Posterized: Losers Edition

UPDATE: I don't know why, but I was truly saddened to hear of the President of Bosnia's Serb Republic passing. Milan Jelic was a doctorate in economics, a soccer player, and president of Bosnia's soccer federation; what a cool life. He was 51.
UPDATE 2: I'm fascinated that the play-off between San Diego and Colorado counts as a regular-season game. If Jake Peavy wins this, he will have 20 wins on the season. On the other hand, if Josh Fogg loses this, he will drop to 10-10. And Matt Holliday (fixed: I had Roy Halliday before, thanks to Jack Cobra for the correction) can either clinch or lose the batting title based on his performance in this game. Those are interesting subplots.

Another week of punning and whacked analogies is upon us in the poster post! For some reason, the stories this week in the sports world were more about who lost than who won. The posters follow suit. (Scroll past my blather to see posters, click for larger size).

For my mini-rant, I have to both defend and offend Coach Ryan of the US Women's World Cup team. Ryan has fought hard to eliminate the ghosts of 1999 that creepily hang over this team, to the point of not even letting Brandi Chastain try out for this team. And this was needed; you can't stay stuck in the glorious past. It's similar to how the US men's basketball team must step out of the 1992 Dream Team's shadow. However, he offered up one last sacrifice to the ghosts of 1999 by putting Scurry in goal. There's no doubt to me that it was the correct strategic decision. Hope was shaky in the North Korea game, allowing at least one cheap goal. I'm not sure she could have handled the relentless and creative Brazilian attack.

However, psychologically, inserting Briana Scurry smacked of desperation; it admitted that the US was no longer good enough to just show up and play Brazil. Sometimes, when you play a team that can beat you (as Brazil was, and did), a coach must lie to her team and pretend she is not worried about their opponent. It is possible to take a team TOO seriously; and that apparently is what Ryan did to his squad. By the way, Briana Scurry's work as an excellent goalkeeper deserves more credit; see here for a nice article on this.

As for the importance attached to Solo's words--please. I think the story got too much attention because she is a pretty face. You all do know that nothing is worth reporting in this world unless it involves attractive people and video, right? In addition, the relentless crush of male sports bloggers on Miss Solo is reminiscent of women fans who only know the QB of their favorite NFL team and thus develop a crush on him. Of course, I say that while sitting in my glass house sans stone-proofing...