The 100th Grey Cup

Grey Cup Logo
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The Grey Cup is one of the most prestigious trophies in sports. It means a lot to Canadian football, it's players, and especially it's fans. This year was a big year for the Cup. It is the 100th time the Grey Cup trophy will be awarded to the best team in Canadian football. This year's game was played in Toronto, home of the first Grey Cup. Not only did Toronto host the first Grey Cup, it has hosted more then 45 Cups, making it the perfect spot for the centennial. 

The two teams that made the Cup this year were the Calgary Stampede and the hometown Toronto Argonauts. Calgary had played in twelve Grey Cups before this year's and won it six times. The Argonauts have a history of success in the Grey Cup, winning fifteen Cups in 21 previous appearances. 

Toronto's best player this season has been Slotback Chad Owens. In his fourth year in the league, he led the league in both receiving yards and combined return yards with 1,328 and 2,510 respectively. Owens is the East Divison's Most Outstanding Play and the CFL's Most Outstanding Player. 

While Toronto's top player was a passing threat, Calgary's best performer was their running back, Jon Cornish. Cornish led the league in rushing yards with 1,457, rushing attempts with 256, and tied for the lead in TDs with 11. He won the CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Player. 

Pacino Horne
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The game's first score was when at the five yard line, Owens caught a screen pass from QB Ricky Ray and ran it in. The drive started when a fumbled handoff between Cornish and QB Kevin Glenn was recovered by Toronto. Calgary scored a field goal to make it 7-3.

The second quarter started with a bang. At their own ten yard line, Glenn dropped back to pass. He threw a low ball not close to any Calgary receivers. However, Pacino Horne was in the area and made a shoestring catch to get the interception at the 25 yard line. The rookie defensive back got up and finished the play by running into the endzone for a touchdown. This extended the Argonauts lead to 14-3. 

The Stampede missed a big opportunity. Down 17-3, Calgary had a 1st and goal at Toronto's eight yard line. On first and goal, they ran it up the middle with Cornish for five yards. On second and goal, they ran a sweep for Romby Bryant. Bryant had a loss of eight yards. Since in canadian football there are only three downs, they kicked a field goal. That made the score 17-6. Toronto very quickly countered by scoring on a play-action pass from to Dontrelle Inman from one yard out. That made the score 24-6 at the half.

Chad Kackert
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In the third quarter, both teams traded field goals. Calgary added another field goal early in the fourth. Toronto put the game out of reach when Andre Durie scored on a eight-yard touchdown pass. Calgary added a touchdown at the end, but it didn't matter as Toronto took the Grey Cup 35-22. It is their 16th Grey Cup title.

The winner of the game's MVP was Chad Kackert. He had 133 rushing yards on 20 carries. He also caught eight balls for 62 yards for is a game total of 195 yards. The Most Valuable Canadian of the games was Toronto's DE Ricky Foley. He had four tackles and one sacks.

3 Things To Remember About The 2012 Futsal World Cup

The FIFA Futsal World Cup ended earlier today in Thailand. After two and a half weeks of intense match-ups, a champion was declared yesterday. Futsal is soccer with some differences. Futsal is played indoors on a smaller, wood pitch with two twenty-minute halfs while utilizing a smaller ball.  Each team has only four players and a goalie on the floor at the same time along with free subs. This is the seventh ever FIFA Futsal World Cup.  The Full Count presents the three biggest storylines that you need to remember about the tournament.

1. An Amazing Final

The final featured Brazil and Spain. The two teams have combined to win all the Futsal World Cups, Brazil with five and Spain with two wins. Since 1996, the two have met four out of the five times in the final. The 2008 final between Brazil and Spain went to penalty kicks, where Brazil pulled out the victory. This final turned out to have the same amount of drama.

Brazil celebrating the victory
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The first half had no one score. The first goal of the match came about five minutes into the second half. Neto blasted a shot off a corner kick into the back of the net from far out. Five minutes later, Torras scored off a defliction off of Brazil's keeper, Tiago. A minute later, Spain broke the tie as the shot went off Tiago. With less then four minutes left, Falcao scored the equalizer with a line drive that was an upper 90°. With about one minute and thirty seconds left in the half, Spain picked up their sixth foul. The meant Brazil would get a PK. However, Rodrigo missed the shot. With about twenty five seconds left, Neto got the ball on the left side of the pitch. He got past the defender and shot a low line drive that went into the net.

2. Award Winners

The Golden Ball Award went to Neto. Neto had seven goals throughout the whole tournament. Eder Lima of Russia won the Golden Boot Award for scoring the most goals in the tournament with nine. However, seven of them came in a 16-0 annihilation of the Solomon Islands (It was actually closer this time then their match in the 2008 Cup, where Russia won 31-2). Italy's Stefano Mammarella won the Golden Glove Award for being the best keeper of the tourney. Argentina won the Fair Play Award.

3. Colombia's 1st Tournament

Miguel Sierra and Angellott Caro, who scored three goals
and three assists in the tournament
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Colombia qualified for their first ever Futsal World Cup in the spring by coming in fourth in the CONMEBOL Qualification. They were in Group F with Guatemala, Russia, and the Solomon Islands. In their first match, they were defeated by Guatemala, 5-2. Their next opponent was the Solomon Islands, who they beat easily, 11-3. Their last game of group play pitted them against Russia. Russia won 2-0. With group play over, Colombia was tied with Guatemala and the Solomon Islands for second place and an opportunity to make it to the knockout stage. Colombia advanced due to having the best goal differential. In the Round of 16, they defeated Iran 2-1. In the quarters, they won against Ukraine, 3-1. Next was the semifinals, where they were up against Brazil. After the first half the score was tied up at one. But, Brazil scored a goal at seven minutes into the half and then Colombia had an own goal. The score was then 3-1 Brazil and that is how it ended. They still  played in the third-place game, which they lost. Still, the tournament was a success for the team from South America.

2012 Asia Series

Asia Series Logo
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In Asia, the baseball season has just ended. Five of the top leagues in Asia have a postseason tournament, called the Asia Series, where the league champions and a host team vie to become the Asia Series Champions. The five leagues are Nippon Professional Baseball (Japan), Korea Baseball Organization, Chinese Professional Baseball League (Taiwan), China Baseball League, and the Australian Baseball League. This year's tournament is the sixth overall and first with six teams. After a few years without a tournament, the Asia Series returned last year. In previous year's there were only four teams in the tournament. 

The host of this year's Asia Series is the Lotte Giants of the KBO. They have won two KBO championships, but none since 1992. The team is one of the most popular teams in Korea, they had over 1,350,000 fans come to the 66 home games this year. 

The KBO's champion are the Samsung Lions. The Lions are returning to the Asia Series for the second straight year. Last year, they won the Korean Baseball "Triple Crown" by winning KBO regular season title, the Korea Series title, and the Asia Series title last year. 

The Giants celebrating winning the Japan Series title
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The winner of the NPB's playoff system, called the Climax Series, was the Yomiuri Giants. The Giants got a bye in the first round of the Central League's Climax Series. The next round had the Giants pitted against the Chunichi Dragons. Being the higher seed, the Giants get a one-win advantage in a first to four wins to win the series. That did not effect the Dragons as they won the first three games. The Giants  won the next three games to win the series and the Central League Climax Series Championship. In the Japan Series, the Giants beat the Pacific League champs Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters four games to two to win the title and the honor to represent the NPB in the Asia Series. Yomiuri has 22 Japan Championships and 34 Central League titles. 

The Lamigo Monkeys are representing CPBL in this year's tournament. Their last series appearance was in the Series in 2006, when they were the runner up's.

The CBL's representative is an All-Star team of league's best players. The team is called the China Stars. 

The ABL is sending the Perth Heat to the tournament, as they were the winners of their last season. However, the ABL's season for 2012, ended in February. 

Hung-Yu Lin of the Lamigo Monkeys
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The tournament has two groupings of three teams each. Pool A had the China Stars, the Lamigo Monkeys, and the Samsung Lions, while Pool B had the Lotte Giants, the Perth Heat, and the Yomiuri Giants. The first match of Pool A had the Monkeys against the China Stars. The Monkeys won 14-1. The next match was between Samsung and Lamigo. Lamigo took a one run lead in the fourth, and then another two in the seventh. Samsung couldn't equalize the score as Lamigo won 3-0. The win clinched first place in Pool A and a spot in the championship game. Samsung still had to face China in the last game. The Lions shutout the Stars 9-0. 

Pool B's first game was between the Lotte Giants and the Perth Heat. Lotte took the lead early and never gave it up, winning 6-1. The next match pitted the Heat against Yomiuri Giants. The game was all goose eggs through five innings. Both teams then scored one in the sixth. The Giants then broke the game open with three in the seventh and eighth. The Heat couldn't catch-up and the Giants won 7-1. The final match was the battle of the "Giants", Yomiuri and Lotte, for a trip to the championship game. Yomiuri struck first with one in the first inning. They never gave up the leave again, scoring one run in third, fourth, sixth, and ninth. They won 5-0. Yomiuri had six stolen bases during the game. The win set the finals as Lamigo vs. Yomiuri.

Lamigo had very clutch performers during the Series. DH Hung-Yu Lin was the star hitter for the Monkeys. He had two hits in both of the pool games, including three runs, one homer, and two RBIs. They also got a great pitching performance from  Michael Jonathan Loree Jr against Samsung. Loree Jr. threw a complete game shutout with only three hits and eleven strikeouts.

Yomuiri are also a very skilled team. OF Tetsuya Matsumoto had a great game vs. Perth. He had three hits, two RBIs, and a sacrifice. In pool play, SS Hayato Sakamoto had four hits, three RBIs, two runs. In the regular season, Sakamoto had 173 hits, a .311 batting average, .359 OBP, .456 slugging percentage, and 87 runs.

Hayoto Sakamoto
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The finals pitching match-up featured Paul Williams Phillips for Lamigo against Ryosuke Miyaguni for Yomiuri. No one had runners cross home in the first. In the top of the second, Yomiuri put up a four spot. The ran Phillips out of the game in that inning. The Monkeys got across a run in the fourth. The Giants greaten the lead by having a runner cross the plate once in the sixth and seventh inning. Miyaguni left the game after six innings, giving up only four hits and the one run. With the 6-1 lead in the ninth, the Giants brought in closer Kentaro Nishimura. Nishimura had 32 saves and 12 holds in 69 games the NPB regular season. The Monkeys were not dead though. They had two runners score in the inning before Nishimura got the third out. The Giants won the game 6-3.

Sakamoto won the Asia Series MVP Award. In the tournament, he had four hits, two runs, five RBIs, a .308 batting average, and five total bases. This is the fifth title for a NPB team in the Asia Series and the third time a team from the CPBL was the runner-up. All three times they lost to NPB teams. This is the Monkeys second time being runners-up. This is is the first Asia Series title for the storied Yomiuri Giants.

The 2012 New York Jets QB Election

The New York Jets have a bye week this weekend. The team is at a crossroads. Mark Sanchez  is the current quarterback, but is struggling. His backup is none other than Tim Tebow, who took a team that was 1-4 last year to the playoffs. There have been calls to have Sanchez removed from the position for Tebow. However, third stringer Greg McElroy could still be the best. All this comes during the presidential election, which is why I have deem the situation, the 2012 New York Jets QB Election.

Mark Sanchez
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Why Mark Sanchez Should Be The QB?

He has brought the team to two consecutive AFC Championship Games. In the playoffs he has beaten the Bengals, the Chargers, the Colts with Peyton Manning, and the arch-rival Patroits. He beat three of the best QB's at the time (Tom Brady, Manning, and Phillip Rivers). Tebow has not had the experience, in the playoffs and with the system than Sanchez.

Why Mark Sanchez Should Not Be The QB?

He has had his opportunity to succeed and win with this team. He has failed. The team lost to Miami. In the win vs Indy, he only threw for 82 yards. They were very lucky that the running game was on fire. He can't throw consistently to his receivers.

Tim Tebow
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Why Tim Tebow Should Be The QB?

TEBOWMANIA is back! He has lead teams left for dead to the playoffs and won in the playoffs against a top defense. His playoff win was against Pittsburgh, who beat Sanchez in the playoffs. Tebow is also a much better leader. Just listen to his speech "The Promise", which he gave at Flroida after a loss to Ole Miss.

Why Tim Tebow Should Not Be The QB?

In Denver, Tebow was effective with a heavy run system. The Jets don't have the running backs to be effective in that system. Shonn Green is very, very sketchy. Bilal Powell is just a rookie and might take long learning the new system. Joe McKnight might be the best fit, but he is not very good inside the tackles. They need an all-around HB to be effective. They don't have that. 

Greg McElroy
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Why Greg McElroy Should Be The QB?

What do you have to lose. Besides, he, like Tebow, has a BCS Championship win in his colligate career. In the preseason, he got the team's first touchdown of the preseason, a six yard TD pass to Terrence Ganaway. He led the team in completion percentage (69.8%), yards per attempt (6.0), and passer rating (99.7). I know the preseason doesn't mean much, but if he can perform like how he did in the preseason, McElroy would be an upgrade over both Sanchez and Tebow.

Why Greg McElroy Should Not Be The QB?

He has never played in a regular season game in the NFL. Why should he start now?

The Result

The decision of who will be the QB will be decided by Head Coach Rex Ryan, GM Mike Tannenbaum, Owner Woody Johnson, and probably a few other key front office personal. Unlike the Eagles, the Jets have been supportive of Sanchez. They have always said that Mark is their man. But, they can change that faster then a snap of the fingers. I would think that Tebow would be starting next week, if they had a better running game. In Denver, he had three very good running backs. He doesn't have any here. McElroy is like an independent in the election. In the race, but has a very little of winning. Sanchez looks like he will be the starter, but he is very lucky. If the Jets had a good running back, Sanchez would have the headset on while Tebow is out on the field.