Monday 29 October 2007

MLB: Boston wins it - NPB: Series tied

Congratulations to the city of Boston. The Red Sox swept the Rockies and won the World Series 2007. Jon Lester was the winning pitcher in Game 4 and because the Americans love those heartfelt stories about people who have to suffer some sickness or injury and then come back to win it all, Mr. Lester was at the center of attention. To me it's something I never really had in my fan life with football teams over here. The teams I root for are usually losers who don't win anything at all. Which is why I really like the red Sox. Their history, with all the failures, mistakes and terrible things that happend on their quest to end the 86 year old drought, is something I instantly fell in love with. And now that team wins their 2nd World Series title in 3 years. Amazing.
Although one has to admit that the Rockies were hard to beat in the playoffs one also had to say that they never really stood a chance against the Red Sox. Whatever the Rox were doing, the Sox immediatly found an answer. Yesterday Boston was cruising on a 4-1 lead in the 8th inning when Colorado finally made a comeback. Or did they? The only caught up to 4-3 and then Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon closed the door for them.
Well, it has been an interesting first full season of baseball for me and I think I'm hooked now. Hopefully some time in the future I might get to visit some friends in the States or Canada and then go to a game. I'm really looking forward to that.

Or I might go to Japan to watch a game there. The Nippon Series is tied now at 1-1 after the Dragons won the second game against the Fighters on Sunday. It seems there is a little more suspense in Japan. the Fighters won the first one after a tough battle 3-1 and now Chunichi thrashed them 8-1. Hopefully this series will go over the whole distance. Cause then there will be a rematch between Darvish and Kawakami from Game 1.
If I ever make it to Japan to watch a game I think I might try to get into Koushien to watch a Tigers game. It's funny cause I always thought of baseball supporters to be rather quiet and calm when their team plays. But after seeing pictures from the Boston fans celebrating in the streets and videos of Tigers fans making a huge noise at the stadium, I'd really like to check that out myself.

Sunday 28 October 2007

MLB & NPB: One more for Boston, Darvish with a complete game

Boston's Matsuzaka Daisuke was the main main in yesterday's Game 3 at Coors Field in Denver when the Red Sox took another win against the Rockies. He pitched really well and he even got 2 RBI in a 6-run third inning for Boston. The other shining players for the Red Sox were Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. The media is going crazy about so much rookie power. Colorado tried to get back into the game and did so with a 3-run homerun by Matt Holliday in the 7th, but that wasn't enough. Boston is now one game away from winning their second World Series in just three years. While this is happening one could really see how the media are clinging to at least some stories that might add to some suspense while there really is nothing special to report about. It just seems that Boston is way too good for a young Rockies team. Because Games 3-5 are played in a National League city Boston manager Terry Francona has to sit one of his key players because he is not allowed to nominated a designated hitter. So before Game 3 there was a huge fuss about whether he will sit DH David Ortiz, 1B Kevin Youkilis or 3B Mike Lowell. I just don't see the point. They are all great offensive players, one of them (Ortiz) doesn't field that much, but hey, he did it last night. That's the game.
Tonight the Red Sox will try to complete the sweep with Jon Lester on the mound.

On the other side of the ocean the Nippon Series kicked off with Game 1 in Sapporo. Fighters starter Yu Darvish pitched a complete game with 13 strikouts, which ties the record for a Nippon Series game. The losing pitcher was Chunichi ace Kawakami Kenshin who also threw a great game with only two hits over 8 innings, but he gave up two walks in the first and then came Fighters clean up hitter Fernando Seguignol and that was it. Kawakami retired the next 21 batters, but his offense wasn't able to come back, scoring just one run in the 6th.
Game 2 will take place tonight at Sapporo again, but there is no chance for people outside of Japan to follow the match. I think I read somewhere that there used to be a stream on the internet that accessable for fans living outside of Japan but that one was closed down at the start of this year's season. Which is a pity, I think. It's very interesting to watch a Japanese yakyu game and compare it to what is played in the USA.

Saturday 27 October 2007

AFC Champions League: German qualities bring the Reds to the final

The name Urawa Red Diamonds was introduced to the German public first when some German players transferred there in the early 1990s. The first German player to fly over to the J-League was Pierre Littbarski, a hero for his long time team 1.FC Cologne. When he announced that he will be playing for Japanese side JEF United Chiba before retiring this sparked a huge interest in Japanese football in Germany. Before the introduction of the J-League only one Japanese player was known in Germany: Okudera Yasuhiko. He also played for 1.FC Cologne in the 1970s helping them to win the championship and the cup in 1978.
So players like Uwe Rahn, Uwe Bein and Guido Buchwald made a move to Japan during the closing stages of their career and it was Buchwald who came back as a coach after he retired in Germany. He was hired by his former team Urawa and in 2006 he guided them to the chmapionship and the cup final. So Buchwald recieved a hero's goodbye when he decided to go back to Germany to coach relegated Alemannia Aachen in their quest to get back into the spotlight of the German Bundesliga. He's doing fine there at the moment, by the way (Aachen are currently in 7th place, only 4 points behind a promotion spot). The new coach at Urawa was Holger Osieck, who was the assistant to Franz Beckenbauer when Germany won the World Cup in 1990. So it was no surprise that the Reds made it to the final of the AFC Champions League through a penalty shoot out, something which has always been looked at as a German speciality (at least when you speak to Britains). The first match against the South Korean side of Seongnam Ilhwa ended in a draw and the second leg was also tied after 120 minutes. So they had to move to penalties which brought the win to Urawa 5:3. The Reds will now face Iran's Sepahan in two matches on November 7th and 14th.

MLB World Series: Tough luck for working Europeans

So the series is going to Denver this weekend where the Rockies will try to get back on track after losing the first two games at Fenway. I guess the first two really show what Boston is about this season. They completely crushed the Rockies in Game 1, when Josh Beckett held them to just one run while the offense exploded for 13 runs, three of those coming in the first inning and another 7 in the 5th. Game 2 was the complete opposite. This time it was the Boston pitching staff winning the match with reliever Okajima Hideki getting most of the attention as the first pitcher to come onto the field in an American World Series Game. In this game Curt Shilling held Colorado to just one run and Okajima and Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon finished things off for a 2-0 lead for Boston.
Now the most frustrating for someone living in Europe is that all games of the World Series start in the middle of the night. First pitch times are always 8 pm Eastern which translates into 2 am CET. But the first actual pitch isn't thrown until 2.40 am which is kind of annoying. There's loads of advertisment and commercials all the time, but the game starts almost 40 minutes later than expected. This makes it hard to stay awake. I was able to at least catch the first inning of Game 1 and I hope to be able to watch a little more of tonights Game 3. Maybe it's adifferent story for next week since the Americans are trailing Europe when it cames to setting back the clock for winter time. Which gives Europeans one more hour back and games will start at 1 am next week.

Monday 22 October 2007

MLB: A win, that might raise questions for the future?

So the Red Sox have beaten the Indians last night 11-2 and will now play against the Colorado Rockies in the World Series starting on Wednesday. Boston won the remaining games in their series against Cleveland outscoring them 30-5. And in Game 7 even shaky Japanese starting pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke was throwing his stuff well. So everything fell into place and the Sox have their chance for a shot at the World Championship again after winning in 2004.

Which brings up an interesting argument raised by a writer of the New York Times who asks if the Red Sox are becoming the New York Yankees of the new millenium. It's always strange to see what happens to teams in sports when they win a championship after a long time. Or, let's pit it this way, when a team has a very long championship drought it will do almost anything to get another chance. And almost every time the people in charge lose sight of what is most important to them and the club: the fans. This happened at Borussia Dortmund in the late 1990s after they won back to back championships in Germany (1995, 1996), the Champions League (1997) and the World Cup for club teams (1997). After that success they spent an enormous amount of money on new players, but they only managed to grab one more title (German championship 2002). After that the club was on the edge of bancruptcy.
So are Red Sox fans prepared to watch their beloved club transform into something which is more similar to what the Yankees used to represent? This is my first season of baseball which I was able to follow completely and I have to admit that the Boston team is interesting to me because of its history of failures. It has always been easier for me to cheer for a team that was not perfect and was not winning a lot of championships. It'll be interesting to see what will happen with the Red Sox and their fanbase.

Sunday 21 October 2007

A day at the record store (II)

I finally made it to my local record dealer again last week and this is what found there:

MONO Gone (A Collection Of EPs 2000-2007) 3xLP
This was the record I want to buy at my visit to the store and, boy oh boy, this is a gem. A triple LP set in a wonderful gatefold cover, really thick vinyl, brilliant artwork, this is just great. I know I won't put this one on my turntable that often, but I really love the music. It's a collection of some of their EP and compilation tracks, just pure MONO music. Loud, quiet, very dynamic, a great variety. I just love the way they create an atmosphere in which you can endulge and by the time ou are sucked into it it suddenly changes and they do something new and unexpected. This band really is great. On record as well as on stage.

PELICAN City Of Echoes LP
I just didn't know that there is a new record by PELICAN so I was kind of surprised to find this. I saw the band play live some time ago and although I really like their records it was rather hard to listen to them play their songs because their drummer had huge timing problems. At least it sounded like he did. So this record is great once again, although it seems to be a bit more straight to the point at one time, but also a bit more complicated on the other hand. Sounds strange? Might be, but that's what I think. There are some parts which have a rather up beat tempo and not this slow stuff. and then they change back to their epic and broad parts. Anyway, this is PELICAN as you know them and the way their guitars sound is just wonderful.

SUNNO))) - Oracle LP
This is the kind of record which makes my parents shake their heads and make them say that this ain't no music, it's just pure noise. And it's true, I mean, SUNNO))) take sound to a whole new level. When I saw them live last year that was one hell of an experience. The audience was feeling the room, trying to cover their ears, but I was standing there with some of my friends, transfixed and completely focused on the band and their one hour performance which was just stunning. And it was so liud that you could actually feel the music in your stomach. Brilliant.
Now this is a contribution by SUNNO))) to an art performance in which they played the music in connection with a sculpture of their backline made out of cast resin and salt in New York. It's that stuff which makes them interesting to me as well. Their just not your average black metal idiots.

ANTITAINMENT Nach der Kippe Pogo?! LP
I picked up this record only because someone suggested I should go to their concert but I wasn't able to make it there. The name sounded like some cliché punkrock band, but there is more to it. ANTITAINMENT play rather hectic crustcore with a very annoying organ/synthi added to it. It is rather hard to describe so I'd suggest you take a listen. Their lyrics sound a lot like the mid 90s Ebullition style emo bands which popped up all over Germany, albeit with a little more humour. Think AMEN81. I don't think that this record will land on my turntable too often, but every now and then I will listen to it. It nice to have something like taht once in a while. Vinyl version comes in a limited gatefold sleeve cover. Looking good.

THE WEAKERTHANS - Reunion Tour LP
Winnipeg's finest are back on the map with their fourth album, a piece which took them three years to record. Well, I don't know if it took them that long, but it's been that time since the last record came out. This is just your wonderful WEAKERTHANS stuff. No changes made, just pure prairie poetry punkrock with a little country flavour to it. I'm really looking forward to see the guys play again in Germany this November, but I have to admit that this record just can't keep up with the previous three. It's great, no doubt, but it's not as great as the ones they put out before. This is what the WEAKERTHANS are, they make greatr music, they are wonderful people and I will listen to this record anyway. But I just don't think that I will listen to it as extensively as I did to the other records. Still, a must have, not only because the vinyl comes in a wonderful gatefold sleeve.

ILIKETRAINS - Elegies To Lessons Learnt LP
I first heard about this British band when a former colleague of mine told me about a show he attended in Cologne where this band played. He was so fascinated and wouldn't talk about anything else because he was so thrilled with their persomance. So I gave them a chance and searched for some of their songs. And, to be honest, he was right. Although their live show must be a once in a lifetime experience the recorded songs sinmply blew me away. The music is very hypnotic and the interaction between the vocals and the instruments is brilliant. The deep voice of the singer interacts wonderfully with how the songs evolve, starting out rather slow and mellow and then ending up in a hgue crescendo which after some time fades out to become the same mellow and quiet part again that started the song. Wonderful stuff. The really captures the attention of the listener.

RWC 2007: The champions wear green

Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch last night's final, but from what one can read in the newspapers it wasn't a beautiful game so I guess I didn't miss much. Still I think it's okay that South Africa won the Cup since they have been the team who have been playing most consistently over the past few weeks. True, they had their moment in the pool match against England and after that they kind of lost their momentum a little bit. But their style of Rugby looked by far more convincing than the brutal will England forced upon their opponents. With the other two southern hemisphere giants out of the tournament it was only natural that the Springboks took home the trophy. England may have had the chance, but in all of their matches they came through because of their sheer determination which just doesn't seem to be enough against South Africa.

It is rather disappointing that such a great tournament had its highlight with a final that didn't feature one try. Having said this I don't know anything about the ratings for the German TV coverage, but it seems that the interest in rugby has risen slightly over the course of the World Cup. Usually newspapers would only print small reports of only a few words, but nowadasy there's long reports about the teams and their stars. Players like Wilkinson, Habana, Chabal or Carter were portrayed in the German media, which is progress for a sport which is still considered to be way too brutal to be played over here. Maybe things will change over the next four yaers, but wat it needs to keep rugby in the spotlight is coverage in the media, especially on TV. Because of that I hope that some station might broadcast the Six Nations or the Tri Nations matches.

MLB & NPB playoffs: Sox tie it, Fighters are through to Japan Series

The Boston Red Sox came back after being down 1-3 beating Cleveland in the last two matches and therefore getting a final and decisive Game 7 at Fenway Park. Beckett and Shilling were the winning pitchers in Game 5 and 6 and J.D. Drew, the man some labeled as the biggest disappointment for the Red Sox this season turned up the offense with a grand slam homerun in the first inning of last night game. The 12-2 win was never in danger as the Indians pitching staff was not the best with starter Fausto Carmona lasting only 2 innings. It seemed like the Boston team was really determined in last night's game. Everybody looked really well and there were some fine defensive plays as well.
Game 5 set the tone for what was to come with another brilliant performance by Josh Beckett. He dominated Cleveland once again and even had time to quarrel with Indians outfielder Kenny Lofton.

Meanwhile across the Pacific the contenders for the Japan Series have been determined. Last year's champions Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters won a five game series against the Chiba Lotte Marines 3-2 with Yu Darvish winning the final game. They will now face a familiar opponent because the Chunichi Dragons, last year's runner-up in the Japan Series, won their Climax Series in the Central League by sweeping the Yomiuri Giants 3-0. So now it's the question whether history will repeat itself or will the Dragons have their say against the Fighters this time.

Monday 15 October 2007

Campaigning for election in Japan: A documentary

I zapped into a documentary by chance last night which was shown on the German-French culture channel Arte. It was about some guy named Yamauchi Kazuhiko who was told by his party to run for a post in the local city council in Kawasaki. I don't really know if the constituancy he was running for was named Miyabae or not, as I said, I joined the program as it was already running.
So this poor Yamauchi-san tries the best he can to get the best resuult for his party and the documentary accompanies him on his way. He's meeting up with old friends of his at a hotel room. The friends are very confused when Yamauchi-san's wife tells them that she has to refer to herself as "kanai" (housewife) instead of "tsuma" (wife) because some party officials told her so. Yamauchi-san's party is the LDP, the governing party in Japan. They have been in power for almost all the time after the 2nd World War and this documentary is set during a time when Koizumi Junichiro was still prime minister. They seemed to have quite a few elections going on their, so when the prime minister was joining the campaign the main candidate - I presume she ran for a place in parliament - poor Yamauchi-san had to stand a whole lot lower than the other candidates.
Also what was very confusing was that there was almost no talk about the program the guy was standing for. It seemed like he had none. He had to built up a base of supporters from out of nowhere (something which was done by supporters of another candidate from the same party) and he had to pay for the campaign all by himself. There's one scene when he and his wife are driving home and she complains that some old guys of the party told her to quit her job. She's afraid that they won't have any money left if Yamauchi-san fails to win the seat in the city council.
There seems to big a huge difference in how both political systems of elections work in Germany and Japan. the Japanese way looked rather loud and colourful when the German way of campaigning relies mostly on speeched and arguments. Perhaps that's because there is proportional representation in Germany. Well, I've never seen a candidate standing in front of the train station wishing each passenger who enters the station a good morning and a safe travel. This was very interesting.
The original title is "Campaign" and the film was done by Soda Kazuhiro, a filmmaker born Japan who is now living in New York.

Euro 2008 Qualifiers: Germany's through

Because of the Rugby World Cup I didn't really bother about Germany's qualifiying match against Ireland. They played a rather ugly 0-0 draw, which is what I read. So with still three games to go they are the first team to qualify for the Euro 2008 which is pretty impressive. With this Germany are surely one of the top favourites for the title next year. And If one keeps in mind that they were playing without some of their regular players for the last few matches than their achievement becomes even more impressive.
England seem to be back on track, too, after beating estonia 3-0 at Wembley. The biggest surprise came from Scotland where the home team beat Ukraine 3-1 and with this keeping the top position in their group, with Italy and France in 2nd and 3rd place.
The Netherlands seem to have problems losing their match to Romania 0-1. They are now in 2nd place only 2 points in front of Bulgaria.
In the other groups the race is not done as well. Poland, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Sweden and Spain are all wel on their way to Austria and Switzerland, but they are all not through yet.

Elsewhere the qualification rounds for the 2010 World Cup started already. In Bogota Columbia and Brazil played a goalless draw which can be considered quite a surprise.

RWC: The final is set. South Africa vs England

There we have it, the teams to play the final next Saturday are determined and we will see a rematch of the pool game in which the Springboks crushed England 36-0. England went through against a very strong French team who were leading until the end of the 2nd half. That was when Jonny Wilkinson finally got into his rhythm, scoring a penalty and a drop goal and by doing so beating Les Bleues 14-9. It was a very tense and close game and it was even harder to get a place to watch this match. Me and some friends tried our luck at an Irish pub in the old part of Cologne, but that place was so packed they wouldn't even let anyone in anymore. So we took a taxi to some other Irish pub in the inner city only to find the same picture. So we ended up watching the game from the outside trying to get at least a glimpse of the screen inside the bar. And it wasn't only us, there were lots of French and English people waiting for the match. The atmosphere was way more relaxed than any football match I'd seen before.
The next day I preferred to watch the second semifinal at home. I wasn't sure what to expect since the Springboks were struggling against Fiji, although the scoreline was rather distracting (37-20). The Pumas on the other hand came through against Scotland and played some pretty impressive rugby in their pool matches. But yesterday they were simply making way too many mistakes. Which is why it was too easy for South Africa to score. They quickly went up with a try and Argentina was never able to bounce back from that. The Boks on easily 37-13 and will now face an English side who didn't play very beautiful rugby but who look very threatening when they face their opponents. Thsi will be something to look forward to. The best World Cup so far. England have the chance to make history by becoming the first team to win back to back championships. Something noone expected before the start of the tournament.

MLB & NPB: The playoffs continue

Colorado extended their streak to 21 out of 20 by beating the Diamondbacks yesterday 4-1, so they are now just one win away from entering the World Series. And to be honest, although I haven't seen any game of the NLCS so far I think their are a force to be reckoned with. Winning 20 out of 21 is a very impressive number and Boston or Cleveland will have problems when they face the Rockies. Meanwhile in the ALCS the Red Sox and the Indians will continue their series which is tied at 1-1 at Cleveland. Matsuzakla Daisuke will be the starter for Boston and it will be interesting to see how he will do in this situation. From what I've read about his acreer in Japan he was considered to be a "big game pitcher". The higher the pressure, the better the perfomance of Dice-K. He did well against the Indians the last time he played at Jacobs Field, a game in which he pitched a 7 inning shut out, if I remember that right.

On the other side of the Pacific, the playoffs are also in full effect. The Pacific League is entering the 2nd stage of theri Climax Series with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters going up against the Chiba Lotte Marines. Japanese wonderboy Yu darvish started the first game for the fighters and was struggling at first but then stelled in securing the 5-2 win for his team. I have no idea how many ganmes are played in this series, maybe they have one game more than the first stage which was a best of three series.
In the Central League for the first time in their history they are having palyoffs as well. The first Climax Series their is played between the Chunichi Dragons and the Hanshin Tigers. Hanshin completely blew the game losing 7-0. The winner of thios series will face regular season champions Yomiuri Giants, a team considered to be the equivalent of the NEw York Yankees in Japan.
It seems they introduced those playoffs to rise interest in the leagues. Before the playoffs the winners of the Central and the Pacific League played the Japan Series against each other. Now they have playoffs, the Central League introducing them just this year. It's a pity there's no way to watch anything of those matches over here so I have to rely on what's written in some English newspapers from Japan. The Japan Times Online is a good one. And also there's Japan Baseball Daily with all the scores and lots of news.

Saturday 13 October 2007

MLB: NLCS and ALCS on their way

I watched the first game of the ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians yesterday. It was marked the ultimate pitcher's duel with Cy Young candidates Josh Beckett and C.C. Sabathia taking the mound. Beckett was phenomenal against the Angels in the first game of the ALDS when he pitched a shut out complete game, giving up only 4 hits. Sabathia was struggling a little more against the Yankees in Cleveland's game one but also held his opponents in check. Last night was different for him though. He walked way too many batters and he never got control over Boston's dangerous one-two punch in the No. 3 and 4 slots of the batting order. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were all over Cleveland scoring tons of runs. Beckett gave up one run in the first, but the Red Sox counter attack scored 4 in the bottom of the first giving Beckett a comfortable lead. So today Curt Shilling and Fausto Carmona will be in the spotlight for game two.

In the NLCS the Colorado Rockies extended their streak to 19 wins in 20 games when they took a win in both games at the Arozona Diamondbacks. The Rockies are now in complete control with the series moving to Denver for the next game. Still it seems that all eyes are focused on the AL with the big names playing against each other there. I guess that people would have liked to see the Cubs and the Phillies play the Championship Series, but they both went down 0-3 in the NLDS. Colorado meanwhile look very convincing and I wouldn't be too surprised if they go through to reach the World Series. They look pretty compact and consistent and they will pose a threat to any team that has to face them. It's hard to name one key player since it's all a team effort, but their ace Jeff Francis and players like Kazuo Matsui, Troy Tulowitzki or Matt Holliday seem to be the names that come up. Matsui came up really strong over the past few games, his biggest hit being a grand slam hoemrun against Philadelphia in Game 2 of that series.

Wednesday 10 October 2007

MLB moves on to the next stage, NPB looking for opponent for pennant winner

The divisional series ended in the MLB and the Championship Series are set to start. It will be Arizona vs Colorado in the NL and Boston vs Cleveland in the AL. With all the fuzz about curses that seems to be going on in the States it's no wonder that someone found something that fit to Cleveland, a team that won its last World Series in 1948. I can't really say who will make it in the NL since I haven't seen that many games of the Diamondbacks and the Rockies. Colorado looked pretty strong against Boston during Interleague play and one always has to keep in mind that the won 17 of their last 18 matches.
Boston meanwhile will be glad that they don't have to face the Yankees, but it remains to be seen if the Indians are the better choice. especially their top starters C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona looked very sharp in their appearances against New York. The Red Sox dropped Matsuzaka Daisuke to Game 3, since he didn't look that good against the Angels in Game 2. We'll see how that works out. He said of starting at Cleveland that he liked the mound there a lot when he played there during the regular season. I'd really like him to do well this time again.

In Japan the regular season is finished now and I somehow managed to find my way through postseason procedures. It looks like the number two and number three teams of each divison will play against each other in a so called three game "Climax Series". The winner will then face the divisional champions to play for a place in the Japan Series. This means that the Central League Climax Series will be played by Hansin Tigers (3rd) vs Chunichi Dragons (2nd) and the winner will play against the Yomiuri Giants. I'd really like to see Hanshin advance, not only because they play at Koushien, but also because they are great rivals with the Giants. It's always nice to have a little extra in a series. But that's not very likely taking into account that Hanshin was struggling heavily to the end of the regular season and they are playing against last year's Japan Series runner-up, the Dragons. It seems that the CL Climax Series hasn't started yet.
The Pacific League Climax Series was on it's way, it's already finished. Chiba Lotte Marines (2nd) were playing against Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The Marines won the series 2-1 and will now face the Nippon Ham Fighters in Sapporo. The Fighters are last years Japan Series Champions and with pitcher Yu Darvish they have one of the top players of Japanese baseball in their line up. He said that he would like to play in the USA rather sooner than later so perhaps this might be a good chance for American scouts to take a close look at him.

Monday 8 October 2007

MLB: One place still open

The Red Sox swept the Angels last night moving on to the ALCS. Their opponent is still uncertain since the Indians lost to tne Yankees in New York. Although starter Roger Clemens had to leave the mound after only 2 1/3 innings because of an injury and although being behind 1-3 they still came back winning the game 8-4 and getting the series at 1-2. Johnny Damon hit a three-run homerun in the fifth and Clemens' replacement Phil Hughes played 3 2/3 shut out innings. Cleveland will now try to finish things off tonight.
Meanwhile Boston will be waiting on the outcome of that game. They won against Anaheim 9-1 with their third starter in the rotation Curt Shilling pitching 7 shut out innings. With such a pitcher on the mound the infamous 1-2 punch of the Red Sox offense delivered. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez proved to be a fatal combination once again by lifting solo homers each in 4th inning. By that time Angels starter Jered Weaver looked strong, but with those to shots breaking the tie, L.A. never came back. A 7 run eighth inning sealed things up for Boston.

Sunday 7 October 2007

MLB: NLDS sweeps done, Red Sox and Indians aim to do the same

Both series in the NLDS ended in sweeps with the Diamondbacks downing the Cubs 5-1 at Wrigley and the Rockies winning their first game at home against the Phillies 2-1. I was really rooting for the Cubs to at least get close to the World Series, but that wasn't meant to be. They were really struggling straight from the first pitch of starter Rich Hill yesterday which Arizona turned into a leadoff homerun. They had their chances, but wasted runners on base.
Meanwhile in Colorado the Rockies won against the Phillies and kept up their momentum which carried them into the postseason. After winning both matches on the road in Philadelphia they took their first opportunity to finish the series at home. I saw them play against the Red Sox in the summer and they were pretty convincing, although they were struggling a bit after the all star break. But they've been on the roll for the past 18 games winning 17 including the tiebreaker against the Padres. Maybe they are the team to look out for. The Red Sox were having a hard time against them and I think other AL teams might have it the same way.
Today will see the third games in the ALDS series. Boston is up 2-0 against Anaheim and Cleveland leads New York with the same scoreline. Both teams now go on the road and will try to finish things off today. Boston looked strong at Fenway, especially their offense seems to get rolling now. Their main concern will be Matsuzaka who lasted only 4 2/3 innings in game 2. New York on the other hand will look to Roger Clemens top stop the losing streak. And they will hope that Alex Rodriguez will find his rhythm again after not hitting anything at Cleveland.

Saturday 6 October 2007

RWC 2007 Quarterfinals: A big surprise and a huge upset

England have done it again. They beat Australia. Though this it wasn't the final and they weren't going to extra time. Still it needed all Johnny Wilkinson had to offer as he booted all 12 of England's points. Australia never looked like they were going anywhere with their defense. They had a little glimpse of hope shortly before the interval when Tuqiri scored his try (6:10), but after the change it was all England. "Swing low, sweet chariot" was thundering through the Stade Velodrome in Marseille and the English lines were never ever looking like they were crumbling. Wilkinson put England back on top and from there on the game was done. Mortlock missed a crucial kick shortly before the final whistle and that was it. The Wallabies will now look for fresh faces with players like Mortlock, Gregan or Larkham surely thinking of retiring.

But that was absolutely nothing compared to what happened in Cardiff this evening. France completely upset the All Blacks beating them 20:18. A thrilling match between two teams who really met on level grounds. Although this didn't look like it at the end of the first half. New Zealand were storming through the French lines and were quickly up 10:0 with France struggling to organize their offense. The result at halftime was 13:3 and Les Bleues were lucky to not having to concede more points. It all changed after the interval. They had a penalty and slowly crept into All Blacks territory. A really stupid yellow card to McAllister then gave them the chance to equalize with a try by Dusautoir (13:13). There was a quick response by New Zealand (Try: So'oialo), but McAllister missed the kick. Maybe that was the key to the All Black's loss. They had to replace Carter in the 2nd half and Kelleher also had to come off the pitch. To replace your fly half and your scrum half must hurt any team. With Michalak on the field things turned around pretty quickly. Jauzion drove forward, passed to Michalak who gained a lot of ground with his running effort, then back to Jauzion - try for France! With the conversion t was 20:18 and there were 10 minutes to go. Unfortunately even Les Bleues will admit that the pass from Jauzion to Michalak was a forward pass.
But that didn't stop the thriller in Cardiff. The All Blacks were rolling wave after wave on the French defensive lines and the lost the ball only inches away from the line a couple of times.
This is the 2nd time New Zealand lost to France in a World Cup knock out match and it's the worst campaign the All Blacks ever had in World Cup history. Still France really earned this victory and they have every right to be proud of what they achieved tonight. They will now face England, and, oh boy, after today I won't even try to guess what the outcome might be. I'm just looking forward to another day of great rugby!

Bundesliga: Day Nine - Small teams come up big sometimes

Borussia Dortmund - VfL Bochum 2:1
VfB Stuttgart - Hannover 96 0:2
FC Schalke 04 - Karlsruher SC 0:2
Hertha BSC - FC Energie Cottbus 0:0
Arminia Bielefeld - Hamburger SV 0:1
VfL Wolfsburg - FC Hansa Rostock 1:0
MSV Duisburg - SV Werder Bremen 1:3
Bayern München - 1. FC Nürnberg 3:0
Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayer Leverkusen 2:1

Karlsruher SC continues to be the big surprise of the season. This weekend they beat favourites Schalke 04 away 0:2 to storm into 2nd place behind Bayern Munich who thrashed Nuremburg 3:0 on Sunday. Schalke were looking good during the week winning their away match in the Cahmpions League against Trondheim but they weren't able to keep up the momentum. Karlsruhe simply outran them playing two very nice counter attacks at the end of the game.
Bremen meanwhile is trying to keep track of the top winning against Duisburg 3:1. Duisburg are now firmly at the bottom of the table, just as Nuremburg, Cottbus and Rostock. Hamburg keeps on winning which noone had expected after the hilarious episode with Rafael van der Vaart trying to get to Valencia. Elsewhere at the bottom of the table Dortmund managed to stop a three game skid by winning against Bochum 2:1. Captain Christian Wörns was sent off shortly after half time leaving only 10 Dortmund players to try and make things possible. Bochum looked far better but failed to capitalize on Borussia's failures.
The struggles continue for champions Stuttgart who looked horrible against Hannover.

Looking down to the 2nd division Borussia Mönchengladbach seem to get their campaign for promotion back on track after a convincing 5:0 victory over TuS Koblenz. Just as 1.FC Cologne who downed Kickers Offenbach 4:1 at home.
And even further down the ladder sixth division Fortuna Köln got a 4:1 win on Friday against Rhenania Eschweiler. Now they are 6 points behind leaders Borussia Freialdenhoven and still in a good position for the only promotion spot.

Friday 5 October 2007

Uefa Cup: All German teams go through to the group stages

Although I didn't really have a chance to watch any of the matches of the first round of the Uefa Cup I still read an interesting comment by German sports writer Christoph Biermann who said that it is nice to see that the smaller teams of the German Bundesliga all made it through to the group stage this year. Keeping in mind that the almighty Bayern Munich are in there for Germany as well compared to other European superpowers the result doesn't look that bad for Germany. England lost a team (Blackburn), there's one Spanish team out (Saragossa) as well and Italy even lost 3 (Palermo, Empoli, Sampdoria) in the first round of play. Although the Spanish Primera Division seems to be a little more balanced England and Italy just have the same top teams playing in the Champions League and the rest of the pack just has to fight for what's left on the table. And while German teams are struggling in the Champions League (3 teams, 6 games, 5 losses up until today) it seems they have more chances in the Uefa Cup. Hamburger SV went through against Litex Lovetch (BUL), 1.FC Nuremburg got past Rapid Bukarest (ROM), Bayer Leverkusen managed to beat Uniao Leiria (POR) and Bayern Munich expectedly threw Belenenses Lisboa (POR) out of the competition. With the group stages now coming up it'll be interesting to see what the German teams can do there.

MLB: Rockies, Dbacks roll, Indians on warpath

The Cleveland Indians won their opening match against the New York Yankees in convincing style last night, it seems. I only watched the first 4 innings, but that was impressive stuff. Their starter C.C. Sabathia wasn't sharp in the 1st, but then got better over the next innings, while the Yankees starter Wang was struggling. It's still very interesting to see how things change in the audience once their team goes into the playoffs. I was really surprised by the noise the fans made when Philadelphia clinched the division title and they were just a noisy when they were playing the first match against Colorada, but what happened in Cleveland was just amazing. Every Yankee player who was an out was greeted with a huge roar by the crowd. What's lacking of course are the chants you can hear in European football stadiums, but the atmosphere seems to be impressive nonetheless.
I bet it has died down a little in Philadelphia though, since the Phillies lost their 2nd match to the Rockies 5-10. Rockies 2nd baseman Kazuo Matsui was the man of the match, hitting a grand slam homerun, a double and a triple driiving in 5 runs and only falling shy of the circle by a single.
Elsewhere in the NL Arizona took a 2-0 lead over the Cubs by winning Game 2 8-4. Today will see the Red Sox take action again with Daisuke Matsuzaka taking the mound against the Angels in his first postseason appearance in the States.

Stagedives and Highfives: Gorilla Biscuits in Cologne

Yesterday saw the long awaited and highly anticipated reunion tour show by New York hardcore legends Gorilla Biscuits taking place at Cologne's "Kantine" club. This one was announced at the beginning of the year and should have taken place in summer, but due to some problems noone really knows about it got pushed back to fall and this is where we are now. Now there are not many shows that are labelled "must be there", but this one certainly was. Lots of people showed up, the plates on the cars in the parking lot were showing lots of different cities from all over Northrhine-Westphalia and even farther away.
Kicking things off were Deny Everything who unfortunately played to a small crowd with lots of people still standing outside (the show was sold out, by the way. Was anyone surprised?) or hanging around at the bars. The venue itself was way too big for a small band like them, but it seemed they had their share of fun and their show was good as well.
Next up were Waterdown and noone, really noone knew why those guys had to play at this show. They've been around for quite some time now and I think I once heard or read somewhere that they were the German first band on Victory Records. Which at the time was something they could brag about. I bought their first CD back in the days, but only because they had a coverversion of Slime's "Ettikette tötet" on there. The rest of the music was simply boring metalcore stuff. And nothing has changed today. Still boring crap really noone cares about. Oh well, such bands are always a welcome excuse to get yourself refreshed and order a drink at the bar.
The main act then let the people wait for quite some time. With Missy Elliot's "Get Your Freak On" (or whatever that song is called, I just can't seem to really tell them apart) they entered the stage, your usual fanfare was playing and they started off with "New Direction". No surprises here. They went on to play the hits, they even did some coverversions (amongst others notably "New York Crew", "Dancefloor Justice" or "Pushed Too Far"), the people were having fun in front of the stage, there were bodies flying all over the place, singalongs, fingerpointing, you name it.
Still, I just didn't really got into this. The first half hour of this 70 minute set to me looked rather like being on the verge of turning into something ridiculous. I don't know if I raised my expectations too high or whatever I was expecting, but to me this was more like some coverband doing a show with GB songs and some extras. It took some time until the band settled in. At first they were just standing on stage, playing their songs and basically doing nothing. Apart from Civ who was running around on stage, but to be honest, we all seen singers do this numerous times. Again, this is just me, people were having fun up front and maybe I was just annoyed by the light show that kept shining right into my face. But this wasn't something I will place high up in my all time favourite show list. It was solid, no doubt. But nothing special. Just another rock show.

Thursday 4 October 2007

MLB & NPB: Entering the postseason

So this is actually my first time watching a postseason unfold on television. because it's so hard to get any footage of the games over here the only time before this year I was able to watch a baseball match was in 1991 when the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves were playing in the World Series. They actually showed those matches on cable TV.
So as always when it comes to deciding games there's always a huge fuzz about what's going on and what's going to happen and so on. With the Phillies clinching their first division title since 1993 and the Rockies an a blazing run winning their tiebreaker against the Padres in the 13th inning you couldn't ask for more excitement, I guess. To someone who has always been watching football which only takes place on the weekend it's still a mystery why you have to play 162 games to get to this point. Well, at least there's a game everyday for almost 6 months.
So the Phillies lost to Colorado in Game 1 (2:4), the Red Sox crashed the Angels (4:0) at Fenway and the Cubs started their postseason campaign with a loss against the Diamondbacks at Arizona (3:1). Today, the Yankees and the Indians will take action for the first time.

It seems things are falling into place in Japan as well. I still don't get the mode by which they determine who plays against who in postseason. As far as I found out they used to have just the Japan Series after the regular season in which the respective league pennant winners played against each other in a seven game series. Not so nowadays. The league tables on Japan Times Online show three teams in each division who claimed a playoff spot. The Central League will have the Yomiuri Giants, the Chunichi Dragons and the Hanshin Tigers, the Pacific League will feature the Nippon Ham Fighters, the Softbank Hawks and the Chiba Lotte Marines. Who will play against who is still a mystery to me.

Monday 1 October 2007

Germany's the World Champion of Football - again!

Germany's Women's National Football Team is one - if not THE best team in European football and now they've done it again. They won the final of the 2007 Women's World Cup in China yesterday and now as I'm writing this the team gets a very warm reception at the Frankfurt City Hall in front of around 20.000 fans. The beat Brazil 2-0, a match that had been labelled as the clash between German precision against Brazilian finesse. It's true, the Brazilian side had the better chances and they had way more than the German women. But in the end they women's team did just the same thing the men's team used to do over a long time: play solid, score goals and win tournaments. Gary Lineker once said that football is a game where 22 people play against each other and in the end the Germans always win. Germany scored 21 goals and conceded none. Goalkeeper Nadine Angerer didn't have to fetch a baal out of the net for 540 minutes. By doing so she even beat the record set up by Italian Goalkeeper Walter Zenga at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. They outclassed South American champions Argentina 11-0 in their opener, they won against Japan, the lost their only points against England (0-0), they beat the mysterious team from North Korea (3-0), they won against Norway (3-0) and then in the final they won against what is considered to be the best team in the cup, Brazil.
I first saw a Women's football match during the World Cup in the USA in 1999, when Germany played against the hosts in the quarterfinal. A thrilling 2-3 loss for Germany, but it had it all. Wonderful passing, beautiful goals, nice effort and really good play. It's by far nicer to watch a women's game than at some point the hacking and slashing in a men's match.
Unfortunately the only coverage the women get is when they play their cup final in Germany before the men's final. The highest division, the Bundesliga, isn't televised. So it's kind of hard to keep track on what's happening there. What they need is a professional league to keep up the momentum. Maybe this will change if Germany is awarded to host the Women's World Cup in 2011. If they get it I'm going to a match, I swear!


Weekend Round-up: Shows, shows, shows

So Friday started off with that show in Dortmund. And since I hate to repeat myself, I will just give the link here.
On Saturday then I was really wasted when I got up in the morning. Let's face it, I'm just not used to getting to bed this early in the morning. And every time I think I want to sleep way into the afternoon hours there's always some idiot in my neighbourhood who's redecorating his or her room. So no sleep 'til the next show and on this Saturday evening Kommando Sonne-nmilch were playing at Gebäude 9. I completely forgot about that show and only remembered it when I saw the poster for the Dortund show the day before. So I headed to the other side of the river and arrived at the venue at 8 pm. And noone's there. Which is strange, since all of the predecessors of Kommando Sonne-nmilch were sure to at least get a good attendance each time they played in Cologne. So me and the guys I met up with there had a beer first and then waited until 10 pm for the show to start. The music was just as expected, but the stage was fun. The whole band was looking like they were working for some construction company and in the back of the whole stage there was a huge plastic chainsaw. Great picture.
The show finished up early with just one band playing so we sat in the café a little bit longer, only to get annoyed by some dorkheads on speed who were climbing chairs and tables. I got home at around 1.30 am and prepared for the next day.
On Sunday Cologne's finest were coming home from a two week tour of Europe. Cobretti and Deny Everything teamed up with Tackleberry to play a show at the Sonic Ballroom. I have to admit the Ballroom is more and more becoming a punkrock institution in Cologne. There's shows almost every night and although I have to admit that most of them are not really my cup of tea I really appreciate what the people are doing there. They should just broaden the variety of different flavours a little more. Setting up a show like yesterday's is a step into the right direction. This could be considered to be the rebirth of Cologne hardcore pride. It's been quite a long time since I've seen an underground hardcore show attended by so many people with such good bands playing. Tackleberry started the whole thing with their positive and classic stop and go hardcore. The crowd seemed to like it and there were people bouncing around in front of the stage early.
Next up (after a very quick changeover. I REALLY like that!) were Deny Everything and their Lifetime-influenced melodic hardcore just had the same effect on the audience in the first rows. Stagedives and highfives, just getting in gear for their show with Gorilla Biscuits, I guess.
Cobretti were the headliner for the night, and their more aggressive and mean brand of hardcore fit perfectly to end the evening. Although singer Carsten seemed to have caught a cold, the sound was thundering and the crowd was having fun. Again, I have to say that I haven't seen anything like this in Cologne for a long time. Around 70 people turning up for a show on a Sunday evening with only local bands playing. This is great stuff and I really hope there's more to come in the future.

So this ends a weekend which I haven't had in a long time. It really was fun to hang out with a lot of people, meeting some faces I hadn't seen in a long time, just having a good time.