Fri.-Sun., July 2-4, 2021
First and foremost . . .
Why did the NFL ever stop taking
GREAT posed action shots like this
one of their key players?
This is Defensive Lineman Don Joyce of the Baltimore Colts pouncing on a "fumble" sometime in the late 1950s I suspect.
Joyce, out of New Orlean's Tulane University, played in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals from 1951-1953, the Baltimore Colts from 1954-1960 and the Minnesota Vikings in 1961.
In 1962 he played his final campaign as a pro with the rival American Football League's Denver Broncos.
I just loved those old school pictures.
On to a Trendi Eats experience . . .
Trendi Eats is a Facebook page located out of Oxnard, California that goes to Mexican restaurants and food trucks sampling and rating the cuisine. They pass on their always positive reviews only to leave us salivating and desiring to get in the car and go do something about our yearnings.
On Saturday afternoon, I DID!
La Huerta Restaurant
2736 East Vineyard Avenue
Oxnard, California
Laurie liked her Torta Hawaiian while I loved my Tacos Tijuana Style!
The asada ones were good, the carnitas tacos were better but the adobada tacos were out of this world!
American football news from around the globe . . .
The Washington Huskies announced
more of their non-conference games
through 2029
Can't wait for that Portland State titanic struggle in 2022 or the 2024 Eastern Michigan clash.
I'm torn on these "balance the athletic budget with football losses" games.
I understand the absolute need for the cash to keep sports in general and football in particular alive at Portland State and Eastern Michigan in the future and at Montana and Arkansas State who are on the 2021 Husky's schedule.
I do not want to see more college's dropping football in the future like Azusa Pacific and Occidental did locally this year.
The list of California college's alone that have dropped the sport in the last 40 years is exhausting and includes Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Chico State, Los Angeles State, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Hayward, Cal Tech, Cal State Northridge, San Francisco State, Cal Poly Pomona, UC Riverside, Humboldt State, Sonoma State, Santa Clara, Pacific, St. Mary's and there are probably more that I don't recall at this time.
On the other hand, I have no desire to go and watch one of these big paycheck games waiting for another Appalachian State upset of Michigan from years ago to happen again.
Let's move on to this weekends Italian American football playoff results . . .
Italian DI Semi-Finals
#4 Firenze Guelfi (4-4)
at
#1 Parma Panthers (8-0)
and
#3 Lazio Ducks (4-4)
at
#2 Milano Seamen (6-2)
The results, sort of . . .
The #1 Parma Panthers cruised to their ninth win by throttling the Guelfi 55-20.
As for the other semi-final, who knows?
The Lazio club, located in Rome, took a bus ride north to Milan only to discover that one of their players had tested positive for Covid-19. Since the infected Duck was on the bus, the entire team was quarantined and the game postponed to next weekend pending more medical observations and testing.
The 40th annual Italian DI Championship Game, the Italian Bowl, should be played on Saturday's July 17 in the city of Piacenza.
The Italian DII Semi-Finals
#4 Modena Vipers (6-1)
at
#1 Varese Skorpions (7-0)
and
#3 Verona Mastini (7-0)
at
#2 Torino Giaguari (7-0)
NUTS!
It was a really good game to watch between two excellent teams as their records and the gravity of the playoff situation merited.
It all came down to one key play with about two minutes left in the Fourth Quarter, Vipers with the ball at their own 14 yard line on Third and Ten with the lead 24-21.
The Vipers threw a ten yard out route pass trying to get the first down. The Skorpions CB drove on the route attempting a Pick-Six to win the game for the home team but the ball was just an inch or two out of his reach.
It was not out of the Vipers WR's reach as he caught it and then raced up the Skorpions' sideline for a 36 yard gain. From that point, the Modena squad easily ran out the clock and punched their ticket to the Italian DII Championship game, the Silver Bowl.
FIDAF, the Italian American Football Federation, published a photo of that fateful first down conversion as the Viper WR ran in front of the Skorpions' bench area on their website, here it is:
The Agony of Defeat
While I dislike this photo on most levels, I must say that it is an amazing sports photograph that should win an award of some kind.
In the other Semi-Final game the Torino Giaguari outlasted the Verona Mastini by a final tally of 49-25.
The 27th Italian DII Silver Bowl
will be also played in Piacenza
on Friday, July 16th
#2 Torino Giaguari (8-0)
vs.
#4 Modena Vipers (7-1)
Our old team, the Catania Elephants,
had a DIII Southern Conference
Semi-Final game to play
Catania Elephants (5-0)
at
Barletta Mad Bulls (5-0)
ELEPHANTS ROLL!
Since Italian DIII plays the nine-man
version of American football, this level
is officially called CIF9
I have no idea what CIF stands for in this context.
Here is the line-up for the two conference final games with the winners earning a spot in the 21st Nine Bowl in Cecina on Saturday, July 24th.
The CIF9 Conference Championship games will be played next weekend.
Northern Conference Final
Basiliano Leoni (6-0)
vs.
Bolzano Giants (6-0)
Southern Conference Final
Catania Elephants (6-0)
vs.
Roma Pretoriani (6-0)
Time to check out what happened in the fledgling European League of Football . . .
Our favorite ELF squad, the
Barcelona Dragons were at home
Still searching for their first win in the ELF's inaugural season, the Dragons (0-2) were hosting the Hamburg Sea Devils (1-0) who had a bye last weekend.
All eight ELF teams were
playing this weekend
NUTS!
Again.
From what I saw, the Sea Devils were just too physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage for the somewhat undersized Dragons.
It could have ben a much worse score if the Dragons' defense had not been able to hold Sea Devils' drives to successful field goals on four possessions.
BIG upset in the ELF in Week 3
with the Frankfort Galaxy beating
the high flying Wroclaw Panthers
Apparently the defenses took a much needed break this week in the Leipzig-Cologne game.
With the Panthers getting upset,
the Sea Devils at 2-0 claimed the
North's top spot as the ELF's
only undefeated club
Cologne and Franfort share
the South's lead with 2-1 records
As for our beloved Barcelona Dragons (0-3), they get a chance to re-group during a bye week before hitting the road to Germany on Sunday, July 18th when they take on the Frankfort Galaxy (2-1) in search of win number one.
This just in from a French source
On Saturday, August 7th, Team Italy will take on Team France in the Semi-Final game of the European Championship of American football.
This tournament started with group play back in 2019 to qualify for the Semi-Finals and Championship games originally scheduled to be contested in October of 2020.
Then Covid-19 hit.
The four teams that won their groups back in 2019 are all undefeated at 2-0 coming into the Semi-Finals.
The Group A winner was France with wins over the Czech Republic (28-3) and Serbia (13-7).
Italy was the surprise winner of Group B play after a stunning upset over heavily favored Austria (21-14) and a solid win against Switzerland (38-0).
In Group C, it was Finland taking the honors in dominating fashion cruising by the Netherlands (55-0) and Denmark (44-3).
Finally, the Group D champion was Sweden with two solid wins over Russia (34-7) and Great Britain (36-14).
I am not sure when the other Semi-Final game between Finland and Sweden will take place.
Let's all stay tuned on this tournament . . .
Sunday was America's 245th Birthday
We spent the day at Mike, Vanessa, Jacob and Mary's home.
We were all going to their community pool for the Fourth of July Celebration that their Home Owner's Association (HOA) was sponsoring.
Jacob pulling a happy
Mary to the pool
Since a Princess never walks, at the end of the day I pulled her the two blocks from the pool back to her castle, I mean home.
The HOA hired a Bounce House
that all of the neighborhood kids
LOVED!
Additionally, the HOA provided an overabundance of pizzas, popcorn, brownies and chocolate chip cookies.
Who was I to complain?
One of their neighbors brought
a blow up slide to the pool
Jacob, on the right, offered to help if he got to be the first one to go down it.
DONE!
Jacob's first attempt
suffered a bit of a hitch
His second attempot
was much smoother!
Jacob's face first technique . . .
. . . differed from Mary's feet first
early approach
They both got much more adventuresome as the day progressed much to the fear of their parents.
All-in-all, it was a fun Fourth!
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