Sun July 13: Superliga and Women's Olympics Soccer Preview

This is mainly a football (soccer) post and since there's a lack of football this July, I'm sure talking about football would be a nice change of pace.

Superliga Well Underway
It's the best club teams from Mexico's Primera Division league against the best club teams from Major League Soccer in the second edition of Superliga, a competition that started last year that seeks to find the best football club in North America.

From the Superliga website, www.superliga2008.com

"SuperLiga™, a premier tournament that pits the best of the United States against the best of Mexico, returns with its second edition to award the heftiest winner’s purse in North American soccer history.

SuperLiga™ will be played between July 12 and August 5, 2008. The tournament will include a group phase and a knockout phase with all games held in U.S. venues. Eight clubs – four each from the top-flight leagues of the United States and Mexico – will vie to determine a singular champion of North America. The club that emerges SuperLiga™ champion will take home $1 million in prize money, the largest purse in North American soccer history.

During the inaugural edition of SuperLiga, CF Pachuca defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy in a dramatic match decided by penalty kicks at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on August 30, 2007. Last summer this new competition between rival soccer nations became an instant hit among millions of soccer fans in Mexico and the United States.

For the 2008 edition of SuperLiga, competitive criteria determined which four teams would represent their respective leagues. From MLS, the four clubs earned berths based on their regular season records from 2007: Supporter’s Shield winner D.C. United, Western Conference champion Chivas USA, MLS Cup 2007 champions Houston Dynamo and MLS Cup finalist New England Revolution. Representing Mexico’s Primera Division are four of the top clubs from the 2007 combined seasons: 2007 Apertura champion Atlante, 11-time Mexican League champion CD Guadalajara, current 2008 Clausura Mexican Primera Division champions Santos Laguna and the 2007 SuperLiga champion Pachuca CF. "

Yesterday was the first day of competition at this year's Superliga, and CD Guadalajara defeated D.C. United by a score of 2-1, while Houston Dynamo defeated Atlante by a score of 4-0. Today, the New England Revolution will face off against Santos Laguna and Chivas USA will face off Pachuca CF. Click here for a full competition schedule. All games will be televised live by spanish-language broadcaster, Telefutura. Check your local listings.

My opinion on the event:
Superliga is a great friendly competition still in its prime that produces many benefits, but at the same time, still needs a couple of small fixes. The tournament is a great development for soccer and improves the game of MLS since its players are playing against some of the best from the Mexican league. Though this may be an odd comparison, the teams from Mexico are doing what the Dream Team did for the sport of basketball in Barcelona at the 1992 Olympics. The level of talent in international play was forced upwards after the USA dominated those Olympics and several Olympics afterwards. Here, the Mexican league is improving the game of soccer in the United States.

But Superliga still needs more exposure. Although we hate hearing American commentators talk soccer, I feel the English language commentary is necessary to expose the game. Maybe if ESPN or Fox Soccer Channel hires commentators who can both speak English and are familiar with the Mexican teams and the MLS teams, Superliga can produce the same result that UEFA Euro 2008 did here in the U.S. And with little going on in the soccer world, this tournament has a big opportunity to shine in the spotlight.

It will be interesting to see how much talent and hype this tournament will produce and if anyone will buy into it. Only two years old, Superliga is progressing rapidly into a popular tournament. But can it be an annual summer hit? We'll have to see. Meanwhile, check out this column from ESPN which gives a more accurate preview on the tournament and the teams playing:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=554481&sec=mls&root=mls&cc=5901.

Women's Olympic Soccer Preview
Earlier today, the United States women's soccer team faced Brazil in a pre-Olympic warm-up match as well as a rematch of last year's semifinal in the FIFA Women's World Cup in China. In that semifinal, Brazil outplayed the U.S. to a 4-0 final score, with Marta Vieira da Silva scoring two goals in that game. She ended up being the leader of the tournament with 7 total goals.

Brazil eventually lost to Germany in the final of the World Cup, 2-0. In today's 1-0 loss against the United States, Brazil was playing without Marta and Christiane Rozeira de Souza Silva, their two best attackers. Both are currently fulfilling European club duties but are expected to join Brazil at the Olympics. But it was obvious that without their attackers, Brazil wasn't able to play at their usual aggressive level. In their North American tour, Brazil tied with Canada 1-1 earlier last week.

But at full strength, Brazil can be a monster team. Meanwhile, the United States they'll have to do a little more offensively to capture their second consecutive gold medal in Beijing. The U.S. is expected to get out of the group stage, where they will face New Zealand, Japan, are their arch-rival Norway, who poses the U.S.'s biggest challenge in the Olympics. But the Norwegians aren't as strong as they were back in the late '90s when they captured the 1995 World Cup title and the 2000 Olympic Gold Medal. The Americans defeated the Norwegians on their home soil by a score of 4-0, where four different players scored from the U.S. in the second half, including veteran Abby Wambach.

The toughest group in the draw at the Olympics is group B, where Germany, Brazil and the North Korean football teams are in the same group. North Korea could be a threat after they tied the United States, defeated Nigeria and loss to Sweden in last year's World Cup. They lost to Germany, 3-0, in the quarterfinals. All three teams are expected to advance, since the top two from each of the three groups advance, as well as the two best third-place teams. But it will surely be a huge battle for the top 2 spots in group B, and if Nigeria, the fourth team in the group, can upset any of the other teams, then Group B will surely be in chaos.

Host nation China is expected to advance easily from group A, which includes Sweden, Argentina and Canada. If the Argentines work as hard as their male equivalents do, then expect them to advance. But if they give the same effort that they did in last year's World Cup, then don't expect them to get anywhere. They only scored one goal while allowing 17, including 11 against Germany.

In that case, expect Sweden and Canada to battle it out for the second spot in the group. Both teams produced similar performances last year in China and placed third in their respective groups. Canada has a lot of youth in their team, with 13 of the 21 players on the roster aged 25 and younger, including Christine Sinclair, a 25-year-old veteran and captain that has scored 92 international goals for Canada.

Once we get into the knockout round, it's anyone's guess and who can take the gold. Predictions would be made on how well they play in the group stage. Brazil and Germany are consistent, but the United States always remains a threat. It's hard to tell now who can take the gold so we'll have to wait until the tournament is underway to start making predictions.

The women's soccer tournament in Beijing is the first event to get underway at the Olympics. Competition starts on Wed, August 6, two days before the opening ceremony. NBC will have coverage of team USA throughout the tournament and NBC's Olympic Soccer channel will keep you covered. Coverage of Team USA begins on Wednesday morning on MSNBC against Norway at 7:45AM. For more on the women's team, visit: http://ussoccer.com/teams/womens/index.jsp.html.

Other notes...
Tomorrow we will preview the Home Run Derby as part of the All-Star Game festivities here in New York. We'll also recap the first week of Tour de France action and preview the men's football tournament.

Brazil did lose to the United States today in women's soccer. For more info, click here. Brazil will face the U.S. again on Wednesday night from San Diego. Catch the game on Fox Soccer Channel and check your local listings.

I'm sorry with these recent late posts, weekends are usually busy for me as it may be for you. I'll try my best this week to get it in earlier. Thanks for continuing to read!!!

Sat July 12: The Threats to Team USA

There are 28 sports and 302 events. Over the next two weeks as we countdown to Beijing, we're going to preview as many events as we can, including all the big name events like track and field, swimming and gymnastics.


But first, let's look at the competition overall. The United States is expected to be at the top of the medal count by the end of the Olympics. But there are several nations that could give the U.S. a good run for its medals.



Predicting the Medal Table For The Olympics

The only real threat to the United States in terms of medal count is the host nation, China. After all, the benefit of being the host nation is that it gets to enter athletes in all the events. And in Athens four years ago, China showed that it was preparing its athletes very well for their moment this summer. The most outstanding and memorable performane by the Chinese was in the men's 110 meter hurdles where Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang won the gold medal in world record time (see video here). Since then, he has been training and running harder to prepare for this summer's meet where surely he looks to make his country proud in front of a sell-out home crowd.

The strongest sport than the Chinese will most likely dominate is in the diving events. At last year's national championships in Melbourne, the Chinese won 9 of the 10 available gold medals and won 14 medals in total.

And China will be a strong force in gymnastics too. The Chinese won multiple medals at last year's world championships in Stuttgart, including gold medals in the men's team final and men's individual all-around. In Beijing, viewers will want to especially look out for Yang Wei, multiple gold medalist and world champion as well as an integral member of the gold medal winning team in Sydney 2000 and at the past two world championships.

Other than China, there aren't that many nations that pose a credible threat to the United States in getting the top of the medal table. But if I had to pick a contender to place behind China and the United States in the medals table, Russia would be my pick. Why? Because the Russians are always determined to win. They always seem to have a contender in every sport, from gymnastics to swimming to wrestling. If you have seen past Olympics, the Russians always field a large team. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been in the top 3 of the medal standings. Don't count Russia out, they could give the United States several upsets and scares during the games.

Other than that, look out for the usual suspects in different sports. For swimming, look out for the Australians. In track and field, look out for the Jamaican sprinters and the African long-distance runners. The Germans may be heard more than once in the rowing and canoe/kayak events and the Koreans will be big in archery.

We'll talk more as we look at the individual events and sports in the next coming days and weeks as we get closer to the opening ceremony.

Other notes...
Former Yankees great and broadcaster Bobby Murcer dies at the age of 62.

Dwain Chambers Wins 100 meter Final at British trials

Wladimir Klitschko knocked out former sparring partner Tony Thompson in the 11th round to successfully defend his heavyweight titles Saturday.

Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own world record while others failed to remain consistent at the Golden League Meet in Rome.

Brazil defeated Cuba in straight sets to capture World League title.

Thanks for reading, sorry this came out so late...

Fri July 11: Volleyball, Golden League and A Look Back at the Last Olympiad

World sports are interesting in that there is always something big happening in some sport somewhere around the world. Today and this weekend, two events headline the weekend in global sports: the final round of the FIVB World Grand Prix (women's volleyball) and the third stop in the IAAF Golden League series (track and field).

Brazil, China and United States Seek Gold At World Grand Prix Final
The World Grand Prix is a women's volleyball competition held annually by 12 teams from four continents: Europe, Asia, North and South America. Its purpose is to promote the sport of volleyball though the competition seems to only be popular in the East Asian region since the World Grand Prix is mainly sponsored by Asian companies and many of the preliminary rounds are held in Asia.

The World Grand Prix is the female equivalent of the popular men's World League competition. This year's final round is being held in Yokohama, Japan and six nations will compete for this year's title in a round-robin format: United States, Brazil, Cuba, Italy, China and Japan. Through this morning, teams have played three games already and Brazil and Cuba stand as the lone teams undefeated. The United States, suffered a straight set loss to Brazil and a five-set loss to Cuba this morning. On day 2, the United States were able to defeat Japan over five sets and thus the U.S. stands at 1-2.

Through 1PM EDT, July 11:
Brazil 3-0
Cuba 3-0
United States 1-2
Italy 1-2
Japan 1-2
China 0-3

The United States will face Italy and China in its final two games. Meanwhile the matchup of this final round will be held tomorrow between Brazil and Cuba, the two undefeated teams. This will be a rematch of last year's Pan-American games final when Cuba defeated Brazil in a five-set thriller.

This final round of games in the World Grand Prix will also be used as an evaluator tool to determine the final rosters for the Olympic Games. All six teams competing in Yokohama have qualified for the Olympics.

For more info on the FIVB Grand Prix final round, visit these links:
http://www.fivb.org/EN/volleyball/competitions/WorldGrandPrix/2008/General/Overview.asp
http://volleyball.teamusa.org/

Five Athletes Still Up for Grand Prize at IAAF Golden League
The Golden League is an annual series of meets where the world's top athletes compete professionally for a share of the $1 million jackpot. An athlete must win their respective event in all six meets. It's an top-level competition that attracts pro athletes and many spectators each year. And with the Beijing Olympics less than a month away, this is a huge warm-up meet for the athletes competing today in Rome. With the U.S. Olympic trials over, this will be the first test for the American athletes as they will compete with athletes from other nations for the first time since the Olympic team was made.

Today's meet in Rome is the third meet of the six-meet Golden League series. Five athletes are still in contention to win a share of the jackpot, including American Bershawn Jackson competing in the 400m Hurdles. Jeremy Wariner, Sanya Richards and Alison Felix are also competing in today's meet. Wariner will continue his rivalry with LeShawn Merritt while Richards and Felix will be competing in their first international meet since the Olympic trials.

For more on today's Golden League meet, visit:
http://www.iaaf.org/gle08/index.html

And watch today's meet on ESPN Classic starting at 3PM Eastern with replays on Saturday at 7AM on ESPN Classic and Sunday at 12 Midnight on ESPN2.

Countdown to Beijing: Look Back at The Past Olympiad
Yesterday, we briefly looked back at the last Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. Today, we look back at the past four years in sport (Olympic Sports, that is, though we've had memorable Super Bowls in the past 4 years too).

From the top of my head, there have been many changes in the marquee sports of track and field, swimming and gymnastics. In track and field, the sport has been trying to clean itself up by placing stricter rules on doping. Marion Jones confessed to using banned substances as well and immediately retired from the sport, giving up gold medals she won in 2000 in Sydney.Justin Gatlin was forced out of the sport in 2006, currently serving a four-year ban, after being tested positive for a banned substance. He won world championship gold medals in 2005 in both the 100m and 200m while his rival, Asafa Powell, was out with an injury. Unfortunately, the rivalry between the two never matriculated as we never got to see the two face each other in a race. Meanwhile, both Powell and Gatlin took turns breaking world records.

Meanwhile, runners began to run faster and different athletes emerged to become the top athletes of the sport, including Tyson Gay, Allison Felix and Bernard Lagat. Meanwhile, veterans like Jeremy Wariner continued to remain strong in their respective events.

In gymnastics, Chelsie Memmel, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin emerged as the United States' best hope for medaling in the sport, winning world championships in the past three years. In swimming, Michael Phelps continued to dominate in world championships while world records continued to be broken by multiple athletes.

Overall, from the past four years, the United States has just been getting better and faster in their respective sports. But they haven't been the only one. Teams from China, Australia and Russia have been getting better in certain sports as well. Especially host nation China, who ranked second in the medal count in Athens.

There have been other bright spots in sports for the past four years. Italy won the World Cup while Brazil's women's football team captured the World Cup in China last year. Commonwealth nations like Canada, England and Australia shined at the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne in 2006 while China dominated the Asian Games that same year.

We'll be taking a closer look at the past four years in each sport when we begin to preview the Olympic Games, sport-by-sport, beginning tomorrow with athletics.

Thanks very much for reading, hope you'll come back tomorrow.

Thurs July 10: MLB at Midseason and Countdown to Beijing Continues

This post will be relatively short with mostly some facts from my perspective and of course our continuing road to Beijing.

MLB Midseason Report
Before I continue, I'd like to warn readers that there's not going to be much detailed analysis here and the following comments are merely from my perspective (though I have inserted several links where the writers have a much better sense of what is going on in the MLB). Baseball is a tough sport to follow and requires a lot of committment which unfortunately I have no time for.

But I respect and love the game as much as the next guy so here are the biggest stories going on in MLB coming into the Midseason Break:

1. RED SOX AND DEVIL RAYS (NOT YANKEES)
I am a Yankee fan but they just haven't been doing their best this year. Yes, they have their moments in the spotlight but I think its safe to say that they could do better. The pitching has just been on and off though very recently the Yanks have been thrilling fans with their last at-bat wins. The Yanks may just end the first half of the season on the right note but they'll need to improve greatly to make the playoffs.

Meanwhile, how bout them Devil Rays? Quite a comeback story because I remember when I watched them play the Yanks, fans would come to watch the New York team rather than the Rays. They've got young players like 3B Evan Longoria and they have taken advantage of the mistakes made by their AL East rivals, particularly the Yankees. Though they may not have the best players, they have been consistent and that has gotten them the lead in the AL East.

But that lead has decreased and the Red Sox are looking to replace the Rys and take over the AL East. The defending World Series champions are experienced and have big hitters with averages above .300. They expect to win and are determined to do so. Also, they've got Boston behind them and with passionate fans like that, it can't hurt right?

2. The Chicago Cubs
Okay, I don't know much about the Cubs, I haven't seen them play that much this year (thanks to the great scheduling of games by Fox Sports), but I've heard much about them. Most recently their acquirement of Rich Harden from Oakland. First place in the NL Central division, it looks like this year is their best chance for a World Series title, if they stay consistent. It's possible that they could fall to the St. Louis Cardinals late in the year. After all, they are only 2nd in the division and Albert Pujols is still a consistent hitter. The Cubs also need to watch out for the Brewers, who are pinning their hopes on newly-aquired AL Cy Young Winner CC Sabathia.

Nevertheless, Go Cubs! Certainly a team to watch after the All-Star Break.

3. NL East and West Make For Competitive Baseball (Sort of)
By just looking at the standings, both the NL East and West are the most competitive divisions, sort of. The NL East has three teams vying for the top spot -- Philadelphia, Florida and New York. Of course the NL East is never that great so maybe the NL West can give us a little more of an interesting story. Arizona and Los Angeles are tied for first place, yet both teams are below .500.

Hmm...maybe there's a bigger story here about the National League. I'll leave it with this, the American League has won the last 11 All-Star games. Does that say anything about the National League?

Meanwhile, enjoy these links about the status of MLB at the All-Star break.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AvhsFIBelUthzOVEpU1e8uIRvLYF?slug=sh-midseasongrades070108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/lee_jenkins/07/10/jenkins.nlwest/index.html?eref=T1
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/index

That last link from ESPN just has a lot of good baseball stuff to read and talk about.

Countdown to Beijing: Looking Back at the Last 4 Years (Part I)
Well sometimes before you look toward tomorrow, we have to look back at yesterday. Today we'll take a brief stroll through the past four years beginning with the last Olympic Games, Athens 2004.

During the Games of XXVIII Olympiad, the games returned home to the place of their birth. Competitions like archery, the marathon and the shot put took place at the historic Panathinaiko Stadium and the Ancient stadium of Olympia. Paul Hamm of the United States made an incredible comeback in the Men's All-Around competition after falling from his dismount in the vault event. Then his gold medal was engulfed in controversy after we found out that the judges made errors in the scoring. He kept the gold medal even though he was pressured by the FIG and the South Korean gymnastics team to give it up. Days later in the individual events, Paul Hamm was the unintended victim of a scoring controversy in the men's high bar event. Hamm did his routine amid boos from the crowd that reacted to the low score given to the previous competitor Alexi Nemov (see video here).

Regardless, Team USA had plenty of gold medal highlights. Carly Patterson took home the women's all-around gold medal. Michael Phelps won six gold medals and two bronzes in the pool, while breaking a few world records at the same time. Mariel Zagunis took home the first women's sabre fencing gold medal. And in track and field, Justin Gatlin won the men's 100 meters, Jeremy Wariner led a 1-2-3 finish at the 400 meter dash, while Shawn Crawford led an American sweep in the 200 meters.

The home team of Greece had highlights as well, Fani Halkia won the 400 meter hurdles, while Dimosthenis Tampakos won the rings competition in gymnastics.

There were probably hundreds of highlights that I haven't mentioned. Off the top of my head, I'll remember the first Israeli gold medal coming from the sport of sailing, the thrilling U.S. win in women's soccer, how Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won the gold medal in beach volleyball, the wins by Argentina in both football and basketball, Chile's wins in singles and doubles competition of men's tennis. The list goes on and on. But it was a great Olympic Games and will have memories that I will cherish always.

So four years later, what has changed? We'll talk about what has happened in the past Olympiad tomorrow in our continuing series of the Countdown to Beijing.

Other notes...
A rider from Luxemburg has taken over the yellow jersey in the Tour de France:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-CYC-Tour-de-France.html?ref=sports

And England has put up a great start in their Cricket series test with South Africa:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/7497128.stm.

Thanks for reading, I'll catch you tomorrow.

Wed July 9: NBC's Olympic Plan (FULL BROADCAST SCHDEULE!) and my thoughts on Le Tour so far...

Sorry this post is late, busy day in the life of a blogger...

anyway, today we continue with the countdown to Beijing series with a look at NBC's plan to broadcast the Olympics. But first, the tour de France has been going on for several days now, and since my job is to cover world sports, its only fair to give the world's biggest annual cycling event its share of attention.

Why the Tour just isn't buzzing this year (and why it should)...
Since Lance Armstrong left for retirement, the Tour just isn't the same. Especially for us here in the United States, there hasn't been a "Tiger Woods"-like character for us to turn to Versus every morning and pay attention to the tour. It's hard for us to really invest our time and interest to a number of international cyclists who we've never heard of. Granted there are 22 days of the race for us to get to know these cyclists, but I guess the question should be: why would I want to get to know them in the first place?

I'll answer that question later, meanwhile there are other reasons why the tour isn't receiving much attention. Doping scandals from the past two years have played a huge role. A year after Armstrong retired following the 2005 race, Floyd Landis looked like our next American star in cycling after his come from behind win in 2006. But Landis was found guilty for taking synthetic testosterone and though he plead his innocence, he was stripped of the title. This result had several impacts on the sport. Cycling fans and general sports fans like me came to distrust American cycling and found no reason to view the Tour as a fair event.

This point was further proved in 2007 when the Tour was marked by several doping controversies. Three cyclists and two teams left the race due to various doping scandals, including pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokurov and his Astana team after Vinokurov was found guilty of blood doping. Michael Rasmussen, while still in the yellow jersey after winning Stage 16, was forced to leave the tour after he missed several blood tests and lied about his whereabouts during those scheduled blood tests.

The 2007 tour can be considered one of the lowest points of the history of the race. It led to many withdrawals by primary tour sponsors and certainly must have decreased the number of fans that were loyal to the sport.

But in my eyes, the Tour de France continues to be the one prize that most road cyclists strive for. Not even the World Championships or even the Olympic Games can compare to a Tour de France win. And it's this kind of pressure that may have caused many cyclists to turn to doping. But the international governing body of cycling, UCI, has made it its duty to enforce progress and remove doping from the tainted sport.

The Astana team that was heavily involved in last year's doping scandals have been barred from competing in this year's tour. Last year's green jersey winner, Tom Boonen, has also been barred from this year's race after failing a doping test earlier this year. Clearly there is some progress being made in making this year's tour a clean event. I have yet to hear of any immediate doping scandals concerning this year's Tour.

Which is why it is a good idea to give this year's tour a chance. Though what is normally one of the summer's biggest sporting events will be overshadowed by the upcoming Olympic Games, the Tour de France is the U.S.'s only chance to see the world's top cyclists perform on one of the most challenging stages in sports. And though the United States is not at the top of the cycling world like Lance Armstrong was several years ago, there are still plenty of young cyclists to admire. Several cyclists, including today's winner, Mark Cavendish of Britain, are relishing tour victories. Even the French have had their day in the sun after winning both Stage 3 and the yellow jersey on the same day.

It's something that I appreciate about the Tour, that individual riders can have their shining moments while trying to capture the overall title. The tour always has its share of stories as it rides around through the streets and mountains of France. And given that the Tour has its worst doping scandals behind them, its a sporting event that we need to start trusting again to give us what us sports fans love, great and fair competition.

"WHAT UP?! Media": NBC's Plan For the Olympics
Lot's of people are getting excited for the planned 3600 hours of Olympic coverage on the multiple networks and platforms of NBC Universal. The following article will tell you what all the hype is about:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/newscenter/news/newsid=148556.html#nbcs+complete+olympics

And all of what NBC said in that article is true and surely a positive for all Olympic fans across the country. But beware, it turns out that NBC's Olympic plan can be too good to be true. This are the flaws that I have heard from other blogs and articles:

• Sure, NBCOlympics.com will stream 2200 hours of coverage. But none of that live coverage will be of the marquee events like gymnastics and track and field. In an AP Report from last week, the Web will still be taking a backseat to TV.
• No other website or news organization (or blog including this one) is allowed to post videos of events prior to their broadcast on NBC. Actually, we can't post videos from the games at all.
  
• NBCOlympics.com will not stream any events that are scheduled to air on TV. So for us hoping to watch the Men's 100 meter final, we'll have to wait until it airs on NBC 12 hours after the event is completed.
  

So what's the impact of these restrictions? Viewers and internet users (and bloggers like me) may be flocking to illegal P2P video sharing sites to see other broadcasters feeds. (I won't mention where, you'll have to find it yourself). NBC needs to understand that the Web should be working with TV, not behind TV especially concerning top notch events. But consider the progress they've made from Sydney 2000 when they just had a couple of articles and pictures on the NBCOlympics website. I think this year's coverage of the Olympics is a big step up from then and certainly expected.

Many of the world's broadcasters are streaming big events on websites (look at BBC Sport). NBC looked like it was headed in this direction after it streamed the Men's Ice Hockey game live from the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006. I think we'll take what NBC is giving us now rather than taking less from them. Also, consider this: American broadcasters never pay attention to the marquee sports of the Olympics during non-Olympic years, so we can't expect them to broadcast it live (though they should). But they won't, because NBC paid wayyy tooo much money for these Olympics and they aren't going to gamble with advertisers by broadcasting marquee sports live in the morning (but they should, especially because the Today Show is doing so well in the ratings).

Overall, I'm happy with the coverage NBC is offering. I'm a crazy sports fan so if there's Olympic coverage every hour of the day, I'm down for it. And look at it this way, if you're a big Olympics freak like me, they'll be something on TV about the Olympics 24 hours a day that you'll forget to check who won that Men's 100 meter race by the time it airs on NBC.

As a special bonus to the readers, HERE IS THE ENTIRE NBC UNIVERSAL OLYMPIC SCHEDULE embedded below:


NBC Olympics broadcast schedule - Free Legal Forms

Thanks so much for reading! I hope I have informed and enlightened you with the opinion and information that I have given you. Come back tomorrow and we'll discuss some baseball and maybe even cricket (maybe...)

Tues July 8: Countdown To Beijing and One Week Until All-Star Game

The Olympic trials are over here in the United States and over the next four weeks, the eyes of the world will slowly shift to Beijing. In exactly one month from now, the Chinese capital city of Beijing will host the world's best sporting event, the Olympic Games. So everyday until the opening ceremonies begin at 8:08PM local time on 8/8/08, NOW Sports Daily will preview every aspect of the games as possible, from the elusive matchups in each sport, to introducing you to several unknown sports like BMX racing, to how to watch the Olympics here in the United States.

Countdown to Beijing: 30 Days Left
With less than 31 days left until the Games begin, what better way to start the countdown than introducing you to the host city of Beijing, China.

The International Olympic Committee elected Beijing to host the Games of the XXIX Olympiad on July 13, 2001, beating four other cities in the bid to host the games: Osaka, Paris, Toronto and Istanbul. For the past seven years, China has been rapidly preparing for these games, which should serve as a "coming-out" party for a nation that has made great economic progress and prosperity.

In the process, the Beijing Organizing Comittee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) has built 12 new venues, renovated 11 and built 8 temporary structures for a total of 37 venues that will host 302 events in 28 sports. Approximately 10,500 athletes from over 200 nations will take part in the competition.

Two venues that stand out the most are the Olympic Water Cube (Beijing National Aquatics Centre) and the Bird's Nest (Beijing National Stadium). The two venues will host aquatic and athletic events respectively. I can't really describe why they stand out better than these two pictures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bird%27s_Nest_stadium%2C_May_2008.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Beijing_National_Aquatics_Centre_1.jpg

I have never seen an exterior of a sports venue like those two, and they do truly make these Olympic Games unique, architecturally speaking.

Some basics regarding the games itself (just in case, I swear I'm not insulting your intelligence):

• Beijing 2008 will be held over a period of 17 days starting with the opening ceremonies on Friday, August 8 and will end with the closing ceremonies on Sunday, August 24.



• Competition will actually start two days before the opening ceremony on August 6, with preliminaries in the women's football (soccer) tournament.



• Some football games will be held in cities outside of Beijing and the equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong due to quarantine concerns. This will be the second time two separate nations will host Olympic events. The equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1956 while Melbourne, Australia hosted the rest of the Games.



• The modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896. The games during the VI, XII and XIII Olympiads have been cancelled three times to World Wars I and II.



• This will be the first Olympic Games to be broadcast entirely in high definition and expected to reach over 4 billion viewers around the world.



• The official slogan of the games is "One World, One Dream," the logo is entitled "Dancing Beijing" and there will be five mascots, each representing the five colors of the Olympic rings.

Those are just some basic facts that I throughout there. Each day leading up to the Games, I'll focus on one aspect of the upcoming Olympic Games. Tomorrow, for example, we'll look at NBC's coverage of the games as part of out "WHAT UP?! Media" weekly series.

All-Star Game Coming Up in One Week
New York City and Yankee Stadium will be hosting the baseball world next week with the 2008 All-Star Game. It's quite fitting since this is the last year in the history of the old Yankee Stadium before they move into the new Yankee Stadium. This is the first time since 1977 that the game will be held in New York.

The All-Star roster was announced last Sunday and taking a look at the starters, I don't see many surprises. Lots of Yankees and Red Sox players playing together, including Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez, both playing in their 12th All-Star Game. I can say that with how well the Rays are doing, its a little disappointing to see a lack of Tampa Bay players, though I guess the public hasn't gotten to know them yet.

The National League is a little more mixed with the Cubs having several more players in the game than other NL teams. The topic of choice right now seems to be about the Final Vote, where there is one spot left for each team, and five players in contention to capture that final spot, including Jason Giambi who is using his mustache as a campaign slogan to capture the final vote.

We'll talk more about the game as it gets closer to the first pitch. Meanwhile, if you're in New York check out these upcoming events:

• DHL All-Star Fan Fest, starting from Friday, July 11 until Tuesday, July 15 at the Jacob Javitz Center
  


• Taco Bell All-Star Sunday including the XM All-Star Futures Game and the Taco Bell Celebrities and Legends Softball Game


• State Farm Home Run Derby on Monday July 14


• All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 15.

Go to this link for more on the 2008 All-Star Game:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2008/index.jsp


Other Notes:
Rumor has it that the NHL Winter Classic will be heading to the Midwest at legendary Wrigley Field where the Chicago Blackhawks will face the defending Stanley Cup champions Detroit Red Wings.
Check out the details:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/35684-nhl-news-report-2009-nhl-winter-classic-information-announced



Schumacher wins Time Trial Stage 4 of Le Tour de France

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/sports/sports-cycling-tour.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin



And finally, imagine having to play a playoff game only to find out that one of the players is ineligible to play. That was the case in Britain where the Cricket Twenty20 quarterfinal was postponed:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/counties/7492116.stm



And here is this week's PIC OF THE WEEK:


Felipe Trueba/European Pressphoto Agency
Rafael Nadal posing for photographers after his victory over Roger Federer in the men's final at Wimbledon on Sunday.


That's all for now, thanks for reading and come back tomorrow, we'll discuss NBC's Olympic Coverage and hopefully I can cram in something about the Tour de France.

Mon July 7: Reviewing (And Analyzing) An Awesome Sports Week

My first full week of blogging about world sports turned out to be one of the most action packed sports weeks that I've been through, and the way it ended this past weekend gave every sports addict no reason to quit.

WIMBLEDON 2008
Nadal Better Than Federer?
The computers still say that Federer is number one in the world. To me, the simple answer is yes (Nadal is better), at least for now.

I think when we look back at it, Federer will be one of the most decorated players in the sport of tennis with his outstanding winning streak and number of grand slam titles. But in my eyes, Nadal is currently the top player in the world for a variety of reasons.

He's been consistently number 2 before his wins at the French Open and Wimbledon this year. For the past three years or so its always been these two fighting it out during the heart of the tennis season. If anyone could stop Federer, it's Nadal (though Fed has lost to other opponents in the past). And its been so obvious that Nadal has been getting closer to that number one spot. His fitness has been getting better, he's well conditioned and during the fortnight at the all-England club, he's had to fight slightly harder than Federer.

Comparing the two roads to the final, Nadal had a tougher road (though not by much). The only seeded player that Federer had to defeat was Lleyton Hewitt while Nadal had to face three. Federer never gave up a set in his road to the final while Nadal gave up one against Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the second round.

And by beating Federer at his game, Nadal defeated long odds of capturing this title when you considered everything that happened. Nadal prevented Federer from winning his sixth consecutive Wimbledon title. And this year, Nadal has two grand slam titles while Federer has zero. Nadal captured the elusive double of French and Wimbledon titles. So while Federer will probably be remembered as one of the greatest, for now, he'll have to settle with being second.

The backcourt might have helped Nadal...
One important thing that I'd like to point out is that the backcourt was dustier than ever, which may have helped Nadal. As we all know, Nadal is a strong clay-courter and his record at the French Open shows this. At this year's Wimbledon, with the fewer amount of rain delays compared to previous years, the backcourt was roughed up a lot and much of the grass disappeared in that backcourt by the middle weekend. During finals weekend, when that backcourt looked more like a claycourt than a grass court, I noticed many athletes were slipping and sliding at the back court. And I'm sure that whatever moisture that was able to touch that backcourt before the "gremlins" covered it up during rain delays made the surface feel more like a claycourt than a grass court.

Now I'm not saying that the lack of grass at the backcourt greatly helped him, but it may have been a factor especially considering how close yesterday's final was. Federer made some noticable unforced errors and Nadal was able to get a lot of strong shots, including several running forehands. In reviewing yesterday's match, I was amazed at how quickly Nadal was able to travel across the court to retrieve balls that normally seems out of reach.

Wimbledon in Review...
Regardless of how it happened, it was a great final and an exclamation point on an awesome fortnight of tennis. Wimbledon 2008 will be remembered as the tournament of upsets and great weather that ended with rivalries that never failed to entertain the crowd. Congratulations to Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal and here's to what should be a great hardcourt season to come...

U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS
I was also lucky to have my first week of blogging coincide with an event that only comes every four years: The Olympic Trials. We've had so many great stories develop out of the past week of swimming and track and field trials, as well as a lot of questions concerning the selection of the U.S. Olympic team.

Track and Field from Eugene, Oregon
I'll remember the Oregon trio that was able to get to Beijing after a thrilling 800 meter race. I'll also remember staying up until 1AM in the morning here on the East Coast to watch all the drama unfold. We'll all remember how Tyson Gay ran the fastest 100 meters any human has ever ran in any conditions (9.68 in a wind-aided race).

I'll also remember the upsets and the triumphs. How Jeremy Wariner DIDN'T win the 400 meters and athletes who didn't previously make the team now have their one chance. Like Lolo Jones who made the team after winning the women's 100m hurdles. And if you watched yesterday, you'll remember how great America is after three runners born outside of the United States made the Olympic team in the 1500m race, led by Kenyan-born Bernard Lagat, America's best chance for a gold medal in that event.

At the same time, we'll remember how cruel the trials are, and possibly how unfair it is. We'll remember how Tyson Gay, days after his remarkable win in the 100 meters, was unable to qualify for the Olympic 200m race after pulling up in a quarterfinal heat with a severe leg cramp. No matter how successful your season was, if you don't do well at the trials, you can't go to the Olympics. It's a rule that I disagree with and that should be changed. If you don't automatically qualify, but you've had one of the most awesome seasons ever, I think an athlete should at least petition himself for the Olympics.

The other side of the arguement will say that it's not fair to those who did do well at the trials, who have worked hard to peak at the right time. And if Tyson Gay is going to have cramps days after the 100 meters, whose to say that he won't cramp up again during the Olympics?

That might be true, but should an athlete's ability to win gold at the Olympics be judged by just one race or one event? While I think it makes a great story for television audiences and should be a primary part of the selection process, Olympic team organizers should be a little more open to selecting team members.

Swimming from Omaha, Nebraska
First off, congrats to Omaha for staging a great team trials. The region has been plagued by numerous flooding and tornadoes and this was a great event to bring confidence and hope back to the heartland.

The swim trials were headlined by Michael Phelps, at least at the start of the event. He's probably the only reason why NBC sent Bob Costas to the event. And it's true that he deserved to headline the event because he won all five of his events, two of them in world record time. But when I look back at these trials, I'll remember the rivalry that Phelps had (and will have at the Olympics) with Ryan Lochte. We'll also remember the talent that America found in Katie Hoff, the young 19-year-old that may become the new face of American swimming alongside veteran Natalie Coughlin, who broke several world records of her own during the trials.

The 200 meter breaststroke, like the 200 meter dash in track, showed the heartbreak of the trials, when Brendan Hansen finished in a shocking fourth-place. Like Gay, Hansen will be unable to compete in the 200m breaststroke in Beijing.

But it appears that the most interesting story out of the swimming trials is that of Dara Torres, the 41-year-old swimmer and mother who will make her fifth Olympic Games. Apparently, she has become the inspiration of middle-aged people everywhere. I guess NBC can count on that demographic to be viewers of the swimming events at this year's Olympics.

But seriously, I respect her enthusiasm and her performance as an athlete. It just proves that at any age, a person can be an elite athlete. It's great for the sport and great for sports in general to see more age diversity. It also silences the critics who say that you can be too old to be an athlete. All Torres is guilty of is living her life to the fullest.

YANKEES SPLIT SERIES WITH RED SOX...
Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees tied Mickey Mantle for 13th most home runs all-time, bringing him closer to being one of the best hitters of the game (in the regular season that is, postseason is a different story).
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/07/06/2008-07-06_arod_ties_knot_with_mickey_mantle_with_h.html

Meanwhile, Brett Gardner became the unlikely hero by hitting the winning RBI drive in a classic game between AL East Rivals. For New York fans, it was a rollercoaster ride that ended on a high note. More importantly, the four game series between the two teams was split two games each with the Yankees entering the final week before the All-Star break with a bit of momentum.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/07/06/2008-07-06_brett_gardner_leads_yankees_over_red_sox.html

OTHER NOTES...
A blockbuster trade was made between the Cleveland Indians and the Milwaukee Brewers, regarding the American League Cy Young Winner CC Sabathia:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_ZFiZGSwSzXzXqvEdxtg5tI_uWQD91P61K02

After the third stage of the Tour de France, it is the French riders who are enjoying success:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/sports/sportsspecial1/08tour.html

And finally, Sri Lanka can enjoy a national victory in the popular sport of cricket after their dominating victory over India in the Asia Cup final:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/7492421.stm

So a sports packed week comes to an end and things settle down a bit this week. Coming up tomorrow, check out my first post on the Tour de France and a little more attention will be paid to baseball as the All-Star Game approaches.

Thanks so much for reading. Monday always has the longest blog because I'll always look back at what is usually a pack weekend in sports. Hope you enjoyed my first week and I'm sure it will get better. If this is your first time here, leave a comment because I'm always looking for a way to make it better.