SU is all in on the Women’s World Cup for Team USA. Last night’s game was quite exciting as they finally played a more offensive style. They dominated the first half and although half-time was 0-0, they had several scoring chances. In a single elimination tournament, there is a lot of drama and this game had true end-to-end action. SU says it’s a worthwhile couple of hours.
We contrast that with watching the Yankees on the West Coast right afterwards. Apparently, YES Network ratings are down again this year as is road attendance which SU believes is a real indicator of just how boring this year’s team is. In addition, the Yankees will likely not have an All-star Game starter for the first time in many years. You can say they are battling for 1st place and are second in the league in runs scored but SU speaks the truth: this is a vanilla, dull, unimaginative team. Whether they make the playoffs or not is not important. Brian Cashman needs to get younger and start playing the kids for the future. If they continue this way, get to the playoffs and lose in the first round, this is not a successful season as you haven’t gotten the younger players into the mix.
The Mets cannot hit but they continue to bring up the young, stud starters which is interesting. Plus this kid Matz can hit to boot.
Finally, SU has been following some of the NBA free agent rumors and signings. SU fave Jeremy Lin has made it to the Knick rumor list. How good would that be? Melo can tell him that his new contract, whatever it is, is “ridiculous” and of course will show him which corner he should park himself in on offense. But maybe, just maybe, Derek Fisher would design some plays to have Lin do his pick and roll thing and create some excitement back at MSG. Why not take a flyer here? The fans would love it as well. OK, haters: feel free to hate.
SU is troubled by the Greg Monroe rumors. I just cannot see this guy as a difference maker. Same with David West. If you really want to plan for the future, then go younger and go all in. But even with sizable cap room, you do not see any of the big name free agents flocking to NY. And why is that?
Relatively new SU subscriber and frequent commenter Mark N weighs in this morning: “The Knicks have always been planning on rebuilding through free agents anyway so I don’t know what Melo was all cranky about in the first place. If they didn’t take Porzingis who reportedly has the most potential upside which may or may not ever be realized – what was the sure thing he suggest they take in his place? Towns, Russell, and Okafor were already gone and he was reportedly whining about not wanting to play with a rookie PG anyway. Phil is going to be successful based on who he gets to sign in the off season and how they operate in the triangle. Your point on Phil likely telling Melo to dial it back on projecting an air of hopelessness is probably dead on.”
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Having trekked to Montreal with my family to watch France beat South Korea along with at most 15,000 people, it was good to see Olympic Stadium closer to capacity last night. As is often the case, an entertaining game was decided in large part by an arbitrary penalty. It’s amazing how the world is entirely OK with the outcomes of the most important games in the most popular sport are regularly decided by something the referee misses or something they saw that didn’t exist (as with last night’s penalty that wasn’t a penalty and wasn’t even inside the box). This is such contrast with the NFL where a play is reviewed for 5 minutes to determine whether the ball should be spotted one foot forward or back. I guess both approaches lead to endless analysis, controversy and discussion which is really what the sports are hoping for anyway.
Seth, it’s really true. The foul by the German player was well outside of the box. And the yellow card on the American player earlier that resulted in a penalty kick could easily have been a red card instead of a yellow card. Plus Hope Solo could have gotten a delay of game yellow card for taking her time right before the penalty kick. I suspect it’s just a matter of time before soccer incorporates some of the technology that we see in other sports like tennis, baseball, football, etc. But with FIFA in disarray, perhaps not on the immediate horizon.
I’m amazed at how accepting the players, coaches and fans are of this kind of thing. Sure they may protest in the moment but by the time the games are over, they accept the penalty calls, or lack thereof, as part of the game. It just seems crazy that the players who just worked so hard for 90 minutes are resigned to the fact that the game hinges entirely on the referee. When teams are evenly matched these calls virtually decide the games. One penalty kick halfway through the 2nd period of a 0-0 game is basically the entire game. I’m not sure there’s even an equivalent.in the major US sports because those sports generally have more scoring. There are plenty of bad calls but no single bad call can put a game out of reach the way it seems to in soccer. It’s like an NBA player getting 25 foul shots for fouls that weren’t there. Or 3 pass interference calls in the end zone.
Yankees did not have a single runner in scoring position last night- one home run and three double plays- unwatchable.
Even with so much cap money, if you give a max contract to anyone you have nothing left for anybody else. Phil trying to get three two-way players smart enough to learn the triangle- good luck with that. Will be interesting to see what happens if Melo sours on Phil and expresses that to Dolan.