Earlier in the day it seemed like anyone going to the MLS Cup final at Qwest Field last night was going to be rained on and frozen solid, but then the rain cleared and everyone wrapped themselves in the Sounders scarves they wore to matches all summer (finally in season!), even though the Sounders weren't going to be playing. The MLS Cup venue is decided months in advance, and just happened to be Seattle this year. "It's not that I want Real [Salt Lake] to win, it's that I want [LA] Galaxy to lose," a man in a Sounders scarf pronounced to a friend before it started. "I guess I'm giving LA the edge but I just want to see good soccer," another man shrouded in Sounders scarves and a Sounders hat said elsewhere. In other words, a mixed crowd, not very committed either way, except for the LA fans in a far corner of the stands—a clump of people covered in white, like they'd been snowed on. ("You'd think there would be more of them," someone said, pointing to the LA fans. "They have all the money.")

Because there was nothing on the line for Seattle, most of the 46,011 people in the crowd seemed to be watching nonchalantly, with a cool distance, except whenever there was an excuse to shout about the Sounders, like before the game when the Sounders made an appearance on the field (prompting several sad-sounding rounds of "Seaaaaaahhhtuuhhl Soooouuuunnnddders") or later on when an injured goalkeeper prompted someone in the stands to shout out for Seattle's star goalkeeper ("Let's go Sounders! Put in Kasey Keller!").

But the crowd's cool distance had nothing on Landon Donovan's cool distance. For a lot of the game, the 2009 MVP and U.S. national team forward seemed barely present (except for one beautiful assist). David Beckham didn't do much to call attention to himself either, unless you count his bright blond mohawk thing. The match went into overtime, and then a not-very-present moment on behalf of Salt Lake's Andy Williams kept him from capitalizing on a wide-open goal—"No way he didn't make that! No way!" someone in the stands shouted, because the mistake was staggering and also because, after two fruitless 15 minute blocks of overtime, the match was officially in need of an ending—so then the match had to go into penalty kickoffs. This would be only the second MLS Cup final decided on penalty kicks, USA Today pointed out. "This is a horrible way to end a game, much less a season," a friend grumbled.

So the final minutes of this final match looked a lot like that photo above—player after player taking penalty kicks while the goalkeeper stood there and guessed which way they were going to shoot (sometimes incorrectly, diving hard in the wrong direction, as in the photo). And then Landon Donovan went up for his penalty kick and—man, it's almost too painful to type. Too embarrassing. Not only did the ball not go where the goalkeeper was expecting it to, it didn't go where Donovan or the crowd or the laws of physics or God himself expected it to. Behold.

The reaction in the stands in my immediate vicinity:

Oh, Donovan! Missing the net!?!?

Unforgivable! Unforgivable! Unforgivable!

OOHHH MYYYY GAAWWD!

Choke of the century! Are you kidding me?!

After a few more penalty kicks—which were hard to keep track of, considering everyone's brains just went numb at the sight of Donovan standing in front of a goal and somehow not kicking the ball into it, and considering there was no lighted sign keeping track of the penalty kicks, just like there's never any lighted sign keeping track of add-on time—Real Salt Lake started streaming into a pile at one end of the field, jumping through the air, whipping their dreadlocks around. They'd won. The underdogs had won the MLS Cup. The stadium was suddenly full of Salt Lake partisans, or maybe just underdog partisans. Congratulations, underdogs.

Photos by Scott Maira, from Flickr pool.

If you see something, say something. Others of us are braving the elements to see it in person and will hold forth later.

Riot police in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, pushed back a violent demonstration near the Algerian embassy in the early hours of Friday.

Egyptian protesters reportedly hurled firebombs at police protecting the embassy and overturned a police van.
Egypt's Interior Ministry said 35 people were injured.

The clashes stem from Egypt's defeat by Algeria in a World Cup qualifying match on Wednesday, securing Algeria the last African place for next year's finals.

On Friday Alaa Mubarak, the son of Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak, made a rare public statement calling for a "tough stance" to be taken against Algeria.

"When you insult my dignity... I will beat you on the head," the businessman, who had attended the game in Khartoum, said.

On Thursday night around 1,000 Egyptians burned Algerian flags in a street near the Algerian embassy. The protests continued into the morning, with 15 cars reported damaged, along with a number of shops. The ministry said 11 police officers were among the injured.

SEATTLE - A window washer plunged eight stories down the side of a building Thursday in downtown Seattle, but was stopped by a safety rope just inches before hitting the ground, officials and witnesses said.

Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen said the rope saved the man's life by catching at the second story and softening the impact when the man reached the pavement below.

Okay, I'm glad the guy is alright, of course, but quickly: The idea of that safety gear isn't that you fall six stories and have the equipment catch that close to impact. What if he'd only been five stories high? If you're self-belaying, you should have a belaying device that auto-locks in the event of a shock load, and that only works if you keep the rope fed through it on the way up. Just sayin'.

h/t: Komo

In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas and artist James Blagden proudly present the animated tale of Dock Ellis' legendary LSD no-hitter. In the past few years weve heard all too much about performance enhancing drugs from greenies to tetrahydrogestrinone, and not enough about performance inhibiting drugs. If our evaluation of the records of athletes like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds needs to be revised downwards with an asterisk, we submit that that Dock Ellis record deserves a giant exclamation point. Of the 263 no-hitters ever thrown in the Big Leagues, we can only guess how many were aided by steroids, but we can say without question that only one was ever thrown on acid.

Sadly, the great Dock Ellis died last December at 63. A year before, radio producers Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel, had recorded an interview with Ellis in which the former Pirate right hander gave a moment by moment account of June 12, 1970, the day he no-hit the San Diego Padres. Alexander and Ilels original four minute piece appeared March 29, 2008 on NPRs Weekend America. When we stumbled across that piece this past June, Blagden and Isenberg were inspired to create a short animated film around the original audio.

If you want to find out more about No Mas check out their website and Facebook page.

Thanks to Slog tipper J-Mo!

• Seattle Municipal Archives / Stranger Flickr
• Let us hit the slopes, old chap!

Per Slog tipper Sonya:

Crystal Mountain opened yesterday with about a 30-inch base. Sonya says, "Bring your old gear."

Baker opens today with about a 50-inch base. "It could be 65 by Thursday."

White Pass opens tomorrow, with "conditions like Crystal, but it will take you an extra hour to get there."

And Whistler (partially) opens Saturday with reduced-price tickets at $59—"Not sure if that's in CAD or USD. Not sure if it matters."

Denver Post Beat Writers Told to Stop Making Game Predictions

For as long as most of us can remember, beat writers at the Denver Post have been allowed to make game predictions about teams they cover—but no more...

...When Klatt and Kreckman asked Klis if he thought the Broncos could defeat the Ravens in Baltimore on Sunday (which, unfortunately, they couldn't—or at least didn't), the Post staffer explained that his supervisors had concluded that offering picks about a team beat writers are supposed to cover in an even-handed way potentially undermined their objectivity in the eyes of readers.

But doesn't forbidding writers from talking about the outcome of a game potentially undermine their ability to be interesting in the eyes of readers?

Columnists "paid to offer their opinions" at the Denver Post may still remark upon who they think is going to win a game.

Via Romenesko.

Last week tennis legend Andre Agassi made headlines by revealing that he did some speed in the '90s. Today brings another revelation from Agassi's just-published memoir Open. As BBC News reports:

Former tennis star Andre Agassi wore a wig held together with pins in his first Grand Slam final, excerpts from his autobiography have revealed. The hairpiece—in his famous mullet style—had fallen apart the night before the 1990 French Open final, which Agassi lost to Andres Gomez. Before the match he prayed "not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off", he writes in Open.

Up right: a still of the wig in action at the French Open finals. Now I ask you:

(Thanks for the heads-up, Towleroad.)

New York (CNN) — For the first time since 1982, an American man won the New York City Marathon on Sunday.

Meb Keflezighi, 34, broke the tape in the 26.2-mile course with a personal best time of 2:09:15.

Keflezighi emigrated in 1987 to San Diego, California. One of 11 children, Keflezighi fled with his family from war-ridden Eritrea during its bloody conflict with Ethiopia. He became a U.S. citizen in 1998.

"Don't roll over on your stomach, because the bully will grab your head and bounce it off the sidewalk." Thanks for the tip!

h/t: Everything Is Terrible!

Each scarf has a tag that reads, "SCARF SEATTLE Show your playoff pride. Upload your scarf photos to ScarfSeattle.com," so I'm thinking this might be a viral marketing campaign. Gnarr says all he's thinking is, "Yay! Free scarf!" Yes, free scarf—free soaking wet, freezing cold scarves.

UPDATE: Scarves have also been spotted in Wallingford. "There are a lot (at least 30) brand new Seattle Sounders FC scarves tied, zip-tied, and draped all over the place at the east bound bus stop at N 45th St and Wallingford across from the QFC. It is rather tastefully done, but would look better if it weren't raining and dark still."

Sounders play Kansas City for a shot at the playoffs. The staff of The Stranger will be at a Strangercrombie-purchased drink-with-the-staff-of-The-Stranger thing, so we won't be liveblogging this one, but if you see something, put it in the comments. Match is at 5:30 pm on KONG 6/16.

No, it's bigger.

This man-made wonder is 1013 meters long covers 80 acres, its deepest end reaches 115ft and it holds 66 million gallons of water.

Cost? $2 billion, plus $4 million/year for maintenance. The ocean is about 30 feet away.

via coudal.

(Click on the "all sizes" link to blow it up and see the full glory of the danger. Thank you Nat.)

The match is at 4:30 on KONG 6/16. They're playing in Columbus, Ohio. Blogging will be intermittent, but if you see something, say something.

• Does this seem like the biggest field we've played on all year?

• Has anything happened in this whole game? We're 30 minutes in. Absolutely nothing has happened.

• GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL!! We trap their goalkeeper in some bullshit in the 35th minute, the ball goes free, and Roger Levesque sends it in. Beautiful. (Sounders 1, Crew 0.)

• Alejandro Moreno, of the Crew, gets a yellow card for "embellishment" in the 54th minute.

• All the players have four shadows following them — they look like X's moving around on the TV. There isn't a whole lot happening. It's mesmerizing.

• "There's something seriously wrong with Evans," says the person next to me in the 56th minute, having criticized Evans constantly the last few matches.

• In the 62nd minute, Danny O'Rourke fouls Freddie Ljungberg, gets a yellow card.

• In the 74th minute, Seattle's Alonso kicks the ball toward the goal, it hits the post, spins crazily, looks like it's going to go in, and then doesn't. Gah!

• There are three things you can count on: death, taxes, and Kasey Keller. "Keller with a tremendous save!" the TV announcer says in the 79th minute.

• Crew gets a penalty kick (Hurtado foul) and misses.

• Columbus has not been beat in 22 home matches straight, says the TV announcer. In the 87th minute, it sure looks like they're about to get beaten.

• In the 89th minute, the unfortunately named Peter Vagenas goes in, and Fredy Montero comes out.

• Seattle WINS, breaking Columbus's unbroken streak. Awesome.

Doesn't that seem... excessive?

The president had traveled to Denmark to make the case for Chicago, joining his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and an array of Chicago luminaries, including Oprah Winfrey. His top aides had refused to speculate ahead of time about what a defeat would mean, but they privately acknowledged that Obama was taking a risk by making such a personal effort.

I realize it would be great for the American economy to have an Olympic games here, and I realize the Obamas have a personal stake in Chicago's history/future, but Barack plus Michelle plus Valerie plus Oprah plus "an array of [other] Chicago luminaries" is an awful lot of firepower to expend on something that, it turned out, was a longshot: Chicago was out in the first round. South America's never had an Olympic Games. Obama's statement after the news broke? Not, "Gah, I probably shouldn't have spent all that time flying to Copenhagen considering all the other wars and shit I've got to worry about." Not, "I should've just sent Michelle and Oprah and maaaybe Valerie--they could've handled this."

His statement: "You can play a great game and still not win."

You're not blowing me away with insight, Mr. President, or with your sports metaphor, and "You can play a great game and still not win" better not be how you look at, say, Iraq or Afghanistan or health care. (To be fair, Obama had a meeting on Air Force One, with the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, during the flight—that's them shaking hands in the photo.) As for the selection of Rio de Janeiro, which brought tears to Pele's eyes, Obama called it a "truly historic event"—diplomatically deploying what is clearly his favorite word.

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population—including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49. The N.F.L. has long denied the existence of reliable data about cognitive decline among its players. These numbers would become the league’s first public affirmation of any connection...

We need more data about watching football, of course, but the anecdotal evidence isn't good.

Another 4th down—this could be the game. Duh.

UPDATE: Nice fucking catch, shame he wasn't throwing it to you. . . Seahawks timeout. . . now it's crunch time—and if the D prevents out of bound catches, then you go up the middle. NFL football is a great fucking game

FUCK—Seahawks driving. . . but it has to be a TD. 4th down. . . BEARS Timeout was a pure jagoff move, just to make the Seahawks do it twice. . .

UPDATE: OK, for those who don't know (and I don't know why anyone like that would be reading this) the 2 pt conversion means that if the Seahawks score a TD, they have to make the PAT (point after fieldgoal) to win. That pass that just hit the LB in the back is no good sign. . .

UPDATE: OK, forget about that FG. Devin Hester is growing as a receiver. Eat it. But given how unreliable the Bears D has been this game, I'm not sure I'm happy that Williams will have the ball for nearly 2 minutes. the 2-pt conversion is gonna mean a lot.

UPDATE: The last play, a run up the gut by Forte, is all about the Bears burning all the clock and going for the FG at the end.

UPDATE: ALMOST A PICK—but gotta admit that Seneca William is one mobile mofo.

Will the FGA be good this time? . . . 46 yarder. . . yes, he makes one. About fucking time, if you're a Seahawks fan

Bears have lotsa time left . .

I know you are all so sad that my technical difficulties (being bad at computers, plus buzzed, typing not so well) are preventing more updates.

Anyway, this game will come down to whoever has the ball last. Both D's are giving up yards, but neither O can quite put it away.

But the real story of the game: those Seahawks uniforms. WTF? Nice design and all, but . . .

This latest turnover might be the game, unless your kicker misses again. . .

Loved that missed field goal just now, though. . . .