Ok…a very interesting Grand Slam(GS) semifinal is coming up…we only get 8 of these a year – the moments tennis fans live for. 

Federer vs. Tsonga – The 15 time grand slam winner playing in his 23rd straight GS semifinal…23rd STRAIGHT…vs the 24 year old Ali lookalike from France.   Fed ’s #’s are legendary, as you can see below, but they are also trending down…6 slams in 06 & 07, only 3 in 08 & 09.  If you watch him closely you see why…doesn’t hit as well on the move, doesn’t move quite as quickly as he used to, gets a little more pushed around by the big boys in rallies than he used to.  He’s 28, and that is definitely NOT young on the ATP Tour.  It’s equivalent to maybe 33 in the NBA, 30 in football (skill position, RB or WR).

Looking at what Davydenko was able to do to Fed for the first set & a half in the quarters, which was totally dominate 85-90% of the rallies, tells me Fed will have his work cut out for him to take down the big Frenchman.  Tsonga is currently 10th in the world, made the finals here 2 years ago (losing to Djokovic), and had the following slam results in 2009 starting with the Aussie: QFs, 4th, 3rd, and 4th round loss at the US Open.  So he’s clearly legit, in the semi’s of a slam for the 2nd time, and hits the ball a ton.  Oh, and he moves really well for a big man – very good athlete.  Watch here, playing Fed in Madrid in 2008.

So with all that said, I see Tsonga taking it in 4 sets.  He should have an easier time controlling the rallies, and I’m assuming he won’t go into any deep funk like Davydenko did in the quarters.

Adeola Aderounmu

Ghana vs. Nigeria and Algeria vs. Egypt. These are classical games. On paper, Egypt and Ghana should be heading to the finals. This is because Egypt has won all the matches played so far. They are also out to prove a point that losing to Algeria in Sudan was an unfair result for them. The Algerians have emerged from being humbled by the Malawians to a great force after seeing to the exit of highly rated Ivory Coast.

Ghana has not been spectacular but they have shown more enthusiasm than their Nigeria counterparts. Nigeria struggled to beat Zambia and only after the penalty shoot out did Nigeria manage to scale through to the semi-final.

I hope that security are in place to prevent the ugly scenes from Sudan, Egypt and Algeria that we had 2 months ago during the world cup qualifiers that Algeria finally won by a lone goal in Khartoum. It will be shameful it the North Africans come to Angola to show their violent tendencies. We have had enough of that and please let us see some beautiful football and live in peace.

One also hopes to find a good centre referee. Officiating has been disastrous in this tournament. Ivory Coast got an equaliser against Algeria but it was wrongly ruled as offside by a careless linesman. The demoralising of Cameroun was completed by another catastrophic officiating that ruled for a goal when the ball didn’t even touch the line.

If FIFA has been reasonable to introduce TECHNOLOGY into this game, it would have taken less than 1 minute to verify these “2 disasters” among several others. Until then, cheating and useless decisions will continue to take the beauty of the game away.

May the better team win on Thursday and may we get a beautiful final.

With La Habra’s come-from-behind 35-21 win over Cypress on Saturday, the finals for the CIF-SS Southwest Division will pit the Highlanders against Trabuco Hills, who had the perfect formula in knocking out Tustin on Friday night, 24-14.

Going into this weekend, the talk was all about seeing a rematch of last year’s championship game in which La Habra shut down Tustin in the second half en route to a 26-14 win and their second straight CIF Championship.

At the beginning of the Trabuco Hills/Tustin game on Friday night, it seemed that Tustin would be destined for a possible rematch.

The Tillers, behind Anthony Wilkerson’s 116 yards on 18 carries, seemed to be the slightly dominant team heading into halftime, although the two teams were knotted at seven.

Trabuco Hills then did something that no other team had done to Wilkerson all season: held him to four yards per rush in the second half (14 rush, 43 yards), while they rallied from behind to score 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter for the finals berth.

Wilkerson ended with two touchdowns on 32 rushes for 159 yards, which was less than half of his total from the previous week, where he only needed 18 rushes to amass 355 yards.

His counterpart from Trabuco Hills, Shane Decillo, did it the hard way, as he’s done all season. Decillo ended with 118 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries including touchdown runs of 1, 30 and 62 yards.

Trailing 14-7 in the fourth quarter, the Mustangs took advantage of a fatigued Tillers squad (most of Tustin’s guys play on both sides of the ball) and ran straight at them. Both of Decillo’s longer touchdowns came in the fourth quarter on runs up the left side.

The Mustangs would face the winner of the Cypress/La Habra game.

Heading into this contest, La Habra was known as a team that liked to jump out to a big lead early and then eat away at the clock in the second half. On the contrary, Cypress was a team that got off to a slow start and then picked things up in the second half.

This game would be a role reversal for both teams as running backs Josh Quezada and Akeeli Muhammad battled it out to see which one would carry their team to the finals.

After the first half, both backs had rushed 12 times. Muhammad totaled 125 yards and two touchdowns and Quezada had 127 with one score as the Centurions had a 14-7 halftime lead.

However, quarterback Cody Clements would battle through his first half slump (1-7 passing for 2 yards) and complete some big passes to help open up a few holes for Quezada in the second half.

The Highlander defense buckled down on Muhammad as well, holding the senior running back to 73 yards in the second half and keeping him from the end zone.

La Habra slowly and consistently took the momentum throughout the second half and although they did find themselves down 21-14 in the third quarter, they scored three unanswered touchdowns, capped by a five-yard run by Clements with 2:37 remaining in the game, which led to the 35-21 final.

Quezada had his most productive game of the season, rushing 28 times for 303 yards and four touchdowns, while Muhammad was limited (which is hard to believe) to 208 yards and two touchdowns on 21 rushes.

Cypress was hindered by penalties throughout the game as well, racking up 11 penalties for 95 yards.

So now the finals are set. La Habra and Trabuco Hills will meet in the Southwest Division finals in what will be a tough battle between similar and evenly matched teams.

Both teams come into the contest with 12-1 records. These two met last year in the Southwest Division semifinals at La Habra High were the Clan had to come from behind for a 27-22 win in what some could argue was their toughest game in last year’s playoffs.

Either way, the crowd of thousands at Angel Stadium will definitely not be disappointed.

Just as projected, the top four seeds in the CIF-SS Southwest Division playoffs moved on to the semifinals with Tustin seemingly carrying the most momentum after beating Huntington Beach easily, 63-0.

The teams will now square off against each other in what should be a very exciting Friday and Saturday for Orange County high school football.

All four teams remaining in this bracket possess 11-1 records and all have very dangerous running attacks to go along with ferocious defenses. Perhaps the best of both would be the Tillers, who have running back Anthony Wilkerson.

After carrying the ball an astonishing 48 times for 329 yards in Tustin’s 31-14 win over Valencia High in the first round, the Stanford-commit needed only 18 to rush for 355 against a smaller Huntington Beach squad. Don’t think that Tustin will change their gameplan against Trabuco Hills.

The Mustangs come into this game after routing Pacifica High 45-6. Trabuco Hills also has a good running attack led by senior Shane DeCillo, who again passed 100 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns against Pacifica.

Watch for the Mustangs to open up the pass too now that quarterback A.J. Josue is starting to hit his stride.

Both of these teams have tough, physical defenses as evidenced by the fact that each team has a shutout in this year’s playoffs (Trabuco Hills over Savanna 53-0, Tustin over HB, 63-0) and combined, they’ve only given up a total of 20 points in their four games.

So far in this bracket, this game has been the hardest to pick, mainly because the teams seem so evenly matched in all areas, but I have to side with experience. Tustin knows how to win big games and get to the finals. While Trabuco Hills is tough, they haven’t faced a team as big or powerful as Tustin.

The X-Factor will be Tustin quarterback Nick DiMaio, who is a HUGE step up from Taylor Richardson, last year’s quarterback. DiMaio doesn’t throw a lot, but when he does, he rarely misses.

My pick is Tustin to get back into the championship round.

__________________________________________________________

The second semifinal matchup features another couple of strong programs. La Habra High is the two-time defending CIF Champions, while Cypress won a title of their own in 2007.

Both of these teams have strong running backs in the Highlanders’ Joshua Quezada and Cypress’ Akeelie Muhammad.

The two backs have distinctly different styles. While Quezada is more of a pound-the-ball bruiser, Muhammad possesses lightning fast speed and the ability to cut back on a dime, causing defenders to miss him. However, Quezada does have the speed to break away from defenses if his line gets him a hole to the outside and no one drags him down by his hair.

Both the Centurions and the Clan have reliable quarterbacks, although I have to give the edge to La Habra’s Cody Clements, who not only is accurate, but can hit the deep route with precision. Watch for sophomore receiver Brett Bartolone to have another huge game (averaging 6.5 catches and over 100 yards in the playoffs).

The X-Factor in this game, in my mind, isn’t a player, but the fact that it’s at La Habra High, where the field causes concern for opposing teams because it doesn’t have as much traction as some other schools. It’s because of this home-field advantage that I give the edge to La Habra to make it to the finals and set up a rematch with Tustin.

Muhammad may have more touchdowns than any other player in Orange County this season, but when La Habra keys in on players, they’re usually able to limit them considerably.

I’m taking La Habra to slide past Cypress into the finals.

So there you have it, my picks for the semifinal matchups, but don’t be surprised if both of these games turn into nail-biters. I’m already a little worried just thinking about all the possibilities and outcomes of these incredible matchups.

Either way, we are definitely in for a show!

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When did women’s college soccer become the UFC?

New Mexico’s defender junior Elizabeth Lambert seemed to think she was in the octagon, instead of the soccer field during her team’s game against top seeded BYU in the Mountain West Conference semifinals.

Lambert can be seen during the game kicking, tackling, throwing elbows, and even yanking BYU forward Kassidy Shumway to the dirt by her hair.

Here is shocking footage shot during the game:

Surprisingly, Lambert was not removed from the game. She went on to finish with her team, who lost 1-0, with only a yellow card for tripping a player.

Luckily, none of the BYU girls were seriously injured by her unsportsmanlike tactics.

Following the game, New Mexico coach Kit Vela announced that Lambert has been suspended indefinitely. Lambert got the deserved punishment of not taking part in practices, games and conditioning.

Lambert has since apologized saying, “I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation. I take full responsibility for my actions and accept any punishment felt necessary. This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player that I am. I am sorry to my coaches and teammates for any and all damages I have brought upon them.”

¡Tremenda Chusmería!

We just hope little Jada wasn’t watching mom’s game tonight!

We congratulate Kim Clijsters on her extraordinary run in the US Open and her amazingly one-sided victory against Serena, and hope that she take the best out of this match and not let opponent’s lack of class obscure her outstanding achievements.

Juan Martin Del Potro has secured the third of four spots in Saturday’s Men’s Semifinals this evening after defeating Marin Cilic after dropping the first set. Cilic, who had previously defeated Andy Murray to get to the quarterfinals, won the first set with a break at 4-6, but then lost the next three 6-3, 6-2, and 6-1. Cilic was down 5-0 in the last set before taking a break from Del Potro. Del Potro, who is currently ranked 6th in the world, is expected to take over the #5 spot if he continues winning at the Open, and will face the winner of tonight’s match between new #2 Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia is the first player to go on to this year’s US Open semifinals with a 7-6, 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. Verdasco came back in the second set with a 6-1 win but could not maintain the necessary level of tennis to keep Djokovic away. Djokovic now faces the winner of tonight’s Roger Federer- Robin Soderling match.

Apparently five will be going through this week with no judges’ pick thanks to the way they changed the rules last week. (Some people were very unhappy that the judges didn’t pick.)

Piers stands behind the decision to send both groups through. Rules are meant to be changed. According to Sharon last week showed that there are real stars. Hoff promises not to use the word Hoff anymore, but he is Hoff-ully excited.

The ten semifinalists are: FootworKings, Recycled Percussion, The EriAm Sisters, Mario and Jenny, Laurence Beaman, Drew Stevens, Hairo Torres, Jerrey Ou, Eric and Ricky, and Barbara Padilla. Lots of pressure for their acts. They’ve been working hard. They’re nervous. This isn’t a walk in the park. They worry about Piers buzzing people.

First is Recycled Percussion. One of the guys says drumming got him through tough times. (His parents got divorced and his dad was a homeless alcoholic. His dad is sober and in Hollywood now.) The band’s message is being drug-free. They say this is bigger and better than anything they’ve ever done. I’m excited. Stomp is so cool. They perform with a van that the top half is lifted away from in the middle. One guy without a shirt. One guy smashes his guitar at the end. It’s pretty cool though I think that live it would be more amazing. Piers says there were moments where he couldn’t figure out if they’re mad or talented. Very inventive and creative. They’ve got excitement, entertainment, everything desired in a Vegas act. Sharon thinks he’s absolutely light but he left out how ripped they are. David says they have just the right amount of grease. Great act! They keep coming back with more.

Second comes Laurence Beaman. He grew up in a strict, controlling religious group. He sings Alicia Keys’s “Fallin’” and while it’s surprising since he’s a guy, I think he sounds great. Much better than last time. (There’s one awkward moment but otherwise…) My only complaint is with the background singers, I think they should have been a bit louder to harmonize with him better. Sharon likes hearing him sing contemporary. She loves his rich voice but she could have done without the vocal acrobats (I partially agree, some of them he didn’t do well). She thinks he’s got it so he does need to go over the top. David liked his choice of song. Piers lives him but didn’t like the performance. (David asks if he was watching…) He likes the older music. Well that’s cause you’re old Piers! (If he makes it through he wants to do the Lord’s Prayer. Classical style. Interesting.)

Eric and Rickie now. Eric almost fainted when he heard they were going through. They feel like stars now. All their friends and classmates say they’ll vote for them. Eric is excited about the nice cars in Hollywood. They’re working extra super duper hard. Eric’s dream is to buy a ferrari with the prize money even though he can’t drive. The set up is Global Toy Shop. Piers buzzes midway through. I like the song but I just think they’re not good enough yet. I think in a few years they will be amazing dancers and right now they are just good for their age. Nick wants to understand how Piers can X lollipops and dolls. Hoff says they can have their own amusement park. Piers tries to talk and gets booed. He tells the kids that he likes them but that he thinks the music didn’t work to their dance style. (The judges get into a discussion about whether or not America has custard. For the record Sharon, we do have it, but it’s gross.) Sharon says she loved everything and can’t fault anything. She points out that nowadays people do ballroom dancing to pop music all the time. He apparently doesn’t watch the other dance shows.

Jeffrey Ou now. He’s upset about the technical issues and thought it would mean he was sent home. But he’s back so he has a chance to prove he’s worthy. The show has given him confidence. He has a girlfriend now. (It kind of sounds like she just likes him because he was on TV…) Nick says his keyboard is connected to the lights so he’s controlling the lights. Ok…oh, once he starts playing you kind of see what he meant. The lights flash on and off in time with the music. Piers buzzes. It’s kind of boring but he is talented. The problem is, it’s piano there’s only so much you can do with it. Piers thinks the performance was out of control (like his hair). He says he hardly hit a note. Sharon says he’s given himself personality, people will remember his look. But, the playing was “out there” and sounded more like silent film music. It wasn’t very good. David asks if he hit all the right notes. He says he did. David thinks he enjoyed it, he’ll tell him later.

Hairo Torres is fifth. He was never good enough in anything but dancing. His mom is his biggest supporter. All she wants is for him to be happy. He hurt his back in rehearsal and worries that it will hold him back. Hopefully the adrenalin will keep away the pain. The song is “I Gotta Feeling.” The theme is school dance. He does some of the weirdest looking moves ever. He would probably make a very good gymnast. Sharon loved all the new steps. David thinks it was great. Piers likes that Hairo dances the same way he does.

The EriAm Sisters are on now. They have a hard time deciding on the song. David thinks they should concentrate on singing over dancing. They chose “Miracles” from the Prince of Egypt, sung by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. I love this song. They have some really good moments but its otherwise just okay. I don’t think this was necessary the best choice though they get to show off some nice range with it. Piers thought it was a shaky start, flat in the first third, but he put it down to nerves and what happened next was they got confidence and it became really good. (Exactly how I felt.) Sharon says they weren’t working together in the beginning but it came through and they got it. Be careful with arrangements, only one can lead. They deserve to be in the semis. David agrees, he loves their spirit. Terrific at the end. Congrats.

Mario and Jenny talk about the rock bottom moments of their career. This has given them confidence and creativity again. They’re so sore from practice but it’s worth it. It starts with some dancing. Mario taps in boots which is strange. Piers buzzes. Jenny hangs on a pole. Mario drums and then balances a drum of fire on his head. Well…they lost most of the fear and excitement that they normally have. Piers thinks they blew it big time. It lacked the danger, illusion, and excitement. It’s not the act that was put through. Sharon says it showed that they aren’t one dimensional and as far as putting on a show, there’s nothing they can’t do. Very diverse. David liked it very much. A lot went on and he thought it was entertaining. He thinks they’re ready for Vegas.

Drew Stevens sings a song I don’t recognize but he sounds really good. Better than last time. He has a super raspy voice that reminds of someone but I cannot think of who at the moment. Sharon tells him that so far the contest has been a rollercoaster for him. This week he chose a great song. Very aggressive. He made it his own. She didn’t like the song but she likes him. (I liked it.) She thinks he has star quality. David admires him for going for it. He doesn’t know if it worked for him in the beginning, Drew sold it. Bring it on. Piers says it was a massive gamble and it paid off.

FootworKingz barely made it through. Many in their community do footworking but no one has gotten so much prestige. Their theme will be superheroes (familiar theme, remember So You Think You Can Dance this year?) They plan to dance faster than ever. Oh I love it, incorporating the power rangers. Piers buzzes. Sharon buzzes. (One of the guys costumes is unraveling. Correction, two of them.) Well, I think last time was better, but I don’t think it warranted the buzzes. David says they’ve come a long way what he needs to see is for them to dance. Forget all the other stuff which gets in the way. Just dance together. Piers thought it was career suicide. They’re now the uncoolest. He doesn’t like that they included the power rangers. Sharon’s issue was that they do the same moves in different costumes, they need to do new things. That I agree with.

Last but not least, Barbara Padilla. She’s a cancer survivor which has given many people hope. She will be singing a prayer tonight. As always with her, she’s super talented but not my type of thing. Piers says not many can do what she does. Sharon says her skill surpasses even those who dislike opera. David says god has a plan for her. She gave a blessed performance and brings hope to people.

My preferences for who to go through: Recycled Percussion, Mario and Jenny, Drew Stevens, Barbara Padilla, and then I suppose FootworKingz or the EriAm Sisters though I’m not particularly invested in either. Who do you want to make through?

Results here!

These are the cumulative stats for each of the four Gold Cup semifinalists.  I added together the individual match stats provided by CONCACAF to get these totals.

And the stats for the opponents of the semifinalists.

The U.S. leads all semifinalists in Goals For, Goals Against, Shots on Goal, Shots Wide (by 10), Fouls, and Yellow Cards.  The U.S. and Mexico have held their opponents to only 10 shots on goal all Gold Cup.

For the conspiracy theorists, fouls are being called – and yellow cards issued – more frequently for the U.S. than for any other team in the semifinals.  And fouls are being called against the U.S.’s opponents less frequently than they are for any other semifinalist.