phelps

they're definitely going backwords... and frankly, their "innovative formats and ideas" suck big time to me...

dreaming doesn't cost anything... but I wouldn't bet on that...if Boxing keeps playing at the Olympics, I wouldn't be surprised if he chooses to follow Cammarelle and Russo's steps (being an "amateur" -who earns more than most of pro boxers around the world- throughout his entire career)...

oh, c'mon! Vecchi destroyed the great run by Criscio against a very poor Queroli and Gregorio...well, she almost threw it away against AZE in the quarterfinals and then she finally threw it away against France... and this is not the first time she does it! I really don't understand why the coach insists on her as a closer... p.s. they've not been shit, but they got less than what they could... p.p.s. by the way, Ciaraglia to me has a lot more talent than Gregorio...sure, she still need to make some experience at the highest level, but I don't think we're gonna miss Gregorio once we replace her...

total domination by the French guys in the men's Team Foil... they really destroyed all the opponents...the last one, Germany in the Gold Medal match...

I'm gonna write it here...right now... if the boxing qualifications and the actual Olympic tournament are judge fairly, Aziz Mouhiidine (that's the correct spelling) will easily win the Olympic Gold medal... now he's coming back from a long injury pause and I don't expect anything special in this tournament, but he's by far the most talented heavyweight in the new generation and I expect him to shine in the next few years as no other Italian Boxer has done since the retirement of the great Roberto Cammarelle...

a couple of days ago I was joking about corporal punishment for Vecchi and Gregorio... well, today I'm not joking anymore...those 2 idiots should be thrown off the team!!!! the final assault by Gregorio in today's bronze medal match against France was so irritating...

at least our guys come home with a bronze medal...not what we expected, but still better than nothing... Cassarà however looked quite boiled...

well, it's not the first time our team fails badly after the guys won more than 1 individual medal (even after a clean sweep of the podium)... I hope that at the end of the run, we're not going to miss those points lost in these first 2 events of the OQP...

and finally Italy lost to russia in the women's team sabre semis... this, combined with Hungary surprisingly making the big final, is one of the worse possible outcome for us in today's event in terms of OQR... in the meantime, awful start also by the guys in the men's team foil semis against Germany...and here we really need the big points, after the disappointing 5th place in the 1st world cup event included in the OQ period...

Men's Team Foil Final Results Gold: France Silver: Germany Bronze: Italy Semifinals: Germany b. Italy 45-40 France b. Russia 45-29 Bronze Medal Match: Italy b. Russia 45-36 Gold Medal Match: France b. Germany 45-26  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4581-2018/results/

Women's Team Sabre Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: Hungary Bronze: France Semifinals: Hungary b. France 45-40 Russia b. Italy 45-39 Bronze Medal Match: France b. Italy 45-42 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Hungary 45-34  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4579-2018/results/

in the meantime, also the Men's Team Foil has reached the Quarterfinals stage... and the pairings are: Italy vs Ukraine Germany vs Poland France vs Great Britain Russia vs Hungary

Italy (and specifically Gregorio) almost threw it away against a very modest team like Azerbaijan... but why we always have to complicate our life in this way? and why Gregorio is always used as a closer?

from today, the very important (for the Olympic Qualification) Team Events... in the Women's Team Sabre, we're already down to the last 8... and the Quarterfinals (starting at 11 a.m. CET) are: France vs Poland Hungary vs Ukraine Italy vs Azerbaijan Russia vs Germany

Time to celebrate the season that ended last week with the NHL Awards... and yesterday night in Las Vegas it was Nikita Kucherov the star among the stars, honoured with the Hart Trophy, the League MVP prize... among the other awards, Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy (best Goalie), Mark Giordano won the Norris Trophy (best Defenseman), Elias Pettersson won the Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) and Barry Trotz won the Jack Adams Award (Coach of the Year)... here are all the winners of all the 2018/2019 Awards... https://www.nhl.com/fans/nhl-awards-event At the same event, also the 2018/2019 NHL All-Star Team and the 2018/2019 NHL All-Rookie Team votes were disclosed... the All-Star Team for this season is: Goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy Defense: Mark Giordano & Brent Burns Forwards: Connor McDavid (center), Alexandr Ovechkin (left wing), Nikita Kucherov (right wing) Full voting results, here: https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-all-star-teams-announced-for-2018-19-season/c-307914356 meanwhile, the All-Rookie Team is: Goalie: Jordan Binnington (who else? ) Defense: Rasmus Dahlin & Miro Heiskanen (that was easy, too) Forwards: Elias Pettersson, Brady Tkachuk & Anthony Cirelli Full voting results, here: https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-2018-19-all-rookie-team/c-307914766 Finally, a few rule changes for the next season have been approved... here all the details... https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expected-to-detail-rule-changes-from-competition-committee/c-307915432

bus parking is always the best tactic... if you want to win, forget about the "beautiful football"...it's only about taking 1 goal less than your opponent... by the way, that amount of modest players with the blue shirt don't deserve anything...we won against Spain only because they are even worse but much more arrogant than us...and because we were lucky, very lucky... p.s. I wrote well in advance that Poland are a pretty good team (even if they play a very utilitaristic and ugly to watch style of football)...

he officially retired at the end of 2017, but a few weeks ago I read something about his possible comeback, targeting the team event at Tokyo 2020... we can only wait and see...

Men's Individual Sabre Final Results Gold: Veniamin Reshetnikov Silver: Kamil Ibragimov Bronze: Sandro Bazadze & Max Hartung Semifinals: Reshetnikov b. Hartung 15-10 Ibragimov b. Bazadze 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Reshetnikov b. Ibragimov 15-7  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4575-2018/results/

he tried every trick he has in the bag...provoking, delaying the restart of the action, stopping the start of the action for an unbelievable number of times raising his hand with no reason and finally, he made a clear false start in the last action (when he was already under yellow card), but the ref didn't show him a well deserved red card (which would have cost him the 14-15 point) for some unexplicable reason... and he and his coach didn't stop protesting and using trash talk all the time (by the way, being Curatoli a proud southern Italian with bloody character -he's from Naples, he also replied with no fear and didn't behave like an old gentleman )... basically, Zalomir started the whole feud, but both should have been sanctioned by the ref, who was the weakest link of the entire contest (and the part who made the most mistakes)...

well, the Dutch just destroyed us the last time we played them... OK, it was quite a long time ago (and especially, we didn't have a coach like Milena Bartolini at that time, yet)... however, I think we are still at a point where we can't underestimate anybody and we can't be so arrogant to choose who's better or not to play against... but hopefully, with a bit of luck, the Olympic dream might well come true...

and Montano is out, too... he tried, but it's quite painful to watch him right now...he still has a few classy hits in his hand, but it's not enough to win big matches and global medals anymore...

and the men's sabre guys also are experiencing a disastrous day... Samele threw away a match he basically already won against Apithy in the round of 32 (but he's the only one to blame), meanwhile Curatoli lost, or, better, was robbed big time by the ref and by the Romanian Zalomir, despite coming back from 9-14 to 14-14 (always in the round of 32)... and sad to be noticed, the Romanian and his coaches kept an awful, miseducated and highly unsportmanlike behaviour for the entire match...I hopehe goes out immediately in the next round...he doesn't deserve any success at all... only Berrè has been capable of winning his bout in the round of 32 so far (against Beka Bazadze)... and our last guy, the great Aldo Montano, has not been lucky at all with the draw, as he has to face Aron Szilagyi (always in the round of 32)... and right now, he needs almost a miracle to win a match against the great Hungarian...

Women's Individual Epee Final Results Gold: Coraline Vitalis Silver: Marie-Florence Candassamy Bronze: Ewa Trzebinska & Alexandra Ndolo Semifinals: Candassamy b. Trzebinska 12-11 Vitalis b. Ndolo 15-12 Gold Medal Match: Vitalis b. Candassamy 15-11  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/4574-2018/results/

Italian women's epee sucks! but it sucks big time!

7.3 million viewers (33% rating) yesterday night for Italy vs Brazil on the Italian TV... the game was broadcasted live by both the main channel of our public TV, Rai 1, and by the main sport channel of our main pay-tv, skysport uno (1) on sky Italia... to make a comparison, it's about the same amount of viewers and rating of the men's game vs Bosnia last week (European qualifiers) and well above the men's game vs Greece a few days earlier (both games were also live on our main public channel, rai 1, more or less at the same time)... before this world cup started, if someone would say the women's games would have such kind of audience, he would immediately have been taken to the mental health pavillion at the nearest hospital...