GOLF

This weekend, it was the 110th annual U.S. open in golf.  Everybody turned out to see if Tiger Woods could once again regain his dominance.  Well, that didn’t happen exactly, but there was another tremendous achievement.  Graeme McDowell became the first European golfer to win the U.S. Open in 40 years.  For everyone else, however, the Open was a practical disaster. Players just couldn’t get it together on this tough course, and it paved the way for McDowell to take the lead and take the trophy.  Congrats to McDowell.

SOCCER

In the World Cup, the defending champions Italy (who won in 2006) took the field for their second match of the cup.  They were stunned in their first game by Paraguay who drew them for a tie.  Italy was heavily favored to beat New Zealand in their second game.  After all, New Zealand was the lowest ranked team out of all 32 countries in competition.  Vegas had them at 2000 to 1 odds to win the whole Cup.  Well, New Zealand came to play and forced Italy to yet another draw.  It’s now possible that (A) New Zealand could advance to the round of 16, (B) one of the top teams, Italy, will not advance.  That would be a stunner.  Italy 1, New Zealand 1.

Elsewhere in the World Cup, it was time for the #1 ranked Brazil to take the field again.  They are in the division dubbed, “Group of Death”, as it has 3 power house teams (Brazil, Ivory Coast, and Ronaldo’s Portugal).  But Brazil won a tough game against North Korea in their first match, and hoped to edge Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast in the second game.  Well, whatever woes Brazil had in their first match were long forgotten.  They brought their A game and got two beautiful goals from Luis Fabiano and one from Elano.  Now, Brazil has advanced to the second round, but still has a very compelling match against rival Portugal — home to the best and most famous player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo.  Brazil 3, Ivory Coast 1.

BASEBALL

This weekend marked the first time that LA Dodger’s slugger Manny Ramirez would return to his old team:  The Boston Red Sox, a team he helped earn their first World Series trophy ever. Well, there were certainly boos, and the Dodgers just couldn’t get it done all weekend against the Red Sox.  Yesterday, Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz kept the Dodgers scoreless and sent Los Angeles home winless in the series.  Tough break for Manny, although it’s quite possible he really didn’t care.  Boston 2, Los Angeles 0.