Lavonardo

Despite a couple of bright spots, the second qualifier game was not a return to expected form of finnish football. Then again, a tight 2-1 loss against the world cup finalist is not exactly unexpected.

The less said about the first fifteen minutes, the better. The finnish defense was asleep at the first goal, and the penalty was a justified one.

Mikael Forssell’s first goal in a good while showed that there’s still spark in the bluewhites. But Maarten Stekelenburg in the dutch goal denied any further scoring chances.

Zero points after two games. This is not how the group was supposed to start. But the game in Rotterdam was far far better than the first in Chisinau.

Not an auspicious start to the Euro 2012 qualifying series.

Hyypiä’s red card is not an excuse, the finnish team should have been able to at least to create some scoring opportunities.

The next game is on Tuesday, against Netherlands. And the world cup finalist is a far more formidable opponent than Moldova.

Following the Utes departure from MWC, BYU mulls going independent.

Which would form a neat counterpart for the other big independent, the quintessentially catholic Notre Dame.

Karl Malone, the finest power forward of the nineties, is now in the basketball hall of fame.

The Mailman joins his trusty comrade at arms, John Stockton, the wizard of pick’n'roll.

Well, the games are now over, and I for one, didn’t really get what I expected.

While the final game was better than in several previous tournaments, it still was nowhere as entertaining as I hoped for.

And that’s not a disappointed Oranje-fan talking, I bet on Spain before the games.

Random recollections:

• Diego Forlán was the man of the tournament, and I truly lament the final freekick in the bronze game.
• Lionel Messi has his next stab at the top in four years. He’s still young, and the team will have a better coach.
• The German team continued to impress. They played pleasant football once more, and have a fabulous playmaker in Mesut Özil.
• Brazil, on the other hand, played clinical task-oriented game. And got spooked immediately when anyone put up serious resistance.
• Italy and especially France, the finalists of 2006, were grave disappointments. Though it was rather hard to hold back a wide grin when Les Bleus crashed out.
• English hopes were again conflicting with reality. Even without Lampard’s goal being disqualified, they would have had a hard time playing against the german blitzkrieg.
• And that brings us to refereeing. It was clearly sub-optimal, and with several serious and conspicuous failures to witness will result in additional resources.

Bring on Euro 2012. With Finland placed in the same group as the dutch, this will be an uphill struggle at best.

With Spain’s victory over Germany the stage is set for a new champion.

I’m still supporting Spain, though Netherlands has been playing a very entertaining game as well.

Another latin american favorite is out of the games.

The germans eliminated the albiceleste 4-0.

Fortunately this probably means that Diego Maradona’s story at the helm of the national team is at its end.

Maybe next time the team is built with success in mind (Riquelme’s absence still baffles the mind) and not to give the yet another opportunity to the friends of the coach.

Brazil is out.

In a game that I forgot to record.

Oh well, plenty of interesting and support-worthy teams left.

FIFA’s insistence on non-assisted refereeing gets harder and harder to defend.

Both of today’s two playoff games featured gross mistakes by the referees.

England was denied a goal in their loss against Germany. In a curious mirror of the 1966 finals, Frank Lampard’s crossbar-deflected ball clearly crossed the line but was disallowed. With a score drawn before the halftime, it would have been an entirely different game.

Argentina got a goal as a gift to begin their game against Mexico. Either the offside regulations are too complex for today’s referees, or the italian lineman needs new glasses. Either way, Carlos Tevez managed to score from behind the Mexican line.

On account of these, and plenty of other judgmental mishaps, I’d be very surprised if technical assistance would not be experimented with in the next few years.

After all: tennis, a far more stodgy sport has not neglected to use modern technology. The reasoning of the controlling body is something FIFA would be well-advised to learn from: in a multi-million dollar game decisions by the officials should be shielded from human error as much as possible.

Utes are now the eleventh team in the Pacific-10 division.

A story with many faults, but also hopefully an opening to national championship after yet another campaign.

Barcelona won La Liga.

A convincing victory over Valladolid and a Real Madrid draw sealed the margin at the top.

Having been blown out of of the Champions League finals, that’s the end of the season.

Jazz got swept 4-0, with the tightest games actually occurring in L.A.

But fortunately so did the Spurs, who got beaten by the Suns, who probably dropped big monkeys off their back with the victory.

First victory.

But no-one’s safe. Apart from the danes.

That’s not how the group stage was supposed to go.

And especially this game wasn’t supposed to be this tight.

Next up: USA on Wednesday.

In the long line of improbabilities made flesh: the danish ice hockey team beat the US as well, and qualifies for the playoffs.

Andrei Kirilenko, the multi-talented Jazz small forward expects to return in game three of the second round playoff series. Considering that the first two away games were tight, any serious presence in both offensive and defensive ends of the court is much appreciated.

Despite losing their starting center (and the prolonged absence of the small forward) Utah Jazz took care of the first round opponents in the playoffs.

Next up: Los Angeles Lakers. The series begins on Sunday.

Mehmet Okur is injured in the first playoffs game, and the already thin Jazz offense is now even thinner.