Sporting shorts: October 15

So, I didn't know what to do with this post after the Football (read NRL or AFL) seasons have finished.  But last week was a pretty big week, with the start of the Baseball Playoffs and a big week in World Cup Qualifiers.

The AFL and NRL will stay in the news with the International Rules Series and World Cup coming up.

Baseball:
So it looked like quite an even post season with quite a number of teams with rosters capable of winning the World Series, and it was hard to pick of favourite. The Wild Card games were won by the Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Divisional Series were won by the Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs. With the league playoffs being between the Yankees and Astros; and the Dodgers and Cubs. I'm picking Houston and Los Angeles to meet in the World Series, but anything can, and usually does happen.

World Cup Qualifiers
In the Asian playoff, Australia survived a tense 2-1 win on Tuesday and 3-2 aggregate win to advance to the Intercontinental Playoff, where they will meet Honduras.

The surprise of Wednesday morning was that Panama would qualify for their first World Cup, and the USA being eliminated by a 1-2 loss to Trinidad and Tobago.

In Europe, Iceland qualified for their first World Cup, and surprisingly the Netherlands missed out. Iceland are Quarter finalists from the last European Championships so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.

The South American Qualifiers were equally tense with Peru advancing to the playoff against New Zealand. Have to say I'll be surprised if NZ make it, but anything can happen.

So now the qualified teams are:

Africa: Egypt, Nigeria, three more will qualify. Most groups are quite tight, but I favour Tunisia, Cote D'Iviore (Ivory Coast) and Senegal.
Asia: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia
Europe: Belgium, France, England, Germany, Spain, Iceland, Serbia, Poland, Portugal, Russia (Hosts)
North, Central America and the Caribbean: Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama
South America:  Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Uruguay.

Playoffs: 
The below teams have qualified for the playoffs

• Australia who play Honduras (they play on Nov 10 and Nov 15)
• New Zealand who play Peru (they play on Nov 11 and Nov 16)
• In Europe, four will qualify from Denmark, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland. The match ups, and dates, are decided on Oct 17.

My final thought is that I love the 32 team World Cup, and am not really a fan of expanding it. If that's the decision that's made so be it, we'll see how it ends up. 

What I've been in to - August / September

It's a little late, but I thought I'd take the t I me to write about what I've been doing recently.

Reading
It's been a quiet month for reading. I have read a little more of Timothy Keller´s book on prayer, but not much else. So far I have found it a really interesting and helpful read. But more on that when I've finished.

Music
I've been listening to quite a bit over the past few months. I'm addicted to Nichole Nordeman´s Every Mile Mattered. Just a beautiful collection of songs about when life heads south or you are not in the season you want to be. The album has a great cover of U2's Beautiful Day.

Speaking of U2, the other album I've been listening to now is December´s 33, which I reviewed earlier. It's a great selection of U2 covers reimagined with love and care.

To top it off I've been listening to U2´s new song You're the Best Thing About Me. I really love it, and can't wait for the album whenever it comes.

The other album which came out is Pearl Jam´s recording from their Wrigley Field shows. Just a great band, and the recording is awesome.

Watching
I haven't been watching much. Well mostly sport, American sport that is.  I found their commentary so superior to what we cope with. I enjoy having women commentate. The biggest thing was it seemed the goal wasn't entertainment, rather describing the game, and talking about the sport.

Sporting shorts - October 1 #Finals four.

So with that the football season is over.

AFL

• While the Crows were the best team all year. Richmond were better on the day and deserved Premiers. Their first since 1980.

NRL

• Congrats to Melbourne, deserved Premiers. I have to say that Bellemy deserves great credit for continuing to find great players. 
• The Rugby League World Cup starts this month, so there's more Rugby League before the seasons over. I expect the Australian teams to dominate the men's and women's tournaments.

Other

• One thing I have appreciated in the coverage of the Baseball I've been watching was the place of women in calling the game. In Australia we have women providing comments or as hosts. I think we could do better. There are women who could be part of the commentary team and call the game. The game would be better for it. 

Hard to know what to do with this series now the football season is over. While I do love cricket, it's just not the same. I will try to get into the A-League this year. I expect Sydney has to be a good chance to go back to back.

The other big story is Australia´s World Cup qualification. Australia are playing Syria. The tie is level at 1-1. I expect Australia to win, but it would be an awesome story if Syria was able to win the tie.