My passion to be immersed in sport will soon be realised! I find smelly men and woman, dripping with sweat and anxiety so interesting, and all my craziest sporting dreams will be fulfilled over the next couple months – 2004 is a good year for sport.
In the next month or so, Portugal will be hosting the UEFA European Football Championships – Basically, the best 16 teams in Europe compete in a round robin format, and excel from groups of 4 into the final stages of the tournament. I will be writing an in-depth preview of the event shortly – just quickly though, whoever beats France will win the tournament, England will be lucky to get out of the group stages, The Czech republic will be the surprise packet again, not losing a game in qualifying.
Australia just played the Samoan Islands in the Oceania qualifying for the Confederations Cup – which ultimately leads to qualifying for the World Cup (which is in Germany 2006) Australia drew 2-2 with them. I must emphasise my extreme disgust at this point in time, because I have seen the Samoan Islands try to play soccer, and I am 95% certain that my indoor soccer team could beat them. It’s easy to criticize from the sidelines though!
Of course, also coming up is the pinnacle of world sporting events – the Olympic Games in Athens; September is not far away at all! I don’t think we will see any new surprises at these games, the perennial leaders of USA, China, Russia, and of course, the international minnows, but predictable sporting over achievers – the Aussies! I am looking forward to the swimming in particular. The epic battles between the Australian’s and the Americans in the pool are the focal point of the Olympics for many Australians, simply because it is our best sport. We aren’t so good on the track, but we have a lot of marine predators – so it’s within our interest’s to learn how to swim! And real fast as well! The duel between Michael Phelps of the USA, Ian Thorpe of AUS and Pieter Van Den Hoogenband of Holland is shaping up to be an enticing one indeed!
The Olympic Games aren’t really about how many medals you win though – even competing is prestigious in my eyes! I just hope the Athens Olympic organising committee have everything up to standard when September rolls around! It’s the feel good stories of the Olympics that I love best. I remember Sydney 2000, where a runner from Sierra Leone qualified to compete, yet he did not even have track shoes. Some loud mouth American who was worth more in endorsements than Sierra Leone’s annual GDP showed the true spirit of the games, and gave him a pair of his track shoes – sure, he would have a squillion pairs! But he didn’t have to give them to him?
I look forward to the world uniting under the 5 Olympic rings, hopefully the world can forget hostilities for a few weeks, and men from Iran can compete with Americans as brothers.
Meanwhile, September also means something a bit closer to home – it is the finals of the AFL premiership season, and based on current form, my team – the Melbourne Demons, should factor quite considerably! I love living a successful life vicariously through my chosen sport idols!!!
I just love sport… Keep you eyes tuned for some follow up articles soon!!!
BAM!!!