An advice column for people who live with people who live for sports
What happened on Wednesday, March 11, 2015?
Champions for now: The United States Women’s National soccer team won the Algarve Cup by beating France 2-0. The Algarve Cup is an annual international tournament that means something to win but not nearly as much as the once-every-four-years World Cup which is happening this year in Canada. As such, the U.S. team will celebrate for about five minutes before going back to thinking about/obsessing over the World Cup. Line: Let’s see them do it in June.
A man down but not out: Paris Saint Germain played about two thirds of regulation time in their Champions League game yesterday against Chelsea down a man after their striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was given a red card. The team seemed to use what they felt was an unfair expulsion as a rallying point. They went down a goal and clawed back to force extra time. They went down another goal in extra time and heroically gathered their energy and were able to score again to even the score. Then they just had to hold on in the final few minutes to advance thanks to a moderately complicated rule governing Champions League tie-breakers. Line: What a heroic performance by PSG, (Paris Saint Germain) especially their center backs, David Silva and Thiago Silva. (unrelated but both Brazilian)
Don’t count them out: The Portland Trail Blazers season was widely said to become a lost cause when one of their best players, Wesley Matthews, went down with a torn Achilles tendon last week. Their remaining players seem determined to prove that to be a false assumption. They beat the Houston Rockets 105-100 last night, even surviving a bizarre and beautiful fourth quarter surge by the Rockets, led by veteran Corey Brewer who scored 17 points in the fourth quarter alone. Line: I still don’t think the Trail Blazers can survive a playoff series without Matthews but last night’s game is making me have second thoughts.
