Some favourites suffered early setbacks in the 2010 World Cup but have and will recover. Today, one tournament favourite paid dearly for their mistakes and will be watching the rest of the tournament on TV. Heading into the day, the Netherlands clinched a spot in the round of 16 and Cameroon had already been eliminated leaving Denmark and Japan teams battling for the final spot in Group E. In Group F play, all four teams could end the day moving on or going home. Continue reading
Lowdown BlogCast: June 22, 2010
Sorry for the short delay but here’s the latest edition of The Lowdown podcast. The World Cup inspired Steve’s latest strange opening segment. Inspired by Shakira’s performance at the opening ceremony, the guys take a look at examples of self-name checking in song and try to figure out the general douchiness of it. They cover everything from Shakira to Bo Diddley to Vanilla Ice in this segment. That’s followed up with two of Jackie’s singles of the week, It Came From YouTube and the Worst of Music. Steve then talks about a trio of stories showing a lack of common sense: Guys thinking they have a shot with hot women, the Catholic Church making no changes after another abuse scandal, and the 16-year-old girl who tried to sail around the world. The show end with sports where the guys discuss the Chicago Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup and Chris Pronger’s impact on the series. In total, it’s 100 minutes of vintage Lowdown fun and insanity in this exclusive podcast.
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The Lowdown’s Ridiculous 2010 NHL Mock Draft
Every year, countless talking heads do up mock drafts of what they think NHL teams will do on draft day. The problem with the standard mock draft is that it’s too clean. It’s just assumed that teams will continue to select the best player available according to the scouts until all 210 choices are made. Of course, that makes no sense because trades will be made, GMs will go out on limbs, and Toronto will find another way to ensure 43 more years of futility. So it’s time for our second annual Ridiculous Mock Draft. Continue reading
The John Isner – Nicolas Mahut Live Blog Insanity
Hopefully you haven’t stumbled across this post looking for a live blog of the insanity of this match. When we last left Court 18 at the All England Lawn & Tennis Club, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut were deadlocked at two sets apiece and at 59 games all in the fifth set. They’ve been going at it for some 10 hours in a first round match. But almost as big a story as that is, the live blog written by Xan Brooks for The Guardian newspaper took on a life of its own. What started as a simple live blog degenerated into insanity, delirium, and hilarity.
So to catch you up for today’s (expected) final part of the match and to commemorate this amazing live blog, here is Xan’s complete ramblings on Isner/Mahut. Continue reading
Soccer Night In South Africa: One Last Gasp
Two more groups were decided in today’s action at the 2010 World Cup. At the start of the day, eight teams were in contention to make the second round but only four could advance. Even more amazing was that one team advanced on a last second goal that brought one nation to its feet and another to tears. Continue reading
Wednesday Link-Off
Sportsnet is running day-old episodes of The Daily Line before the evening edition of Connected. The show sucks but at least it has Jenn Sterger.
My newest favourite on Twitter, Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger, explains why he’s on Twitter and why he’s so angry. (The New Republic)
James Blake made an early exit from Wimbledon yesterday but he had some help. The ESPN sideline reporter tried her best to distract him. (Fanhouse)
Another thing Republicans will try to use against Obama: He hates the wave. (Power Line)
After the jump, some World Cup links, scads of baseball links, and a new Top Gear trailer. Continue reading
Soccer Night In South Africa: A Last Stand
The twelfth day of action at the 2010 World Cup marked the beginning of the end of the group stages. All 8 Group A and Group B teams would be in action with four moving on and four going home at the end of the day. Uruguay and Argentina were favoured to move on leaving two spots realistically open for six teams. Continue reading
Soccer Night In South Africa: Shutout and Shutdown
Matchday 11 at the 2010 World Cup had a few games that were destined to turn into mismatches. Only one of those turned into a mismatch on the scoreboard as North Korea courageously held Portugal to under eight goals. Meanwhile, Spain looked to rebound from their shocking defeat at the hands of the Swiss. Continue reading
Local Columnist Wants To Ruin Jordan Verdone
Followers and fans of Canadian university sports are still trying to wrap their heads around the implications of nine Waterloo Warriors football players testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. While the fans are worried about the future of the sport, some local writers are using this as an opportunity to make a name for themselves. Take Bill Montague, for example. Bill is the sports editor for the Sault Star, the hometown daily newspaper of Waterloo star Jordan Verdone. Montague has been trying and failing to get a hold of Verdone for an interview for the last week. Now the pair have spoken and Bill still isn’t happy with the answers (or the wait). So let’s take a look at Montague’s column on Verdone’s involvement in the CIS’s biggest steroid scandal in its history in FJM style. Continue reading
Soccer Night In South Africa: Champs or Chumps
The second weekend of the 2010 World Cup ended with one team advancing to the knockout stage and one group not clarifying anything. And in that wide open group is our defending World Cup champions who aren’t living up to their billing as threats to repeat. Continue reading
The Lowdown 