Sporting Madness

I was glad to hear that International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge decided to take a stand for the good of the Olympics. However, I wondered which of the many available targets he would shoot at. Would it be China's failure to live up to its promises of democratic reforms [ Amnesty International ]? Perhaps the arrest and sentencing to "re-education through labour" of those people who dared to apply for permits to protest [ Deadspin ]? The censorship of the Internet [MSNBC] sites available to journalists who had been promised open access? The massive cheat-at-all-costs campaign the Chinese have employed to win the gymnastic events with underage athletes [Juliet Macur, The New York Times ]? The rounding-up [Jay Nordlinger, National Review Online ] of Falun Gong practioners, disaffected minorities and Chinese writers who dare criticize the regime, probably to be shipped off to secret forced-labour camps [Geoffrey Clarfeld, National Post ], where they might ...

Well, here we go! Apologies for the delay in getting the first posts up: the Internet gremlins seem to have returned with a vengeance, so I had to write these offline and fire them up later again. First half: 0: The match is indeed being shown on TSN, if any Canadians out there are near a TV and want to watch it. Here's the starting lineups: Brazil: Renan in goal, Rafinha, Alex Silva, Marcelo and Breno at the back, Hernanes, Anderson, Lucas, Ronaldinho and Diego in midfield, Rafael Sorbis as the lone striker. Argentina: Sergio Romero in goal, Ezequiel Garay, Luciano Monzon, Pablo Zabaleta and Nicolas Pareja at the back, Fernando Gago, Juan Riquelme, Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano in midfield, Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero up front. 5: Not much action to speak of so far: both sides seem to be feeling each other out cautiously. 8: The Brazilians create a few early chances, with some solid runs forward by Rafinha. 10: A good break for Argentina, and they manage to earn a cor...

A quick note that I'll be live-blogging tomorrow morning's men's Olympic soccer semifinal between Brazil and Argentina. It should be a great clash of South American superstars, with Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi going head-to-head. Here's an excellent preview of both semifinals (the other, earlier one features Belgium and Nigeria) from ESPN Soccernet 's Jeff Carlisle. The Brazil-Argentina match starts at 9 a.m. ET (6 a.m. Pacific). It may be on TSN: they say they're showing one of the semifinals, but don't mention which one. In any case, it will certainly be on CBC's digital streaming coverage (www.cbc.ca/olympics), and it will be here as well, gremlins permitting.

What a way to go. The Canadians came so close to beating the U.S. in today's Olympic baseball game, and held a 4-0 lead at one point. In the end, they lose 5-4 after some bad pitching and a couple of poor fielding plays. The brutal thing was how it ended, though, with Canadian legend Stubby Clapp at the plate. Clapp, the man who had to fight the Astros just to get here, the veteran whose key hitting and fielding inspired many Canadian baseball fans, playing in possibly one of the last games of his career. Once more, Canada was counting on him to get the job done after the rest of their bats came up short, and this time, he couldn't come through to save the day. You know his spirit was willing, but sometimes the aging bodies just can't do what you need them to. It was so close to being a tremendous comeback, though. Matt Rogelsted flied out on the first at-bat of the night, but catcher Chris Robinson singled to right, and Brett Lawrie was brought in as a quicker pinch-runner...

Photo: Natasha Kai celebrates her game-winning goal against Canada with teammate Amy Rodriguez (left). [Photo from the New York Daily News ]. I've already posted a more thorough recap of this morning's Canada-U.S. Olympic soccer match over at Out of Left Field , but I figured I'd do a quick GBU breakdown here. The Score: United States 2, Canada 1 in extra time. How I Saw It: On the tube. The Good: -Karina LeBlanc: LeBlanc has been the backup keeper to Erin McLeod for quite some time now, but she showed no rust when called upon after McLeod was injured early on. LeBlanc made several tremendous saves for Canada, including at least two on breakaways and one diving one-handed stop right in front of the goal line. Given the amount of quality chances the Americans had, LeBlanc was a huge reason that the Canadians were even able to take the game to extra time. She only allowed one goal, which came on a six-yard Natasha Kai header that was unstoppable by any mortal keeper...

A quick note that I'll be live-blogging the women's soccer Olympic quarterfinal between Canada and the U.S tomorrow morning. Kick-off is at 5:49 a.m. Eastern (2:49 a.m. Pacific). My preview of the game is up over at Out of Left Field . Hope to see you here then!

The whole kerfuffle around the Olympics' lip-synching switch, pre-taped fireworks and "volunteer fans"–which got a nice front-page expose from Bruce Arthur in the National Post this morning-better reveals the true nature of the Beijing Olympics and China than most of the coverage so far. If you're one of the five people living under a rock somewhere who hasn't yet heard about this, here's the basic run-down. During the opening ceremonies, the Chinese featured a song entitled "Ode to the Motherland" that was sung by seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, but lip-synched live by nine-year-old Lin Miaoke because Yang's face was apparently too round and her teeth were too crooked. Not content with this masterpiece of propaganda, they then inserted pre-taped fireworks footage into the montage of live fireworks to add to the event and sent in volunteer cheer squads to fill some of the empty seats. This trifecta of deceptive maneuverings shows us plenty about C...

First half : 30: Apologies for the late start here: some technical difficulties on my end delayed the launch. It's been a pretty good match so far. The Swedes are playing well, and they lead 1-0 off a nice 19th minute goal by Lotta Schelin, who broke right through the middle of the Canadian defence and fired home from close range. Canada's far from out of it, though. 32: It's nice to see striker Melissa Tancredi back from injury: she's a good complement to Christine Sinclair and Kara Lang up front. 38: A good chance for Canada, as both Lang and Emily Zurrer dive for a header in the opposing box, but neither can get much on the ball. 41: A Swedish striker breaks through, but is called offside. 43: Another decent Canadian chance after a long run by Sinclair, but it amounts to nothing. 45: Sweden breaks through again, but another offside call nullifies their advance. The whistle blows, and it's still 1-0 at the half. Halftime: Well, not a bad first half from the Canad...

A quick note that I'll be live-blogging Team Canada's final round-robin match in women's Olympic soccer tomorrow. Coverage starts at 4:34 A.M. Pacific (7:34 A.M. Eastern), so it will be a caffeine-fueled endeavour. The Canadian women, ranked ninth in the world entering the tournament, will face third-ranked Sweden, who lost to China but beat Argentina. Canada's draw against China Saturday means that they only need a draw to go through to the next round. Unfortunately, it looks like full coverage of the game may only be available on cbcsports.ca : bold is showing the equestrian events and the main network seems to be showing the Olympic morning show. It promises "full coverage" of the Canadian match, but that may just include extended look-ins between other segments. Hopefully, they'll show the whole match on the tube, but if not, I'll be watching it on the intertubes and providing updates. In any case, you can count on finding full coverage here (pro...

Breaking down the Olympic soccer opener... The Score: Canada 2, Argentina 1 How I Saw It: On the tube. The Good: - Kara Lang scoring Canada's second goal off of a free kick awarded to Canada only moments earlier when she was viciously tackled by Argentina's Maria Quinones, who earned a yellow card for her trouble. Brilliant way to get vengeance without getting booked in the process. - Jodi-Ann Robinson , turning an impressive performance as a 19-year-old sub despite only being called up to the team earlier this week to fill in for the injured Amber Allen. The highlight of Robinson's play was the brilliant Hackey Sack move she performed to fool a defender, holding the ball between her legs while on the ground, flipping over and getting to her feet on the opposite side of her marker. Who ever said fooling around gets you nowhere? - Melissa Tancredi 's hockey-style screening of Argentine goalie Vanina Correa on Canada's first goal. I've always wanted to see tha...

Well, here we go with the first event of the Olympics: women's soccer. I'll be following the Canada-Argentina match on TV and posting frequent updates here, with some notes from the Brazil-Germany game as well if I can get streaming video to work. Pre-kickoff : Canadian forward Amber Allen is out of the tournament with a leg injury [ CBCsports.ca ]. Tough luck for Allen, a Chilliwack, B.C. native who plays for the Vancouver Whitecaps: she missed the 2003 Women's World Cup after tearing her ACL [Vicki Hall, Canwest News Service via the National Post ], and a broken tibia in the same leg kept her out of the 2007 Women's World Cup. After intensive rehab earlier this year, it looked like she might finally get a shot, but it was not to be. She'll be replaced by 19-year-old phenom Jodi-Ann Robinson, a fellow Whitecap from Richmond, B.C. Robinson is very talented and has already earned 30 caps with the senior national team: she should do very well here. Great quote from ...

A quick note that I'll be staying up to live-blog the opening game of the Canadian women's soccer team's quest for Olympic gold (yes, they start before Friday's opening ceremonies). Kick-off is at 4:45 ET (1:45 PT) this coming morning, and the game can be seen live on CBC. I'll also have notes from the Brazil-Germany match, which will be streaming live on CBCsports.ca. For background on the team and the competition, check out this excellent Ed Willes piece in the Vancouver Province , striker Kara Lang's blog on the Province's website, Gary Ahuja's excellent piece on defender Randee Hermus in the Langley Times or Duane's preview over at Out of Left Field . Hope to see you in the live-blog comment thread!