bukie

Ticos with a quick goal. 1-0.

Argentina gets the 4th spot, and a seed in the World Cup finals, while Uruguay makes the playoff vs. Honduras/Costa Rica.

UEFA playoff teams by FIFA ranking: 6. Russia 10. France 12. Greece 17. Portugal 25. Ukraine 38. Ireland 46. Bosnia-Herzegovina 54. Slovenia If they're matched up according to ranking, the playoffs will be Russia v Slovenia, France v Bosnia, Greece v Ireland and Portugal v Ukraine. So, go Bosnia and Ukraine!

Also, Germany salvaged a late (meaningless) draw with Finland to maintain their crazy sounding status of only ever having lost two WC qualifiers in club history.

World Cup qualifier action: - Switzerland and Slovakia qualified. - Greece, Portugal, Ukraine and Slovenia are in the playoffs. - Czech Republic, Sweden and Croatia are out.

Here's another one that was interesting to me: Who led each league in walks (batting)?

At least he's stable and going to physically survive the ordeal. I can only imagine the recovery and rehab process for something like that, both physical and psychological.

FO's quick reads for week 5 I like reading this every week, as they do a good detailed analysis of the best and worst at each skill position for each week. Lots of horrendous QB performances last week, especially when Derek Anderson's wasn't even the worst rated one.

Please stop talking. It'll all even out, though, with the likely South Africa/Mexico/New Zealand/Bosnia group.

Yeah you guys should get JaMarcus Russell. Talented guys who give a crap. So, you want Carolina to trade for Brady Quinn. It all makes sense now. :)

Huet stopped 2 of 5 shots tonight.

Well, 5, but yeah. And they lost to two of them. They could be the worst .500 team in history at the end of next week. Giants, rams, lions, bucs, panthers, chiefs makes 6 Ahh, right, week 1 is a default winless team. The sad part of the rest of their schedule is that they are a combined 2-22, but 2-2 against the Redskins.

Well, 5, but yeah. And they lost to two of them. They could be the worst .500 team in history at the end of next week.

Tennessee might be a better team than 1/4 of the league, but that doesn't mean they'll win more games. They have a tough schedule this year, with no gimmes within the division. There are also a LOT of bad teams this year. Oakland, KC, Buffalo, Cleveland, St. Louis, Tampa, Carolina, Detroit, Washington and Miami are all teams that have played terrible this year.

The next two weeks look a lot more challenging than they did 3 days ago.

As for seeding, Germany clinched a seed Saturday, so six of the eight seeds are clinched by Brazil, Spain, Italy, England, Germany and South Africa. Netherlands is ahead of the USA in the pecking order and the USA is not going to pass them, so the US seed chances are pretty slim now. They need to widen the gap between themselves and Mexico in the FIFA rankings enough to pass them in seed rankings, and they need Argentina, France and Portugal to fail to qualify for the World Cup finals.

So, state of the World Cup qualifiers with one round of games to go (and playoff ties): 19 teams have currently qualified as of today: Host - South Africa UEFA (Europe) - Denmark, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy, Netherlands AFC (Asia) - Australia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea CAF (Africa) - Ghana, Ivory Coast CONMEBOL (South America) - Brazil, Paraguay, Chile CONCACAF (North America) - USA, Mexico As for the 13 remaining spots: UEFA - There are two groups up for grabs yet. Switzerland leads Group two with 20 points, with Greece at 17 points. Greece has a freebie win v Luxembourg Wednesday, so Switzerland simply needs to not lose to Israel at home to qualify. In group three, Slovakia leads with 19 points to Slovenia's 17 points, but Slovenia has a freebie at San Marino, while Slovakia visits Poland. UEFA Playoffs - There are going to be 4 spots available for 8 teams. It's not completely set yet, but the likely playoff participants will be Portugal, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, France, Ireland, the Switzerland/Greece loser, and the Slovakia/Slovenia loser. CAF - Three groups undecided yet. Group A is between Cameroon (10) and Gabon (9). Both finish on the road, Cameroon in Morocco and Gabon in Togo. Group B is between Tunisia (11) and Nigeria (9). Both also finish on the road, Tunisia in Mozambique and Nigeria in Kenya. Group C is down to Algeria (13) and Egypt (10). Algeria visits Egypt, with Egypt needing to win by at least 2 to qualify. CONMEBOL - One qualfier spot and one playoff spot available yet to Argentina (25), Uruguay (24), or Ecuador (23). Argentina visits Uruguay, and Ecuador visits Chile. CONCACAF - One qualifier spot and one playoff spot for Costa Rica (17) and Honduras (15), just have to figure out which is which. Costa Rica visits the USA, while Honduras visits El Salvador. Neither the US nor El Salvador has lost a home match yet, so it is likely Costa Rica qualifies and Honduras gets the CONMEBOL playoff. AFC/OFC Playoff - The last spot is going to either Bahrain or New Zealand in a 2-leg playoff. The Bahrain leg ended in a 0-0 tie, so New Zealand needs to win at home to advance, while Bahrain just needs to win or tie while scoring.

On a per-play basis, the pass defense has actually been better than the run defense this year. They struggle against the #1 and #2 WRs, but they completely shut down slot WRs, TEs, and RBs. A lot of that is likely due to the D-line this year, which has been stellar.

In one of the last interesting races for World Cup bids, Chile booked a spot to the finals today, Ecuador had a terrible home loss to Uruguay to drop to 6th, and Argentina needed a stoppage time goal to hold off Peru at home and jump to 4th. The interesting thing now is that with the Uruguay/Ecuador result, it's still possible for Argentina to finish 6th. Argentina visits Uruguay Wednesday, while Ecuador visits an already-qualified Chile. If Ecuador and Uruguay win, Argentina finishes 6th and out of the Cup finals.

[expletive] refs.

I don't care if he's shorter than Kiefer Sutherland, he was the best rebounder in the history of college basketball. Paul Millsap? I assume you must mean him since he never had a year as bad as Blair's best in rebounding. Hell Blair's not even the best rebounder in this class. That would be Griffin. Blair had a much better rebounding percentage than Griffin. Blair had the highest offensive rebounding % in the history of college basketball. EDIT: Offensive rebounding percentage, not defensive. He was slightly below Griffin defensively. Weren't those just #s going back to 2005? I keep seeing this repeated about Blair and the only source I can find is the Gassway article. (The same article that listed Sean May as 5th. Yeah, Sean May) Yeah, I thought Pomeroy mentioned historically as well. Gasaway just took a quick glimpse at the data Pomeroy had readily available.

I don't care if he's shorter than Kiefer Sutherland, he was the best rebounder in the history of college basketball. Paul Millsap? I assume you must mean him since he never had a year as bad as Blair's best in rebounding. Hell Blair's not even the best rebounder in this class. That would be Griffin. Blair had a much better rebounding percentage than Griffin. Blair had the highest offensive rebounding % in the history of college basketball. EDIT: Offensive rebounding percentage, not defensive. He was slightly below Griffin defensively.

You better trade him back to me. Heh, I'm not sure if there's anyone in the league looking to add keeper points right now. So far, it's looking like the draft is going to have a few extra really good players in it. :)

Is there some reason Pablo Sandoval lost his 3B eligibility on CBS? I mean, he played 120 games there. I only ask because at 3B, he's probably top 5 projected, but at 1B, he's borderline top 10.

The Knox kickoff return was a textbook case of over-pursuit by the Lions. If you watch video, by the time Knox is at the 25, he's already past the entire coverage team and has only the kicker to beat. There are two blockers between Knox and the kicker. So, of 10 coverage guys, 2 ran past the play unblocked and were never a factor.