************ ************ ************ ************ ************ ************ ************ ************ ************ ************ ************ ************. And I still don't feel better. :|
Great game by both sides. Truly great. Obvious I wished we would have won, but the teams were very evenly matched. You gotta give Mia those corners... She's great! Bai Jie gave us fits. She's really fast. (BTW, we had about 50 people at J and J's, many of whom I've seen before but don't know... we need to find some way to recruit them into the Brigade)
Since I'm beyond being lazy, what does this all mean now? Maybe I should look up stats and standings.
This result changes very little for the Beat of course it means that there is ONLY one spot left in the playoffs as Philly, Carolina, and Washington are all in. San Jose is three behind Atlanta for the fourth spot and both teams have two games left. Both of San Jose's games are ont the road and both of Atlanta's are at home. Atlanta wins the tie breaker against San Jose. SO any win by Atlanta or loss by San Jose and Atlanta clinches the fourth spot. The only way that San Jose catches Atlanta is for Atlanta to loose or tie out AND San Jose to Win both or, if Atlanta looses both a win and a tie will get San Jose the fourth spot. The schedule favors Atlanta BUT they must take advantage of the schedule. It is STILL posible for Atlanta to finish as high as second BUT they need to aim at making sure of the playoffs byt Winning Wednesday against San Diego so they do not get to the last game of the year with "must Win" in their minds.
this is possible, but is it probable? Carolina plays New York and San Diego while Atlanta plays San Diego and Philadelphia. To take second Carolina would have to loose both and Atlanta win both, right? Ties wouldn't even do it I don't think. Who knows, maybe New York will pull out something like they did when they beat Philly. I'm just more concerned that the Beat make it to the playoffs... hopefully in third and not fourth.
Actually it is more "possible" right now than it was two weeks ago. Two weeks ago everyone was thinking the "only" real race was for the third and fourth spots it was almost "inconceivable" (See the Princess Bride for proper use of this word "You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it does.") that the Beat, or Washington would have ANY shot at second. However, we, as fans, can discuss it BUT the Beat players and staff need to look only as far as getting a win against SD. If they have a breakdown that costs them three against SD and San Jose wins they go into the final game with it being a MUST win. A VERY bad situation to be in. The Beat play BEFORE San Jose on the final day and that is even worse for our hopes. Looking at the playoffs it DOES not matter if the Beat gets third or fourth as the playoffs begin a WHOLE new season and the Beat’s first game will, most probably, be away. The only thing is I think the field at Carolina is a bit better than the one in Philly.
Sorry, but I can't see New York beating anybody in the top four right now. They really seem to have lost it
If I were to word things simply the people that pay me royalities might figure out how much fun I have writing and quit paying me by the word and pay by the thought instead. I cannot afford ANY pay cut much less one that extensive!!!
[boycott off] From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43912-2002Aug4.html [boycott on]
Atlanta will not win Fair Play award. I accuse Atlanta for breaching a fundamental fair-play principle in their Sunday match against Washington. After Steffi Jones went down with an injury, moments after the Freedom tied the game, Atlanta the Freedom sprayed the ball out of bounds. What is supposed to happen is that Atlanta gives the ball back to Washington unimpeded and let them start upfield. But Atlanta dumped the ball into the Freedom backfield and (same old) Hooper (always cheating) attacked and got the ball to Parlow to tie the game. Thing is, entire FA Cup ties have been replayed for violations of this fair-play principle. Too bad nobody else in the media has picked up on this yet...
Same thing happened at Spartan earlier this season. I can't remember if it was the Courage or Freedom game that I went to. Brandi was doing the throw in and was gonna give it back to the opposing team but Sissi pounced on it.
Re: Atlanta will not win Fair Play award. 'kay let me get this straight. The Freedom player went down and the Freedom kicked the ball out. Now you want the Beat to give them the ball? Umm. No offense, but I've never seen this happen. Its a courtesy thing to do if the Beat had the ball and Jones went down and the Beat put the ball out to give the ball back to the Beat. Or Vice versa if the Beat had a player go down and the Freedom had put the ball out. But if your player goes down and you put the ball out then you do not get the ball back. No fair play rules governs this......................................
The principle is: 1) if a player goes down with injury 2) whomever possesses the ball plays it out 3) upon restart of play, the team in 2) who played the ball out, is given possession. 4) it doesn't matter which team the player in 1) happened to be... so if Jones goes down, and Atlanta has possession, they play it out, DC throws in and gives the ball back to Atlanta. If DC had possession, Atlanta throws in and gives the ball back to DC.
Really? We've never played that way. And I've never seen it done. If your player goes down with injury and you put it out then you don't get the ball back. Its to your advantage (usually) to put the ball out rather than play with 10 until the ref notices and calls a drop ball.
I see it all the time. The announcers usually go out of their way to mention it, and praise the sportsmanship.
I've seen play go on for quite a while before the ball gets played out, but I've NEVER seen a team take ADVANTAGE by NOT GIVING the ball back to the team playing it out. If you watched WC this year, you saw it happen every match. And never was the unwritten code violated
jones went down. dc misclears the ball and it goes up field and stays way inside the field (she kicked it straight). atlanta returned the ball near the same spot and it finally gets kicked out up field by pu wei. the ball gets thrown in to kylie bivens who kicks it into dc territory. a dc player gets it (it looks like 14 so i'm going to say grubb. who ever plays left flank). hooper is about 5 yards away from her. grubb miskicks it to mia and it goes right to hooper. hooper gets it fights w/ mia for it, goes to cagle, back to hooper who sends a cross to cp's head. so whats hooper supposed to do? grubb gave it away. oh here, let me give it back to you because you misplayed it? atlanta already gave the ball back which is what you alledge didn't happen when jones went down. grubb mishandled it and gave it away to hooper.