My Sporting Weekend 9-10th July 2011:
Warm-Up's:
2011 Super Rugby Grand Final (Rugby Union):
Queensland Reds V The Crusaders, The Southern Hemispheare's elite union competition came to a close this weekend with the Final of the recently expanded Super Rugby competition.
After a tight start, mainly dominated by the Crusaders, the opening points came on 32 minutes with the Reds's Quade Cooper slotting through a penalty, won at the break-down.
But soon after the Crusaders responded with Dan Carter kicking through the Reds defensive line, before re-gathering and touching down under the posts, the Reds then got the final points of the half with Cooper again slotting through the posts again, after receiving a penalty for being tripped off the ball.
Although the Reds had a pretty poor 1st half, allowing the Crusaders to dominate them, the Crusaders didn't take advantage of this and the Reds were lucky to be only 1 point behind.
The 1st points of the 2nd half came from penalty easily slotted over from Carter, won from an infringement at the scrum, but it was the Reds who got the next score, taking the lead, with their 1st try of the game, on 50 minutes, with Digby Ioane going over after coming on to the ball at speed and having a good run, breaking through the Crusaders defence.
Momentum then shifted in the Reds favour for the 1st time in the game, as the crowd got behind their team, but another penalty for Carter levelled the scores at 13 all and unfortunately for the Reds they had a try wiped off for a supposed knock-on after Rob Simmons broke through and touched down, with replays showing that the score should have stood.
But the Reds did get the next try with Will Genia going over after a 60 meter mazing run, ending with him sprinting away from the Crusaders defence, and after Cooper missed the conversion it set up a tense finish to the game as the Crusaders looked to level the game. And a late penalty given away by the Reds Radike Samo, gave the Crusaders the chance to put some pressure on the Reds goal-line, but Samao atoned for his error by winning the interception off the line-out.
During the final play of the game, while looking to tie the game, Crusaders turned the ball over, giving the Reds the victory in front of record Australian attendance at the Suncorp Stadium for another Queensland sporting victory.
The Reds defiantly deserved the victory, and after hanging on in the 1st half they came out strong in the 2nd half, and after a period of handling errors they started to dominate the game, punishing the
Crusaders for not being able to take advantage of their 1st half dominance.
Honda Indy Toronto (IndyCar):
The IndyCar Series made the trip north of the border to visit the streets of Toronto for the 1st of 2 Canadian races this season (with the next 1 being in 2 weeks at the Edmonton City Airport).
After a clean start Tony Kanaan and Ryan Briscoe had a coming together on the 2nd lap, putting Kanaan out of the race, and bringing out the 1st full course caution of the day. Then soon after the restart Marco Andretti and Oriol Servia made early pit-stops, as they tried to get on alternate strategies, with most the most of the cars further back in the field soon following them. And it was Dario Franchitti who was one of the 1st leaders to come in, on lap 28, and luckily for him Helio Castroneves went up the inside of Alex Tagliani, spinning him out, to bring out the 2nd caution. This put the rest of the leaders to the back of the field as they took their 1st pit-stop, leaving Franchitti in the lead.
After the restart Scott Dixon had a good run moving from 11th to 6th, before James Jakes spun out , bringing out the 3rd caution, and as this was happening 2 of the 3 Canadians, Paul Tracy and James Hinchliffe, had a good battle through a couple of corners with quite a lot of contact, before Tracy had to pull in because of a cut tyre.
Then on lap 48 Tracy was involved in another incident, hitting Vitor Meira up the back end when he had nowhere to go, blocking the track and bringing out the 4th caution, and most of the cars then pitted for what should have been their last stop, re-jigging the field once again.
After the restart, on lap 55, Mike Conway and Briscoe came together and spun each other out, but they both kept going, only bringing out a local yellow flag. Then on lap 57 Franchitti went up the inside of Will Power, clipping him and spinning him around, to bring out the 5th caution, and according to the American broadcasters this incident earned Franchitti a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact, but after the restart this decision was supposedly overturned after a review. Then at the end of the race this sequence of events turned out to be a fabricated story announced by VERSUS and their was never a penalty issued.
The restart came on lap 62 with the leaders Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay and EJ Viso going 3 wide into the 1st corner, with Rahal coming out in the lead and Viso getting a cut tyre after being back up onto Justin Wilson's front wing, dropping him to the back of the lead lap. And the 6th caution came out soon after on lap 66 when Tagliani and Power came together, putting Power in the wall and ending his day with suspension damage.
They restarted with 14 laps to go, but the caution was then out again soon after with Danica Patrick hitting James Jakes and flicking Tagliani up into the fence, and luckily for Tagliani his car bounced back down and didn't flip over, but this incident eventually finished his eventful day. And all these cautions played into Rahal's hands, giving him the opportunity to save fuel as he looked to reach the end of the race without having to pit again, and finishing up at the front end of the field.
The race restarted with 10 laps to go, but their was more incident, as cautions bred cautions, with Andretti turning Servia, who then hit Justin Wilson causing a jam in the 1st corner, and the final restart eventually came with only 5 laps to go as Franchitti held the lead from Rahal around the 1st few corners. But unfortunately for Rahal he spun round after Dixon had passed him, but he kept it running, and dropped to the back of the lead lap, eventually finishing in 13th. This left Franchitti and Dixon 3 seconds, and increasing, in front of the rest of the field to battle it out for the 1st position, and it was Franchitti who took the victory with Hunter-Reay in 3rd, Andretti in 4th and Meira in 5th.
This was quite a good race to watch with a lot of action, but the amount of full course cautions did become tedious at times, and also the race was a bit marred with the American broadcasters (VERSUS) error in announcing that Franchitti had received a drive through penalty. Especially as their was a lack of apology after Race Control officially corrected their error, and then they preceded to ask every interviewee about the situation, drawing some confused faces.
Main Event:
FIFA Women’s World Cup Quarter-Finals (Football):
England V France, England made a quick start to the 1st half with Kelly Smith having a good chance within the opening minute, but for most of the half each team cancelled each other out in the centre of the pitch as they found it hard to keep possession, mainly due to oppositions closing down speed, as well as some lax passing.
The French keeper, Celine Deville, looked very nervous but after England's early chance the only real pressure they put on her was during the couple of corners that they won, and she was never forced to make a save. In contrast France put the English keeper, Karen Bardsley, under constant pressure as they looked to shoot whenever they got near the edge of the area.
During the 2nd half England got the breakthrough when Jill Scott found herself in space on the edge of the area, after some good play, before lifting the ball over Deville, into the back of the net. But as England dropped back and defended their lead France took control of the match as they peppered the English goal with shots, and they eventually got the equaliser on 87 minutes with Elise Bussaglia putting the ball in, off the post, from the edge of the area, to set up extra time.
Again during the half England found it hard to keep possession, with too many poor passes and hopeful long balls, but it was dropping back and allowing France to come onto them, instead of pushing further forward and moving the ball out wide, that cost them the victory in 90 minutes.
Extra-time kicked off with the England team looking quite tired, especially Kelly Smith who was hobbling around for the last 10 minutes of the 2nd half, and Faye White who was substituted in the 1st 2 games and rested in the 3rd, but all the substitutes were used and they had to play on with what they had on the pitch.
The 1st period of extra-time was more evenly matched with both teams creating a couple of good chances, with the best one being Ellen White shooting wide after a good flick on from K Smith that gave her space in the box.
But in the 2nd half France started to dominate again as England looked to play out the draw and take their chances in a penalty shoot-out. And England did hold on for the penalty shoot-out.
Karen Bardsley saved the 1st penalty, and England then took the lead with Kelly Smith scoring her penalty, this was followed with Elise Bussaglia, Karen Carney, Gaëtane Thiney, Casey Stoney and Sonia Bompastor all scoring before Claire Rafferty missed at the scores level at 3 all with a kick each to go. Eugenie Le Sommer then scored meaning that Englands captain Faye White had to score to keep England in the game, but she hit the crossbar, sending France through to the semi-finals.
Overall England were pretty poor, and although they defended well at times, they found it hard to keep hold of the ball and build good attacks, and France truly deserved the win after dominating the game, with one telling stat being that France had 33 shots compared to England’s 7.
Germany V Japan, I only saw the last 10 minutes of regulation play, with the score at 0-0, and by all accounts it seemed as if Japan had had a fantastic game, keeping a clean sheet, as well as creating some good chances of their own.
This meant for the 2nd time tonight extra-time was to be played to decide who went through to the semi-finals. The 1st period passed with little incident, but 2 minutes into the 2nd period Japan took the lead with Karina Maruyam firing past German keeper Nadine Angerer from a tight angle after a good through ball from Homare Sawa. From that point Germany had Japan pinned back in their own half as they looked to get the equaliser, but Japan defended well as a team, only allowing the Germans to shoot from outside the area.
When the final whistle blew it was met with a shocked silence from the Wolfsburg crowd, probably because it was just assumed that the German team would easily get to the final, and then win.
After being outplayed by England in their previous game I was pretty surprised at Japan's performance, and thought that they would have been dominated by the more physical Germans, but it shouldn't be too much of a surprise they performed as well as they did as they are ranked 4th in the world.
Brazil V USA, This was another thrilling and dramatic match that was full of incident and was the 3rd quarter final to go to extra-time and 2nd to penalties. The US took an early lead when Daiane turned the ball into her own net after a low cross from Shannon Boxx, but it was Brazil who had the better possession as they looked to get the ball to star player Marta. But she didn't make much of an impact in the 1st half as the US defenders put her under pressure, stopping her from playing, and her persistent moaning to the ref earned her a yellow card at the end of the half.
Brazil took control of the 2nd half, and they got the equaliser after a series of controversial decisions from the officiating team. 1st US defender Rachel Buehler had a penalty awarded against her as she went shoulder to shoulder with Marta in the box and challenged for the ball, with replays showing that this was quite a harsh decision. Cristiane stepped up and took the penalty, which was saved by the US keeper, Hope Solo, but it then had to retaken due to encroachment into the area from the US players. And Marta stepped up, converting with a low shot into the right corner.
The rest of the half was played out to a 1 all draw, but 2 minutes into the 1st half of extra-time Marta came up with some quick movement and a good volley into the far corner for Brazil to take the lead.
Then as the 2nd half of extra-time went on time-wasting and feigning injuries crept into the Brazilian game as they looked to play out the game for a 2-1 victory, but the US grabbed the equaliser when a cross from deep by Megan Rapinoe was headed past the flailing Brazilian keeper at the back post by Abby Wambach.
This meant another penalty shoot-out, and with the score 3-2 to the US, Daiane missed Brazil's 3rd penalty, and with all of the next 3 penalty's converted the US took the victory 5-3.
This game was a lot more even than the previous 2 quarter finals I saw, with both teams holding onto the ball well, but it was in creating shooting opportunity’s that let both teams down.
Also Marta unfortunately became the focal point of frustration for the American and local fans every time she touched the ball, which was quite undeserved as it wasn't her fault the penalty had to be re-taken, and she defiantly wasn't the worse Brazilian for diving and feigning injury.
In the other quarter final Sweden beat Australia 3-1 to set up a semi final with Japan, in Frankfurt, and in the other semi France will take on the US in Monchengladbach.
Recent Results:
Friends Life T20 (Cricket): Yorkshire: 150-7 (19.3 overs)
Durham: 144-8 (20.0 overs)
Yorkshire beat Durham by 3 wickets
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