EHFCL 2011: Semifinals and Finals

Random crazy whackadoodle shots for the win! Literally. Also: I know I've been watching too much tennis when I start feeling weird about not calling games, matches.

And Buducnost is the new champion. 54-54 by points scored while away.

So I had several feelings about the semifinals, but then I didn't write them down and promptly forgot. In any case, all the expected teams won, and it wasn't really close. Home court advantage made all the difference for the Hungarians.

As for the final... well (loud American alert), this is why the majority of sports don't play two-legged ties. "Points scored while away" doesn't seem like much of a metric for deciding the champion. Best-of-N seems so much more satisfying, and it's not like they couldn't sell the tickets. Plus, it seems to screw with the psychology of the players; Györi let a 5 goal lead slip to two in the first leg, which didn't seem like a big deal at the time but in retrospect made all the difference. Still, that's handball for you.

As for the final game itself, basically:
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Claypova is best new 'pova

So, Cow on Ice beat Vika the Pirate (aka Extremely Injured) in the Stuttgart final. And it was awesome.

So now, people are speculating on whether or not Sharapova's best surface is clay now. I'm pleased to report that according to my magic tennis statistics box, is probably is:

Maria Sharapova pre-surgery (before 2009)
Overall win percentage: 0.794
Clay win percentage: 0.750
Grass win percentage: 0.855
Hardcourt win percentage: 0.790

Clay is worst.

Maria Sharapova post-surgery (2009 and on)
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Here be: art, music, gender issues, society in general; altogether too much tennis and handball; miscellaneous other blogish bits; and occasional ill-advised whining.

But no dragons. Promise.