Raptors Advance to Conference Finals

     If you haven't heard, the Toronto Raptors advanced to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history after defeating the Miami Heat in a 7 game series . On Sunday afternoon the Raptors defeated Miami 116-89 with key players like Lowry finally showing up dropping a game high 35 points. The difference in game 7 was that everything was clicking. Especially in game 6 Raptors offence was clicking but their defence lacked which is why they lost the game. Key defensive players like Demare Carroll and Bismack Biyombo all played a key part in the Raptors defence not letting Dragic get to the paint and keeping Dragic and Wade off the three point line. Throughout the whole second round series it was evident that when key players Derozan and Lowry show up then their chances of winning are much higher.


  
     Although Cleveland finished higher In the Eastern Conference standings in the regular season I think that the matchup will be very close. Lebron is very clutch when it comes to playoffs, he doesn't like losing. Toronto Raptors took the season series 2-1 and Cleveland finished first by just one more win. In this series I believe that the most important game will be game 2. The Toronto Raptors have bounced back every time they lost picking up a win right after throughout the whole postseason. If the Raptors can bounce back and win game 2 then they will have a good chance to do good in the whole series.


 
   Although the raptors lost yesterday by 30 people of Toronto are not worried. In the first game of the western conference semi finals, San Antonio beat Oklahoma City 126-92 and despite the huge game 1 win. Despite losing by a large margin, Oklahoma didn't take the loss to heart and they bounced back in the next game and eventually won the series 4-3 .Being called the other motivates the players to do better and win games and they can use that as a boost to help them win games. in the end I think that if the raptors can have key players work and have their defence working then they could come out with the win in the end but it all starts with the most important.

Leicester City's Dream Season

If you haven't heard already, Leicester City have done the impossible and won the English Premier League title. They have defeated all odds and beat out all the competition and won the Premier league title. On the weekend, Leicester City tied Manchester United 1-1 leaving Chelsea to either defeat or tie Tottenham on Monday night. Chelsea down 2-0, scored a header in the second half. Then, in the 83rd minute, the unthinkable happened, Eden Hazard, having one of the worst seasons of his career curls in an amazing strike in the upper 90 to equalize the match. Nearing the end of the game, it was evident that Chelsea did not want Tottenham to have a chance at the title considering that they were shielding the ball in the corner to waste time.



Many people don't realize that this is known as one of the greatest sports stories in all of sports history. At the beginning of the season, Leicester had 5000 to 1 odds of winning the title. These odds had the same chance of coming true as Kim Kardashian becoming president of the United States in 2020, Barack Obama starting for the English National Cricket team and most ridiculous of them all, Leicester City had the same odds of winning the English Premiership as someone spotting Elvis Presley alive.



In all honesty, almost nobody believed that Leicester would win the title and that is why I believe that this is one of the best sports stories of all time. Considering Leicester was in the relegation battle last year and everybody counted them out makes the Cinderella story that much better. Everybody was talking about all the big clubs but this just proves even more that no matter what, hard work beats talent.

Who will win the Stanley Cup ?

        
      
        The Dallas Stars in recent years have had much success in the regular season but unfortunately couldn't translate their success to the playoffs. They had success in the first round defeating the Minnesota Wild in six games. The Dallas Stars had their big guns show up in the series and when they came to play they were unstoppable. With center Tyler Seguin, second on the Stars with 73 points this season, sidelined for all but Game 2, others had to step up and they did. Captain Jamie Benn, who led Dallas with eighty-nine points this season, led the way with ten points in the series. The Stars also got big production from second-line center Jason Spezza who had nine points in the series, grinder Patrick Eaves with 5 points and playoff veteran Patrick Sharp with four points. "Well, our big guys came to play," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said after Game 6. Secondly, Dallas' defence was solid throughout the whole first round conceding only 17 goals in the first round which is an average of 2.83 goals per game. Lastly, the Stars know that home or away they can get the job done. In the first round series, they got the win at home twice as well as winning on the road twice which proves that being on the road isn't a problem for them.

    
         In the second round, The stars come up against the St. Louis Blues. In the regular season the season series was 1 Overtime win for Dallas, 1 regulation time loss for Dallas and 3 Overtime losses for Dallas. Although St. Louis took the season series I still think that Dallas will have the advantage leading into the playoffs. St. Louis will go into the series confident, knowing that they won the season series, but this will drive Dallas to come out stronger and win the crucial games. I believe that if key players like Benn and Seguin perform in the series, then Dallas will have no problem moving on to the conference finals. If Dallas' defence can shut down Tarasenko, the Blues key player, then St. Louis will have to rely on other players to step up and if those players don't show up then it is clearly evident that Dallas will take the series and move on to the conference finals. \


  
       In my opinion, I believe that Dallas will win the cup because they have the edge on everyone in the western conference considering that they finished first and also because of their good record against the four playoff contenders in the Eastern conference and they also have good records against Anaheim, Nashville and San Jose in the regular season. Therefore I believe that Dallas' toughest task will be their current series with the St. Louis Blues. If they can defeat the Blues, I think that they have the upper edge on all the teams remaining in the Finals and the Conference finals. If they can overcome the Blues, I believe that if Seguin stays healthy throughout the remainder of the playoffs and Benn and Sharp are solid then there is no reason why Dallas should not win Lord Stanley.

Maradona's Problems

                                                              Maradona's Real Potential    


     Arguably the most famous non-performance enhancing drug case in sports due to soccer’s worldwide appeal. Despite his drug problems, Maradona is still regarded by many as the greatest soccer player of all time. Most experts would choose either Maradona or Pelé. Maradona played for various clubs in his career, including Boca Juniors, FC Barcelona, Sevilla, and SSC Napoli. He also represented Argentina in a number of international games, including leading Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup. He also captured the Golden Ball award as the tournament’s best player.
Still, despite his considered success, Maradona has had several drug problems. A long running addiction to cocaine affected his play starting in the late 1980s, eventually leading to a fifteen month suspension in 1991 for testing positive for the drug. It also led to him changing teams.


     At the 1994 World Cup, he was sent home after failing drug tests, reportedly for ephedrine. And he would retire in 1997 at age of 37 after failing yet another drug test. In 2000 he collapsed of heart problems, and collapsed again in 2004 before kicking his cocaine habit. All told, Maradona was a fabulous player, but one who could have been even better without the drug issues.  His international success helps obscure some failures at the club level. Nearly half his career was affected by drug use, and for a player that fantastic, any time he wasn’t 100% was a shame for soccer and its fans.
 


  
  At the end of the day, Maradona had a good career but everyone knows that if he would've kept the drugs out of his professional career, then he could've exceeded expectations of everyone and probably been better than his rival during the time Brazilian legend Pele.

McGregror vs Diaz Fight

      UFC 196 had a clash of two huge fighters go head to head. Bantamweight champion Conor McGregor go up against welterweight giant Nate Diaz. There was a lot of speculation and " trash talking going on before the fight between the two which was no surprise because in reality that is just their personalities. Diaz did defeated McGregor in the second round via submission. So what are some of the factors that caused McGregor to lose his footing and come up short of defeating the welterweight Nate Diaz.

      We are now days past UFC 196 and Bantamweight champion Conor McGregor was defeated by Nate Diaz. Some people believe that Conor did this to himself and he made himself his worst enemy. He talked a lot of smack and thought it would be a good idea to go fight two weight classes up to prove to everyone that he is just as good as it seems and by defeating Nate Diaz he wanted to prove it was a fluke. For much of the beginning of the fight McGregor capitalized on his punches and he landed a lot of good strikes. Most UFC fans know that McGregor isn't as affective on the ground as he is on his feet and Nate Diaz took advantage of that. He got McGregor on the ground and used his size to his advantage. He got him in a chokehold and made him tap out.

        In some ways people believe that McGregor made a smart decision by fighting Diaz as if he won, his confidence would remain high and he would gain pride considering that he defeated someone two weight classes above him. But if he lost which he did, although he couldn't put pen to paper or in other words back up all the crap talking he would still remain the Bantamweight champion and he could use the loss as a motivator to remind him that he is still the champion of his class. Other people think that McGregor deciding to fight two weight classes up was a stupid decision because eventually it would come back to bite him. In reality many people believe that if some things were changed in regards to the build up of the fight then all the speculation and talk after the fight would've also been different. If McGregor decided to keep his mouth shut and decide to not talk all that smack before the fight and not back it up in the ring then people wouldn't be questioning his abilities like they are now. People are now saying that McGregor shouldn't talk before the fights and let his actions in the ring do the talking.

   In my opinion I believe that Conor McGregor should just keep doing what he is doing because it is clearly working. This loss to Diaz was his only loss in the UFC and in my opinion I think one of the only reasons is because of the weight difference. I think that Conor McGregor is an amazing athlete and he should continue fighting but stay in his division. He should not let this loss drag him down because at the end of the day he is still the Bantamweight champion.

Anderson Silva vs Michael Bisping Contoversy

          


         This past Saturday March 27th at UFC Fight Night 84 Anderson Silva went up against Michael Bisping in his second encounter from returning from injury. This particular match was very significant for Anderson Silva as a win could potentially get him back in the title race with a couple more wins ahead of this one. Unfortunately that wasn't the case on Saturday night.

 
     Anderson Silva had Bisping pinned up against the cage in the Muay Thai clinch and then he gave him a couple punches to the face. After Bisping was pinned up against the cage he pointed at the floor trying to let the referee know that his mouth guard fell out. Silva caught Bisping when he was pointing to the ground and caught him with a flying knee, knocking him to the ground. After the fight at a post match conference Bisping stated that all of this happened and it was the referees fault. Herb Dean responded that he thinks that Bisping doesn't know the rules as "That’s the way the mechanic works, is that you replace the mouthpiece during a lull in the action. And [Bisping] signaled once, and Anderson was actually in the process of attacking him," he explained. For a lot of reasons that are pretty evident you can’t stop to replace the mouthpiece during a heated exchange, and that qualified as a heated exchange


     As a result of these actions I believe that Anderson Silva has proved himself and he deserves a rematch. Bisping won the fight by decision and if they didn't go the full 5 rounds I think that Anderson Silva should be rewarded with the win because he did knock out Bisping . Although Bispings mouth guard was out, I believe that Michael was ignorant and didn't know the rules of his own sport which state that the play continues until the heat dies down and since they were fighting and they were in a heated moment, I believe that Anderson Silva should have been granted with the victory.


        

MLS Season Preview

 Out with the old and in with the new, in less than two weeks a new MLS season will be among us and this season shows a lot of promise to be one of the best. With many teams bringing in new talent they are several teams that could be up for title contention.


  In the Eastern Conference there are many teams that could potentially go far and also some teams that don't stand a chance. First lets start off with Chicago Fire. A team that shows very little promise but has a lot of young talent. If their young guns can show up and get in to good form I think that they can make it into the playoffs by narrow margins. Next up, Columbus Crew. Last years finalists, in my opinion can live up to their great run last year and I think are a huge contender to win the title, I believe they will comfortably make the playoffs and also go far in the playoffs. After them we have DC United. I think that this team will make the playoffs and fall short just like they have done every year for the past 3 years. Montreal Impact, the surprise of the season last year falling short of the Finals by just one away goal. I think that Montreal will use last season as motivation and try to make it far. They will comfortably make the playoffs. Next team we have to offer is New York City FC. I think that if David Villa and Andrea Pirlo stay healthy, then NYCFC can go far and make a playoff push. New York Red Bulls is a team that doesn't have that many big names and I think that they surprise a few and I believe that they will comfortably make the playoffs just like they do most years. Orlando City FC the new club that beat top teams but couldn't get the job done against the bottom half of the table last year. Although they have Brazilian star Kaka I cant see them making the playoffs with such little depth to their squad. Philadelphia Union, a team that finished in last place last season and have acquired nobody in the offseason to help boost them to a position. I predict that like last year they will finish last again. Last but not least we have dark horses Toronto FC. Although TFC disappointed many in the playoffs last year I think this year Giovinco will be striving to beat the records he held last year and along side with Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore I can see success in this squad especially if they can keep their defense solid.


  Now lets move on to the Western Conference, Western conference has been dominating for a couple years now having won the championship in the past two years many teams show great promise while others in the conference might be fighting to stay out of last place. Firstly lets start off with the Colorado Rapids a team that hasn't been in the playoffs for a couple of years now and considering they don't have a lot of money to buy players I believe that they will be e a team competing to stay out of the bottom. Next up we have got FC Dallas a powerhouse of a team that fell short of the finals last year, I believe that they will go deep into the playoffs and make it comfortably.

   In my opinion I think that the finals will be between Toronto FC and LA Galaxy. with the new addidtions of European talents Nigel De Jong and Ashley Cole I think LA Galaxy will win the playoffs 2-0. In my opinion the Galaxy have too good of a team to not win.