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Archive of posts filed under the sports category.

NED-FIN 2-1

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.

Nöykkiö ‘niners 2010, week 0: The Draft

NFL draftFollowing last year’s move to Espoo, the traditional team name “Haagan Hakkapeliitat” had to go. Spent quite a while thinking about a replacement and finally settled on Nöykkiö ‘niners. Nöykkiö, obviously, on account of location. And ‘niners for two reasons: San Francisco Fortyniners is still my favorite team in the league, and the move happened on 2009.

Nöykkiö ‘niners participate in two leagues, both run in Yahoo’s very ergonomic fantasy sports section. Both of the leagues featured a live draft, so all the mistakes in picking the players are mine and mine alone.

First team drafted was one in a random public league. Drafted at #5, and was faced with a hard choice at the very beginning. Ended up choosing Frank Gore over Michael Turner – my faith in the SF offense remains high after a blow-out pre-season campaign. In a ten team league the high-power RBs were long gone by the second round, and I was settled on taking an early pick on a QB. Hoped for Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers, but lost them both. Chose the most reliable arm on the field instead: Peyton Manning. Larry Fitzgerald was still available on the third round, and as one of the best wide receivers in the business that was an easy choice (the selection is kinda marred by the Arizona QB chaos, though). The other high picks went to offense: Beanie Wells (yet another Arizona player) and Michael Crabtree both had decent seasons in 2009. Left TE pick for late – John Carlson may be a good pick, or the Seattle aerial offense may turn out to be a dud. Did early picks on both kicker and defense, since they are reliable point machines: Mason Crosby and Baltimore, respectively.

The second team is my third participation in Finland Fantasy Football. The sixteen team league is quite a different game. Drafted at #15, which meant two things: the first pick is quite a meager one and that there’s 30 turns inbetween picks. Took Aaron Rodgers on the first round – he’s been a steady leader of the prolific Green Bay offense, and the RBs on whom the highest expectations are placed were long gone. Rodgers was actually the third QB to be drafted – both Brees and Manning were taken before him. Saints’ Pierre Thomas was my second pick at #18, even though the points are spread around in the New Orleans offense, he’s one of the guys Sean Payton relies on. Michael Crabtree was still available at the tail end of 3rd round, and too much of a bargain to miss out on. Took Jason Witten on the 4th – in a 16 team league the pickings would have been poor later on. Took Mason Crosby and New Orleans as kicker and defense. The large number of teams caused serious headscratching on later rounds. Picked LaDainian Tomlison on the 6th (he’s now a Jet, and this may or may not be a renaissance for one of the most productive players of the nougties). The last few rounds went to high-risk prospects off not so good 2009 seasons (Tim Hightower, Jerrico Cotchery and Jabar Gaffney) and a rookie (Golden Tate) to round out the crew.

The first game is on Thursday, and Sunday features a full evening of games.

Bring on week 1.

From kainalopallokorneri to 2minuutinvaroitus

Just in time for the NFL season kicking off soon, there’s a new blog in town: 2minuutinvaroitus.

MDA-FIN 2-0

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.

Nöykkiö ‘niners in the western conference

NFL logoFollowing the move to Espoo last year, Haagan Hakkapeliitat as the team name is now officially retired.

Long live Nöykkiö ‘niners. At least in fantasy football.

The drafts for the two leagues are in two days, both live. No homework done on anybody beyond the initial ten prospects.

Cougars going rogue?

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.

Mailman in the Hall of Fame

Karl Malone jerseyKarl 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.

World Cup post mortem

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.

A new champion enters

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.

Do cry for me Argentina

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.

Despedida Seleçao

Brazil is out.

In a game that I forgot to record.

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

Traditions waiting for extinction

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.

WAC -> MWC -> PAC-10

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.

¡Yay Barça!

Barcelona logoBarcelona 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.

Swept and swept

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.

Bradford, 25 years later

Today is the 25th anniversary of the third eighties football disaster. The Bradford City fire took 56 lives, yet it keeps on being overshadowed by the tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough stadiums.

[ via Brittifutista Sundqvistin mitalla. ]

GER-FIN 0-1

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.

Danish Dynamite indeed

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

DEN-FIN 4-1 (and that's not a football score)

Finland had less than an auspicious start in the ice hockey world championship games in Germany.

A decisive 4-1 loss to Denmark (not exactly a hockey powerhouse to say the least) means that the two remaining games in the group stage have quite a bit more importance.

Until Finland got its first medal (a silver) in the Calgary olympics in 1988, the medals chronically avoided us, as Tekno-Kekko’s thorough analysis proves.

Next up: Germany on Monday evening. Germany, who managed to beat USA in their debut game in the tournament, so the bout is by no means a walk in the park.

At 0-2, AK-47 checks in

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.

One down, Lakers next

Utah Jazz logoDespite 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.

This ain't good, this really ain't

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

Hakkapeliitat on hardwood

The virtual basketball team did not fare too well either. A seventh place finish is just one off the playoffs.

An appropriate result in a season that was plagued with managerial neglect. As with the hockey team, weeks on end went without any updates. In a sport with up to four games a team per week, that’s nothing but recipe for disaster.

No top ten performances, but three players among the top twenty. Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams were prolific with their recurring double-doubles, but in the end it was Spurs’ Manu Ginobili who provided the most bang for the buck (especially considering that I picked him off the waivers).

Hakkapeliitat on ice

A disappointing season to say the least. A ninth place in the regular season meant exclusion from the playoffs.

But that’s what you get with a neglected team. Weeks upon weeks went without any updates to the men on ice.

The top dogs of the team were Corey Perry, Antti Niemi and Mikko Koivu. But all in all the draft and waiver-picks did not go well at all, with just two players in the league’s top 50.

Competitivity @ 1/800th of the cost