Viva Italia!

First off, congrats to the Italians for their World Cup victory in the penalty kick stages.

The game, excellent as it was, will be marred by the Zidane headbutt, which was one of the most shocking things I've seen in all my days watching sports. What was said between Zidane and Matterazi before the headbutt? Well, we might never know exactly, but according to Fox Sports, we have a pretty good idea:

FOXSports.com's Jamie Trecker reports that French players told French media members that Materazzi used a racial slur which prompted the headbutt.

Combine the racial slurs with the placement of Matterazi's left hand a little before the headbutt (just watch the video), and we can at least see why Zidane may have done it. Which of course doesn't justify it. No matter the circumstances, you can't headbutt a guy at that stage of the match in the World Cup final... awful, awful play. The one positive from the whole ordeal is this little video:



One final note... I don't know soccer that well, but I know it well enough to say that Marcel Balboa is awful. I mean, I'm not a big fan of Dave O'Brien, but he was passable and he's a soccer n00b from what I understand. But Balboa was terrible. Why couldn't thry have put someone like Tommy Smith in the booth? But I digress.

And so ends the World Cup, which, despite the low goal scoring, was really exciting and fun to watch, even for a guy that is normally a soccer-hate like me. Until the next World Cup, congrats to he World Cup Champions from Italy!

We move on to the knockout round

Pool play has officially ended, leaving us with 16 teams remaining the World Cup. Here's my picks (in bold):

First Round
Germany vs Sweden
Argentina vs Mexico
England vs Equador
Portugal vs The Netherlands
Italy vs Australia
Switzerland vs Ukraine
Brazil vs Ghana
Spain vs France

Quarterfinals
Germany vs Argentina
England vs The Netherlands
Italy vs Switzerland
Brazil vs Spain

Semifinals
Argentina vs Italy
The Netherlands vs Brazil

Finals
Brazil vs Argentina

Ok, so it's kind of a boring pick, but I like Brazil to win it all. Sure, they've looked slightly aloof at times, and seem to think they can turn it on whenever they want. I think they'll pick up the intensity, starting with their 3 2nd half goals against Japan. Ronaldinho is the best player in the world, and for all the talk about Ronaldo during pool play, he did score 2 goals in that final game. I like Brazil to take the final, 2-1.

USA loses to Czech Republic; Big Ben hurt in motorcycle crash

If you follow sports at all, these were pretty much the stories of the day (unless, I guess, you follow hockey). Anyway, these have probably been rehashed a fair amount, but I'll give my word and hand out some links to some guys who are doing to same and probably doing it better than me.

First, the World Cup. How disappointing. All this talk about how this was the best U.S. team ever, and how Czech was good but old, etc. And what happens? Chech scores a goal in the first 5 minutes. First off, what's a 6'7'' guy doing playing soccer? Second off, isn't it probably good to put a little pressure on the guy passing the ball? But I digress.

Now, I'm not a soccer expert by any stretch of the imagination, but from my POV, the player of the game was Pavel Nedved, the 34 year-old who apparently came out of retirement just to help the Czech in the World Cup. He controlled the tempo of the game and just made some great passes.

As The Sports Pulse writes, this was probably the worst possible outcome for the U.S. They're just getting momentum, getting more confidence, etc. and they get outplayed badly by the Czechs. Don't get me wrong, Czech Republic is obviously a great team that should make a deep run, but it's got to be a tough pill to swallow for the U.S. to have all this hype, all this waiting after the quarterfinal run in 2002, and then come out and get beat 3-0.


The other story of the day, of course, was about Ben Roethlisberger getting into a motorcyle crash, not wearing his helmet, and suffering serious injuries. As Deadspin reported, the debate about Roethlisberger riding the motorcyle isn't really anything new, but now, well, it came back to bit him.

Jason from CF has no sympathy for a guy riding a bike and not wearing a helmet, and that's a good point. First off, I really have no idea why a pro athlete would be riding a motorcyle at all, especially after the things that happened to Jay Williams, Kellen Winslow, and others. Second off, riding without a helmet is just stupid. It doesn't matter how good of a driver you are, chances are, there's a bad driver someone else that could hit you. And while I don't know exactly who's fault this was, I'd say that's what happened.

The injuries are pretty gruesome to read about - broken nose, broken jaw, missing teeth, lacerations to the back of his head, and damage to his knees (not sure how series that is yet).

Apparently, even Terry Bradshaw was smart enough to tell him not to do ride motorcyles - especially with no helmet - while he's still in the middle of his career. And let's be honest, if Terry Bradshaw's smart enough to know that, everyone should be smart enough to know that.

All kidding aside, hopefully Ben gets well and these injuries aren't as serious as they sound. He's a bright young star in the NFL, and you always hate to see something like this happen.

I must be losing my mind!

This is the realization that just came to me, when I realized that I'm actually pretty excited for the World Cup. Now, I'm not going to do anything crazy and starting watching MLS or anything like that (!), but in the past, you could lump me firmly in with the guys Sports Pulse is talking about here.

I've never really been a soccer guy, but maybe that was because I was never any good at it (I was more of a basketball guy), but after the World Cup run in 2002 by the U.S., my attitude has changed. The United States is not projected to get out of pool play, but now I'm looking forward to the games and thinking how cool it would be if they can get a couple upsets and advance, whereas in the past I honestly couldn't have cared one way or the other.

The Gatorade Dump calls is a crossroad for American Soccer, which is interesting. Sportolysis has also provided plenty of other World Cup links for your viewing pleasure.

But I do know what thing that makes this World Cup unique from all other World Cups... I actually care! And I never thought I'd really say that and believe it about soccer.

See you June 12th for the United States' first match!

Frozen Four Recap

Well, things didn't go quite as planned for the Sioux, as they fell to Boston College 6-5 in the early game Thursday. In the other semifinal, Wisconsin stomped Maine 5-2 to the advance to the Championship.

As I said yesterday, I really don't know hockey, but even I could see the Sioux defense was not so good today. Craig Collins, a Hobey Baker Award Finalist, finished with a hat trick for BC. The Eagles jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the 1st period, and then UND battled back to cut it to 3-2 early in the second. After that, BC got 2 more before the end of the period, and they went into the intermission up 5-2.

Eventually, it was 6-3, and UND scored to make it 6-4 with a few minutes left. With the same score and under 2 minutes to play, the Sioux pulled goalie Jordan Parise, and finally got on the board again to make it 6-5, but there were only 12 seconds left. They did get a last second desparation shot, but it was easily stopped, ending the Sioux year.

Anyway, this about meets my quota of hockey posts for the year, so I won't subject you to anymore hockey ramblings. If you do want to read more, you should check out the Official NCAA Blog at the Double-A Zone.

Hockey? Well, just this once.

As some of you may or may not know, I don't really care too much for hockey... that is, unless we're talking about the Frozen Four and the Fighting Sioux are playing.

UND will take on Boston College on Thursday, and Wisconsin takes on Maine.

Now, I really don't know much about hockey, but I know this, UND is really, really talented. They struggled early in the year as their young guys were just starting, but now they're basically veterans now. As a group, their talent is "second-to-none."

In the net, they have Jordan Parise, who is 6-2 in his career in the NCAA Tournament. The Sioux average 4 goals a game, which is 2nd in the nation. BC gives up 2.21 goals per game, which is tied for 5th in the NCAA. Something, as they say, has got to give.

The one thing that sucks about this is that the games start at 2:00 Central with UND/BC. This seems dumb to me, because that seems to take away a lot of viewers. But I guess that's why I'm not in charge.

Anyway, my predction: UND will be playing Wisconsin in the Title Match on Saturday night.

Other Links
Coaches' Takes on the Frozen Four Games
UND/Boston College Preview
Maine/Wisconsin Preview

High School Girl scores 113

Epiphanny Prince of Murry Bergtraum High School scored 113 points in a game Wednesday, which broke Cheryl's Miller previous record of 105.

I find this to be, well, amazing. I played high school basketball. I never quite got to 113 points. I can't even imagine 113 points. In some of my high school games, both teams didn't get to 113 points combined. Also worthy of note is that Lisa Leslie once scored 101 points in the first half... and then they refused to play the second half. Which begs the question, they were playing in the first half? But I digress. For those interested, Prince will be attending Rutgers next year.

Also of basketball note, excellent game tonight as #10 George Washington came back to beat Xavier 89-85. I wasn't able to see the first half, but I did watch the second half, and I'm glad I did, because I've been meaning to watch George Washington for some time to see if they're for real. And I came away impressed with both teams.

At 13-5, I'm not sure what Xavier's chances to get to the tourney are. But if they do make it, I think they may be capable of something. They executed well, and had good balance. George Washington I really liked. The President and the basketball team. Their execution on the fast break was fun to watch, they hit some shots, were very good on the offensive boards, and played solid defense in the 2nd half. I think both of these teams can be capable of good things.

Roger Federer

I don't really watch much tennis, but I just have to recognize Roger Federer right now.

With his win today in the Australian Open Final, he now has 7 career Grand Slam titles, including 3 in a row. That's impressive.

Ralph Engelstad Arena

In my very biased view, the best hockey arena anywhere. This place is amazing, and I'll be there tonight!

"It's impossible to describe the new $100+ million Ralph Engelstad Arena in just a few words, but it is described by many as the "finest facility in the world." The 400,000 square foot arena is nothing but first class. All concourse floors are granite, each seat is constructed of leather and cherry wood, and there are 48 luxury suites and two enormous club rooms featuring the longest freestanding bars in the state. There is a training facility featuring a 10,000 sq. ft. weight room and underwater treadmill, fourteen locker rooms, the extra Olympic Sheet of Ice, and with the addition of the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center for the basketball and volleyball programs coming Fall 2004; what you have is more than a world-class facility; you have the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The biggest attraction though, and the reason the arena was built, is Fighting Sioux Hockey. In its inaugural season (2001-02) in the new Ralph Engelstad Arena, Fighting Sioux Hockey attendance erupted into an all time high. All of the games in this 11,500+ capacity hockey arena sold out in just 43 minutes after single game tickets went on sale. Tickets sales have even increased each season thereafter."

The Ralph