Nice account on the tragic but hopeful fate of Syrian football.
Both playoff games yesterday were absolute all-timers. I’m a true neutral when it comes to pro gridiron and I’m sure those games were rough for fans with a rooting interest but they were great watches
Hard to see the Chiefs losing at this point
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Day 9 of the January basho is in the books, and there were some great matches today.
Kinbozan continues to both surprise and impress me:
And this match with Midorifuji vs Mitakeumi was also a display of some great sumo:
Kinbozan is now the sole leader with a flawless 9-0 record, and my guy Hoshoryu has fallen to 6-3 with two back to back losses, putting an end to any hopes of a potential recommendation for yokozuna promotion.
I hadn’t heard about this, as I do not follow the BPL.
edit: this is interesting but hot damn the constant wobble/jiggle on all the stills and graphics is headache inducing for me. I had to put it in a background tab and listen as a podcast rather than actually watch it.
I like Jarrod Kimber’s videos in general, but this does annoy me too. Unfortunately cricket boards/ICC are notorious for raising copyright strikes anytime actual cricket footage is used in a video (particularly when you aren’t making any specific allegations), requiring creative visual workarounds.
I don’t follow the BPL either. But I know it exists, and is a List A T20 league. The import players mentioned (seemingly not involved in the subject matter) are all players most would have heard of. And the evidence raised to back up the non-allegations seems quite concrete. So I’m surprised there hasn’t been a bigger reaction.
FYI: The actual 3 wides in question are here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiX3VgXu8A8&t=23556s (Timecoded at 6:32:36)
that picture emanates a very strong aura
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Don Hamilton
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Serbia is the MAGA of Tennis. Tonight was traumatizing
@yeso Girma going to Chelsea for 1.1m, SD totally imploded.
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it’s interesting to see this sort of thing happen bc I think it’s downstream from the nasty abuse stuff from a couple years back. SD seemed to have a problem still with treating personnel like shit, and with the new CBA players dont have to put up with it any more. The beneficiaries are these teams that have something like a normal, stable environment rather than just $$. $$ in Chelsea’s case, yes but NC got Shaw I imagine because the coaching staff there is regarded as humane
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Just watched an absolute banger of a tennis match. A wild see-saw of a match that came down to a rare final set tiebreak - think CHALLENGERS
(up until a few years ago, you would not play a tiebreak in the final set and would just go until one player had extended a lead of two games. This changed shortly after a 70-68 final set lasted over three days. Now they play a first to 10 super tiebreak (a normal tiebreak is to 7) win by two points)
Iga Swiatek is the current world #2 and had a very long recent streak at #1. Coming into this match she’s had one of the most dominant runs to the SFs in Australian Open history (only 14 games lost over 5 matches). Swiatek has incredible footwork and speed, and a heavy topspin forehand that’s more akin to something you’d see on the men’s tour. She’s extremely dominant on clay and has had a vicegrip on the French Open the past 5 years. She also has a US Open to boot. She’s only 23. She’s the favorite on paper here, though she has one real notable achilles heel: players who hit big and flat (e.g. Ostapenko, Rybakina, Osaka, and…)
Madison Keys has been a perpetual world #20-#9 for the past 10+ years. She’s picked up a number of titles over the years but is more of a consistent, capable, journeywoman rather than a generational talent like Iga. She’s a ball basher - huge, flat groundstrokes, very American style of play. She’s coming up on her 30th birthday which is historically when a lot of tennis players start to tap out, though recently players have been pushing that number with greats like Roger, Rafa, and Serena playing at 35+. She’s only made one Grand Slam final before, eight years ago, where she played one of her best friends, Sloane Stephens, and succumbed to nerves, losing in a brutal 3-6, 0-6. As recent as two years ago she had another opportunity to go to a grand slam final but succumbed to nerves in that match as well, losing 6-0, 6-7, 6-7. She’s been playing great lately, already winning a tournament earlier this month. This is looking like her best chance ever to win a slam.
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Yeah and SD is in the middle of a pretty wild lawsuit Jill Ellis who has since stepped down I believe. Sounds like a bad FO culture over there. In less than a year they lost Morgan(to retirement, granted), Shaw, Girma, and Dahlkemper. Basically the entire identity of the team.
Utah also is in the middle of a bad culture crisis with a former player alleging some pretty gross stuff from the coaching staff and FO.
The January basho is nearly over, and it is getting real exciting. Some big matches today!
Firstly, a battle between two ozeki: Onosato vs Hoshoryu
…and then a struggling ozeki Kotozakura up against tournament leader, M14 Kinbozan. Kotozakura needed to win this to not end up with a losing record and thus being kadoban next basho, Kinbozan needed to win this to remain the sole leader:
The leaderboard after day 13
| Rank | Name | Stable | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11-2 | |||
 |
West Maegashira #14 | Kinbozan | Kise Stable |
| 10-3 | |||
 |
West Ozeki | Hoshoryu | Tatsunami Stable |
 |
West Maegashira #1 | Kirishima | Otowayama Stable |
 |
West Maegashira #3 | Oho | Otake Stable |
 |
West Maegashira #11 | Takerufuji | Isegahama Stable |
looking forward to the conclusion this weekend!
If you would like to watch and have no other means of doing so, NHK World Japan will be airing the last hour of each day. This service is available for free globally via their website or they have apps for phones, tablets, appletv, etc etc.
The final day starts half an hour earlier, so that they have time for the awards ceremony at the conclusion. Here’s the broadcast times, which should hopefully show in your local TZ where ever you are reading this from:
- Day 14: 2025-01-25T08:00:00Z
- Day 15: 2025-01-26T07:30:00Z
edit: Oh I should mention that the NHK World broadcast has commentary and broadcast graphics (names, ranks, leaderboard, all that stuff) in english, so it is easier to follow for a global audience.
Hakkeyoi!
The audio of Ippei calling banks to steal money from Ohtani is crazy just the audacity to call up and say “yeah hi this is Shohei Ohtani transfer $200,000”
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The January basho is over, and it came right down to the wire! Kinbozan could have won the whole thing if he won his match against Oho today, but Oho got that one which put us in to a three-way tie between Kinbozan, Oho, and Hoshoryu.
The Ozeki stepped up and displayed some excellent sumo, wining the three-way play off with back to back wins against the other two right away.
For the second time in his career and first time as an Ozeki, Hoshoryu has lifted the Emperor’s Cup
…and the PM’s Cup
Congratulations!
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a big trophy for a big guy
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Today Hoshoryu had his promotion confirmed, and has become the 74th Yokozuna.
As a fan of him – he’s been my most-liked rikishi over the last few years – I’m happy to see this, and I think he’s likely to be a strong yokozuna. However, I have mixed feelings about it. I wasn’t convinced that a 12-3 win was good enough to quallify, coming off the back of a 13-2 runner-up. (recommendation for promotion to yokozuna requires an ozeki to win two tournaments in a row, or have one “win-equivalent”).
He undoubtedly qualified for the “win-equivalent”, only losing the prior tournament on the last day, in the last match, to another ozeki that had an equal record at that point. I just think he needed better than 12-3 this time. Tipping the scales in his favour most likely were that this win came due to a completely dominant victory in the 3-way playoff, and on a more sports-political side due to current yokozuna Terunofuji retiring and the JSA most likely not wanting to risk having the top rank empty for potentially a while. There are a lot of tours and promotional events planned over the coming springtime in Japan, and they need (want) a yokozuna around to perform ceremonies at shrines (which draw many thousands of people).
I just hope he has a strong showing in the March tournament, and I’m looking forward to seeing him wearing the white rope in his first entrance ceremony.
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I’ll give you all a break from sumospam until March when the next tournament is on (with a possible exception of a post about the rankings updates when the full next banzuke is released) after one last Hoshoryu update:
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Luka is now a Laker, what the flying slovenian hell!?
The Lakers get : Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris.
The Mavericks get : Anthony Davis, Max Christie, the 1st draft pick of the Lakers in 2029.
The Jazz get : Jalen Hood-Schifino, the 2nd draft pick of the Clippers in 2025, the 2nd draft pick of the Mavs in 2025
This gotta be one of the highest stakes player transfer since maybe the Seventies or early Eighties? Two top ten (arguably top five) NBA players traded almost straight up?
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