phelps

I'm very, very happy for Nathalie... unfortunately she got close, but not quite to the top..however, it's definitely a great result for her... on the other hand, it was a shameful day for the girls who still represent the Italian Flag...especially for Navarria (who won the first stage 3 weeks ago) and Fiamingo (as usual, not in good shape in the early stages of the season), who were beaten already in the round of 64...

Women's Individual Epee (Suzhou, CHN) Final Results: Gold: Sun Yiwen (CHN) Silver: Nathalie Moellhausen (BRA) Bronze: Renata Knapik-Miazga (POL) & Magdalena Piekarska (POL) Semifinals: Sun Yiwen b. Piekarska 10-4 Moellhausen b. Knapik-Miazga 15-9 Gold Medal Match: Sun Yiwen b. Moellhausen 15-9 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/97/results/rank

Champions Hockey League - Quarterfinals Schedule The schedule for the Champions Hockey League Quarterfinals has been confirmed today. Five teams are playing at this stage for the first time: Bílí Tygři Liberec, Brynäs IF, JYP Jyväskylä, Kometa Brno, Oceláři Třinec. Here is the schedule (all times are CET): First Leg, 5 December 17:00 Oceláři Třinec - Brynäs IF 18:00 JYP Jyväskylä - Kometa Brno 19:15 Bílí Tygři Liberec - ZSC Lions Zurich 20:00 SC Bern - Växjö Lakers Second Leg, 17 December 17:30 Kometa Brno - JYP Jyväskylä 18:30 Brynäs IF - Oceláři Třinec 18:30 Växjö Lakers - SC Bern 20:00 ZSC Lions Zurich - Bílí Tygři Liberec

nice game between SUI and CAN yesterday night... SUI, despite not having a lot of their best players (who were on the ice the night before in the CHL) on their roster, played a very good game and took the early lead, but CAN immediately reacted and tied the score... then a minute of down focus by the Swiss gave the Canadians the chance to score 2 goals in a row and since then the game was under control of the guys with the maple leaf on their sweaters... a late goal by the Swiss (with the empty net) was just "cosmetic" and Canada took the win home by a final score of 3-2... to be honest, CAN weren't that impressive, but still they got what they wanted more and could take care of the usual Swiss team, a group of players who always play well but who always have so much troubles to score some goals...they just can't do it... unfortunately I couldn't watch much of the CZE @ SWE match, but for what I saw Sweden were clearly the better team, with the Czechs having quite a bad performance for what concerns their defensive game... later tonight I expect a very good show with the Russia @ Finland game (which I'm not gonna miss for any reason...thanks to CT4 HD )...

and while most of the world fans were tuned in into the MLB World Series, in Japan the Softbank Hawks from Fukuoka won their 8th title in the Japan Series, topping the Yokohama Bay Stars by a series score of 4 games to 2... https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/11/8a6f09797b56-update1-baseball-hawks-stave-off-baystars-to-clinch-japan-series-in-6-games.html

very old news...it was all known since at least 1 year... however...here are some news about the road cycling course for the Tokyo Olympics... https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/11/7225cbb0aae3-olympics-2020-mens-road-cycling-route-to-pass-foot-of-mt-fuji.html it's expected to be a tough course, not good for sprinters...

Champions Hockey League - Quarterfinals Draw JYP Jyväskylä vs Kometa Brno Brynäs IF vs Oceláři Třinec Växjö Lakers vs SC Bern ZSC Lions Zurich vs Bílí Tygři Liberec

Champions Hockey League - Round of 16 - 2nd Leg Results Nottingham Panthers 0-3 (Aggr. 1-6) ZSC Lions Zurich EV Zug 2-5 (Aggr. 5-9) Kometa Brno Red Bull Munich 2-5 (Aggr. 5-7) SC Bern Växjö Lakers 5-3 (Aggr. 6-5) Red Bull Salzburg Frölunda Indians 4-6 OT (Aggr. 7-8) Bílí Tygři Liberec Brynäs IF 2-1 (Aggr. 5-3) Adler Mannheim Oceláři Třinec 2-1 (Aggr. 4-2) Malmö Redhawks Tappara Tampere 3-2 (Aggr. 4-5) JYP Jyväskylä So, in the top 8 of the CHL this year we have 3 teams from Czech Republic, 2 teams each from Sweden and Switzerland and just 1 team from Finland. It looked a more promising season, but when it really matters, once again we have only teams from the top 4 participating leagues left and none from 2nd tier European domestic championships.

Champions Hockey League - Round of 16 - 2nd Leg It's elimination hockey, and tonight eight teams will be leaving the 2017/18 Champions Hockey League as the Round of 16 Return Legs take place. No team starts more than two goals ahead. Tonight's games 18:00 Oceláři Třinec vs. Malmö Redhawks (Agg. 2-1 ) 18:00 Tappara Tampere vs. JYP Jyväskylä (Agg. 1-3 ) 18:30 Brynäs IF vs. Adler Mannheim (Agg. 3-2 ) 19:00 Frölunda Indians vs. Bílí Tygři Liberec (Agg. 3-2) 19:00 Växjö Lakers vs. Red Bull Salzburg (Agg. 1-2) 19:30 Red Bull Munich vs. SC Bern (Agg. 3-2) 19:45 EV Zug vs. Kometa Brno (Agg. 3-4) 20:00 Nottingham Panthers vs. ZSC Lions (Agg. 1-3) All times CET The Round of 16 comes to an exciting climax on Tuesday night with the eight 'Return Games' taking place. No team leads by more than two goals going into the second leg. What happens if it's a tie on aggregate? If the score is tied on aggregate after 60 minutes in the return game, the following tie-breaking procedure is used: Overtime: 4-on-4, sudden death, for 10 minutes. If there are no goals, a shootout follows: 5 shooters for each team If the game is still tied after five shots by each team, the shootout will continue with a tie-break shootout by one player of each team, with a reversed shooting order. The same, or new, players can take the tie-break shots. The aggregate score is all that is important. If the game "on the night" finishes 1-1, but on aggregate it is 4-2, then no overtime is played. There is no "away goals" rule like in football Who gets home advantage in the next round? Home-ice advantage in the Quarter-Finals (and Semi-Finals) will be decided by the overall record of teams (Group Stage + Round of 16 / for Semi-Finals: + Quarter-Finals), with the team with the better ranking playing the return game at home – subject to arena availability of each team. This means that every match carries importance, as teams are not only trying to qualify for the next round – but also do so with a good enough record to secure home-ice advantage at the next stage. The confirmed schedule for the Quarter-Finals will be released on championshockeyleague.com by the end of this week.

basically it's always the same system as in the past 2/3 Olympics... the difference is only in those individual places for smaller Nations lost because of the team events of the remaining disciplines are now been added to the program... now there are really very few spots (only 10 in each discipline) for the athletes who don't have the full team qualified to the Games in their respective event... for Italy is great to have now 12 instead of 10 chances to get a medal, but for the sport of fencing overall I think this is not good...actually, in my opinion it's a real mistake to have so few individual spots in each discipline...

well, another good day at the office for our boys and girls... our women are back on top of the podium after Cancun's loss to the usual suspects, the Russians... our male sabre specialists did a great competition until the semis and got to the final bout quite unexpected...shame that in the last match they were never into the fight and lost so heavily (however, Germany were clearly the strongest team today)...

yeah, but I think we should consider the word "relatively" very well... because they can still make a team from this list of players (those currently playing in the DEL, NLA, SHL and EBEL only) and win the Gold medal in style... to be honest, here I see some names other Countries wouldn't get even with the NHL guys going to the Games (they could actually build a team with all former NHLers...and I mean people who had a really relevant NHL career before shipping to Europe)... DEL Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=DEL&startdate=2017&NationID=3 NLA Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=NLA&startdate=2017&NationID=3 SHL Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=SHL&startdate=2017&NationID=3 EBEL Canadians...http://www.eliteprospects.com/player_nationalities_in_league.php?LeagueID=EBEL&startdate=2017&NationID=3 and I didn't even bother to link the Canadian players of the AHL and the other North-American leagues, nor the Shane Doan/Jarome Iginla duo, who's not completely ruled out the chance to live another Olympic experience with their National team, despite being officially retired from club Hockey... p.s. there are almost more Canadian players in those 4 European leagues than Italian professional players registered here in Italy...

Men's Team Sabre (Algiers, ALG) Gold: Germany Silver: Italy Bronze: Hungary Semifinals Results: Italy b. Hungary 45-34 Germany b. Iran 45-34 Bronze Medal Match Result: Hungary b. Iran 45-44 Gold Medal Match Result: Germany b. Italy 45-28 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/759/results/rank

Women's Team Foil (St.Maur, FRA) Gold: Italy Silver: Russia Bronze: China Semifinals Results: Italy b. China 45-33 Russia b. United States 45-39 Bronze Medal Match Result: China b. United States 45-42 Gold Medal Match Result: Italy b. Russia 45-38 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/755/results/rank

very nice... and I agree at 100% with you about the WC Mass Start races...they're just too short and a real mess...and that's unacceptable for me... I saw the last 6/7 laps of both women's and men's races...and it was fun... but, despite not knowing how they normally manage this kind of things, in the girls' event, I have to say that imho Schouten should have been punished somehow for that entry against Lollobrigida during their fight before the final curve... c'mon! I'm not against some kind of physicality, but she pushed the Italian away with her hands, it wasn't just a shoulder-to-shoulder battle for the inside position... for sure, under ISU rules, she wouldn't have got the win...

Sweden and Canada would have the major benefit from such a choice...I believe it's an already written sentence, they will be in the Gold Medal Match at 99.99%... Finland and Czech Rep. wil still be good, but probably the difference between them and the top 2 would increase by some margin... then it will also open the door for some surprising teams, I'm thinking mainly to Switzerland and Germany, who could benefit from the strenght and depth of their main domestic leagues... in general, it's a nightmare for all the Hockey fans, since the level of play would be very, very low (much lower than it's right now without those NHL idiots)... however, I think this is just some kind of an effort to try and make pressure on the IOC not to ban Russia as a whole Nation... I guess in the end Russia will be in Pyeongchang (if the Games are held there in February 2018...this is the major issue right now, in my opinion) with their full team and flag (and without those 25/30 banned athletes, or whatever will result from the next IOC/WADA auditions), ready to take advantage of the best chance to win the Hockey Olympic Gold they have had in the last 26 years (since the so-called CIS won in Albertville 1992)... because they can say what they want, but from mr.Putin to the last hockey fan in Russia, they're really mad about the drought in Olympic success in Hockey (which is still their National pastime and most beloved sport)...

once again, Italy are on the podium in both of today's events... but...there's always some "but"... but not the expected guy in men's sabre and "only" a silver medal in women's foil, which is not the result we normally want to see from our golden girls... so, good, but not very good news for our fencing...

Men's Individual Sabre (Algiers, ALG) Final Results: Gold: Eli Dershwitz (USA) Silver: Enrico Berrè (ITA) Bronze: Kamil Ibragimov (RUS) & Veniamin Reshetnikov (RUS) Semifinals: Berrè b. Ibragimov 15-6 Dershwitz b. Reshetnikov 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Dershwitz b. Berrè 15-9 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/164/results/rank

Women's Individual Foil (St.Maur, FRA) Final Results: Gold: Hong Hyo Jin (KOR) Silver: Alice Volpi (ITA) Bronze: Chae Song Ho (KOR) & Svetlana Tripapina (RUS) Semifinals: Hong b. Chae WD (injury) Volpi b. Tripapina 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Hong b. Volpi 15-13 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/118/results/rank

no way... we have a lot more potential medal chances (for instance, I'd should count at least 3 snowboard medal chances, at least 8 alpine skiing medal chances, 5/6 biathlon medal chances and so on)... for what concerns biathlon, moreover, 0 medals is totally unrealistic...we always got at least 1 or 2 medals (not counting the many 4th place-finish for superstition) from Sochi on...and we have a young and improving team in the women's division... I don't see how and why we shouldn't get at least the same results of the last 3/4 seasons (if not improve those numbers, which would be logic with a team like ours)... the last sentence in bold is the real question mark of our Games...we don't have so many "reliable favourite" for the races where we are supposed to get some good results (I'm saying "reliable" because if Goggia does finish the race, she's the clear favorite in good 3 different events...but talking about that is just beyond this thread's aim)...

no, those results are the minimum target not to consider our Game experience a total failure once again...

as I feared, Darvish got thrashed once again...1 and 2/3 innings and it was all gone for LA... despite loading the bases many times, the Dodgers wasted any chance they built with silly stike outs and other mistakes (like only going for the big HR with runners on instead of trying the little by little comeback policy)... the Astros pitchers, who were considered not so reliable before the WS, did perform at their best once against against the odds and always found the way to get through the storm and finally sealed the deal and gave the Astros the chance to lift the Trophy for the first time ever... congrats to them (and especially to George Springer, voted WS MVP)... for what concerns LA, in the end they paid for their mistakes, especially the orrendous managing of the pitching staff... I really hope Dave Roberts gets fired before the beginning of the next season... Surely he's responsible for the strongest team of the majors not having won the title...and for another frustrating end of a season...right now, 30 years of frustration...and counting... p.s. and since Baseball is named in the US "the National pastime" and the MLB being a true American show...the top moment of the night came after the game and all the Trophy presentations... it all happened live on TV, when Carlos Correa on his knees made the proposal to her fiancèe, who obviously (I guess this time it was really obvious) said "YES!"... so, good luck to them... and now it's really all over...see you on March 29th 2018, when the next season starts...

no, not at all... just a short list... Alpine Skiing 1 medal between Women's Downhill and Women's Super-G (mainly by Goggia, but she's not the only hope we have) 1 medal (if not 2) in Women's Giant Slalom (we have 4 real medal threats there) 1 medal among all the men's events (Fill, Innerhofer, Paris in the speed disciplines and Gross, Moelgg in Slalom) and/or the team event Cross-Country Skiing 1 medal (probably our best chance for Gold) from Pellegrino/Noeckler in the Men's Team Sprint Biathlon at least 2 medals (we are very competitive in all the women's events and in the mixed relay...and we can't count Hofer out in the Pursuit and/or Mass start events) Snowboard 1 medal in Women's Snowboardcross (Moioli above all, probably our second best chance to win Gold) 1 medal between Men's Snowboardcross (our team is second to none, in my opinion) and/or the PGS events (especially the guys, all of them) Short Track 1 medal in the Women's 500m (mainly Fontana, but also Valcepina has chances) Speedskating 1 medal between Men's and Women's Mass Start (Giovannini, Francolini, Tumulero and Lollobrigida are all capable of that...especially if the men's Dutch team will mess it up because of their internal rivalries) and/or Men's Team Pursuit Figure Skating Carolina Kostner (and no...once again, I'm not drunk...with some of the Russians already out of the Games, she's still the 3rd best in the world right now behind Medvedeva and Yu-Na Kim -if she does show up in Pyeongchang)...but this is just a lottery because of the nature of the sport and because of corruption between judges) as you see, we're already at 10 (if not 11 or 12) and I've been very realistic, without any Pindaric flight (and I could add even K-Fischnaller in the Men's Singles in Luge, but this would be a very optimistic rather than realistic preview)... and if you want to be particularly optimistic, in Biathlon and Alpine Skiing we could win even more medals than what I wrote (but this would need some unbelievable luck on that given fortnight)...

c'mon, man! Ok...Italy aren't exactly in their best historical moment for what concerns Winter Sports... but only 2 medals??? really??? let's be serious...there's a small chance we won't get a gold like 4 years ago, but no way we'll fly home with just 2 top 3 places... I can't even imagine we won't win a single medal in women's alpine skiing nor in snowboard... not to talk about biathlon or skating (all disciplines included)... to be realistic, we reasonably expect at least 10 medals (the problem is just how many of those will be Gold? and that's a big problem)...

finally, in game #6 we had a real baseball game, after the crazy shootout of the previous match... Verlander, as expected, dominated the game from the beginning and Houston looked almost ready to start the party, but at the end of the 6th inning a vmarginal mistake of the Astros starter opened the door for the Dodgers' comeback... unfortunately, another series of questionable tactical decisions by the Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts, despite leading to yesterday's win, forced the team to a quite intensive use of the bullpen once again... so, tonight in game #7 (first pitch at 8.10 p.m. NY time, 1.10 a.m. of tomorrow morning CET) LA need a really strong performance by their starter Yu Darvish (heavily beaten in game #3 in Houston) and maybe even a very short rest relief appearance by their superstar Clayton Kershaw, who could enter in the middle innings to help the team's cause like he successfully did in last year's playoff series against Washington... on the other end, McCullers Jr. will be the starter for the Houston Astros..hoping he can take them in the game as long as possible, since their bullpen isn't their strenght as seen so far in the playoffs... however, whoever wins it, this year we had fantastic world series, with a series of record breaking plays which normally people don't see in this stage of the season... I love baseball...