Eideard

In his 18 years at Pinckney Community High School, Jim Darga, the principal, said, the homecoming queen had always been crowned at halftime of the school’s football game. Never before, though, had she had to be summoned from the team’s locker room.

And that was just the beginning of Brianna Amat’s big night.

If being named homecoming queen is a lifetime memory for a high school student, so, too, is kicking a winning field goal. For Amat, 18, they happened within an hour of each other.

On Friday, with Pinckney leading powerful Michigan rival Grand Blanc, 6-0, at the half, Amat, the first girl to play football for the school’s varsity, was asked to return to the field. When she arrived, she was told that her fellow students had voted her queen. When the tiara was placed on her head, she was wearing not a dress, like the other girls in the homecoming court, but her No. 12 uniform, pads and all.

A short while later, with five minutes to play in the third quarter, Amat was called to the same field to attempt a 31-yard field goal. She split the uprights.

The kick proved decisive as Pinckney held on for a 9-7 victory against a Grand Blanc team that had come into the game ranked seventh in the state in its division. It also earned Amat the nickname the Kicking Queen…

Before Friday, Darga said, Amat was known primarily as a student with a perfect 4.0 grade average who was involved in student government, serving as treasurer…

Amat’s prowess as a defender on the school’s girl’s soccer team led to the invitation to try out as a football kicker. She competed against two male students, including one who wound up as the team’s punter.

“She won the position on her own merit,” Darga said. “She won it outright.”

Bravo!

- unless you’re a fan of clubs in North London. But, I saw this commercial late last night and recalled I’d never put it up at eideard.com:

 
Sponsored by kickoutpoverty.org.

Japan’s Homare Sawa holds the trophy after beating the U.S. in the Women’s World Cup final
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

They picked a great time to win for the first time against the United States.

Five Mexico internationals have tested positive for the banned substance Clenbuterol…

Mexico are taking part in Concacaf Gold Cup in the United States.

They beat El Salvador 5-0 in their opening match and face Cuba on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The general secretary of the Mexican Football Federation (Femexfut) Decio de Maria said the quintet had been suspended from the tournament. He added that any further sanctions, which could include bans of up to two years, would be determined by Femexfut…

“The substance for which they were positive is Clenbuterol. The players will be withdrawn from coach Jose Manuel de la Torre’s team.” Decio de Maria added: “The cause is believed to be because of [eating] beef or chicken between 17 and 20 May so an investigation will be made with the food suppliers. For the time being we don’t see any negligence by anyone, not even theirs.

“We know there is a health alert throughout the country because of food contaminated with Clenbuterol and that will be taken into account for the investigation.”

In April, Germany’s anti-doping agency advised against athletes eating products from Mexico because it might increase the risk of involuntary positive doping results. Mexico denied there was a problem.

Cripes. Note to self. Make certain any Mexican chicken arriving in this household only comes from the Mennonite organic farms in northern Mexico.

Researchers are creating software that links fans’ smartphones into a network so they can easily share messages, images and video.

The software could prove a boon for seated events when friends are not able to sit together but want to chat about the on-field action.

It could also help them include fans and friends who did not manage to get tickets to a match…

“We are not trying to take away from the quality of the football match, we are trying to augment it,” said Dr Matthew Chalmers, a reader in computer science at the University of Glasgow and principal investigator on the “smart stadium” project.

The researchers are working with the Tartan Army – fans who travel round the world following local Scottish football teams and the national side. Some Tartan Army fans have been given Apple iPhones fitted with prototypes of the software Dr Chalmers and his co-workers are developing…

For instance, he said, key members of supporter groups cannot sometimes travel to a match but want to keep up with what happens before, during and after…

The researchers also plan to use the Bluetooth short-range wireless technology built into most smartphones as a messaging system so those attending a match can keep in touch or share media.

He added that the researchers plan to release the software as a free mobile application so that anyone can use it.

Interesting they decided to drop Windows Mobile and switched to the iPhone early on.

Cripes – I’d load it onto my laptop Mac in the living room and use it to follow along a match from the Prem or the SPL. I’d love it.

USA caused one of the biggest surprises in Confederations Cup history by beating European champions Spain to reach Sunday’s final.

Jozy Altidore scored the opener when he turned his marker Joan Capdevila to fire in from 15 yards.

Fulham’s Clint Dempsey doubled the lead in the second half when he converted Landon Donovan’s pass from close range.

Tim Howard saved from Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas before USA’s Michael Bradley saw red for a tackle of Xavi.

Many would have predicted Spain to win this match with a lot to spare, judging by the ease with which they won their group games.

But Vicente del Bosque’s men had only faced New Zealand, Iraq and South Africa in the lead up, and with all respect to those teams, the Americans were always going to be a tougher proposition.

Time and time again in the first half, the USA managed to read Spain’s trademark killer passes by sticking tight to potent forwards David Villa and Torres.

In fact, prior to USA’s goal, Spain’s best opportunity fell to Liverpool hot-shot Torres whose attempt at a volley from six yards was superbly scuppered by Watford’s Jay DeMerit.

What was starkly apparent on Free State Stadium pitch, was the superior athleticism of the Americans.

RTFA. It was a joy to behold. Parking the bus is not my favorite style of football; but, that was just about the only option available to the American team. They were superb at it. The comment about fitness was appropriate – and something that shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows American training methods and standards.

And Tim Howard was man of the tournament, today. He stopped everything that Spain offered.

Not the ideal place for a dip

A woman fell into a tank of slurry as she tried to make “manure bombs” using her stockings, German police said.

The unfortunate woman stripped off her foul smelling clothes and fled the scene naked, along with a female accomplice wearing just her bra and pants.

The two women entered a farm in the northern village of Eberholzen, Lower Saxony, on Wednesday evening and started to fill the stockings from the slurry tank.

“One of them slipped into the manure tank, right into the cow muck,” said the spokesman. “The other one helped her out. We found their clothes in a field. One seems to have run off naked, the other in her underwear.”

The coppers are holding their clothes for them – unwashed – if they want to drop by and pick them up.

Poland’s national football coach apologised after a tabloid newspaper ran a gruesome depiction of him holding the severed heads of Germany’s national trainer and team captain and demanded he slaughter them at the forthcoming Euro 2008 championships.

The photomontage in Super Express of Poland’s Dutch coach, Leo Beenhakker, clutching the bloodied heads of Michael Ballack and Joachim Löw provoked outrage in Germany and threatened to overshadow the match between the two group B teams on Sunday.

The picture ran alongside the caption: “Leo, Give us their heads,” arguing that Poland, which has never beaten Germany, had waited too long for a victory over its neighbour.

This couldn’t happen this side of the pond, could it? Could it?