Category: Sport

The Wimbledon Men’s Final and the World Cup Final are both set for Sunday.  (England plays Croatia on Wednesday for a place in the World Cup Final against France).  So far, Wimbledon’s management has refused to budge, and will not reschedule the traditional 2 pm (1300GMT) start time.  The World Cup does start two hours later, at 4 pm (1500GMT), but there is no way the tennis final will have been completed by that time.

I guess I will have to toggle back and forth – but if Roger Federer plays on Sunday, I will have to miss some of the soccer.

It might be the last Wimbledon hurrah for Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He turns 37 in August.  Are there any praises still left to sing? asks tennis.com.

Update Wed 7/11: South Africa’s Kevin Anderson beat Federer today in a tough 5-set match (13-11 in the final set). Yay! for Kevin. Aww .. Roger is out after all. And England fell to Croatia, 1-2. So it’s Croatia and France on Sunday.

England went through to the final eight in the World Cup, but they made their fans bite their nails through a penalty shoot-out against Columbia.

One has to feel sorry for the team that loses in a penalty shoot-out. It’s like the tie-breaker in tennis. A stray shot, a lucky break, a bare miss, makes the world of difference between winning and losing.

I try to watch as many World Cup matches as I can, and I just love the bit of pomp and ceremony at the start. The players come out onto the field with the kids, the giant flags are unfurled on the field, the national anthems play, and the game starts.

The 2018 World Cup is underway! The mascot is a wolf called Zabivaka, ‘the one who scores’.  The wolf character beat out a tiger and a cat character by garnering 53% of an on-line vote for Russians.

The collage of World Cup winners through the decades, comes from FIFA’s web site. I bet the Germans would love to win again – and that everyone would love to beat them!

 

The Masters started in Augusta, Georgia, today. Gary Player (age 82) and Jack Niklaus (78) were on hand to perform tee shots for the ceremonial opening of the tournament.

Tiger Woods (42) is attempting a comeback, but had a rough start, finishing 7 shots behind Jordan Spieth, the talented 24-yr old Texan.

Check out South African Louis Oosthuizen’s putt on the 16th. He sank a 30-footer by standing with his back to the hole, and judging the sharp break on the putting green perfectly. Big smile and a little shrug of the shoulders afterwards.

Well baby, I’ve been here before
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
– Lyrics from Hallelujah, written by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions (1984)

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I loved the short pairs program of Chinese figure skaters Sui Wenjing and Han Cong. Their music was k.d. lang’s dreamy, languid rendition* of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, and the skaters delivered a flawless and emotional performance. Wow.

*Lang sang it at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Hey! The 2018 Winter Games is underway.  US figure skater the ‘quad king*’ Nathan Chen (18) made his debut on Friday in Pyeongchang, but disappointed.  He failed to properly execute the quad triple toe, and fell on another jump, ending up in fourth place.  ‘Was it nerves? What went wrong?’ inquired an interviewer.  “I wasn’t nervous,’ Chen said. ‘I felt pretty comfortable, I was relaxed and ready to go.’ He did admit that he ‘got ahead of myself. I think I was a little too excited.’

*Chen is the first figure skater to land five quadruple lutz jumps (four rotations) in one program. These jumps take a lot of energy, physically and emotionally.  Chen is also the only undefeated men’s skater in the world this season.

Philadelphians are celebrating the the streets, after their Eagles defied expectations and best the New England Patriots 41-33 in Superbowl LVII.

Eagles quarterback Nick (‘Saint Nick’) Fowles started the season as back-up quarterback for his team. He replaced regular quarterback Carson Wentz in December when Wentz tore a knee ligament.

Fowles didn’t inspire a lot of confidence at first, but played brilliantly in the post-season playoffs, and ended up being voted Most Valuable Player.  Wow.

I had to take a nap this afternoon! I watched the Australian Open Men’s Final in the wee hours of Sunday morning, from 1 am to 4 am. It was totally worth it. Roger Federer won his 20th Grand Slam* championship, at 36, which is unheard of in modern men’s pro tennis. (Both numbers: the 36 and the 20).

*A Grand Slam tournament is one of the four big ones: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon or US Open.

There’s a new kid on the (Australian Open 2018 tennis) block: South Korean Hyeon Chung.  Chung is 21 yrs old, and nicknamed ‘The Wall’ for his ability to return all incoming serves.

He reached the AO Men’s semi-final by beating American Tennys Sandgren on Wednesday (Australia time). In the previous round, he took out former World No 1 Novak Djokovic in a great match.

Chung and his new coach, South African Neville Godwin, will have to pull out all the stops for his next match, though : against World No 2 – and arguably the world’s greatest tennis player ever, Roger Federer.

Update Fri 1/26: Chung had to throw in the towel and retire from his match against Federer, due to a blister on his foot. He was down 1-6 , 2-5.

‘Pyeongchang has a Pyongyang problem’ reports the Wall Street Journal in an article about the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics, now less than four months away.

Pyeongchang is only 40 miles from the border with North Korea (capital: Pyongyang), and ticket sales have been slow.

Accommodation for tourists close to the sites is limited as well. On the bright side, fund raising and construction of the venues have met key milestones.

 

Oy vey, what a disappointment! Tuesday’s World Cup Qualifying soccer match of the USA vs. Trinidad & Tobago, ended in a 1-2 loss for the Americans.

After losses of 1-2 to Mexico and 0-4 to Costa Rica as well, it meant that for the first time since 1986, the USA did not qualify for the World Cup.  ‘You can’t get a draw, a tie, against Trinidad? You don’t deserve to go to the World Cup’, said an exasperated Taylor Twellman afterwards, in an epic rant on sports network ESPN.

Twitter (#USMNST) was set alight by soccer fans : video of chimpanzees kicking soccer balls; ‘well, they had to beat both Trinidad AND Tobago’; ‘dear Donald Trump, I’m getting tired of all the winning’; ‘On a side note, I’ve been to Trinidad and Tobago. It’s a lovely country’.

I see the Dutch team (called ‘Oranje’ for their orange jerseys) did not qualify, either. Aw.

The Argentinians came perilously close to the same fate, but they have superstar Lionel Messi, and he scored three goals in their critical match against Ecuador, securing their place in World Cup 2018.

South Africa’s ‘Bafana Bafana’ team is still in contention in Africa Group D, but will have to win both match-ups against Senegal in November.

Australia’s ‘Socceroos’ will travel to Honduras in a play-off match, in their quest for a fourth-consecutive World Cup appearance.

 

I got up at 6 am this morning to watch Roger Feder (Swiss, he turns 36 on Aug 8!) and Marin Čilić (Croatian, 28) play in the 2017 Wimbledon final. Federer won in what was a one-sided match with Čilić saddled with a painful blister on his toe.   The best part for me to watch, was Federer’s little tour afterwards through the VIP lounge, here. His family was there, of course, and Prince William and Kate, and Rod Laver, Stefan Edberg, and many other well-wishers, saying ‘well played’.

I hope in a London that had recently suffered a spate of terrorist attacks, and the terrible Grenfell fire, the tennis brought some sense of normalcy back.  I sorely appreciate Roger’s grace – in his speech on the court, and in his tour of the lounge afterwards.

American football fans and other on-lookers (me) watched the Superbowl tonight. I really thought the Atlanta Falcons had it in the pocket with their 28-0 lead in the third quarter. But no! the Boston Patriots caught up with them, and with 28-28 at full time, the game went into overtime and .. the Patriots were first to score, sealing their 5th Superbowl win with a touch-down, 34-28.

Below the surface of it all churned some ugly politics.  The Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reports that it all seemed like a 2016 Presidential election replay.  Trump* is friends with Patriots quarterback Brady and coach Belchick. Neo-Nazis such as Richard Spencer tweeted that the ‘white team’ Patriots must win over Atlanta from the South. The carefully crafted Superbowl commercial about Adolphus Busch (German-born), coming to America to brew Budweiser beer, was seen by some right-wingers as supportive of immigration – prompting them to call for a boycott of Budweiser beer.  Man. Give it a rest!

*Trump left the viewing party at Mar-a-Lago in the third quarter, apparently giving up on the Patriots .. but (of course) tweeted his congratulations after the win.

One for the record books : number 18 Grand Slam championship win for Federer,  4½ years after his 2012 win at Wimbledon.  A great and amazing tennis match between two great competitors!

Some tweets have a little goat icon in by Rogers’ name, since Roger is now officially the ‘G.O.A.T’, the greatest of all time, in tennis.

I’m watching tennis!   Here they come : the titans of tennis, in the 2017 Australian Open Men’s Final.  Roger Federer, with Rafael Nadal in tow.   May the best man win!