The final for the Wold bragging rights is set for Saturday and the two perennial powers in the world will be facing each other once again. Those two my friends are the United States and Canada. The other teams in the tournament just don’t stack up to these two in terms of talent. The next best team is Australia,which Canada defeated 15-6 yesterday in one of the semifinals. The US crushed Japan in the other semifinal by a score of 20-5.

Iroquois Nation is usually right up there in a mix for the metals but did not get to participate this year because the English Authorities would not let them into the country without passports. You see the First Nations peoples do not have birth certificates, never mind a passport. It was too bad considering they usually field a very good team.

The US and Canada did meet in the round robin with Canada posting a 10-9 victory. It should make for a great see-saw battle in the championship game. Since  the inception in 1967, the event has only seen these two countries as champions. The US holds eight titles, while Canada holds the other two. The most recent of which was in 2006 where Canada held off the US for a 15-10 victory. The game was much closer than the score indicated.
So with the history of the way these teams stack up you can expect a great game with the final outcome decided by two goals or less.

“No Guts No Glory”
Walt Webb

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But before we sign over next year’s NBA crown to the Heat, let’s take a moment to reflect on the possibilities that need to be discussed before that can happen. Yes the Heat will have the most dynamic and formidable starting five in the league but there are team dynamics and other questions surrounding the signings which need to be asked.

Is it good for the NBA in general to have three huge stars in the same line-up? Miami will sell out all of their home games and be a great draw on the road but what about the rest of the league, will it not be slightly “watered down” from it. Can other teams still field a competitive line-up?

What about the team itself, can the big three stay healthy for the whole year through the rigors of the NBA schedule? What kind of minutes are they going to play to ensure that health come playoff time? With that, what kind of bench strength will the Heat be able to afford with the salary cap in place. If the supporting staff can’t play competitively any edge Bosh, Wade and James give you while on the floor will be countered by the bench strength from the other clubs.

Finally, all three were the Go To guys for their teams in the past. Can these three great basketball players share the ball effectively? Remember the game is played with only one ball. Can they all be satisfied with less touches and looks in the games they play.

The Miami Heat could just roll through the NBA this year but allsports has his doubts. Sometimes in team sports it is not about who has the most talent, but how that talent blends in to the team concept to make the fabric of the a strong and cohesive unit.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

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Spain by virtue of their 1-0 victory over Germany yesterday will battle the Netherlands for soccer’s top prize and the title of world football supremacy. Both teams have had remarkable runs through the legs of the tournament and have one thing in common. They have played solid football and controlled the ball against their opponents.

Neither team has ever won a World Cup so there will be a new and first time champion in 2010. Spain has never reached the final before since the tournaments inception in 1930. The Netherlands have made two previous appearances in the final but have lost on both occasions, first in 1974 and again in 1978. The tournament is held every four years but was not held in 1942 or 1946, due to the Second World War. Going into the tournament the FIFA had Spain rated 2nd in the world and the Dutch rated 4th.

On a side note, I Tunes has recorded the annoying horn sounds ( vuvuzela horn which mimics the sound of a swarm of bees) from the games being played in South Africa. The sound can be downloaded at a cost of $1.99. Allsports can’t believe it as to date there have been over 1 million people who have downloaded it.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

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It has been a while again since allsports has written anything for sports news or sports on the web. Technical difficulties with the sports blog have made it very hard indeed to get articles published in a timely matter. It is too bad really because I was hoping to get more content out there on the World Cup of Soccer as it has been happening in South Africa but that has not been the case and thus the reasoning for such a generic title for this post. So much has happened since allsports last article. Well what can you do, there is no sense crying over un-spilled words on the web.

So what a difference four years have made. The two finalists from the 2006 World cup did not even make it to the round of 16 this year. Both France and title holder Italy, were sent home in disgrace after the preliminary round.

Germany sent England packing in the round of sixteen with a 4-1 victory. England deserved their fate as they played very uninspiring football. The Brits did get robbed though by the incompetence of the officiating. A clear goal by the English was missed by an out of position line official that would have tied the game 2-2 before the end of the first half. Allsports is not saying that the outcome would have been any different had the goal been awarded but the whole complexion of the game may have changed. The young German squad deserve full marks for their efforts to date and in allsports mind, they have been the surprise team of the 2010 World Cup.

The Netherlands with their orange army have also been playing great. They knocked off perennial favorite Brazil in the quarter finals, then, followed that up with a 3-2 victory over Uruguay in the semi final to get to the championship match.

After dispatching the English the German team had to put up with Diego Maradona’s B.S before their game with Argentina. Maradona said that the English handed the game to the Germans with little effort. Maradona should learn to keep his mouth shut because his antics fired up the Germans and they pasted his team 4-0.

Germany now has a date with Spain to see who will have the right to face the Netherlands in the final. The Spanish side, which are the current European champions have quietly played mistake free soccer since their loss in the opening game and have become stronger as the tournament has progressed.

Allsports is leaning towards Spain beating Germany to match up against the Dutch in the final but the Germans have surprised all along the games. Either way, both teams would be a worthy opponent in the final.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

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So it is getting hard these days for allsports to find the time to research and write a post for sports news or sports on the web. Yes summer is here and with that more things that take time. Not only traveling southern Ontario for my girls lacrosse but also playing baseball myself,( if you need a good baseball glove, by the way check out, Web Market Industries).

Then there is the pool to keep clean and all the other work around the house and the yard to look after. Trying to get to the cottage to relax is also something that allsports enjoys doing.

World Cup Trophy

So I have been trying to take in some of the games for the World Cup of Soccer or as everyone outside of North America calls it, Football. The games are pretty hard to watch live here because of the time difference from South Africa but I have managed to watch some.

African Fan (courtesy of Getty Images)

I watched the England against Algeria game and all I have to say is I went to watch a soccer match and a game of chess broke out. England did press more than Algeria but could not get past the 10 man defense the Algerian’s put up and the game ended in a 0-0 draw. I am sorry but for allsports tastes the game was a bit of a yawn, it was slow and seemed like they were just kicking the ball back and forth to clear their zone. Give me a fast moving hockey or lacrosse game any day. Well at least the English got a small mercy today as they beat the Slovenian team 1-0. Which should be good enough for them to advance to the round of 16.

Brazil looked strong as usual against the Ivory Coast in a 3-1 win. Brazil has always been one of allsports favorites to watch because they are so creative with the ball offensively. They truly are a gem to watch play  and will be right in the thick of it for the tittle as usual.

Portugal fan

Portugal, after a 0-0 draw came out and flexed their offensive muscle against an inferior North Korean side and walked away with a resounding 7-0 victory. Lets just hope for the Portuguese fans sake that they did not blow all of their offense in the one game.Both Portugal and Brazil are in the group of death at this World Cup. Brazil is rated #1, Portugal is #5, the Ivory Coast is #16 and the poor North Koreans, rated at #84, don’t stand a chance to advance even though they have improved greatly on the soccer pitch in the last few years.

Frances, president Nicolas Sarkozy

To close allsports would just like to say what a farce the French team was at the 2010 World Cup. They not only played poorly on the Pitch, failing to advance but showed themselves to be nothing but a bunch of cry babies off the field as well. I am sure the whole country of France is embarrassed over their teams antics. French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants answers for the fiasco and can you blame him for wanting to know why grown men would act like spoiled children.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

P.S. Off to watch Germany against Ghana, see you in the round of sixteen. The soccer can only get better.

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Well again it has been a while since allsports has posted for sports news or sports on the web and now it seems just so anticlimactic. More problems with malware warnings and it seemed that one of the text widgets in use was a gateway for corrupt java script embedding itself into the footer of my theme.

You could blow a gasket and loose some bad language but in the end it would not help. The culprit was eventually found and a rather blunt comment was issued to clean up his act whether knowingly or unknowingly. Hopefully the problem will be solved for good. With that in mind just be careful what widgets you use as some maybe corrupt. Anyway, enough said on the subject for now. I may write a helpful post on the issue down the road that will be helpful to others.

Anyway back to the Stanley Cup final. It has been over now for a while but allsports had to write one final article to close the book on the 2009-2010 season. After the series was tied up by the Flyers and the Black Hawks were heading home in preparation for game five. Coach, Joel Quenneville and the rest of the Chicago management team decided to change line combination’s. It seemed to work and the Hawks took the next one at home and then won the Cup on Philly ice with an overtime win. It was somewhat mellow because the only one in the whole arena that knew the game was over was Patrick Kane who scored the goal to win the game. Allsports felt bad for Michael Leighton on the goal because it did have an aroma to it and he had played so well for the Flyers. When Mr Bettman came out onto the ice to present the Conn Smythe Trophy to Jonathan Toews the Philly fans gave him some resounding bronx cheers. It made allsports feel alright that the good hockey fans of Philadelphia felt the same way as he did about Bettman. no one has the time of day for the little weasel.

Much was said about the lines being shaken up but allsports thinks the wins had more to do with Quenneville letting the players play instead of trying to match lines. Chicago was a deeper and faster team than Philadelphia and if they just rolled the lines it would eventually show. When the line matching was going on it was like the Hawks could not get any flow and rhythm to their game, which is very important to a young highly skilled team.

Around two million people came out for the Stanley Cup parade on Madison  Avenue. It was Chicago’s first Stanley Cup since 1961 so now the longest drought for Lord Stanley’s  Mug belongs to, you guessed it, the Toronto Maple Leafs who last accomplished the feat in 1967.

Here is some parade footage.

Allsports also thinks they should give Dale Tallon a Stanley Cup Ring because he was the one that built most of the team before the Bowmans pushed him out. Here is a post on the subject titled, “Allsports says, Whats up Black Hawks?”

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

P.S. On another note, The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Deon Phaneuf, would be the Leafs new Captain. This is no surprise to allsports who predicted this shortly after the trade for Phaneuf was made. It is at the bottom of my post dated Feb 3rd 2010.

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So I have had a bit of a forced sabbatical from the sports news and sports on the web. Someone decided to report my website for malware about a week ago and it has taken this much time to get back up and running without sending cryptic messages to my good readers that my site may harm their computer.

So after downloading ALL of my content and running virus scan on it, everything was fine. There was no malware or any other virus for that matter on my website. I guess some people just have nothing better to do with their time than be a pain in the behind to others that are actually trying to do something positive. I guess though allsports must be doing something right and the site is becoming more popular otherwise the hackers and other malicious computer junkies out there would leave the website alone.

Anyway enough drivel about why the site was down, now lets move on to the Stanley Cup Final.

The marathon that is the Stanley cup playoffs is finally down to the last two teams. Mr Bettman and the rest of the NHL brass must be tickled pink that the Chicago Black Hawks and the Philadelphia Flyers are meeting for Lord Stanley s Mug. Two great hockey cities with millions of people to tune in and watch the games.

So now we have played two games at the Madhouse on Madison, with the Black Hawks winning both by the smallest of margins. Allsports liked the Hawks to win the Cup because they are a very young, fast and talented team. The Flyers have some good young talent of their own and some veteran suave from the likes of Chris Pronger. Some of the experts said at the outset that if the Refs let the guys play good tough hockey, the Flyers stand a good chance. Well the Refs have let the guys play in the first two games but the Flyers have nothing to show for it. Allsports is reminded of the old adage, You cannot hit what you cannot catch.

oes

So now it is up to the Flyers to take both of the next two games at home. If they can the series will likely go the full 7 games. If not it will be tough sledding for the Flyers to come back. Not to mention that the Black Hawks have won seven straight games on the road and seem to play better as the road team than they do at home. Game three went at 8 PM last night night at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

The Flyers came out hitting and scored first, Chicago tied it up a short time later. The teams battled back and forth all night and ended up tied after regulation, 3-3. Claude Giroux scored on a text book re-direct at 5:59 of the first overtime period to give the Flyers a much needed 4-3 victory and now trail in the series 2-1. If they had of fallen behind 3-0 to the Hawks it would have been very tough to come back but with the win they are right back in the series. In allsports opinion the Flyers would have won the game in regulation if not for the work of Chicago goaltender Antti Niemi, who was good all game but had some spectacular saves in the third period to keep the score deadlocked at 3.

Gary Bettman the smug little wimp was a guest with Ron McLean during the second intermission and being a lawyer he was very good at lying about how well his weak sister NHL franchises were doing. McLean ground his gears a little and Gary got defensive about it. McLean can barely hide his contempt for the little weasel. Allsports can’t stand the sight of Bettman and would love to run into him some day just so I can tell him what a joke he is.

I hate to say it but allsports thinks a Canadian based team will never win the Stanley Cup with Gary Bettman at the helm of the NHL. He just does not have any credibility anymore, if he ever had any to begin with.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

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So it has been a little while since allsports has written anything for sports news or sports on the web. I just wanted to see how the two NHL Conference finals were shaping up. You may recall that allsports picked Montreal in the East and Chicago in the West to play for the Stanley cup. You can view these predictions in my previous post titled,” Boston Bruins Collapse is Complete”

Montreal has taken it on the chin in both games played in the “City of Brotherly Love” this past week and have received anything but the love from the Flyers. In fact the Habs have been shut out in both games with Flyers goalie Michael Leighton stealing the show. Jaroslav Halak ‘s save percentage has dropped like a Led Zeppelin in the series and the Canadians appear to be worn out. They have out shot the Flyers but many of the chances have been from the outside, with few rebound chances. Has Halak finally hit the wall because of all the rubber he has faced in the playoffs to date. Maybe, we’ll find out tonight if the rowdy fans at the Bell Center can help the Canadians get a much needed victory.

The San Jose Sharks are also down two games in their series with the Chicago Black Hawks but unlike the Canadians who are going home. The Sharks lost both games on home ice. Now they face the daunting task of winning in Chicago’s barn. The young Hawks appear to be just to fast for the Sharks to keep up with. Antti Niemi has also outplayed Evgeni Nabokov who allsports has always thought was overrated as a goalie and  I said as much in a post I wrote back before the playoffs began. If the last game was any indication as to what the Sharks can do this series will be over pretty quick. Even by the look on some of the Sharks players faces sitting on the bench. It looked like they just did not have an answer for the Hawks speed and talent.

I guess we will find out tomorrow night if the Sharks can come back. They need a win at the United Center or more affectionately known as “The Madhouse on Madison” or this series could be over quickly.

If the Canadians loose tonight then I guess allsports really did give them the kiss of death by picking them to beat the Flyers.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

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So if you have been following along at with allsports for sports news and sports on the web, you will likely remember that allsports really blew his call in the conference semi finals for the NHL playoffs. If you look back to my post titled “ Allsports and the NHL Conference Semi-Finals” you will see that with the big choke of the Boston Bruins, allsports was officially 0-4 in those predictions. You just can’t pick’em any worse than that. I would have been better off picking like some of the women do in the football pools. You know, ow I picked them because I like the colour of their uniforms. Even with that strategy I would have done better.

So it is official now the Bruins have become the modern day King of the choke. Not only did they let a 3-0 series lead slip away, they were also winning game seven the other night 3-0 and fell to the Flyers 4-3 to make the collapse totally complete. The Flyers now join the 1975 New York Islanders and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs as the only teams in NHL history to come back in a best of seven series after trailing three games to none.

The Philadelphia Flyers now move on to face a Montreal Canadians team that must feel they have a destiny of their own. I just had to phone my cousin last night, you know the one who is the big Bruins fan, lol. Well I got his voice mail so I just left about 10 seconds of a choking noise as a message. Needless to say I have not heard back from him yet.

So now it is down to four teams in the chase for Lord Stanley’s Mug. Here is who I like to get to the Finals. Who do you think will get there?

Both teams have had a somewhat charmed playoff performance to date but after seeing Halaks efforts in the first two rounds it would be hard to bet against him. Montreal seems destined to reach the finals and has had the hardest route to get to this point. The Flyers have defied a few odds of their own as well but as I wrote at the beginning of the playoffs, the guy in the net is what gives you the best chance of winning and allsports is not about to go against Halak who is the run away favorite for the Conn Smythe Trophy as far as allsports is concerned. Therefore I am going with Montreal to take out the Flyers and advance to the finals. But the way things have been going for allsports picks, maybe I have just given the Canadians the kiss of death.

Where the Eastern division has been an anomaly with the 7th and 8th place teams getting through the West has been true to playoff form. These two teams were one, two in the regular season and were the class of the Western Conference. In the East it should be a defensive struggle. The Hawks and Sharks though, should give hockey fans a wild and wonderful offensive  display. The Hawks are young, fast and talented  with the two best defensemen in the game today. The Sharks may not have an answer for Keith and Seabrook, not to mention the leadership that has emerged in Jonathan Toews. The Sharks are a very strong and balanced team though and it should be a great series. Allsports is a Chicago fan and thinks they will advance.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

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