We had a game-winning goal disallowed for no reason. The referee wasn’t even able to give a reason why after the game. Go ahead and watch the replay of that call. 2 Americans are being bear hugged and dragged to the ground in the box, and the referee calls a penalty on us. What a terrible call!

Fast forward to the game with Algeria. Another goal is disallowed for an offsides call that was clearly not offsides. Thankfully Donovan was able to score in stoppage time.

And then today’s game with Ghana. Granted, the US put itself in a giant hole once again early in the match, but they equalized again with an amazing penalty kick from Donovan. Then Ghana scores an early goal in Extra Time.

And then the insanity began. The Ghanaians started flopping all over the place. A guy went down in midfield who wasn’t even touched, and they sent a stretcher out! A guy fell after making a bicycle kick, and you would have thought we cleated him in the chest. Then they sub the guy furthest away on the field just to run off time. They took their good sweet time for throw ins, corner kicks, goal kicks, etc. By my count there should have been about 5 minutes plus added on, not 3.

It seems to me (and I’m biased for sure) that FIFA did not want the US to even make it out of the group stage. Maybe trying to make a political statement or something, I don’t know.

It was amazing to watch our team fight against 11 and sometimes 12 players and do as well as they did. They never quit and actually played better soccer as the matches went on.

Unfortunately, they put themselves in holes one too many times, and now we must wait another 4 years, but shame on you, FIFA, shame on you.

However, unlike many other cheaters in baseball, it only took him a couple of days to fess up. I believe this will help him a great deal, at least in the court of public opinion.

Does he still make it into the Hall of Fame? That’s hard to say. This definitely doesn’t help.

I like the idea that was tossed around on Around the Horn today. Just go back to the 60′s or 70′s, and then throw out any major records set after that point, since we don’t know which ones are “clean” and which ones aren’t.

It’s sad to see America’s pastime become so tainted.

Penguins sign Fleury, agree to contract with Satan

Now, the Penguins didn’t make a deal with the Devil himself. Miroslav Satan’s last name is actually pronounced “Shatan,” but the link did make me chuckle. Hopefully it makes someone else laugh too.

A little background on the story for those of you who aren’t sports nuts. Boston is playing their season opening game in Japan, which is a huge deal, due to the popularity of baseball in Japan, etc. etc.

Supposedly a deal was struck that the players, coaches, and staff would receive a $40,000 stipend (more than yours truly makes in an entire year) to make the trip to Japan. I have no complaints with that fact. We live in America. We all enjoy the benefits of capitalism. If someone wanted to pay me $40,000 for a trip to Japan, I would most likely gladly accept.

Apparently MLB reneged on part of their deal, and they were only going to pay the coaches and staff a measly $20,000 for the trip. Now, it wasn’t right of MLB to back out on their part of the deal, but come on people, you’re getting paid $20,000 to go on a trip to another country to take part in a GAME.

But, all is not lost, a deal has been struck, and Boston will be making the trip to Japan, and all is right with the world. Or something like that.

I love the way that Woods handles controversies such as these. He usually just lets his game do the talking – which is just fine with me. Woods went out and shot a 5-under today, and he’s currently trailing the leader at the Buick Invitational by a measly 2 shots. Hopefully he’ll go on to win the tournament and this whole controversy can be put to rest.

This isn’t the first time that Tiger has faced a controversy due to racially-related remarks. After he won his first Masters tournament, Fuzz Zoeller made a stupid comment regarding what type of food should be served at the champion’s dinner.

I’m not sure if these episodes motivate Tiger or not, but I suppose his performance since winning that first Masters speaks for itself.

The thing that drives me nutty is that everything needs to be blown up into some huge controversy by the media, when, in this case, the person who should have been offended (Woods) said it was pretty much a non-issue to him.

The media has a delight in stirring up controversy, and I guess that’s what sells for them. It just gets a little much after a while.

Here’s hoping for another phenomenal year for Mr. Woods.

If I read correctly Vick was handed down a sentence of 23 months, and according to John Clayton, he could possibly get out on good behavior after approximately 19 1/2 months.

What surprised me was that, due to his plea bargain, Vick cannot appeal this sentence, so it looks, if I’m ready everything correctly, like he will actually serve this jail sentence. This is in stark contrast to other celebrities who spend, oh, a day or so in jail for their DUI or other offense.

I’m glad to see that “justice will be served,” at least in a sense. Although it still bothers me that we are making such a huge fuss about this. Not that what Vick did wasn’t terrible and tragic – it was. But these were dogs, not people. What about the athletes, etc. that commit horrible acts against human beings? Where is the outrage there? What Vick did was wrong, and he should definitely be punished. Should he be given another chance as an NFL player? I suppose that will be up to an NFL owner to decide in the year 2009.

I love dogs. I wrote about the passing of my own dog recently. And though we might say they are like people, they are definitely NOT people.

It seems sometimes in our society that we have our priorities out of line.

It was pretty cool to see a small neighboring (if 30 miles away is neighboring) town featured on ESPN. Apparently their 13-14 year old All Stars finished 4th in the state, so congratulations to them.

Hey even Mansfield got a reference in the store when Caple said, “It has one traffic light, and no McDonald’s (although there is a Wal-Mart 30 miles away).” That 30 miles away would most likely be Mansfield, according to Google Maps.

Again, congratulations to the 13-14 year old Canton Little League All Start team.

I love sports, but there is just something special about March Madness. I think a lot of it has to due with the fact that it’s win or go home, every single game. It’s not like the NBA where you have 5 and 7 game series in order to move on to the next round.

I’ll just throw in the fact that your’s truly, in one of my brackets on ESPN, picked 30 out of the first 32 games correctly. This is probably due more to sheer luck than it is any skill on my part.

For instance, I just thought Ohio State (the #1 team in the country) was going to lose to Xavier, but an Ohio State player hit a deep 3 point shot with only 2 seconds left in regualtion. The game is currently in overtime as I write this post.

Even though my perennial favorite, Duke, is absent from the tournament following a first round loss, I’m loving this year’s March Madness!

Today I’m watching Tiger Woods make history by winning his 12th major championship. To those of you reading who don’t follow golf – that’s a HUGE deal. There are only 4 major championships played each year – The Masters, The US Open, The British Open, and The PGA Championship. The record all time is held by Jack Nicklaus at 18 total. Barring a major disaster, Tiger should have no problem getting there.

I’ve been watching Tiger since he was an amateur, and I saw him dominated a match play event on ESPN. So I hopped on the bandwagon early.

To watch him play when he’s on his game is simply amazing. It’s funny to listen to the commentators say, “he’ll have a hard shot here, ” “he can’t make that shot,”, etc. etc. And it seems like every time, he simply silences them with one fascinating shot after another.

I believe one day Tiger will prove that he is the greatest golfer of all time. He is so focused, so fine-tuned, that he’s almost like a machine. In fact, he’s never lost a major championship when leading or tied for the lead after the third round. Other players seem to fade away while he charges ahead.

Has Tiger gone through down times in his game? Sure. Has he slumped as much as some people make it out to be? I think not. Some people would sell their soul to play the game the way he does and to have had the success that he has had.

I am glad that I get to watch history in the making. It’s nice to watch a fun piece of history being made, what with all the wars, terrorism, and every other crazy and evil thing going on in this messed up world of ours.

I have been fortunate to have watched almost all of the major championships that Tiger has won, and I have seen some amazing golf in those 11 (soon to be 12) wins.

Mr. Woods, keep amazing us. Keep chasing history, and keep making history.