(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.

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...