ove themselves.Taurasi said Japan is just a couple of pi | Forum

                                      MILAN -- Fiorentina defender Davide Astori has been called up to the Italy squad as a replacement for the injured Andrea Barzagli. Air Jordan 6 Australia Outlet .Barzagli was stretchered off in the fifth minute of Juventus 2-1 victory at Chievo Verona on Sunday after dislocating his shoulder.Astori, who has made 12 appearances for Italy, had been part of Gian Piero Venturas previous two squads but was left off the 28-man list for the matches against Liechtenstein and Germany.Italy travels to Vaduz for a World Cup qualifier against Liechtenstein on Nov. 12, before playing Germany in a friendly at San Siro in Milan, three days later.Italy is level with Spain at the top of Group G, a point above Albania and Israel. Air Jordan 6 Cheap Australia . Here are his mid-season NBA awards.  MVP: (KEVIN DURANT-Thunder) - Has been sensational this season and more importantly, the most consistent player in the league. Considering that his team has been without star guard Russell Westbrook and with the free agent departure of sharpshooter Kevin Martin, hes had to carry the majority of the load to not only keep his team afloat but more importantly, at an elite level. Air Jordan 6 Retro Australia . Ferrer, trying to win his fourth title on Mexican soil, will next play South Africas Kevin Anderson, who eliminated American Sam Querrey,7-6 (2), 6-4. Also Wednesday, Gilles Simon (6) of France beat Donald Young of the United States 6-4, 6-3, Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-4 and Croatias Ivo Karlovic defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (4), 6-2. http://www.airjordan6australia.com/ . Self was acquired from the Buffalo Bandits in a trade for Alex Hill midway through last season, and made his debut in Rochester on March 16, 2013. RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Japanese womens basketball team talked the upbeat pregame talk that any team worth a nickel usually does. But once this quarterfinal knockout game at the Rio Summer Olympics started, the Japanese were actually backing the talk up against the heavily favored U.S. as if theyd cribbed every trick that prohibitive underdogs from Princeton to Chaminade, Danny & the Miracles to Jackie Stiles and Southeastern Oklahoma State used once upon a time.The Japanese cut, they curled off well-set screens, they dribbled and drove and made kickout passes to perimeters shooters who shot like they never expected to miss. For a while it was so effective you might have expected to see Pete Carril in their huddle during a timeout. They played a now you see us, now you dont brand of uptempo basketball that dared the Americans to keep up, but they brought out the best in the Americans, too. The U.S. was grateful for the push.Japan trailed by as little as 46-44 near the end of the second quarter before the U.S. quashed any thoughts of a monumental upset and limited Japan to just 18 points over the last two quarters for a 110-64 win.We needed this kind of game, we needed this, American guard Angel McCoughtry said.They were hard to handle, they had us worried, Diana Taurasi said. That was the first time we went into the locker room here and said, Weve got to get this going.The U.S. now moves into Thursdays semifinal round opposite France, which defeated Canada on Tuesday. Spain plays in the other semifinal against Serbia, the reigning European champs who upset Australia earlier in the day 73-71, sending the Aussies home without a medal for the first time since 1992.For an American team that has steamrolled its way through these Olympic Games by winning its first five game by an average margin of 40 points, you could tell parts of this game were fun. The Americans had a total of only 10 days of practice together to prepare for these Games, and until they were tested like this, McCouughtry said, they didnt really know how theyd respond. Air Jordan 6 Australia Online. The answer, as it turned out, was that everyone played well. The U.S. shot 67 percent from the field against the undersized Japanese team, whose tallest player is 6-foot-3.The only downbeat outcome of the game for the U.S. was that Sue Bird, the teams four-time Olympic point guard, left the game after suffering an undisclosed knee injury in a second-quarter collision. On the advice of the team trainer and doctors, she didnt return. When asked after the game if she was OK as she was walking through the mixed zone press area, Bird nodded and said, Oh yeah.Taurasi said, Hopefully everything will check out OK in the morning.Bird always tried to tell people the womens basketball team will have a game or two at every international competition thats interesting like this. She swears these Olympic competitions arent automatic American wins. But its always a hard sell.The American women have won five straight gold medals. Theyre riding a 47-game winning streak. The gap between them and the rest of the worlds Olympic teams seems to have gotten wider in the last three or four Olympics, not narrower. But theres a generational shift underway, too. Thirty-somethings such as Bird, Taurasi, Tamika Catchings, Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus -- nearly half of the 12-player roster -- will almost surely be retired by the next Summer Games.Japan will host those Olympics, in Tokyo.So remember this night.American coach Geno Auriemma called Japans offense as good as Ive ever seen as far as how quickly they move the ball and how quickly they move themselves.Taurasi said Japan is just a couple of pieces away from being one of the top four or five teams in the world.But not only that.Whewwww, said McCoughtry, the U.S. teams most vocal worrier, exhaling heavily. It was tough chasing them around and around. ' ' '