As you probably already know, the US Women's Soccer Team managed to give away the Championship multiple times in the final game, it was a Phil Hellmuth style performance on a grand scale. For those who might not know, Phil Hellmuth played extremely well in this year's World Series of Poker, repeatedly dominating tournaments and reaching final tables, and at least twice he had a HUGE chip lead when it was just down to him and one other person, and both times he somehow managed to lose. Our American team did the same thing, we had a totally dominant position, a goal up with just minutes to go two different times, and each time managed to give it away. As a fan of the UNC Tarheels, we saw this in the ACC Championship game. We played Duke, our arch rivals who we had already dominated in two regular season games (although we gave one of those away also after having a big double digit lead at halftime) but in the ACC Championship we simply looked like we didn't belong out there, due entirely to nerves. This is what our women's team looked like out there each time we took a lead, they started playing so badly it was as if they didn't even belong on a soccer field. It was clearly nerves, knowing they had almost won the World Championship was simply more than they could take. The UNC Tarheels were the best team in College Basketball, and it happened to them. They were men, and it happened to them. It can happen to anybody, men or women, no matter how good you are, it's just a human thing. The good news is, if we can keep the team together, it's probably not something that will happen again. Once you've been on that big stage, tasted the nerves and the bitter fruit of them, you tend to do much better in subsequent opportunities. Look how horrible Kobe Bryant was in the playoffs in his early days, I still remember that time with the game on the line, he took the last shot at the buzzer, and it was an AIRBALL. He was the laughing stock of the league, he was never going to be anybody, he couldn't win the big one, etc. With experience comes the ability to overcome the nerves, and that's what our women are going to show in London next year, when we win that major tournament.
It isn't possible for a great team to play worse than my Tarheels played in last year's ACC Tournament Finals, and it isn't possible for the US Women's team to play worse than they did at the end of regulation, overtime, and in PKs. My Tarheels recovered strong and almost won the NCAA Tournament, the US Women's Team will recover strong and win in London next year. We've still got the best goalie on the planet, male or female, and she's already announced she's sticking with the team. We've got a great striker in Abby Wambach, she may have had her worst tournament ever but she still scored what was almost the game winning goal, once she gets out of this rut of missing the vast majority of her shots for no reason at all she will be an unstoppable force. Alex Morgan scored what should have been the Championship winning goal in regulation, she was almost the biggest female sports star in American history, and because she's also very attractive she would've also likely been a millionaire several times over from endorsement deals. She will get another chance to attain that status next year.
This is a bitter, painful loss, but it's one we're going to learn from, we're going to grow from, and we're going to come back stronger than ever. I would say 'I hope Japan makes the finals again next year' but honestly I don't care, they're so far beneath us that the very idea of looking for 'revenge' is almost absurd. We owned them, and we would own them again, this time without the late-game choking, that's just a given. The matchup I'd like to see again is Marta vs Solo, the greatest vs the greatest. Of course we own Brazil also, but its not about wondering whether we can beat Brazil yet again, its just the idea of seeing those two greats going toe to toe again, that would be a Finals I'd like to see. But regardless of who we beat along the way, the bottom line is that Championship belongs to us. All other teams beware, the US Women have something to prove, and next year they're going to prove it, erasing any doubts along the way!
Showing posts with label Championship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Championship. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
TNA Sacrifice Review
Tonight's TNA PPV was Fan-Tastic! It started off hot, spicy hot, with Sarita and Rosita! They weren't actually wrestling tonight, but they helped the team they were with score a victory. Then the action picked up with Jeff and Karen Jarrett coming to the ring claiming that Karen was injured and couldn't compete tonight! However Mick Foley, the Network Representative, said he had seen the 'X-Ray' that supposedly showed Karen was hurt, and that it was in fact the X-Ray of someone six and a half feet tall, and male! The gig was up, and Karen took off her ankle-brace and threw it at Mick in frustration. The match was still on!
Eventually we got to the first big match of the night, Mickie James vs Madison Rayne for the TNA Knockouts Championship, with Tara's Freedom on the line! Tara acted conflicted all night, on the one hand she had been with Madison a long time, but on the other hand she did want her freedom. At one point the ref got knocked down, and Madison went for her loaded glove, but after she put it on Tara grabbed her arm and took it off! That looked to be the end, but Madison managed to counter an attempted Mickie-D-T, so the match continued. Eventually the referee got knocked down a second time, this time when Mickie went for the Mickie-D-T, Tara came into the ring and stopped her! This led to both women trying to get Tara to attack the other. Madison at one point got on her knees and begged Tara. It seemed she had convinced her, Tara moved toward Mickie as if to attack her, but then suddenly turned and knocked Madison out, with her own loaded glove! Tara then went and revived the referee as a shocked Mickie covered for the 1 2 3 ! Your winner, and STILL Knockout Champion, the greatest womens wrestler of all time, Mickie James! She keeps her Title, and wins Tara's freedom in the process!
There were some other, less important matches, notable was Tommy Dreamer defeating AJ Styles thanks to interference from Bully Ray, and Abyss losing once again to Crimson. Abyss used to be a Main Eventer, now he's losing repeatedly to a total unknown, AND he lost a number of his teeth in a recent match with RVD, things just aren't going his way right now! Also, Beer Money retained their Tag Team Titles against Matt Hardy and Chris Harris. Finally things picked up bigtime with the penultimate match, featuring the Jarretts vs Kurt Angle and the Eighth Wonder of the World, Chyna!
The crowd was VERY hot for Chyna, chanting 'we want Chyna' the majority of the match. Of course she didn't really get involved until near the end, as the first time she tagged in Jeff Jarrett quickly escaped the ring, and didn't come back until he could wrestle Kurt instead. Finally near the end Chyna
again got tagged in, and laid into Jeff bigtime, first with a body slam and then a mighty suplex! This put Double J out of commission for a while, and allowed her to go after Karen! Karen ran for a while, but eventually Kurt was able to block her escape, allowing Chyna to have her way with her! First she gave her a splash in the corner, then hit her with a BIGTIME Pedigree! Then Chyna and Kurt put Karen and Jeff into simultaneous Ankle-Locks, with Karen tapping out and Chyna getting the win in her historic in-ring return!!
That left only the Main Event match, the World Championship match between the challenger RVD, and the Champion Sting! And what an awesome Main Event it was! Back and forth awesome in-ring action, eventually spilling outside the ring and into the crowd! At one point somebody yelled something like 'leave him alone Sting!' which I personally found quite hilarious. They battled back and forth, both men are still so awesome, this could easily have been a Wrestlemania Main Event match if these great Superstars were in the WWE, eventually they made their way back to the ring after an extended brawl outside it. Back in the ring, eventually RVD went for his 5-Star Frog Splash, but Sting managed to roll out of the way. Sting went for the Scorpion Death Drop, but it seemed that RVD Countered, however Sting went for it again and hit it cleanly, scoring the 1 2 3 and retaining his World Title!
The highlights of the night were exactly what you'd expect, Mickie's Title match with Tara's freedom on the line, the Jarrets vs Angle and Chyna (with Mick Foley showing up making things even more awesome), and the World Title match. Its hard to say which of those three matches were the best, I'm going to call it a 3 way tie, as each match could easily be called the Match of the Night! Each was so awesome in its own unique way, certainly from a pure-wrestling standpoint you'd probably give it to the World Title match, as there was so much awesomely entertaining drama involved in the other matches. From an entertainment standpoint, which is what really matters, all three were so awesome. So a bigtime night of TNA action, and super duper awesomeness! The only sad part was that, just like Thursday, no Winterlina. But there was a TON of awesomeness tonight, so I'm giving this PPV Two Thumbs Up!
Eventually we got to the first big match of the night, Mickie James vs Madison Rayne for the TNA Knockouts Championship, with Tara's Freedom on the line! Tara acted conflicted all night, on the one hand she had been with Madison a long time, but on the other hand she did want her freedom. At one point the ref got knocked down, and Madison went for her loaded glove, but after she put it on Tara grabbed her arm and took it off! That looked to be the end, but Madison managed to counter an attempted Mickie-D-T, so the match continued. Eventually the referee got knocked down a second time, this time when Mickie went for the Mickie-D-T, Tara came into the ring and stopped her! This led to both women trying to get Tara to attack the other. Madison at one point got on her knees and begged Tara. It seemed she had convinced her, Tara moved toward Mickie as if to attack her, but then suddenly turned and knocked Madison out, with her own loaded glove! Tara then went and revived the referee as a shocked Mickie covered for the 1 2 3 ! Your winner, and STILL Knockout Champion, the greatest womens wrestler of all time, Mickie James! She keeps her Title, and wins Tara's freedom in the process!
There were some other, less important matches, notable was Tommy Dreamer defeating AJ Styles thanks to interference from Bully Ray, and Abyss losing once again to Crimson. Abyss used to be a Main Eventer, now he's losing repeatedly to a total unknown, AND he lost a number of his teeth in a recent match with RVD, things just aren't going his way right now! Also, Beer Money retained their Tag Team Titles against Matt Hardy and Chris Harris. Finally things picked up bigtime with the penultimate match, featuring the Jarretts vs Kurt Angle and the Eighth Wonder of the World, Chyna!
The crowd was VERY hot for Chyna, chanting 'we want Chyna' the majority of the match. Of course she didn't really get involved until near the end, as the first time she tagged in Jeff Jarrett quickly escaped the ring, and didn't come back until he could wrestle Kurt instead. Finally near the end Chyna
again got tagged in, and laid into Jeff bigtime, first with a body slam and then a mighty suplex! This put Double J out of commission for a while, and allowed her to go after Karen! Karen ran for a while, but eventually Kurt was able to block her escape, allowing Chyna to have her way with her! First she gave her a splash in the corner, then hit her with a BIGTIME Pedigree! Then Chyna and Kurt put Karen and Jeff into simultaneous Ankle-Locks, with Karen tapping out and Chyna getting the win in her historic in-ring return!!
That left only the Main Event match, the World Championship match between the challenger RVD, and the Champion Sting! And what an awesome Main Event it was! Back and forth awesome in-ring action, eventually spilling outside the ring and into the crowd! At one point somebody yelled something like 'leave him alone Sting!' which I personally found quite hilarious. They battled back and forth, both men are still so awesome, this could easily have been a Wrestlemania Main Event match if these great Superstars were in the WWE, eventually they made their way back to the ring after an extended brawl outside it. Back in the ring, eventually RVD went for his 5-Star Frog Splash, but Sting managed to roll out of the way. Sting went for the Scorpion Death Drop, but it seemed that RVD Countered, however Sting went for it again and hit it cleanly, scoring the 1 2 3 and retaining his World Title!
The highlights of the night were exactly what you'd expect, Mickie's Title match with Tara's freedom on the line, the Jarrets vs Angle and Chyna (with Mick Foley showing up making things even more awesome), and the World Title match. Its hard to say which of those three matches were the best, I'm going to call it a 3 way tie, as each match could easily be called the Match of the Night! Each was so awesome in its own unique way, certainly from a pure-wrestling standpoint you'd probably give it to the World Title match, as there was so much awesomely entertaining drama involved in the other matches. From an entertainment standpoint, which is what really matters, all three were so awesome. So a bigtime night of TNA action, and super duper awesomeness! The only sad part was that, just like Thursday, no Winterlina. But there was a TON of awesomeness tonight, so I'm giving this PPV Two Thumbs Up!
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