Gheorghasbord

Odds, ends, ephemera, as you like it.

Speaking of ends, this is how we concluded our Definitive Women's World Cup Final preview: "The women's game is in excellent shape, and this World Cup has showcased its growth across the globe. There's still work to be done to root out misogynists and creeps, but I suppose that's true of a lot of domains."

Right on cue, creeps Gianni Infantino and Luis Rubiales demonstrated the accuracy of our words. Infantino, tone deaf as ever, gave a speech on the eve of the Final in which he said, "Pick the right battles, pick the right fights. You have the power to change. You have the power to convince us, men, what we have to do and what we don’t have to do. You do it, just do it. With me, with FIFA, you will find open doors. Just push the doors, they are open."

This will come as news to women from multiple countries who are still fighting with their federations to get the pay and World Cup bonuses they've been promised, including but not limited to finalist England, Nigeria, and Norway. Infantino is better than his predecessor, the odious Sepp Blatter, but that's increasingly damning with faint praise. That's just the start of what's wrong with Infantino's patronizing blather.

At least Infantino didn't kiss a player on the mouth without permission. That special moment came courtesy of Rubiales, the President of the Spanish Football Federation, who laid one on La Roja's brilliant midfielder Jennifer Hermoso as the champs were receiving their victory medals. Hermoso later downplayed the incident, and Rubiales apologized for it, saying he was caught up in the emotion of the moment. Fine, I guess. As long as he does the same to Alvaro Morata the next time Spain's men do something of note.

I suppose it's something that the only thing I got right about the Women's World Cup is predicting that men in power would be gross. Evergreen, that one.

Moving on to less gross things sporting, a celebration and a pair of previews of things to come for your edification. 

Prodigious golf talent Viktor Hovland has been the Next Big Thing for a while now. Yesterday, the young Norwegian showed us what all the fuss has been about. The 25 year-old picked up his fifth PGA TOUR win (and 9th title worldwide) yesterday by shooting a final round 61 to come from behind and win the BMW Championship. Hovland shot a combined 14 under par in his final two rounds to finish at -17 and top Scottie Sheffler and Matthew Fitzpartrick. Grabbed a check for $3.6m, too. Decent weekend.

Today, Americans Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah make their Serie A debuts for AC Milan as they take on Bologna their regular season opener. Pulisic had an up and down four years at Chelsea amidst injury trouble and a parade of managerial changes. He'll be featured at Milan, and needs to take the opportunity to relaunch his club career.

In news closer to home and far more important to Gheorgheworld, you can catch the University of Colorado Buffaloes football squadron on national television at noon Eastern on the first two Saturdays of September. On the 2nd, the Buffs travel to Fort Worth to take on national finalists TCU in head coach Deion Sanders' first game at the FCS level. Then, on the 9th, Colorado hosts Nebraska in the renewal of a once-fierce rivalry. You may be able to catch my kidlet on the television in the latter game. Plan accordingly. 

And finally, got to spend a few hours in the car with my elder kidlet taking them back to school in Richmond yesterday. Not nearly the adventure I had on the road to Colorado, but enjoyable nonetheless. My kid is nothing if not eclectic in their taste, so I got to listen to a whole bunch of experimental noodling and jazz I hadn't heard before. Dig on "You Can't Steal My Joy" from Ezra Collective: