Tag: Sports

  • Euro Cup 2024 – Day 8 to Day 13 – A Casual Fan’s Impressions

    I keep thinking that my life slows down when Summer rolls in and the kid gets out of school. No, I am a foolish man. Issues and projects pop up, and kid get sick, but through it all I kept watching matches, or watching highlights late at night on YouTube. Either way, this is what I saw…

    Day 8

    Slovakia v Ukraine

    Nice flash of aggressiveness in Ukraine to fight back and win this one.

    Poland v Austria

    Austria was in control of this match, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for Poland.

    Netherlands v France

    Two heavy weights going at it. I couldn’t shake the thought that France doesn’t have the players to make up for Mbappe’s absence due to his broken nose.

    Day 9

    Georgia v Czechia

    I wasn’t expecting much from these teams, but it was a fun match to watch.

    Turkey v Portugal

    Portugal was not messing around, and Ronaldo played like a team leader out there – unselfish play, pulling the defense away from the ball.

    Belgium v Romania

    Hey! Belgium showed up and played like the Red Devils.

    Day 10

    Switzerland v Germany

    Germany was on autopilot for this – they could have played harder. That’s not to say that Switzerland wasn’t out to win, but Germany didn’t look dominate.

    Scotland v Hungary

    Poor Scotland. Poor, poor Scotland. This match broke my heart for the Scots, but you want drama in a tournament, and that’s what happened. Poor Scotland.

    Day 11

    Albania v Spain

    Spain is here to win. Anything less than the Cup will be a failure to them.

    Croatia v Italy

    Another super dramatic heartbreaker. Croatia did everything right up until the last thirty seconds, and they let Italy take this from them. This is what makes the Group Stage so much fun; it’s not over until it’s over.

    Day 12

    France v Poland

    With Mbappe not at 100%, he is still crazy dangerous out there on the pitch, but again I was left feeling that he doesn’t have the support behind him. And again, Poland played well, but just couldn’t get over the hill.

    Netherlands v Austria

    Wow! This was a match, and another reason why the Euro Cup is so completely exciting. I knew the Dutch were always contenders, but Austria (who I am not familiar with) who had some luck, skill, and played like the wanted it more.  

    England v Slovenia

    Well… England won the group. The Three Lions played better, but they still don’t look like a solid team out there. Getting a little worried that they will be bounced in the first round of the knockout.

    Denmark v Serbia

    A pretty solid draw. Serbia fought for it, and Denmark wasn’t messing around either. Another really fun match in the tournament.

    Day 13

    Ukraine v Belgium

    Belgium played to not lose, and Ukraine tried.

    Slovakia v Romania

    This is the only match I didn’t get a chance to see, nor catch the highlights. Sorry guys, no offense.

    Czechia v Turkey

    This Match was CRAZY! There should be a rule that when a match starts to spiral out of control, that the game takes a 15-minute timeout, and a new official is brought out on the field. I know the ref is getting the majority of the blame for this match being a dumpster fire, but what I saw was two desperate teams out there willing to do anything to win – they both had chips on their shoulders.

    Georgia v Portugal

    At least the Group Stage ended on a high note, with Georgia achieving a major upset. I will agree with Ronaldo that he was completely manhandled and fouled relentlessly, and never got a call. That was some bad officiating. Yet, I don’t want to take anything away from Georgia’s win, handedly, over a Portugal team that should have crushed them.

    Overall Thoughts:

    And we are now to the Knock Out Round. I still feel like Spain and Germany are playing the best, and there is a good chance they will meet on July 5th in the Quarterfinals. France and Belgium looks like a good match up, and I have no proof of this, but I have a hankerin’ that Switzerland and Italy could also be exciting. As for England, the team I am supporting, I have a feeling that they will be upset by Slovakia.

  • UPDATED: Euro Cup 2024 – Day 1 to Day 4 – A Casual Fan’s Impressions

    We are now pretty much through the first round of Group Stage matches, and the Euro Cup is playing out pretty much the way I thought it would go. No huge surprises, or stunning upsets, but it is still early. As such, in my very casual fan way, here are my impressions of what has gone on:

    Day 1:

    Germany v Scotland

    There were two surprises in this match. First was the Red Card, which was deserved, but shocking that in the first game of the whole tournament a red card was handed out. The second surprise was the own goal by Germany, as it looked like they were about to complete a rout of Scotland with a clean sheet, but oops! In the end, Germany played like the home team, expecting to win the Cup.

    Day 2:

    Hungary v Switzerland

    Sorry everybody, I had errands that I had to run, so I missed it. I had a feeling Switzerland would win though.

    Spain v Croatia

    So, Spain has a chip on its shoulder and went out there to make a statement with their win. The story everyone wants to talk about is Spain’s 17-year-old starter Lamine Yamal, who got an assist in the match, and though he looks like a baby out there, he certainly knows how to play like a pro. What I saw was a squad that, like Germany, is expecting to win the Cup.

    Italy v Albania

    I was excited to see this Italian team, as they did win the last Euro Cup, for on the whole, it’s a completely different team. I think I read that only seven players remain from the 2021 team. I wasn’t very impressed with them, even though they did win. Now, either Italy isn’t as good as people say, or Albania is better than what most think.

    Day 3:

    Poland v Netherlands

    Thanks for nothing FS1! Sure, I would love to watch Euro 2024, but I don’t have FS1 so that didn’t happen. But, I was expecting the Dutch to win.

    Slovenia v Denmark

    Again, FS1 sucks. But, I was excited that Christian Eriksen got Denmark’s first goal of the tournament. (Eriksen was a Tottenham player, so I have a soft spot for the guy, and also, he had a cardiac arrest during the Euro Cup in 2021, which was shocking and scary as shit to watch happen live. Eriksen’s a fighter – recovered, returned to professional football, and earned a spot-on Denmark’s 2024 team.) But Slovenia tied the match. I would love to tell you more… but I don’t get FS1…

    Serbia v England

    This was the match I was looking forward to. I’m pulling for England, which might also mean that my support has doomed this team. I believe in the hype, and if you do that, then you left that match feeling a tad let down by the Three Lions. Sure, they won, but it wasn’t a rock-solid performance. Defense was shaky, and it looked like England had a hard time getting the ball to Harry Kane. Thankfully, Bellingham is there.

    Day 4:

    Romania v Ukraine

    Don’t know… As the match was on some channel that I don’t get… Romania won.

    Belgium v Slovakia

    Also, on a channel I don’t get. But was surprised that Belgium was shut out.

    Austria v France

    Looking forward to this. France has a good shot at taking the Cup, as they are always competitive. It’s starts in a few minutes, so I might update in a bit.

    UPDATE:

    Austria and France was the Euro Cup match I had been waiting for. That was fun and dramatic, heartbreaking for the Austria own goal, and then there was Mbappe getting a broken nose. If I was Austria, I would feel pretty good about myself, or as good as I could feel by losing to France because of an own goal. Austria played well against one of the best teams in the world, and they had several chances to score. As for France, I am sure they are holding their breath to find out had bad Mbappe’s nose is. I’m sure he’ll be back for the knockout stage, but then that means France needs to get to the knockout stage without him. Either way, Group D will be very exciting to follow.

  • I’m a Soccer Dad, Now

    This past weekend, the wife and I reached a huge milestone in our parenting adventure; we attended our daughter’s first soccer match. Actually, it was a mini soccer tournament between different elementary schools, which meant that we sat through seven, ten-minute matches. (It was co-ed teams that played five on five.) Though the day was colder than we expected, we had a good time watching, and the kid’s team came in second place.

    But getting back to the point – the kid is now at the age where she is playing sports that have games. This isn’t like the sports classes we put her in when she was little, where the kids learn how to dribble a basketball, or pass a soccer ball. Nope, she’s on a team that plays games, therefore these kids will experience winning and losing, and all the emotions that come with that. It is a bit of a rite of passage.

    And that passage has begun for some of the families there. When the tournament started, and teams began to be eliminated, kids started crying. By my observation; all the crying was coming from the boys. Even on my daughter’s team, when they lost the final by one goal, everyone was disappointed, but only the boys sat down and cried.

    My kid, and she is very competitive, wasn’t happy at first, but once the sting of losing wore off, she started getting more philosophical about the whole thing. She told us that second place was better than how the four other teams did, and getting to the final is pretty impressive. It also helped that she went home with a medal, which was her first, and is hanging up on her wall.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Playlists, Sports with the Kid, and Playing Pretend

    (When you stop believing…)

    I used to take making mix tapes, mix cd’s and playlists, very seriously. And on the flip side of that, I really treasured receiving mix tapes from friends. There is a shoe box of mine, packed away in our storage space, that contains a mix tape from my high school girlfriend, which is still the most eclectic collection of music I have ever been gifted. Having made mixes for close to thirty years, I admit that there are a handful of songs that appear on nearly every iteration I create. I have landed in a playlist rut, one of my own making, as you can only mix songs you’ve listened to, and if you aren’t adding material to the source to draw from, variety becomes stagnant. I should go back to listening to albums all the way through again.

    The kid wants to watch sports with me this weekend. College basketball would be the obvious choice, but you’d be wrong. She wants to watch soccer. She recently join a team and now wants to submerge herself in as much soccer as possible. The truth is I’ll take any extra time with the kid. I just need to find out if a women’s league is playing Saturday.

    I’m 47 and sometimes I still pretend that I’m in a rock band.

  • Making Brackets

    I don’t follow college basketball. Most years I couldn’t name a single college player, but this season I do know who Caitlin Clark is. Even though basketball is my family’s sport, I never was a huge fan, and I’m an awful player.

    But I do love March Madness, the NCAA Tournament, the whole thing. As I am writing this, I have the BYU v Duquesne game on; it’s halftime. For like a month, in my head, I am a basketball expert – I know everything! I understand the pick n’ roll, trap defense, what adjustments teams need to make at halftime.

    (Working from my bed this afternoon)

    Making my brackets is what really pulls me into this time of year. Yes, I did say brackets. I make a couple of them because the ESPN app is easy to use. The first one is my legitimate bracket where I do try to pick as many winners as possible. Then I do a fun one where I just pick stuff randomly. This year I added an all underdog bracket, and then I did an all top ranked bracket; I just wanted to see which bracket would do better.

    What I do miss is being in an office at this time of year. Mind you, I worked in theatre and arts organization offices so there weren’t many sports fans to begin with, but there were a handful of us. We few would make brackets, put them up at our desks, and help each other cover so we could watch games at our desks or in the break room. It was a fun time of year to getting away with not working.