CombatWombat

There’s a capital strike on, and you can’t simply withhold capital or else it is put to use elsewhere so it has to be employed for enshittification.

If you used Google Translate previously for translations, they’ve switched out the backend for Gemini. Most of the existing translation tools have been destroyed and replaced with LLMs already.

lol

Phil Neville

Seat Temperature: Smoldering

He’s going to be on sack watch until the summer. If by some miracle he survives, he’s probably going to survive the year. Portland had an unexpectedly good performance against the Crew to open the season, but laid an egg on the road against Colorado. They’ve performed in line with expectations to start the year but meeting those expectations will still get him fired.

I mean, he definitely did it. We all remember the breathless coverage of his 2am ketamine tweets to manipulate the market:

Musk’s May 13 tweet — “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users” — was “false because the buyout was not, in fact, ‘temporarily on hold,’” the lawsuit says. That’s because Twitter did not agree to put the deal on hold, and there was nothing in the merger agreement the two parties signed that allowed Musk to put it on hold, according to the lawsuit.

I wonder if he has enough clout left with the Trump admin to weasel out of this one, like he did with the Tesla deal.

I definitely feel this to be true:

Paschakis says there is a growing perception from the public that criticism of these organizations, and of the sport as a whole, is often managed through avoidance rather than being addressed.

“The media and the organizations continue with routine public relations messaging until the audience's attention shifts,” she said. “Formal apologies or corrective statements seem to only occur when sponsors withdraw support or when revenue is impacted.”

Sounds like Brian and Jackson are on the same page:

“It’s definitely a dream and it’s a big goal,” Ragen said. “I’m focused on the day-to-day here. I know the only way to get into the picture is to perform in the defense and win games here and perform individually well here.”

“(Jackson) has the potential to get there,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. “But him and (left back) Nouhou on that side for that second goal, (Jackson’s) not gonna play his way into the national team picture if those types of goals go in.”

This was particularly interesting:

One older adult female burial was particularly unusual. Hers was the only female skeleton the researchers found buried with polished stone tools, and her toes revealed a kneeling activity pattern more like that of the males in the cemetery. According to the researchers, this burial suggests that "females may have assumed roles traditionally associated with males" in the society and that gender roles "were fluid and shaped by multiple intersecting factors."

At this point, there are three things in life you can count on: death, taxes, and the Sounders losing in Sandy, so no motion from us:

Seattle Sounders (-): Will they ever win in Utah again?

With potentially four expansion clubs joining the league next season, it’s hard to imagine her not being drafted.

Nieminen, playing for Luleå HF, finished her 2025-26 SDHL season with 24 goals and 45 points in only 27 games.

Nieminen is expected to enter the 2026 PWHL Draft where she's projected to be picked in the top two rounds. David is also likely to rejoin the PWHL as a free agent having spent the first two seasons in the league with the Montreal Victoire.

Legend stuff. Let’s hope she’s back in time for the home stand starting 4/18.

“I’m not walking around the best, and I’m missing a few games for the (PWHL’s) Seattle Torrent,” Knight said on “CBS Mornings.”

“To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself and also physical, but we’ve got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best — as best as I could.”

Spain - Ukraine on International Women’s Day eve is gonna be fun:

The Royal Spanish Football Federation turned its social media channels purple to honor International Women's Day, and installed a commemorative banner at Madrid's Ciudad del Fútbol headquarters featuring Spain's world champions and UEFA Women's Nations League winners. The "Dream Without Limits" slogan aims to inspire the next generation of footballers.
Spain's 2027 Women's World Cup qualification matches will showcase the International Women's Day activities, with the team set to kick off against Iceland on March 3rd at SkyFi Castalia Stadium in Castellón. Ukraine will then host Spain on March 7th at Mardan Antalyaspor Stadium in Turkey.

I haven’t watched the CWNT vs Colombia match yet, but let’s hope it signals a turn of fortune for Canada and we get a competitive match.

The United States Women’s National Team has a big year ahead and is seeking to set the tone by winning the SheBelieves Cup for the eighth time in the 11th edition of the competition. The tournament run opened with a victory against Argentina (2-0), led by goals from Lindsey Heaps and Jaedyn Shaw. Next on the schedule is the program’s biggest rival, Canada, with the two sides once again facing off and attempting to determine the region’s top dog. The match is set for ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus, Ohio, a 20,585-seat soccer-specific stadium with a natural grass playing surface.

This is the 68th all-time meeting between the two programs, with the USWNT holding a 54-4-9 record and claiming the most recent result in a friendly last summer (3-0). Ranked 10th internationally by FIFA, Canada had a solid start to 2025 by winning the Pinatar Cup and taking four out of the next five friendlies. However, Les Rouges (The Reds) ended the year dropping five consecutive matches, including defeats to Switzerland (0-1), the Netherlands (0-1), and Japan (0-3, 0-1). The current tournament run opened with a victory against Colombia (4-1).