A Weekend of Sports

I discovered something new this weekend. Watching sports takes a lot of time off the clock.

There has been a huge lineup of sports this weekend, which is why I've spent most of my says watching them.

First was the Netherlands/Denmark game. this was a game that had me ranting and raving at how badly Holland took their chances at net. Everything I have to say has probably already been said and I cannot fathom what goes through their heads when there are clearly 3-4 choices: 1-make a play into the box and score while the defence is frantic. 2-Regoup, keep posession, and keep the pressure to break down the defence. 3-Make a run for it and take a couple more steps when you know you can make the shot. 4-Take the shot from a space when you don't have full control of the ball/no space to shoot/don't know where the net is.

Apparently they thought that option 4 was the best option 80% of the time. How can a team score a goal if they can't hit the net? You can't. So they ended up losing against Denmark, which doesn't bode well for Holland when they still have to compete against Germany and Portugal.

That brings me to the second game I saw on Saturday - Germany versus Portugal. I knew Germany was going to win the match, but I did not know Portugal would come off so strongly in their first game. Both sides had fantastic chances, Ronaldo made some excellent plays, and amazing saves were made. The two sides looked as though they were draw the game until late in the match when Gomez made a very dominant header. This game was much more entertaining to watch.

When my football was over and the Euro matches finished for the day, I turned to my religion, Hockey. It was game 5 in the New Jersey/Los Angeles series for the Stanley cup final. This Series is starting to worry me. I chose the kings to win in 6, but the last 2 games has shown that New Jersey Cannot be controlled. I found my self wanting the kings to just finish the series so the devils don't grow their confidence even more. I fear that if this goes to game 7, kings will choke and lose.

That was day 1 of my weekend. I had nothing I was able to do once I was done watching the matches. Day 2 would show just as un-productive.

The Day opened up with 2 more Euro matches: Spain versus Italy and Republic of  Ireland versus Croatia. Simply put, I was completely surprised that Italy was able to score. I was going into the match expecting Spain to just dominate and make sure Italy had no response for the Spanish tactics. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Italy still has some potency. The game ended in a 1-1 draw as neither side were able to take all 3 points.

The second match was Ireland versus Croatia and that went pretty much as I expected. I wanted the underdog Ireland to win or at least draw, but I knew Croatia was going to win. There is just something exciting when the underdogs bring down giants. Ireland let an early goal in, but then dominated posession and ended up scoring around the 20th minute-ish. I was happy and thought that Ireland could keep it up. Croatia showed, however, that they were not going to put up with Irish resistance and finished the match 3-1.

Now I am currently watching the whitecaps game. So much sports and so little time. Hopefully it will not be as disappointing as the Holland game but I will not put my hopes up.