Change of Plans for Dirk

The original plan for Donnie Nelson today was to fly to Germany this afternoon so he could speak with Dirk Nowitzki about free agency at the first available moment. Those plans have changed. As Donnie arrived at DFW for his flight to Germany today, he received a call from Holger Geschwindner. Holger informed him that he and Dirk Nowitzki were going to travel to Dallas tomorrow. Upon their arrival, the three of them will meet at Dirk's house. What does it all mean? Is it good for the Mavs? I know it makes me nervous.

I think it’s odd that Dirk is now coming back to this side of the pond. What is his motivation? Did he have some other things to take care of? Did he miss his house? Did he come back to help the Mavs recruit other free agents? I would like to think it’s something like that, but here is why I am nervous.

With Dirk coming back to the states its puts him that much closer to all the free agent madness. Does Dirk now want to check out his other options? Maybe go and visit some other teams to see what is out there? I have a theory that Holger has been in Dirk’s ear over the last few weeks telling him to explore all of his options.

I don’t know what is going, or why Dirk all of a sudden decided to return to Dallas, but I am sure nervous about this summer of free agency and hopefully it will all be over quick.

FIFA Reconsidering Replay?

It looks like FIFA might actually be doing something smart for a change. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said soccer's governing body will reopen the replay issue after the World Cup.

ESPN.com

Blatter said Tuesday that FIFA deplores "when you see the evidence of refereeing mistakes." It would be "a nonsense" not to consider changes, he said.

"After having witnessed such a situation," Blatter said, referring to England's non-goal against Germany, "we have to open again this file, definitely."

FIFA keeps saying they enjoy the human element and all the controversy that comes along with it, but they are severely hurting their sport. When you have a sport like soccer where goals are so valuable, you can’t continue to have bad calls where good goals are continually called off. There are so many technological advances out there that soccer could benefit from. If FIFA doesn’t do something, it could really hurt the sport and the World Cup.

Even if they don’t want to do replay, there is still another alternative, which is to add more referees to the field. Right now you have a head ref and two side judges, why not add another ref to roam the field? Why not add another judge by the goal line? There needs to be some type of change.

U.S.-Ghana Sets World Cup Viewing Records

The United States vs. Ghana match on Saturday afternoon set World Cup viewing records here in the United States. Unfortunately, there won’t be another once since the Stars and Stripes were eliminated by Ghana 2-1.

WashingtonPost.com

JOHANNESBURG -- The United States' 2-1 loss to Ghana in extra time, which eliminated the Americans from the tournament in South Africa, was the most-watched men's World Cup game ever in this country.

The Nielsen Co. said Saturday afternoon's game was seen by an estimated 14.9 million viewers on ABC. An additional 4.5 million people watched on the Spanish-language Univision.

Entourage Returns Tonight

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Sports Day

Wow, could Saturday have been a worse sports day? Two teams I root for, both facing elimination, and both of them end up losing.

The United States men’s soccer team was sent packing from the World Cup by Ghana. I know the team is the king of comebacks, but come on! You allow an early goal in the first half and an early goal to begin extra time? You can’t keep doing that!! I still don’t know why Robbie Findley started the game. He hasn’t been productive at all, and the team played better without him. I was also disappointed to see Edu start the game on the bench. Oh well I guess. Time to start preparing for 2014.

At the same time the United States were getting beat, my TCU Horned Frogs were dismissed from the College World Series by UCLA. The team made a great run, but it’s disappointing to see them come up short. I don’t like baseball, and this is my first time to watch multiple college baseball games in a season, so I am not going to sit here and front like I have been following them all season, but I enjoyed watching the team play over the last few weeks.

The bad part about all of this is that July is a terrible sports month and once the World Cup is over all we are going to be left with is Major League Baseball. I wish it could have ended better for both teams because it sure left a bitter taste in my mouth.

The U.S. is in Good Position

When Landon Donovan’s game winning goal against Algeria hit the back of the net, it not only propelled the United States into the round of sixteen, it put them in a great position to make a deep run into the World Cup.

By defeating Algeria, the U.S. won group C over England which puts them in a very favorable quadrant of the bracket. On the other side, things for England just got a lot tougher. The second place team from group C has to take on the first place team from group D which is Germany. If England does advance to the quarterfinals, they will take on the winner of the Argentina/Mexico match. So, if you take a look at the bracket, that one Landon Donovan goal helped the U.S. to avoid Argentina, Germany, and Mexico for a little while longer.

Now, the U.S.A. faces off against Ghana on Saturday afternoon instead of Germany. Ghana is a very solid team, and it won’t be easy, but I would much rather have to play Ghana than Germany. If the Americans are lucky enough to advance, they would then play the winner of the Uruguay/South Korea match. None of these teams are pushovers, but if you gave me the choice of playing Ghana, South Korea, and Uruguay, or Germany, Argentina, and Mexico, I’m taking option number one ten times out of ten.

The road won’t be easy, and the U.S. team has shown that they like to do things the hard way and make people sweat but, the United States has put themselves in a great spot to reach the semifinals of the 2010 World Cup.