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Spain wins! Spain wins!
June 30, 2008You may remember I predicted Spain would win the 2006 World Cup -- or probably not.
(You may also remember I said I would blog every couple days on Euro 2008, something I failed to do.)
Anyway, soccer fans had to love Spain's 1-0 victory over Germany on Sunday, giving the country its first major title in 44 years.
They were the best team in the tournament. Against Italy, I really hoped they would prevail in penalty kicks because the Italians basically said they were fine with a 0-0 game from the beginning.
That is not the right way to play soccer to me, although it earned Italy the 2006 World Cup.
This tournament was highly enjoyable for many reasons. Turkey had three memorable comebacks (each one was more fascinating than the last), and teams like Spain, Portugal, Holland and Russia were a thrill to watch.
Like I wrote in my column for today, there were more 3-2 scores in this tournament than 0-0 games.
Euro 2008 was something soccer needed. First, ESPN decided to televise every game for the first time, which I am sure made many soccer people (like myself) very happy. And they made sure to air lots of highlights, too.
And then the tournament play, for the most part was brilliant. Lots of goals and dramatic moments. I watched every game (not always live and with the exception of a couple 15-minute breaks here and there) and I never once felt it was a waste of time.
It was a great tournament. Now if only the next World Cup wasn't two full years away.
Posted by at 12:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Favorite sports to cover
June 29, 2008While high school sports are dormant, it still has been a pretty busy last couple of weeks for me.
First, I withstood a two-hour storm delay in Childress to cover the Greenbelt Bowl (the really bad weather hit that town the next night).
Then I covered the rodeo last weekend. After that, I was at the Texas-Oklahoma Junior Golf Tournament.
I got to thinking, and I figured a blog about the sports I most prefer to cover was in store. So here is the order (Disclaimers: even the last couple of sports on this list I do not mind covering -- but some sports had to come in last):
1) Football -- Covering Texas high school football on a Friday night, with a tight writing deadline breathing down your neck and a thrilling game in front of your eyes. That is hard to top.
2) Hockey -- No coincidence that the other sport I mainly cover beside football is the Wildcats. Before hockey came here, I was well-informed about the sport by keeping up with my hometown Dallas Stars.
3) Baseball -- Always enjoy when playoff baseball season comes around, and the mind games that are best-of-three series.
4) Golf -- Nothing better than following people around a beautiful course. And at the state golf tournament and T-O (the extent of my golf coverage), these people are good. They aren't just hacking it around.
5) Softball -- Just like baseball, except half as long.
6) Track -- I must say I disliked covering this sport (which is one of my spring beats) when I started out working here. And honestly, I personally have never been into the whole running, jumping thing.
But spending a weekend at the state track meet is one of my favorite activities. When nightfall comes, that place is electrifying.
7) Rodeo -- This sport is a writer's dream. Cowboys give very colorful, vivid quotes and there are some really great stories out there waiting to be told.
7) Basketball -- Always played in pickup games, but basketball was one sport I never played on a real team growing up. I like basketball, but have never been one of those die-hard hoops proponents.
8) Tennis -- Only because I have never really covered it, except one Summer Slam a long, long time ago.
9) Volleyball -- Probably the one sport I have never covered, and the one sport I would feel a little bit unfamiliar with all the rules if I did cover.
Posted by at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
More musings on Dave Campbell's Texas Football:
June 24, 2008I was able to spend another day today checking out Dave Campbell's Texas Football.
And with a deeper inspection came some more thoughts and a couple of corrections I have to point out.
* I knew Quanah's Tevin Mitchell had a great year last year. But there was no way he was a 2,700-yard tailback, especially in only 12 games.
Sure enough, going off what the Indians coaches turned in, Mitchell ran for 2,178 yards. Still the second most of the returning Class A players, but more than 500 yards short.
Another mistake in the Quanah section -- Chris Carter's first name is listed as Christ. Whoops.
* Electra, which went 0-10 last season after going 6-7 the year before, was left out of Class A's "Negative Swing" section.
* Was checking out Bridgeport and Decatur profiles, and noticed where it said Bulls QB Cameron Green was the district MVP a year ago.
Thought that was odd considering stud Argyle QB J.J. Harp was in that district, too. Sure enough, Green was actually the 8-3A Offensive MVP.
* I covered Hirschi some last year, and saw Demetrion Cooper run at a handful of track meets last year too, even talking to him a couple of times.
So it is with great certainty I can report that Cooper is not 6-10, which is what the magazine listed him as. And a couple of Hirschi names later, there is a Demetria Cooper listed as well.
I would be willing to bet my house that Demetria Cooper does not exist.
* District 5-3A gets a bye in the first round of the playoffs. That is the good news.
The bad news -- No. 1 Liberty Hill (two-time defending state champs), No. 6 China Spring (state finalists) and No. 15 Glen Rose will await in the second round.
* And finally, with the prolific spread offenses seen in football nowadays, I am still shocked that the state record for most completions in a game is held by a Henrietta kid and has stood for 12 years.
In 1995, Brian Parrish completed 48 passes (I think there were some entire years where Henrietta's team didn't complete 48 passes) against Electra. That is remarkable.
Posted by at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thoughts on Dave Campbell's Texas Football:
June 23, 2008Finally got a copy of the magazine in my hands today, and noticed a few things that were worth mentioning.
So without further adieu:
* I like the subtle additions in the high school section like the "Dream Tour," the preseason all-state and predicting the regional champs. Those make for a more colorful read.
* I liked the order of the top three teams in 5-4A (Rider, Denton Ryan, WFHS), and I think right now Burkburnett-Vernon are the best two 5-3A teams, although I would have swapped them.
* Forgot Craig Whiteside is still at Vernon (thought he might have graduated). With both Darien Williams and Ray Daniels gone, Whiteside is capable of putting some huge numbers similar to what his cousin Aston did a couple of years ago.
* My column in Monday's paper pretty much lets my thoughts be known, but I still do not fathom how Holliday could be chosen fifth in 5-2A. Sure, they lost some impact players, but they are still the Eagles.
* I am not saying Henrietta should or shouldn't be first in 5-2A. But if the Bearcats somehow got an extra year of eligibility for both Blake Kirby (LB) and Coty Jackson (DB) -- these two were seniors last year, but were listed in the magazine as prospects -- then they will be really tough to take down.
Maybe Kirby and Jackson redshirted their first year at Henrietta.
* Have no qualms about the District 9-A order: Archer City, Windthorst, Munday, Seymour, Electra and Petrolia.
I think the Pirates could make some noise, and I think Seymour has a decent shot at getting into the playoffs, but if I had to pick three playoff teams right now, those first ones would be them.
* Munday had the best win-total turnaround in Class A (+8) and Windthorst had one of the worst (-8) in 2007. Yet, these teams played each other down to the wire in a state semifinal playoff game the Moguls won by a single point in December.
* Knew a lot of area Six-Man coaches had left their jobs, but the total surprised me. Out of the 11 area teams who played real seasons in 2007 (sorry, Forestburg), more than half had vacancies.
They are Knox City, Northside, Throckmorton, Saint Jo, Chillicothe and Bryson.
* Because three of its district teams (all charter schools) will not field teams, Saint Jo is going to the playoffs in a two-team district. Yes, the Panthers, who have lost 20 straight games, are guaranteed a playoff spot.
So two is one of these three teams: Gold-Burg (only 10 wins since football was brought back in 2004), Forestburg (first year was last year) and Byers (first year of football).
That is because they are three of the four teams that consist of District 9-A, Division II. I am going to pencil Fannindel, who I know nothing about, for the other spot.
Posted by at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
One heck of a sports-watching day
June 16, 2008Dads around the country had to enjoy Sunday. Even if all they got on Fathers' Day was another weird-looking tie.
That is because it was the perfect sports-watching Sunday.
Among the great games that graced the TV were:
*Woods forcing a playoff on the last hole of the U.S. Open.
This event is an annual must-watch on Father's Day. And with Woods battling it out with Rocco Mediate and Lee Westwood, it was definitely worth its billing.
The putt Woods drained on 18 to tie Mediate will go down as one of his best ever. But that list of clutch shots gets longer by the day.
*Lakers stave off elimination
I was working during this, so I did not get to see much of the game. From what I did see though, it looked like L.A. held the lead most of the night.
Boston still took the game down to the wire before the Lakers won, 103-98. Now the series returns to Massachusetts, where the Celtics look to close them out on Tuesday. I am guessing Boston gets it done then.
*Rangers doubleheader
If you are a baseball fan from around here, so you probably root for the Rangers (no matter how hard they make it sometimes).
Well, on Sunday Texas played a double-dip against the Mets. The Rangers won the first and lost the second, but who can complain about six hours of baseball.
*And some crazy soccer
And I am not talking about the United States dismantling Barbados, 8-0, in a World Cup qualifier.
No, in what has got to be the best game so far in the 2008 European Championships, Turkey rallied with three goals in the last 15 minutes to shock the Czech Republic, 3-2.
This game decided who got second in Group A, which means a quarterfinals bid against Croatia. And the Turks, who also rallied to stun the Swiss a few days ago, were the better team in the second half, even when they fell behind 2-0 in the 62nd minute.
Czech Petr Cech, one of the world's top goalkeepers, helped the cause by making a brutal blunder, letting the ball slip through his hands. A fantastic finish, nonetheless.
*And Monday will be enjoyable too
The U.S. Open kicks off at 11 a.m. (right about the time I will be waking up -- nice) and there are two more Euro 2008 contests: Austria-Germany and Poland-Croatia.
Cannot wait to sit on the couch and see if Sunday's drama can be matched again.
Posted by at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The beauty and boredom of soccer
June 11, 2008A couple of days ago, the beauty of soccer was on full display when the Netherlands out-finessed Italy, 3-0.
It was everything a fan of the game could hope for. Elegant attacking, brilliant passes. Even up 2-0, the Dutch were searching for more goals.
Unfortunately, if a soccer hater would have tuned into the game before Italy-Holland, then their resentful behavior toward the sport would have been verified.
Because Romania-France was awful. The 0-0 contest, if you could call it that, had few scoring chances. Sure, France was without its best player, but still.
For the most part though, the first five days of games have been highly entertaining. The day after Holland's win, Spain -- led by David Villa's hat trick -- crushed Russia, 4-1.
Portugal continues its brilliance with three goals against the Czech Republic a few hours ago, and Turkey captured an impressive second-half comeback against the Swiss in a game that featured a driving rainstorm.
It was the tournament's first win by a team that has given up the first goal.
One of my only other complaints was the play of the defending-champion Greeks yesterday. I knew it would be a dull game when Greece opened with five defensive backs.
At one point late in the first half, Greece was playing keepaway by passing the ball around in the defense, with Sweden just standing there, begging for them to attack.
Luckily, the Swedes broke through on a savory strike by Ibrahimovic and won 2-0.
There are 10 games down, 21 more to go. I guess we will see if this offensive outburst keeps going.
Posted by at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Scheduling quirks
June 9, 2008I have been typing in high school football schedules for next season over the past few days, and I have noticed a few weird scheduling quirks.
Here were the things that caught my eye:
*Rider plays four Thursday games -- two are at home (Little Elm, The Colony) and the others are at Sulpher Springs and Denton Guyer.
*Fans of both Rider and WFHS will not have a problem (except for gas prices) watching both teams play the first four weeks of the season.
Rider gets a bye, then plays Friday, Thursday, Friday.
WFHS plays Friday, Saturday, Friday, then gets a bye.
*In the five years since I have been around, this was the first time an area team is playing all of its games against other area teams.
Holliday takes on district foes Olney, Henrietta, Bowie, Nocona and City View, and the Eagles' non-district teams are Windthorst, Electra, Iowa Park, Hirschi and Jacksboro.
*Counting the TRN Kickoff Classic, Burkburnett will not hit the road until the fifth week of the season. After taking on Sweetwater at Memorial Stadium, they host Argyle, Graham and Gainesville.
The Bulldogs do not travel outside Wichita County until Sept. 26 when they go to FW Eastern Hills.
*On the flip side, Iowa Park goes on the road its first three games (at Argyle, Childress and Holliday) and then after hosting Graham, the Hawks play their last non-district game in Saginaw against Robinson.
*Last year, Graham incredibly played eight teams that made the playoffs (only IP and Hirschi did not). This year, the Steers have seven on the schedule who made the 2007 postseason.
Out of the three that are not, one of those is Brownwood, which after dropping down to 3A, may be the most dangerous school the Steers face (The other two non-playoff teams are Breckenridge and Iowa Park).
Posted by at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The sickness returns
My wife had no idea it was coming. She knows the perils of football season (both from a work and personal aspect) and she is aware of March Madness.
April/May/June is Stars and Mavericks postseason. She gets that too.
Every four years is probably my sickest time of all -- the World Cup. But the last one was 2006, so she is aware that the soccer infestation is two years away.
Or so she thought. What she did not know was that ESPN has decided to televise all 31 games from the Euro 2008 Tournament, which started Saturday.
Like the previous World Cup, this tournament -- which consists of the top 16 teams in Europe -- is time-friendly for me. I get off work at 1 a.m., go to sleep, watch soccer from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., then head back to work.
Can these next couple of weeks get any better? I do not think so. But I can see household productivity taking a severe plunge, too. Oh well.
Here are some thoughts on the tournament and the first two days:
*Both host countries may not get out of the first round: Switzerland and Austria are in some serious trouble after their weekend games. Both teams lost 1-0 (the Swiss to Czech Republic; Austria to Croatia) and both teams still have a really good team left to play in their group (Portugal and Germany, respectively).
Both host countries actually outplayed their counterparts, but failed to finish any chances. And the news is worse for the Swiss -- leading scorer Alexander Frei hurt his knee in the first half of the loss to the Czech Republic and is done.
*Portugal and Germany looked good: These teams advanced all the way to the World Cup semis two years ago, and I expect more deep runs in the coming weeks.
Portugal blasted Turkey 2-0 (and had three more shots hit the post), and Cristiano Ronaldo has been the best soccer player in the world this year.
And Germany, which clearly overmatched Poland 2-0, has plenty of firepower up front (Lukas Podolski scored two goals on Sunday) and a veteran goalie in Jens Lehmann.
*Another Group of Death: Today's action will be made up of Group C -- which has Italy, France and the Netherlands in it.
That means the '06 World Cup finalists must play each other, only Zidane will not be around to head-butt anyone. Can he make a ceremonial appearance anyway?
And Holland is usually pretty solid as well, so if you finish in the top two of this group (which also has Romania -- good luck guys), you will have earned it.
And a little off-task: Not tournament related, but I thought the U.S. soccer team played pretty well in earning a 0-0 draw against top-ranked Argentina.
Tim Howard saved the Americans with some huge saves in the first half, and the U.S. attack looked pretty potent for part of the match.
I did not get to see the England and Spain games (a 2-0 loss and a 1-0 loss), but it sounds like we played better in this one than in those previous two matches.
And I am glad to see that Freddy Adu has taken the necessary steps to become a dangerous player on the international level.
World Cup qualifying for the U.S. starts in a couple of weeks, and hopefully they can take the momentum they built Sunday with them.
I will continue to wrap up Euro 2008 on a daliy or every-couple-of-day basis on this blog.
Posted by at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Football season is near
June 3, 2008High school football season is closer than you think. In only two months, players will be reporting for summer workouts.
Seven-on-seven has already started too. I have even begun to type in schedules for the TRN football preview edition in my spare time at work.
And although the area's 11-man teams have had a small coaching turnover this offseason (Petrolia is the only one I know of), an interesting development happened yesterday.
Seymour coach David Fambrough is leaving for Breckenridge after one very successful season with the Panthers.
For Seymour people, this is significant for many reasons:
1. It is very late in the game to find a new coach. At this stage, everyone looking has pretty much found someplace. I am sure they will get plenty of candidates, but the best ones have probably relocated already.
2. I am not saying Seymour will be bad next year, but let's face the facts. A lot of the players who took the Panthers to the Class A title game have graduated. That makes this job a little less sexy.
3. I have not talked to Superintendent Baker in length yet, and I am not sure how many, if any, assistants Fambrough may take with him.
But I think it will be unlikely they hire within because with the exception of one, all the Seymour assistants were there a year ago when the job came open and Baker hired looked outside then.
4. If they do look outside, then this will be the third system Seymour has run in the last three years. This will not help, especially with so many young faces around.
5. I get the idea that this really caught some Seymour people by surprise. Fambrough was not looking at leaving; rather, Breckenridge called him and kept improving its offer until he could not turn it down. Fambrough had family in Breckenridge, which had something to do with his choice.
I am sure the Panthers figured Fambrough was a guy who was going to stay a while and continue to build the program up, and now they will be looking for their third coach in as many years.
Don't get me wrong -- I am not saying Seymour will not be able to find a good coach or that they will not have a successful season this year.
But this definitely was a pretty big setback.
On another note, later this week I will blog about some of my thoughts concerning quirky scheduling I noticed when looking over football schedules.
Posted by at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
