Sports Quote of the Day:
"Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal." ~ Vincent Lombardi, Legendary NFL Football Coach
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! Bears shuffle No. 1 OL with rookies.
By John Mullin
The first shock waves from Friday night’s preseason opener rippled across the practice fields on Sunday as the Bears installed two rookies with the No. 1 offensive line and demoted right tackle J’Marcus Webb.
Kyle Long, off a strong game and two full quarters of snaps against Carolina, took all of the first-team reps at right guard on Sunday after playing 51 of the Bears’ 60 snaps vs. the Panthers. James Brown had started the Carolina game and had taken the majority of first-team snaps in practices prior to Sunday.
“[Long] really did well and did some good things,” coach Marc Trestman said. “Made some mistakes but he had a good presence about him, he was good on the sideline, he was able to explain to Aaron [Kromer, offensive coordinator] what was going on out there. It was a good sign.”
More surprising perhaps, fifth-round draft choice Jordan Mills vaulted from the No. 3 offensive line to right tackle alongside fellow rookie Long.
“Since we’ve been working together a lot with the 2’s and 3’s, it was a good transition,” Long said. “I think they’re just trying to throw us in there and see what we can do. It was a lot of fun today to go against the ones, see some different faces, just another day to try and get better.”
Mills started all 12 games last season at right tackle for Louisiana Tech and was named All-Western Athletic Conference first-team by coaches. He started 13 games at right tackle as a junior and was also a first-team All-Conference player in his first year as a full-time starter.
He set aside his own self-criticism to say what coaches clearly saw:
“I did pretty good [at Carolina],” Mills said. “I’m my worst critic so I think I did OK, coach said I did pretty good, now I just have to keep working and get my technique down.
“[Coaches] wanted to see how good I was doing. [The promotion to No. 1 offense] was unexpected but you have to be ready in the NFL if somebody goes down or they want to make a switch out you have to be prepared and ready, and I was prepared and ready.”
J Webb nation down
Webb did not seem to be as ready for the shuffle that sent him to left tackle with the second string, with Eben Britton working at right tackle with the No. 2 unit. Britton and Webb each were beaten for sacks by the Panthers.
Coach Marc Trestman said the move was not intended to send any message to Webb.
However, Trestman also said Mills is expected to get most of the work at right tackle with the 1’s this week and could earn the start next Thursday against San Diego.
However, Trestman also said Mills is expected to get most of the work at right tackle with the 1’s this week and could earn the start next Thursday against San Diego.
"I think we've been very clear with J'Marcus about what we're doing. I said it last week that there's been an up and down performance level by J'Marcus but we were still going to do this," he said.
The demotion appeared to leave Webb a bit unsettled, and as far as his own expectations for opening day, “I’m not totally sure,” he said. “I’m willing to help at any position on the offensive line, the tackle position definitely. I’ll take a look at film and focus on getting better.”
“I said it last week that there's been an up-and-down performance level by J'Marcus but we were still going to do this.”
NFL pulls plug on customized face masks.
The National Football League is pulling the plug on elaborate, customized face masks that several prominent NFL defensive players had planned to wear this season.
The only exception the league makes for the use of customized face masks is for medical reasons. Mathis confirmed the ruling on his Twitter page.
its official.... the league says I cant wear my facemask. I will return to my run of the mill grill.
— ROBERT MATHIS The1st (@RobertMathis98) August 9, 2013
In addition to Mathis, Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett had planned to wear a customized mask, which he unveiled at his team's FanFest in June.
Dockett's mask had six horizontal bars and one vertical in the middle that divides a whopping 18 diagonal bars, nine on each side of the vertical bar. The model, which was created by Bad-Ass Masks, was called the "Freight Train".
New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck began wearing a mask with 12 diagonal bars and five horizontal bars last summer. Tuck began wearing that mask to prevent offensive linemen from grabbing his mask and aggravating a neck strain. With Tuck dealing with a back issue during training camp, so perhaps he'll be successful in his attempt to wear it again this season.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? The Blackhawks players are continuing to enjoy their Stanley Cup Victory. The front office staff is continuously evaluating the team, it's core players and potential new players; Management in the Blackhawk nation is constantly working on improvement and ways to keep the team at the top. Let the team and Chicago enjoy their much earned victory. We'll bring you the latest updates as soon as they're available. In the meantime, below is an article on Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner. It's very insightful.......
Baseball’s latest woes show NHL is lucky to have Gary Bettman.
By Ryan Lambert
The central premise that I am currently proposing is that Gary Bettman has been a good steward for the sport of hockey in his reign as the NHL's commissioner.
No one (besides the owners) seems to like him very much, but the fact of the matter is that he's made this sport more popular on a national and international level than it ever has been.
You may not like the puck-over-the-glass rule. You may not like the shootout. You may not like that he injects himself into every major event from presenting the Stanley Cup to calling out picks and transactions at the draft. You may not like the southern expansion he apparently insisted upon because somehow the fact that there's a team in Miami and not Flin Flon is deeply offensive to you on a personal level.
You almost certainly don't like all the lockouts.
Even if you think the NHL is great as-is, it seems like every summer there's a slew of articles about "Here's what the NHL needs to fix," and I think that's probably a thing that happens in hockey more than in any other sport. This is because it's been widely acknowledged that NHL hockey, as it stands right now, is largely imperfect, and I don't think there's a person alive who would argue to the contrary. Including Bettman.
Nonetheless, all the ills the league suffers are largely heaped upon Bettman's head. This was certainly evident during the lockout when, despite the fact that he was speaking on behalf of the owners who pay his considerable salary, and admittedly acting like a bit of a crybaby throughout the process, all the anger was focused on him, and all the fans who were so, so mad at him packed arenas league-wide to near-capacity.
It was very much a case of people getting mad at the puppet for what the ventriloquist says without moving his lips, and the cognitive dissonance it must take to at once commit oneself fully to forking over hundreds of dollars to take in a single game, in some cases, while also decrying Bettman as the root of all evil is fairly staggering.
But for all that Bettman hate out there, one thing hockey fans should think about at night, when they put head to pillow and start counting Sidney Crosbys jumping over a fence, is how lucky they are that a guy like Bud Selig isn't running this league.
For all the flak Bettman gets, one thing you can say in his favor -- regardless of whether you like him -- is that he seems to have the best interests of the sport at heart, in addition to that thing in his job description about making the owners a bunch of money. I don't know whose interests Selig has in mind at this point.
Leaving aside all that stuff about how the All-Star Game counts in determining which league gets home-field advantage in the World Series — which is broadly, and rightly, viewed as a pathetic attention-grab even Bettman wouldn't attempt in his most desperately shameless moments — the way in which Major League Baseball has handled the BioGenesis situation was embarrassing from the beginning.
In all, 13 players were suspended for their involvement with the anti-aging clinic, believed to have given them all sorts of performance-enhancing drugs, which are obviously a major no-no in baseball and most other professional sports.
Of those, 12 were given 50-game suspensions, in addition to the 50-plus-15 Ryan Braun got toward the end of July. The last guy was obviously Alex Rodriguez, who was suspended for the entirety of this season's remainder, as well as all 162 games next year.
Seem draconian? That's because it is.
It should be noted that Rodriguez never failed a drug test, and instead seems to have been nearly run out of the sport because, well, no one likes A-Rod. David Ortiz failed a drug test (albeit in 2003 when these drugs were not specifically illegal), and Andy Pettitte has admitted to taking PEDs. Both are happily plugging along in the Majors years later.
Rodriguez, like Barry Bonds before him, is a convenient scapegoat that allows Selig to show how Very Seriously he and Major League Baseball takes the PED problem that festered in the sport while they were asleep at the switch, and for which they were more than happy to turn away while baseballs were traveling out of the field of play at a trillion miles an hour all over the country in the mid- to late-1990s after the league needed to mend fences with the fans it alienated during the protracted and unnecessary players' strike of 1994.
The current situation in which guys are railroaded is a beast entirely of Selig's creation, and all the suspensions now aren't so much MLB getting proactive about the problem as pointing frequently at something off to your right so you won't look at the inconvenient realities sitting pretty noticeably to your immediate left.
Now, the obvious point to make here is that it's probably silly and naïve for anyone to think that there are no NHL players taking performance-enhancing drugs. On a statistical basis, some of them must. We know that both Bryan Berard and Sean Hill have tested positive for them (only Hill was suspended because the league didn't administer Berard's test), but other than that, there's not much happening on that front.
For whatever reason, there hasn't been a positive test since 2007, and that's a good thing for hockey. It's certainly not an epidemic like it appears to be in baseball.
Under Selig, America's pastime rose to unprecedented popularity because Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa had arms the size of Sidney Crosby's thighs. (Even if they still had to get around on all those pitches and actually put bat to ball, and even if there's still no proven, direct link between PEDs and the ability to be better at the things you need to be good at baseball). Under Bettman, the NHL did the same thing and did it all with something at least resembling total transparency.
The Miami Marlins are a joke because their owner is an odious cheapskate who doesn't give a rat's ass about anything but his bottom line. I suppose that's his right as a businessman, but the problem is that Selig bent over backward and facilitated a number of transactions -- most notably MLB taking over the Montreal Expos so that Jeffrey Loria, their owner at the time who threw a hissy fit over not getting a publicly-funded stadium, could buy the Marlins from John Henry, who was part of an ownership group purchasing the Red Sox -- that allowed him to behave this way despite years of evidence that he was a bad owner, and thus not good for the sport.
Bettman, by way of comparison, has made a lot of missteps with ownership situations over the years, but at least they've all been right out in the open. He's also stuck by markets, despite the deep embarrassment it brought him, because he honestly felt it was good for the sport, rather than necessarily getting a deal that would net his employers a lot more money. The Jets' revenues on a nightly basis are said to double those enjoyed in Atlanta, and similar moves for dying franchises could likewise fill coffers, but Bettman is trying to be a good steward, and whether he's succeeding or not, he's clearly not driven entirely by mere monetary gains.
Hockey today is obviously not without its foibles. As this was being written, it was reported and then disputed that the league would have to take over the Devils because their perpetually cash-strapped owner missed a debt payment, just four days after the league finally found someone dumb enough to buy the Coyotes and keep them in Glendale. Concussions remain a major problem. As does supplementary discipline. But the one thing you can say definitively in the league and Bettman's favor is that it's all aboveboard.
Nothing shady. Nothing vindictive. Nothing especially self-aggrandizing or legacy-saving. Selig is supposedly going to retire in 2015, and is likely to leave baseball considerably healthier than when he became commissioner, but with a large pall cast over his reign. By the time Gary Bettman rides off into the sunset, his league will also be in a far better position, and still have its credibility intact.
Jason Dufner claims PGA Championship, erasing demons of 2011 meltdown.
By Jay Busbee
Jason Dufner kisses the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
With his unkempt hair, bent-brim ballcap and whatever, dude attitude, Jason Dufner looks like he ought to be one of the clowns screaming "Bababooey!" on tee shots. Instead, he's the guy making those shots, and now, he's a major winner.
At 36, Dufner isn't exactly a young gun. But the former Auburn walk-on has discovered his game in recent years, and now stands as one of the most reliable players in golf. His 2013 PGA Championship was an absolute clinic: he tied the all-time record for lowest score in a major on Friday with a 63 and clinched the victory with a near-perfect run of play throughout the weekend.
If his Sunday duel with Jim Furyk wasn't exactly one for the ages, that's not Dufner's fault; after taking the lead just before the turn on Sunday, Dufner never faltered enough to let Furyk back in the door, claiming the championship by two strokes and earning the first major win of his career.
The PGA Championship is the Ringo of golf's majors, lacking the gravitas of Augusta, the muscle of the U.S. Open, the historic spectacle of the British Open. The last time the PGA came through Oak Hill, in 2003, the winner was Shaun Micheel, a player who has never won another professional tournament. The PGA of America has resorted to painful slogans (the just-discontinued "Glory's Last Shot") and fan-service gimmicks (this year's contest to select the Sunday pin placement on No. 15) in an attempt to gin up interest.
But while the tournament may not entrance golf fans, it's still a major, which means it's got a hammerlock on the minds of the players. Every major carries a storyline of "who needs it most?", and both Furyk and Dufner bear recent scars from coming out on the wrong end of a battle for a major.
Two years ago almost to the day, Dufner held a five-stroke lead with four holes to play in the PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club. He bogeyed three of the final four holes and would lose to Keegan Bradley in a playoff. Last year, Furyk stood on the 16th tee on the final day of the U.S. Open holding a share of the lead and proceeded to butcher the hole and surrender a win to Webb Simpson. So, yes, you could say both of these guys were "due," though the golf gods tend to laugh at such talk. Major championships aren't gifts, they're conquests.
Furyk entered the day leading, a grim omen for 2013: none of the 54-hole leaders of this year's majors went on to win. Dufner sat a stroke back, "sat" being the operative word for the man whose very name is now synonymous in the golf world for casual, whatever happens, happens detachment.
On the outward half of the card, the games of Furyk and Dufner were mirror images of one another. Where Furyk visited every rough he could find, Dufner sighted his drives right down the center of the fairway like a fastball. Where Furyk saved himself with long putts, Dufner made highlight-reel putts unnecessary by darting approaches right at the cup. The turning point came on No. 9; with the two tied, Furyk bogeyed and Dufner birdied, spreading a two-stroke gap that would hold up for the rest of the afternoon.
"I hit some awkward shots on the front nine," Furyk said afterward. "I figured that out too late."
The brutal closing stretch of holes offered both players a chance to bury some old ghosts. Furyk, who famously missed clutch putts that could have won the Ryder Cup for the United States in 2012, drained two of the most coldblooded putts of his career on 15 and 16 to remain in contention.
Dufner, who saw his major dreams of two years ago drown in a pond just to the right of the par-3 15th green, stepped to the 15th at Oak Hill to see … a par-3 15th with water along the right side. This time around, though, he kept the ball dry and escaped with a par.
Both players began to rattle on 17, each bogeying the hole to keep Dufner's lead at two. Needing to make magic, Furyk threw a Hail Mary on 18, but came up short, leaving his approach stuck on the low edge of the 30-foot-high mound surrounding the 18th green. With the pressure off, Dufner simply played prevent-defense golf, and this time it worked, his bogey matching Furyk's. It may have been a dull finish – Dufner fired a final round 68 to Furyk's 71 – but the Wanamaker Trophy doesn't carry asterisks for less-than-dramatic wins.
"It hasn't hit me yet," Dufner said afterward, his face its typical mask of non-emotion. "To come back from a couple years ago in this championship when I lost to Keegan, this feels really, really good.”
Dufner's final score of -10 was the lowest in a major this year. Players who had complained of unfair setups at Augusta, Merion and Muirfield found themselves with a wealth of birdie opportunities on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, though, the course fought back, allowing only 11 rounds below par. The course claimed two serious challengers in Matt Kuchar and Justin Rose, leaving Dufner, Furyk, and the Swedish duo of Henrik Stenson and Jonas Blixt at the top of the leaderboard.
Sunday proved a bit more generous, with several players posting scores that were notable in themselves but too little, too late to make a run at Dufner. Scott Piercy (-5) and Jason Day (-3), in particular, shot up the leaderboard with strings of birdies. But Dufner was simply relentless, slouching toward glory with a barrage of flawless approaches that just ground down his opposition.
This wasn't a tournament for golf's marquee players. Adam Scott returned to his non-Augusta form, letting birdie opportunities slip through his fingers. Rory McIlroy's Sunday flirtation with the top of the leaderboard lasted about as long as a Caroline Wozniacki ace, and Tiger Woods (+4) and Phil Mickelson (+12) played so badly all week long that neither one of them deserves even their own full sentence.
No, this story belongs to Dufner.
Prior to this weekend, Dufner was best known as the unintentional creator of "Dufnering," a photo-meme inspired by a picture of Dufner looking bored beyond belief as he sat against the wall in an elementary school class. Chances are he’s not going to get any livelier now. But now he’s got a trophy big enough to lean against.
Chicago Bulls: Calm Offseason, Big Splash in Opener.
By Tim Bearden
COMMENTARY | Derrick Rose has been the anticipatory story of the offseason for the Chicago Bulls. Fans are eagerly awaiting his return in the 2013-14 season -- even more so since they're opening up against the 2012-13 NBA champion Miami Heat.
But that's not all that's happened in Bulls camp.
Granted, it wasn't a big offseason with high-profile signings and draft picks. If anything, they stayed under the radar in draft. With the 20th pick, it's not exactly that hard, though.
The Bulls used their first pick on Tony Snell from New Mexico. Snell had a good year with the Lobos, but he was definitely a surprise pick with Tim Hardaway, Jr. still available in the draft. Hardaway went to the New York Knicks as the 24th pick and is already injured with a bruised wrist. In other words, surprises aren't always bad.
Snell comes in to fill the Kyle Korver roll. Heavy defense, perimeter shooting and one of the best pull-up jumpers in the NCAA at 47-percent accuracy. Snell averaged 9.2 points per game and 42 percent from the field while always improving behind the arc. With Marco Belinelli signing with the San Antonio Spurs and Nate Robinson headed to the Denver Nuggets, Snell can easily slide into those offensive responsibilities.
Their second draft pick was another forward, Erik Murphy at 49th overall. Even at 6 feet 10 inches, he wasn't the big man people were hoping the Bulls would take. Joakim Noah needs a younger backup than Nazr Mohammed. Murphy, who is the same height as Mohammed, may be who their bringing into the center slot. The Bulls were definitely targeting offensive weapons in the draft. He averaged 12.2 points per game, 51 percent from the floor -- one of the best in the SEC -- and shot 45 percent from 3-point range in his final season at the University of Florida. Tom Thibodeau has made it very clear the offense has taken priority this offseason.
If you need more evidence, the Bulls waived Rip Hamilton in the offseason. This move was expected. Hamilton had been no more than a warm body on the bench in the 2011-12 season with injuries and wasn't exactly a producer in the 2012-13 season. Jimmy Butler is expected to take his place on the starting roster opposite Rose.
And there's the biggest story of the offseason. The return of Rose as starting point guard for the Bulls. And what better way to introduce a championship-caliber squad than against the defending back-to-back champions Miami Heat.
This will be the real test of Rose's health and playing ability. A season opener against a team that kept them from an NBA Finals berth this season. Rose also has to prove to the fans he's back and ready to lead this team to another United Center championship banner -- their first since the Michael Jordan era.
Bulls fans have a lot to look forward to in Miami on October 29, but I just hope the season lives up to the hype.
The NBA: Greed, and sleeved jerseys.
By Kelly Dwyer
I do not play nearly the same amount of basketball as I did 10 or 15 years ago, and there is very little at stake when I go down to either shoot around or take on a stranger or a friend to 21 (win by two). And yet, despite me not having much to show off in my personal gun show, I usually wear a sleeveless t-shirt, a jersey, or a sleeved v-neck t-shirt that sees me constantly tugging at those sleeves, attempting to pull the damn things up.
Why? Because playing basketball with sleeves on, apologies to the children in the audience, sucks. Or, at the very least, playing basketball in anything more than a jersey or shirt without sleeves is a hard habit to for me to break. Over a quarter of a century of playing the game has driven home some habits, even if my pasty upper body does tend to frighten from a quarter-mile away.
I’m easily annoyed, clearly, but I also don’t matter a lick to the sport of pro basketball. Actual pro basketball players, though, matter quite a bit. You kind of want these guys to feel comfortable, as they work for millions of dollars while competing in a sport that is often decided by a matter of inches. And several NBA players have gone on record in dismissing the sleeved uniforms that the league debuted last year in Golden State, pushed forward during the 2013 NBA Summer League, and has designs on using for a handful of teams in 2013-14.
Why? To sell a few more jerseys that are more or less universally loathed?
I realize that this is shooting fish in a barrel. I understand that complaining about transparent corporate greed, some two years after the NBA put thousands out of work in order to commence a lockout that could have been avoided by sound financial planning in the years leading up to it, is an easy dig. Big, dumb NBA, always out for a few more bucks at the cost of a game that we still think is pure and whole. You can roll your eyes, whenever I get haughty.
It’s not necessary, though, is it? Just because NBA teams sell foam fingers, it hardly means that the point guard should have to call out a play while wearing one. And just because the New York Knicks sell green jerseys, it doesn’t mean they should have to alternate in and out of them every third game. And advertisements on jerseys, though aesthetically unappealing and not something I’d enjoy paying for and giving my kid as a Christmas gift, aren’t comparable. At least those patches don’t actually get in the way of a player’s muscle memory.
Sleeves do. They actually get in the way. It feels different. It’s hard to describe this switch in terms that come much more basic than this.
There are all sorts of variables – injury, travel, attitude, opponent shifts – that go into turning the NBA game from an on-paper product into something that lives and breathes and sometimes confounds and surprises. With that in place, unlike baseball or football, the template is just about evened every time out. Why alter this, if only for a few games from a few different teams? Why put a novelty where familiarity once was? Why tick off your players just for a few more quid.
Gotta stock more shelves, I reckon. I suppose we could respond with our checkbooks, and decline to buy these things, but by the time the returns come in the players will have already worn these things. A little too late.
(And before you bust out the tiny violin, again, and criticize these guys for kvetching about something as silly as sleeves … wait until your team’s designated shooter has to wear something he’s not used to, lining up to hit a game deciding shot from 25 feet away. You’ll understand then.)
Are you ready for some football? No seriously, are you ready for some football?
If you are, please read the link below!!!
Link: http://allsportsamerica.blogspot.com/2013/07/are-you-ready-for-some-football-no.html
Remember, (1) Competition breeds excellence, (2) You can't win ($$$) if you aren't in and (3) The odds are better than the Lottery!!!
Remember, (1) Competition breeds excellence, (2) You can't win ($$$) if you aren't in and (3) The odds are better than the Lottery!!!
Jack Clark and Kevin Slaten lash out at the St. Louis sports radio station that fired them.
By Drew Silva
Before we move along to the next chapter of this running drama, let’s review a timeline of events:
- Jack Clark, a player for the Giants, Cardinals, Red Sox, Padres and Yankees over an 18-year major league career, claims on his CBS Sports 920 radio show in St. Louis that Albert Pujols‘ former trainer used to inject the slugger with steroids. Clark says the trainer, Chris Mihlfeld, offered up this info while Mihlfeld and Clark were both on staff with the Dodgers in the late 1990s.
- Mihlfeld denies Clark’s story in a statement to HBT: “I haven’t even talked to Jack Clark in close to 10 years. His statements are simply not true. I have known Albert Pujols since he was 18 years old and he would never use illegal drugs in any way. I would bet my life on it and probably drop dead on the spot if I found out he has. … Albert and myself have been accused of doing something we didn’t do.”
- Pujols threatens legal action against Clark and the CBS Sports 920 ownership, insideSTL Enterprises. Clark and his partner Kevin Slaten are fired from the radio station, which had only been on air a week.
- Clark stands by his claim that Mihlfeld acknowledged injecting Pujols with steroids.
Slaten said he got the termination call from insideSTL president Tim McKernan around midnight.
“I said ‘What?,”’ Slaten said. “He said, ‘We have to do what’s in the best interest of the company.’ I said, ‘You tell me how firing me is in the best interest of the company when you and (WGNU boss Burt Kaufman) said (earlier) that I did nothing wrong.”
Slaten said McKernan told him, “‘I know that, but everybody associated with the show has to go.
“I said, ‘Did you fire the producer? Did you fire yourself, you’re the one who paired us, did you fire yourself?’There’s plenty more inside-radio stuff in that article. Clark is also upset about the sudden firing:
“I’m still trying to get my knife out of my back from the radio station, the way that was handled,” Clark told the Post-Dispatch. “They did not allow us to go ahead and talk about it, talk to callers. They made us lie and say the phones weren’t working.”McKernan and insideSTL issued this short written statement on Saturday afternoon:
“insideSTL Enterprises, LLC and all related companies would like to make clear that Jack Clark is no longer associated with the company. Mr. Clark was never employed by insideSTL but rather was an independent contractor. Any opinions, views or statements made by him strictly reflect his own personal views and do not reflect the views of insideSTL. insideSTL Enterprises, LLC and any related companies have never asserted and do not assert that Albert Pujols has ever used steroids or any other type of performing enhancing drug.”
Kyle Busch keeps Brad Keselowski at bay to win at Watkins Glen.
By Nick Bromberg
Yes, Kyle Busch is getting out of his car while still doing a burnout. (Getty)
Brad Keselowski got to Kyle Busch's bumper in the final corner, but Busch drove away to the checkered flag to win Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at Watkins Glen.
Busch and Keselowski started side by side with two laps to go on the race's final restart, and Busch jumped away from the defending Sprint Cup Series champion enough that Keselowski's focus had to shift from going after Busch for the lead to holding off Martin Truex Jr. for second.
Keselowski cleared Truex as the field hurtled cleanly through the esses and slowly made his way to Busch's bumper throughout the course of the last two circuits. But it wasn't enough, as Busch got his third win of the season.
"My car wasn't turning as good as it needed to on cold tires," Busch said "I was really having to muscle it and get it around there as best I could."
"Fun to drive. Not quite as good as it needed to be, I think we could have made it better, but you know, I'm always a perfectionist so I always want to be better."
Keselowski said he thinks he could have caught Busch had the race to the finish been longer.
"Kyle's car was really good after about five to 10 laps and my car was really good for five to 10 laps," Keselowski said. "If that last run would have been about five laps I think I could have gotten him. But it was only two or three."
"Kyle did a great job with his restarts and I almost had him down here but I was going to have to wreck him to do it and I've had enough drama, I didn't need any more drama with the Miller Lite Ford Fusion."
Yes, Kyle's restarts were important, as was the use of the word cleanly in the third paragraph. The final restart was the third one inside of the last 10 laps, and after the first two, the field didn't make it up the hill to Watkins Glen's long back straightaway before a crash occurred.
After the restart with 10 laps to go, Matt Kenseth got into Kasey Kahne as Marcos Ambrose was loose. Kahne went around and collected Dale Earnhardt Jr. while Jeff Burton, Paul Menard and others were also involved in the mess.
That set up a restart with six laps to go and the ensuing crash just after the green flag took out Marcos Ambrose, who was loose going up the hill and went completely around collecting Brian Vickers after contact from Max Papis.
Ambrose is likely the reason for Busch's standard of perfectionism when describing his car. Throughout the first two thirds of the race, Ambrose, the pole sitter, was the car to beat, dominating the race. While Busch was driving away from everyone else, Ambrose was driving away from him. No one seemed set to challenge the No. 9's bid for a third straight victory at the Glen.
That was until a caution flag for his teammate Aric Almirola with 25 laps to go. When Almirola lost a tire in turn five, it was in the middle of green flag pit stops, a cycle that hadn't seen Ambrose on pit road yet. That meant that Ambrose was forced to pit under caution, and instead of rejoining the race at the front of the field if stops had cycled through, Ambrose was back in 14th place and Busch had a lead he wouldn't ultimately relinquish.
Once his car was back in traffic, Ambrose wasn't able to make up much ground. Then, during the yellow before the restart with six laps to go, Ambrose felt something go wrong with the car -- possibly a track bar -- which precipitated his issues immediately after the restart.
David Moyes wins first trophy at Manchester United after Community Shield success.
By Joe Prince-Wright
On a wonderful afternoon at Wembley Stadium everything went according to plan for Manchester United in the FA Community Shield.
United won their first trophy in the David Moyes era, as the Red Devils defeated Wigan Athletic 2-0 to set them up nicely for their first game of the Premier League season in less than a week.
Despite the absence of wantaway striker Wayne Rooney, Moyes’ side got off to the best possible start as Robin van Persie headed home a pinpoint Patrice Evra cross after six minutes.
The afternoon became more comfortable for United in the second half, with van Persie adding a second goal thanks to a lucky deflection off James Perch’s foot in the 61st minute.
Wigan worked hard in the Wembley sun but failed to cause David De Gea any real problems, despite a strong finish to the first half which saw striker Grant Holt come close.
It certainly wasn’t pretty at times but Moyes grabbed a win, and a trophy, in his first competitive game in charge of Manchester United. Glory glory Man United, indeed.
But it was far from the comfortable win many had predicted.
Early on United clearly wanted to shelve any thoughts of a Wigan upset, with RVP’s beautiful arching header setting putting them on their way as the stadium clock ticked to exactly six minutes.
Wigan were bystanders for most of the first half, with United caressing the ball around the sumptuous Wembley pitch with consummate ease early on. Long balls up to target man Holt weren’t going to work against Nemanja Vidic and co.
But Wigan grew in stature as the game went on after being wasteful in possession during the opening stages, they forced United to defend as half time approached.
New signing Holt had a tremendous opportunity to equalize after 31 minutes as fellow new boy James McClean swung in an inviting cross that Holt couldn’t quite flick into the top corner after losing his marker.
And moments later McClean was the architect again, forcing substitute Chris Smalling into a mistake and firing a shot across goal that Holt couldn’t quite get on the end of.
Wigan were on the charge. United were under the cosh.
But as soon as Wigan mounted some pressure, Manchester United almost struck the sucker punch. A quick break down United’s left saw Danny Welbeck turn in the box and hammer a shot on goal that was well saved by Wigan’s Scott Carson.
In the second half Wigan huffed and puffed as United struggled to get a foothold in the game. But as the half wore on, driven on by the large majority of the 80,325 crowd, United began to turn the screw.
Van Persie was the hero again, as the Dutch international cut inside and struck a shot at goal which took a hefty deflection off Perch and sent Carson the wrong way in the 59th minute.
Wigan boss Owen Coyle then made a triple substitution to try and freshen things up.
But by then the game was over and United cantered to victory, basking in the sunshine in North London.
Heading into the Premier League opener against Swansea next Saturday, this wasn’t the most convincing performance from the Red Devils against a side from England’s second-tier. But in the end it was Moyes’ day and a 16th Community Shield title for Manchester United.
Starting lineups
Manchester United: De Gea; Rafael (Smalling, 16), Vidic, Jones, Evra; Zaha (Valencia, 61), Carrick, Cleverley, Giggs (Anderson, 66); Van Persie, (Januzaj, 83), Welbeck (Kagawa, 83) Subs not used: Lindegaard, Evans
Wigan: Carson; Boyce, Barnett, Perch, Crainey; Watson (Espinoza, 70), McArthur (McCann, 61), McCarthy; McClean (McManaman, 62), Holt (Fortune, 61), Maloney (Gomez, 70) Subs not used: Nicholls, Dicko
Man of the Match
Not his most glittering display but Robin van Persie was there to score when it mattered. A sublime header fit of winning any occasion and a deflected effort sealed United’s first trophy under Moyes. The first of many game-winners he’ll score for United this season.
Americans Abroad recap: Brooks makes immediate impact.
By Matthew Braine
John Anthony Brooks scored the second goal of the contest as newly-promoted Hertha Berlin dominated Eintracht Frankfurt 6-1 in both teams' Bundesliga opener. The 20-year-old defender played the entire contest and notched his strike in the 32nd minute when he fired a right-footed shot into the net. The defender, who could suit up and play for the U.S. against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday, has his club at the top of the league.
Johannsson on the mark
Aron Johannsson, the American-Icelandic striker who is expected to be called up along with Brooks to play against Bosnia-Herzegovina, scored on Sunday to help sink Dutch giant Ajax, his third goal in three games. The 22-year-old netted from the penalty spot as AZ bested Ajax 3-2. Earlier in the week, the club learned that it will face Greek side Atromitos in the Europa League playoff round.
Rapid Vienna rolling Terrence Boyd
helped his club advance in the Europa League on Thursday as he notched an assist during Rapid’s 3-1 win over Asteras Tripoli. The 4-2 aggregate victory entered Rapid into a draw for the next round, where the Austrian side drew Georgian club Dila Gori. On Sunday, Boyd played well but could not find the net as Rapid Vienna drew 0-0 with Austria Vienna.
Kljestan tallies for Anderlecht
Sacha Kljestan scored the opening goal for his club on Sunday as Anderlecht defeated Gent 4-1. The steady midfielder opened the floodgates in the 32nd minute with a solid strike as the club raced out to a 2-0 halftime lead. Two more goals followed in the second half as Anderlecht buried the competition.
Jones plays full match in wild draw
Jermaine Jones played the full 90 on Sunday as Schalke 04 drew with Hamburg 3-3. The exciting affair saw a few lead changes before Adám Szalai finally grabbed the equalizer for Schalke in the 72nd minute.
Johnson, Chandler ride the pine
Fabian Johnson was dressed but did not play on Saturday as Hoffenheim drew 2-2 with Nurnberg. The defender was a regular starter last season but is in a bench role early on under new manager Markus Gisdol. Another regular starter last season was Timothy Chandler, but the German-American right back was benched for Nurnberg in the match.
Another American headed to the Britannia Stadium
Juan Agudelo has signed a pre-contract with Stoke City and is will join the club in January. The 20-year-old forward's contract with MLS and the New England Revolution is up at the end of the current season. Come 2014, fans can expect to see a substantial American crew at Stoke as Agudelo will join fellow Americans Brek Shea, Geoff Cameron and Maurice Edu.
************************************************************
Please let us hear your opinion on the above articles and pass them on to any other diehard fans that you think might be interested. But most of all, remember, Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica wants you!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment