Sunday, February 21, 2010

USA vs. Canada - Battle of the Neighbors...On Ice

I'm just watched the Olympic hockey game, which was pretty darn good if you ask me.

Hearing about this game at first I was thinking "USA and Canada? Oh boy!" And because Canada was the country that created the sport, it's only common knowledge that they want the gold in their sport--in their own country.

Are they backing their claim to win gold? Right now, well, they're....trying to.

[My original pick: Canada is taking the win.]

For Canada, it doesn't look so good right now. The United States took them down with a score of 5-3, and American goaltender Ryan Miller went absolutely nuts in that net the whole game. Canada never really let up either, which on both ends is rather good. The game shown previously on television (Russia vs. Czech Republic) refused to disappoint, and this was definitely the same thing. No lie, the US is making me look like a monkey's aunt.

During the broadcast, it was said that Canada believes the US "disgraced" the sport of hockey. Do I agree with this? Of course not. Let's recap here...the United States has the National Hockey League (NHL), and to boot, a large amount of Canadians (as well as Russians, Slavs, Swedes, etc.) are playing the sport within the United States. Would you call that disgracing? It's not like we spit on the sport, we promoted it.
Let's use the example of baseball. The sport of baseball was originated in the United States. Since then, there have been several leagues spreading around the globe, such as the Japan Baseball League and the Caribbean Leagues. Are they disgracing it? No. Are they any good? Watch some footage from the World Baseball Classic from 2006 and from last year. Obviously, the Japanese and the Koreans are outdoing the founding father country, as it were.
In conclusion, every country involved in a sport promotes it and supports it in some way. Sometimes it's nice to see a team from another country outdo the country who made the sport famous.

For more information and final stats on this game, check it out here


--AZ

Welcome to a hodgepodge of opinions...

Hello everyone,

So I've just created a blog that I hope will increase my sports writing skills since I'm about halfway through college as a communications major. Now I guess you can basically tell which direction I'm going right now.

I grew up a huge Phillies fan (oh God, I'm from...there) and since then, I've been following a bunch of sports-related stuff, such as baseball, soccer, hockey, and a hint of football. Basketball isn't exactly my cup of tea, but when I have the chance, I'll watch the NBA finals or something.
Weird sports are good times too, I guess. I'm a huge WWE fan (I call it weird because it's scripted and mainly theatrical stuff) and I recently got into Australian Rules Football which is a butch lovechild of rugby and American football without padding. I understand that MMA is the new sporting phenomenon, but me being a girl and all, I can't seem to get into two guys trying to choke each other with their inner thighs and judo chopping the living crap out of other guys. Since when did we revert to Ancient Roman times?

Anyway, enough about that. I'm gonna attempt to be as neutral as possible when it comes to this kind of stuff. Being one-sided loses readers, am I right? (ha) I'm not going to necessarily stick to one sport, but I'll move around a bit. It's mostly going to be baseball, hockey, and soccer, and when I feel like it, football. If I do write about WWE/TNA/MMA stuff, it's going to be altogether in one post and most likely monthly. Since college work comes in bunches (like bananas, but less yellow) so it's going to be hard to update this daily (possibly weekly) until the summer.

Well, that's enough about me for now. I'll think of something to write about. Besides...spring training has begun (chorus begins).

--AZ