USA! USA! We're moving on to the round of sixteen after that awesome goal from Manhattan Beach resident, Landon Donovan. Our next opponent will be the Black Stars. No, not Mos Def and Talib Kweli, but the Ghana national football team commonly known by a similar name. Hopefully, we'll be as good at soccer against the Black Stars on Saturday as Black Star was at rapping in the late 90s! [SI]

I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Congrats to the Lakers! [LA Times]

This weekend, I'm headed to Palm Springs where I'll attempt to play golf without killing any wildlife or throwing all my clubs in a lake. Since I'm pretty terrible, when I hit the ball off the tee it won't look anything like this video of a ball hitting steel at 150 mph. But, for dudes like Tiger Woods, this is probably close to what it looks like. Isn't that spectacular? [Reddit]

I agree with everything this guy says in this video and probably a lot of the stuff that he doesn't say in this video. Being a fan isn't about cheering the loudest, it's about really--really--connecting with the athletes. Lakers vs. Thunder, Game 5 is tonight... let's go Lakers, for this guy and for all of us "this guys" out there. [Kevin & Bean]

Tonight, I'm on my way to my first Dodger game of the year. I could only be more excited if I weren't missing the first LA Kings playoff game since 2002. For all the success that the Lakers and, to a lesser extent, the Dodgers have had, the LA Kings have quietly been one of the least successful hockey franchises (you could argue, sports franchises) in history. The Kings were part of the NHL's first expansion in 1967. They have been to one Stanley Cup final and they lost. That's 42 years of disappointment. The Kings couldn't even get it done with the bar none greatest player in history, Wayne Gretzky. Needless to say, I've been waiting to see this game since college. I'll be taping the game and I hope that they don't announce the score at the Dodger game.

With that petty concern behind us, it's actually a great time to be an Angelino sports fan. The Lakers, fresh off their latest championship, are back in the #1 seed in the Western Conference in the NBA playoffs, the Dodgers, fresh off a second division title, seem to be working out some kinks but full of talent, and the Kings are finally seeing some payoff from their years of rebuilding. Good luck to Lakers and Kings in their playoff quests and let's go Dodgers tonight!

Nineteen hits weren't enough to win last night, so I'm hoping to see twenty-five tonight. Hopefully, the Matt "the Bison/the Rainman" Kemp, Russell "R-Mart" Martin and Andre "Dining with Dre" Ethier are up to the challenge.

...is not this guy! I'm serious!

Have you been to the Masters website yet? I think that it is, far and away, the most well-designed sports website I've ever seen.

First of all, you can watch the whole thing online. Most of us are working and shouldn't be watching golf while putting together reports for clients, however, for research purposes, I checked it out for a few minutes. The streaming was ad-free, smooth and syched perfectly with the audio. It was probably the best streaming event I've viewed online. Furthermore, you could put your attention on five different areas, from keeping an eye on the 15th and 16th hole to tracking the featured group. This sort of choice makes watching the event online even better than watching on television!

Second of all, the highlights are amazing. Check out this system:

Here I am on the home page.

Now, I'm checking out the leaderboard.

I've chosen to check out Fred Couples' leading scorecard. As you can see, every hole that has a yellow box contains video highlight.

Here's an example of in-video action from the highlights.

It's great to see an event like the Masters build a website that lives up to its potential. Compared to the bloated, ad-heavy, slow-moving site that ESPN has become, the Masters' site is a breath of fresh air. Kudos to the geeks behind Augusta's site who put this together!

So, enjoy the Masters online but be careful; if you work in an office with a large percentage of men over 35, websites like this could destroy your company's bandwidth and productivity!

Today was the first day in court for Frank and Jamie McCourt, the owners of my Los Angeles Dodgers. As the season approaches and fans try to reconcile the proposition that the historic franchise will soon be reduced to a shadow of its former self as a result of these divorce proceedings, the bickering continues between the former power couple. How bad is it? Well, let's put it this way, Jamie McCourt is insisting on alimony payments of $1 million/month. That's more than Andre Ethier is getting and he hit 31 home runs last year! Jamie, to the best of my knowledge, hit zero home runs and spent the majority of her time cheating on her husband with her limo driver. I'm not here to assign blame, I just have to question California's divorce laws which seem poised to ruin a team that means the world to so many Angelenos while, at the same time, reward a person who desecrated the sanctity of her marriage. Now, for all I know, Frank's a big cheat too, and deserves what's coming to him. No one can know for sure. It's all quite tawdry and I feel a bit scummy for even commenting on it. One thing's for certain, though: this won't go well for the Dodgers or their fans. [NPR]

The Cleveland Cavaliers just picked up Antawn Jamison and it looks like Sports Illustrated is handing them the trophy. I'm not so sure about that...

Is it just me or does this trade reek of the Spurs trade for Richard Jefferson this past off-season that I accurately predicted would end in disaster for the Spurs? Think about it: a title contending team with great chemistry trades for a talented but inconsistent swingman and gives up their starting center in the process. For San Antonio, they lost Oberto and got Jefferson; for Cleveland, they lost Big Z and got Jamison. The loss of Oberto forced an aging Duncan to pick up even more of the slack under the boards on both ends as well as duty guarding the other team's center. This deal puts similar pressure on an aging Shaq. It's possible that Ilgauskas will return to Cleveland but it's also foolish to take this for granted.

I'm not saying that this was the wrong thing to do, however, I'm not as sanguine for the Cavs as is Sports Illustrated. Integrating a scorer like Jamison into an offense that includes Lebron James would be a tall order, if the Cavs actually ran offensive plays. Since they don't, it will be interesting to see if Jamison can contribute as a pure, spot-up shooter, which Cleveland will need him to be. Currently, Jamison is shooting 34.5% from downtown; that will have to improve if he hopes to contribute right away.

My heart is still with and my money is still on the Lakers. As far as I'm concerned, the addition of Jamison makes the Cavs the team to beat in the East, however, since they already had the best record in the league, I'm not sure if this move was necessary or even wise. Time and the playoffs will tell! [SI.com]

Puma just put together an awesome viral video for Valentine's Day combining three of my favorite things: British pubs, English soccer hooligans and Savage Garden. If you're wondering, yes, by "Savage Garden" I do mean the Australian pop group from the 90s. I'm not embarrassed (much) to say that I do love their music. There are two types of people in this world: those who are fans of Savage Garden and those who lie to themselves.

By the way, Puma, this post probably would have been more effective for your viral marketing if I were able to embed the video. Come on, you guys, if you've going to do viral marketing, you've got to do it right. Still, I'm happy to link you up for having done such a dynamite job on the video.

Thanks to Wpromote's Director of Social/Viral Marketing, Josh Tauber, for sending this over. [Puma Hard Chorus]