Pirate Galaxy » moved in to finish the point with a forehan

YOKOHAMA, Japan -- Winning the Club World Cup could launch Real Madrid to a unique quadruple title haul.Madrid has a shot at becoming the first team to win the Champions League, Spanish league, Spains Copa del Rey, and the Club World Cup in the same season. It leads the Spanish league, is through to the knockout stage of the Champions League, and is alive in the Copa del Rey.The tournament kicks off on Thursday in Yokohama with newly crowned J-League champion Kashima Antlers facing Oceania champion Auckland City for a chance to advance to the second round.Madrid hasnt lost since April at Wolfsburg in the quarterfinals of last seasons Champions League. They return to the competition with 13 of the players who lifted the Club World Cup title in 2014, when they beat San Lorenzo in the final.Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, and Keylor Navas are all expected to participate, and the biggest absence will be Gareth Bale, who recently underwent ankle surgery.European teams have been the most successful in the tournament, with eight titles, although it is not considered as high on the priority list for European clubs as it is for the South American sides.Madrids main rival for the title will be Copa Libertadores champion Atletico Nacional, which will travel to Japan with a strong team but is dealing with the trauma of the recent airplane crash that caused the cancellation of the Copa Sudamericana final.Atletico was to play Brazilian club Chapecoense in the final but the plane carrying the Brazilian team to the game crashed, killing almost all on board.The Colombian club features goalkeeper Franco Armani, who did not concede a single goal during the group stage of the Copa Libertadores, as well as captain Alexis Henriquez and striker Miguel Borja.Atletico opens its campaign in the semifinals on Dec. 14 in Osaka. Real Madrids first match is the following day in Yokohama.In addition to Kashima and Auckland City, Mexican side Club America, South Koreas Jeonbuk Motors and African champions Mamelodi Sundowns are playing.Club America will be making its third appearance, and features 16 players with previous experience.Paul Aguilar is recovering from a cruciate ligament tear in his right knee, but Moises Munoz and Oribe Peralta will be available.Recently crowned Asian Champions League winner Jeonbuk Motors will pin their hopes on veteran striker Lee Dong-gook and the Brazilian duo of Leonardo and Edu.Kashima and Auckland City, which owes its place to a sixth straight Oceania Champions League triumph, will vie for a chance to play Mamelodi Sundowns in Osaka on Sunday.Glen Rice Heat Jersey .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. James Johnson Jersey . According to a report from the Winnipeg Free Press, the Bombers will name Acting GM Kyle Walters to the post full time. http://www.authenticbasketballshopheat.info/dwyane-wade-heat-jersey/ . Louis Blues teammates who would also be participating in the Olympics, Alex Pietrangelo felt right at home, no different in some ways to the travel experience of any old road trip – save for the length of the journey, that is. Shaquille ONeal Jersey . LOUIS -- Cardinals cleanup hitter Allen Craig says hes recovered from a foot injury and ready to be put on St. Alonzo Mourning Heat Jersey .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win.NEW YORK -- Venus Williams stood on the floor of Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday afternoon with a guttural roar rising all around her. The racket dangled loosely in her right hand alongside her thigh, a sheen of perspiration on her upturned face. She savored the approval of the crowd and took a moment to drink it all in, having just arrived at match point late in the third set of her fourth-round dispute with US Open No. 10 seed Karolina Pliskova.Across the net, Pliskova felt very lonely.But at least I have my serve, she remembered thinking. So at least something was on my side. I was just thinking, I have to go. I have to put everything into this point. And yeah, I made it.Dismissing the match point enabled Pliskova to hold serve for 5-all in the final set, and from there, she went on to win the 2-hour, 24-minute barnburner 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3).The match will be remembered by many spectators as a heartbreaker and the long moment when a courageous, boundary-shattering, exemplary woman and uber-athlete of 36 was denied a thoroughly deserved win. It will seem to some that justice, even if only the poetic variety, was not served.But looking at it that way is the real injustice, and Williams would be the first to tell you that. She had a wonderful time. She acquitted herself beautifully in her own eyes. The love showered upon her by the crowd was inspirational. She said, It was a high-, high-quality match. Its such an amazing feeling. I enjoyed every single moment of that.Pliskova arrived in New York with a hot hand, having logged back-to-back wins over No. 3 Garbine Muguruza and No. 2 Angelique Kerber in winning Cincinnati. But she was carrying some heavy baggage too, in the form of a growing reputation as a Grand Slam underachiever. Ranked No. 11 (and as high as No. 7 in the past), Pliskova was the only member of the top 20 who had not been as far as the fourth round at a major. Her record at Grand Slams before the Williams match: 16-17.The first two women Pliskova had beaten had an average ranking of No. 217. Williams had two US Open titles and a 74-14 record at Flushing Meadows. Speculating on what she might do to Pliskova in the cauldron of Ashe was an ugly enterprise.But one counterintuitive factor escaped everyones attention: In many of the ways that count, the 36-year-old Williams and the 24-year-old from the Czech Republic are mirror images. It was suggested in their previous meeting. They played in Zhuhai, where Williams won in just more than two grueling hours 7-5, 7-6 (6).Like Williams, Pliskova is a lean 6-foot-1. The engine driving her game is a big serve. (They cracked eight aces apiece in Mondays match.) Pliskova leads the WTA Tour in aces. Williams and Pliskova both whale on the ball off the ground, looking to force the action, open the court and create an opportunity to move forward.dddddddddddd Each of them is a glutton for pace, giving and taking it with gusto. Williams might be the greater athlete, but age is a great leveler.The similarity between the women also might explain why the match was played in such an air of poise and dignity. Both women wore their hair pulled back and out of the way. They wore understated tennis dresses. Neither of them indulged in fist-pumping or emotional outbursts, even in the most pumped-up or emotional moments.The factors holding Pliskova back have been largely mental; the one quality she doesnt share with Williams is that basic champions cocktail of will, talent and confidence. But she might be getting there. The win Monday certainly shatters memories of numerous Grand Slam embarrassments from the past.Yeah, I hope they will stop [talking about my Grand Slam failures], Pliskova said. Even if they will discuss in the future, I dont care.Its a reasonable stance, given how this match played out. Pliskova started slowly. She spotted Williams the first set after falling behind 3-0. It looked like a blowout might be in the works when Williams went ahead 3-1 in the second set, but Pliskova broke right back, and from that point, it was game on. Her own serve improved, and Williams began making errors off the ground.Still, Williams reached match point at 4-5, 30-40 in the third set. While the crowd roared, Pliskova held counsel with her serve and then decided to go to the forehand. She tagged a good one. Williams belted it back. Pliskova hammered out a sharp reply and moved in to finish the point with a forehand volley.The threat was neutralized, and Williams was never again in position to win. But she had no regrets about how the match point played out.She had a great serve. She hit another great shot, and I still played a great defensive shot, Williams said. I did the best I could on that. Whenever you have a match point on someone elses serve, its a little bit of an asterisk. I really have no regrets on that.Indeed, Williams had no reason to regret anything -- not on this day, not in this tournament and perhaps not in her career. That career, incidentally, is still a work in progress. Williams said so, and Pliskova endorsed her desire to continue.I still have the feeling she can play for so many years because shes moving so well, Pliskova said. I remember her. I was [a] little girl watching her, obviously Serena, on TV. They are still playing. They are still playing the best tennis ever. Its amazing. ' ' '