Olympics 2012, in Londontown

Alright, enough of these Carribean islands and their rent-a-sprinter tactics.

The men's 400-meter final included athletes representing Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and someplace else (can't recall). All of them train in the US and attended US colleges. Getting papers in some of these places is apparently not all that difficult if you can run (or swim or whatever). Yes, you too, Felix Sanchez, the California representing the Dominican Republic who won the hurdles.

Maybe a few actually have lived in the country they wear on their chest. But, c'mon, some of these islands have fewer people than a mid-size US city. If Grenada gets its own Olympic team, why not Kentucky? New rule should be if you have less than a million people, you either have to join another country's team or co-op.

 

My thoughts on the US-Canada game.

- Since the Canadian GK was warned, it was fair game to call a violation. Grant Wahl reported that from the second she had possession to the whistle, 10 seconds passed. Yellow cards are common when goalkeepers are stalling on goal kicks and free kicks, but since the ball is in play, you cannot issue a yellow card and then tell her to punt the ball away.

- Handball was good call too. This isn't U10 soccer where you might sympathize with a player covering her face with a ball being rocketed at her face.

- Rapinoe was spectacular. Her second goal was one of the greatest goals I've seen. Frickin' rocket.

- Rapinoe did not deserve to be whistled for a PK for a handball. Arm at side, gained no advantage from ball hitting her arm.

- If the US doesn't shore up that defense, they will lose to Japan. Few teams are better at making teams pay for mistakes than Japan (today vs. France, last year's World Cup final). Very good counter team also.

- Alex Morgan will break any scoring record that Wambach or Sinclair set.

- Christine Sinclair's performance had to have been one of the best in women's soccer history.

- One of the best games I've ever seen. Saw all of regulation and final five minutes of overtime. Nine trending topics on twitter during OT were related to that game.

 

It must really piss you off that Puerto Rico, Guam and the USVI have their own delegations.

 

And where does this sheer bit of nonsense rank on the Mark stupidity scale?

And, for the record, Kirani James, who won that 400 meter final, was born and raised in Grenada and trains in the United States only because OUR universities recruited him. He competes for Grenada because that is legitimately his country of citizenship, not the U.S. And I'm guessin the same applies for most of those other Carribean runners you just maligned.

In other words, WE (or at least our Universities) were the ones playing "rent a sprinter" with those guys, not the Carribean nations.

 

Pretty fucking high. How very bigoted of him. Sun rises in east, etc.

 

and another thing, I have it on good authority that both France and Argentina have players on their men's basketball team who live and train in San Antonio. Cheaters.

 

Then let every state have their own delegation. Break up the US like they did the USSR.

 

That is a HUGE point of contention among more than a few universities and coaches. Lots of people are pissed that athletic scholarships at a state university -- funded in part by public dollars -- are going to international students at the expense of citizens. I must admit they have a point. (Not limited to track, of course.)

 

France and Argentina are legitimate countries with long Olympic traditions. Grenada and Trinidad are jokes.

 

The kid from Grenada who won Gold is FROM Grenada. He was born there and everything.

 

The silver medalist was born in the Dominican Republic.

The bronze medalist was born in Trinidad (but not Tobago).

 

As someone else has mentioned, you can't give her a yellow card with the ball still in play in her hands without also calling the foul and the ensuing free kick. Both keepers had been warned not to try any delay tactics, and McLeod was obviously walking the line of "how much can I get away with?" It's a risk you take as a keeper in those situations, and she really, really pushed it that half to the point where she didn't have benefit of the doubt left.

And if the ref doesn't call it, she makes herself "bigger than the game" by giving the team committing the foul the advantage. Once the player starts tiptoeing over that line, the official is going to influence the game either way they decide, and oftentimes not making a call is just as meaningful as making a call.

Not picking on you here, but I hate this notion that any controversial call late in a game is the officials taking it out of the players' hands. Unless it's a clear phantom call, and this one is not, then the players are the ones who put themselves in that position, and the official is just doing his or her jobs. The rules don't go away just because it's late in a close and meaningful game. You don't want to give up that free kick? Punt it within the time allotted and don't push the envelope.