(Get) A Sporting Life

Spain wins Euro2008, Alejandro Valverde wins the opening stage of the Tour de France and Raphael Nadal takes the Wimbledon men's title. Not a bad week. Add paella and the fact that the women of Barcelona are among the most gorgeous, stylish creatures in the world and you have an embarrassment of riches. Since Valverde is one of the favorites (4.5 to 1, I believe), I guess I wouldn't be betting against him standing on the podium in Paris on July 27th. In the meantime, I might also put a few bucks on Sergio García to win his first major at Royal Birkdale next Sunday.

What the fuck do I know about soccer? Well, actually more than this Southlandish guy. Time for a prediction for the last Euro2008 semi-final. Why not. I'm in a masochistic mood, having just returned from the Disney area of Orlando. In a moment of weakness, I agreed to accompany Mrs. Southlandish to a conference. There are five days of my life I'll never get back. The vile, venomous vitriol I spewed describing the area in e-mails, shocked even some of my hardened friends. The English language is bereft of words to describe just how much I loathe that fucking place.* A single day's experience at Epcot a dozen years ago was enough to tell me that Disney should be avoided at all costs and for 18-plus years I successfully dodged it. As hot, muggy shitholes go, it is worse than in my nightmares. The whole place looks like an architect eating Skittles puked on the plans and some genius declared, BUILD IT! Think of Houston and East St. Louis producing a Technicolor urban love child...

The BBC's That Mitchell & Webb Look is one of my favorites and I've been meaning to post a few videos lately so tonight's the night. Even Mrs. Southlandish stops what she is doing to laugh at these two: And then, just because to me this is the best play-by-play duo since Statler and Waldorf :

I am as good at showing my ignorance as the next guy, usually better, in fact. So here goes: Portugal v. Germany - For no good reason, I'm going with the upset. The Germans have been unimpressive and are bickering, but they will get it together enough to win a 2-1 squeaker. Croatia v. Turkey - The Croats are too much for the Turks and will control possession for a 3-1 win. Netherlands v. Russia - The Dutch have been brilliant. I missed yesterday's match against Sweden but read that the Russians were dominant. They'll need it. This could/should be the match to watch in the quarter-finals. In the end I think the Dutch will clip them in a 4-3 thriller. C'mon, a guy can dream, can't he? Spain v. Italy - This one came to pass as I predicted last week, saying Italy would make it through to the semis. I'm not going to back off now, though the absence of Pirlo and Gattuso in the midfield more than gives me pause. Against by better judgment, I'll say a 1-1 draw wit...

The best looking blonde I've seen since perusing the crowd at Sweden's opener. A mouth-watering rundown of the beers from participating Euro2008 countries.

Anyone who saw the Croatian effort against Austria has to be shocked to see Croatia beat Germany 2-1 today. The Croats simply let the Austrians come at them for almost the entire second half, and were lucky not to give up an equalizer. Today was completely different, and the Germans were lucky they didn't have 4 goals put on them. Unlike the commentators, I was unimpressed with the German effort against Poland so in a sense this isn't as surprising as it might have been. It does prove that Group B is pretty dire.

I look forward to IM laying waste to this post. From an ESPN article on the US-Spain match last week: United States coach Bob Bradley was impressed with Spain during Wednesday night's friendly but believes his counterpart Luis Aragones might have some concerns about the lack of goalscoring chances the Iberian side created. OR NOT. Given the way they dismantled the Russians up top, it looks like the absence of David Villa against the US was the difference. He and Torres were brilliant. On the other hand, Spain's center defense was abysmal today. Russia could easily have easily picked up a couple of garbage goals in front of goal just because the Spanish seemed lead-footed and clueless there. Which leads to this - another ESPN report on the US/Spain match: And therein lies the difference between the Americans and a side like Spain. It's not that the U.S. doesn't have players capable of making a play like that. It's that there simply aren't enough of them who can c...

But it sure happened. After a disappointing Romania v. France opener, I was afraid the Italians and Dutch would play cautiously and be content to each take a point. Not so. What a match. A controversial non-offsides call left the Italians reeling and the Dutch counter-attacked, counter-attacked and then counter-attacked some more. Van der Sar was great in goal, creating those opportunities. The Italians will undoubtedly cry foul over the non-call, but the fact is they had their asses handed to them. What I wouldn't give to be in Amsterdam tonight. I was there, purely by chance, during their opening match against the Czechs in Euro2000. It was insane. We were lunching at a café on the Rembrantsplein, when it suddenly erupted in a sea of singing, orange-clad lunatics. This was well before I followed soccer but we had a blast talking to the table of shit-faced fanatics sitting next to us and they delighted in schooling us on that year's European Cup. It was a great afternoon.

The next three weeks will be a scramble each day to try to fit my work around the twice daily games, which start at 11:45 and 2:30 on ESPN2 (today's matches are on ESPN Classic). No Ireland, England, Scotland or Wales so this is very much a continental affair. The consensus is that Group C with Italy, France, Romania and the Dutch is the Group of Death. The Guardian has full previews up and they have decided to alter to their Football Weekly's twice weekly format to a Football Daily one for the next three weeks, with James Richardson and Barry Glendenning anchoring it from a pub in Vienna. Their daily 2006 World Cup were great and I look forward to more of the same. They have a brief introductory preview clip up today. Now if I can just rush Mrs. Southlandish's ass through the Saturday morning shopping (the number of stores we 'need' to go to grows by the fucking minute) and get my ass back here by 11:30, I'll be happy. Hope to be doing a little bit of bloggi...