The Daily Hilario: Mini Messi, Preki, cricket

MINI MESSI:

New @ChelseaLFC signing @FranKirbyy with a message... #CLFC https://t.co/TYr7vqi9Ml

— Chelsea Ladies FC (@ChelseaLFC) July 8, 2015

Reading FC, where Kirby had been playing, are claiming that Chelsea paid a British record transfer fee.  Presumably they don't mean we paid more than we did for Torres.  Regardless, Mini Messi had a good World Cup while also scoring 11 times in just 5 matches so far this season for the division two leading Royals.

Chelsea Ladies are off to a great start as well, leading the top division of the WSL with an unbeaten record after six matches.  They are next in action on Sunday against Bristol Academy.

PREKI:

From the backwaters of the USA third division to the Premier League, Preki (i.e. Predrag Radosavljević) has hit the big time.  Probably; I suppose it's still not clear whether he'll be manager or assistant manager at (probably) Leicester City.

Breaking News: Preki will be stepping down as coach of Republic FC after Saturday's match vs. LA Galaxy II.

— Bill Paterson (@SacBee_BillP) July 8, 2015

SRFC have already named his successor, so this wasn't an overnight thing, but losing the club's first ever head coach after less than a season and a half still hurts a bit.  Paul Buckle, last of Cheltenham Town where he lasted just 13 matches (1 win!), will take over.

After a fairly slow start to the season, Sacramento have started turning the ship around and gotten down to business in trying to defend last season's championship win.  Preki's possession-based style has helped make soccer one of the hottest tickets in town and has really built tremendous momentum in trying to secure an MLS spot.  Hopefully this development doesn't derail all that good work.

T-20:

So, I went to the cricket tonight.  St. Kitts vs. Guyana.  Guyana had just one win out of four coming in; now they have two.  St. Kitts batted first, got off to a terrible start but some dude named Samuels batted a 61, which was pretty impressive.  The Patriots finished with 158 after 20 overs.  After the break, the home team defended the lead well enough, but couldn't get more than 2 outs.  St.Kitts' star pitcher (the crowd was definitely hoping he'd carry them to victory) pulled a hammy on just his second or third pitch and gave up back-to-back sixes on his eighth and ninth throws.  Finally, he was pulled, but the game had turned already.  The last two dudes both went for over 40, with one of them matching Samuels' 61 before they called the game during the third rain delay of the second half.  It was only the 17th over, but Guyana were only down by like 13 or 14 at that point, so it was pretty obvious they'd win it.

All in all, a pretty entertaining few hours — pretty much on par with baseball, though there's more "action" which is nice — but it did start to drag in the second half (especially with over an hour of rain delays).  The toughest part to figure out was what the hell an "over" was, but eventually we put it together.  Now, how in the world do all y'all watch this for four days straight?

FOOTBALL (all times BST):
01.00 (next day):  Gold Cup:  Trinidad & Tobago vs. Guatemala
03.30 (next day):  Gold Cup:  Mexico vs. Cuba