Don't Bet on This GG!

As always it has been a busy and eventful week in the world of sport. This weekend saw the start of the cricket World Cup, taking place in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The opening game took place on Saturday in Bangladesh where the hosts were beaten convincingly by India. Predictable wins followed on Sunday for New Zealand and Sri Lanka against Kenya and Canada respectively.

In all there will be a total of 49 one-day games played over the next 6 weeks, with the final being played in Mumbai on April 2nd. England have yet to win a World Cup, despite hosting 4 of the 9 tournaments so far. Even though they performed heroics in the recent Ashes Test series in Australia, it looks like that wait for the trophy may have some way to go yet. The following One Day International series against the Aussies was far less successful, and although the team has certainly improved over the last few years, this tournament may have come a little too early for them. India look to be the favourites this time around.

In the world of football, this last week has also been mainly about cup action. The 5th round of the FA Cup, or some of it at least, took place over the weekend with Leyton Orient grabbing a draw against the mighty Arsenal to force a replay. Other notable results were the narrow 1-0 defeat of non-league Crawley Town by world superpower Man Utd, and the deposing of the cup-winners of the last 2 seasons, Chelsea, by Everton in a penalty shoot-out – although I should point out that that game was actually a 4th round replay.

The real fireworks though occurred in the Champions League, which returned from its winter hiatus last week. Sadly those fireworks had little to do with the actual football though. AC Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso seemed to lose the plot and bizarrely lashed out at renowned former hard-man Joe Jordan, now assistant boss at Spurs. Anybody who chooses to headbutt Joe Jordan may need to re-examine their thought processes – there is a reason why he has 2 front teeth missing!

What would have been really interesting is if everybody else there had just taken a step back and let Gattuso and Jordan go at it. Gattuso may be a sportsman still playing at the peak of the game, and Jordan may be 59 years old, but I know which one my money would be on!

On Your Marks.......

The London Olympics may be just under 18 months away, but things are starting to crank up a gear in preparation for the greatest multi-sport event on the globe.

Today sees the release of the final event schedule for the games, along with the all-important ticket prices. The tickets themselves will go on sale a month from today, with the organizers operating a ballot system for those events/sessions that are oversubscribed. It hardly seems like 5 minutes ago when I was glued to the TV waiting anxiously to see the announcement on whether the games would be awarded to Paris (the favourites) or London. That was actually the best part of 6 years ago – yes, “6 (six)” ,as the old Grandstand teleprinter would say! And now we are at the point where we can say that the Olympics will be taking place here next year.

The athletics – most people’s flagship sport of the Olympics – will begin on August 3rd, running through to the last day of the games on August 12th. The blue riband event of the men’s 100m race will take place on August 5th. The full schedule of events for all 26 sports can be found on the London 2012 website.

In other Olympic related news, the decision was made last week to confer “preferred bidder” status on West Ham United to take over the Olympic stadium once the Paralympics have been completed in September 2012. West Ham were up against Tottenham Hotspur in the battle for the stadium, or the stadium site to be more accurate as Spurs intended to knock down the stadium itself and build their own in its place. Neither bid was 100% perfect, and by all accounts the fans of both clubs were not too enthusiastic about moving to the Stratford site.

To my mind the West Ham proposal was the more honourable – the club already have a home in the same borough and intend to keep the athletics track in place, whereas Spurs intend to move away from their traditional North London base, bulldoze the stadium, and remove the athletics track although they would renovate the Crystal Palace athletics stadium as a compensation. Part of the bid to host the games was the promise that athletics would have a legacy from London 2012 at the Olympic Park. Spurs proposals would obviously go against this promise. So it is understandable that the Olympic Park Legacy Company chose the West Ham bid as preferable.

However, as a football fan, I have to say that I hate watching games that are played in athletics stadia. The action is taking place too far away from the crowd and the atmosphere is completely lost. So, whilst I believe that the correct decision was made, I can’t say I am looking forward to the resultant compromise venue that will be West Ham’s new home. Sometimes, I guess, there really is no correct answer.

What A Weekend!

Well, that was quite a weekend for top sporting action. The big event was Super Bowl XLV and the game certainly lived up to the hype - so much so, in fact, that I stayed up to gone 3:00 a.m. to see the climax of the whole thing.

The Vince Lombardi Trophy, Uploaded on flickr.com by user "pkeleher" [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Congratulations must go to the Green Bay Packers for a tremendous 31-25 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. But, as with most sports, the result doesn’t even begin to tell the story of the match, which ebbed and flowed throughout. The Packers led 21-3 at one stage early in the game, but a tremendous comeback from the Steelers got them to within 3 points of their opponents, and with the momentum on their side the Championship was definitely there for the taking. But, the Packers regrouped and found the determination to score again and deny the Steelers a third Super Bowl victory in six years. For me, it was an excellent contest and the destination of the Lombardi Trophy was up for grabs right until the dying seconds. Sport at its best.

Elsewhere, the Premiership did their best to try to outshine the showpiece occasion on the other side of the pond. A breathtaking weekend of action, with some amazing scorelines, produced the greatest total of goals on one day – 41 from the 8 games played on Saturday. A stunning comeback by Newcastle Utd saw them recover from 0-4 down after 26 minutes to grab an unlikely 4-4 draw in the last few minutes. That is the first time a team has recovered from a 4 goal deficit in the history of the Premiership. And that was by no means the only sensation of the day, with previously unbeaten Manchester Utd succumbing to bottom of the table Wolves and slipping to a 2-1 defeat.

There were also 8 goals at Everton, in a game that swung one way and then the other, and back again. 7 goals at Wigan, 5 at Stoke and 4 at Aston Villa all managed to push up that record total. The expected titanic clash of Chelsea and Liverpool on Sunday was very mild in comparison and Fernando Torres was kept extremely quiet by his ex-teammates before being substituted in the second half. A 1-0 victory for the visiting side has now realistically ended any hopes that Chelsea may have had of winning the title this year. In fact, they may well be looking over their shoulders at Tottenham and Liverpool themselves in the battle for a Champions League place.

As I mentioned on Saturday, this weekend was also the start of the Six Nations and there were victories for England, Ireland and France. Those latter two teams will meet each other at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin on this coming Saturday, whilst England will play Italy, and Scotland will host Wales.

All in all, it was a very eventful and exciting sporting weekend. May there be many more like it ahead of us.

An Oval Ball Weekend

It is another landmark weekend in the sporting calendar, as the Six Nations kicks off on this side of the Atlantic and the Super Bowl takes place tomorrow on the other.

The first match of the Six Nations took place last night and saw England win at the Millennium Stadium for the first time since 2003. The 26-19 victory gave the favourites the start they needed in this year’s tournament, but was a major setback for their hosts. Wales have now gone 8 games without a win and will face a trip up to Scotland next week in a game they have to be looking to win to prevent their season from spiralling out of control already. Elsewhere this weekend, Ireland travel to Italy and France will be looking to start their campaign with a victory over the Scots. I don’t pretend to be a rugby union expert, but if recent past seasons are anything of a guide then expect a French or English victory lap come March 19th.

The major sporting occasion of the weekend is, of course, Super Bowl XLV taking place in Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas. Now, I know even less about the NFL than I do of rugby matters, but I will be sitting down tomorrow evening to watch the Green Bay Packers take on Pittsburgh Steelers – or the start of it at least. Due to the time difference the game is likely to go on to something like 4:00 a.m. on Monday morning, so I may have to bail out at half-time – or rather after watching the half-time show by the Black Eyed Peas. Even as a non-follower of the sport, the Super Bowl is still clearly a great occasion and a wonderful spectacle. I know that the English FA, not to mention UEFA and FIFA, could learn a thing or two about putting on a show from the NFL.

Back in the domain of the round ball the main interest may be the contest between Chelsea and Liverpool in the EPL – not, for once, because of any realistic title challenges but because the fixture computer has thrown up this match in the very same week that Fernando Torres moves from Merseyside to the Blues. I suspect things may get a little tasty at the Bridge tomorrow!

All of this, of course, pales in comparison to events down at the County Ground, Swindon where the Town are taking on Rochdale as I write these notes. Firmly ensconced in the bottom 4 at the start of the day, Swindon will be hoping to get something out of this game in an effort to revitalize what has been a very disappointing season to date. Elliot Benyon is making his Swindon debut after his deadline day signing from Torquay United, and goals are most certainly needed at the CG. Come on You Reds!

Whatever sport you follow, I hope you have a winning weekend!

Deadline Day Drama

The January transfer window slammed shut last night and, in a mad last-minute scramble, several hundred millions of pounds changed hands as players flitted across the country and continent to find homes in pastures new. Whilst it was exciting to watch, is it actually good for the game?

This year saw a lot more business conducted compared to the previous January window, and apparently also saw some clubs completely lose any sense of reality. Huge sums of money were paid for players either without any real pedigree, or who are currently playing way below their best form. The English Premiership alone splashed out over £200million, including £50million for Fernando Torres and £35million for Andy Carroll. That’s the same Andy Carroll who has yet to complete a full Premiership season and who has played just once for England – in a friendly. Yes he may have great potential, but £35million is an awful lot of dosh to dole out in the hope that one day he will become the next Alan Shearer.

The current economic climate doesn’t appear to have filtered through to some football club chairmen, or should I say owners. Since the arrival of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea the gap between the EPL and the rest of English football, and even to some extent the rest of European football, has grown increasingly wide. And, a gap has also developed within the Premiership itself with just a handful of clubs in with any kind of shout of making it into Europe, and in reality just 4 teams with a realistic chance of taking the title. Can it really be good for the wider game to have so much power residing in the hands of so few clubs? And will the money men hang around forever? Only one club can be Premiership champions in a season – everyone else are losers. For how long will the owners put up with pouring millions of pounds into those clubs without any real silverware in return?

The economic bubble burst in 2008 with devastating worldwide effect. I can only hope that the football bubble doesn’t follow the same path. I have my fears.