If you have any connection to Spain, particularly the cities of Madrid and Barcelona, or are just simply an avid football fan like I am, you are in for a treat in the coming weeks. The two most powerful clubs in the history of Spanish football will meet four times in the shortest span in history. Yes, you heard it right. In a span of 17 days, Real Madrid C.F. and F.C. Barcelona will go head-to-head four different times.
The first game will take place this Saturday, and it is probably the least important match. It will be played in Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home to Real Madrid. The match is s is part of the fixture for La Liga. It is the least important one because, barring a total collapse, Barça has all but won the league. The "culés" hold an eight-point lead over Real Madrid with only eight contests remaining. Also, Barcelona has only lost one game all year, so it is losing too much footing to the Madrid side is an unlikely scenario. Saturday will be the second time the two squads will have played this year as the first matchup was back in November at Barcelona's Camp Nou. The game resulted in a 5-0 whitewashing of Real by Barcelona, and it is one that Madrid supporters will not forget for a long time, unless they have a measure of success in the coming weeks.
The second game will be just four days later when the two squads, who have exerted their domination in Spain this year, face off in the final of Spain's "Copa del Rey". The cup is the country's second most prestigious one after the league championship and it is only fitting that the two sides will meet in the deciding match after the campaign each has put together. Real Madrid, a 17-time victor, has not hoisted the trophy since 1993 and last reached the final in 2004. Barcelona leads all Spanish teams with 25 cup titles and last won it in 2009, a year in which they won everything possible. Both teams hold the tournament in high regard, which means they will both be more than ready for it. The fact that their eternal rival is each team's only remaining obstacle to adding one more title to their trophy case is simply an added incentive.
Finally, the last two times the two clubs will be seeing each other in this football-crazed month will be with Europe's biggest prize hanging in the balance. On April 27 and May 3, Real Madrid and Barcelona will duel once again, this time for a spot in the UEFA Champions League Final, which will take place on May 28 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Real Madrid is the all-time leader in Champions League titles, having won nine in its history. The club hailing from the Spanish capital, however, has not won the title since 2002, which is also the last time that they had advanced past the Round of 16 until this year. Barça, on the other hand, has not won nearly as many titles as Real, with only three to its name. Despite its overall history, Barcelona has been Spain's best representative over the past five years, winning the European title twice, in 2005- 2006 and 2008-2009, and has advanced to its fourth straight semi-final.
The rivalry's history is filled with controversies. The main one is the curious case of Alfredo Di Stéfano, an Argentine-born Spanish footballer. The story goes that early in his career, Di Stéfano obtained the interest from both Spanish clubs while playing in Colombia. A mess resulted from his transfer to a low-tier team in Argentina and both Barcelona and Real Madrid claimed to own his registration.
FIFA was brought in to deal with the matter and decreed that Di Stéfano would play for both teams, but on alternate seasons. In the end, after a few appearances with Barça, he signed fully with Real. While the Madrid side claims it was voluntary on his part, Barcelona to this day remains adamant that General Francisco Franco cowered Barcelona's owners into releasing him of his contract.
Rivalries are always difficult to predict, especially when the teams are as historically important as F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid C.F. Over the past several years, Barcelona has completely and utterly dominated Real, to the point of humiliation. The "azulgranas" are en route to capturing their third straight league championship and have beat their archrivals in the last five matches by a combined score of 16- 2, with Real's two goals coming in a 6-2 drubbing at the hands of Barça on May 2, 2009 in Madrid.
It is hard for a team to beat its rival nine consecutive times, as rivalry games bring an added flavor to the sport. It is especially difficult when four of those games are to occur within such a short span of time. Barcelona has made Madrid its punching bag throughout the past five contests, so one would think that Real is due to obtain some measure of success.
Therefore, it is not out of the question to think that the two teams could split the month, with each taking two of the versions of "El Clásico". It also should not surprise anyone, however, if F.C. Barcelona continues its domination and beats Real Madrid in all four games. No matter the result, however, these are exciting days to be a football fan, as the show that both teams will put on in the next few weeks will undoubtedly be unmatched by anything else in the game.
The Colgate women's lacrosse team traveled to Annapolis, M.D. this past Saturday to face Navy in its fourth conference game of the season. The Raiders fell to the Midshipmen by a final score of 14-11, which marked their first Patriot League loss of the year.
Senior midfielder Colleen Bubnack demanded attention with a game-high five goals. Senior attacker Kate Bergstrom was also a noteworthy player tallying four points on two goals and two assists. Junior midfielder Courtney Miller remains one goal shy of 100 in her career, having scored a goal in Saturday's game.
The teams played evenly in the first nine minutes of the game. Bubnack and first-year midfielder Alison Flood were both able to find the back of the net. Colgate took a 2-1 lead over Navy before the hosts scored three unanswered goals to jump ahead with a 4-2 advantage over the Raiders. The Midshipmen would not give up their lead for the rest of the game.
First-year midfielder Monica White put Colgate back on the scoreboard with her 18th goal of the season. Navy answered back with two goals, widening its lead to a 5-3 advantage over the Raiders with fifteen minutes remaining in the first frame of play.
"We hurt ourselves," Bergstrom said, reflecting on the first half of play. "We made some really critical mistakes, turning the ball over for no reason. A true testament to that is the halftime score – we had beaten them on draw controls 12-2, but they were winning 8-5. We needed to settle down after each goal and take time off the clock possessing the ball."
Junior attacker Katie Sullivan sliced the Midshipmen's lead in half with a tally assisted by Miller; however, Navy quickly jumped back into action with three of the next four goals to take an 8-5 advantage over Colgate right at the end of the half.
At the opening of the second half, Navy continued to build momentum with three consecutive goals in the first six minutes of play. The Midshipmen's 11-5 lead over Colgate was the largest up to that point in the game. Colgate slowly began to chip away at the ever-widening gap on the scoreboard with goals from Miller and Bubnack, bringing the score to 11-7 with 20:45 left of play.
Navy fired back with three straight to widen its advantage to 14-7. Colgate attempted a comeback with four goals in the final 13 minutes of play. Bubnack and Bergstrom tallied two goals each, but this last stand was not enough to overcome the deficit.
The Raiders were outshot by their opponents yet again, as the Midshipmen claimed a 32-28 shot advantage over 'Gate. Colgate attackers were also unable to take advantage of free position shot opportunities. The Raiders received seven of these chances, but only Bubnack and Miller were able to capitalize on their opportunities.
On the defensive end, there was a fair fight for possession of the ball. Colgate crushed Navy on the draw with a total of 18 draw controls, compared to the Midshipmen's meager nine. Miller tallied six of the 18 controls for her team. On the ground, Navy was able to take its advantage with 18 out of the 31 ground balls. Junior goaltender Christina Roa had seven saves on the day.
"Its frustrating to lose to Navy – that is our third loss to them in a row," Bergstrom explained. "We wanted to beat them so badly; but, from here on out, we need to focus on Lafayette and Lehigh. If we beat both of them then we put ourselves in decent position for hosting the Patriot League Tournament. If we take care of those two teams, it will come down to who wins in the Navy and Lehigh game. We'd love to host. It's so much fun."
Navy and Colgate are now in a three-way tie for first with Lehigh. With two games remaining in the season, Colgate players understand that it is time to step it up.
"We're going to have a really focused week of practice while we prepare to play Lafayette," Bergstom said. "This week in practice we are going to work on the basics, simple things that we were executing well in the first part of the season."
The Raiders will take the field again this Saturday in a home match-up against Lafayette at 1 p.m. on Tyler's field.
Now, I'm not one to always pick the favorite, but for this year's Stanley Cup, I'm going with the frontrunner Vancouver Canucks.
First of all, the word Canuck is funny. Secondly, Vancouver is a great city. Really, go there now and forget finals. Thirdly, the team has shown a complete command over nearly every aspect of their game and represents the most complete roster in the playoffs. Not only do they lead in goals per game with 3.1, but they lead in goals against with 2.2. Accordingly, the team has held the top spot consistently since Week 18, reminding us all why Canada remains the king of hockey.
Interestingly, the same week that the Canucks bolted into first place, they lost their leading defender, Alexander Elder, to injury (he remains out of commission). I bring this up because, since then, the Canucks have managed to absolutely shame the majority of the NHL with win after win as they went on to take over 50 this season for the first time in franchise history. Not bad for depth, eh? Vancouver also flexed their depth chart when center Manny Malhotra took a renegade puck to the eye, removing him from active duty for the season (and, you know, threatening his future in the sport and his use of the eye). Despite the loss of this veteran, who was second in the NHL in face-offs (61.7 percent) and an architect of the Canuck improvement from 18th to 2nd in the league in penalty killings, the team has managed to keep going. This is largely thanks to the 94 points and 19 goals recorded by fellow center Henrik Sedin, the 41 goals (tied for first on the team) by center Ryan Kesler and the 26 goals scored by center Alex Burrows. All in all, I'd say that the Canucks are doing just fine in the face of a few major roster losses.
Of course, all these regular season stats are quickly fading in importance as the real games, the playoff games, are starting up. For Vancouver, so much has been made about their first match, which has probably already been played by the time you read this, against the Chicago Blackhawks, reigning champs. A lot of jaw-flapping has happened to date, so let's break the argument down to its core. One team features a player (cough, Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks, cough) who is relying on a mullet to see his team through. The other is actually going to win.
Now, you could make all kinds of arguments based on the fact that the Blackhawks took the championship title last year, but I just don't see the same team in Chicago that took the title. This season, the Blackhawks tripped over their own skates, barely qualifying for the playoffs and ending up in the third spot in the Central Division with 97 points. Although that is perfectly respectable, it doesn't quite measure up to their 112-point 2010 season. As for the "second life" that Blackhawks players have claimed to feel since making the playoffs, I believe there are numerous teams in the NHL playoffs that received an energy boost from qualifying. The Blackhawks will need more than team spirit if they want to run this thing to the end. Comparatively, Chicago's averages of 3.1 goals per game and 2.7 goals against, doesn't seem that far from Vancouver's stats until you line them up with the rest of the league where they are fourth and twelfth respectively.
Finally, a few commentators that have reported some apprehension on the part of the Canucks have also claimed that the Blackhawks are in the heads of Vancouver players. If this is the case, I'd tell these guys to get off the therapy couch and go play. This is the Stanley Cup: there is no room for head games, just sport.
In conclusion, the Stanley Cup will be journeying to Vancouver for the first time in the team's history. As much as I respect that other teams in the NHL represent valid threats to the Canucks' ultimate victory, I believe that Vancouver will be bringing home the prize. Let's just hope they can get the cup through customs.
The Colgate men's lacrosse team continued their hot streak with a resounding 13-11 victory over the eighth-ranked Army Black Knights on Saturday, April 2 in front of over 600 members of Raider Nation....
On Saturday, April 2, both the men's and women's track and field teams traveled down to Princeton, New Jersey to take part in the Sam Howell Invitational. Team scores were not recorded at the meet, yet several of the relay squads posted strong times at the annual event. Additionally, numerous athletes shined on the individual stage, posting personal-bests and season-bests in a variety of events.
In the men's portion of the meet, Colgate got off to a particularly hot start in the middle distance events, with senior runner Jonathan Knowlton leading the way en route to a second place performance in the 800-meter run. Knowlton finished just behind first-place competitor David Ash of Navy, completing the event in a quick 1:53.89. Knowlton ran faster than Ash in seeding rounds of the event, but was barely edged out in the final heat. Colgate placed two more runners in the top-10 in the event, with senior Ed Boulat placing sixth and classmate Dan Gleason placing ninth. Boulat and Gleason completed the races in 1:55.21 and 1:55.45, respectively.
In the long-distance events, the Raiders appeared to falter slightly as a whole, but sophomore Chris Johnson continued his strong campaign. Johnson came out of the gate strong in the seeding round, posting a time well under four minutes. He slipped down in the standings slightly in the final heat, placing 23rd, yet he still managed to post a very respectable time of 4:07.51.
'Gate rounded out its solid performance with a strong showing in the 4x400-meter relay. Colgate's ‘A' squad of senior Andrew Smith, Knowlton, junior Tim Metivier and junior Graham Tooker used a quick start and smooth transitions on its way to posting a final time of 3:23.62. The squad placed fourth overall in the event, and ran the second-fastest qualifying time in their preliminary heat.
The women's team echoed the performance of the men's quad on Saturday, with several of the Patriot League's top female athletes putting on strong displays at the Sam Howell Invitational. The Raiders' weekend was headlined by the dazzling performance of senior sprinter Michele Miller. Miller began the meet in the 200-meter dash, where she posted a season-best time of 25.81, good enough for sixth place. Miller followed with a similar performance in the 400-meter dash. The senior's final time of 57.99 was another season best, as well as the fastest time run in the Patriot league so far this season. When asked what contributed to such a magnificent performance this weekend, the hard-working Miller simply replied, "Working hard at practice."
Senior long-distance runner Julie Tarallo continued her successful spring campaign, posting a very respectable time of 4:56.38 en route to a tenth place performance in the 1500-meter run. Tarallo continued her successful day in the 5000-meter run, where she placed ninth overall with a personal-best time of 17:29.21.
Colgate finished the meet in impressive fashion in the 4x400-meter relay, placing eighth out of 17 squads. The Raiders' ‘A' squad of junior Alexandra Atkinson, sophomore Amy Sleeper, first-year Jamie King-Prunty and Miller flew out of the gate and cruised through the finish line in a quick 4:05.20.
The women's team will return to action on April 9, when they head to Cornell to compete against the Big Red and several other Patriot League foes. Miller noted that the team will be "working on handoffs and on speed endurance" in the coming week to prepare for the Cornell meet.
The men's squad on the other hand, will have a weekend off before they return to action in a big way on April 15 and 16, when members of the team will travel down south to Knoxville, Tenn. to take part in the Sea Ray Relays.
The women's softball team opened Patriot League play with a back-to-back double-header series against Army to record a sweep for the entire weekend. Colgate didn't let the Black Knights score at all the first day, winning the first game 4-0 and the second 2-0. On day two, Army was able to improve their play but not secure the wins, and the day ended with two Raider victories, 5-3 and 7-4
Rachel LeCoq, the star freshman pitcher recorded her first collegiate shutout in Saturday's game when she threw for seven innings and only allowed four hits. Colgate scored two runs in the first inning and one in the second, followed by another in the seventh to secure the win. Junior Jennifer Orgeta was another key player in the game, supporting the team with her third homer of the season and two RBIs.
Sophomore pitcher Courtney O'Connell took the mound in the second game and pitched another seven scoreless innings, only allowing four hits while striking out six. The Raiders, for their part, scored early on in the second inning to tally the first run of the game. Sophomore Alana Dyson was a key hitter in the game.
Army came back determined to take a game on day two of the series and took an early lead of three runs over Colgate. The Raiders responded with two runs in the fourth inning after sophomore Natalie Siedhof hit a single and Army marked a wild pitch to bring the score to 3-2. Colgate tallied two more in the fifth when Siedhof hit a homer to give the Raiders the lead. The Raiders insured the win with a triple by Dyson to bring home Lacy Ver Steeq.
LeCoq pitched her ninth complete game of the season and picked up her eight win. She gave up six hits and struck out nine.
In the second game, the Raiders were the team with the early 3-0 lead and added a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to complete the sweep over Army. O'Connell pitched seven innings in the game and allowed only eight hits, earning a run herself.
Colgate will be back on the field on Saturday, April 9 at home at 12 noon.
No, and you shouldn't either. Which isn't to say that the winner of the national championship is never the best team in college basketball – a lot of years it can be. In fact, the University of North Carolina in '09 is the most recent example that comes to mind, after finishing 28-4 in the regular season and winning their 6 tournament games by an average of 20.2 points. However, no sane person will tell you that UConn was clearly the best team in the country this season. Did they have the best player in college basketball? Absolutely (sorry, Jimmer). Were they playing the best ball out of anybody heading into and during the tournament? That's a stronger argument that you could definitely agree with it. If they played Ohio State, Duke, Kansas or even a handful of college basketball's "second-tier" teams (Florida, Kentucky, Pittsburgh) 10 times each, would they win more than they would lose? Who really knows? The point is that it takes an awful lot to crown a national champion, and, as history shows us, having the best team in the country is certainly no guarantee that you'll be cutting down the nets when it's all said and done. After all, that's why the play the games, right?
By Rebecca Silberman
Maroon-News Staff
At this point, it is no longer a question of best. The Huskies are national champions, enough said. We could sit here for days, trying to predict the outcome of every imaginable game, lining up top scorers and defensive stars, vetting coaches and measuring cheerleaders. But this is all academic – the tournament's over guys, UConn wins, Butler doesn't. While I won't pretend that I am deeply surprised that Ohio State didn't take the title, UConn's gritty play against Butler in this admmitedly low-scoring game was impressive. Conversely, I was completely gob-smacked by the Notre Dame versus Texas A&M women's championship. Not that the teams didn't deserve to be there or that A&M didn't put in a stellar performance for the win, but I had picked a UConn-Stanford final. Oh well, I guess I'll have to console myself by starting to compile next year's brackets early. How about this May?
By Adam Settle
Maroon-News Staff
Does the single-elimination NCAA championship provide viewers with weeks of spectacular games and entertainment? Absolutely. But should the final team standing in this single-elimination format be automatically crowned the "best in the country?" I'll believe that Colgate men's basketball will reach the Final Four before I will believe that idea (no offense, guys). This year's Connecticut Huskies are the not the worst champion to be crowned from the pile of junk of teams competing this year, but their body of work compared to other schools does not show them to be the top team. The Huskies lost nine games within their own conference, six games back of Big East champion Pittsburgh. Kemba Walker carried them through the Big East tourney and the best team they faced in the entire tournament was tourney rookie San Diego State. In 1985, Villanova only made the tournament because of an expanded field as a No. 8 seed. Against juggernaut Georgetown, who had defeated the Wildcats twice during the regular season handily, 'Nova used the lack of a shot clock and shot nearly 80 percent from the field to finish the upset. Should the Wildcats have been declared the best team in the nation? There is a reason why the NBA has four, seven-game series to determine the best team in the league.
By Charlie Balk
Maroon-News Staff
It is undeniable that the March Madness tournament is a complete, utter crapshoot. To suggest that we could rewind history and have the same teams play out this year's tournament again, and that UConn would win, is absurd. But, the problem is, we cannot replay the tournament. We do not have a time machine to decide which team is best once and for all. We also don't have any better method for figuring out the best team in college hoops. So, for lack of a better determinant, we must accept the Huskies as the No. 1 team and do so absolutely. No one is more deserving...right? To the victor, the spoils.
