I find it interesting, not necessarily bad or good just interesting, that we are treating as a positive things that we would have found excessively intrusive or even a violation of basic freedoms before the pandemic. To paraphrase from a movie about an "Outbreak," "The virus is a billionth our size and it is beating us." I agree with the quarantine measures and even wish they could be much tighter but it really has changed what intrusions into basic freedoms we will allow. BTW: Has anyone noticed that some players on the bench are violating mask protocols by either not wearing one or wearing one improperly? Also some coaches and staff do not wear masks at all while others do. In some way masks seem to be optional but masks work two ways, incoming and outgoing, and they are not perfect in either direction but they do reduce the chance of infection transference. Yes the "zone" is supposed to be virus free but it cannot be perfectly sealed and testing only catches infection after a person has been infected for some time and has, probably, been contagious for at least part of the time they tested negative.
No one took me up on this, but we have another ACL injury. NEWS | Midfielder Kenie Wright to Miss Remainder of 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup with Torn ACL— NJ/NY Gotham FC (@GothamFC) July 7, 2020 I'm not sure on total injuries, but I think we're at 4 ACL injuries, if we count the preseason ones (Dydasco, Mautz, Watt, and now Wright).
Today, from EqualizerSoccer's coffee article https://equalizersoccer.com/2020/07...truck-player-requests-athlete-village-bubble/ I discovered Yuki Nagasato has a YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/nagasato1920 She has been posting videos from Utah, and of course they are quintessential Yuki. Our world is a better place having her in it.
I almost never watch personal YouTube videos and I have to say that after wasting my time watching that one I see no reason not to revert back to not watching YouTube. The only thing I found good in it was that Short's hair still looks great even if she is wearing a mask. I am sure people can find much more productive things to do instead of producing drivel like this. Tempting people, even me, to waste time watching stuff like this should be punished by having to listen to "It's a Small World" performed by the Fresno bagpipe band at twice normal volume 1000 times in a row in a dark room.
What great videos from Yuki! I've been glued to the 'puter all morning. A great behind-the-scenes look at the tournament! And I've never been to Fresno and I won't speed it up, but presented for your dining and dancing pleasure:
Great article: https://www.allforxi.com/2020/7/7/2...ct-play-welcome-to-nwsls-philosophical-battle This:
Is there any info out there about the scheduling of the knockouts? Meaning, is the scheduled quarterfinal #1 going to be #1 v #8, quarterfinal #2 to be #2 vs #7 or #4 vs #5, etc? Or do we not know those details yet?
@SiberianThunderT is right. See this page: https://prod-nwsl-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/wp/uploads/2020/06/challengecup_tourmamentrules.pdf 1,8,4, & 5 are on one side of the bracket and 2,7,3 & 6 are on the other side
Yeah, that is why the announcers kept saying that the spots to strive for were "2,3,6,7" so as to be on the side of the bracket away from NC. I actually think it is better to meet a top team earlier in a tournament as was seen in the last WWC.
Thanks, all, and sorry for being unclear, but, I was actually asking more specifically about when the games that are scheduled to be played. For example, is the quarterfinal #1 as they're listed on this schedule page of #1 vs #8 the game that'll be played on Friday, July 17 at 10:30 am MDT? And is quarterfinal #2 that is played that evening the #4 vs #5 on the bottom of that side of the bracket or the #2 vs #7 game on the other side? It really doesn't matter at this point (except for possibly which teams might get a bit more rest), and I'll probably be watching regardless, but I just can't find anything that actually spells that out.
Ah, yeah I haven't heard anything about the timing of the four seeded QFs. I'd guess they either do a drawing of lots, or let teams 1-3 pick timeslots to play - or already have it set up in some way so rest favors the higher seeds.
I just checked the CBS all access site and they only show times for quarterfinals not which teams 1,2, etc are playing. I also looked on the NWSL site and the same thing. They do not break it down. I checked five other sites and not one had a breakdown of which finishers are to be in which time slot. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
I am guessing that they will play the same side of the bracket on the same day, so that when they get to the semis, no team has a full day of rest advantage over the other. For the championship, there is no way to avoid it.
No comments about the fact that we currently have 5 teams tied at 4 points and Portland and Chicago at the last places? Who would have thought that? For sure my ladder-prediction is now crying!
The "standings matter almost not at all. The only important thing to most people is avoiding NC when the games start to actually matter. That means finishing in 2nd,3rd,6th or 7th. Any team actually in 4th wants to move up 1 or 2 places or fall down to 6th but avoid going all the way down to 8th. In actuality the "drive" to avoid NC is unfounded because to win the tournament you must beat NC or beat whoever beats them and there is something to be said for meeting the "best" early. So the "standings" are really meaningless. I really think that an 8 team round robin with the top two playing a "final" would have made a lot more since that this current farce we are seeing.
Considering many players like Sam Kerr of Chicago left and other players of the USWNT aren't playing, these playmakers are the ones who can get the team to the top. But at least we get to see how the other players do.
I'm really enjoying the features that the Equalizer is putting out. Here's another about the unsung heroes of the Challenge Cup: the stadium cleaning crew who are cleaning and disinfecting the stadium and its facilities after each game (they have about 7 hours between the morning and evening games).
...that EQZ article has alerted me to the fact that there are (at least) nine Challenge Cup meme accounts on Twitter: Your time to shine!Assign the 9 @NWSL teams to their proper alter ego account:@nwslplayground @CupGlare @NWSLhydration @NWSLCupFarm @NWSLCupSunset @NWSLTurfBurns @nwslcupmountain @nwslambulance @nwslcoffeetruck— NWSL Challenge Cup Sun Glare (@CupGlare) July 8, 2020
Orlando Pride COVID situation - Are there any updates? Back on June 22, NWSL announced that 6 players and 4 staff had tested positive. Subsequently I saw that Ali Krieger was one of the positives, but she had two negative tests after the positive one. Do we even know if the initial single positve test was confirmed as positive by subsequent testing? How many of the 10 have been determined to be not infected?
For those not on Twitter, there's been some fun stuff, even outside of the created accounts, so here's a bit of what you missed: Orlando Pride has picked a team for each game to "stan," and it does seem like the Orlando curse is real. Orlando, just as supporters, have a losing record, and Portland has now on twitter asked them to always "stan" the other team. It worked in this last game. For example: Good lookin’ out fam. 🤝 #Thecurseisreal https://t.co/t4D4X3p1V1— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) July 17, 2020 As a part of the "NWSL playground" story, many on twitter had called for a player to celebrate a goal on the playground. Two Athletic journalists (including Meg Linehan) committed to donating to a player's choice of charity if she would celebrate a goal on the slide. They even got Baird to waive the penalty fine from a slide celebration. Apparently, Weaver didn't read the fine print on Linehan's tweet though in that the celebration needed to be during the game: The celly we’ve all been waiting for. Especially @itsmeglinehan & @MLSist. #BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/D9GoYWr3Vd— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) July 17, 2020 More on the request for a slide celebration (yes, there's an entire Athletic article about it): https://theathletic.com/1933864/
From what I saw, everyone tested negative in subsequent tests. That number of false positives is unlikely, but it could have been contaminated samples.
I thought the initial positive was confirmed positive? But yeah, 5 other players and 4 staff (actually I never saw that the staff were subsequently ruled negative?) with false positives makes me think there were serious problems with the testing.
I don't know if they were confirmed or not. I'm not sure the articles said anything other than they tested positive. The concern I have is that they all tested negative on the next round of testing. Unless the Pride weren't testing their players until that final week before heading to Utah, they shouldn't have tested positive for the first time and then a few days later tested negative.