General Sports Thread

[slikmar]

I have to say, and not against anything else, glad Spain won and the player from England who intentionally stepped on the one from the Nigerian team wasn't, in effect, rewarded. I know would never be done, but I wanted so much to see the coach or someone basically tell her, when you get to the hotel, pack your bags. There is rough play, a lot of uncalled penalties in the WWC, but that was over the top. But as my brother pointed out from the men's side, it took a lot for a guy who was actually biting players to finally be removed.

[unclevlad]

42 minutes ago, slikmar said:

I have to say, and not against anything else, glad Spain won and the player from England who intentionally stepped on the one from the Nigerian team wasn't, in effect, rewarded. I know would never be done, but I wanted so much to see the coach or someone basically tell her, when you get to the hotel, pack your bags. There is rough play, a lot of uncalled penalties in the WWC, but that was over the top. But as my brother pointed out from the men's side, it took a lot for a guy who was actually biting players to finally be removed.

 

It's fairly rare that actions like that draw much in the way of suspensions, even when deliberate.  Also, note that the clubs have largely ceded ALL disciplinary power to the overseeing bodies...league, or FIFA in this case.  That way they can avoid the wrath of fans and the player.  "It was taken out of our hands!"  

 

The cases where really, truly egregious actions drew MAJOR suspensions?  I didn't think it was this long ago, so I might be thinking of another one, but this is really bad.

 

McSorley got less than 1/3 of a season for it.  The one I can't find right now was more recent, I think...and there was talk of *criminal* charges.

But...yeah, for a stomp, I'd have no problem imposing a 2nd game at least.  World Cup elimination rounds?  Tough noogies.  Control yourself.  Of course, that's not applied any more.

[slikmar]

She actually got 2 games, was in the round of 16. So she became eligible for the final.

[unclevlad]

Ah...thank you.  I sit corrected.  Which is very uncomfortable, so I try to avoid it.

[death tribble]

The World Athletic Championships are on. Here are some results.

America and Australia agree to share Women's Pole Vault Gold

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/66600733

Josh Kerr of Britain wins the Men's 1500m

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/66595352

Katarina Johnson-Thompson wins second heptathlon title, four years after first and after recovering from injury

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/66560986

America's Sha'Carri Richardson wins Women's 100m title

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/66569249

Edited August 24, 2023 by death tribble

[Cygnia]

FIFA Suspends Spain Soccer Federation President After Nonconsensual World Cup Final Kiss

[death tribble]

Team DSM-Firmenich won the team time trail at the Vuelta with Lorenzo Milesi as the first leader

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66629350

Edited August 27, 2023 by death tribble

[death tribble]

Andreas Kron wins stage 2 of the Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66634748

Edited August 27, 2023 by death tribble

[death tribble]

Max Verstappen wins the Dutch Grand Prix

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66633708

[Michael Hopcroft]

I am amazed the race was resumed after that downpour that resulted in the first Red Flag I've seen watching Formula 1.  It also marred the fact that before his crash Zhou Guanyu was having one of the best races of his career, especially early.

 

Admittedly it's nearly impossible to win races if one of the opposing drivers is as utterly dominant as Max Verstappen, but how a mid-level to low-level F1 driver keeps their rides season after season is a question I've often wondered about. The driver is, if nothing else, the face of your team, and there are no bad drivers in F1 -- only unsuccessful ones. I wonder if Liam Lawson's respectable run as a backup driver in his first F1 race will net him a ride in 2024, and at whose expense.

 

The sport really needs rivalry, though. You can only go so far if Verstappen wins easily pretty much three out of every four races. He needs to have someone rise up to challenge him the way he rose up to challenge Lewis Hamilton to bring out the best, both in himself and in his sport.

[Grailknight]

Verstappen didn't rise up to challenge Hamilton. Red Bull rose up to challenge and surpass Mercedes.

 

As structured, F1 racing is prone to these streaks of dominance. While the drivers are the public face of the sport, the constructors and their engineering teams are its true stars. It's 90% the cars provided and 10% on the drivers and race day crew.

 

Red Bull currently has the best car and the only ones in shouting distance of them are Ferrari, McLaren and Merecedes. The situation is volatile because the construction regulations and parameters in F1 are much looser than NASCAR or Indy car racing so their cars have greater variation from the norm. But they place strict limits on how much money can be spent within any given racing season. If one team makes a better adjustment to the offseason changes, they can count on being at the top for that year unless their advantage is very slim. 

 

I'd love to see the F1 drivers do something like the old International Race of Champions series. The top 8-12 drivers and their crews would compete in a series of races with identical cars from one manufacturer and would have to rotate cars and crews from race to race so they never drove the same one twice. That way we could have a points system for both drivers and crews and a fairer gague of each's skills.

[death tribble]

Simone Biles wins record eighth US all round title in gymnastics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/gymnastics/66636944

[death tribble]

Remco Evenepoel wins stage 3 of the Vuelta 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66640897

Edited August 28, 2023 by death tribble

[death tribble]

Kaden Groves won stage 4 of the Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66650677

Edited August 30, 2023 by death tribble

[unclevlad]

Venus Williams.....please retire.  

 

US Open first round, she had to get a wild card, which was strictly based on her record.  First round, playing a qualifier.  First set was a 6-1 blitz.  Second set?  I switched away when it was 4-0, 40-love...Venus had won only 5 points in the entire set.  

 

She earned massive credit for all she did, but she's 43.  Her rank is 400...that won't even get you invited to the qualifying rounds.  There comes a point when enough is enough.

EDIT:  match over.  Madden wins, 6-1, 6-1.  Total points, 62-36.

 

EDIT 2:  my bad.  She went through qualifying, she didn't get a wild card.

[death tribble]

Kaden Groves wins stage 5 of the Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66662226

Edited August 30, 2023 by death tribble

[death tribble]

Sepp Kuss wins stage 6 of the Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66675713

Edited August 31, 2023 by death tribble

[death tribble]

Geoffrey Soupe wins stage 7 of the Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66689033

Edited September 1, 2023 by death tribble

[tkdguy]

Novak Djokovic gets through the third round after losing the first two sets.

 

I think he went into Super Saiyan Mode in the third set.

[death tribble]

Primoz Roglic wins stage 8 of the Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66696519

Edited September 2, 2023 by death tribble

[death tribble]

Leonard Kamna wins stage 9 of the Vuelta. He now has the set of wins at the Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66703239

 

Olav Kooij wins stage 1 of the Tour of Britain

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66702518

 

Max Verstappen wins Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix for 10th consecutive win

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/66701564

Edited September 3, 2023 by death tribble

[death tribble]

Olav Kooij wins stage 2 of the Tour of Britain

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66709878

Edited September 4, 2023 by death tribble

[tkdguy]

Novak Djokovic is through to the quarterfinals in the US Open.

 

On the women's side, Iga Swiatek lost to Jelena Ostapenko, which also means Swiatek will lose her #1 rank after the tournament.

[unclevlad]

Women's tennis routinely sees major upsets and shifts in the rankings.  #3 Pegula lost today, dropping her to #4 currently...both Gauff and Vondrousova can pass Pegula.  

 

Upsets hit the men early...Rune lost first round, Tsitsipas and Ruud 2nd round.  They started the event at 4, 5, and 7 in the rankings.

 

On the up side, Ben Shelton's a 20 year old American who started the year just inside the top 100;  he only turned pro last year.  QF at the Aussie Open took him from 89 to 44.  Bits and pieces here and there, kind of a mixed bag for the summer...but another run to the QF of the US Open has jumped him again, from 47 to 27.  It also means he sits 4th in the ATP Next Generation standings, the season-ending 'championship' event for players 21 and under.  Which is effectively #2...because #1 is Alcaraz and #2 is Rune.  They'll skip that, to play the ATP Finals the next week.  And, if he can stay in the top 32 going into and through the Aussie...the Sunshine Double, Indian Wells and Miami, both expanded to 96 entries (rather than 64) and thus 32 seeds.  So, he gets a seed, and is guaranteed to play a non-seed in the 2nd round, after the bye.  

[death tribble]

Filippo Ganna wins stage 10 of the Vuelta

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66723066

 

Kooij wins stag 3 of the Tour of Britain

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/66713755