Weekend in Review - June 26-27

The three big stories of the weekend past

1. Fedor loses - For those who don't follow MMA, let me give you an idea how big this is. This is the MMA equivalent of Notre Dame beating UCLA basketball to end the winning streak in the 1970s, Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson in boxing or Appalachian St. over Michigan in college football. Fedor put together a winning streak that will never be matched with 27 wins in a row all as a heavyweight and finishing most of the fights. Props to Fabricio Werdum for managing to be the guy to finally beat Fedor, but the big story is Federo's loss and what it does to the MMA landscape (a topic for a much larger post)

2. USA out of the World Cup - USA gave a good effort against Ghana, at least once Ricardo Clark was out of the game after the first half hour and really deserved better in the second half but a lack of quality finishing in front of net did them in. While coach Bob Bradley made good adjustments in this game (and every other), his starting lineup was unforgivably bad. Robbie Findlay should not have seen the field except maybe as a sub where his legs could have been even more useful and Ricardo Clark is completely useless as an offensive player at his position combined with bad giveaways and occasional defensive lapses. Had those two been relegated to the bench to start, I think we get a different result.

3. World Cup Referees - The only reason Sunday wasn't a terrible day to be a referee is because the refs are so protected by FIFA that they don't have to answer for their calls after matches. England, while not the better team and beaten mercilessly in the second half should have had a goal and that might have changed the game. Mexico gave up its first goal because Argentina was two yards offside. Then the video screen in the stadium showed the goal and the Mexicans went ballistic. Then the Mexicans melted down after a promising start to that point. With both incidents, the referees had a bad day. This isn't higher on the story list in part because the right team won both games anyway.