US Men's Soccer vs Argentina AND other US PLayers & Teams

Well we are getting close to the final days.... The Men played a grueling game yesterday with lots of red cards and yellow cards and being beat up by Argentina. To say the least the refing left little to be desired. I keep asking myself WHY??? I thought the refs where out there to make sure that players play fair and stay safe. There was not the watching out for the player at this game. Our players were just beaten up right and left. DJ was taken off the field after being knocked out in mid air. He was taken to the hospital and found to have a concussion. He is doing fine now --- but it was just brutal..... As usual here is the article written by the writer Martin Dale-Hench with http://www.usdeaflympics.org/ .

Argentina elbows U.S. in men's soccer, 2-0

by Martin Dale-Hench on September 12, 2009

And then there were none. Then eight.
The bizarre second half of the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team’s 2-0 loss to Argentina saw the referee hand out nine cards, six of them to the U.S. men’s team, enough to eject three players, and the Americans refusing to play before retaking their positions.
“This was the most appalling game I have ever been involved in 50 years in football,” head coach Ken McDonald said.
McDonald was vocal in his disagreement with the referee’s decisions, pulling his entire team off the field in a refusal to continue the game after the referee gave striker Kenneth Noll his second yellow card with eight minutes remaining in the game.
Argentina was up, 1-0, at that point, and its players celebrated their prospective victory by jumping up and down in front of their crowd.
However, the Americans returned seven minutes later because they found if they abandoned a game in that fashion, they would be disqualified from the next Deaflympics.
As soon as the Americans surprised the Argentineans by returning, defender Justin Hefflefinger was sent off with a red card for “punching in the gut.”
The targeted Argentinean was the one who had injured a few U.S. players with deliberate elbows to their heads during jumps for the ball.
In the 38th minute of a otherwise ho-hum first half, Argentinean captain Claudio Alvarez elbowed defender D.J. Rowse in the face, knocking him out cold mid-air, upending him and causing him to fall onto the ground face first. Alvarez did not receive a foul on the play.
“The Argentineans actually went out to hurt my players by constantly elbowing my players in the face and the back of the neck,” McDonald said. “I actually feared for my players’ lives. One of my players is now in a hospital because he was smashed in the face with the elbow of one of their players.”
This was only one of several plays that angered the Americans.
“Number 10 got away, like, six times,” captain Michael Lawson said. Lawson received two questionable yellow cards seven minutes apart in the second half and was ejected in the 62nd minute.
The Americans appeared to try to retaliate for Argentina’s sneaky play in the second half, running full speed toward their foes, sometimes causing collisions. The U.S.’s frustration showed when the referee missed elbowing calls against Argentina, especially a few on Noll.
“It was without doubt the worst refereeing performance I have ever seen,” McDonald said.
Argentina committed seven fouls in the first half, none of them carded, compared to the U.S.’s four.
Some players said the referee allowed the game to get out of hand by not taking appropriate disciplinary measures. In the second half, both teams received four apiece, plus nine cards.
Argentina got its first goal from a set piece off Lawson’s first yellow card in the 55th minute, with the ball bouncing over the defensive line and kicked midair by an Argentinean striker for a lob over the oncoming goalie.
The second goal came in the stoppage time, when the Americans were down three players.
The Americans play the loser of the Ireland-Iran match for 7th place Monday.

On a more pleasant note we have met some wonderful people here from all over. So many athlets with so much talent. It is just amazing. The Men's Basketball Team and the Women's Basketball Team are all in First Place at this point. The Men play their final I believe Tomorrow of course at the same time that we do --- but just amazing. Beach Volleyball has been wonderful and so much fun for folks to go to the coast and watch them. Lee and I were fortunate to meet the Men's Volleyball player Mike Bruning and his lovely wife. I just can't say enough about all the folks that we have met and how nice everyone has been to us as a family and as athletes .... The local people are just wonderful and they have all done such an amazing job with making this Deaflympics a HUGE SUCCESS.

Men's Basketball Men's Beach Volleyball



Men's Soccer
Women's Volleyball

Women's Basketball Women's Beach Volleyball

Women's Volleyball Team

Also now about a friend that we met here. His name is Craig Saalfeld and such a nice guy he is. He is one of twins. Mike is his brother. Both of them are into Track and Field. Craig won the SILVER in the Decathlon event. Here is his picture by Jason Chiou and an article written by Joshua Weinstock from http://www.usdeaflympics.org/ . So very proud of all the USA TEAMS and their accomplishments.

Craig Saalfeld nabs silver in decathlon

by Joshua Weinstock on September 13, 2009

On Friday, September 11, Craig Saalfeld began a two-day journey of ten events, going up against seven exceptional international athletes in the decathlon in Taipei Stadium.
Saalfeld was the lone American squaring off against three Germans, two Russians, one Japanese and one Chinese Taipei athletes. There originally were ten athletes, but Chinese Ming Yuan and Russian Ali Ametov backed out before the 400m for unknown reasons.
In order to earn points, one does not have to come in first place, but earns points based on a pre-determined chart.
“The decathlon is a competition against one’s self,” head coach Thomas Withrow said. “Saalfeld must perform his best in every event to get the highest points possible.”
Saalfeld’s decathlon results, in chronological order:
Friday, Sept. 11
9:00 A.M. - 100 meters
Saalfeld ran past the pack in the second heat for first place. However, his time of 11.53 seconds put him in third overall.
Russian Kirill Tsybizov won the 100m with a time of 11.35 seconds.
Saalfeld earned 746 points with his performance, putting him 38 points behind the leader, Tsybizov.
10:00 A.M. – Long jump
After the 100 meters took place, the decathlon athletes moved to the long jump strip to warm up.
Saalfeld leaped for the third-best distance, 6.35 meters, earning him 664 points.
Taiwanese Ching Lung An took first place with 6.65 meters, bagging 784 points. At this point, Saalfeld had 746 points, 38 behind An.
11:30 A.M. – Shot put
At the shot put, Saalfeld often looked into the crowd to get pointers from throwing coach Dan Fitzpatrick, Withrow and shot put gold medalist, Joanel Lopez.
Their pointers helped on his first throw of 11.05 meters, the best of his three throws.
Saalfeld placed third and received 549 points for his best throw. German Christopher Bischlager won the event with 679 points for his toss of 13.19 meters.
Entering the 4 ½-hour break, Saalfeld was in third place overall with 1959 points, 161 points behind Tsybizov.
5:00 P.M. – High jump
Saalfeld got his chance to grab the lead during the high jump, his best event.
He jumped 1.92 meters, well below his personal best, but it was enough to win first place in the event over Bischlager’s mark of 1.86 meters.
Saalfeld made up lost ground, earning 731 points, which put him only 32 points behind Tsybizov as Tsybizov placed fourth with 602 points in the event. Overall, Saalfeld had 2690 points.
7:00 P.M. – 400 meters
In the final event of the day, the 400m, Saalfeld gave it his all and ran a strong race in which he had a big lead but ran out of steam at the end.
However, his first-place finish with a time of 51.04, earning him 767 points, was good enough to catapult Saalfeld into first place. The slim lead of six points ahead of Tsybizov wasn’t secure, but Saalfeld was well ahead by 228 points of the third place athlete, Bischlager.
Saturday, Sept. 12
9:00 A.M. – 110-meters hurdles
Saalfeld continued his three-event streak of finishing first; earning the highest points and extending his six-point lead to 126.
Saalfeld’s time was 15.34, which obtained him 809 points for an overall total of 4,266 points.
9:15 A.M. – 4x400 meters relay heat
Saalfeld also participated in the 4x400m relay heat in the third runner slot. The other runners were Delvin Furlough, Michael Saalfeld and Josh Hembrough.
While every other decathlon athlete took time to rest between the hurdles and discus, Saalfeld helped the Americans advance into the finals with a time of 3:23.80, second only to Ukraine’s 3:22.21.
During the race, Saalfeld appeared to not give it his all, conserving his stamina and strength for the decathlon.
9:50 A.M. – Discus throw
In the discus throw, Saalfeld once again took pointers from Withrow in the stands, but it wasn’t enough.
Saalfeld threw for a distance of 28.82 meters on his final throw, which placed him sixth. Bischlager won the the event with a throw of 37.22 meters.
The second-place Tsybizov chipped away at Saalfeld’s lead, reducing the margin from 126 to 87 points.
11:20 A.M. – Pole vault
The toughest event for Saalfeld came with the pole vault, as four of the decathlon participants also competed in the individual pole vault event. Those vaulters finished inside the top six as Saalfeld took fifth place with a vault of 3.8 meters.
During the event, Saalfeld received assistance from gold medalist Patrick Southern and fellow vaulter Tom Guidon, who was visibly restless in the seats as he tried to help Saalfeld do his best.
Tsybizov, not one of the pole-vaulters, took fourth place as he earned 617 points to Saalfeld’s 562 and slowly caught up with only 32 points to go.
5:00 P.M. – Javelin throw
The javelin throw is Saalfeld’s worst event in the decathlon, he admitted.
Saalfeld’s performance reflected his disclaimer as he threw a best of 38.80 meters for 414 points, which put his point total at 5683.
Tsybizov, Saalfeld’s greatest threat to take away the gold, threw the farthest with a result of 51.93 meters for a whopping 617 points.
5:15 P.M. – High jump finals
Saalfeld took a hiatus from the decathlon to compete in his second side event in which he excels the most: the high jump.
Saalfeld jumped his way to a 1.99-meter finish, better than his 1.92m mark in the decathlon.
However, it wasn’t enough to overcome Russians Alexy Landar and Alexy Savostin who tied the Games Record at 2.05m as Saalfeld finished fifth.
Landar was able to break the record with a jump of 2.08, but wasn’t able to advance since he failed to overcome 2.11 meters.
The high jump ended at 6:30 p.m., and Saalfeld had only 20 minutes to prepare for the 1,500 meters, the conclusion of the decathlon.
6:50 P.M. – 1,500 meters
Heading into the final event, the Russian Tsybizov had a 171- and 230-point lead over Saalfeld and third-place An of Chinese Taipei.
Saalfeld led most of the 3 ¾ laps around the track until the final 100 meters, when Manuel Rapp blew past him for a first-place finish. Saalfeld finished with a time of 4:37.13, earning 698 points.
Overall points leader Tsybizov came in fourth with a time of 4:45.44, which netted him 646 points, more than enough to earn the gold medal and the title of “best athlete in the Deaflympics.”
When the athletes crossed the finish line, every runner except Saalfeld and Markus Bednarek, of Germany, fell to the ground, out of energy and struggling to catch their breath. It was the end of a grueling ten-event, two-day athletic feat.
In the end, Tsybizov ended with an even 6,500 points. Saalfeld trailed by 119 points with a respectable total of 6,381 to earn the USA’s first silver medal of the 2009 Taipei Deaflympics. Heavy crowd favorite An won the bronze medal with a final of 6106 points.
The Russian Tsybizov fell short of the Games record of 7,423 set by Austrian Dean Barton-Smith in 1989.

Don't forget to watch THE WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM - Monday Sept. 14, 2009 at 7:00pm (EST Monday Sept 14 at 7:00 AM)

GO FOR GOLD - USA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!