Sure last season Kaka was superb in leading an aging AC Milan squad to the Champion’s League title and Leo Messi is as dangerous as anyone in the world with the ball on his feet, but this season is all about the Portuguese superstar.
With the Reds this season, Ronaldo has scored an unreal 27 goals included the two he put in last night against Portsmouth.
Last night he scored twice within three minutes (10′ and 13′) and before Portsmouth could even warm up the game was over.
We could hem and haw over whether or not this falls under the ’sports’ umbrella we use at The Looper. We could simply not care. I’m going to qualify it by saying there’s some athleticism, lots of coordination and also plenty of rhythm. Regardless, it’s worth a watch –– and we can thank my Geography 001 T.A. for the exposure.
The guy deserves some props because this is pretty great. Check it out, the “Evolution of Dance”:
Teemu Selanne has agreed to a one-year contract with the Anaheim ducks, bringing him out of retirement after the first 53 games of the season — I told you I’d keep you posted.
And after leading the team in goals (48) and assits (46) in 2006, Selanne will embark on an 8-game road trip that begins Wednesday against Minnesota. The trip will span 14 days and is undoubtedly a great chance for the 10-time All-Star to bond with his teammates — some familiar, some not — even if he’s not expected to start on Wednesday.
With the Finnish Flash back in the lineup, the Ducks hope to take advantage of their new look by making yet another postseason push.
At 27-20-6, Anaheim sits at 5th in the Western Conference and 3rd in the Pacific Division.
And although catching the first place Detroit Red Wings is highly unlikely — though, by some other-wordly occurrence it could happen — the Ducks are nearly a lock for the postseason anyway.
A point not mentioned in my last post, Most $$$ (1.29.08):
Tiger Woods tore up the course (Torrey Pines South) that will be hosting the U.S. Open this June. Yowza. A 67 on Friday and then a 66 on Saturday seem to be a pretty solid prep-stop for the toughest tourney in the land –– granted, the course will certainly be set up differently for the Open, Woods is all-t00 familiar with Torrey Pines, having won there several times at several levels.
This summer’s South-Course Siege will be very interesting indeed.
The Looper’s Most $$$ player of the week: Tiger Woods
Holy Whoa! First tournament in months and the best golfer this side of the Milky Way puts on a clinic. With rounds of 67-65-66 to start the Buick Invitational, Woods headed into a potentially ill-weathered Sunday with an obscenely healthy lead.
The lead was up to 11 shots part-way through Sunday’s final round, but eventually shrank to a paltry 8-shot advantage. It was Tiger being Tiger, but a version of Tiger that we had not really seen in some time. It was scary Tiger. It was perfect Tiger.
It was a version of Tiger –– maybe we get to call it Tiger 2.008 if this form holds out –– that even his bro (and by bro we of course mean not-bro) Rory Sabbatini could not catch up to, finishing T-3, 10 shots behind.
This week, Tiger = scary good, scary $$$. (We could also point to the direction of $$$-looping from fellow Super-Looper Stevie Williams too –– it is a team effort after all.)
Big news on campus? Well, how about two great weekends in a row for the men’s hockey team –– right now it looks like they’re finding the right track, and the back of the net.
At home two weeks ago, the Cats played great in a 2-2 draw with Northeastern, which they followed up with an invigorating 5-2 win over the Huskies the next night.
At UMass this past weekend, Vermont went out Friday night and outgunned the Minutemen 5-4. Saturday night was not quite as high-scoring, but the boys from Burlington still notched a point in Hockey East with a 2-2 tie.
Oh yeah, UMass was ranked #14.
This sets up a HUGE homestand this weekend: Friday night the Cats get always-tough UNH, who sit atop the Hockey East standings, and Sunday they get UMass-Lowell, who are also in the top-20 as of January 27, 2008.
A win against UNH this Friday night could bring even more life to what appears to be a hockey team on the rise.
Anything less will be just that, but the potential exists for a surging, momentum-laden Hockey East campaign the likes of which we have yet to really see out of the Cats.
***
Big news elsewhere? Brady says “bye-bye” to The Boot!
I admit it’s a ridiculous story in almost every sense. The scrutiny placed on the peculiar footwear chosen by the Patriots quarterback last week is silly but also somewhat warranted when you take into account that Brady is the leader of the only 18-0 NFL team ever.
The golden boy of perfection’s team was photographed wearing a protective boot on his foot –– as we all know now –– while walking into his gf Gisele Bundchen’s New York City home. Later that day, though, he was seen sans Boot.
Brady went unseen by the media after that, although it was discovered that he did suffer a minor high ankle sprain in the AFC championship game.
But now, no Boot! Whew!
An article on ESPN.com Sunday chronicled nearly every wing-tipped step Brady took at the Patriots pre-Super Bowl send-off. No sign of a limp!
Let’s blame Jessica for Tony’s team losing and then let’s blame Tony for the Cowboys’ loss and then let’s cry about it at the press conference (T.O., I’m winking at you from behind my big sunglasses).
Now we all get to wait for the Super Bowl to be over before we can really decide which QB’s lady-friend provided the best pre-game care.
A Brady win, and Gisele looks even prettier in the eyes of the media –– more wholesome, maybe? –– But a Brady loss and you had better expect some questions.
With 2.5 seconds to go in regulation and a chance to hit a game-tying 3-pointer against LeBron James and the Cavaliers, Wild Luke decided that he didn’t want to be responsible for tying up the game.
Of course, conventional wisdom would have agreed with Walton, given the fact that the league’s 2nd best scorer was on the floor in Kobe Bryant.
But conventional wisdom also says that making a 15-foot pass to Bryant — who was nearly 5 feet beyond the arc — with 1.2 seconds left is not in the best interest of the team.
Being responsible is.
Hopefully this will serve as a lesson-learned situation for the Lakers forward.
As I browsed through an inbox full of meaningless mail, I noticed that one of my good friends had sent me something.
Great success! I am popular!
Seeing as I rarely receive emails from important people, I hoped that this wasn’t the standard 10-second clip of nothingness.
I carefully proceeded to click on the YouTube link — what else, right? — and found myself immersed in possibly one of the funniest and most clever videos that I have seen in quite a while.
With the Super Bowl coming up in just over a week, the NHL All-Star Game in a few days, and the NBA season reaching its halfway point, it’s hard to find time to fit the word ‘baseball’ into any sentence relative to national sports.
But when pitchers and catchers report to spring training on February 14, that will all change.
After all, it seemed like only a short time ago that the postseason matchups were becoming finalized and nearly everyone in America asked of their team, “Is this our year?”
And maybe it was your year.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t.
Either way, last season is in the past, and that means fans across the country are crossing the days off their calendar.
Whether it’s how many days until spring training or how many days until opening day, one thing is for certain: baseball will be here before we know it.
Originally, Tim Thomas had plans to take his 7-year old daughter shopping in New York City.
Instead, at the ripe old age of 33, Thomas has been selected to play in the 2008 NHL All-Star Game for the first time in his career.
While this comes as a huge surprise to Thomas, the fact that he is going as a replacement seems to be a bit more surprising, given that the UVM alumnus has retained sole posession of the league’s best save percentage (.927) for the majority of the season.
And although Thomas will be replacing the always-excellent New Jersey Devils goaltender, Martin Brodeur, one has to wonder how the other two Eastern Conference goalies made it over him.
For some reason or another, the NHL decided that Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro’s 17th best .912 SV% and 2.54 GAA, along with Florida’s Thomas Vokoun’s 14th best .915 SV% and 2.78 GAA, were much better when compared to the aforementioned league-leading .927 and better 2.38 GAA of Thomas.
According to Andy Brickley, the only reason DiPietro was selected was because “the Islanders are so unspectacular from top to bottom without him.”
That may be true, but his numbers still do not surpass those of Thomas’s.
The same can be said about the unspectacular Florida Panthers and Thomas Vokoun’s statistics.
Sunday’s festivities in Atlanta, Georgia, will surely prove to be an incredible experience for the journeyman, Thomas.
After all, he deserves it.
Not just because his numbers are so remarkable, but because his story is.
In a shocking turn of events Thursday, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick declined to comment on the status of his starting quarterback Tom Brady’s right ankle! A move that appears as totally out of character for the Patriots coach, his simple declaration, “I don’t have any comment on it,” makes it look like he and his staff are guarding their collective hand (and ankles) quite closely.
Belichick gave a hint of things to come, saying that the pre-Super Bowl injury report would be released next Wednesday and he would be pleased to share information at that time.
Eerie foreshadowing or simply the party line? Time will tell, but no Patriot offered a definitive comment in any direction, generally sticking to the same “I don’t know, it’s not me, I’m not Tom Brady” bit. Sounds like a concerted effort to stick to the plan.
Brady’s supermodel girlfriend, Gisele Bundchen, was not available for comment –– it’s widely believed that she was remaining to be attractive at an unspecified location. Brady was walking into Bundchen’s New York apartment when the widely-distributed photographs of the Boot were taken.
The NHL’s reigning scoring champion, Sidney Crosby, is expected to miss 6-8 weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain during Friday’s contest with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This does not come as good news, considering the Penguins had won 10 of their last 11 prior to Crosby’s injury.
As they say, though, the show must go on — even if the face of the NHL is on the injured reserve list.
This means that young, Evgeni Malkin — who has an impressive 56 points — will have to step up to the plate.
Though it doesn’t mean the 21-year-old must carry the team all by himself, he will undoubtedly have to do his best Sidney Crosby impression over next month and a half.
In doing so, it is crucial that Malkin do as Crosby did by making those around him better.
He must assume the role of leader by cultivating an identity comprised of unparalelled confidence, intelligence, and the presence of mind to make the right decisions.
If Evgeni Malkin succeeds in keeping the Penguins above water in the oh-so heated Atlantic Division, he will have put his team in great shape for Crosby’s return.
But more importantly, he will have proven to himself — and to those around him — that he is much more capable than just playing Garfunkel to Crosby’s Simon.
Who knows, he might even have a band of his own one day.
THE NOW-FAMOUS TOM BRADY ANKLE BOOT (and questionable floral arrangement):
OK, we have two ways and two ways only to think about this little situation, which our girl Cindy B. has since dubbed BootGate:
1) The Boot is all part of Belichick’s masterplan –– the closest thing to Predestination that exists in the football world –– and merely a ploy to distract his opponents and the media from what is actually going down over the nxt two weeks. Considering that Brady didn’t bother wearing the boot when he went out later that night with his girlfriend, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, this makes sense and makes one think the ankle isn’t too big of a hindrance. [MOST LIKELY]
2) Brady was put up to the Boot by Gisele. He probably lost a bet or something or … well I won’t bother going there. More likely than that, Brady could be attempting to make a new fashion statement. Considering Peyton Manning gets the funny commercials and Brady gets the pretty boy commercials –– along with the attention of supermodels –– this is an interesting idea. [LESS LIKELY]
The Boot is not really a big deal. Brady said he “tweaked it.” It is what it is. Don’t read anything more into it than that.
Echoing what Patriots fans have been saying for years –– and more and more this year –– New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden (also a regular participant on “The Sports Reporters”) put his fingers to the keyboard following the AFC Championship Game and put it simply: Bill Belichick is a football genius.
Hard to believe? Well yes and no, but either way, it’s still refreshing and surprising. And what’s more, Rhoden even went so far as to say this, brushing off any of the detractors of SpyGate:
The only blemish on the season is the $500,000 fine imposed on Belichick by N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell for illegal videotaping against the Jets.
That censure won’t obscure a great season, though it will be part of the permanent record, perhaps a signature for doing whatever it takes to win.
But no matter how you feel about illegalities, this team is a team for the ages.
As the season stands now, the Patriots are the only team to ever go 18-0, the only team ever with a chance for 19-0. In my mind, they’ve sufficiently crushed any idea that SpyGate was a factor.
Big news elsewhere? Brady says “bye-bye” to 
Echoing what Patriots fans have been saying for years –– and more and more this year –– New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden (also a regular participant on “The Sports Reporters”) put his fingers to the keyboard following the AFC Championship Game and put it simply: Bill Belichick is a football genius.
Dakota Rubin, Windy City Word
Nick Licare, Being Nick Licare
