Vancouver 2010 - USA vs. Canada: Chick Fight for the Gold

Yeah.
Remember that whole crazy neighbor war from Sunday night? Tonight was basically it's younger sister having a harsh PMS session. Tonight wasn't the night for the Americans to party however; the Canadian women brought the honor of the sport back into their country by winning 2-0 in the gold medal match. Eighteen-year old Marie-Philip Poulin scored the two goals for Canada [side note: when you hear of a girl younger than you doing this stuff, you wonder what you've done all your life]. Throughout the game the announcers kept calling her the "female Sidney Crosby." I did not see facial hair on that girl. You not so funny people. [Insert rimshot]
There were also a whopping 11 penalties committed during the game. With all of the physicality during the match, it reminded me of that scene from Mean Girls when Lindsay Lohan (drug-free at the time) tackled Rachel McAdams in a daydream.
You could clearly tell that the US players were tense and nervous; the passes weren't very clean, and once the puck was stolen from one of them, they would nearly draw penalties. Head coach Mark Johnson, one of the US players from the 30-year old "Miracle on Ice," wasn't able to keep these girls cool during the game.

You know what though? If I were a member of the US team, I'd be happy with how far we had went. They blew out the oppositions just about every game, and took down Sweden in the semifinal game--as Sweden upset the US in the semifinals in Turin in 2006.

[Side note: At least I wasn't Slovakia and have my team blown out by Canada 18-0.]

For more information on this game, click here

--AZ

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