phelps

ps I told everybody since the days of the draft that MTL was the worst place where he could have landed... and here we are...

not so many, I guess...especially if Slaf is going down to Laval, the farm team of the Canadiens... in any case, since Nova Sport (they have the NHL TV rights in SVK and CZE) is shared between CZE and SVK and they're actually based in CZE, I don't think they will never be too much Slaf-centric...they still have many players to watch in so many different teams...

prestazioni convincenti, forse persino al di là delle attese nel judo in queste prime 2 giornate mondiali. Scutto fantastica nella conquista della prima medaglia femminile dal 2007, Milani sfortunata a trovare l'impresentabile signora Babiuc come arbitro, che poi è la medesima babbiona che ha mortificato oltre ogni limite della decenza Odette Giuffrida oggi contro la Krasniqi. non parlerei comunque di delusione per la nostra pluri-medagliata olimpica, perchè se è vero che l'arbitra romena non le ha nemmeno dato la possibilità di provarci seriamente, è altrettanto evidente che la kosovara è più forte e avrebbe vinto anche con un arbitraggio equo. diverso il caso di Elios Manzi, autore di una cavalcata autorevolissima, fermato solo nei quarti dall'imprendibile Abe e poi derubato senza ritegno nel match per il bronzo contro il coreano An. Molto bene anche Pantano ieri nei -60kg, con il finale però sporcato da 2 sconfitte contro il mongolo Enkhtaivan nei quarti e ancor più contro l'israeliano Wolczak nel turno di ripescaggio decisamente evitabili, arrivate più per disattenzione (inesperienza a questi livelli?) che per effettivi meriti degli avversari. Io nutro e penso che nutrirò a lungo molti rimpianti per ciò che avrebbe potuto essere e non è stato. ps non capisco il senso di portare un Piras (impalpabile come da pronostico) nei -66kg maschili e lasciare a casa 2 giovani promettenti come Gamba nei -81kg o Pirelli nei -100kg. pps anche tra le donne...perchè le varie D'Isanto, Castagnola, Esposito e Stangherlin (pressochè inutili e senza speranze) sì e le 2 giovani più talentuose (Tavano e, soprattutto, Carnà) no. Specialmente la giovane siciliana, campionessa iridata juniores dei -52kg, avrebbe dovuto essere selezionata (anche perchè non penso che Giuffrida sia più competitiva per una terza medaglia a Parigi...sarebbe ora di provare seriamente la sua più che promettente erede).

io chiamerei più uno in grado di manovrare delle grandi fruste...

A fitting start to the 2022-23 campaign for San Jose Sharks forward Tomas Hertl, who scored his club's first goal of the season in front of his hometown crowd in Prague.

Men's Individual Skeet Standing after Day #1 of Qualifications (50 Targets out of 125, Top 8 advance to the Ranking Matches) =1. Sarkis Martayan, 50 =1. Stefan Nilsson, 50 =1. Clive Farruggia, 50 =1. Christian Elliott, 50 =1. Rodrigo Severino Zachrisson Joglar, 50 Following, 12 Shooters @ 49 and 21 Shooters @ 48 Full Ranking: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/results/detail.ashx?cshipid=3073&resultkey=3b3b303b534b4d3b313b513b493b313b303b30

Women's Individual Skeet Standing after Day #1 of Qualifications (50 Targets out of 125, Top 8 advance to the Ranking Matches) 1. Lucie Anastassiou, 50 =2. Vanesa Hockova, 49 =2. Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit, 49 =2. Austen Jewell Smith, 49 =2. Amber Hill, 49* =2. Jiang Yiting, 49 =7. Bianka Pongratz, 48 =7. Emily Jane Hibbs, 48 =7. Iryna Malovichko, 48 =7. Samantha Simonton, 48 =7. Isarapa Imprasertsuk, 48 =7. Diana Bacosi, 48 =7. Barbora Sumova, 48 =7. Christine Wenzel, 48 *Has already won an Olympic Quota Place for her Country, therefore she's not eligible to win another. Full Ranking: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/results/detail.ashx?cshipid=3073&resultkey=3b3b303b534b573b303b513b493b313b303b30

Menz (and Vargas Ley) this time were just lucky to take advantage of an unbalanced draw and of Tonaki's bad day (and not only hers). But this doesn't mean that this specific weight class is so different from the recent past. I mean, outside Japan, there have always been 3/4 competitors above the average (in the last few years they were Pareto, Krasniqi, Galbadrakh and Bilodid...now they are Boukli, Scutto, the new Kazakh representative and partially Nikolic, Costa and Figueroa) plus a bunch of 2nd tier girls that on a given day could win a not so predictable medal...and now it's more or less the same, most likely we even have more depth at the just-below-the-top level than before, we only lack a bright talent like Bilodid as the main opponent of the Japanese domination.

no real surprise today among the medallists... and also the expected super-fight between Hifumi Abe and Maruyama was somehow disappointing, with Abe always in control and his rival never showing any true chance of upsetting the Olympic Champion. if it wasn't for the beautiful counter that decided the fight, I'd call the match "modest" (especially compared to the previous matches between those 2).

Day #2 Women's -52kg Gold: Uta Abe Silver: Chelsie Giles Bronze: Distria Krasniqi & Amandine Buchard Men's -66kg Gold: Hifumi Abe Silver: Joshiro Maruyama Bronze: An Baul & Denis Vieru

Day #2 Today's medal matches are: Women's -52kg Bronze Medal match #1: Gefen Primo vs Distria Krasniqi Bronze Medal match #2: Khorloodoi Bishrelt vs Amandine Bouchard Gold Medal match: Uta Abe vs Chelsie Giles Men's -66kg Bronze Medal match #1: Elios Manzi vs An Baul Bronze Medal match #2: Vazha Margvelashvili vs Denis Vieru Gold Medal match: Hifumi Abe vs Joshiro Maruyama

I don't think so... Tsunoda is a great player, Scutto is the future...and a couple of big names (Tonaki included) had a bad day, which made the bottom half of the draw look "easy" for people who normally don't make the podium in the global events. But the overall level wasn't cheap at all. p.s. the fact that some medals weren't easily predictable is only a plus for the sport, it shows that also the stars of the game can lose against mid-ranking players if they are not at 100% (or don't take them too seriously).

Gameday #5 completed with 6 away wins in 6 matches played. and with 2 more teams officially earning a spot in the knockout stage with 1 game still to be played: Grizzlys Wolfsburg (Group B) and Mountfield HK (Group G). After this week's results, we have 7 groups out of 8 done and dusted and 15 teams out of 16 already qualified to the round of last 16. the only group/teams still to be decided are group E Red Bull Salzburg, Ilves Tampere and Stavanger Oilers that are going to fight for the last spot in the knockout stage in the final gameday of this preliminary group stage.

Group Stage Day 5, Part 2 Wednesday 05.10.2022 - Results Group B 18:00 TPS Turku (FIN) - Grizzlys Wolfsburg (GER) 1-4 19:15 Olimpija Ljubljana (SLO) - EV Zug (SUI) 1-3 Standing : 1.EV Zug 14(Q), 2.Wolfsburg 10 (Q), 3.TPS 6, 4.Olimpija 0 Group C 18:00 Red Bull Munich (GER) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) 3-4 (OT) 20:00 Slovan Bratislava (SVK) - Rapperswil-Jona (SUI) 4-6 Standing : 1.Red Bull Munich 12 (Q), 2.Tappara 12 (Q), 3.Rapperswil-Jona 6, 4.Slovan 0 Group E 20:20 Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) - Fribourg-Gotteròn (SUI) 0-1 Standing : 1.Fribourg 12 (Q), 2.Red Bull Salzburg 7, 3.Ilves 6, 4.Stavanger 5 Group G 19:30 Eisbären Berlin (GER) - Mountfield HK (CZE) 3-7 Standing : 1.Frölunda 12 (Q), 2.Mountfield 12 (Q), 3.Eisbären 6, 4.Grenoble 0

Japan dominating the field...what's new? and if the men's "minor" medals have somehow gone to those who were predictable before the championship (maybe in another order, but that's it), among the women we have at least 2 big surprises and a youngster who's already anticipating her bright future on the podium, meanwhile a couple of the most expected "names" are missing. let's see what happens tomorrow, when Japan are still the big favourites in both the women's -52kg and the men's -66kg classes.

Day #1 Women's -48kg Gold: Natsumi Tsunoda Silver: Katharina Menz Bronze: Assunta Scutto & Abiba Abuzhakynova Men's -60kg Gold: Naohisa Takato Silver: Ariunbold Enkhtaivan Bronze: Yeldos Smetov & Yang Yung Wei

ps my prediction contest is already a disaster after the morning session of day #1...

Day #1 quite a few upsets this morning in the early rounds... Today's medal matches are: Women's -48kg Bronze Medal match #1: Assunta Scutto vs Julia Figueroa Bronze Medal match #2: Mary Dee Vargas Ley vs Abiba Abuzhakynova Gold Medal match: Natsumi Tsunoda vs Katharina Menz Men's -60kg Bronze Medal match #1: Yeldos Smetov vs Dilshodbek Baratov Bronze Medal match #2: Yam Wolczak vs Yang Yung Wei Gold Medal match: Naohisa Takato vs Ariunbold Enkhtaivan

io invece penso che non abbiamo affatto l'organico migliore, ma siamo un one-man team. dipendiamo in tutto e per tutto da Egonu, in attacco non c'è alternativa, visto che non possiamo giocare troppo in velocità coi centrali dato che la ricezione è scarsa, i martelli di banda o non sanno ricevere (Pietrini) o sono delle "mozzarelle" in attacco (Bosetti e Sylla...non mettono giù un pallone che sia uno di pura potenza) e la difesa è da sempre il nostro tallone d'Achille. detto questo, egonu è così forte che può davvero vincere il mondiale da sola, specie dopo aver visto quanto incostanti (se non inconsistenti) siano le altre rivali. passando oltre, prima mattinata del mondiale di Judo persino oltre le aspettative, ma finita con tanti, troppi rimpianti. tra le ragazze dei -48kg, Scutto per ora ha fatto il suo, ma niente impresa contro la Giapponese Tsunoda...e quindi si giocherà il bronzo. Milani, invece, stava andando alla grande, poi una decisione incomprensibile (almeno a me...vorrei tanto chiedere un parere "a freddo" a più di un arbitro internazionale) le è costata la squalifica contro la tedesca Menz, che non le è certo superiore e poi è arrivata addirittura in finale per l'oro al maschile, invece, grande prestazione di Pantano nei -60kg...molto al di là delle previsioni...peccato però che abbia perso al golden score un match che avrebbe dovuto vincere ai regolamentari contro il Mongolo Enkhtaivan e, peggio ancora, abbia tirato nel cesso un match già vinto contro l'Israeliano Woznak nel repechage round...chiude settimo, ma sarebbe potuta andare molto meglio (e non avrebbe rubato nulla se fosse arrivato fino alla finalissima). non vorrei fosse l'inizio di una settimana piena di illusioni e rimpianti.

there is nothing nuclear on that train... it's just the nuclear brigade of the Russian army and some tanks travelling in Central Russia (which is still quite far away from Ukraine) and moving from an unknown location to another, where their nuclear depots are. they still have to bring the weapons out...and they won't be on that train in any case.

Men's Junior Team Skeet Gold: United States Silver: Finland Bronze: India

it's October, which means that all the most important Baseball Pro Leagues around the world are coming close to the Regular Season end and they're ready to start their respective playoffs campaign... this year, the first of the 3 main Pro Leagues around the world to close their RS was the Japanese NPB. the season has been highlighted by Munetaka Murakami (Yakult Swallows) chasing the HR record of that league, with the target set at 60 HRs overall (record held by the Dutch Vlad Balentien) and at 55 for what concerns the best Japanese hitter ever (record held by the legendary Sadaru Oh). Murakami was on pace to destroy all the records entering September, but once he matched Oh's record for a Jpanese player at 55 HRs, he went into an unbelievable slump and he couldn't hit anymore for good 20 days, until the last make-up game of the whole RS (last Monday). luckily, in the last at-bat of that last game of the RS, he could finally hit at least his 56th HR of the season to become the solitary leader of the Japanese all-time HR hitters. unfortunately, the long slump in September cost him the overall record. Hopefully it will happen next year (unless he chooses to travel to the USA to play in the MLB). for what concerns the league, instead, Murakami's Tokyo Yakult Swallows (the reigning Japan Series champions) dominated once again the Central League standings. and the Osaka ORIX Buffaloes also repeated themselves in the Pacific League, even if in this case it was only a cruel tie-breaker to separate them from the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. this is the full final ranking of the 2022 NPB Regular Season (both Central and Pacific League): https://npb.jp/bis/eng/2022/standings/ Next Saturday, October 8th, the playoffs are going to start with the first round of the Climax Series: in the Central League, the Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars will host the Hanshin Tigers, with the winner of the series going to play on the Yakult Swallow's home field in the CL final series. at the same time, in the Pacific League, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks will host the Saitama Seibu Lions, with the winner of this series going to play the PL final series in Osaka against the ORIX Buffaloes. Both first round series are best-of-3 matchups and all the games are played on the home field of the team with the best RS ranking between the 2 contestants.

yeah, really fast...

Women's Junior Team Skeet Gold: China Silver: United States Bronze: Slovakia