Well, the latest on the Football Women's World Cup as here are the results of the quarterfinals that just come in:
Spain 2 - 1 Netherlands
Japan 1 - 2 Sweden
Australia 0 (7) - 0 (6) France
& England 2 - 1 Colombia
And finally here are the confirmed matches being played in the semi finals in this years Football Women's World Cup tournament:
Spain Vs Sweden
& Australia Vs England
And in motor racing related news in Indycar such as Scott Dixon has claimed his 54th win of his American open wheel racing career after dominating at the Indianapolis road course (He held off his nearest rival of American driver Graham Rahal (Who hasn't won in Indycar since 2017) in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team during that race as Dixon has moved up to 2nd in the championship in his quest of capturing his record tying 7th American open wheel racing title along with the great AJ Foyt behind his Spanish teammate of Palou while Newgarden (Who had a disappointing race for Team Penske in the Gallagher Grand Prix of Indianapolis event) is dropped to 3rd behind Dixon) as part of its Indycar/NASCAR double-header but he is already out of championship contention as Scott McLaughlin's Penske teammate & twice Indycar champion Josef Newgarden (Who is the most recent Indy 500 winner this year) is all over Dixon's Chip Ganassi Racing teammate of 2021 champion of Spain's Alex Palou (Who is currently the points leader) in terms of the championship but there are rumors about New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen heading over to America next year of competing in NASCAR despite his intentions of remaining in Australia to compete in the Supercars Championship (In which he has struggled to adapt with Gen 3 although Erebus Motorsport & their driver of Australian Brodie Kostecki are currently the top team & driver excelling in that era).
And news related to the rugby such as the world champion Springboks side have announced their 2023 Rugby World Cup squad as they brought 21 survivors from their winning campaign in 2019 (Compared to the All Blacks who brought on 7 survivors from our success in 2015 such as current captain Sam Cane, Beauden Barrett, Dane Coles, Brodie Retallick, Aaron Smith, Codie Taylor & Sam Whitelock) such as captain Siya Kolisi as well as Damian de Allende, Faf de Klerk (One of 4 halfbacks in the squad along with Jaden Hendrikse, Reinach & Grant Williams but why have they chosen to take 4 halfbacks on the plane to France? So that de Klerk can cover at first five while Williams could cover on the wing position & there was an interesting selection of Deon Fourie who used to play at hooker, is now playing in the loose forward position to compensate the 2 hookers being picked by coach Jacques Nienaber such as Marx (A hooker who can cover the loose forward position) & Mbonambi), Pieter-Steph du Toit (The 2019 World Rugby player of the year who is the main star attraction of the Springbok team), Eben Etzebeth, Steven Kitshoff, Vincent Koch, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Willie le Roux, Frans Malherbe, Makazole Mapimpi, Malcolm Marx, Bongi Mbonambi, Franco Mostert, Trevor Nyakane, Cobus Reinach, Kwagga Smith, RG Snyman, Duane Vermeulen & Damian Willemse but they didn't include Handre Pollard as he misses the tournament through injury along with England's Jack van Poortvliet (Who will miss the tournament altogether along with New Zealand's Sevu Reece, George Bower & Braydon Ennor, Ken Owens of Wales, Lukhanyo Am of South Africa & France's Romain Ntamack now have joined the casualty ward along with Paul Willemse (Who is ruled out of the World Cup altogether with a bad injury so Bastien Chalureau who was originally not in the squad, gets the call up by French coach Fabien Galthie) now, but Ntamack will be sorely missed after that in which they made New Zealand as the clear but slight favourites to win the tournament following Ntamack's injury) after their win against Wales (In which England where down to 12 players from that point) therefore they bounced back from defeat in Cardiff (Alex Mitchell has been called into the squad immediately as an injury replacement, for van Poortvliet, followed by Jonny May who replaced the unfortunate Anthony Watson who will miss the tournament through injury), while coach Eddie Jones has revealed Australia's World Cup squad by naming both Tate McDermott & Will Skelton (Who is in fact an skipper desperately light on experience) as their co-captains instead of James Slipper, but they have included the man known as 'The Tongan Thor' of Taniela Tupou (Who got injured in the ill-fated Rugby Championship decider in Melbourne & has not played since but they didn't include Allan Ala'alatoa through a serious injury sustained in Bledisloe I) as well as a surprise selection of young 19-year old winger Max Jorgensen into the squad (And there is no Quade Cooper in the World Cup squad, but they have chosen both young Carter Gordon & Ben Donaldson who can cover at fullback as their first fives while the Wallabies had to fire their assistant coach prior to the tournament, & they had to bring that one in as his replacement).
And something terrible has occurred at the island of Maui in the American state of Hawaii as wildfires burst through killing 106 people in the process in this terrible & shocking event according to the news conference as being said by the Hawaii governor so all thoughts, prayers & condolences go to the family of the victims during that sad & difficult time in which they made the deadliest wildfires had happened in America since 1918.
And finally in cricket that I have revealed my favourite men's Cricket World Cup memory is in fact 2015 where the New Zealand Black Caps played against South Africa (Well to start with that in 2015 that both sides of NZ & SA have never reached the final before with New Zealand fell at the last hurdle against eventual champions Pakistan led by that great player of Imran Khan in 1992 after the late NZ captain Martin 'Marty' Crowe got injured during the match by pulling a hamstring & also South Africa missed out on a place in the final in the same year as England denied them a chance due to the wet weather conditions that ruined them at the SCG in Sydney according to my previous blogs) in the semifinal at the garden of Eden of Eden Park in Auckland where we won the match with South African born player playing for the Black Caps of Grant 'The Hairy Javelin' Elliott hitting the winning six with 2 deliveries remaining just like Kane Williamson did against Australia at the same ground where he hit a six down the ground to win the match, to advance to our 1st ever men's CWC final in history (In which we fell short against the dominant Australia side including New Zealand captain at the time of Brendon McCullum got bowled by an incredible bowler of Australia's Mitchell Starc earlier in the match in which we continued to lose wickets which resulted in defeat), & it was better than 2019 that New Zealand had booked a place in appearing in another final (In which we should've won against the hosts at the time of England (Who had to win their 1st men's Cricket World Cup title by virtue of the most boundaries being scored which resulted heartbreak for New Zealand after Guptill got run out by England's Jos Buttler off a brilliant throw from his English teammate of Jason Roy, 2 years before we redeemed ourselves by winning the inaugural World Test Championship against India in the final in Southampton, England, which was during the COVID-19 age period) in one of the greatest finals in sports history) after our win in the semi against India (Including Martin 'Guppy' Guptill's run out on 'Captain Cool' Mahendra Singh 'MS' Dhoni in which was deemed to be a no ball for an illegal field that went unnoticed by the umpires was in fact, the memorable but defining moment of the game).
So that is my 514th blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 38th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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