Tag: World Cup

Isaiah Thomas, Justin Anderson added to Team USA World Cup Qualifying team

Marc J. Spears: Isaiah Thomas and Justin Anderson to November 2021 USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team Roster. Source: Twitter @MarcJSpears What’s the buzz on Twitter? Jason Anderson @ JandersonSacBee USA Basketball has added former Kings guard …

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Jason Anderson @JandersonSacBee
USA Basketball has added former Kings guard Isaiah Thomas to its World Cup Qualifying Team roster. pic.twitter.com/6IJiTcrirJ – 1:18 PM
Adam Zagoria @AdamZagoria
Justin Anderson (Fort Wayne Mad Ants/Virginia) and Isaiah Thomas (free agent/Washington) were added by USA Basketball to its November 2021 USA World Cup Qualifying Team. – 1:06 PM
Scott Agness @ScottAgness
Mad Ants forward Justin Anderson has been added to the USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team Roster — coached by Jim Boylen.
Two former Pacers also on the team: Orlando Johnson and Brian Bowen II – 1:06 PM
Sean Cunningham @SeanCunningham
Free agent and former Kings guard Isaiah Thomas has been added to the November 2021 USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team Roster – 1:04 PM
Marc J. Spears @MarcJSpears
Isaiah Thomas and Justin Anderson to November 2021 USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team Roster. – 1:04 PM
Marc Stein @TheSteinLine
USA Basketball just announced the addition of Isaiah Thomas to its World Cup qualifying roster. – 1:02 PM
Tim Reynolds @ByTimReynolds
Isaiah Thomas will soon be playing basketball again. He was announced today as an injury replacement and will join USA Basketball for the start of its training camp Saturday. The Americans are prepping for the start of World Cup qualifying later this month. – 1:00 PM

More on this storyline

Word is that another announcement initially expected this month from USAB — officially naming a replacement for Gregg Popovich as coach of the men’s national team — is now likely to occur closer to the end of the calendar year. -via marcstein.substack.com / October 29, 2021
Grant Hill, who has replaced Jerry Colangelo as USAB’s managing director, initially said that he hoped to name the successor to Popovich before the start of the NBA season. The timeline for completing the search, I’m told, has been pushed back for procedural reasons. -via marcstein.substack.com / October 29, 2021

Christian Pulisic signs historic memorabilia deal ahead of World Cup qualifying

SportsPulse: American soccer star Christian Pulisic spoke with USA TODAY Sports about a new deal with memorabilia giant Panini, as well as the USMNT’s chances to make it to the World Cup.

SportsPulse: American soccer star Christian Pulisic spoke with USA TODAY Sports about a new deal with memorabilia giant Panini, as well as the USMNT’s chances to make it to the World Cup.

Haiti goalkeeper Jousé Duverger allowed this breathtakingly bad own goal against Canada

This might be the worst own-goal ever.

Own goals are always devastating when they happen. The circumstances are always so dumb.

The ball takes an inadvertent bounce here or there and goes off of your leg and into your net. Or maybe you were about to clear it from the box and someone gets in the way and it bounces in the net.

The circumstances are never convenient. But it’s always 10 times worse when it’s something that was completely avoidable.

But that doesn’t even begin to describe what happened to Haiti’s keeper, Jousé Duverger, against Canada in a World Cup qualifying match-up.

Duverger had worked so hard for 45 minutes to keep Canada scoreless and had played well!

Then, in the 45th minute, the ball is just rolling toward him slowly as the half is about to end and Duverger just absolutely whiffs on the kick to stop it. And it rolls into the net. Own goal. Canada up 1-0 going into the half.

It was so heartbreaking.

Duverger gave Canada the lead and they never looked back. They won the match 3-0 and won 4-0 in aggregate to eliminate Haiti from the World Cup. And that was the goal that opened the flood gates.

This is just mind-numbingly bad. Poor, poor Duverger.

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Sean Payton jokes about deploying vuvuzelas to improve Superdome crowd noise

Saints coach Sean Payton shared his latest joking suggestion to improve homefield advantage at the Superdome during COVID-19 restrictions.

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How can the New Orleans Saints upgrade their home field advantage with depressed crowd numbers due to COVID-19 restrictions? One idea Saints coach Sean Payton floated on Friday was to gift the 3,500 spectators in attendance with individual vuvuzela horns to bray throughout their upcoming playoff game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Vuvuzelas rose to prominence during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with South African soccer fans droning on as an endless bass tone buzzing beneath tournament broadcasts. Unfortunately, artificial noise makers of any kind remain banned per most NFL fan conduct policies.

It’s not the first far-fetched idea Payton has suggested to juice up the home crowd in this odd season. He also joked about quarantining 50,000 volunteers in hotels around the New Orleans area, though the logistics aren’t feasible for that plan. He’ll just have to make do like everyone else and find new ways to keep his team energized and ready for whatever Tom Brady’s squad throws at them on Sunday.

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While the Dallas Mavericks big man …

While the Dallas Mavericks big man Boban Marjanovic doesn’t what to expect, he’s positive they’ll have a good time in Disneyland: “I can’t imagine what it will all look like, but I believe that it will be something similar to the World Cup, as well as that all security protocols will be detailed and clearly defined. In general, the NBA always thinks of everything. And it will certainly be the same this time. We’ll all be together, we’ll see each other off the court as well. It can’t be bad in Disneyland, that’s for sure,” Marjanovic told Zurnal.

NBA is considering World Cup-style expanded pool play for playoffs

ESPN and The Ringer both reported on Tuesday about the potential proposals of a World Cup-style group stage before an 8-team knockout.

There will be no loud drums, people, or large tifos in the crowd, but there’s a very real possibility that when the NBA returns, it’s format could look at lot like the FIFA World Cup. Among the current proposals, everything from a shortened regular season of 72 or 76 games to a soccer-style group play format is on the table. ESPN and The Ringer both did extensive reporting on what a World Cup-style tournament might look like. And we’ve already had one superstar, Portland’s Damian Lillard, go on the record that he won’t play in games if his Blazers aren’t given a real opportunity to get into the postseason.

So there is a lot of pressure on the NBA, from a lot of sides, to get this right and one way of doing it may be to do something they’ve never done before. Using a random number generator, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor proposed what a 20-team, four group field may look like when the NBA tries to come back. ESPN also reported that they have outlined plans for pool play that could include all 30 teams.

For the NBA, having an expanded playoff field, adding the four teams on the bubble in the Western Conference, may provide the best quality of play while also making sure you have more teams, leading to eight games for each team.  It could also help the majority of the teams fulfill the obligations of broadcasting 7 games for their television contracts. The Lakers had the most games remaining to get to 70 in the league, having played only 63. A group stage would get them to 70, allowing the league to keep the revenue from regional sports networks. It’s unclear what might be done in this scenario if the other 10 teams aren’t invited to the bubble.

Also, in the case of the Blazers and the Pelicans, they have two great players and well-known draws in Damian Lillard and Zion Williamson. Also, a healthy Portland team with their starting frontcourt back on the court again could add even greater intrigue, as last year’s Western Conference Finalists had a down regular season, mostly due to injury. The Spurs, Pelicans, and Blazers also had their easiest stretches of the schedule left remaining, while Memphis had the hardest remaining schedule in the league with just less than a month to go.

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If the NBA starts playoffs World Cup-style, Celtics might dislike it

There’s been a lot of proposals on how to organize the 2019-20 NBA postseason, and a World Cup-style first round is probably not among Boston’s favorites.

Could the NBA adopt a World Cup style of play for the playoffs? And if so, what would it look like for the Boston Celtics?

In a recent article for The Ringer, Kevin O’Connor breaks down exactly that, reporting that it is one format the NBA is exploring — even if there is likely going to be enough resistance from team owners to make such an adoption unlikely.

The proposal would eliminate a traditional first round in place of the approach, which would group the league into five tiers based on regular season record.

Those tiers would each send one team randomly to one of four groups, and those groups of five teams would play each opponent twice.

The teams with the two best records would then advance to a typical best-of-seven series for the second round, comprised of the usual eight franchises.

Teams would be drawn from the current 16 teams that would qualify for the postseason with the standings as they are now, as well as the four clubs with the next-best records (the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs).

O’Connor envisions a tier system that would look like so:

Tier 1: Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers
Tier 2: Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz, Heat
Tier 3: Thunder, Rockets, Pacers, Sixers
Tier 4: Mavericks, Grizzlies, Nets, Magic
Tier 5: Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, Spurs

And a random group draw that would put Boston with the Toronto Raptors, Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, and the Spurs.

The Ringer

Not exactly ideal for a tune-up for the Celtics, likely one of several reasons such a move is unlikely to get much support, particularly from the weaker Eastern Conference.

While there are means that could be used to address the longstanding imbalance between the two conferences, the risk of such an approach becoming institutionalized is undoubtedly another.

The exercise may be a moot point as a result — and Boston fans aren’t likely to lose any sleep over dodging what could otherwise be a brutal start to the postseason.

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