Niagara Falls, NY: Happy Monday, It’s the first Monday in September, which makes it Labor Day weekend. I guess we can thank the unions and the three-day labor rights movement for that holiday. On the sports front, I will be talking about the Mets, the FIBA Women’s World Cup, and the NWSL. Should I maybe touch on college football because it was a crazy weekend? No, I’m not going to—we got people who actually watch college football, and I’m not one of them. I will keep the focus on women’s sports.
NY Mets Week in Review
You know, the Mets had a good week this past week as they won most of their games—they went 3-1. And it dawned on me, though, that they might have only had a three- or four-game win streak all season. Once again, they won the first game, lost the second, won the third, lost the fourth—against both Tampa Bay and the Giants.
I mean, it looks like the Mets are finally starting to figure out their batting order, although I would like to see some slight tweaks. It seems the wins are coming somewhat better. Can we see a five- or six-game win streak? I don’t know. With this team, there’s just not enough consistency from the good thing or the batters. When they lose again, it’s usually because they left like 8 runners on base.
So apparently, the WNBA took a late-season break to compete in the Women’s World Cup. The USA has won the last four World Cups and has a 32-game winning streak. In group play, everybody thought the US would get a strong test from one of the teams, but they guessed the wrong team. A lot of people expected China to be a problem—they have a very large front court—but the USA was able to play an up-and-down tempo, and Angel Reese, who is becoming a big star in the tournament with her ability to play defense and rebound, helped lead the US to an impressive victory.
But Reese was really needed in the next game against Italy, which was a shocking win for the US. It was a narrow 3-2-1 victory, and the US’s ever-present defense in the tournament helped secure the win. Reese came in and played really good lockdown basketball, helping the US on the defensive end and contributing with eight points on the offensive end to help secure the victory.
In other matches, the biggest news has been the upset of Spain by Mali. Mali, who only made their first appearance in the last World Cup and is still emerging as a presence in Africa (although their men’s team seems a bit more known), came out of nowhere to beat Spain, who are a European powerhouse. It’s been one of the best news stories in sports if you weren’t paying attention.
NWSL
Balancing some winning in Sports Illustrated Stadium appears to be the women of Gotham. That’s a soccer joke because the men’s team (New York Red Bulls) also called that stadium home. Anyway, the women of Gotham are right where they belong as defending champions. They are on top of the league with 45 points, 2 points ahead of the Washington Spirit. With 7 games to go, we’re going to see what they can do to see if they can hold on and if they’ll be able to continue a playoff push and become two-time champs.
I don’t expect the Spirit to go away anytime soon, and I expect the two teams to actually meet in the final unless North Carolina or one of the teams out west starts making a strong run.
Come back tomorrow for The Big Aristotle.
