Stormwatch912

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Tormenta will be looking for their first win against One Knox in 2024, having suffered a pair of 1-0 defeats so far this season.  Hi friends, we're back. I trust you had a nice week off and found something to do without a Tormenta game to look forward to last weekend. I drove to Bleckley County, Ga. for my oldest son's cross country meet and then home with my youngest. My wife, meanwhile, took my oldest from the meet to outside of Augusta where he had soccer games. You know, a nice, relaxing weekend.  But here we are. We've reached the final group stage round of the inaugural Jagermeister Cup with the last of the eight game round robin games taking place this weekend. Northern Colorado had wrapped up the West group before this stage even began. Madison, by virtue of their 3-3 draw last night against Omaha, clinched the Central Group, but that result worked out well for both teams as Omaha now has a six goal lead over the next closest team for the w...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Saturday's hero Pedro Fonseca Hi friends. No Monday post this week as my recap of Tormenta's last second goal to earn a draw with Northern Colorado was posted at the Statesboro Herald .  As with all my stories there, it may require an email address to read. I'd like to think it's worth an email address, even an old one that you never use anymore that you kind of forgot you had and check every three months because that one guy from high school still emails you there because he refuses to update his address book. It's got quotes in there from Manager Ian Cameron about what he thinks it's going to take for Tormenta to make the playoff field as well. (The story has the quotes, I have no idea what's in your forgotten email.) Also, as a programming note, with Tormenta having the week off I'm going to take some PTO from the blog as well. There's no game to preview for Friday and no recap to run next Monday so I'm going recharge...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Aaron Walker and Tormenta will face Northern Colorado for the first time in 2024. I have low-stakes hatred for Northern Colorado.  When I was kicking around the idea of starting this blog and trying to come up with a name, I settled on StormWatch and was excited about getting started. But then I looked again and realized StormWatch wasn't going to be specific enough. Was Stormwatch a Tormenta blog or a Hailstorm blog? Or was it some weird collaboration where we'd cover both teams in an effort to capture the subset of people who were just fans of weather-related lower league soccer team names that also shared directional state names.  Figuring there wasn't enough of an audience for that group of people, I settled on making it only a Tormenta blog. But to distinguish it, I needed something. Thus was born the 912 suffix on the title to represent the area code of South Georgia. All because they are the Hailstorm. Clearly I don't let that mild annoy...

Just a random USL1 playoff bracket. No particular reason for using the 2022 edition. Is it too early to talk about playoff positioning? We're in mid-August and the regular season doesn't end until late October, which seems like there's plenty of time left. But Tormenta only has seven regular season games remaining. I can't believe it either, but I counted. On my fingers and everything just to be sure. My oldest and I were talking this weekend about how fast the season has gone by and while there's still a few months left, as Yogi Berra said, it's getting late early out there. This year, the top eight teams make the playoffs. From the standpoint of determining the best team, having a playoff bracket where 67 percent of the teams make the playoffs is a terrible idea. From the standpoint of regular season intrigue and keeping more teams engaged for longer into the season, it's a brilliant idea. If you think it's a brilliant or terrible idea likely depends o...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Callum Stretch fires a shot against Richmond Saturday night. In 2008, the University of Georgia's football team was ranked number one in the Associated Press poll. This was going to be their year. It had been 28 years since they'd won a national title and let me tell you, the people around here believed with every fiber of their being that 2008 was the year. They were number one and they were out to prove they belonged there. The opened the season against Georgia Southern, then a division below UGA in football and basically a tuneup for their wire-to-wire season of domination. There was no doubt Georgia was going to demolish their little brother from Statesboro and it was going to set the tone for the year. If you don't know the story, you may be thinking that this is setting the stage for the retelling of a monumental upset about the little guy having everything come together in one special day and pulling off a victory for the ages. (You're a...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Richmond and Tormenta will renew their rivalry Saturday.  South Georgia vs. Richmond. Tormenta vs. Kickers. Need I say more?  You can throw the records out when these two rivals meet.  No, seriously, Tormenta is eliminated from winning the East Group of the Jagermeister Cup and, if I figured the math correctly, Richmond has a narrow path to tying for the group lead, so you can essentially throw the records out because, like the points in Whose Line is it Anyway, the records don't matter at this point. Through six Cup games, Tormenta has three losses and three draws (with two penalty shootout wins) for five points while Richmond sits at 1-3-2 (W-L-D) and seven points. Group leader Greenville has 12 points while Charlotte has eight points. Greenville and Charlotte play each other twice to conclude the round robin competition. If Charlotte wins once, draws and wins the penalty shootout in the other, they'll be tied at 13 points. Richmond can still g...

Beach Volleyball at the 2024 Paris Olympics While we're deep into the USL League One season, we've also go the Olympics going on right now. Once we get past the issues with the International Olympic Committee and the price tag that comes with hosting an Olympic games, the actual events are fantastic. Seeing competitors get their moment in the international spotlight is always special and you can see what it means to the athletes when they win (or fail to win) a medal not only for themselves, but for their nation.  It's captivating stuff. And there's so many sports. So many. I've given up trying to find what to watch and just decide to let the Gold Zone channel decide for me. I know I miss a lot, but seeing the athletes competing in events that have a medal on the line is great. And with that introduction, I'd like to steal another idea from a podcast I listen to (Hey, it's a long season and it's tough to come up with fun things to write about each week),...