soccer10k

It's amazing how Leicester transformed from a team that outscored teams to a good defensive team midseason. First 17 games: 37 GF, 24 GA Last 14 games: 17 GF, 7 GA Was really hoping Palace could get at least a draw today but it was the same story as the Newcastle game. Leicester didn't deserve to win and yet they pulled it out again.

Took two days but we're finally getting some good endings. Cincinnati dude should have gone for the layup instead of the dunk. Would have gotten rid of the ball quicker.

Northern Iowa-Texas was a ton of fun also. Cincy-St. Joes going down to the wire.

Nice possession, Michigan. Plenty of time to go for a quick 2 and foul and instead you burn most of the clock and take a long 3.

Ninth win by a double-digit seed this year, most since 2012, which also had 9. I went back a ways and couldn't find a year with 10 double digit seeds winning.

http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/14991087/the-10-biggest-ncaa-tournament-upsets-20-seasons Fourth biggest in the last 20 years by point spread.

Quarterfinal draw: Wolfsburg-Real Bayern-Benfica Barcelona-Atletico PSG-Man City Plus we get Liverpool-Dortmund in the Europa League.

Stunner so far in Munich. Juve is up 2-0 after 28 minutes.

Just for curiosity's sake, I looked up some various lines on Bovada. Arsenal is +1000 to win the game +4000 to win by exactly 2 goals +8000 to win by exactly 3 goals +1400 to keep a clean sheet

UC Davis alum Quincy Amarikwa scores great goals while sporting terrible hairstyles.

Finally watching last week's review show and boy there were some dumb red cards last weekend. I knew Coquelin's second yellow was stupid but that was nothing. Mirallas appeared to be unlucky on the first yellow but on the second one, he had no business sliding in the way he did particularly in their attacking third. Both of Mata's were stupid also. It's virtually never a good idea to jump in front of the other team trying to take a quick free kick from just outside their own penalty area. And then he's on a yellow and is unnecessarily aggressive, again in ManU's attacking third. I particularly enjoyed van Gaal saying after the game that Mata shouldn't have been red carded because he's a good dude who had never gotten a red card before. Sorry Louis, that's not how things work.

Rafa Benitez started this season at one of the biggest clubs in the world. He'll finish it at a team struggling to avoid relegation.

I wish Spurs would have played better today but I'm not too disappointed with the result. Wish they wouldn't have given up the third goal only because they hadn't allowed 3 in any game yet this year. Dortmund is really good. Spurs never got anything going. All focus should be on the league now.

Raiders please. We will be drafting all of the defensive players.

Westbrook put up 25 pts, 20 ast and 11 reb tonight. It's only the 5th 20-20-10 game in NBA history and only Magic (twice) went 25+ pts, 20+ reb and 11+ ast in a game.

As nice as it would have been to have Chelsea focusing on the Champions League semis (if they got there) when they play Spurs later in the season, I'm glad they got bounced so I don't have to worry about a repeat of the 2011-12 season.

I know anything can happen over 9 games but it's really hard to see Leicester not winning the title at this point. It's going to take one of Spurs/Arsenal/City having a crazy run to do it. The couple online books I looked at have Leicester at even odds to win, Tottenham somewhere between 5/2 and 11/4 and Arsenal/City around 5/1. Leicester still has games against Newcastle, Swansea and Everton at home plus at Palace and at Sunderland. If they win four of those games plus one of home to Southampton, home to West Ham, at ManU and at Chelsea, that would put them on 75 points. -Tottenham would have to go at least either 6-2-1 (20 pts) or 7-0-2 (21 points) to get there. Pretty hard with vs. ManU, vs. South, @Liv, @Sto and @Che still left. -Arsenal would have to go at least 7-2-0 (23 points) or 8-0-1 (24 points). That would mean winning all their easy games (hello home to Swansea) and getting at least one result @West Ham and @Man City. -Man City would have to go at least 8-1-1 (25 points). Seeing as they've failed to beat any of the current top-8 this year either at home or on the road and still have Arsenal, ManU and Stoke at home plus at Chelsea and at Southampton, I think it's a safe bet that's not happening. And Leicester only finishing with 75 points wouldn't even be that good of a finish. That's either 5 wins and 4 losses (probably not happening since they've only lost 3 times all year) or 4 wins, 3 ties and 2 losses. If Leicester wins 6 games, Spurs would have to go 7-2-0 or 8-0-1, Arsenal would have to win out, and City would have to either win out or win 9 plus draw the 10th. It's crazy that 75 points is probably going to be enough to win the title when normally that gets you third.

The Warriors missed what felt like a ridiculous number of layups. What a bonkers game. They also shot 4-30 from 3. Fewest 3's made in a game and easily their worst percentage of the year.

Spurs needed to win that game after the red card, even when they were 1-0 down. And then after going 2-1 up, they took their foot off the gas and let Arsenal gain some momentum. Before the game, a tie wouldn't have been a bad result but considering how the game played out, it certainly was. They still have home games against ManU and Southampton as well as road games against Stoke, Liverpool and Chelsea. They needed a win.

Thank goodness for DVRs.

City can't beat anyone good. In 11 games against the other top-8 teams they have 0W, 3T, 8L. The only team with fewer points against the top-8 is Villa with 2. Against the bottom 12 teams they have 14W, 2T, 0L. Their best home win is against Southampton and their best road win is at Everton. They're a slightly better and more expensive version of Tottenham from two years ago when Spurs got annihilated by the top-4 (1 draw, 7 losses in 8 games).

Spurs never got going today. Everything was a bit off. The passing wasn't as crisp, their first touches weren't as good. Chadli made a terrible back pass to give away the corner then got beat on the header for the only goal. West Ham definitely deserved to win. I'm still annoyed but it's easier to take knowing Leicester tied at home and Arsenal lost at home, both to bottom half teams. Would have been nice if ManU didn't win also but oh well. Can't get too greedy. Arsenal's the big loser this gameweek. With all their tough road games, they can't afford to be blowing games at home. Definitely can't lose to Arsenal this weekend.

Tottenham has: West Ham Arsenal Villa Bournemouth Pool ManU Stoke West Brom Chelsea Southhampton Newcastle And at least 2 matches vs Dortmund Leicester has: Watford Newcastle Palace Southhampton Sunderland West Ham Swansea ManU Everton Chelsea They need 9 points from their next 3 matches. The both close tough though, but the extra matches for Tottenham could hurt them if they get past Dortmund. Yep, the next three are huge for Leicester, just like the next two are for Spurs. And those games at the end of the year against teams fighting to stay up can be harder than they might seem on paper, as Leicester found out the last two games. But how Spurs deal with 3 games in 7 days including the two London derbies will be big. I'm really hoping Dortmund bounce Spurs because otherwise the next round Tottenham will go at Liverpool (Sat), Europa (Thu), vs. ManU (Sun), Europa (Thu) and at Stoke (Mon). Would be really nice to not have Europa especially if ManU knocks off Liverpool and they have to play the Thursday before playing Spurs. Definitely still a four-way race though and the next 2 1/2 months are going to be fun. Leicester has the schedule on their side. Tottenham is the hottest team right now and the best defensive team in the league. Arsenal is finally healthy (though Ox just got hurt again) but they're still in the FA Cup and still play road games against Spurs, ManU, ManCity and West Ham. Man City has an easier schedule (hardest two games are Arsenal and ManU both at home) but they've probably got 3 more Champions League games and they've got more ground to make up.

Top of my head the AL doesn't have any truly awful teams to beat up(Maybe the Twins?), whereas the NL has them in spades. The Vegas O/U's that have been released show that also. I think there were six NL teams with a lower O/U than every AL team. The NL is clearly the haves and have nots whereas nobody knows what's going to happen in the AL.