bukie

Senegal-Egypt-Lasers going to penalties now. This should be interesting.

This is normal...

Nigeria is about to get "away goals"d out of the World Cup.

It's sounding more and more like Costa Rica will plan for the intercontinental playoff, and thus would rest the following players:

No teams from the same confederation in the same group aside from UEFA doubling up by necessity.

This is it, the perfect microcosm of the Blackhawks franchise today:

Yeah, been seeing rumors about it. Sounds like he's had to deal with a bunch of off court issues this year in addition to all the complications from the early season concussions. Wish him all the best, shame it didn't work out at IL.

Draw coming up Friday. Here are the 20 spots clinched so far (FIFA rankings as of Feb): Qatar (52) Belgium (1) Brazil (2) France (3) Argentina (4) England (5) Spain (7) Denmark (9) Netherlands (10) Germany (11) Switzerland (14) Croatia (15) Uruguay (16) Iran (21) Japan (23) Serbia (25) South Korea (29) Canada (33) Ecuador (44) Saudi Arabia (53) The spots that are left (favorites for the spot): CONCACAF-2 (Mexico) CONCACAF-3 (USA) CAF-1 (Senegal) CAF-2 (Algeria) CAF-3 (Nigeria) CAF-4 (Morocco) CAF-5 (Tunisia) UEFA-11 (Wales) UEFA-12 (Sweden) UEFA-13 (Portugal) Playoff-1 (AFC-5/CONMEBOL-5) Playoff-2 (OFC-1/CONCACAF-4) Three of the spots won't be decided until June, so the draw will automatically put them in pot 4 (two playoffs and UEFA-11, which involves Ukraine who can't play right now for obvious reasons). If the higher ranked teams finish out the other spots, here is what the draw will look like: Pot 1: Qatar, Belgium, Brazil, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal Pot 2: Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, USA, Switzerland, Croatia, Uruguay Pot 3: Sweden, Senegal, Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, South Korea, Nigeria Pot 4: Canada, Tunisia, Algeria, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, UEFA-11 (Wales), Playoff-1(Peru/Australia), Playoff-2 (Costa Rica) Canada is obviously trying to sneak above one team into pot 3, or hoping North Macedonia wins or Nigeria loses. I don't know if the USA has enough points to gain where they can pass 4 teams to sneak into pot 1, even if Portugal loses (I think Denmark is in position now regardless of results this week). No matter where the US gets drawn, they should be favored to advance from their group. Worst case scenario is probably getting Brazil/Argentina, then a UEFA pot 3 and the UEFA playoff pot 4 team, and even then, they're the second best team in that group.

14 games! It was absurd when it was the hex and 10 games. It should be 2 in 3 games, maybe 2 in 4. VAR made a significant difference last night, as Panama got caught super early trying to CONCACAF it up, and quickly had no answer for the US attack.

There it is, 5-1 final. Just need to avoid complete disaster going into Costa Rica. They need 6 to advance ahead of the US. However, US is historically terrible in Costa Rica, having lost their last 5 by an average of more than 3-1.

Yeah, math is the same for a 4 or 5 goal margin.

Not great from Acosta and Long, Panama gets one back. Just can't let them get two back.

Pulisic determined to make Costa Rica score 10 on Wednesday.

Ferreira makes it 3-0 26 minutes in. Keep it going.

Arriola scores, unexpected. Pour it on.

Pulisic. Money. 1-0 15 minutes in. I assume this means Panama will stop falling down now.

Lakers currently in 9th, 0.5 games ahead of the Pelicans for 10th and 1.5 ahead of the Spurs for 11th, and out of the playoff picture entirely. Go Pels and Spurs.

Pulled away with a good stretch in the 3rd playing aggressive D and got points off turnovers. Toronto never really got it close after that. With tonight’s win the Bulls clinched at least a play-in game at minimum. Wouldn't quite say clinched but were 95% of the way there. Bulls still have the 7th hardest remaining schedule vs. 21st for Toronto and 16th for Cleveland. Next 5 are on the road where the Bulls are not nearly as good, but I'd say 2-3 on the road trip will make me feel pretty solid about finishing on the top 6. Definitely 2 or 3 very winnable games on the trip (which is @ Milwaukee, @ New Orleans, @ Cleveland, @ New York, @ Washington) After that 5 of the remaining 6 are at home, albeit against very strong opponents but If we're still 2-3 games up at that point I'll exhale lol No, the play-in at a minimum is clinched, since they have 42 wins and Washington/NY have 41 losses. So there will be postseason basketball for the Bulls for the first time in a while.

I'm not sure how applicable it is to the rest of the Big Ten, but effectively the in-conference strategy against Illinois in conference the past two years has been to just beat the horsefeathers out of them, the refs won't call everything. After 20 games of that, turns out Illinois was beat up and not at 100% for the tournament. I think the officiating needs to be tighter in conference to curb that kind of play, or else it just gets out of hand.

It sucks, because it felt like they were just getting their footing in the game there mid-2nd half, and then the bogus tech completely took them back out of it. Trent didn't have it still, Grandison wasn't eve 50% let alone 100%, Williams was awful, Curbelo didn't have it today, and it was still a tie game midway through the 2nd half. Hats off to the freshmen for giving the team a shot, and I feel bad for kofi who just has guys hanging on him every play and will continue to have it until refs call it consistently (first game they stopped calling it in the 2nd half, this game they called 6 fouls on him, one flagrant, and that covered maybe 1/4 of the fouls on him). Next year, no Frazier, Plummer or Williams, possibly no Cockburn or Grandison, returning Curbelo, Hawkins, Goode, Melendez, Payne, Podz (who really didn't play much once conference season started), possibly Hutcherson (going on 3 years he has been out for the season with an injury), and adding 3 highly touted freshmen and transfer Dain Dainja, let's see if they can keep up some of the regular season momentum and get back into the tournament.

Yeah. We were playing 4 on 5 all night with him out there. He’s always been hot and cold, but not like this. Very frustrating to watch him offensively. Glad his career didn't end with that game. But, on the bright side he still defended very well and that alley-oop to Hawkins late in the game is not getting talked about enough. Underwood said during today's press conference that Frazier was unable to see out of his right eye during the game, which not only affected his perception on shots, but also made it so he couldn't see the ball when he was dribbling in his right hand.

Something is up with Trent Frazier, in a "this will be the last time he plays basketball " sense. Can't shoot at all for the 5th game straight, got to be the soulder that's been braced all season, no?

You’re starting to wander from the generic homer schtick into Sulley territory here, and that’s not good for anybody. Besides, Underwood is going to be in Manhattan, KS next Monday morning.

*Takes "Kentucky over Iowa in finals* bracket, and throws it away*

Today New England beat UNAM 3-0, which means that's 3 MLS teams with 3 goals each in the first legs of their quarterfinals. I can't wait to see how they blow this. Well one did blow it and a second tried to. Third team still to play. 2 out of 3 isn't a complete disaster, but wow the Revs blew a golden opportunity to nearly assure an MLS champ. Instead, the CCL semis will be NYCFC v Seattle and UNAM vs Cruz Azul. One Liga MX team and one MLS team will be in the finals.