A New Power

Last week Major League Soccer made a definitive statement to the world. The MLS All-Star game does not follow the same format as all other American All-Star contests. There is no useless skill competition or any type of meaningless competition outside the game itself. However, even the game is unique to other American All-Star games. There is only one MLS All-Star team, comprised of the best players from the league. There is no East and West team, thus allowing for only the creme of the crop to make it. This one super-team takes on a foreign power in a one game showdown. This year's opponent, Chelsea, was the defending European Champions, having won the prestigious Champions League trophy despite finishing 6th in the Premier League. The Champions League victory stole a Champions League spot from Tottenham Hotspur in the 2012-2013 campaign. Tottenham will have to compete in the Europa League with Inter Milan instead. Maybe teams like Tottenham and Inter will give the Europa League more pizzazz.

How the hell did we win this?

 Chelsea's Champions League victory earned them the "Champions of Europe" label. This coveted title was brought to U.S. soil when Chelsea arrived to take on the MLS's powerhouse team. Upon Chelsea's arrival, the whole nation should have been warned that John Terry was in the country so everyone could get ready to hide their wives and girlfriends. Terry has also been under scrutiny for racism recently, so hopefully no one's feelings were hurt while he was here either. En route to Champions League glory, Chelsea somehow managed to eliminate heavy favorites Barcelona from the competition in the semi-finals. Not even Barcelona's little genius, Lionel Messi, could score when Chelsea had nine men and the goalkeeper defending the goal, don't forget that Torres was not defending which allowed him to score that crazy goal. Messi's 70+ goals this year for Barcelona could not get a Champions League title or the La Liga title. One man cannot win it all, at least not all the time. Sorry Messi, maybe you'll have to score 80+ goals to win trophies unless David Villa can come back and make an impact on goal.

Barcelona, arguably the greatest club side of all time, was eliminated by Chelsea as well as Bayern Munich in the final. Chelsea, despite losing extremely valuable striker Didier Drogba to Chinese soccer, should be able to handle the MLS All-Star team. Absolutely not correct. The MLS All-Star team defeated Chelsea 3-2, with goals from Chris Wondolowski, Chris Pontius, and Eddie Johnson. John Terry was even kind enough to stop the ball for Wondolowski to open the scoring. Terry Redeemed himself later with the equalizing header off a corner, but the MLS All-Star team proved too strong for the Champions. Eddie Johnson's game winning goal was one of huge proportions, lifting his side to the victory in stoppage time. By the transitive property, which is always correct, the MLS All-Stars would be the best team in Europe if they did compete in Europe. John Terry and Frank Lampard's goals were not enough to defeat the powerhouse that is the 2012 MLS All-Star team.

Greatest Team Ever Assembled

The glory goes beyond simply defeating the European Champions. Chelsea beat Barcelona, the greatest thing ever, even better than sliced bread which also bows down to the Catalans. The MLS All-Stars, by beating Chelsea, are superior to Barcelona, too. Looks like Messi and CR7 are going to have a third party joining them in the debate for the best player in the world. Who that man will be, I do not know, but it could be Wonolowski since he was astonishingly able to get John Terry to help him out, a man who would much rather be fooling around with Wondolowski's significant other and yelling derogatory remarks at  Eddie Johnson and Thierry Henry. Now that's an impressive feat that neither Messi nor CR7 has accomplished.

The MLS has come a long way since it's inauguration and is quickly making up lost ground created by Americans' prejudice against soccer. But how can anyone argue with a victory carrying the magnitude of defeating the current European Champions? Not only is the MLS relevant, but simply the best.

Up For the Occasion

Today marked the final group stage matches in the Euro Championship for Group B, labeled the group of death. Group B earned this name because it was deemed the toughest group in the whole tournament with all four teams ranked in the top ten in the world by Fifa. Coming into today's fixtures any of the four teams had a chance to qualify for the knockout stages. Germany (3rd in the world) was pitted against Denmark (9th in the world), while Portugal (10th in the world) was facing the underachieving Netherlands (4th in the world).

The most intriguing story line was the Portugal versus Netherlands game. The lackluster Dutch side needed a two goal victory over Portugal who had not seen much production at all from superstar Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7) in the first two games. CR7 showed up for this one, scoring two goals and hitting the post twice in a game where Portugal defeated the Netherlands 2-1 to secure a spot in the knockout stages. Ronaldo has been under some heat for not performing as well for Portugal as he does for his club team, Real Madrid. He silenced the haters, at least for now with a great performance. He also nearly had an assist, too, on a great pass to Nani, but Nani's shot was denied by a brilliant save by the Dutch keeper.

I score goals and look great

CR7 played aggressively throughout the game, went on many great runs, and created commotion near the Dutch net weather by shooting or creating opportunities for teammates. The Netherlands came out on fire with a quick goal from Rafael van der Vart in the opening moments of the game, but Portugal dominated for the most part from that point on. Only van der Vart's shot that hit the post in the second half looked threatening as Robin van Persie failed to make an impact despite getting at least one golden opportunity.

This is probably the worst showing for the Netherlands at a Euro cup given that the team lost all three games it played, but credit must be given to their opponents. Germany is a great side and Denmark fought hard in it's three games. Apparently there is unrest flowing through the Dutch team, but it looks like they all developed some Arjen Robben choking habits, maybe with the exception of van der Vart who looked great when given a chance to start. It's also time for people to calm down the shit talk on CR7, he's a wonderful player and he'll always look better than you, too.

Does Anyone Expect the Chinese Inquisition?

After this past weekend's Prefontaine Classic I'm excited to announce that Liu Xiang is back! Xiang, unable to compete in the 2008 Olympics in his home country China due to injury, is back in a big way winning the 110 meter high hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic in 12.87 seconds! That time equals the world record held by Cuba's Dayron Robles, but due to the 2.4 meter per second tail wind the time is ineligible to qualify for world records. In track and field when wind assistance (tail winds) exceed 2.0 meters per second, then records of any type cannot be broken. However, despite the wind behind him, Xiang looked amazing. I love his emotion following the race, too!
 

 Xiang's current form has him in very good shape for the upcoming Olympic games held in London this year. The China man formerly held the world record in the event at 12.88 seconds before Robles broke, running 12.87. Robles also won the gold in the high hurdles in 2008 without competing against Xiang. If Xiang and Robles can stay healthy there could be one hell of a 110 meter hurdle final at the Olympics this year! Xiang and Robles met at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea where Robles was disqualified for disrupting Xiang in the final stages of the race. I think that had Xiang not been interfered with, he would have taken the gold. Regardless of whether the contact by Robles on Xiang was intentional or not, slight contact like that throws off the rhythm of a hurdler greatly and can make you run a 13.27 (as if that's bad).

 Winner of the high hurdles in the 2004 Olympics, Xiang is an experienced hurdler who, when healthy, simply dominates. Look for Xiang to disregard the fact that anyone else has the right to win this race in London and cruelly punish his opponents. For thirteen months spanning from 2009 to 2011 Xiang was unable to compete, but he's back in a big way!

In general, the high hurdles should be a great and exciting event to watch at this year's Olympics. Xiang and Robles will be joined by many other talented high hurdlers which most likely will include Americans David Oliver, Jason Richardson, and Aries Merritt (pending Olympic trials).

Feel free to post any comments related to the Olympics, high hurdles, or Xiang below (I'm not expecting any, but I have to try!) Toninho's prediction: Look for Liu Xiang to reclaim gold at the 2012 Olympics. I hope he shatters the World Record, too!

Liu for the win

Thanks Everyone

We at the Penultimate Round Pick are ecstatic with the people that are coming and viewing our blog! Just want to thank you guys who have supported us and please comment on our blogs so we can write stuff that the fans (our readers) want to see in our postings. Without your support, we would not be doing what we enjoy, which is entertaining you with insight about our strengths in specific sports.

This is not our staff just shows how excited we are to have fans like you guys!

Everyone have a great weekend and remember here at the Penultimate Round Pick, we give you performance enhancing thoughts in the world of sports.

TUF Live Finale

Hello folks, today is the day we have been waiting for. Tonight we will see who will become the first ever TUF: Live winner. The fight pits Team Faber Members Michael Chiesa vs. Al Iaquinta. At this point I am pretty sure that Chiesa will win, he has a much better wrestling game although Iaquinta is a product of Team Serra from New York. I predict that the fight will go down to a decision. Also the other fights scheduled for tonight have the TUF guys fighting which is a great thing. Going on that idea, it is great because these fighters can prove that they are UFC material and can work their way onto future fight cards.



Now getting onto the main event we have two guys who love to stand and beat their opponents to a bloody pulp. Jake Ellenberger has most recently come off a win against Diego Sanchez. He has also been on a night fight streak since his first loss in the UFC by now interim champ Carlos Condit.  Now Ellenberger is fighting Martin Kampmann, who came off a terrific come from behind victory against Thiago Alves by way of guillotine. These two fighters have two opponents in common which is Jake Shields and Diego Sanchez, which Ellenberger has defeated both. My prediction is that Kampmann will show his greatest tool in the octagon, which is his kickboxing. Therefore, Kampmann will win the fight, but it will be a close fight. Be sure to catch the fights at 9pm on FX. You will be sure to see a good ol night of fights because "We are live!"!

Strikeforce Barnett vs. Cormier

Hello readers, sorry for not posting any new articles on the site. So two weeks ago Strikeforce also known as UFC's sister promotion had an event that showcased the finale of the Heavy Grand Prix between former UFC Heavyweight Champ Josh Barnett against former collegiate wrestler Daniel Cormier. Before I talk about that fight, the fight I do want to talk about is the co-main event which consisted of Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson. Melendez is the current Strikeforce lightweight champion, and if you are any type of MMA fan, you would know that these two fighters were going for the rubber match. Quite potentially one of the greatest fights of this year.


In all of the three fights that these two warriors have gone through, they have all gone to a decision. Meaning that they have fought fifteen rounds in the cage (Unlike the UFC, Strikeforce fights in a hexagon). In their first meeting, Thomson won the fight and had the title for about a year and a half until the rematch and Melendez won by decision. So at this point this fight was to prove who the best fighter was. Watching the fight, in all my years of watching MMA, this fight by far was the hardest to score. I thought that Thomson had the slight edge, but again when you leave it in the hands of the judges, you never know what will happen. Melendez won by a split decision victory, however, I believe because this last fight between them was so close they might have to make it a Melendez vs. Thomson IV.

Getting back to the Heavyweight Grand Prix Finale, Cormier was a last minute fill in for former champion Alistair Overeem. Essentially in many people's opinions, not many people had Cormier going far in the tournament. However, in the first fight, he knocked out recent UFC signee Antonio Silva. Now if you do further research like anyone who really cares about the sport you will see that Cormier wasn't even in the beginning of the bracket. He filled in after Overeem was released by Strikeforce.




So essentially it made it somewhat easier for Cormier to go through the tournament because he needed two fights in order to win the tournament and become the Heavyweight Champion (Opps....Spoiler Alert). So getting into the fight, it was another great fight where they both put in all they could. In this case however, Cormier came out victorious and the new Heavyweight Champion. Here is the twist, Strikeforce is removing their Heavyweight division, however, Showtime is owed a heavyweight fight. The remaining Heavyweight fighters are going to the UFC. So when it comes to who will challenge Cormier for the title, so far the name I have heard is Shane Carwin. People I will post about this weeks TUF: Live Finale, as well as this past weekends UFC 146 Dos Santos vs. Mir. Have a great day fighters and post any comments that you have and want to see for this

The Comeback Pitcher

Hey all, sorry for the lack of new content on this page for a while, I've been distracted by "prior engagements" and the other writers don't have an excuse.  I haven't been able to follow baseball as well as I typically do this month, mostly limiting my exposure to keeping tabs on my fantasy team and catching wind of interesting events in the baseball world.  For the first time in a little while I looked at my fantasy team in more depth to really get a sense of how things are going and I found myself coming to a very happy surprise.

Good thing I had a camera handy for it!

Here's some back story first, in my younger days I liked to separate myself from the pack, and to do that one time I had my parents get me a baseball jersey of a seemingly random player for a seemingly random team, for no reason better than my moderate taste for their uniforms.  I did this because I wanted to own something that nobody at my high school would have as well, and apparently I thought it would make me slightly more interesting.  Well anyways, because I had the shirt I started to follow the team as my third team of interest after my beloved Red Sox and Braves.  It was around 2004 at that point and as I started to take a liking in this team and they rewarded me by changing from a last place team to division champs in about 2 years.  In truth, they weren't a good team and just succeeded in a terrible division, but they had a bright spot in a young righty that I look a liking to.  A few years later he won a Cy Young award and that was that.  For a reason I can only speculate about that is when I stopped considering myself a "fan" of this team and went back to my 2 team format.

Now that I've told you this mediocre story, you may be able to see that the team I am talking about was the 2004-2007 San Diego Padres and the young righty I spoke of was none other than Jake Peavy.  Life after the 2007 Cy Young award seemed a little difficult for Peavy, whether the Padres were just never that good or they remained shaken up by their loss in their one game playoff against the Colorado Rockies for the wild card (one of the best games I ever watched) they didn't give Peavy any run support and he finished 10-11 with a 2.85 ERA.  Poor guy gets rewarded for pitching well with trade talks and even had to reject a trade to the White Sox in order to start the season with the Padres, take a second to think he intentionally rejected a trade to stick with the Padres, that doesn't happen in this day and age.  Eventually he tore a tendon in his ankle and the trade talks caught up with him and he accepted a trade to the White Sox.  The next year got even worse as he tore the damn muscles off his back.  It doesn't seem like coming back from a detached back is even possible for a pitcher but he did come back and had a 4.92 ERA.

You need to search "Jake Peavy partying" on Google images

That is where I stood on Peavy at the start of this season.  A sad story of a great pitcher who found his success then fate just decided to screw him over with one random injury after another, a slightly happier version of Brandon Webb's story if you will.  So now we look to a month ago when I got to fed up with Brandon Morrow's bullshit and decided to drop him, I was looking for another SP on the waiver wire and I was very pleased to see Peavy's name among the top pitchers hanging around.  I took a risk on picking up Peavy, telling myself  he would only serve as a stopgap until Fister comes off the DL.  He was 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA at the time and I had not expected that to keep up.  Well, the first start he had since I picked him up was a complete game shutout win over Oakland, then in his second start I got the best of both worlds as he was the tough-luck loser in a 1-0 game against my Red Sox in which he allowed 4 hits and struck out 7 in the complete game.  Needless to say by my writing this article, he did not slow down.  He is the standout guy in a staff that includes Justin Verlander and Gio Gonzalez, I simply love my pitchers this year!  In fear of being the straw that broke the camel's back in jinxing Peavy, I'll cut out here (hopefully that reverse jinx worked.)

Now he drinks Jager to celebrate!