phelps

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...

well, this is just FIL proposing for the new events... it remains to be seen if the IOC agrees to give them some more space in the Olympic program... Natural Track Luge was already almost sure to become Olympic before Torino 2006, but at the last moment the IOC slammed the door on our face...I wouldn't like to live another disappointing experience like that... so, as the legenday Giovanni Trapattoni ("il Trap") says: "Non dire gatto, se non ce l'hai nel sacco!"

Yes, and Brignone's situation is not that clear...there are rumors about her problem being chronical (she suffers from groin inflammation and some newspapers wrote that it's given by a bone edema, which is not possible to be fixed if not with a very long pause...and of course this would mean at least a full season off, which she won't take in this particular year obviously)... by the way, also Fabio Francolini (Speedskating) has a lot of troubles right now (he's fighting against a stomach virus) and will probably miss the first part of the World Cup season... definitely our Olympic campaign has not started under the most brilliant star... but I hope that we can still find the way to cancel the awful rememberings of Sochi (when we didn't win a single Gold medal)...

FIL is going to ask IOC to put in into the Olympic program some new disciplines already from Beijing 2022... Women's Doubles, Sprint Races for Men and Women in both Singles and Doubles will be proposed in Artificial Track Luge, meanwhile Men's and Women's Singles and Mixed Doubles will be proposed in Natural Track Luge... Frankly, I'm not so interested in new Artificial Track events at the Olympics, but I really like the idea of all the credits Natural Track Luge has with the IOC being finally recognized... https://www.oasport.it/2017/10/slittino-la-fil-proporra-nuovi-sport-olimpici-al-cio-slittino-naturale-dal-2022-litalia-spera/ sorry for the source being in Italian language only...

do you think game #2 was crazy and exciting? well, just give a look at game #5... this was one of the most unbelievable baseball games I've ever seen...5 and a half hours of big plays, big mistakes, changes of lead in the scoreline... for sure, something that people with their hearts not perfectly fit (nor the Dodgers fans) shouldn't watch... in game #1, Keuchel vs Kershaw was an amazing duel, which came up as one of the shortest WS games ever because of the total domination by the 2 pitchers... yesterday night, insted, both starters were beaten heavily since the beginning, this resulting in their shortest outing in the PO and in a bullpen battle where the team giving up the less home runs eventually got the win...and that team were the Houston Astros... the key of the game was, once again, a capital mistake by LA's manager Roberts, who at a certain point didn't respect his own pre-game decisions and put relief pitcher Morrow on...the outcome of this move was that Houston scored 4 points on just 6 pitches from a gassed out Morrow and took a 3-run lead, which LA could only tie but not fully overcome in the 9th inning... finally, in the 10th inning the Dodgers closer Jansen, too tired because of the clearly wrong managing of the pitching staff by mr. Roberts, gave up the winning run to Houston, putting LA in a very deep hole, since on Tuesday in game #6 the Astros will have their superstar pitcher Verlander on the mound and for LA it will be very hard to face him and try to take the WS to the 7th and final game...

Florian Gruber had a bad injury to his shoulder...probably he will need an operation and will be out for the season, meaning that the young emerging Italian Duo Gruber/Kainzwalder will miss the world cup 2017/2018 and, above all, the Pyeongchang Olympics... all of our hopes in the Doubles competition are now on the shoulder of the veteran duo Oberstolz/Gruber and of the disappointing (so far) duo Rieder/Rastner... as 3rd sled, in fact, we're going to start a junior couple (Malleier/Nagler)...

and finally, it's the LA Dodgers who score a big inning in the top of the 9th and get the win in game #4... the series is now tied 2-2... the first 8 innings were dominated by the pitchers, with LA collecting just 4 hits (for 1 run) and Houston doing even worse, getting their only run until that moment with just one hit (Springer's HR) off a very effective Alex Wood... but in the 9th the Astros manager Hinch took the decision he should have never taken, giving the ball to his designated closer, Giles, who's totally out of mental shape...and he and his collegue Musgrove were just destroyed by the LA bats, despite being totally out of sync in the last 2 games... tonight (8 p.m. NY time, 1 a.m. of Monday CET) the pivotal game #5 is scheduled once again in Houston... for the Dodgers it's Clayton Kershaw's turn, for Houston Dallas Keuchel will start on the mound...it's the same duel we already saw in game #1 (and it was a classy one)... with Verlander ready to start game #6 for the Astros, there's no need to say that LA desperately need a great game from their ace if they want to keep the hope of winning their first World Series title after 29 long and painful years alive... on the other hand, for the Astros this is their best chance to complete their masterpiece and try to win their first World Series title ever... I'm not saying: "it's all or nothing", but I think we're really close to something like that... by the way, let's go Dodgers! now and forever!

Men's Team Epee (Bern, SUI) Gold: South Korea Silver: Russia Bronze: Japan Semifinals Results: South Korea b. Japan 27-26 Russia b. Italy 35-31 Bronze Medal Match Result: Japan b. Italy 18-15 Gold Medal Match Result: South Korea b. Russia 45-39 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/559/results/rank

Women's Team Sabre (Orleans, FRA) Gold: Russia Silver: France Bronze: South Korea Semifinals Results: France b. South Korea 45-39 Russia b. Italy 45-41 Bronze Medal Match Result: South Korea b. Italy 45-43 Gold Medal Match Result: Russia b. France 45-32 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/825/results/rank

Women's Individual Sabre (Orleans, FRA) Final Results: Gold: Rossella Gregorio (ITA) Silver: Loreta Gulotta (ITA) Bronze: Manon Brunet (FRA) & Bianca Pascu (ROU) Semifinals: Gregorio b. Brunet 15-9 Gulotta b. Pascu 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Gregorio b. Gulotta 15-6 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Yesterday's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/467/results/rank

Men's Individual Epee (Bern, SUI) Final Results: Gold: Park Sang Young (KOR) Silver: Bogdan Nikishin (UKR) Bronze: Volodymyr Stankevych (UKR) & Igor Reizlin (UKR) Semifinals: Park b. Stankevych 15-11 Nikishin b. Reizlin 8-6 Gold Medal Match: Park b. Nikishin 15-8 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/385/results/rank

yeah, but they didn't get the same attention of the NBA and NFL players... actually, I think that nobody in the US does know what they did... by the way, this week it's time for the men's Epee and the women's Sabre to start their respective World Cup season campaign... in today's Individual events, we're in front of a Ukranian festival in Bern (men's Epee), with 3 of them reaching the semifinals (to be contested later this afternoon, at 5 p.m CET - live streaming available on Youtube...the link on the official site of the event: HERE)... in Orleans (women's Sabre) we are at the quarterfinal stage (at 6 p.m. CET - also in this case live streaming available through the official website of the competition: HERE) and we still have 3 Italians, 2 French women and 1 girl each from Romania, Poland and Hungary left... to be noticed, the Russian complete failure and Arianna Errigo's best result in a Sabre World Cup event so far (she went out in the round of last #16, losing only 14-15 against Manon Brunet of France)...

well, I also like her, too... but frankly she's always too much on the edge... now she's experienced enough to know that she should be able to find a reasonable balance between attacking at her best and avoiding excessive risks in the most dangerous corners of the course... as @dcro wrote, she already missed out on quite a few top results because of her "all or nothing" attitude... she has to realize that she's no longer a promising youngster...now she's one of the top racers in the world in at least 3 different disciplines, who's expected by fans, coaches and officials to capitalize on her talent and get some medals...

yeah, I know NOS Teletext has always all results... I was used to take advantage of that when I was able to see (don't ask me how ) the main Dutch TV channels on the satellite (I'm talking of the 2004-2007 period, the golden age of sat tv emulators, when almost all european networks were up for grabs for tv "pirates")...

p.s. thanks for the streaming link (even if today I don't have so much time to follow all the action carefully)...

more or less... but it's all on ORF director... he did everything he could to boiycott her first WC success...first he showed the graphics saying she's never won a WC race before and then when she was at the start he went on with another graphics saying she would have been the oldest WC winner if she was to succeed... and of course she only got third at the end of the day... however, new season but old attitude by Bassino and, above all, Goggia... their skiing IQ is really -2743...

this looks some good news... I really hope she's on her full recovery path... p.s. they also showed Marianne Timmer on the stands...nowadays she looks even more beautiful than in her racing times...

as expected, at home the Astros bats got hot and jumped all over Darvish early... so the game was basically over after just a couple of innings... McCullers had another excellent outing after the unbelievable relief appearance in game #7 of the ALCS, escaping a potential disaster in the 3rd (when he was affected by the long interval between his second and third effort, due to the long half inning with Houston at bat)... meanwhile LA offense did perform something too little and too late... now LA is at high risk to pay a very costly prize to Roberts' idiotic mistakes in game #2...they really need a 5-star outing from Alex Wood later tonight in game #4 (8 p.m. NY time, 2 a.m. on Sunday CET)... and it's all but sure they're gonna get it...

quite surprising results, I'd say... p.s. am I the only one who has some "unhortodox" thoughts about Verweij's "hidden" training "over there"?

here in Italy it doesn't work, unless we go with a VPN (even a free one, like Hola)...

I hope it's just a naive boutade of a joker inside the IOC... I don't really understand them anymore...they're just killing the world of Sport and the Olympic Games...

meanwhile I know very well who I cheer for...it's 29 years I'm waiting a week like this...go Dodgers! by the way, last night's game #2 was very tense, close and one of the craziest ever in the WS history... Verlander did his usual very good job, but it wouldn't have been enough if the LA relievers didn't waste the 2-run advantage they had in the late innings... until now, they have been the real strenght of the team, but yesterday Morrow and Jansen blew the lead and forced the game to go to the extra-innings, where all the overmanaging mistakes of mr.Roberts, the *** acting as the Dodgers' manager, came out all at the same time and let the LA mound empty when it shouldn't have happened and so the Dodgers conceded too many runs to the Astros bats and finally came up short on their desperate comeback attempt in the bottom of the 11th inning... to be noticed that in yesterday's game a record was broken...there have been something like 8 home runs, the highest number in a WS game history... next game is scheduled for Friday night (8 p.m. NY time, 2 a.m. of Saturday in Central Europe) in Houston... for the Dodgers it's already been announced that the starting pitcher will be the Japanese Yu Darvish, for Houston the choice should go to Morton or McCullers (the one who won't start in game #3, almost surely will be the game #4 starter)... on paper, this situation makes the Dodgers big favourite once again...but you know...this is the World Series...and in moments like this anything can happen, some of the most amazing "Cinderella stories" have been written in the MLB showdown... however, let's go Dodgers...now and forever!