The End of the Summer of 2012

As the summer comes to a close, so does this blog! I hope to continue my sports ranting at my new blog: Watch ALL the sports! Click on the logo below to see it. :-)

Farewell, summer of 2012. You've been a rollercoaster.
.
.

Got Olympics? I do!

Warning: contains a borderline indecent amount of bragging! ;-)

I greatly regret not recording my daily impressions on the London 2012 Olympic Games in this blog. In truth, I was simply too exhausted. Insomnia and jet lag in July and August resulted in poor sleep and groggy wake. I guess that when you're done watching 12 daily hours of sports, you don't much feel like adding to it by also writing about it!

However, I did do some recording that in the long run will prove to be even more valuable. In a post last month I explained my family's habit of recording a lot of sports. Well, I outdid myself for London 2012.

In Italy, where I watched, the Olympics were broadcast live by two networks: the national syndicate Rai and Rupert Murdoch's satellite platform Sky Sports. Rai offered a basic service with 10 daily hours of live HD broadcast, focusing primarily on Italian athletes but also showing all the important finals. Sky, instead, showed the whole thing, with 13 HD channels (one even in 3D) broadcasting 24/7 and covering every event from every sport, no exceptions whatsoever. Sky's truly outstanding package is easily the most comprehensive television coverage of any sporting event I have ever seen in my life.

I recorded from both networks. Rai is free-to-air, so I tallied a total of 1,156 Gigabytes of recordings on my PVR. These were all direct transport stream 1080i files with no filtering. After picking out what I cared to keep, I ended up with 232 Gigabytes, or 44 hours of high-definition video. As soon as I have the time (and the money), I will burn all that onto 15 Blu-rays for the ultimate Olympics collection. A good half of those recordings comes from athletics and swimming, which are by far my favorite sports, but virtually every discipline is represented to some extent.

Sky Sports, instead, heavily encrypts its high-definition signal with HDCP protection protocols. While illegal workarounds exist, I didn't feel like keeping up with the required tinkering; breaking copyright law is such hard work! ;-) So even as I watched everything in HD, I only recorded in standard definition. Even so, I ended up with 21 DVDs, or roughly 42 hours of material. Much of this is the same stuff that I also got from Rai, but with another commentating team, different court-side interviews, and even some exclusive camera work by Sky's team... in short, a varied enough experience to make it worth my time and resources to archive both.

If you think it's insane to fill up 36 disks with one edition of the Olympics, you are absolutely correct. As I already explained in many other posts this summer, I am indeed insane. Plus, this is pretty much my only real hobby. So there! (Don't even get me started on NBC's piss-poor, tape-delayed, jingo-happy "coverage": for once, I was sooooo very glad not to be in the US for this!)
.
.

Some Olympic jokes!

Compiled from various Internet sources, mostly in Italian, and translated by moi. Hilarious!

• The Greeks walked first in the opening ceremony parade. Their rental suits were due back at midnight.

• One scene showcased traditional children's nightmares, such as priest robes.

• "Hey Jude" topped off the opening ceremony, kinda like at Berlin 1936.

• The Arabian judoka is allowed to wear the veil, so long as her ippons all face Mecca.

• Italian swimmers take home no medals for the first time in decades. The swimmers blame the coaches, the coaches blame the swimmers, nobody agrees on anything, nothing gets done, and nobody knows why. It's like the Democratic Party, minus the water.

• Doped 50km walker Alex Schwazer cries: "I shot up EPO on the 29th, and when I got tested on the 30th I knew I'd get caught." This guy must have been the best cop ever.

• Chinese teen faster than Lochte in the 100. Then they filled the pool with water.

• The Chinese reject all doping charges: "Our champions are under strict control." Like their citizens.

• Syrian athlete ejected after testing positive for democracy in her blood.

• Women's 4x400 relay. The American women beat the old record set by the East Germans, who are all grandfathers now.

• World record for the Jamaican relay. They're really good at passing it around.

• Armstrong wins gold in women's cycling. I didn't know he took out the other ball too.

• Italy's success in fencing, shooting, fighting, and archery prompts parliamentary revision of pacifist Constitution.

• The Olympic Games stand for unity, solidarity, and equality. Then why does the black guy always win?

• The Olympics were born in Greece. And will live longer.

London 2012: who won how much and why

Turnover was the leitmotif of the Games of the XXX Olympiad. Few disciplines confirmed old trends and most discovered new champions, as many sports are in the middle of a generational shift. Notable examples are swimming and cycling, but stunners have also come from athletics, diving, fencing, and football. While a discussion of the medal table isn't a full analysis of the current worldwide state of sports, it is still a valuable factual basis for such an analysis to rest.

To begin, below are the top 20 positions in the final medal count, ordered by number of total medals (as I think it should be) and not by number of golds (as many improperly do). Click on the picture to enlarge.

Some quick facts are immediately evident:

• The USA takes back the Olympics as China's home court advantage wanes. Depending on how you look at it, Beijing 2008 (see that medal table here) was either won by China or closely contested with the USA.

• China retain a solid second place, regardless, and win medals in more disciplines than any other country. This is yet more evidence of the nationwide effort, surely mandated and perhaps immoral, to raise the bar across the board. After all, this is the least you would expect from a nation of 1.3 billion individuals.

• As usual, the home country takes more than would be expected otherwise. A mere 16 years ago, at Atlanta 1996, team GB had only won one gold and a total of fifteen medals. Quite the far cry from the third place overall in the home Olympics! (By contrast, China had built up its leadership for three or four editions before Beijing, though of course the two efforts are incomparable; see above).

• No African nation is present in the top 20, the highest-ranked being Kenya at #23. Conversely, every other continent is multiply represented: 10 nations for Europe, 4 for the Americas, 4 for Asia (including the Middle East), and 2 for Oceania. It's also noteworthy that the first Caribbean nation, Jamaica, ranks in at #21... unless we consider Cuba one such nation, and we shouldn't.

• Russia is still the top European country, no doubt due in part to the remains of the Soviet sports program. However, if you only count countries that belong to the EU, then Germany, France, and Italy are the only ones in the top 10, and there are only two more in the top 20. More on the state of European sports in the next section.

• The hosts of the next Olympics, Brazil, show virtually no improvement over Beijing, tallying up the same number of golds (3) and only two more medals overall (17 to 15). I will return to this below, as this is but one element in an alarming downward trend for Brazilian sports.

Of less immediate relevance, but still interesting, are these further facts:

• The rise of Iran? The Persians have have done better than in any previous Olympics, or international sporting event in general, by earning a total of 12 medals, 4 of which were golds. However, all were won in traditionally Eastern-dominated disciplines, such as fighting and weightlifting. And of course, all were won by male athletes, as the very few Iranian women who competed did so primarily for publicity. I guess that one thing to be said for (former and current) communist regimes is that at least they grant substantially equal sporting opportunities to both sexes: you don't see such radical inequality in China, Russia, or even North Korea.

• First-time medalists. A total of 73 countries (out of 204 that have an Olympic Committee) are yet to win an Olympic medal, of any color and in any sport. That's seven fewer than in 2008, as these countries have won their first-ever medal at London 2012: Botswana, Bahrain, Cyprus, Gabon, Grenada, Guatemala, and Uganda.

• By the way, the all-time medal leaderboard has remained unaltered: USA, Soviet Union, Germany, Great Britain, and France remain the top 5. See the full list here.

• United States vs. European Union. Is the EU the real winner of this Olympics? The short answer is no, but it's more complicated. If all the EU member states competed together under one flag, they would have totaled 306 medals, which is thrice as much as the United States, including a whopping 92-46 supremacy in golds (source here). This would be a resounding win population-wise, for the EU has one medal per 1.5 million people and the US has one medal per 3 million people. But this doesn't keep track of competitor limits: in most competitions, each participating country is limited to one, two, or three athletes or teams. And as the EU is made of 27 member states, we can say that it "took" them a competitor limit up to 27 times higher than that of the US to achieve these results. Even taking into account that they won thrice as many medals, the US would have still achieved the same result with roughly 9 times fewer athletes than the EU, which is a definite win for the US. Of course, it's not that clear-cut. If the EU could rely on one central Olympic Committee instead of 27, sports funding would be managed differently and it is entirely possible that the average level would rise, as it tends to do in all large federations  But as it stands, the US still clearly dominates worldwide sports.

• The Jamaica-USA rivalry in sprint running is still alive. It may seem, because of Usain Bolt, that the USA has been lagging behind, but that is false. Jamaica has won twelve medals in sprints, four of each color, and one from almost every discipline: men's and women's 100 and 200, three out of four relays, and the men's hurdles. But the USA has won the same overall number of sprint medals and the same number of sprint golds, though Jamaica has one more silver. So while there's no competition in men's short sprints, the USA still holds water. (Or, if you want to look at the glass as half-empty, you could say that until 12-16 years ago the USA completely dominated sprint running and they no longer do so now).

Finally, these further stats are worth considering, especially as it concerns Brazil:

Best gold-to-inhabitants ratio:

1. Granada: 1 gold for every 105,000 individuals
2. Jamaica: 1 gold for every 1,350,000 individuals
3. New Zealand: 1 gold for every 1,450,000 individuals
4. Slovenia: 1 gold for every 2,000,000 individuals
5. Croatia: 1 gold for every 2,100,000 individuals

Worst gold-to-inhabitants ratio among nations with at least a gold medal

1. Brazil: 1 gold for every 67,200,000 individuals
2. Argentina: 1 gold for every 40,750,000 individuals
3. Turkey: 1 gold for every 37,000,000 individuals
4. Canada: 1 gold for every 34,500,000 individuals
5. Ethiopia: 1 gold for every 31,150,000 individuals

While the former stat doesn't necessarily indicate the "winners" of the Olympiad, the latter definitely indicates the losers. This is especially surprising for Brazil and Argentina, who have a proficient sports tradition. These federations will have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what hasn't worked. The Brazilians have a special interest in improving quickly, but four years isn't enough time to raise a generation of champions, so the home factor may be less relevant come 2016.

My Favorite Three Goals Ever Scored

Notice how I didn't say the "best" three goals. These standings are always somewhat subjective. No doubt that these three would appear in every football fan's top ten or twenty, and there may even be little question about the first, but who knows. For me, these are the most spectacular, meaningful, and pleasant to watch over and over again.

Click the player's name or the picture to see a video of the goal!

---

1. DIEGO ARMANDO MARADONA
Argentina vs. England – 1986 World Cup quarterfinal – Mexico City, 22 June 1986

This match sports the two most famous goals in football history. In the 51st minute, Maradona jumped on a loose ball in the English box and punched it past the goalkeeper Peter Shilton. The inexperienced referee allowed the goal, which has become legendary as La mano de Dios (the hand of God). But only four minutes later, Maradona scored The Goal of the Century. He received the ball deep in his own three-quarters, ran 60 meters, dribbled five English defenders along the way, and deposited the ball past Shilton with a gentle touch. While no one touch or dribble in this play is individually spectacular, this goal epitomizes the full-pitch dominance of the one truly unmarkable player in the history of the Game. When Maradona had the ball, it was nearly impossible to take it away from him. His short-range and calibrated touches, combined with sublime waist and elbow movement and surprising speed for such a short (and overweight) player, made him the most fearsome winger to ever play. While he regularly displayed these features in league and international matches, never did they come together any better than in this perfect goal.

---

2. MARCO VAN BASTEN
Netherlands vs. USSR – Euro 1988 final – Munich, 25 June 1988

The Netherlands landed the final on the wings of his star striker's goals. In this exciting final match, Van Basten first headed a delightful assist for his captain Ruud Gullit's goal in the first half. Then, in the 54th minute, he hit this spectacular volley. Muren's cross from the left was probably never intended to be an assist, but Marco waited for the ball to reach his chest height and then took his shot. It resulted in a hard and straight kick, and a very precise one at that. The great Soviet goalkeeper Dasaev was perfectly positioned by the near post, so Marco only had a tiny window to squeeze the ball through, and only at such a high speed before Dasaev could close in on it. And he got it. I choose this goal because it is the perfect kick: powerful, precise, and completely unexpected. From the video, its magnitude seems evident to everyone on the pitch. Van Basten looked ecstatic in his celebration, so did his teammate Vanenberg, and so did Dutch coach Rinuus Michels, who covered his face in disbelief. The goal effectively killed off the Soviet resistance, and the Dutch went on to claim their only international trophy.

---

3. PELÉ
Santos vs. Atletico Juventus – Campeonato Paulista 1959 –  São Paulo, 2 August 1959

There are two kinds of football fans: those who say that Pelé is the best player of all time and those who say that Maradona is. Me, I don't care: they were different kinds of athletes who played different styles of football in two radically different periods of the game's history. Pelé does have the statistical upper hand with his 1,284 goals scored, though many of those came in an easy league and he never played in Europe. As for his best goal, O Rey himself has always picked this one as his personal favorite. Unfortunately that match was not filmed, but the goal has been recreated on the computer thanks to drawings and first-hand accounts. That's what the video above shows. Pelé dribbles two defenders plus the goalkeeper with three consecutive sombreros. A sombrero is an incredibly difficult touch in which you lob the ball high enough above the opponent's head that he can't head it, and yet quickly enough that you can grab it on the other side before he turns around and does so with his feet. It requires great skill and perfect timing, and of course Pelé had plenty of both. The result is a highly spectacular goal and easily the most technically difficult of the three that I have chosen. However, I don't give it the top spot for two reasons: (1) a tiny bit of doubt remains on the veracity of the accounts of the goal on which the CGI reconstruction is based; and (2) it was scored in an unimportant match against relatively unskilled defenders. But it is still a feast for the eyes!

---

---

So these are my three. As I said, thankfully there are many more excellent goals in history. Cruijff's 40-meter missile against Italy in 1978; Totti's stunning volley against Udinese in 2000; Panenka's trick penalty at Euro 1976; Rivaldo's numerous bicycle kicks; Platini's and Del Piero's delightful a feuille morte free kicks; and the list goes on. But again, this list is based on personal preference and relative importance.
.
.

Some more excellent end-of-summer events

It's not all about the Olympics in August, though as it's the single most-hyped event of the year, I had totally neglected to include these in my calendars. Plenty of pleasant surprises here to keep sports addicts like myself entertained for a few more days before the start of the football seasons. They are as follows:

JULY 28. TROPHEE DES CHAMPIONS 2012. The French supercup is contested between the winner of the 2011-12 French national football league (Ligue 1) and the parallel 2011-12 French league cup knockout tournament (Coupe de France). This year, it's Montpellier against Olympique Lyonnais. As with much summer football, it's played in the U.S., in NYC to be precise. While not something to brag about, supercups are always the season's first trophies, and as such put the winning team in an excellent "mood" for the upcoming season.

---

---

AUGUST 11. SUPERCOPPA ITALIANA 2012. Same as above: the Italian supercup is contested between the winner of last year's Serie A league and the winner of last year's Coppa Italia league cup, in this case Juventus-Napoli. It will be a rematch of the Coppa Italia final, which Napoli won 2-0. This match is also played abroad. As has been traditional in the last few years, Italian supercup finals are played at the "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Olympics.

---

---

AUGUST 12. FA COMMUNITY SHIELD 2012. Same story for England: the winner of the Premier League (Manchester City) versus the winner of the FA Cup (Chelsea). This is usually played at Wembley, but as the old stadium is undergoing major renovations it will be at Villa Park in Birmingham instead. As these two teams were the most -- surprisingly! -- successful European teams of last season, this should be one for the books. Of course, if you follow my blog you know my loyalties are smack-dab in the middle of Kensington!

---

---

AUGUST 12. DFL-SUPERCUP 2012. Guess what? The German supercup, where Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal winners battle it out for German supremacy. Yeah that sounds weird. Last year, Borussia Dortmund won both the league and the league cup, so here they play Pokal runners-up Bayern Munchen. This will be interesting because last year Bayern achieved the worst possible record for a major football team: three-time runners-up, in the domestic league, the domestic league cup, and the Champions League. The second-place plague is a tough motherfucker to beat, so I will definitely be rooting for Heynckes' boys this time around (unlike in Munich last May... obviously!)

---

---

AUGUST 16. PALIO DI SIENA. The palio (= pall) is the historical horse race in downtown Siena, Italy, which is run in some way shape or form since 1656. Two are held each year, one on July 2 (this year's was disappointing) and one on August 16. The latter is much more important. The town of Siena is divided in contrade, neighborhoods, and each selects a horse and a rider to represent it in the palio. What's peculiar is that there are no rules surrounding the race. Since there is no money and no prizes at stake other than honor, you can do whatever you want, provided it is legal under Italian law. So it's not uncommon for contrade to bribe others to go slower or even not race, for horses' and riders' services being bought and sold for sexual favors, and even for less-than-sportsmanlike conduct during the race itself. Some of this, no doubt, is urban legend, but knowing the fervor with which Siena lives its palios, it's not at all unbelievable. The race itself, which is about two minutes long, is often highly spectacular and garnished with falls, pushing, shoving, and the whole she-bang of medieval awesomeness. You may have seen the palio featured in the latest Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, as 007 pursues a fellow spy across Piazza del Campo and in the streets and over the roofs of Siena.

---

---

AUGUST 19 & 26. SUPERCOPA DE ESPANA. The Spaniards' own supercup is often a matchup of Barcelona and Real Madrid, who consistently dominate the domestic football scene, and this year is no exception. This is the only super cup that is contested in the "old" format, over two legs, so that each team plays one match at home and one away. The winner is determined on aggregate score with the usual away goals rule. What better way to start the season off than with a Clásico? Oh yeah: with TWO Clásicos! And as a Chelsea fan, let me be the first to chant "fuck off Mourinho!"

---

---

AUGUST 31. UEFA EUROPEAN SUPER CUP. Finally, the supercup big daddy of them all: the winner of the UEFA Europa League versus the winner of the UEFA Champions League, the two most prestigious international continental club tournaments. This year it's a never-before-seen match-up between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, two teams reborn from the ashes that have very high expectation for this season. How awesome is it that Di Matteo's men can start 2012 with two pieces of silverware in less than two weeks?! I really hope so. Also, this final is played at one of the world's most beautiful sports venues: the Stade Louis II in Monaco, near Montecarlo. Its gorgeous decorative nine arches, gentle ambiance, great lighting, and excellent seating placement make it a real pleasure to watch sports at.

---

---

Then, of course, all major European football leagues begin right after the Olympics:

• August 11 – French Ligue 1, 2012-13 
• August 18 – Spanish La Liga, 2012-13
• August 18 – English Premier League, 2012-13
• August 23 – German Bundesliga, 2012-13
• August 25 – Italian Serie A, 2012-13

.

Ernie wins British, Tiger takes third

Ten years after his last win in a Major, Ernie Els takes back the Open Championship that had last crowned him in 2002. The South African rallied from five shots back in the final round to win, no doubt also thanks to Adam Scott's professional suicide. The Aussie, in the lead for much of the final round, double-bogeyed once and finished the round with back-to-back-to-back bogeys at 16, 17, and 18.

That's not to say that Els was handed the win: in the four days at Lytham, Els was the only player in the field to never round above par: 67-70-68-68 = -7. An impressive performance from a player who is seriously hard to dislike and who hasn't won as much as he should have (but don't tell Colin that).

Tiger's performance was pretty good, considering. I'm tired of using that qualifier and I want to go back to the days where he won Majors by 8-stroke margins, but I suppose that's a first-world problem if I ever heard of one. Here he displayed excellent control in the first two rounds, both closed in 67. He began to slip on Saturday, but was still tied for third. And then, just like Snedeker, he sank badly in the final round. But whereas Scott's decline was gradual, Woods' was marked by a nightmarish triple-bogey at 6 after two horrible putts, and despite the most amazing bunker exit I've ever seen. Bah. Eventually...

Overall, the Open was pretty interesting, with a generally high level of play and a few memorable shots. I just hope this awesome weather holds up for the Olympics!
.

Tech from My Father: The Memory-making Mind

My father was an early adopter of the VCR. He got one the year before I was born, and in my tech-savvy childhood I had the option to re-watch ad infinitum. By the time I was 6, my parents had amassed a hefty collection of tapes, even if with the naïveté of the over-enthusiastic beginners who can't tell between treasure and trash. At least, that's how I explain the decision to record a dozen episodes of the worst soap operas...

Growing up with this tool in the home instilled in me a mindset that I still greatly cherish: if you like it, create a tangible memory of it. Rely not on your mind, which is fickle, but let physical things help.

I live by that idea. I take hundreds of pictures a year; thousands on important trips. I have dozens of boxes stocked with papers, fabrics, tools, toys that take me back to a thought, an evening, a feeling that at some point meant something. Likewise, I record hundreds of hours' worth of TV broadcasts each year. There is the occasional show, concert, or current event, but most of it is sports, as my father also passed on to me his undying passion for competition fair and fierce (how ironic, then, that he identified himself as a socialist... but that's another story).

As the age of VHS waned, we took care to digitize our old tapes. So yesterday, browsing through now-old DVDs, with great delight I unearthed footage from the first Olympics that I remember watching on live TV: Seoul 1988. I was seven years old back then, but I have some very clear memories of it.

I pushed the disc into the player. Within minutes I was watching Griffith and Johnson fly to their (astounding, probably doped) 100m world records; Bordin win his first marathon for Italy; and news coverage of the diplomatic controversy surrounding the role of North Korea in hosting the Games.

I hadn't seen this stuff in 24 years. That, as they say, is priceless.

I don't mean that literally. If the proverbial mugger asked for a $10k ransom not to destroy my DVDs, I may not give in. But I always make sure that I can produce and preserve the best possible memories with the technology that's available to me. This means that I frequently upgrade my recording equipment to the best that the consumer market has to offer, even if it means a hefty short-term financial burden.

This is because I understand that AV technology keeps pace with our quality expectations. A grainy analog tape might have seemed like divine handiwork in 1980, but it is hardly acceptable now. We want crisp and colorful, and I personally won't settle for less. Relatedly, "crisp and colorful" is much more in line with the zeitgeist. It is okay for a recording of Rome 1960 to look like crap; perhaps it is even well. But the 2012 Olympics must, at the very least, be broadcast, enjoyed, and recorded in high definition. Let's not forget, after all, that in another 24 years high definition will look as ugly as VHS tapes look now! I will post more about this in a few days, as my all-new HD setup takes shape.

People usually experience this sort of attachment to family heirlooms. We do too, but sports has always been a key family event in my home, especially the Olympics, and so it easily pours over into that venue. To be fair, my obsession is not uncommon 'round these parts. Many Italian networks regularly broadcast reruns of old football matches, and channels like ESPN Classic are a manna. Last winter I almost freaked out as I rushed to the DVR to grab the Euro 1968 final that was starting in thirty seconds. My mother gave me a funny look.

This year is no exception. As London 2012 draws near, I look fondly at the 27 hours of footage from Beijing 2008, recorded onto 12 DVDs, each carefully labeled and inventoried. It is tedious, sometimes, to record live broadcasts all day long and edit them at night to keep the good bits. But I know that in another 24 years I will look back and thank my past self for doing it.

Just as today I still cherish the memory-making mindset. Thanks, dad.
.
.

Cavendish's amazing win

I have seen a lot of sprints "in my time," and as a kid I used to love the heated duels between Cipollini and Abdoujaparov. But I have never seen anything quite so impressive as today's stage win by Mark "Missile" Cavendish: see the video here.

With 100 meters left, the reigning world champion is still a good 10-20 meters behind. More shockingly, he does it himself, as he is trailing nobody: not Wiggins, not Boasson Hagen, not Porte, nobody. He slaloms his way like a skier around Paolini, Roche, and Sanchez, and then wins by a good two lengths. Absolutely stunning!

Cav's Tour hasn't been exceptional, due in part to a team low on fellow sprinters, but here he showed that he is a clear contender for the Paris sprint... and more importantly, for London.
.
.

two Tour de France photo galleries

The Boston Globe's "The Big Picture" rubric consistently delivers top-notch photojournalism documenting the world's most important and most colorful events. It doesn't get more colorful than the Tour, so these photos are a spectacle for the eyes.

Here is the first part, which covers the first 9 stages, and here is the second part, which covers the rest. Below are some of my favorites (click to enlarge).

Edit: here's another cool gallery by CNN.

.

.

The Woes of Wiggins' Wingman

Froome in the 41.5-km time trial of Besançon

Le Tour est finis. Even with three stages left, the competition is over. Today's a leisurely stroll across the countryside and it is impossible to place any attacks; tomorrow is a time-trial stage where the current leader is unbeatable; and Sunday is the final exhibition across the chateaux of the Loire and into Paris. Thus, Bradley Wiggins has already won this Tour de France.

That's not upsetting per se. I like Wiggo and this is the culmination of two years' hard work. What's upsetting is that he was not the best rider. Wiggins' teammate and fellow Briton Chris Froome was. Currently, Froome is second in the general classification, a mere two minutes behind Wiggins. He holds his own in time trials and is an excellent pacer, but he is a far better climber than Wiggins.

At least twice -- last week on the Grand Colombier and today on the Peyresourd -- Froome attacked and clearly distanced his own captain, only to be called back via radio by Team Sky's manager, or perhaps by Wiggins himself. That's not the official version, of course. The official version is that Froome "thought" that Wiggins was following and he had simply started off at a brisker pace than the captain would have wanted. But anyone with even a passing knowledge of pro road cycling knows that to be false. Simply put, Froome had it in him to attack, to go forth, and to win at least one, if not two stages. That is not to say that Wiggins would have been alone and desperate. He would have fought back, he would have chased, he would have battled, and perhaps he would have still won... but I would have wanted to see him earn it, not only against the other 196 riders, but against Froome as well.

Wiggins claims that Froome was simply trying to edge him on

This is an old dilemma. What happens when the wingman is better than the captain? The unwritten laws of competitive justice say that whoever is stronger should prevail, but the dynamics of today's road cycling teams are another story. A team has a captain, usually the most highly decorated rider or whoever has the better chance of winning the general classification in the race at hand. The rest of the team are hired and paid to work for the captain, to help him, and to let him trail them whenever necessary. (In competitive cycling, it is much less tiring to ride on someone's trail than to lead and be trailed: whoever rides ahead takes the brunt of air resistance and whoever's behind does more with less effort). Only when the captain doesn't need them can the support riders pursue personal glory, such as stage wins or climbing heroism. The Italians have a great word for these support riders. They call them "gregari," which literally means "men from the pack."

The woes of wingman Froome don't really show that teams sometimes "pick the wrong captain." It was hard to imagine such a high-level performance from a second-time Tour participant. Instead, the problem is that even when the error is acknowledged, there is nothing that can be done about it. While not as rich as other sportsmen, top pro cyclists get fairly hefty contracts from their teams, and as I explained above contracts are tied to jobs and objectives. Simply put, Froome wasn't hired to win, and some commentators find this idea of team obligations to be fundamentally at odds with the individual nature of cycling.

Perhaps the answer is that cycling is not really an individual sports after all. Former Giro winner Paolo Savoldelli claims that it is in fact a team effort, and that it is becoming more and more so with the passing of time. It's simple physics. It makes a world of difference, measurable in minutes and lactic acid, whether you face the race's key climb alone or on the trail of a teammate. If it's quantifiable, you can put a price on it, and so everyone does. I could claim once more that competitive justice calls for total fairness, or I could lament that money is the root of all evil, but I'll leave those battles for another Bastille Day.

For now I will just insist, as a disgruntled sports fan, that I wanted to see more and better. For the last few stages it has been Nibali vs. Evans vs. Wiggins-and-Froome. Was it really too much to ask to see Nibali vs. Evans vs. Wiggins vs. Froome?

I am 50% sure it would have ended differently and 100% sure it would have been more fun.

(PS: Contador always fixed his own messes. Alberto 2013 and haters gonna hate).

.

.

Tour de France update

In the last ten days I moved from Virginia to Indiana and then flew back to Italy; I also experienced several health problems. I still managed to watch the Wimbledon finals and keep up with Le Tour, but "real life" has a bad habit of interfering with my sports-watching! Damn you, real life. I don't expect to update this blog very much in the next week, either, as health problems continue, but surely by the time the Olympics roll around I'll be back in shape and live-blogging the crap out of London 2012!

Meanwhile, at La Grande Boucle, Bradley Wiggins is still very much in control of the yellow jersey. Not that there's been much actual competition. For the second year in a row, the Tour organizers planned a very non-threatening route with little altitude and relatively easy stages. Add to that there are over 100 km worth of time-trial stages, and Wiggins' victory is served. Neither Evans nor Nibali, who are currently Wiggins' top adversaries, are capable of topping the Brit in time trials. Wiggins, like Miguel Indurain a couple of decades ago, doesn't just do well in time trials: he wins them, hands down; and as long as the Tour is structured to favor that particular skill set, there will be no real competition.

That is not to say that Wiggins doesn't do well in climbs, for he's definitely hard to leave behind in the mountains. But that's because of two reasons: 1) There aren't any real climbs in this Tour, with only a handful of HC climbs, all placed early in their respective stages, and a mere two mountain arrivals, neither very challenging; 2) Wiggins can count on his Team Sky, which is made up of riders that would be captains in any other team, like Froome, Porte, and Boasson Hagen. So you can't really say that Wiggins is a fabulous stage racer. He's a fabulous stage racer in an easy Tour where he's counting on a killer team. These, after all, were the skills he had showcased at the Criterium du Dauphine last month and that we were waiting for him to confirm at the Tour now, so no surprises.

I insist on all these qualifiers is that in the last few years we hae seen stellar performances by riders who were all-around fabulous stage racers, such as Contador and Schleck. The 2009 and 2010 Tours were among the most exciting I have ever seen, and from this standpoint last year's and this year's have come nowhere close. If I were to be malignant, I would say that the Tour organizers are waiting for Contador's (unfair) punishment to expire and for him to return next year. If that is right, the 2013 Grande Boucle will be awesome. But we'll see.

.

.

Wimbledon quarterfinals and semifinals

LADIES' SINGLES: SEMIFINALS

Kerber (8) - Radwanska (3)

S. Williams (6) - Azarenka (2)

GENTLEMEN'S SINGLES: QUARTERFINALS

Djokovic (1) - Mayer (31)

Federer (3) - Youzhni (26)

Ferrer (7) - Murray (4)

Tsonga (5) - Kolschreiber (27)

On the ladies' side, whatever happens we will have a new final. I am hoping for Azarenka-Radwanska, because Vika seriously needs to win another Major and because I detest few sports figures like I detest Serena.

On the gents' side, save for Nadal's upsetting upset the big ones are still running and looking good. I've been especially pleased with Murray's game: less schizo, more in control, especially against Cilic (who was however pretty tired). Djoko-Federer will be an epic semi, and I'm predicting a Murray-Djokovic final... and as much as I love Nole, here's hoping that Murray finally breaks the spell and wins a fucking Major already. I'm pretty sure Centre Court might collapse if he does...
,
,

Euro 2012 final: Spain-Italy 4:0

SPAIN		4	:	0		ITALY
	Silva 14', Alba 41' Torres 84', Mata 89'

My match rating: -_-

My man of the match: Iniesta (S)

UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights

Well, fuck.

No, not really. Spain was the better team and they played like it. The score, unfortunately, is too severe to the losers and doesn't adequately represent the values on the pitch. If Italy had played their best and had not had to be down to ten men, Spain would have probably won it 2-0 or 3-1, and that would have been more representative. But c'est la vie. As I said many times before and I won't take back now, at the end of the day all that matters in football is the scoreline, and the rest is chatter.

Italy ought to find pride in the rest of their tournament. Somewhat like Lippi in 2006, Prandelli has designed an efficient football machine by bunching inexperienced youngsters around the three pillars Buffon, De Rossi, and Pirlo. And in the midst of a major legal scandal back at home, this ragtag team won a ticket to the final of football's most difficult international tournament, only to lose to the best team of... probably the last two or three decades; best of all time, according to some madmen, but we don't listen to madmen.

So, once more, Forza Azzurri!

Some more miscellaneous end-of-tourney reflections on Euro 2012 are forthcoming.
.
.

Euro 2012 semifinal: Germany-Italy 1:2

GERMANY		1	:	2		ITALY
	Ozil 90' (p)				Balotelli 20', 36'

My match rating: ★★★

My man of the match: Balotelli (I)

UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights

Commentary to follow!!
.
.

Recent updates, or lack thereof!

I'm moving to another state these days, so it is incredibly hard to keep up with the awesome sporting events that are still going down!

Thursday I missed the first half of the Italy-Germany match. Yesterday we had a huge thunderstorm that knocked down many power lines, and thus I haven't been able to watch the game yet. I will make sure to do that before tomorrow's final... speaking of which, I might well get a heart attack while watching that, and so my blogging days will come to an abrupt close!

Wimbledon is underway and I've been able to follow it closely, via internet if nothing else, and I should be able to discuss the round of 16 match-ups some time Sunday night or Monday morning. Some interesting upsets and matches so far at the All England, for sure.

I have, instead, completely missed out on the Athletics European Championships and the women's volleyball World Grand Prix final four. Both end tomorrow after a brief four-day run. That sucked, but c'est la vie: something's gotta give, especially at such busy times as these are.

Meanwhile, the Tour de France started today with the brief individual time trial prologue in Liege, Belgium... so, for all intents and purposes, Le Tour really starts tomorrow with the first line stage. Cancellara has the yellow jersey's after today's sprint, but again that's virtually meaningless to the final standings. This is still a Tour between Evans, Wiggins, and maybe Schleck, but mostly the Aussie and the Brit. Updates to follow, as time permits.
.
.

Euro 2012 semifinal: Portugal-Spain 2:4 apk

PORTUGAL

2

:

4

SPAIN

              0 : 0   a.e.t.


ORDER OF PENALTIES

Xabi Alonso (0:0), Moutinho (0:0)
Iniesta (0:1), Pepe (1:1)
Pique (1:2), Nani (2:2)
Sergio Ramos (2:3), Bruno Alves (2:3)
Fabregas (2:4)


My match rating: ★

My man of the match: Casillas (S)

UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights

As predicted, Portugal managed to out-play Spain for much of the match by simply matching their playing style. Bento must have realized, as Prandelli also had in the group stage, that the way to play Spain is to not play them. Keep the ball, make possession, and accelerate suddenly to create scoring chances. The more you do it, the less Spain has a chance to. Surely enough, if we look at the ball possession statistics we see that Spain held the ball a mere 58% of the time. While still good, it's a huge change for the 70%+ that we'd gotten used to in the previous rounds. By handling a good chunk of the play, Portugal handled the match.

But of course that's not enough: you also have to score. Portugal didn't, and while their opportunities were not nearly as vivid as Italy's against England, they were still pretty damn good. More importantly, they had more than Spain did, at least during regulation. Spain are good scorers, but what they're really good at is not being scored against. Del Bosque's somewhat improvised defense, with Jordi Alba filling Puyol's large shoes, worked out remarkably well throughout the tournament, as Spain hasn't taken a single goal since Di Natale's bender in the first half of the first game of the first round. Ronaldo may not have shined yesterday, but a good deal of that has to do with the fact that the Spanish defenders didn't give him a chance to take clean shots.

The penalties were a weird affair. I struggle to recall a match where this happened. For one, both teams missed the first penalty, Spain with the France match-winner Alonso and Portugal with Moutinho. Both were saves, too, and not misses (though as I've said before, every saved penalty is also basically a miss). Then we saw two successful series of good penalties, including a half-Panenka by Sergio Ramos. I was surprised, for Ramos is barely able to kick the ball at all, let alone kick it pretty. But in it went, and although not as beautiful or meaningful as Pirlo's, it was a nice penalty. Then something odd happened. Bruno Alves went to kick the third penalty, but right after placing the ball on the spot he walked back to the center, and Nani came to kick the penalty instead. I gotta assume that they were simply confused as whose turn it was next, for Alves did eventually kick the fourth penalty. But it betrayed a lack of focus, which in a war of nerves like a penalty shootout can be fatal. And it was, for Alves eventually missed the fourth penalty, giving Fabregas the chance to take Spain through to the final. Of course, Cesc did.

Perhaps the most stunning thing of all is that Ronaldo didn't even get to kick a penalty. Alright, by now it's understood that I hate the guy, but he is the most skilled Portuguese player... so why would you ever put yourself in a situation where he might not even contribute?! Usually, the best penalty takers will kick either first (to put your team up, or even, and thus encourage the rest) or fourth (for more often than not that ends up being the decisive penalty). The fifth penalty is rarely decisive, especially if your team is second in kicking order, so I have no idea what was going through Bento's head as he picked the list. As them Catholics say, "mystery of faith."

Now Spain awaits the winner of Germany-Italy, which is played later today. Whatever happens, it will be an awesome match. Spain-Germany would be the rematch of the Euro 2008 final and of the 2010 World Cup semifinal. Spain won both 1-0, both times displaying their trademark tiki-taka and effectively neutralizing the more creative German offense. The 2008 final is of course more relevant to Euro history: there has never been a repeat final in two consecutive editions of the same major international tournament. Spain-Italy, then, would be very interesting for three reasons. One, the teams are quickly developing a rivalry. Spain knocked Italy out in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals after a tight match resolved by a tense penalty shootout, and then of course they were in the same group in this edition. Two, it would be the only time in the Euro or World Cup history that the two finalists come from the same group. Third and much more interestingly, so far Italy has proven to be the only team capable of truly challenging Spain. Del Bosque's team struggled mightily in the first match and only came as close to winning it as Italy did. Should they meet again in Sunday's final, Spain would still be favorite, but Italy would give them a run for their money.

.
.