC Porto
• Scottish Premier League - Celtic, Hearts

Notes: I wanted 2 teams for each group just because I'm knew to this, but I couldn't narrow down the Premiership to 2. I just couldn't choose between Cesc and Bobby! Crystal Palace and Leeds won on Saturday. Hearts just beat Celtic 2-1 today, which was deserved especially after one of their goals was called offsides even though the guy was clearly not. Guadalajara fielded their 2nd-string team which probably would have been killed more than 1-0 against Toluca if it wasn't for the goalkeeper. I hope their 1st team (playing a friendly against Barcelona) is a lot better. MLS All-Stars won their friendly 1-0 against Chelsea. Chelsea just looked tired, dead, and not sharp. They'll probably be fine once the season starts. And also, Michael Ballack was tons better than Frank Lampard.

More team picks

England's Chempsionship is starting up tomorrow, so I had to quickly find some teams to follow. So my two random selections were Crystal Palace and Leeds. So not exciting, I know. The only reason I even knew about Leeds is because Eddie Lewis plays for them. They almost qualified for the Premiership last year so I hope they have another good season.
I've realized that I haven't picked an MLS team to root for. It's so hard to pick one when you don't really live close to one and can't watch much on TV. I'm stuck between picking Chicago, the closest team, and Chivas USA, which has a lot of my new favorites and a fun style of soccer. I think Chivas is maybe a step higher on my team-supporting hierarchy, but I get to watch more Chicago Fire because their home games are shown on Comcast 8. They also have US MNT prospects Justin Mapp and Chris Rolfe. Hmm...Mapp/Rolfe vs. Bornstein/Kljiesten? You know that the only reason I follow MLS is because of these guys, who will probably go to Europe some day. Thus my interest in English soccer leagues, since most of our high-profile guys abroad play in England.
Hmm...Bundesliga starts soon too. Bayern Munich vs. Werder Bremen play in the final of some pre-season cup thing this weekend. Basically it's some German national team stars (Podolski, Schweinsteiger, Lahm...) vs. other German national team stars (Klose, Frings...). I really don't want to support Bayern Munich just because they are like Chelsea of the Premiership in terms of having the most wealth in the league. I will probably follow them, since Philipp Lahm plays there, but probably not root for them. I think Hannover 96 and Bayern Leverkusen will do for now. Steve Cherundulo and Per Mertesacker are at Hannover and Andriy Voronin, Juan, Bernd Schneider, and Tranquilo Barnetta are at Bayern Leverkusen (all played significant minutes at the World Cup).
So, as I've said above, I don't really want to support Chelsea. I've already done plenty of bandwagon-jumping. I'm leaning towards supporting the following teams: Arsenal, Everton, Fulham, Reading, Tottenham, West Ham. It will probably be narrowed down to 2 or 3 teams in a few weeks. Then I need to pick teams for La Liga and Serie A! Lots of work to do.

It's August already!

Woohoo almost done with class. Only 16 more days left! That means only 16 more hours of math and 14 more hours of German! It's so hard to make myself work...1 hour of work equals 2 hours of play. Look at me posting here just hours before my math test...
August means a lot of other good things. Sports-wise, the U.S. Open Series is in full swing and European soccer is starting up. I need to start picking teams to follow. Most likely I won't pick a main team to root for because I don't know much about any of them. I mean, it would be bad to root for a team for just one player that I know from the WC and not root for another team which may have great team spirit. I'm on the lookout for U.S. and Spanish national team prospects, so clubs with them will probably get some preference. Scottish Premier has started, and I'm choosing to follow Celtic and Hearts. I feel like such a bandwagon hopper doing that, because Celtic and Hearts were the top 2 teams last year. But being the top 2 means that they participate in the Champions' League, and more exposure means more stories to read about them to satiate my article-devouring nature. That is why I'm enjoying the serialized accounts of USA training camp for Chelsea FC, even though I will probably not root for them this season.