Olympic Roundup & Standings: Friday 08.15

UPDATES from BEIJING

BASEBALL: A marathon game between Cuba and the United States hands the Red, White and Blue their second loss. The defending Gold Medal winner Cubans scored two runs in the top of the 11th to win it. I still have not seen a baseball game on TV, It’s starting to piss me off. If NBC can’t stick to it’s schedule how does it expect us all to stick around for it’s coverage.

LATEST STANDINGS:

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB	Tiebreaker
Cuba	3	0	16	12	1.000	-	-
South Korea	2	0	9	7	1.000	½	-
Japan	2	1	14	5	.667	1	-
China	1	1	8	17	.500	1½	-
United States	1	2	18	13	.333	2	-
Canada	1	2	16	8	.333	2	-
Chinese Taipei	1	2	13	14	.333	2	-
Netherlands	0	3	0	18	.000	3	-

Top Four Advance to knockout round.

—–

BASKETBALL: Only the women have played Spain so far and this wasn’t much of a contest. USA’s Lisa Leslie with a double-double and the USA Women are on autopilot as they head into the Quarterfinals. Up next: New Zealand Sunday morning.

Team	Played	Won	Lost	PF	PA	Avg	Points
USA	4	4	0	395	216	1.876	8
China	4	3	1	279	303	0.894	7
Spain	4	2	2	271	307	1.009	6
Czech Republic	4	2	2	290	247	1.174	6
New Zealand	4	1	3	260	327	0.795	5
Mali	4	0	4	228	334	0.630	4

Nothing more can happen in this group, so the New Zealand game is pretty minor.

—–

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: The women’s beach volleyball Round of 16 is underway, and the USA didn’t disappoint. Both teams demolished the opposition and it’s startiong to look really good for the American teams. The draw for the knockout tournament is in. May-Traenor and Kerri Walsh should have smooth sailing and could face Branagh and Youngs for the Gold.

Quarterfinals							Semifinals							Gold Medal Game
	2	Tian Jia – Wang (CHN)
	14	Schwaiger – Schwaiger (AUT)
	5	Branagh – Youngs (USA)
	4	Xue – Zhang Xi (CHN)
	10	Barnett – Cook (AUS)
	6	Talita – Renata (BRA)
															Bronze Medal Game
	3	Larissa – Ana Paula (BRA)
	1	Walsh – May-Treanor (USA)

The Men’s side of the coin has set them up for Round of 16 play before we get to the eight-team bracket. One pair gets Switzerland and the Other, Spain. shouldn’t be a problem for the USA who should advance into the bracket easily.

—–

FOOTBALL: or Soccer. The US Women scored in Extra Time to catapult them into a semifinal matchup with Japan. The US Women have already defeated Japan 1-0, That was back on August 9th. Either way, the game should be a nice test before the US women go for the GOLD.

The Bracket:

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold medal match

F1

Brazil

2

G2

Norway

1

F1

Brazil

F2

Germany

E2

Sweden

0

F2

Germany

2

G1

USA

2

E3

Canada

1

G1

USA

Bronze medal match

G3

Japan

E1

China PR

0

G3

Japan

2

—–

FIELD HOCKEY: The US women have the weak New Zealand sqaud next. They will need a victory here and over Great Britain to have hopes of advancing to the Medal Round.

—–

SOFTBALL: Two big wins, first over Japan and then over the rain-shortened game against Canada. UP next Chinese Taipei.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB
United States	4	0	29	1	1.000	-
Canada	3	1	17	11	.750	1
Japan	3	1	9	11	.750	1
Australia	2	2	9	9	.500	2
China	2	2	18	7	.500	2
Chinese Taipei	1	3	6	11	.250	3
Venezuela	1	3	9	21	.250	3
Netherlands	0	4	4	30	.000	4

It’s almost disgusting how good TEAM USA is….

—–

GYM VOLLEYBALL: The Men’s win over Bulgaria clinches their spot in the Quarterfinals. They have two more matches against China and Japan.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL:

Rk	Team	Played	Won	Lost	Points
1	United States	3	3	0	6
2	Italy	3	2	1	5
3	Bulgaria	3	2	1	5
4	China	3	2	1	5
5	Venezuela	3	0	3	3
6	Japan	3	0	3	3

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL:The women’s only loss to Cuba will be okay as the girls clinch semifinals as well. They escaped a brutle slug-fest against China, a 5 set nail biter goes to the Americans.

Rk	Team	Played	Won	Lost	Points
1	Cuba	4	4	0	8
2	United States	4	3	1	7
3	China	4	2	2	6
4	Japan	4	2	2	6
5	Poland	4	1	3	5
6	Venezuela	4	0	4	4

Enough!

-Dan.