Sports in the Daytime

Two fun sporting events going on right now - Gold Medal Woman's soccer (US v. Japan rematch of World Cup) and A's-Angels 4th game of the series with wild card implications.

I only caught the last 20 minutes of the 1st half of soccer and the US leads 1-0 at halftime.  The thing I noticed, however, Japan seemed to be the better team.  The US has better athletes and better talent.  But Japan possessed more and got better chances.  In the World Cup Final, I thought the US was considerably better, but suffered from bad luck and fate on that day.  Today, I don't know.  It looks like Japan has improved and perhaps the US is not as strong defensively as they ought to be.  They allowed 3 goals to Canada in the semi-final, not a sign of defensive strength.  Regardless, the US are always dangerous for goals and could put the game away with 1 or 2 more early in the 2nd half.

The A's are good.  They have the best team ERA in the American League, but some of that is due to the pitcher-friendly Coliseum.  What makes me think they are good, however, is their line-up is a little sneakily strong.

Coco Crisp is a legit lead off hitter with speed.

Josh Reddick is having a great year, leading the team in most categories, including home runs.  A solid 3 hitter.

Cespedes is a damn good hitter and if it weren't for the injuries, would probably be amongst league leaders.  I bet he is as, if not more, effective than Pujols this year at a much cheaper cost.

Chris Carter just bombed a home run and last night hit the game winner.  He is a young guy and beginning to fulfill his potential

Johnny Gomes is a solid middle of the line up hitter - 5 or 6 - can flip with Carter depending on who is hot.

Derek Norris is a highly touted young catching prospect they got in one of their pitcher trades.  They traded away Suzuki to let this guy play.  The other day, I saw him drop a bomb.  He seems to be a solid hitter with good potential and a great on base percentage (he takes a lot of pitches)

That is 6 average (Crisp, Carter, Norris) to above average (Gomes, Gomes) to legitimately good (Cespedes / Reddick) hitters.  Although this might not sound impressive compared to Yankees or Ranger line ups, this is a considerable upgrade from A's teams of the recent past.  Our line ups have been terrible.  The last time I can remember having a legit 3-4 hitter in the line up was the year we went to the playoffs with Frank Thomas and Milton Bradley.  Prior to that it was Giambi-Dye-Tejada-Chavez (when he could hit) and Tejada-Dye-Chavez.

UPDATE:  Amazing individual effort by number 10 (Lloyd) on the US team to score goal number 2.  Don't see Japan coming back now.

UPDATE 2:  Japan is not seeing open diagonal long balls when they have players open.  Why you should play space vs. player.

UPDATE 3:  Great look on entry pass to set up Japan's goal.  Hope is alive.  I admire how the Japanese women play soccer.  Tons of heart and brains to compensate for obvious physical disadvantage in size and speed versus the American women.

UPDATE 4:  Women's soccer is highly watchable.  A valid testament to the relative strength of the game to basketball, where the woman's game isn't very fun to watch because of the diminished athleticism.  That is to say, basketball is watchable more because of the awesome athleticism than the spacial dynamics of the game itself.  Soccer is a better balance of art and war than basketball.

UPDATE 5:  One thing I should add about the Japanese - they are not just brains and heart - they do have incredible individual skill on the ball.  They possess very well.

UPDATE 6:  Alex Morgan is the cutest player and I like her a lot, but she could improve by having a little vision and not trying insane shots when she has runners running off of her.

UPDATE 4.5:  The ref made a really good call when a Japanese woman went in wildly for a loose ball on the 5 yard box - a tough foul call to make in that position - but it was a foul.

UPDATE 7:  Is Hope Solo good?  She seems to block balls that would be better caught.  Hard to tell.  Goalies are a weird species.

UPDATE 8:  11 on Japan is the most skilled on the field.

UPDATE 9:  Solo makes a huge save.  I guess she answers my question.  Japanese girl should have played it on the ground, like a pass.  Easier said than done.  (other note - a minute later, Solo drops an easy ball - shaky hands, I'm telling you...)

UPDATE 10:  Japan is taking out 11????  Why?