The World Series is over, seems like it hardly started

Well it's all over now. The Cardinals are no longer the World Series champs. They have officially been dethroned by the Boston Red Sox. For those of you who don't pay attention to baseball well you missed a 4 game sweep by the Red Sox over the Rockies. If you didn't know this then I don't think you are nearly the only one. Even though the Red Sox were in the game it seemed like the hype around this series was a lot lower than previous years. It's amazing how different the attention around a sporting event is when it isn't covered continually by ESPN.

This lack of ESPN coverage could be due to many factors I think. First of all the Rockies just don't have the national attention like a lot of teams and there seemed to be an accepted feeling that they would just get rolled over. Secondly I think the fact that ESPN didn't air any of the games also influences their coverage. Whether you consider that wrong or right I will leave up to you. Thirdly I think Major League Baseball did it to themselves. These long breaks between series are killing the hype around a game. We as Americans have a very very short attention span and if you try to make us remember what happened even 3 days ago with all kinds of sports going on around us you asking a whole lot. Think if the Red Sox would have swept the Indians also. Then you would have had the Rockies with 8 days off and the Red Sox with 7. I don't know a lot of people that could find enough to talk about for a whole week when they only have 2 teams and 1 game to talk about. It's the playoffs team don't need these long breaks, they don't like them, and fans don't either. Could someone please explain why we still have them.

Ok I'm done with that rant and I'll call it a night with that because the Series really didn't give me to much to talk about, it was kind of boring really. Oh well time for football to completely dominate for the next 3 months. Yeah I know hockey and basketball will be going on but I don't care about either and I don't think I'm in the minority on that.

Miami plays to a 1-1 tie with Clemson on Senior Night

Last night the UM Women's Soccer Team took on Clemson in their final home game of the season. It was also senior night so the 6 seniors on the team were honored. This included goalie Lauren McAdam, midfielders Lindsay Curtin, Jessica Gilman, Jenna Levenson, and Sheuneen Ta, and forward Akilah Moore. Several of these seniors have been key in the 'Canes successful season and deserved to be honored.

Then the game go started. I didn't have a very good view for the first half because I was working at the entrance gate. Things started out slow for the Hurricanes and they couldn't really mount much of an attack. Clemson on the other hand scored 8 minutes into the game. I missed the goal but according to the website they scored on a cross that got put into the back of the net. The Clemson goal did seem to wake up the Hurricanes though and after that they put a lot more pressure on the Clemson defense.

The 'Canes pressure didn't pay off until late in the second half after a series of corner kicks. One the 4th corner kick in a row Beverly Goebel headed the ball into the back of the net to bring the score even. The score remained tied through the rest of regular time. This brought the game into overtime.

For those of you unfamiliar with the college soccer rules they are the same as professional soccer with two 15 minute overtime periods that are played out to completion no matter the scoring during the overtime period.

Anyways back to the UM game. Things were fairly competitive through the entire 30 minutes but neither team was able to put a goal on the board. This all meant that the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

Even though the 'Canes didn't get the win they still put up another very good showing. The win moved them into 4th place in ACC and pretty much secured a spot in the ACC tournament. It has been a great season for the 'Canes especially at home where they posted a record of 6-1-1. They have 2 games remaining in the regular season against Duke and Wake Forest that will help decide their seed in the ACC tournament. I wish them the best of luck for the rest of the season. Also for those who aren't to into women's soccer I promise some posts that are about some other topics in the sports world. Like the World Series for example.

Miami FSU and ACC showdown, soccer style

Sorry this took so long. I'm apparently really bad at this blog thing. Anyways here is the news on the latest UM soccer game.

Last Sunday the UM soccer team went on the road to Florida State. The game was televised on SUN sports so I got a chance to watch it without having to travel all the way across the state. In the end UM lost 4-1 to a very good Florida State team.

The Seminoles attack was fierce and consistent. They out shot the Hurricanes 17-12 overall and it was an even greater margin in the first half alone. This was a Florida State team that was ranked 12th in the nation at the time and featured the nations leading scorer. While it was not Lauren McAdam's best game statistically she still made some great saves and looked very good at times.

On the offensive side the Hurricanes didn't look as bad as the score might make you think. Their performance in the second half was much better than the first half and they put a good amount of pressure on the Seminoles defense. This pressure was led by freshman Brittney Steinbruch. Steinbruch took 6 shots in the game and scored the Hurricanes only goal.

The Hurricanes are finally getting national attention. They are now ranked 25th in the Soccer America poll and have received votes in the 2 other national polls. This tells you first of how just how good the Seminoles are that the Hurricanes moved up in the polls with a loss. Also this is respect that the Hurricanes have long deserved and I think that the fact that it came after a loss is just further demonstration of it.

As a final note the Hurricanes take on Clemson this Saturday at home. This is the final home match and also senior night. Theses girls deserve a good showing and everyone who can should at least check them out once this year. I know I will be there, hope to see everyone else there.

Another match and another win for UM soccer

This Wednesday the UM soccer team made the epic journey to the Florida International campus. OK maybe epic isn't the correct word since the FIU campus is about 9 miles north-west of the UM campus. So after a short little drive across Miami, UM was ready to take on the FIU Panthers. This was the final non-conference game for the Hurricanes and was kind of a tune-up for the big game against FSU this Sunday. UM beat FIU 3-1 in what appears to have been a very offensive minded game. The Hurricanes had a total of 20 shots, 13 of which were on goal.

I didn't go to the game so everything I'm going to tell you is from the article and statistics on the UM website. Brittney Steinbruch was up to her old tricks putting in the first 2 goals of the game in the 12th and 16th minutes. The 2 goals gives Steinbruch 15 on the season putting her back on her pace of one goal a game. Not surprisingly she is on pace to break the UM record for single season goals, she is one goal shy of tying the record.

Beverly Goebel also added a goal for the Hurricanes in the second half, her 3rd of the season. Also notable is that freshman Lauren Singer put a great amount of pressure on the FIU defense by firing 8 shots, 5 of which were on goal. No one better be concerned about the next few years for the Hurricanes with such strong offense from 2 freshman and Goebel, a sophomore. Don't think I'm overlooking the senior in Sheuneen Ta who assisted on Steinbruch second goal. Jessica Wybel got the assist on Steinbruch's first goal. Steinbruch got the assist on Goebel's goal in the second half.

While the UM defense didn't get the shutout like they have been doing a lot lately they still did a great job of holding FIU down offensively. They only had 4 shots on goal on the night which is a very low number when you consider the number of shots on goal that UM had.

The Hurricanes have a big test on Sunday when the take a much longer trip to take on rival Florida State. If you haven't seen the UM women in action this will be a perfect opportunity. You can catch the match on Sun Sports at 1 P.M. on Sunday. I know I'll be watching.

Major National Honors for UM goalie Lauren McAdam

Well we can no longer say that UM soccer isn't getting attention nationally. It was just announced today that UM goalie Lauren McAdam has earned several national honors in addition to being named ACC women's soccer player of the week. Today McAdam was named NSCAA National Player of the week, that stands for National Soccer Coaches Association of America if you were wondering. In addition she was also named to the Soccer America Women's Team of the Week and Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week.

This is some long overdue respect in my opinion. I've been talking all season long about how good McAdam has performed this season and this isn't her first quality season. I fully expect several more honors by the end of the season especially with the roll that the Hurricanes are on right now.

Congratulations Lauren!!!!

Another win and some awards for UM Soccer

I should have posted this a couple of days ago but I've been running low on energy lately. Anyways it just wouldn't be a worthwhile blog if I didn't keep up with the UM soccer team. Last Sunday they played Maryland at home and even though I had woken up at 4:30 that morning I went. I was happy I did. UM ended up winning 1-0 in a very good game that was physical and fast paced. The win brings the team's record to 7 and 1 at home and gives them 8 wins, 3 ties, and 3 losses on the season overall. It also moves them into a tie for 2nd in the ACC with FSU.

UM's goal was scored in the final minutes by super freshman Brittney Steinbruch, giving her 13 goals this season. Her goal came off of a very impressive shot from outside of the box that shot past the Maryland goalie. This was a long overdue goal and Miami had many chances in the game to score and they kept good consistent pressure on the Maryland defense the whole day.

Fellow freshman Lauren Singer also deserves some mention for her play on the offensive side. She had several good runs in the first half that helped to take some of the pressure off of Steinbruch for the second half. Another player deserving of mention is senior goalie Lauren McAdam who recorded her second straight shutout and to set the UM career record for shutouts. For her effort McAdam was named ACC women's soccer player of the week, some long overdue recognition in my opinion. Other notable performances on the day came from Sheuneen Ta, Sammy Sanderson, Rachael Rigamat, Akilah Moore, and several other players.

This week UM takes on FIU in their final non-conference game on Wednesday and then head to Tallahassee on Sunday for a key conference game. Look back for updates on the outcome of those 2 games, hopefully I get something up sooner after the game than this one.

Another ranked team falls at the hands of UM

Another soccer game last night and another ranked team leaves Miami with a loss. This weeks victim was number 4 ranked Boston College. It was a great game and UM pulled out the victory in the final minutes for a 1-0 win. Both teams appeared very equal on the field and the one goal resulted from some heavy pressure by the Canes that ended with a BC player putting the ball in the back of her own goal for an own goal. UM deserves a lot of credit for the goal though. It actually rather unfortunate that no UM player got credit for the goal because it was their hard work that led to the goal and not really a mistake on BC's part.

The shutout gave Lauren McAdam her 3rd shutout of the season and 13th of her career. Considering the opposition that the Canes have been facing this season this is a great number. She was solid once again last night and definitely earned the shutout. The entire defense played well amid some fierce pressure at times.

On the offensive side of the ball the Canes had yet another solid game. Everybody played well and kept good pressure on the BC defense. Overall the team played well and there was some very good ball movement going on out there last night. They looked like a great team that is really getting to know how to play together. This leads me to believe that their are many more upsets to come and that this is just the beginning of a very promising season.

A little comedy

OK folks it's time to add something a little funnier to this blog. I was watching ESPN News last night, they were showing the Contender on ESPN and I needed my sports news fix. Anyways, they showed this commercial made by a Norman, Oklahoma car dealer, Fowler Toyota, making fun of the recent rant by Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy. For those of you that haven't seen the original rant need to check it out here. You have to check out the original or the commercial really isn't that funny. So before you check out the video below make sure you refresh your memory on the original.

I can't seem to figure out how to get a YouTube video up on here. You would think they would make it easy since Blogger and YouTube are both owned by Google but oh well here's the link. It worth a good laugh if nothing else and is a very creative idea in my opinion. It would only work in Oklahoma for the most part but it's refreshing to see some creativity in commercials.

UM Soccer ACC Week 2

The UM soccer team went on the road last week to Virginia. On Thusday they took on Virginia Tech and then on Sunday they had a match against 4th ranked Virginia. I didn't go to the matches or anything so I won't comment on the teams performance or anything just want to keep everybody up to date on the team a little. On Thrusday they tied 1-1 with VT and then on Sunday they lost 0-1 in 2 overtimes to Virginia. The VT game also went into 2 overtimes but nothing was settled after that so they ended with a tie.

The goal fo UM on Thursday was scored by super-freshman Brittney Steinbruch, her 12th of the season. This pace is just incredible. After she was held scoreless in the Virginia game it brought her pace down to 1 goal a game, a very impressive number. I'll keep this short since I can't really say much about the game themselves but congrats to UM for putting up 2 more impressive showings against some very tough opponents.

A Long Overdue Post

Well I'm back after way to long away. I don't really have a good excuse just school and life keeping me busy is all. It's playoff time in baseball, football is starting to get interesting and of course the most important thing, hockey has started. OK I actually don't care about hockey at all I just thought I would mention it at least once in this blog.

Baseball seems like it would be the best thing to talk about so that's what I'm going for today. I'm thinking MLB isn't to happy with the way the playoffs are going so far, especially on the NL side. Not only did both the Rockies and the Diamondbacks sweep the Phillies and Cardinals respectively but they are probably the 2 least popular teams in the playoffs. There is very little question in my mind that from a marketing standpoint the league would have much rather had the Cubs moving on to the next round. The media buzz about the Cubs potentially breaking their nearly century long curse would have been just as high as the buzz around the Red Sox pulling off the same feat 3 years ago.

The AL is looking a little better for the league. The giant fan base of Red Sox nation still has a team to root for after a 3 game sweep of the Angels. The Yankees seem to want to put up a fight at least against Cleveland but I think in the end the Yankess will run out of starting pitching and lose that series. That would leave an Indians Red Sox series in the next round which isn't all that bad. The Indians are somewhat the anit-Sox so all the people that have gotten sick of Red Sox nation, I consider myself a member of the anti-Red Sox movement, will have someone to root for.

The NL teams do make a good story though if the media would put in the time to look at the teams. Both teams have lots of young talent and have worked hard all season under low salaries and minimal media coverage. The Rockies have both an MVP candidate in Matt Holliday and one of the leading candidates for Rookie of the Year in Troy Tulowitzki, you wouldn't know it by watching ESPN though. I still think Ryan Braun should win Rookie of the Year but Tulowitzki has had a great season.

The Diamondbacks have a lot of of no name guys that play like a great team. Their biggest names are Eric Byrnes and Brandon Webb but other than that there aren't a lot of guys on the team that you would hear there name and immediately think "wow that's a great baseball player." You get the feeling from watching the D-Backs play that they like that.

In conclusion, I just want to urge you to go against the media hype and check out the National League Championship Series. It kicks off on Thursday on TBS and if you are looking to just watch good baseball then that will be a great place to see it. Alright more will be coming soon I promise no more long breaks like last time.