fortunately, right now Im not well enough to take a bus ride to Cinc

The roster that the U.S. womens national team takes to the Olympics is that of a program with one eye on its present and one eye on its future.Which makes it anatomically impossible to keep an eye on the past.All things considered, that makes for a nice change.The national team for years went to major tournaments with one eye glued to the past, either attempting to recapture the magic of 1999 by winning another World Cup or, just as often, trying to lessen the sting of another World Cup disappointment through Olympic consolation.Those efforts had their moments, to be sure, but it was a formula for frustration.Win today to escape yesterdays shadow.Then they won. They stood and celebrated their 2015 World Cup triumph on a podium inside Vancouvers BC Place after a soul-cleansing, flag-waving romp of a final. And people started thinking about tomorrow. Not as a short-term salve but as a long-term opportunity. People including U.S. coach Jill Ellis.If we are about winning world championships, we cant just have all of our focus be on the Olympics, Ellis said Tuesday in recounting a conversation with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati after the World Cup. It has to be on looking at new players, looking at players to build for beyond. And he agreed. We still want to win a gold medal. We still want to be competitive this summer. Thats still a high, high priority. I think we can do that, but we can also start to build players for the future.Make no mistake, the roster she announced Tuesday is one selected to compete for gold in Brazil, to try to become the first team to win the World Cup and Olympics in back-to-back years. No one is asking Carli Lloyd to lead a developmental roster. It is why Megan Rapinoe is there just seven months after the midfielder suffered a torn ACL, and despite the fact that she hasnt played for club or country yet this year. Even if Rapinoe is able to play only a reserve role, either in the tournaments early stages or throughout any run, those minutes are worth the roster spot for the added value on set pieces and crosses alone.Nor is it just loyalty to the holdovers that puts a premium on the present. A rookie in a major tournament at 28 years old, Allie Long might still be a viable option in 2019 or 2020, but she is here because of what she offers the team right now. Given their roles, it appears that Long and Samantha Mewis were competing for one roster spot. Mewis has more future ahead of her. Long is more reliable at this moment. Pragmatism won that contest (while simultaneously providing one of the teams most compelling stories in Longs lengthy journey to this stage). The same goes for Whitney Engen, who apparently edged out NWSL No. 1 pick Emily Sonnett as a back-line reserve.But after being the oldest team in the World Cup a year ago, the United States could at some point put a starting lineup on the field in Brazil that includes Morgan Brian, Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan, Julie Johnston and Mallory Pugh. All of them will still be in their 20s when the 2019 World Cup in France rolls around. All of them will still be in their 20s during the 2020 Olympics in Japan.So will Mewis and Sonnett. So will players such as Jaelene Hinkle, Danielle Colaprico, Rose Lavelle and teenager Ashley Sanchez, all of whom spent varying amounts of time with the national team during the buildup to the Olympics. That wasnt possible when Ellis took over a veteran player pool with far less than a full preparation cycle left in advance of the World Cup.I wasnt going to be able to get experience enough for younger players to come in, Ellis said of the World Cup. I had a very good handle on the players that were in the group. And so I felt very comfortable in terms of this is how were going to play and this is what we need. Preparing for a World Cup, I dont think I was looking beyond what we had already in.Veterans like Shannon Boxx and Lori Chalupny, both since retired, fit that roster. Recent high school graduate Pugh fits this one.It isnt just about the personnel. Thats only part of the picture. Ellis was almost giddy after a 1-0 win against France earlier this year, a game that looked headed for a scoreless draw until Alex Morgan scored in second-half stoppage time. It wasnt the result that pleased the coach but the way the team asserted itself on the game. The U.S. was the more technically precise team, bettering France at its own game. That wasnt a universally held view, notably getting some measure of disagreement at the time from an oft-isolated-on-the-night Lloyd.This style suits the likes of Brian and Horan, a new generation of gifted technicians. It suits Becky Sauerbrunn and Julie Johnston, center backs able to play out. It is surely part of the reason Kelley OHara, with all her versatility, has claimed the starting job at right back.Right or wrong, successfully implemented or not, this style tries to balance the traditional American strengths of athleticism and fitness with technical precision and pace of play. It is a style of play for tomorrow.At times Ive seen us play through lines -- we want to be a balance, Ellis said. If we can get in behind with one pass, we want to do that because its on. And thats any team in the world, if a team is going to give you that. But then we also need to be able to problem-solve, and I think thats where weve gotten better in terms of just being able to play off of each other, have more versatility. We talk about a variety of ways to get into the goal zone.Ellis laughed out loud at one point during a conference call to discuss the roster, asked about having the freedom of more job security after winning the World Cup. The adrenaline of a profession in which that doesnt exist, she said, is part of the allure of coaching.But the roster she put together, for all its core familiarity, is one freed from the weight of the past. It is for today and tomorrow.Thats the exciting part when youve got a younger group, Ellis said, is you can plan beyond three months.Ellis and this roster will be judged on what they do in Brazil. Thats the nature of being No. 1.But what they do in Brazil will also be the foundation of the roster that we will judge in 2019 and 2020.Cheap Nike Daybreak . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. Nike Vapormax Womens Trainers Sale . "Were just throwing s--- at the wall hoping something sticks," said Tortorella about the possible line combinations for Fridays game against Columbus. The Canucks have lost five straight games and six of their last seven, leaving them in a logjam in the Pacific Division, currently sitting fifth - good for ninth in the Western Conference. http://www.vapormaxwholesaleuk.com/wholesale-nike-daybreak.html . The 18th player to shoot 60 on the tour, Jamieson settled for par on the final hole when his 15-foot birdie chip grazed the edge of the hole and stayed out. After opening with rounds of 66 and 73 to make the cut by a stroke, he had 11 birdies in the bogey-free round. Mens Vapormax Flyknit Sale Uk . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. Nike Vapormax Mens Uk . The team says the Spain international has a muscle pull in his right leg. Barcelona hosts third-division side Cartagena in the return leg of their round-of-32 tie after winning their first meeting 4-1.The Bill Mooney Award for courage in the face of adversity will be presented by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association when the members gather during Breeders Cup week. This years honoree is Rene Douglas, the Belmont Stakes-winning jockey who was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident at Arlington Park in 2009.Last years winner was Bill Mooney.Even Mooney thought that was a little odd, receiving an award that already bore his name. The veteran journalist didnt complain, however. As he stood before his colleagues a year ago in Lexington, Ky., Mooney knew it was a longshot hed be around to find out if there would be a second Bill Mooney Award.Saturday will be the two-year anniversary of being diagnosed, Mooney said from his home in Lexington. I was given six months.In his ongoing battle with an aggressively metastasizing cancer that has hopscotched through his vital organs, Mooney most recently entered the hospital Aug. 18 with a tumor in his lower back that was pushing against his spine. While Mooney was there, it was discovered that a bacterial infection had gone to his heart. As a result, he spent two months hospitalized before returning home this week.I didnt do much but read e-mails and regular mail from friends, and that helped, Mooney said. But for the large part of the time, I was just knocked out. Your mind kind of goes dead.Mooneys illness has put the brakes on one of the most prolific turf-writing careers the game has known. He has won two Eclipse Awards, the Tony Ryan Book Award, and the Walter Haight Award for career excellence from his colleagues at the NTWBA.Mooney, 69, is from the school of writers who go to the story, bear witness, and bring back the tale. If they tell it well, their readers are transported, convinced they were right there shooting the rapids, fighting the fire, or standing at the side of the grave, as Mooney did in his 2007 Eclipse Award-winning feature.He died on a beautiful early-autumn day -- sunny, breezy, warm, Mooney wrote. The leaves on the pair of oak trees that flanked his grave site were just beginning to change their colors. Nine people were present, including Michael Blowen, the founder and president of Old Friends, and Dr. Holly S. Aldinger, a veterinarian with the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington.Mooney was one of the nine present at the death of Precisionist, the Hall of Famer and Eclipse Award champion, in September 2007. The gallant old horse was suffering horribly from the effects of inoperable malignant tumors impairing his nasal passages and soft palate. Euthanasia was the only merciful option.Within sseconds, Precisionist let out a heavy gasp, slowly knelt down, and rolled over on his left side, Mooney wrote.dddddddddddd Already, he was brain dead, although he continued to reflexively breathe, and there was also some reflex action in his legs. As Blowen cradled Precisionists head in his arms, Aldinger administered a second barbiturate-laden syringe to the horses neck. Three minutes later, all reflexive movement had ceased. Precisionist was gone.In a career spanning more than four decades, Mooney has recorded every high and low the racing game could provide. It is strange, though, when the writer becomes his own subject.If you do believe in miracles, what has happened with me is a miracle, Mooney said. Of course, its bad luck to get cancer, especially cancer of this kind. But not once have I ever said anything like, Why is this happening to me? Its a waste of time.So, forget about the award being named for me, he said. This is an award for courage, and Rene Douglas absolutely deserves it.Douglas has forged a life after his injury that includes a bloodstock business and appearances on behalf of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.I would love to be there to present him the award, Mooney said. Unfortunately, right now Im not well enough to take a bus ride to Cincinnati. But I would like to write something for him.So, he did.I think Renes situation and the one Im dealing with are somewhat analogous in this regard, Mooneys tribute began. In a brief period, our worlds got turned upside down, inside out, every direction you could imagine.People -- assuredly, well-intended people -- kept wanting to give me hope. But hope doesnt do it. You have to seize the thing and battle it with all the strength you have in you, from a physical standpoint and an emotional standpoint.Thats what Rene has done, and thats why hes such an extraordinary person. One needs to reach that turning point where you no longer focus on the affliction -- in my case, the disease, in his case, the paralysis -- but to continue on living as productive a life as you can. It took me about seven months. Some people never can reach that turning point, but Rene has.When Mooney entered the hospital in August, he thought his time had come.Im a tough old bird and obviously hard to kill, but I thought at least on two occasions I was dying, he said. And they did give me last rites of the church.Im told those are good for the next time, Mooney added. I just hope the next time doesnt come around for a while. ' ' '