Spain wins Euro Cup defeating Germany 1-0

No spaniard could stop celebrating their country’s first major title in 44 years as Spain won the Euro Cup yesteday when they beat Germany 1-0 at the finals in Vienna, this meant the second european title for Iberians.

Well, it cannot be counted as a title, but Spain did managed to win the gold metal at the Barcelona Olympic games of 1992.

So David Villa was Spain’s main scorer while the tornament lasted, but yesterday’s hero was Fernado Torres, and so when Villa got injured, all eyes were set on Torres who scored the only goal of the match and gave Spain more reasons to believe that they are ready to win a world cup title.

Both teams had confidence as their main weapon to win the championship, as Spain had 21 games without a single defeat, and Germany had a better record than the spaniards at te Euro Cup.

It seems like the King, queen and president of Spain were part of Iberian’s coaching staff, as when Fernando Torres scored the only goal of the match, they all jumped from their sits in a very enthusiastic way, showing how much this meant for all of the country in general, fro the humblest to the whealtiest.

"This is just the beginning, the best is yet to come. Now we're going for the World Cup!" said President Jose Luis Zapatero.

Euro Cup Finals: Germany with edge over Spain

The Euro Cup is about to end with the finals set for Spain and Germany, and the lattest has the more chances of coming with the victory.

Spain is looking to win their first major international championship since 1964 when they came as the winners of the European Championship, while Germany has being more consistent and has achieved a good number of titles, including 3 europeans and 3 world cups, so it will be something historical if the germans fell to the not-so-lucky Spaniards.

Also, Spain has only taken down the germans once in 7 competitive matches.

And to Spain’s disgrace, the player that was doing miracles for the team is not going to be at the grass court to face Germany, as David Villa got injured and will have to watch the game from home.

Iker Casillas, Spain’s captain can come as the salvation for his team, but if they don’t push the offensive more, they will surely be in trouble against the more-in-shape Germany.

The NBA Draft

The Celtics aren’t worried at all for having the 30^th overall pick, why? Well, let’s put an example: Glen “baby” Davis and Leon Powe, both were second round picks, and they showed how valuable they are for Boston at the past 2008 NBA Finals.

Let’s talk about the Knicks, they will try to get the best player with their 6^th overall pick, and that pick has a name: OJ Mayo. But it will be difficult to acquire Mayo as he might get picked earlier in the draft, the other player the Knicks have their eyes set on is Danilo Gallinari, the best european in the draft.

On the other hand, Jermaine O’neal got traded yesterday before the draft takes place, he will go to the Raptors in exchance for TJ Ford, Rasho Nesterovic, a player to be defined and tonight’s 17^th overall pick.

Now, the Hornets will give away their 27^th pick to the Blazers in exchange for cash as they are looking to use that money in order to bring a more talented player to the team.

The draft is being said to be unfair, but this year it seems to be a little bit more balanced, hopefully teams like the Pacers or the Nets (now without Jason Kidd) will get good players in order to bring some good competition to this coming NBA season.

Wimbledon Standings

One of the big contenders to destroy Roger Federer’s hopes of coming with his sixth straight title at Wimbledon, the third-ranked Novak Djokovic, fell at the tournament to the 75^th ranked and former number one Marat Safin.

Djokovic was anxious to defeat Federer again as he already did it at the semi-finals for the Australian Open, but it might be Safin – who also beat Federer at the same tournament – who will have the chance to upset the spaniard at the English tourney.

On the other hand, the only other Wimbledon champion who is currently playing for the title this year, Lleyton Hewitt took on Albert Montanes of Spain and advanced to the next round, while former number one, Juan Carlos Ferrero retired with an injured leg when he was down on the game with russian Mischa Zverev.

On women’s, Ana Ivanovic just survived at her game against Nathalie Dechy, and Serena Williams defeated Urszula Radwanska at court 2 or the so-called “graveyard of champions”

More on Wimbledon soon...

Kyle Busch heading the Sprint Cup Series

In every single professional sport, there is always a man that fans love to hate, and NASCAR is no exception, as Kyle Busch’s arrogant attitude has earned him a bad reputation most people would like to avoid.

But it’s probably that pomposity that has given the 23 year-old Busch the confidence he’s needed to come up big in his short but brilliant career.

Yesterday Kyle Busch won his fifth race of the season at Infineon Highway, coming from 30^th to 1^st to conquer the Toyota/SaveMart 350.

Busch thanked Joe Gibbs Racing Team and crew chief Steve Addington for some adjustments made to the No. 18 Toyota Camry that truly facilitate Busch’s job on the race, "It means so much to me that these guys were able to do that," said Busch.

The young racer won 78 of the 112 laps of the race, and with the victory, Kyle Busch increased his Sprint Cup points to 2,408 which gives him a 113-point advantage over his nearest rival on the table: Jeff Burton.

Besides Busch, the other two favorites to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series are Burton and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., but this time it looks like Kurt Busch’s younger brother is going through an outstanding moment and to beat him in the overall series would end up being a tough challenge.

Kobe Bryant satisfied with Lakers current roster

Sure, the Lakers fell to the Celtics this year at the NBA Finals , but future looks promising for a franchise that was questioned due to their lack of efforts to build a solid team, and the main person who got the Lakers thinking on why they hadn’t made it to the finals since 2004 was Kobe Bryant.

Kobe was more than unsatisfied with LA’s outcomes for the last seasons, and even demanded to be traded, feeling that he wanted to be with a team that could win an NBA championship, as a result, he was often criticizing Lakers manager Mitch Kupchak and coach Phil Jackson’s decisions, oh and let’s not forget his bashing on Andrew Bynum.

Kobe got alot of hate from Lakers fans and got booed for the opening of the 2007-08 season, and it seemed like the 29 year-old shooting guard was going to wear a different NBA shirt, but the trade never came, and it was all for good, as Bryant won his first league MVP award and became more a team player which helped the Lakers to finish 2 games away from winning their 15^th NBA title.

Now we will have to wait until next season and see if this long-time rivalry between Boston and LA is going to continue as a couple of decades ago, though I still believe the Celtics are a better team.

McLaren fired from Mariners

The Mariners are too close to lose 100 games this season only, and it was just was a matter of time until they do whatever it was necessary to bring some good results.

And so John McLaren, who came to the renewed Mariners just one year ago, was released from his coaching duties today since Seattle wanted to be at the playoffs this year but instead, they are holding the worst record in the league in despite of having a $100 million dollar payroll.

McLaren serves in the major leagues for 21 ½ years before assuming a head coaching position, too bad that he didn’t had the luck to remain in such position.

But not only John McLaren got fired, vice president and general manager Bill Bavasi was also removed and replaced by Lee Pelekoudas just 3 days ago, so I would guess Pelekoudas had something to do with McLaren’s displacement.

Bench coach Jim Riggleman will replace McLaren for the rest of the season. Riggleman managed the San Diego Padres and the Cubs in the past and had a record of 486-598 (.448) with both teams.

Good luck McLaren!

Rajon Rondo, the best of game 6

What can it be better for a player that struggled against critism all season long than coming to game 6 and be the standout of the team? Well that is exactly what happened to Rajon Rondo, the point guard for the Boston Celtics that never lost the faith in himself, either Doc Rivers, the Celtics coach, who got Rondo to start a total of 77 games.

Well, it’s true, they hired Sam Cassell, the 38 year-old veteran, which means that the management group from Boston wasn’t really sure about Rondo’s efficiency, but at the end Cassell ended being just a back up for the 22 year old point guard.

And that trust from Rivers in Rajon Rondo is what truly helped the Celtics to acquire their first championship in 17 years against their all-time rivals, the Lakers.

Even Phil Jackson had something to say about Rondo’s performance on the last game of the series for the 2008 NBA championship: "Rondo was the star, he was the guy out there that made the plays, got the steals, pushed their offense into high drive and created havoc for us." He said.

Rondo had it rough, but at his young age, he’s already an NBA champion, not bat at all.

Yao Ming is doubt for Stankovic cup and Olympics

Even though the Rockets started their streak of 22 wins with Yao Ming and finish it without him, nobody can deny that the chinese player is essential in Houston’s starting lineup.

The reason why Yao got sidelined was a left foot injury and the 7-foot-6 center hasn’t played since February 27. He said that he will not leave for China until the Rockets cleared him to practice.

Yao’s agent John Huizinga said that is still pending the decission about Ming playing the Stankovic Cup, an event that serves as a warm up for the Olympic games of Beijing and that will take place in Hangzhou, China. The cup will feature Iran, China, Russia and Angola.

China will open the Olympic games in a very anticipated game against the USA, and if Yao Ming is not in shape for such date, it could severely damage the plans of the asians.

Yao Ming is not the only chinese player at the NBA, as power forward Yi Jianlian is with the Milwakee Bucks and Sun Yue got drafted by the Lakers at the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft.

Nadal wins Roland Garros, the Queens Club and hopes to win the tourney at Wimbledon

Sure, Rafael Nadal is world’s number two, and Roger Federer is number one, and both are kings on different tournaments, Nadal at Roland Garros and Federer at Wimbledon, but this yeat Nadal says is time to take away the english tournament out of Federer’s hands.

As expected both Nadal and Federer made it to the finals for the French Open, and Nadal took on the swiss by 6-1 6-3 6-0 and became the second player after Bjorn Borg to win 4 straight Roland Garros titles. By the way, Nadal has won all 28 matches he has played at the French Open for a perfect record.

Yesterday Rafael Nadal won his first grass-court title after beating Novak Djokovic at the Queen’s club final in London, and he’s expeting a win at the finals in Wimbledon in order to win all 3 titles the same year.

Nadal is far from achieving what Federer has done, as the swiss has 55 career titles while the spaniard only 28, but Nadal is 5 years younger than Federer and it seems like he’s on his way to get closer to Federer’s numbers.

Celtics at one game of being champions

The Lakers are in trouble, and it’s not just the 3 all-stars from Boston who has gave them some headaches lately, it’s also a player called Leon Powe.

He did it in game 1 scoring 21 points and now he’s making himself a name with another outstanding delivery of basketball at game 4 and helping the Celtics to take a lead of 3-1 in their series against Los Angeles with their victory from yesterday at the Staples center by 97-91, giving the Lakers their first home defeat at this playoffs.

And when the Lakers took a lead of 24 points in the first half they probably thought the win was in their hands, but the Celtics made an excellent comeback and by the first minutes of the fourth quarter things were tied at 73, then with only 4:07 on the clock, Boston took the lead for good at 84-83; from that point on, it was all Boston.

Phil Jackson said that the series is not over. I guess he’s the only one who thinks that way, since the Lakers have just one more game to play at home to then visit the TD Banknorth Garden for the remaining two, so... Congrats to Boston for their 17th NBA championship.

Jonathan Ogden retires from NFL

Jonathan Ogden spent his 12 seasons at the NFL playing for Baltimore, and yesterday he said goodbye to the world of professional football.

His decision came mostly because he started to suffer of a hyperextended toe that has being bothering him since December 2006, though he will not be saying goodbye to the Ravens for good, as he will stay and help keeping an eye on the offensive linemen.

Is almost a fact that Ogden will be included into the NFL hall of fame, and his career speaks for him: Got invited to the pro-bowl 11 times and played Super Bowl XXXV where the Ravens met the Giants for a victory of Baltimore over New York by 34-7 back in 2000.

Jonathan Ogden has stated that his decision is final, "You don't have to worry about me coming back, that won't be happening." he said.

Early on his career he won the 1995 Outland Trophy and his #79 shirt was retired when he left UCLA to join the NFL.

Good bye to an All-Star!

The NBA Finals: Lakers win and take a breath

Nobody can deny that the bench has being essential both for the Celtics and the Lakers at this NBA Finals, proof of that are Leon Powe and Sasha Vujacic, as Powe scored 21 points on game 2 for Boston and Vujacic shot for 20 last night at the Staples Center on the victory of Los Angeles to the Celtics that finished 87-81.

And so the Lakers are taking a breath after being down 2-0 in the series, and as it is well known, no team in NBA history has overcome a 3-0 deficit, and Kobe Bryant knew it was win- or-die for LA, so he started to show some of his potential and ended with 36 points to come and play game 4 untroubled.

Now, the Celtics must win at least one at Los Angeles if they really want to take a true lead in the series and go back to Boston to celebrate their 17^th NBA championship title. On the other hand, the Lakers have court advantage and their die-hard fans, including a bunch of LA celebrities.

Hoops, a sport that was stagnating in terms of fan appreciation due to the corrupt referee’s scandal from last year, seems to be going through a rebirth and into the begining of a golden era, and as of now, it would be difficult to put a name for the winner of this series, let’s just wait until Thursday for another good dosis of outstanding basketball.

Euro 2008 standings

The Euro Cup 2008 is just starting, and yesterday the Dutch played against Italy, in one of the best encounters of the tournament for the group C or so called “the group of the death”, that also includes France and Romania, who tied to zero on Monday.

With goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the Netherlands showed again their superiority to the Azzurri as the Italians have not beaten the Dutch for 8 straight times begining with their loss to Holland in the semifinals for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina.

While on the group D, Spain won to Russia by just one goal, and the absence of Andrei Arshavin and striker Pavel Pogrebnyak was a determining factor for the russians; the other game for the same group is programmed for today when Greece faces Sweeden.

What about the group standings? All with 3 points, Portugal is leading group A, while Germany is at the head of group B, the Dutch with their win to Italy are at the top oft group C and Spain is heading group D.

Is too early to say who is going to win each group as only one match has been played. Though, the teams leading the tables are clear contenders for the last rounds.

In my opinion, a final between Germany and the Dutch is most likely to happen.

Watch Big Brown coming in 9th

Big Brown finished 9th at the Belmont Stakes

So much was expected from Big Brown, but at the end he finished as the previous 10 horses to not be able to come up with the Triple Crown.

Big Brown finished 9th, with Da’Tara 1^st and Denis of Cork 2^rd, well, Da’Tara coming in first was a big surprise for everybody, even more when Casino Drive, Big Brown’s biggest rival was not able to run the mile-and-a-half test due to a bruised hoof.

International Equine Acquisitions Holdings was the co-owner for Big Brown with 75%; the organization acquired the colt when he won 11 1/4 lengths at Saratoga a while ago, and so they were expecting to celebrate the victory of Big Brown and jockey Kent Desormeaux this past Saturday, but now they know that next year Big Brown will be a 4-year-old and unable to compete with 3-year-olds, so they released the rights of the horse to Three Chimneys Farm for breeding purposes, in a deal rounding the $60 million dollars.

If Big Brown had won, he would be the only Triple Crown colt alive, and worth $120 million, with an approximate of $200,000 per mating, and a place among immortal colts in all of horse racing history, now he’s become just one among the bunch.

Celtics win first game at the 2008 NBA Finals

Big Celtics fan here! And I couldn’t be more happy about yesterday’s win for Boston to the Lakers by 98-88 at the 2008 NBA Finals, but there was a low point to the victory, and that is Paul Pierce’s injury at the third quarter, which started to rise some doubts about a pierce-less series to Los Angeles.

The Celts are looking to come up with their 17^th NBA Championship, and I must say I feel proud of what Boston have done so far, considering that they have had it tough during the playoffs, and with certain moments where either of the big-three were producing under their respective averages, like Ray Allen, who could not found himself a couple of games during their series against the Pistons, or Kevin Garnett who also missed his connection to the ring in previous games, now we have Pierce, that hasn’t stopped doing what he knows to do best, but his injury on game one of the finals just leaves everybody wondering if that won’t affect him in future matches, well, it didn’t looked like that yesterday as he finished the game with 22, 11 of those after getting hurt, so chances are that he will still be playing outstandingly.

And Ray Allen? Well he’s averaged 15 points during the post season, and yesterday contributed 19, which is exactly what the Celtics need, that his all-stars to shot for more than their norm. And Kevin Garnett? Well he leaded the scoring board for the Celts with 24 points and it looks like he’s ready for some superb action at these finals.

On the Lakers, well, I must say that I am hoping the Celtics to win this championship, but with the best player in the NBA on Kobe Bryant, who finished the game with 24 points, Los Angeles are favorites, of course these are the finals, and they are quite different than regular or post seasons.

Safina - Ivanovic at the Roland Garros finals

Who would have thought that Maria Sharapova was to retire soon from the French Open, and that Dinara Safina, the 13^th seeded female tennist who sent Sharapova home was going to beat six top-10 players in 4 fours and be ready to play the Roland Garros finals? I guess nobody, but that’s what the sister of Marat Safin has done, and she’s on her route to win the title in a great way.

And just a few hours ago Ana Ivanovic beat Jelena Jankovic and will meet Safina in the finals, and the russian looks with the more chances to win Safina as she’s seeded at number 2, but I guess rankings is something that hasn’t played a big part on this version of the Roland Garros.

Overall the French Open is one of the biggest competitions in the world of tennis, and for less-known tennists, to come and beat the all-stars is a real achievement.

So Sharapova and the Williams sisters might be thinking that they came with the believe of having the victories on the pocket, but they surely didn’t realized that there aren’t small rivals.

Nadal in French Open semifinals

As expected, Rafael Nadal has made it to the semifinals, and in an easy way, as he took down Nicolas Almagro 6-1,6-1,6-1 which is quite impresive. By the way, it was Nadal’s birthday, and a victory was the best gift he could grant himself.

But is Nadal, and everyone knows about his capacity to win big, even though he was playing against a tennist that has had a great amount of experience in clay courts and whom has won 24 matches on such surface this year.

Rafael Nadal is now facing Novak Djokovic, and it’s just the same story repeating itself, as the spaniard took on the serbian at the same stage of the French Open last year, and also at Wimbledon, so Djokovic is surely looking for his portion of revenge.

The other semifinalists will be decided today as Roger Federer is playing Fernando Gonzalez and David Ferrer is playing the only frenchman remaining in the competition Gaël Monfils.

Let’s not forget that Nadal is going after his fourth straight title for the Roland Garros, something that only Bjorn Borg achieved back at the begining of the 1980’s. So critics have started to compare them both, and for some, this could be a bit annoying for Nadal, but the spaniard feels different: "Comparing myself to Borg, I mean, how could I dare do that, he was one of the top three players in all the history of tennis. Thank you very much. That's very kind of you comparing me to such a huge player.” The 22 year old professional tennist said.

Flip Saunders fired from the Pistons

The Pistons are blaming coach Flip Sanders for their defeats at the last stages of the last 2 NBA Finals, and it’s a bit unfair in my opinion.

After 3 seasons he just got fired from his job in despite of doing a great work, so my question is... what is it with teams firing coaches when the blame is to be taken by those who are actually carrying the ball in the court? After all, the coach is just a guide, and if the Pistons have not made it to a championship in the past 2 years it has more to do with other mathers but coaching strategies.

It’s true that frustration takes over when you see that your teams made it to the conference finals for six straight seasons and never finished with the championship, it might bring certain feelings of anxiety, but at then end we are talking basketball here, and uncertainty is what reigns in this sport.

Flip Sanders was on the road to his last year of contract out of 4 as he started coaching the Pistons back in 2005, when he took over for Larry Brown.

I am not sure if firing Sanders is the solution, but the truth is that Detroit is looking for a new voice to lead they way, and possible candidates as of now are Saunders former assistants Michael Curry or Terry Porter and maybe former Mavs coach Avery Johnson, but it’s just to early to say who can take Saunders chair.

Celtics have history on their side

Certainly the Lakers had a clear rivalry with the Bulls when Michael Jordan was playing for Chicago, but the truth is that Los Angeles true arch enemy has always being the Celtics.

And that why this NBA Finals are even more interesting, two excellent teams with a long history in finals are going to start their route to the NBA championship on June 5^th, and things are pointing in Boston’s direction. Why? Well because history speaks for itself, as these two teams have met at the NBA Finals in 5 ocassions, and Boston has took over the Lakers each time.

On his side, Paul Pierce grew up watching the Lakers as he is a Los Angeles native, and so when he gets to play them, he does it with some extra energy that becomes vital at times for the Celtics to beat Kobe Bryant and friends.

Now, the team that starts playing at home has an edge, as if the series is pushed to a 7^th game, they’ll have their fans chanting for them and booeing the rival, and in a last game, specially the one that can decide a championship, is something to consider.

But let’s not forget that the Lakers are showing their best team since the Shaquille O’Neal era, with Pau Gasol and Bryant being true leaders, they will try to break with that streak of no victories in finals against Boston, and this is surely the best shot they got.