Sports Articles

2010-04-28 | Jim Murphy

Following Inter Milan’s 3-1 victory over Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, many observers suggested that the tactical superiority of Internazionale’s manager Jose Mourinho over his Barcelona counterpart Pep Guardiola would be the difference in the series. That proved to be the case in the second leg, as Inter Milan neutralized Barcelona’s feared offensive attack despite playing a man down for much of the game. Barcelona won the contest 1-0, but Inter Milan advanced to the Champions League final by virtue of a 3-2 aggregate advantage. They’ll now face Bayern Munich on May 22 at Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.

2010-04-27 | Jim Murphy

Todd Pletcher may have lost his best chance for a Kentucky Derby victory with the unfortunate withdrawal of pre-race favorite Eskendereya due to injury, but he’s clearly trying to make the best of a bad situation. On Monday, Pletcher confirmed that he’ll enter filly Devil May Care in the Derby and not Friday’s Kentucky Oaks as originally planned. Jockey John Velazquez, who was originally slated to be aboard Eskendereya , will ride Devil May Care in the Derby.

2010-04-27 | Jim Murphy

With the field for this weekend’s big horse races beginning to take shape, oddsmakers are now in a position to start setting numbers for the public to bet. Now that Todd Pletcher’s filly Devil May Care has been confirmed for Saturday’s Derby, the early line favorite for Friday’s Kentucky Oaks will be Blind Luck. Churchill Downs linesmaker Mike Battaglia has set the price on Blind Luck at 6-5 for the 1 1/8 mile Kentucky Oaks which will be run for the 136th time this year.

2010-04-26 | Jim Murphy

While much of the attention heading into Kentucky Derby week has been focused on current favorite Eskendereya or the Bob Baffert trained Looking At Lucky, another possible winner may have caught the attention of horse racing enthusiasts. On Friday morning, Paddy O’ Prado turned in a sensational workout on a sloppy Churchill Downs track completing five furlongs in a sizzling 58.44 seconds. That represents the best time of 21 Derby hopefuls that have worked out at Churchill Downs in advance of ‘The Run For The Roses’.

2010-04-26 | Jim Murphy

Horse racing enthusiasts awoke Sunday morning to the shocking news that presumptive Kentucky Derby betting favorite Eskendereya was out of the race due to a leg injury. His withdrawal may open the door for several horses ‘on the bubble’ to compete, but much depends on what trainer Todd Pletcher decides to do in terms of a replacement in the field. Pletcher has run 24 horses in the Kentucky Derby without a win, and most equine experts considered Eskendereya his best chance of victory to date.

2010-04-26 | Jim Murphy

Chelsea’s seemingly insurmountable advantage atop the English Premier League table shrunk to a single point following last week’s loss to Tottenham Hotspur. After Saturday’s Manchester United victory over the same Tottenham team, the Blues were briefly in second place pending Sunday’s home contest against Stoke City. Chelsea responded in impressive fashion, clearly intending to make a statement as they ripped their opponents 7-0 to regain their spot atop the standings.

2010-04-20 | Jim Murphy

Barring some highly unusual circumstances, the Kentucky Derby favorite come post time will be the Todd Pletcher trained horse Eskendereya. Eskendereya vaulted to the top of the three year old class with a dominating performance in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct where he posted a Beyer Speed Figure of 109. Before Eskendereya’s ascendance to the top of the Derby field, most observers considered Looking At Lucky the horse to beat, and he’s still a very strong contender.

2010-04-19 | Jim Murphy

What looked for most of the game like a lost opportunity for Manchester United to keep pace with English Premier League leading Chelsea turned into an amazing victory as Paul Scholes scored near the end of stoppage time to break a scoreless deadlock and give his team a 1-0 victory over Manchester City. Combined with Chelsea’s loss to Tottenham Hotspur later in the day, the win pulled Manchester United to within a single point of the Premiership lead.

2010-04-19 | Jim Murphy

Inter Milan outplayed Juventus for most of their Serie A matchup on Saturday, dominating the shots on goal and time of possession tally but couldn’t get a goal until late in the contest. Ultimately, they’d score twice in the final twenty minutes of play to earn a 2-0 victory over a feisty Juventus team that played the entire second half with only ten men due to Mohamed Sissoko’s red card booking in the 37th minute. The win allowed Inter Milan to keep pace with Series A leading Roma, though they remain one point behind after this weekend’s action.

2010-04-19 | Jim Murphy

Chelsea entered the weekend seeming to be in complete control of the English Premier League title. They ended the weekend holding on to a precarious one point margin over a resurgent Manchester United team after they were dominated by host Tottenham Hotspur en route to a 2-1 loss. The result, combined with Manchester United’s last second win over Manchester City completely altered the dynamics of the Premiership championship battle.

2010-04-15 | Jim Murphy

The San Jose Sharks have a reputation for being a team that plays well in the regular season and struggles in the playoffs. Last year, for example, San Jose finished the regular season with the best record in the NHL only to be dumped from the playoffs in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks. Still, it’s hard not to feel sorry for the team after a tough game 1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. With the game tied 1-1 in the final minute of regulation, a centering pass by Colorado’s Chris Stewart took a bad bounce off of San Jose defenseman Rob Blake’s skate and into his own net giving the Avalanche a 2-1 victory.

2010-04-12 | Jim Murphy

Last week Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson challenged his team to win all of their remaining games to help bolster their chances at overtaking Chelsea for the English Premier League title. His quest got off to a poor start this weekend as Man U dominated play but was unable to score, coming away from their matchup against the Blackburn Rovers with a 0-0 draw.

2010-04-12 | Jim Murphy

While Manchester United, Chelsea and the other teams at the top of the English Premier League are competing for the championship, the teams at the bottom of the table are fighting for survival. The bottom three teams will be relegated to the Football Championship league, and with lowly Portsmouth already tabbed for demotion two more teams are trying to avoid the same fate. On Saturday, Burnley kept their hopes to avoid relegation alive with a 4-1 away rout of fellow cellar dwellers Hull City.

2010-04-12 | Jim Murphy

Liverpool has struggled to score goals for much of the Premier League season, and it was more of the same on Sunday. Despite an overwhelming time of possession and shots on goal advantage, Liverpool was unable to put a ball past Fulham goalie Mark Schwarzer and had to settle for a scoreless home draw. Liverpool played without their best scoring threat, striker Fernando Torres, who missed the game due to a knee injury.

2010-04-12 | Jim Murphy

The 136th annual Kentucky Derby is several weeks away, but most horse racing pundits are of the opinion that Wood Memorial winner Eskendereya will enter the Churchill Downs starting gate on May 1st as the favorite. There are a number of other solid horses expected to make ‘The Run For The Roses’, but none have been as impressive as Eskendereya in this spring’s Derby prep races. In fact, many of the races that typically produce Derby winners have produced upsets and unlikely winners this year further solidifying Eskendereya as the top choice of horse race betting enthusiasts.

2010-04-09 | Jim Murphy

Liverpool has struggled away from home all season, and for that reason there was little concern after the English Premier League team dropped the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal set in Portugal. Liverpool rewarded their supporters’ calm with a dominating home performance on Thursday as they ripped Benfica 4-1 to advance to the semifinals with a 5-3 aggregate margin. Liverpool will now face Spain’s Atletico Madrid for the right to advance to the finals.

2010-04-08 | Jim Murphy

The Toronto Raptors were ‘two time losers’ against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They lost the game 113-101 to the NBA’s best team. More significantly, they lost leading scorer Chris Bosh to a nasty facial fracture that required surgery. Bosh’s status for the rest of the remaining regular season schedule and the playoffs is unknown at this time, but the team is expected to update his condition and prognosis in the next 24 hours.

2010-04-05 | Jim Murphy

When Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney injured his ankle in last week’s Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, the entire British Commonwealth held their breath. He’s not only the defending English Premier League champions’ top offensive weapon but was expected to spearhead the attack of England’s World Cup team this summer. There was great relief when it was revealed to be only ‘ligament damage’ that would have Rooney out of the lineup for 3 to 6 weeks. This weekend, however, there was a shocking development—sources close to the team suggest that Rooney is ‘40% likely’ to return for Wednesday’s rematch with Bayern Munich.

2010-04-05 | Jim Murphy

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Manchester United. Off of a loss in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal matchup with Bayern Munich—in which they lost striker Wayne Rooney to injury—Man U has now lost the Premiership lead in a defeat to their arch rivals Chelsea. They were thoroughly outplayed by Chelsea in the first half of Saturday’s game, but it took a controversial Deider Drogba goal late in the game to provide the final 2-1 margin of victory.

2010-04-05 | Jim Murphy

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame will announce their new inductees on Monday, and among those receiving the sport’s top honor will be a couple of former NBA superstars and an influential owner. Utah Jazz great Karl Malone, the Chicago Bulls’ Scottie Pippen and Los Angeles Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss will be announced as three of the Hall of Fame’s newest members at a press conference in Indianapolis in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four.