- The Celtics dispatched the Lakers in what Bob Ryan best described as a "six-game sweep," capped off by a 932-point drubbing in game 6 to capture the NBA Title.
- The Red Sox are in first place in the AL East, even if they can't win on the road.
- J.D. Drew (what?!) is the front-runner for the American League player of the month award for June (.359 BA, 10 HR, 7 2B, 1.354 OPS)
- Pacman Jones is no more. Long live Adam.
- Euro 2008. Turkey AND Russia in the final four? Who saw that one coming?? Portugal dispatched by Germany? Unfortunately, that one was easier to predict.
- The Cristiano Ronaldo transfer chronicles.
- The end of an era in Portuguese soccer as Big Phil Scolari leaves to take over Chelsea.
- AC Milan failing to seal the deal with Arsenal for Emmanuel Adebayor after Adriano Galliani publicly admitted that he was the club's only remaining transfer target for the summer.
- Shaq asking Kobe how his ass tastes.
Let's start with the Celtics. Every story line has been beaten to death about them, so I'll keep this one nice and simple. I never thought I'd see another Celtics title in my lifetime. The Celtics have won two while I've been alive (1984, 1986), but seeing as how I was two and four years old for both of those rings, I don't count them for myself. Bill Simmons said it best when he said
"And for the under-30 fans, this was about breaking from the past and forming their own memories. Instead of hearing about the time Gerald Henderson stole the ball or Glenn McDonald saved the triple-OT game, they finally had their own stories to tell, like the time Pierce dropped 41 on the Cavs in Game 7, or the time we came back from 24 down to beat the Lakers."This ring is my first to truly enjoy as a fan and I made the trek up to Boston for the night of Game Six and it was and is one of the top five decisions I've ever made in my life. Anytime the night starts by randomly running into the World Series trophies at a place called Neptune's Oyster Bar, you know you're in for a good evening. The celebration did get a little out of hand, but for the most part, I just saw a bunch of people having a good time in the street while reveling in the fact that not only was basketball relevant again in Boston, the Celtics had gone from lottery busts in 2006-07 to World Champs in 2007-2008. What a turnaround.
One more note about the Celtics: RE-SIGN EDDIE HOUSE!!!
Mea culpa about the Boston Red Sox 2008 season: I haven't been following that closely. For those of you that know me, this has to come as a shock, since there was a time that I lived, eat, slept and drank Red Sox baseball. I don't know if it's the two rings in four years, working in sports for three of the last four years or what, but I just don't get fired up for it as much anymore. We're almost completely through June and I can honestly say I've probably only watched 8-to-10 games from start to finish. Don't get me wrong, I still love the Sox and Jon Lester's no-no is one of my favorite moments in sports in 2008, but I'm just not riled up this year. Maybe the Celtics' title run had something to do with it. Who knows? I'm sure as we bear down on the trade deadline, the passion will return. At least, I hope it will...
Euro 2008. Wow, what a phenomenal tournament it's been thus far. From Turkey's miraculous comeback against the Czech Republic in group play to Russia's shock win against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, this tournament has had more twists and turns than you can count. My favorite moments from the tourney thus far:
1) Down 2-0 in the 75th minute, Turkey engineers a remarkable comeback against the Czech Republic, getting goals from Arda Turan and Nihat Kahveci (who put in the game-tying and game-winning goals) to push Turkey through to the quarters with a 3-2 win. One of the craziest moments of the tournament bar none, but probably not the craziest...
2) That award goes to my second-favorite moment of the tournament: Turkey's win over Croatia in the quarters on PKs. After playing 118 minutes of scoreless soccer, Ivan Klasnic put Croatia ahead 1-0 after catching Rustu off his line on a cross. Rustu redeemed himself moments later by taking a free kick and sending it into the area where Turkish super sub (and one of my favorite players in the tournament) Semih Senturk struck the equalizer in the second minute of stoppage time to send the game to penalty kicks, where the Turks won 3-1 to set up a semifinal clash with Germany, the favorite to win the whole thing. Turkey will be playing that match without Nihat (injured), Emre Asik (suspension), Turan (suspension), Tuncay (suspension), and Volkan Demirel (suspension), but I still wouldn't count them out.
3) Pick any of the four goals from the Netherlands 4-1 blistering of France and it would belong on this list too. However, I'm picking Arjen Robben's goal that came almost immediately after Thierry Henry scored to bring France to within a goal at 2-1. The ball movement before the goal with the pass from Rafael van der Vaart and then Robben finishing from a near-impossible angle...it was pure brilliance. Even Robben seemed to have trouble believing he had scored from there. Wesley Sneijder's goal from about 22 yards was pretty ridiculous too. Here's a link to a video of all the goals: Netherlands 4-1 France
And my least favorite moment of the tourney by far:
1) Portugal losing. Fuck Germany. (Hey, I didn't say I'd always be classy on this blog.)
As far as Portugal goes, it's yet another disappointing loss without a trophy for the case. We're two years away from World Cup 2010 in South Africa and I hope some changes are in store in regards to the lineup before we get there. Here is the formation I'd like to see when touching down in Johannesburg in two years:
---------------Nani----------------Ronaldo-----------------Quaresma
----------------------------------- Moutinho
-------------------------Deco------------------Miguel Veloso
-----------Bosingwa----Fernando Meira------Pepe----------------Miguel
-----------------------ANYONE BUT FUCKING RICARDO
- It's time to unleash Nani and Quaresma and see what they can do at the international level. Simao had a horrible tournament and since Portugal is incapable of producing a striker apparently, it's time to just give that job to Cristiano and let Nani and Quaresma play in support on the wings.
- Moutinho and Veloso are both young (21 and 22, respectively), but should start to get more international caps as Portugal runs through qualifying starting this fall. Deco will probably be making his last run with the national team in 2010 and I actually liked how he played in Euro, so I see no reason to dump him.
- Euro 2008 was probably Ricardo Carvalho's last run with the national team, so it's time to move Pepe inside and make him the anchor of the back line.
- As far as goalkeeper, I don't care who is between the posts in 2010, so long as it's not fucking Ricardo. He's a soft keeper and his indecision on both Germany free kick goals (along with piss poor man marking, to be sure) led to Portugal's quarterfinal exit. I don't care if it's Quim or Rui Patricio or anyone else, I just know and hope that whoever the next manager is drops someone else into net for the World Cup.
Well, it's been a pretty busy month in sports and I hope that my shoddy job recapping it and only focusing on things that I like helped tie it up in a nice, pretty bow for you. I'll devote another post to Milan once things shake out with the Adebayor transfer and there will definitely be more on the Cowboys as we get closer to training camp. For now, I leave you with this: Get some.
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