said. Gibraltar is now looking to quickly play its first friendly as a UEFA membe | Forum

RIO DE JANEIRO -- April Ross was so excited to finish the preliminary round of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament unbeaten that she took a victory lap around the Copacabana court, slapping hands with fans as she ran. Wholesale NHL Gear .Her partner, Kerri Walsh Jennings, spun around in circles as she jumped in the sand.Its the Olympics. Weve got to celebrate everything, Walsh Jennings said after the Americans beat Switzerland 21-13, 22-24, 15-12 on Wednesday. That was a really hard-fought match. It deserved a victory lap.Walsh Jennings won three Olympic gold medals playing with Misty May-Treanor, sweeping through Athens or Beijing without losing a set. They lost one set in London on their way to a third straight championship -- beating Ross and Jennifer Kessy in the final.Switzerlands Anouk Verge-Depre was well aware of the record.Its only the second set shes lost in the Olympics, she said with a wide smile. Im proud of that.The Swiss survived a scare when Isabelle Forrer needed a medical timeout in the third set when she crashed to the sand on the point that gave the U.S. a 10-9 lead. She stood up, holding her head in both hands before walking over to her bench and lying on the sand while the Swiss staff looked her over.With a few minutes left in the five-minute timeout, the other three players returned to the sand to warm up. Forrer came back out to a huge cheer from the crowd and a hug from Verge-Depre. Forrer then proceeded to deliver the winning hit on the first point.Those are great girls, Walsh Jennings said. Its a hazard of the job. I was just feeling for her.Forrer did not meet with reporters after the match. Verge-Depre said it was a neck problem, and not a possible concussion.I think she felt a little dizzy, Verge-Depre said.The Swiss still have at least one more match to play, but arent sure if they will advance to the round-of-16 or play in the lucky loser round.Not so lucky were American men Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb, who lost to Spain earlier Wednesday and finished 1-2. They are done for the Olympics, finishing last in their pool because of a tiebreaker.The U.S. pair would have advanced if they had scored a handful more points -- about one per set over three matches at the Copacabana venue.The first tiebreaker is point ratio. The Americans gave up 126 points and scored 125. The Austrians scored 145 and allowed 140.Its the first U.S mens team to fail to advance out of pool play since the 2004 Games in Athens. Authentic NHL Jerseys China . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. Stitched NHL Jerseys . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. http://www.cheapnhljerseysbywholesale.com/ .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week.LONDON -- Gibraltar became the smallest European football nation on Friday after the British colonys lengthy push to join UEFA was completed by gaining full membership. The campaign for recognition has long been resisted by Spain, which wanted to stop the tiny territory on its southern tip from joining UEFA and being able to play in its competitions. Gibraltar has been a frequent source of tension between Britain and Spain, which claims sovereignty over the territory that was ceded to Britain in 1713. The path to becoming UEFAs 54th member, which started in 1999, became clearer after a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in Gibraltars favour in 2006. The following year UEFA called a vote at its Congress but Spain engineered strong opposition to Gibraltars bid. The congress in London on Friday, though, overwhelmingly backed Gibraltar, which was granted provisional member status last year. There was no chance for Spain to express any opposition apart from by refusing to raise a green card, which signified support, as most nations did. "This is a momentous occasion for football in Gibraltar," Gibraltar Football Association president Gareth Latin said. "UEFA membership means we can begin the next chapter of Gibraltarian football." Gibraltar can now enter into the qualifying competition for the 2016 European Championship. UEFA President Michel Platini said Spain would be kept apart in qualifying in a bid to avoid inflaming political tension, as happens with Armenia and Azerbaijan. "Its better to try and ... pre-empt such a situation and avoid it happening rather than dealing with the consequences," Platini said. Gibraltar is now looking to quickly play its first friendly as a UEFA member. "Obviously the calendars are full for most nattions, but, if someone is free, then we would be happy to play anyone at this stage," head coach Allen Bula told British broadcaster Sky Sports. Cheap Adidas Hockey Jerseys. . There is uncertainty over where the team would play international fixtures with a small stadium being upgraded on the rocky territory where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. They could be played in nearby Portugal. Gibraltar has six top-division teams and 600 registered senior players in its population of almost 30,000, who have full British citizenship. "We have been trying to achieve this (UEFA decision) for 14 years, and we want to give this to the Gibraltar community and we want to develop our kids so they have a chance to become professionals," Latin said. The GFA, which was founded in 1895, applied to FIFA for membership in 1997 with the backing of England, but the world governing body delegated the decision to UEFA. Spain had UEFA change its rules in 1999 so that members were U.N.-recognized states. But Gibraltars original application predates this change. Gibraltar sends teams to the Commonwealth Games but does not have a recognized National Olympic Committee. Now, though, it is an official footballing nation. "Finally the politics of ancient rivalry and colonial tribalism have been kicked into touch," said Graham Watson, who represents Gibraltar in the European Parliament. The territory was captured by Anglo-Dutch naval forces in 1704 and ceded to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. The strategically situated rock has had a British military base ever since. "Gibraltars presence on the international stage is going from strength to strength ... now Gibraltar can sell itself to the world through the art of the beautiful game," Watson said. cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '