The Chiba Lotte Marines (71-66-6) have come from a third-place regular-season finish in the Pacific League to the championship finals, while the Yomiuri Giants (77-59-7) were the Central League pennant winners. Will the most storied club in Japanese baseball history add yet another title to their long list of laurels, or will the suddenly hot upstarts taste champagne for the first time in nearly fifteen years?
Showing posts with label 2024. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2024. Show all posts
2024 NPB Pacific League Climax Series, Final Stage
The Chiba Lotte Marines (71-66-6) held the Fighters to just two runs in their First Stage two-game sweep, but now they must stare down the barrel of Nippon Professional Baseball's best offense - the regular-season Pacific League champion Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (91-49-3) scored more than a half-run per game more than the second-highest scoring team in the league. The Hawks, the first team to win 90 games in Japan's top league since the 2017 edition of the franchise, will be very heavily favored to return to the Japan Series for the first time since winning the last of their four straight NPB titles in 2020 . . .
2024 NPB Central League Climax Series, Final Stage
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars (71-69-3) look to turn their quick dispatch of the Hanshin Tigers in the First Stage into the momentum which they will need to overcome both the pennant-winning Yomiuri Giants (77-59-7) and the traditional Final Stage handicap - all series games to be played at the Tokyo Dome, and needing to win four times in six games against the Giants to advance to the Japan Series as the representative of the Central League.
2024 NPB Pacific League Climax Series, First Stage
Other than a late-season surge that saw the second- and third-place teams swap positions, there had not been much drama in the 2024 Pacific League pennant race - the Hawks went essentially wire-to-wire to run away from the PL pack, and the top three had been more or less decided by the 100-game mark. With the daunting task of upending the Hawks as a "reward", the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Tigers (75-60-8) and the Chiba Lotte Marines (71-66-6) meet as ES CON Field in Hokkaido. The Fighters will enter the Series as heavy favorites, with both home-field advantage and an 18-6 record of regular-season dominance over the Marines . . .
2024 NPB Central League Climax Series, First Stage
The runners-up in a fairly competitive Central League pennant race meet in the first-round of the postseason, looking to earn the right to move on and face the pennant-winning Yomiuri Giants in the Final Stage. The Hanshin Tigers (74-63-6) and the Yokohama DeNA BayStars (71-69-3) essentially split their regular-season series, with Hanshin winning thirteen of the twenty-four meetings, but now the season was on the line in a three-game series to be played at historic Koshien Stadium just west of Osaka.
2024 CFL: Calgary at Edmonton
Edmonton's defense disintegrated in the final quarter, allowing Calgary to rack up 160 yards and two majors in their first two possessions, as the Stampeders pulled away to win 32-10 at Commonwealth Stadium. The Stamps struck first when Jake Maier capped an eight-play drive on their first possession with a five-yard strike to Marken Michel, and René Paredes added a 45 FG the next time they had the ball. Calgary's third possession ended in a score as well, as they ground out an 11-play, 53-yard drive that was finished off when Matthew Shiltz snuck the ball in from the 1 on the second attempt. It looked like an early blowout for the Elks at home, but they got on the board late in the first half when McLeod Bethel-Thompson hit Eugene Lewis with a 23-yard touchdown pass; CAL added another point on a Cody Grace single before the halftime break.
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 13a giornata
25 November 2023: Fiorentina, now firmly established as a top-half club in Serie A, come to Milan looking for a signature win while the rossoneri would simply settle for putting two wins back-to-back. It won't be a first-choice side for Milan, with both Leao and Giroud missing from the attack, so where will the goals come from? Pulisic, Reijnders and Chukwueze will be expected to make up the slack . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 12a giornata
11 November 2023: Getting away from the jeers that saw them off the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza last weekend may be a blessing in disguise. While away successes are always hard-won in Serie A, a trip to Puglia to face Lecce (who just avoided banishment back to Serie B in their first year back in the top flight last season) might provide Milan a chance to both reset and accumulate some points . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 11a giornata
4 November 2023: A poor showing in Naples last week, and now what seems to be an annual banana skin as Udinese come calling at the San Siro. Milan have only won one of the last five meetings between the clubs, and they aren't exactly firing on all cylinders at the moment . . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 10a giornata
29 October 2023: Looking to carry the momentum from last weekend's domination of Juventus on the trip south to the Stadio Diego Maradona, where the reigning scudetto holders await . . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 9a giornata
22 October 2023: Perhaps the goals have started to flow, after the big victory in Genoa before the break, but the Juventus defense will provide a stiff test in front of the home crowd at the San Siro today . . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 8a giornata
7 October 2023: Coming off of two consecutive punchless draws, what will it take to get the Milan attack into first gear, let alone up to full speed? This week it's a short two-hour trip to Liguria and the Luigi Ferraris to take on Genoa, where the visitors will be desperate for points to prop up their already-fading title hopes . . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 7a giornata
30 September 2023: Up and down performances like a yo-yo as of late but coming home to the Giuseppe Meazza, where the club has won its first two matches without conceding, should help. Lazio will be in town as Milan look to get some sort of positive streak going . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 6a giornata
27 September 2023: Cagliari are back into the top flight of Italian football, so the annual trip across the Ligurian Sea to Sardinia beckons . . . Milan will be looking to build upon their demolition of Verona (despite some squad rotations, as Leao and Giroud are missing from the attack) while the rossoblu will be looking to capture precious points as they seek to stabilize their Serie A existence.
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 5a giornata
23 September 2023: Two losses, and two horrific performances on the trot. The calcio media are beside themselves, and the questions about team management that surfaced during the limp defense of the scudetto are back on the front burner - can Milan (2-0-2) make it all better, or at least relieve the pressure and get back onto the front foot, by taking those frustrations out on Hellas Verona at the San Siro? Pioli makes a tactical change, pushing a body up into the midfield to try to improve upon the lack of possession and service that led to a grand total of two shots on goal over the past two matches . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 4a giornata
16 September 2023: After a right old thumping in Rome the last time out, how will Milan (2-0-1) respond? Will the two-week break give them a chance to lick their wounds and reset, or will the ultimate test of an "away" derby against champions Inter prove to be too much? Despite European play starting in a few days, there is only one change to the squad this week as Pioli already feels the pressure to keep pace in the league . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 3a giornata
1 September 2023: A visit to the capital city presents an early test for Milan (2-0-0) after a pair of less-than-convincing wins - how will their new look play in the Olimpico against the upper echelon of Serie A? No changes for the rossoneri as Stefano Pioli looks to establish some early-season continuity . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 2a giornata
26 August 2023: Season debut at the San Siro, as Torino come calling at the Giuseppe Meazza. No changes for Milan (1-0-0) after the rousing comeback win in Bologna . . .
AC Milan 2023/24 replay - 1a giornata
21 August 2023: The 2023/24 Serie A campaign dawned with Milan looking to quickly turn the page on a 2022/23 season that resulted in a disappointing 4th-place finish which felt a million kilometers distant from both the top of the league (20 points behind Napoli) and the previous season's scudetto. Could Stefano Pioli recapture the magic of that 19th Italian championship without the presence of club talismani Paolo Maldini and Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Would a complete revamping of the side's engine room through the transfer signings of the Americans Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah, Dutchman Tijjani Reijnders and Englishman Ruben Loftus-Cheek revitalize an attack that had suffered from a post-scudetto slump?
Serie A exhibition - 2023-24 Milan-Lecce
For my first game of Inside The Net Soccer, I took a trip to the San Siro to replay (using as-played lineups, cards & dice) the 6 April 2024 match between the Rossoneri and Lecce. In real life, Milan won 3:0 behind goals from Christian Pulisic, Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao. On the tabletop, Milan won 3:0 on the strength of Giroud's hat trick - he pounced on the ball during a goalmouth scramble to poke it home at 33', took a beautiful through ball from Hernandez and slotted it past Wladimiro Falcone at 39', and tucked away Hernandez's cross at 53'. While Lecce created some chances, they struggled to get the ball out of their own half and through Milan's five-man midfield for long stretches. I only kept the basic stats, but they are a near-perfect match for the numbers from the real-life match (in parens below). After about the first 15' of game time, I started to get the hang of it and played the second half in something around 30-45 minutes, which is really promising for a first go-round, and found it to be a really fun and engaging simulation of football.
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