Catalunya 4 Argentina 2

Veamos bien que la AFA haga uso de la potestad de concertar encuentros y partidos con menos intermediarios que antes. Atendamos el posicionamiento de una marca con imagen y recaudaciones loables. Pero deportivamente ¿para qué sirve un partido de Argentina sin Messi, sin Verón y sin Mascherano? No es necesario otro juego para determinar que los marcadores de punta probados no tienen nivel ni solvencia de selección, ni para concluir que ya no hay tiempos de recambio.

Para ver algo del vaso lleno digamos que debutó Pastore (1 gol), se probó a Banega y se vieron unos minutos de Salvio.

Acaso para el cierre de un intenso año de selección hubiese sido mejor que el año finalizara en el mismo instante en que el silbato daba por terminado el 1-0 en el Centenario.

Another Washington State Shooting

One maybe dead, one critical:

• Two Pierce County sheriff's deputies were seriously wounded late Monday after they were "ambushed" while responding to a domestic-violence call, according to the Sheriff's Department.

  The shooting suspect, identified as 35-year-old David E. Crable, was shot and killed in the Monday night shootout near Eatonville, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

  A deputy, shot multiple times, was in critical condition early Tuesday morning after being flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He was undergoing surgery, Troyer said.

Another domestic call. Another ambush. And again, in Pierce county.

Prayers only.

UPDATE: Both are alive at this point, though one has undergone extensive surgery. Suspect is dead.

Fútbol helado en Europa.

Llegó el verano… y el invierno a Europa, donde temperaturas de hasta -30ºC y tormentas de nieve complican la vida hasta la muerte: más de 50 personas.

Mientras se celebra en Copenhague la Cumbre sobre Cambio Climático donde se escuchó decir a Ban Ki-moon (secretario general de la ONU) que los países en desarrollo tendrán que ceder en sus aspiraciones de alcanzar un acuerdo sobre el dinero que deben pagar los países ricos para combatir el calentamiento global y a Todd Stern (emisario de Barack Obama) adelantar que su país (EE.UU) no prevé aumentar en este momento sus objetivos de reducción de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, en Europa se cierran autopistas, se retrasan los trenes, se cancelan vuelos y se multiplican los accidentes de tránsito.

Imaginemos que el calendario deportivo sufrió modificaciones: en el Calcio italiano Génova-Bari, Bolonia-Atalanta, Fiorentina-Milan y Udinese-Cagliari más partidos de la serie B y de inferiores fueron pospuestos para mediados de enero; en Holanda fueron suspendidos todos los partidos pautados; Anderlecht-Brujas y Standard de Lieja-Charleroi, en Bélgica, también fueron suspendidos.

Sin embargo, en Alemania, donde se cuentan –hasta ahora- 6 muertos, 400 vuelos cancelados en el aeropuerto de Dusseldorf y 50 en Frankfurt, la Bundesliga siguió adelante. La temperatura no pasó de los -10ºC y no hay normativa que regule la temperatura mínima de juego (calculan un tope de -20ºC), por lo que Hamburgo pudo vencer (2-1) a Werder Bremen.

Six Shot In Englewood

Not surprising:

• Six people leaving an Englewood nightclub were wounded during a Sunday night gang-related shooting on the South Side.

  Police said a group of adults leaving a nightclub were traveling in a van in the 6500 block of South Damen Avenue when another vehicle approached and somebody inside opened fire, striking six adults in the van.

The Sun Times article has maybe six comments total.

Now how about this one?

• An off-duty Lockport police officer was charged tonight with reckless homicide and drunk-driving charges in connection with a three-car crash that killed an immigrant from Vietnam who was driving home on the Stevenson Expressway from his second job.

The BreakingNews article has almost 60 comments and the Sun Times version has six pages of comments. Guess which direction they are all headed? Even we had to delete half-a-dozen comments that attempted to blame the Chicago Police Department for this latest DUI incident.

We have no use for anyone who drinks, drives and kills. Long time readers are aware of articles we've written berating those who make bad decisions. But we believe everyone is entitled to due process, even the police.

You Think We Forgot?

Of course not:

• "If I...saw that I was the cause of (poor) morale in this department, no one would have to ask me to leave. I would leave on my own." - Jody P. Weis, April 3, 2009.

Anyone seen that "morale" survey lying around? The one that was completed all the way back around September? Yeah, that one.

They stuck it where?

Damn.

Well, that's between him and Masters, right?

Suburban Police Shootings

Two incidents yesterday:

• A 22-year-old Riverdale man was shot and killed by police in the south suburb as they were responding to a call of someone with an assault weapon, officials said. [...]
  
  
  Police said that about 1:30 p.m., police were called to the area near 141st and School Street for a report of a man with an assault weapon. The man was one of three people in the area, according to police.
  
  When police showed up they saw the three men on the 14100 block of School Street. When police exited their vehicle they pursued the men on foot.
  
  Collins, who allegedly had a weapon, refused to drop it after police ordered him to do so, police said. The officer fired his gun, fatally hitting Collins. Police did not say if Collins was pointing the gun at the officer.

Once again, the media gets it wrong - it doesn't matter whether or not he was pointing his gun at the officer. The media really ought to read up on Illinois law.

If this second one happened in Chicago, we're sure the headline would have read, "CPD Kills Christmas Tree Harvester:"

• Police fatally shot an ax-wielding man early Monday in northwest suburban Des Plaines, police said.

  Krzysztos A. Kaczor, 24, of the 400 block of East Washington Street in Des Plaines, was shot by police in the 200 block of Oxford Road and was pronounced dead at 2:14 a.m. Monday at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

  About 1:15 a.m., Des Plaines police responded to a report of shots fired in the 400 block of Washington Avenue and found Kaczor running through the neighborhood with an ax, according to a Des Plaines police release.

Great jobs by our suburban brethren.

FIFA World Player 2009: Lionel Messi.

Después de dos años en el podio (07-08) Lionel Messi se hizo del FIFA World Player 2009 en el Kongresshaus de Zurich, para ser reconocido como el mejor jugador del mundo según votación de entrenadores y capitanes de las selecciones afiliadas a la FIFA, (aunque los brasileños no lo votaron en sendas ternas) con los siguientes resultados finales:

Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) 1073 puntos, Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United - Real Madrid/Portugal) 352, Xavi (Barcelona/España) 196, Kaká (Milan - Real Madrid/Brasil) 190 y Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona/España) 134.

Nunca dejaremos de observar una premiación individual sobre un deporte colectivo ni de salvaguardar a los chicos que vayan a probarse de líberos o volantes defensivos. De hecho, Messi formó parte de este mágico Barcelona 2009 que ganó todo lo que jugó, para llevarse todos los premios en reparto:

Además del mencionado FIFA World Player, el premio al mejor jugador del Mundial de Clubes (FIFA), el Balón de Oro (France Football), Premio Alfredo Di Stéfano (MARCA), Premio al mejor Delantero y mejor Jugador de Liga (Federación Española de Fútbol) y Premio al mejor Delantero y mejor Jugador de la UEFA Champions League (UEFA).

Sponsors pedir audiencia…

RELACIONADO:

PUSKAS AWARD 2009: CRISTIANO RONALDO