Canada's Got Talent; Struggling on IIHF Stage

(photo courtesy of thechroniclehearald.com)

At the 2012 IIHF World Championships, Canada boasts yet another roster that is oozing talent, but *gasp* they've failed to utterly dominate thus far.  Canadian fans don't accept mediocrity. Despite an epic gold medal at the Olympics, Canadian hockey has begun to show an alarming trend; players are putting on the red and white, automatically saying "gold medal, please". American basketball and Brazilian soccer have had similar problems; heavy hangs the head that wears the crown. 

(photo courtesy of hockeycanada.ca)

Canada lacks chemistry. A group of stars are playing as individuals, just as they normally do in their respective NHL roles. The goaltending depth is not what it used to be, so bailouts are harder to come by. Canada's sheer talent does win out sometimes, i.e. today vs Finland. The question is: is that going to be enough to rule the world?

Canada's Loss to Mexico was a Reality Check

(photo courtesy of windsorstar.com)

Canada came into the men's Olympic qualifying match-up against Mexico as the heavy underdogs. That much can be said for the majority of games in Canadian soccer history; Canada isn't exactly the most prolific of nations. This year's Olympic hopefuls were making a real case for themselves though after last weekend's upset over the United States. Canada came out swinging in the opening minutes, briefly maintaining pressure on the Mexican goalkeeper. That faded away quickly, like so many hopes in the world of Canadian soccer, as Mexico began controlling the pace from then on out. Canada was scrappy, but simply outclassed by the Mexican squad. The score could have been much worse, as Mexico hit several posts and crossbars. It was fun to ride the week-long bandwagon, but Canada still has miles to go before they're a legitimate international threat.

Canada Stumbles Into Concacaf Cinderella Run

(photo courtesy of nationalpost.com)

Canada’s national under-23 soccer team is in an awkwardly opportunistic position. After a massive upset against the United States over the weekend, the Canucks found themselves unsuspectingly in the running to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. Nobody saw this coming, least of all the Canadians. All they needed to advance to the next round of their Cinderella run was a draw against Cuba Monday night. With 88 minutes down they were in position to actually win, but allowed an atrocious goal in the dying minutes, and escaped by the skin of their collective teeth. Much is made about a bungled chance at a better matchup, but Canada is outmatched by several teams in CONCACAF, so matchups be damned. If this team is going to catch lightning in a bottle, it’ll be with a little grit and a lot of luck.

Manchester Showdown

(photo courtesy dailymail.co.uk)

Manchester City isn't letting United off the hook in the chase for the EPL title. City remain just one point behind the Reds in the standings, after pulling out a huge comeback win over Chelsea. The tables have turned since they last met in a 6-1 trouncing of Manchester United on their home turf. United are now 7-0-1 in their last 8, and with Tottenham dropping three straight, the table's set for a Manchester vs Manchester showdown with only 10 games left. Despite uncertainty on both rosters, both have been able to battle through adversity, making the match-up all the more intriguing. Man U still have to balance Europa League dates along with EPL matches, and with Carlos Tevez now back in blue, this could be the year they finally slay Goliath and write "City" on the Premier League trophy.

*Manchester United: The Dog's Bollocks

    


A right bloody triumph 'appened at Old Trafford this weekend, it did. Manchester United locked up their record breaking 19th Premier League title wif a draw versus a poxy bunch in the Blackburn Rovers. Wayne Rooney secured the draw wif a picture perfect strike from the penalty spot and turned the city of Manchester absolutely bonkers.


    The heavy lifting was done a week earlier when Man U faced off in a massive fixture in London against a rival Chelsea squad who were, at the time, nipping at the heels of the Reds. By securing the three points Manchester became authors of their own destiny, making themselves nearly untouchable wif only a pair of matches left.


    Dimitar Berbatov has been brilliant throughout, leading the league in scoring, Nani showed a new level of maturity, Edwin Van Der Sar continued to defy father time having another superb season at age 40, and somehow it all got eclipsed by a man who wasn't even on the pitch.


    The old codger calling the shots for the Red Devils, Sir Alex Ferguson is the business. When he took the reins back in 1986 he made a specific personal goal of "knocking Liverpool off of their fucking perch", which is to say he intended to usurp Liverpool as the most-league-championships-of-all-time record holder. At the time it was a tall order, but here we are 25 years later and he's finally done it. So let the retirement speculation begin then eh? (Stop that, stop that.)


    Fergie has been a model of consistency during his tenure in Manchester and will leave behind a legacy of championship glory. It would be hard to believe he wouldn't step down after such a spectacular season, and there's a perfect capper on a silver platter when Man U faces Barcelona in the UEFA Champion's League finals (a rematch of the 2009 finals in which Barca emerged victors). A chance to avenge the loss, against arguably the best team in the world, for one of football's most prestigious club trophies. Not bloody shabby.


    However it's Sir Alex's pride I think will bring 'im back next year. He's got a group right now that's as mentally tough as any in the world. They aren't the exquisite United sides of ages past, where sublime talent reigns supreme, but rather a group of committed, hard-working battlers that never say die. Not to suggest this group dudn't 'ave it's share of talented stars. Surely Berbatov, Rooney and the like can be placed in that class, but there ain't a George Best, or Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch, is there? Ballon D'Or players they have not.


    That intangible ability to inspire players to greatness is what makes Sir Alex such a magnificent manager. His players believe in 'im. When Wayne Rooney publicly questioned Manchester's upper management, and wanted out, saying United lacked "the continued ability to attract the top players in the world" it was Ferguson who eventually brought the young superstar back down to earth. Wayne Rooney is a spoiled brat, and Sir Alex Ferguson knows exactly how to handle spoiled brats.


    As the contract negotiations and media battle raged on, Sir Alex carried on inside a conference room, as Rooney and his reps listened in awkward intrigue, and delivered a foggy metaphor about cows, with the inference being "the grass is always greener" or something of the like. Everybody scratched their noggins and wondered silently about whether the man had either lost it, or if this rambling was in fact a profound insight bore of experience. It turns out it was the latter, as Rooney's name was inked onto a fresh five year extension twenty four hours later.


    That is the perfect illustration of the way Sir Alex Ferguson carries himself. He commands the respect of his players, in return he delivers results. He's a force of nature and he imbues that force into those privileged enough to play under him. That's why Man U are sitting atop the Premiership. That's why they're competing in the Champion's League finals. And that's why they've knocked Liverpool off of their fucking perch and have more league titles than any side in history. (Stop that, stop that)

 That's why this man is the best coach in the history of the game.  

*The Great Canadian Hockey Monopoly

I love hockey. I revel in the Canadiana it represents. I love the in-depth coverage, I love the rabidness of the reportage we have here north of the border, and I love the extra lengths our sportscasters go to give it to us. I also hate it. I am a beard sporting, lumberjack jacket wearing, beer swilling Canadian stereotype, but I'm also a sports fan. I love football, baseball, basketball, MMA, and even footy (I love footy so much I actually call it footy), and for people like me there are not alot of options on the big three Canadian sports networks.


On a given night in the Canadian sports broadcasting landscape an average of 50% of the coverage we see involves NHL hockey. This leaves the other 50% to cover every other event under the sun, and most of these stories get grossly under reported. The popular argument for any network executive working at either TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, or The Score would be that they are simply giving the public what they want. This begs the question: at what point do they stop giving us what we want and start telling us what we want?


Example: The other night Dwight Howard put up 26 points and 23 rebounds against the Mavericks, one of the top 3 teams in the entire NBA. It was Howard's third straight game of 20+ rebounds. This amazing stat was not mentioned once in Sportsnet's recap of the game, they instead chose to take a "Hedo Turkoglu" narrative in their coverage. For the record Turkoglu put up an underwhelming 9 points in the loss to the Mavs, but because he is a half season removed from a messy breakup with the Toronto Raptors, the brilliant minds at Sportsnet chose to tell us what aspects of the game we were interested in. And here I thought objectivity was the golden rule in Sports broadcasting. (I won't even get into the droning, emotionless personalities that Sportsnet chooses to prop up in front of their telepromters day in and day out. That's another gripe for another day.)


TSN on the other hand is Canada's oldest, and most respected Sports network. They are also one of the most biased. Every day Sportscentre leads off with ten to fifteen minutes of NHL coverage, complete with post-game scrums from each game, and on-site reporters for each of Canada's franchises. TSN boasts an armada of hockey insiders and analysts, but have nobody who specializes in baseball. No NFL insider. No NBA segment. They outsource this coverage to their ESPN cohorts. Not a bad idea when you have no one on staff who knows anything about these sports, but if your slogan is "Canada's Sports Leader" shouldn't you have at least one person designated to cover each of these? At least The Score and Sportsnet each have some random British guy who talks about the EPL so we can at we can trust in his sophisticated accent, even if he is only covering one of the many top-end soccer leagues in the world. The last time I checked Canada's national sport was Lacrosse. I don't remember the last NLL game I saw covered on any of the big three networks, including "Canada's Sports Leader". 

They don't even cover "Hockey" per se, they cover the NHL, because the NHL are the ones who have the lucrative broacasting contract with TSN and Sportsnet. I don't see any OHL highlights on a daily basis, no WHL or QMJHL (although I do get extensive coverage of the World Junior Championship, because it is conveniently broadcast on TSN). There is no mention of the European elite leagues in Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republc, or Switzerland etc. The Kontinental Hockey League is the next biggest hockey league in the world and I can honestly say I have never once seen a single KHL highlight on Canadian television. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the KHL doesn't seem to get along with the NHL? Wouldn't wanna burn that Bettman bridge I guess. Hell, they don't even cover NCAA hockey.


I know nothing about NCAA sports and I place the blame squarely on the major sports networks in my home country for indoctrinating this love of hockey that lives inside me, and the indifference to everything else that comes with it. I didn't know who Cam Newton was until he won the Heisman. I read it in a footnote of a newspaper. That's what the NCAA is in Canadian media: a footnote.  

The Score does a fantastic job of trying to bring the NCAA to the forefront of the Canadian media, but they have neither the resources nor the clout to make a big enough impact on the national sporting psyche. They are also responsible for being one of the first to offer comprehensive coverage of Mixed Martial Arts, and of European soccer, in particular Italian Serie A. They offer coverage of CIS football, something neither of the two heavyweight stations can say. Grassroots stimulation of the homegrown product. They even have the basics down: their ticker doesn't go anywhere during commercials. Little things like that actually do matter.


Despite all of these things, I've still got a deep passion for the sport of Hockey. I love it with all my being, and I embrace the Canadian stereotype that it makes me. What I would appreciate though is having the option to watch something else from time to time, and having that something get the same attention as Hockey. There is alot more to the sporting landscape than just puck, and maybe if we gave our kids the option to fall in love with something different, our other national teams might not suck so badly, so consistently, while our hockey team perennially spanks the planet. Just a thought.