Some of you may have seen this, but there was a reasonably big event in international sports this weekend featuring an American breakthrough.
The U.S. Rugby Sevens squad thumped Australia, 45-22, in the championship match of the final HSBC Sevens World Series, marking the Americans' first-ever series victory. The U.S. reached the final match with a thorough 43-12 dismantling of England, made the more impressive by the fact that the match was held in the Lions' home country.
Speedster Carlin Isles gets a lot of press (and he scored a pair of ridiculous tries against England), but this win was a comprehensive one by the Eagles. Danny Barrett registered a pair of first-half tries in the final, and Madison Hughes and Maka Unufe added singles to pace the big, physical U.S. side to a 26-10 lead.
Next for the Americans is an attempt to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. There's a single spot available at next month's North American and Caribbean qualifying tournament, where we'll be huge favorites. After the performance in Twickenham, which clinched a best-ever 6th-place finish in the World Series, the U.S. will be taken seriously if they make it to Rio.
Dogs and cats, living in sin.
This is awesome. GTB summit in Rio if they make it.
ReplyDeleteAnd Zman, I agree with you assessment of the MM finale. I was going to be somewhat disappointed until the final seconds, and then it was letter perfect.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on Mad Men. I was a bit upset at first at not having a spoon-fed conclusion, but there was an "ohhhh, that's what it means" aspect to it. And the clunky reference to the soda machine a couple episodes earlier cemented it.
ReplyDeleteHardcore fans may like this article (don't read if you're not current):
http://themuse.jezebel.com/why-we-should-have-seen-betty-drapers-mad-men-fate-from-1704689270
This will sound like horseshit, but when Don was talking to the girl at the front desk of the spa or whatever that place was, I though to myself "What the hell is up with her hair?" But then the same hair appeared in the final seconds and I think that tied everything up nicely for me.
ReplyDeleteEvery 3 minutes of the final 20 I kept saying "How are they going to wrap this thing up with only X minutes left?" Somehow they did.
It helps that they chose one of the most beloved TV spots in American advertising history. And I didn't even see it coming. Awesome job, Weiner.
ReplyDeleteThey played the matches in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales?
ReplyDeletenobody likes a nitpicker, ken
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed the finale. The wife and watched the final two episodes back to back. Nice way to finish the series up.
ReplyDeleteFinales are weird because you want closure but don't want it to seem hokey or contrived which is really hard to pull off. I thought Weiner did as good a job as we could've hoped for.
Weiner set the bar high for sure.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not sure about the "hey look at my kid now that he's done going through puberty" decision, but fuck it, it's his show.
If I were Weiner's son I would've offered to do an insane amount of chores around the house in exchange for a romantic scene with January Jones. I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted some closure on that.
ReplyDeleteIs it too late to get on the MM bandwagon?
ReplyDeleteAlas, there will not be a FOG:TB in the UK. Deal fell through. Short story long ... No ploughmans sandwiches for me in the near future.
With the ability to stream and binge watch I don't feel like its ever to late to start a show. I'm planning on trying Justified this summer and that has roughly a million episodes.
ReplyDeleteI watched Breaking Bad entirely after it was done. Probably more than a year after the last episode. You'll be fine watching MM now. How it ends isn't that important. The journey through is the whole point.
ReplyDeleteYoooodge day at GTB!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of yoodge, does anyone else find it funny that Mike Francesa pronounces Noah Syndergaard's last name as if it's a homophone of synagogue?
ReplyDeleteno homophonia here, zman. we're a bastion of tolerance. except for that fat fuck francesa. can't stand that dude.
ReplyDeleteAnother nice sendoff last night on Letterman. This time it was Eddie Vedder. Kind of depressing the more I think about this.
ReplyDeleteORF Rock continues tonight with a new theme: songs with animals in the title. Get wild, listen at 7pm at wodustudios.com
ReplyDeleteDylan is playing Letterman tonight. I wanna say he'll do "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome a When You Go", but that may be too much of a love song.
ReplyDeleteUnlikely he'll do Idiot Wind.
Or Lay Lady Lay.
ReplyDeletebryce harper hit another damn homerun. unconscious.
ReplyDeletei haven't watched the final season of mad men or the last twenty years of david letterman yet. i've got a lot of catching up to do . . .
ReplyDeletebut i did storm his studio with some folks who will remain nameless.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah
ReplyDelete