Saturday, July 30, 2022
If it's Saturday, then it just MUST be time for a EuroBall update on several fronts.
Let's start in Spain with news of a key European League of Football Southern Conference clash with huge playoff implications.
Rhein Fire (4-3) at Barcelona Dragons (5-2)
These are the top two teams in the Southern Conference separated by just a game. A win by the visiting Fire would tie them with the Dragons.
A Rhein win by five or more points would give the Fire the aggregate season head-to-head scoring tie breaker, if it came to that at the end of the season, over the Dragons who beat the Fire 17-13 in Germany back in a Week #4 game.
A full slate of ELF games this weekend
but only the Fire-Dragons on Saturday
A HUGE win for the Dragons
The Dragons now have both a two game Southern Conference lead over the second place Fire and the possible tie breaker if need be in their pocket by virtue of their two game sweep of the Fire-Dragons series this season.
There is a tournament starting in Vantaa, Finland today . . .
Eight countries are represented
in the Women's Tackle Football
World Championships
The first four games were all
scheduled to kickoff today
The Mexican Federation's depiction
of the playoff bracket
The teams that lose their opening round games will have a Consolation Bracket going in the opposite direction vying for with through eight places in the week long series of games.
Speaking of the Mexican Federation . . .
What the hell?
Back in the Fall of 2019, our Europe Warriors Women's Team traveled to Mexico City to play the Mexican National club.
This game was being used as an exhibition to drum up support for the Mexican squad that was primed and focused on playing in this same tournament in 2020. As you undoubtedly surmised, COVID-19 got in the way and that tournament was cancelled until this Summer.
The long wait was over and the Mexican team was scheduled to fly to Finland last Wednesday.
But they didn't.
To say the least, the
Mexican team was disappointed
This last minute snafu brought about a proper, well deserved, furious social media storm against the seemingly incompetent Mexican Federation.
Thus, the opening game of the Women's World Championship tournament was first postponed and then cancelled because of the inability of the Mexican Federation to find flights to send the 60 players and coaches to Scandinavia.
It would have been a waste of a classic . . .
. . . Team Mexico helmet design
Today Team Mexico got a reprieve!
Finally, the Federation, after days of negative publicity and international public pressure, found two flights for the team to get to Finland.
Better late than never, but the forfeit of the opening game against Great Britain places Team Mexico in the Consolation Bracket with no chance of winning a medal. They will play their first game on Wednesday against Team Australia.
A truly sad state of affairs after literally years of hard work by a group of excellent, highly motivated Mexican women.
Team Mexico getting ready to
board their planes bound for Finland
I have to wonder if some of their choices of anti-pandemic face masks for flying had something to do with their delays.
In other Women's World Championship tournament opening round results today . . .
Canada 33 - Australia 6
SOLID WIN
We've got some extra interest
in this opening round game
Sara is the daughter of our former
DL Frank Hilgers with our 2010
Hässleholm Hurricanes
Sara is a stater for Team Sweden
at DE making her Dad quite proud!
Unfortunately, the host country's Team Finland squad was too much for our Swedish sisters today.
Finland 40 - Sweden 0
DOMINATION!
USA 63 - Germany 0
OUCH!
ROUND 2 GAMES
Championship Bracket
Great Britain (1-0) vs. Canada (1-0)
Finland (1-0) vs. USA (1-0)
Consolation Bracket
Mexico (0-1) vs. Australia (0-1)
Sweden (0-1) vs. Germany (0-1)
With the 2022-23 seasons fast approaching all over the globe, it was time to start recruiting new players and more fans.
Romania's Cluj Crusaders
have the right idea in attracting
new blood
As does our old French club,
the Bon-Villeurbanne Falcons
Even the NFL's Los Angeles Rams
are drumming up business via
their jersey choices for this season's games
I like the Royal Blue jerseys
I'm OK with the White ones
The Bone ones,
not so much
At least we will only have to suffer watching the Bone jerseys twice this season.
Reading Is FUNdamental!
But sometimes quite tedious too
I received this book from Mark Johnson on our recent stay in Seattle with him and his lovely bride Susie.
It is 227 pages of religious mumbo-jumbo that could have been easily reduced to a ten page pamphlet.
Bottom line, the Roman Catholic Church may be suppressing information straight from the lips of the Virgin Mary who the church agrees appeared to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.
A coverup in the Roman Catholic Church?
Who could ever think of such a thing being possible?
