Full-Beard of Sports: Busy Day in Sports World

This is the first edition of what I'm temporarily calling the "Full-Beard of Sports," which I intend to do once a week, as part of a weekly wrap-up.

But today was a BUSY day of sports, so the "weekly" wrap-up is pretty much one day.

The sports news story that had my eye tonight was the USA vs Costa Rica World Cup Qualifier match in Denver tonight.  After losing a game at Honduras, a game they should have managed at least a point, the US needed a victory in the worst way to keep WC hopes alive.

And the United States took care of business, beating Costa Rica 1-0 on a Clint Dempsey goal in the 16th minute.  The US survived the snow storm and a late push by Costa Rica to get those three crucial points.

The US were without keeper and leader Tim Howard, who's out with two broken bones in his back.  They were also missing a handful of players on the backline due to injury, such as Steve Cherundolo and Timmothy Chandler.  There were many questions going into the game as to who would be in net, who would be on that back line, and could a group of defenders who have such few caps together, stay organized and hold off Costa Rica.

Brad Guzan was stellar in net with only one mistake that did not yield a goal.  A clean sheet in heavy snow has got to be a huge confidence boost.  And Omar Gonzales, Clarence Goodson, Geoff Cameron, and Demarcus Beasley had a solid match on the back line.  There were no major break downs in communication like we're used to seeing.  Costa Rica did score, but it was waved off on the offside flag.  The back line was well positioned and no straggler kept the offender onside.

This win is huge for the morale of the squad.  Earlier this week, stories broke out of anonymous players, calling out teammates and manager Jurgen Klinsman.  And with so many question marks and harsh weather conditions, it took a head-down and grind-it-out approach to win this game.

This win should build momentum heading into Tuesday's match with Mexico.  Steal a draw there, and the US will be on the inside track to qualifying for the World Cup, and at the same time, put the pressure on Mexico who blew a 2-0 lead today and drew with Honduras and have only 2 points.

Then there's also this thing called March Madness.  three 12 seeds won, (although are Oregon, Cal, and Ole Miss really 12 seeds?)  Florida Gulf Coast beat Georgetown, a 15 over a 2, and a plethora of other upsets have left no perfect brackets left in the millions of submissions on ESPN.
What has impressed (but not shocked) me the most is how competitive this field is.  There are no dominant teams, and the lower seed teams are a lot closer in talent to the big boys.  Two 16 seeds took #1 seeds to the wire.  I foresee a 16 seed getting that first win against a #1 in the near future.

Just another opening round of March Madness.

The Red Wings got an important win against the red-hot Ducks.  The Red Wings scored five on the road to get the first win of back-to-back games against the Ducks in a 5-1 victory.  Also of note, Justin Abdelkader got his first career hat-trick.  This coming a game after I spent a good five minutes ranting to a friend of mine about how I couldn't wait for him to get off of Pavel's line.

My negativity continues to be the good-luck charm of any Detroit based team or athlete.  Your welcome, Abdelkader.

Goodnight everybody, more madness tomorrow as MSU and Michigan play at the Palace tomorrow.  Michigan plays VCU at 12:15 and MSU takes on Memphis after that.

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