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Finally!!!
My last post was about soccer players and their ridiculous dives, finally, somebody is also fed up with them. Watch as U.S. coach Bob Bradley speaks up about his frustrations with these players.
Do Soccer Players Have No Dignity?
As I have been watching the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I can’t help but to notice the complete disregard for the game as the best players in the world are diving all over the field trying to draw a penalty.
Like many Americans, I do not follow soccer on a regular basis. I think that soccer is one of the most boring sports to watch, playing it is a different story, but to watch a two-hour match that often ends up in a 0-0 tie never appealed to me. But with the sudden excitement of the 2010 FIFA World Cup I decided to watch a few games. I decided to sit down and watch the United States’ first game against the heavily favored England and, even though it ended in a tie, I found the game to be very interesting and rather exciting at times. Over the last week so I have kept up with the games watching some foreign countries play here and there, and although the competition is good and the games are keeping my interest, there is one thing that irks me. I know that one can’t expect to be an analyst of a certain sport after a week of watching it and there are many aspects of the game that I still don’t understand, like offsides for instance. I do though have one complaint about the sport; the players dive and cry to the referees much too often. At times it gets a bit ridiculous that grown men, the greatest players in their respective sport, can completely disregard the integrity of their beloved game by jumping to the ground and holding their face or their ankle. These are the most athletic and agile men in the world and they are diving all over the field to try to draw a foul, and to my dismay, the referees almost always rule in favor of the jerk who is making a fool of himself, FIFA, and his country. What’s even more annoying than the dive itself is when the diver doesn’t get the call and they jump up to yell at the referee, no sign of injury, literally admitting that they were faking it. I don’t understand how this is okay with soccer fans, the most loyal fans in the world.
Before I started watching, I heard that Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the greatest players in the world, the man can score at will. As I watch him I can’t help but to think of another player who is one of, if not the, greatest player in his respective sport, Sidney Crosby. The two are like brothers. Put aside that they do actually look a bit similar, they are both among the best players in the world at their sport yet for some reason that is beyond me, they both feel that they need to dive all over the field or the ice to get calls. You’re the best player in the world, you’re going to get the benefit of the doubt!!! The diving isn’t even the worst part, it’s when they don’t get the call and they go over to the referee to plea their case that the big bully knocked them down. As a hockey fan I hate Sidney Crosby, like most hockey fans that are not located in Pittsburgh. I just don’t understand how FIFA, and the NHL, let their star players do this. FIFA especially, because it’s not only Ronaldo, every player on every team dives when they make the slightest bit of contact with a player from the other team.
Personally, I just think that it is wrong and that the players should have enough dignity and integrity for the game to stop, but I guess they go by the motto “anything to win”, which is disappointing to say the least. I hope that someday, if the diving doesn’t come to an end which I highly doubt will be the case, FIFA decides to give the referees permission to give a penalty if they believe that a player is intentionally embellishing a dive to draw a foul against the opposing team, like in hockey, although it is rarely enforced. Hopefully that would put an end to this childish act that soccer players put on every game.
****Watch as Ronaldo dives while looking at the referee to see if he gets the call****
Finland wins Bronze, Their 4th Medal in last 5 Olympics
Team Slovakia was not given much of a chance to win coming into the Olympics, even though they have NHL superstars such as Marian Gaborik, Marian Hossa, and Zdeno Chara, so having a chance of winning the bronze medal, which would have been the first medal that the country had won in Olympic hockey, was very surprising to a lot of people, everyone except team Slovakia themselves who had already upset Russia, eliminated Sweden, and had given the Canadians a scare.
The Slovaks, who lost to the Americans in the semi finals, took the ice against the Finns, who lost to the Canadians in the semi finals, in the consolation game to win the bronze medal. The Finns, who won the silver in Torino and have three medals in the last four years, have a few NHL superstars of their own including Mikko and Saku Koivu, Teemu Selanne, Olli Jokinen, and goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff and they were looking for blood after being embarrassed by the Americans in the semi finals losing 6-1.
The Finns took an early 1-0 lead with a goal by Sammy Salo on the powerplay after a great hit by Mikko Koivu that prevented Slovak forward Michal Handzus from clearing the puck out of the defensive zone, Salo took the puck and blasted a slapshot passes Slovak goalie Jaroslav Halak. This score would stand for the first period but things started to open up in the second.
Marian Gaborik started the Slovak scoring in the second on a powerplay, ripping a wristshot passes Kiprusoff and knotting the game at one. Marian Hossa scored the next goal on a five – on – three powerplay collecting a loose puck in front of the net and burying it putting Slovakia up 2-1.
The turning point of the game was when Finnish forward Olli Jokinen was clipped in the side of the face with a stick, which was originally missed by the referee but not by the line judge who made the call at the next whistle. It was a four minute minor for high- sticking and it looked like the Finns were set to tie things up. That is, up until Salo decided to make a blind, behind the back pass to nobody. The puck was taken by Marian Hossa in open ice creating a two on one with teammate Pavol Demitra who accepted a beautiful saucer pass from Hossa and deflected it passed Kiprusoff making it 3-1 Slovakia.
With only a minute left in the period this score would carry over into the third but not for long as the Finns would score on the carry over four minute minor powerplay cutting the deficit to one. This is when Olli Jokinen, the player who was clipped and took exception to it, took over. He scored his first goal about a minute after the powerplay goal was scored on a wristshot that eluded the out of position Halak and a minute later he split the defense and skate din on a mini breakaway in which he slid the puck through Halak’s legs for which would eventually be the game winner.
The Slovaks made things interesting at the end of the third, as they did against Canada, but for the second straight game it proved to be too little too late as they fell to the Finns by the score of 5-3 after a lat empty net goal.
This is Finland’s fourth goal in the last five Olympics and they have silently made a reputation for themselves in international play, whereas the Slovaks, who were not expected to make it to any medal game, will have a solid team for years to come.
Going for the Gold!
Team USA punched their ticket to gold medal game in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics early on Sunday, February 28. Team USA defeated Finland by the score of 6-1 in the semi-finals and will play Canada who defeated Slovakia in the later game to bid for a hockey gold medal sweep, the Canadian women’s hockey team already won the gold. With Canada’s win it set up a rematch of the USA/Canada final that took place during the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, Utah, when the Canadians defeated the Americans on their home soil for Olympic gold. It will also give the Americans a way to avenge their aforementioned female counterparts who were shutout by the Canadians in the women’s tournament 2 – 0 on Thursday.
Team USA erupted for six goals in the first thirteen minutes of the game, which forced Finnish goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff to pull himself out of the game, and was more than enough to send team USA on their way to the finals. Team USA’s offense was led by Patrick Kane who had two goals and Zach Parise who scored a goal and added an assist, this along with more great goaltending by Ryan Miller propelled the Americans into the gold medal game.
Later in the day the home town Canadians took on the surprise, I don’t know why, Slovaks. Team Canada was leading the game 3-0 behind a goal and an assist by forward Ryan Getzlaf but had to hold back a Slovakian siege on goaltender Roberto Luongo in the third period. Team Slovakia just came up short of a comeback scoring two goals in the third but the Canadians defense proved to hold up for the win.
The gold medal game will be played on Sunday, February 28 on NBC at 3:15 EST. It will be a rematch of last weeks game when the Americans defeated the Canadians 5-3 in the preliminary round. It will prove to be tough task for American goal- scorers who, last game, scored on a struggling Martin Brodeur but will now have to face Roberto Luongo who has proved that he was the right choice over the last few games.
Why is Chris Drury getting such a bad rap?
Chris Drury celebrates after scoring a goal.
I am a big fan of the New York Rangers, I watch every game and like most Ranger fans this year I am very frustrated with the teams inconsistent play. But one thing that has always bothered me about people regarding the Rangers, which has now been brought to an international view due to the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver, is the little respect that Rangers captain and Team USA forward Chris Drury gets for his play. People have been criticizing Drury ever since his first year on Broadway because of his lack of offense which contradicts his reputation from when he played with the Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Avalanche. Chris Drury has always been known as a clutch player, someone who would always rise to the occasion in a big moment, and when he came to the Rangers his offense ceased. Is this completely his fault? I don’t think so, I think it is the Rangers coaching staff’s fault. Should he be considered another Broadway bust, along with fellow free agent center Scott Gomez who signed a big contract with the Rangers the same day as Drury? I don’t think so, not at all.
Moments after the Boston Bruins defeated the Philadelphia Flyers at the third annual NHL Winter Classic held at Fenway Park on New Year’s Day, the roster for team USA in the upcoming winter Olympics were announced. After seeing Chris Drury being named to a team that seemed to be going with a youth movement angered many people who did not hold back their criticism. Chris Drury was by far the least popular choice on the team and people couldn’t believe that they chose him for veteran leadership instead of big time scorers like Mike Modano, Bill Guerin, and even Scott Gomez.
During the first few games of the Olympics Chris Drury has played great and, in my opinion, has been the most noticeable player on the ice. He even scored two goals, one against Norway and the other the game winner in team USA’s thrilling defeat against Canada. Now some people have rescinded their earlier comments about Drury and publicly apologized, Jeremy Roenick. But I couldn’t help but to notice many people who still badmouth him on blogs and in comments on blogs, many of which are frustrated Rangers fans. I read one comment that said “Does anybody want Drury now that his stock is high?” I am here to set things straight for all the Chris Drury haters in the world.
Chris Drury had his best year with the Buffalo Sabres when he scored 37 goals, a career high in the 2006 – 2007 campaign. When Drury played on the Sabres he had Maxim Afinogenov and Thomas Vanek as line mates, and if not one of them Drew Stafford, Tim Connolly, or Jochen Hecht. All of the named players are very talented and when a player, such as Drury, is centering such talent he is bound to score goals, and to his credit he did. He would just skate around the zone, become invisible to the opposing team and then suddenly show up in front of an open net with the puck on his tape, and he would bury it 100% of the time. He did it to the Rangers all the time.
Since coming to the Rangers his offense has steeply decreased there is no debating that, but who has he played with? When he first came to the team they let Scott Gomez play with the great Jaromir Jagr and when that didn’t pan out Tom Renney, Rangers coach at that time, let rookie Brandon Dubinsky play with Jagr. Drury spent his time on the second or third line in which the best player he could play with was Brendan Shanahan, who was already well up there in age and couldn’t get around the ice to set up plays as well as Jagr could. Last year Jagr and Shanahan were gone, Gomez stayed on the fist line and Drury was given line mates such as Markus Naslund, like Shanahan another past his prime sniper, or young Ryan Callahan, who is one of my favorite players but lacks offensive talent. Let’s fast forward to this year, Drury started on the line with Ales Kotalik and Chris Higgins, neither of which are still on the team due to their offensive doldrums, then he was on with Callahan and Enver Lisin, and finally Ranger’s coach John Tortarella moved him all the way down to the fourth line to play with Brian Boyle and Aaron Voros.
Why hasn’t Drury been given the opportunity to play with Ranger’s leading goal scorer Marian Gaborik? Or the very underrated and talented Erik Christensen, or even recently acquired goal scorer Olli Jokinen, even Sean Avery would be a good fit with him because he plays great on the boards and he gets the puck to the net. Chris Drury is a great goal scorer when he has great players around him, as we have seen in the Olympics, but Chris Drury is always a great player. By this I mean he’ll willingly give up his body multiple times a game, he will hit when somebody needs to be hit, he will take a hit when a hit needs to be taken, he will fight when he needs to stir his team up, he is the definition of a captain. Now Ranger fans might be spoiled by having two of the greatest goal scorers in history as their last two captains, Mark Messier and Jaromir Jagr, but not every captain is a goal scorer. There is no question that the Rangers are Chris Drury’s team, it was proven two weeks ago when he got in a fight against Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the team rallied around him and squeaked out a much needed overtime win against a division rival.
Chris Drury is just as valuable to the Rangers as Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lunqvist, I know that sounds crazy and you are free to call me names and question my hockey knowledge, but if you sit there and tell me that Chris Drury is a bum, a bust, and overpaid hack, then I have to question your hockey knowledge.
2010 Olympic Hockey Bracket
Now that the 2010 Olympic Hockey bracket is set I will give my predictions. Granted, they will will be a bit biased due to the fact that I am American but I figure it’s the 50 and 30 year anniversaries of the last two American Olympic Hockey gold medals.
Team USA stuns Canada with 5-3 win
Chris Drury after scoring the game winning goal against Canada 2/21
USA! USA! USA!…..The patriotic cheers weren’t as pronounced as that day in Lake Placid 30 years ago, but in the middle of a predominantly Canadian crowd, one could hear the cheers from the small groups of Americans scattered around the arena as team USA defeated team Canada, locking in the 1st seed and a bye for the medal round.
When team USA was announced after the NHL 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park in Boston, many people were surprised to not see Mike Madono or Bill Guerin, or Doug Weight or even Scott Gomez. Brian Burke, team USA general manager, and Ron Wilson, team USA head coach, were obviously trying to implement a youth movement for team USA because instead of the aforementioned veterans we saw names like Patrick Kane, Zach Parise, and Dustin Brown. Although Burke and Wilson did save two spots for a couple of seasoned vets, Chris Drury and Brian Rafalski, who have paid off as of thus far in the tournament. Drury has two goals including the game winner against Canada and Rafalski scored four straight times for team USA over a span of two games, including two in the game against Canada. After seeing the stacked Canadian and Russian rosters most people were quick to write off all the other talented teams in the tournament including Slovakia, powered by Marian Gaborik and Marian Hossa, Sweden, powered by Daniel Alfredsson and backstopped by Henrik Lundqvist, Czech Republic, with former NHL great Jaromir Jagr providing the offense, and even team USA. But after a shaky game against Switzerland and a loss to team USA, team Canada now has to play the maximum amount of games to win the gold. This could be very tough for a roster of NHL players who have already played a very large amount of games due to the two week break needed to play in these Olympic games. Also, team Russia showed some weaknesses in their loss to surprise team, I don’t know why, Slovakia.
While watching the pre game shows, I noticed that many Canadians were very cocky about this game. There is a fine line between cockiness and confidence and the Canadians had stepped well over it. They didn’t give the Americans a chance at winning, it was going to be a rout of the bums down south. NBC analyst, and American, Eddie Olczyk said that he didn’t think that team Canada respected team USA and talked of how it may hurt them. How right he was.
Team USA defenseman Brian Rafalski scored 41 seconds into the game, with a shot that deflected off Canadian cover boy Sidney Crosby’s stick and passed Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur, setting the tone of the game and letting the Canadians know that the Americans showed up to play. This would spark the best game of the Olympics to date. Canada tied the game up 12 minutes later when Eric Staal deflected a Brent Seabrook shot that went through USA goaltender Ryan Miller. But 22 seconds after Staal’s goal, the US came back into the Canadian zone and after corralling a puck that Brodeur batted out of the air, Brian Rafalski put a soft wrist shot five hole on Brodeur who may not have been set after his crazy baseball play. The score after one period was 2-1 USA.
3:32 into the second period Dany Heatley scored right around the crease tying the game at two, and after this goal it looked as if Canada might have had enough energy and momentum to win. But shortly after the Heatley goal the Americans showed that they can play in front of the net as well as Chris Drury, captain of my favorite New York Rangers, collected a loose puck in front of the net and put it by defensemen Dan Boyle who was covering for goalie Martin Brodeur who was in the midst of another bad over aggressive play. This took the air out of the Canadian crowd for a bit, at least that’s how it seemed on TV, and it felt like the next goal scored would make it or break it for the Americans, luckily for them it made it. Team USA captain Jamie Langenbrunner was awarded with a goal for standing in front of the net screening his New Jersey Devils’ teammate Martin Brodeur as a Brian Rafalski shot from the point ticked off his skate and through Brodeur’s legs giving the Americans a two goal lead.
Unfortunately everyone knew that the Canadians were too good to let that be the final goal and Sidney Crosby delivered with a good looking goal right in front of Ryan Miller closing the lead to 4-3 and making things interesting with only 3:09 left in the game. And things were very interesting when the Canadians had the puck in the US zone for what seemed to be 2 full minutes shooting at will. Ryan Miller stood on his head during the entire game but none more than the last two minutes of the game. He had some help from Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan who never hesitate to give up their bodies to block a shot. Due to their great effort the Americans were able to clear the zone which set up the last goal by the US, an empty net one handed diving around the defensemen goal by Ryan Kesler. It was truly one of the greatest empty net goals that I have ever seen. This propelled the United States to their first win over Canada in the Olympics since 1960 when the U.S. won the gold.
Many conclusions can be drawn from this game, some people will say that it is meaningless because it was a preliminary round game but by defeating the highlt favored hometown Canadians, the US team now has a confidence and a swagger to them, they now think that they can play with any team in the tournament for 60 minutes. It also allowed them to seed 1st which is great because now they will play the winner of Swizerland/Belarus in the quarterfinals, which they should win. The Americans wanted to win this game, they wanted to show the other powerhouse teams that they are a force to be reckoned with, and they did just that.
Now for Canada this game brought up many questions. They still don’t have set lines and they have to decide whether they want to keep playing the struggling Martin Brodeur. No doubt he is, as hard as it is to say for me, the greatest goalie ever. That said, his best years are behind him and due to his over aggressive plays, which must have been held up inside of him for four long years because the NHL doesn’t allow such plays by a goalie, he cost his team a win. If they had butterfly goaltender Roberto Luongo in net that would have been a completely different game. Just something to think about.
The USA will next play the winner of the Switzerland/Belarus game on Wednesday 2/24. Until then GO USA!
Steven DaCorta
The Republic 