Links of the Day: The collection

Well, I'm back from a crazy weekend of softball: played seven games over two days, and my trademark intensity meant that I left Revelstoke sore all over, with most of the skin removed from elbows and knees from various diving catches and slides, and bruised ribs, broken sunglasses and a black eye from a head-first dive into an outfield fence (I did catch the ball, though, so it was all worth it). The rest of the weekend was okay, but the frequent downpours made camping a bit less enjoyable, and the massive traffic jam we got stuck in on the way home certainly wasn't a great experience.

Anyway, I'm back to the grind of the office and back to blogging in my spare time. Original posts should resume late tonight or early tomorrow, but to fill the gap, I figured I'd present another special edition of the Links of the Day with the other sports writing I've been doing (for anyone who cares). Here it is:

- A piece on Nikki Wright, a striker for the Vancouver Whitecaps' prospects squad who will be suiting up for Langley's Trinity Western University this fall [Langley Times, August 7].
- A profile on Langley-based chiropractor Dr. Gerry Ramogida, who's in Beijing for the Olympics to work with the Canadian Olympic team (and specifically track athletes, including 400m world champion Tyler Christopher) [Langley Times, August 5].
- Why I'm not quite sold on the new Queen's men's soccer coach yet [Out of Left Field, August 7].
- An article on Myrte Schon, a volleyball player with the Fraser Valley Volleyball Club, who played for Team BC at the 2008 National Team Challenge Cup in Calgary, travelled to Brazil with her club and earned bronze at the club nationals in Ottawa earlier this year [Langley Times, August 9].
- A story on Brandon Kaye, the half-brother of Blue Jays' pitcher Scott Richmond, who played for Team Canada in this summer's World University Baseball championships [Langley Times, August 2].
- A piece on Langley midget football coach Dana Matheson, who won back-to-back Vanier Cups with the St. Mary's Huskies [Langley Times, August 7].
- A profile on naturopathic doctor Peter Bennett, who also is in Beijing to work with the Canadian track and field team [Langley Times, August 9].
- A piece on the Canadian women's first soccer match against Argentina [Out of Left Field, August 5].

And we're back!

Well, new posts on this site are back after a prolonged absence. Unfortunately, my work at the Langley Times, the Queen's Journal and Out of Left Field has kept me swamped lately, so I haven't been able to write anything here for quite a while. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to an average of a post a day shortly, but we'll have to see how it goes. In the meantime, to prove I haven't just been slacking off, here's an edition of the Links of the Day focused on the other sports writing I've been doing (I've done plenty of news, business and entertainment for the Times as well, but this is a sports blog, so I went with some of the sports links):

- A story on Langley pitcher Scott Richmond, who got his first start for the Toronto Blue Jays today [Langley Times].
- A piece I wrote on the Whitecaps' official bid for MLS (and Steve Nash signing on as a co-owner) [Out of Left Field].
- A look at some of the Queen's teams new recruits [Queen's Journal].
- An opinion piece on how the Olympics have always been political [Queen's Journal].
- A story on Queen's appointing three full-time coaches [Queen's Journal].
- A piece I wrote last week on the Nutrilite Canadian Championships soccer series [Out of Left Field].

Some new, original content coming soon!

Canucks: From the heights to the depths

Wow. It wasn't all that long ago that a certain over-optimistic homer (or former-home-r?) wrote about the Vancouver Canucks making a run at the Northwest Division title. Not only did that fail to materialize, but the opposite happened: they promptly went into a slump and are now on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. To squeeze into the playoffs, the Canucks now likely have to run the table and hope Nashville drops points against either St. Louis or Chicago. The Vancouver Province does a nice job of breaking down the potential scenarios here (except if Chicago and Edmonton both pass the Canucks, they'd finish 11th, not 10th).

Tonight's game against Edmonton could decide things one way or another, and the interesting part is the staggered time zones. The Nashville-St. Louis and Calgary-Minnesota games both start at 8 ET, while the Canucks don't take the ice for another two and a half hours. As the Globe's Matthew Sekeres points out, there will probably be a lot of scoreboard-watching in the dressing room. Regardless of what happens in the other games, though, the Canucks really need to take this one to have a good shot at the playoffs. If both Nashville and Vancouver win, it's not the end of the world: that's postponed until Saturday. What would be much better from a Vancouver perspective would be a victory for the Canucks and a loss by the Predators, which would vault Vancouver back into the final playoff spot.

Unfortunately, the Canucks again have injury issues. The Province's Ben Kuzma tells us that Taylor Pyatt, who's been one of the better forwards recently, will miss the game with a concussion. He'll be replaced by Rick Rypien. Sekeres adds that Matt Pettinger, who's also made a surprisingly positive contribution since being snagged at the trade deadline, is also likely to miss tonight's clash: Jannik Hansen may take his place. On the bright side, the Oilers have their own injury woes: they're missing Kyle Brodziak, Ales Hemsky and Mathieu Garon, so the Canucks will probably only have to deal with Rollie the Goalie.

The thing that's so frustrating about following the Canucks is their highs and lows. One day, they'll put a great 6-2 thrashing on the Flames and look like a team that could actually do some damage in the playoffs. The next game, things will start well and then go completely off the rails. Alanah perfectly nails the frustration that comes with being a Canucks fan these days. "I wouldn’t bet on either of those Vancouver games, other than to say that the Canucks will win one of them FOR SURE—probably Thursday’s against Edmonton—just to keep the pain alive," she writes. That seems like the most likely option, having it come down to the wire and falling just short: it would be completely in character with this season.

A special hockey edition of the Links of the Day:

Canucks:
- Kuzma has another great story referencing Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of my favorite movies of all time. There's some good parallels, too: the Canucks seem to be insisting that they're "not dead yet".
- Sticking with the Province, Jason Botchford has a good piece on Roberto Luongo, and how a superlative performance from him will be crucial to any hopes the Canucks have of success.
- The Hockey News has a pretty funny Top 10 list of Canucks' excuses for missing the playoffs. My favorite? "We haven’t been the same since losing all-star Rory Fitzpatrick."
(Thanks to Alanah for spotting this one).
- Zanstorm has a good game preview up. Despite the Canucks losing 4 of their last five, he's still feeling pretty positive: wish I could share that emotion.

General hockey:
- The guys at Orland Kurtenblog remind Vancouver fans that fans from the rest of Canada (except those from Montreal) are feeling the same pain.
- James Mirtle has a nice post on Ken Hitchcock's selection as head coach of the Canadian World Championships team. Hitch is a pretty good pick in my books as well.
- The Globe's Roy MacGregor on the Sens' latest struggles. Best lines: "Murray candidly admits he has no idea what went so very wrong with this group. No one really does. 'I'm not throwing anybody under buses,' the coach said, while the rest of the city was busy tossing so many players under the bus, that the wheels no longer touched the ground." For some reason, that sounds pretty familiar.
- Neate has a brilliant demolition of Pierre LeBrun's ill-advised piece on sportsnet.ca the other day calling Bobby Nadeau a "Nancy Boy" for letting Jonathan Roy punch him without fighting back. I usually like LeBrun and find him pretty insightful, and he makes some valid points in the column, but there's no reason to start throwing out those kind of terms, and Nadeau is the wrong person to blame. I enjoy the occasional hockey fight myself, but it's never been acceptable to go and just start beating on someone who clearly doesn't want to drop the gloves. Hockey has had a long history of on-ice violence, but that also doesn't justify making it a taboo topic. The world has done some pretty horrible things in the past (say immigrant head taxes or Jim Crow laws, for example), and we don't advocate keeping those just because they used to be enforced.

Scribblings of the Scribes of Sport: Diamond Dreams by Stephen Brunt

Stephen Brunt's Diamond Dreams is a classic for any fan of the Toronto Blue Jays. Published in 1996, it's an amazing retrospective into the history of the franchise. What's more impressive than the on-field action though is the clarity Brunt brings to the shady backroom maneuverings that are as much of a part of baseball in this day and age as "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" or the seventh-inning stretch. Along the way, we're treated to some interesting vignettes and character sketches of the key personalities involved: Pat Gillick, the withdrawn baseball genius, Don McDougall, the young, ambitious Labatt's president and eventual key ownership figure, and Howard Webster, the eccentric sport-loving millionaire.

Perhaps the most interesting portrait, though, is that of a man still deeply involved with the franchise: Paul Godfrey, who The Tao of Steib recently called "a kitten-drowning baby shaker " for his plans to sell Jays' tickets to Red Sox and Tigers fans before local fans could buy them. Godfrey's recent actions, particularly his deep involvement in the nefarious plot to bring the NFL north of the border , certainly make a lot more sense when you consider his history and his involvement in bringing the Jays to town. He was originally on North York council, a tiny role that was insufficient for his lofty dreams, and chose baseball as his ticket to the big time. He later was the Metro Toronto chairman from 1973-1984, and published the Toronto Sun from 1984-1991 before eventually joining the Jays' front office as president. As he told Brunt in an interview for the book, his involvement with the franchise was always with regards to what it could do for him.

"I figured there was no political downside for me," he said. "Only a political upside in any event. So I started this campaign to try to bring major league baseball to Toronto. I was going to be the guy who brough major league baseball."

In fact, as Brunt so eloquently points out, bringing a team was always going to be a massive effort involving many people, particularly as none of them knew how to do it.
"A politician [Godfrey], a brewery [Labatt's], a bank [CIBC] and an eccentric businessman [Webster] set out to buy a baseball team for Toronto," he writes. Sure enough, the punchline follows: "Not one of them really knew for sure how to do it."

Interestingly enough in the end, Brunt seems to conclude that Godfrey's role wasn't all that essential. As he writes, "...[T]he idea evolved that [Godfrey] was exactly what he had hoped to be—"the man who brought baseball to Toronto"... Some of those more directly involved with bringing the team to town―and especially with paying the bills—came to resent that image, though the friction never became public."

Brunt also quotes a couple of Jays' officials disgruntled with Godfrey for taking all the credit. "The guys at Labatt resent Godfrey being credited with bringing baseball to Toronto, because he didn't put up the money," one says. The overall consensus seems to be that Godfrey was helpful, particularly with Exhibition Stadium, but didn't do as much as he generally gets credit for: not surprising, given that it was always a political matter with him.

The on-field drama is also compelling, from the Jays' poor start to the back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993. Brunt's strong writing means the reader is never bored even in the midst of long stretches of mediocrity, and the in-depth profiles he provides of Jays' players, coaches, managers and front-office staff means the book always stays interesting even when the team isn't.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book: for a younger Jays fan like myself, it gave a lot of insight into the origins and roots of the team, which I think is vital to an understanding of where they are now. As previously mentioned, many of the same features in the original expansion to Toronto seem now to be repeating themselves with the NFL situation, so this book certainly is still relevant. Moreover, though, it stands as a strong example of sportswriting at its best: telling the behind-the-scenes story of a franchise to the fans who only get to see the on-field product.

A few quick links of the day:
- A post I put up over at my Journal blog predicting the various Queen's teams first-round playoff matchups: 1 for 1 so far, with women's volleyball's loss to the Varsity Blues tonight (my story on that should hit the Journal's website soon).
- Allan Maki has a great feature on Lakehead's basketball team over at the Globe and Mail's website
- Mike's take on the Senators' trade to get Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore
- Neate has a nice piece in the Ottawa Sun about a goalkeeper attending Toronto FC's summer camp
- The Globe's James Mirtle has some interesting stats on defensive forwards up on his blog: also, he wrote a hilarious post on the Globe on Hockey blog about former Canuck goalie Johan Hedberg facing rubber chickens in Atlanta
- The CIS Blog's newest contributor, Rob Pettapiece, has an interesting post up about the possible demise of campus sports radio over at the University of Waterloo

The new kids on the block

Ben Knight has a great post on his globesports.com blog today about the creation of a Canadian Soccer Federation as perhaps the first step in the drastic overhaul or replacement of the troubled Canadian Soccer Association. I've written pretty extensively on the problems affecting the CSA before, so there's no real point in rehashing that.

As Knight points out, probably the major issue at the root of these troublesome symptoms is the unnecessarily factionalized nature of the decision-makers, particularly on a board where provincial representatives looking out for their own organizations' interests make decisions affecting Canada at a national level. It's as ludicrous as those "Team Canada" missions where the premiers conduct international talks: you can't have provincial officials making decisions that affect an entire country, as they will always be looking after their own constituencies before the good of the entire populace.

Knight also points out that the CSA can't really take too much credit for the various successes Canadian soccer has enjoyed recently: they didn't have much to do with BMO Field or Toronto FC, they mismanaged the wildly successful U-20 World Cup and lost millions despite setting attendance records, and they switched the organizational structure of the men's national team immediately after their Gold Cup success. Thus, any counterpoints they raise about good things they've done need to be looked at through a skeptical lens.


I'm not one to condemn people unilaterally for past mistakes: if the CSA is willing to admit they've screwed up, drastically overhaul their structure and move on to what's best for the national game instead of what's best for their members, I don't mind if they keep the reins of Canadian soccer. Otherwise though, the government needs to wake up to the mismanagement under this regime, kick it out and allow some more capable organization to step into their place. Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact and the Vancouver Whitecaps have already partially stepped into the void with their own talks about growing the game and improving player development: this new CSF sounds like a potential candidate for other roles of the CSA.

Most importantly, the function of managing the national team system needs to be sharply separated from the regulation of the amateur game, and incompetent amateur officials concerned with the preservation of their own fiefdoms should be kept away from the national program with as long a stick as possible. Hopefully, the formation of the CSF will draw more attention to the plight of the CSA and will raise national awareness of the aforementioned issues. Whether this results in the dissolution of the CSA or merely its drastic retooling, this is a positive first step.

Links of the Day:
- Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail has one of the best sports features I've read in a long time, looking back at the lessons of the tragic Swift Current bus crash. A great piece of writing overall, and especially relevant given the Bathurst tragedy.
- Sticking with the Globe for the moment, James Mirtle has a nice piece up on the introduction of CIS women's hockey at UQAM.
- Neate Sager on the Jays' decision to offer tickets to Boston and Detroit fans before local ones. I tend to agree with the guys from All Your Base Are Belong To Rios (greatest blog title ever, by the way) on this one: I don't mind them selling tickets that wouldn't normally be sold to fans hungry for the game, but the problem is when these fans get greater privileges than your own supporters.
- Neate has another post over at The CIS Blog (great resource for university sport stuff, by the way) on more statistical incompetence by the OUA (see my volleyball post from last weekend for another example).
- Greg Layson of the Guelph Mercury talks about how exactly Ontario University Athletics screwed up the score (which could be important) on his Big Man on Campus blog. It would be nice if this was a one-off, but my experience with OUA statistics indicates it isn't. Greg has more in a follow-up post, and should have a story on this in Wednesday's Mercury. It's nice that someone with a slightly bigger platform is taking the league to task on getting these things right, as it needs to be done: as James Mirtle wrote in the Globe a little while ago, we don't even know if Andrew Spagrud's going to break the CIS basketball scoring record, as no one knows what it is. That's a bit of a problem for a league's credibility.
- Speaking of campus stuff, Mike has a nice post up on everything from Richard Zednik to Gaels' hockey. A pretty amazing choke-job by Toronto leaves Queen's with a nice first-round bye, even after it looked like they'd blown the division with the Ryerson loss.
- And one final one: a tongue-in-cheek humour piece I put up on my Journal blog about possible reasons the Giants beat the Patriots last Sunday.

Bring on the auditors!

Ben Knight, the Globe and Mail's esteemed soccer writer, had a great post up today about the Canadian Soccer Association refusing to reveal the terms of their settlement with Fred Nykamp (the chief operating officer they lured from Canada Basketball, kept in limbo for several months, and eventually fired before he could start work). If this were any other government-funded organization, people would be up in arms by now: they've been without a full-time president since Colin Linford's resignation, there's no technical director or COO in sight, they somehow managed to lose substantial money on a U-20 World Cup tournament that shattered attendance records, and now they've wasted an undisclosed amount of money on a settlement that wouldn't have been necessary if they hadn't been so inept in the first place.

It's not disputed that Nykamp deserved a substantial settlement for his shoddy treatment at the hands of the CSA: the taxpayers and average soccer players who fund the agency deserve to learn just how much money was wasted by its own incompetence. As Knight pointed out, a full-fledged audit would answer many of the underlying questions about the CSA, show which parts of the organization should be retained and which ones should have been scrapped long ago, and pave the way for the future success of Canadian soccer. This is unlikely to happen at the moment, given the lack of pressure on the CSA, but if enough fans get angry enough, something might be done.

Links of the day: (perhaps inorganic, but after all, the point is to advertise some great work that I don't have time to write full entries about!)
- Neate has an interesting take on the Ray Emery saga, and also caught the Boston Globe perhaps jumping the gun
- CFRC's Tyler King makes a good point about how untrustworthy the OUA is
- In the same vein, James Mirtle has a hilarious story in the Globe about how no one knows the CIS basketball scoring record
- Mirtle also has a nice post up on his blog considering how hockey's changed since the lockout
- A post I wrote over on my Journal blog about the Belgian Olympic Committee banning their athletes from expressing political opinions this summer

To Swede, or not to Swede (and if so, which Swede?)

There's lots of discussion going on in Canuck Nation at the moment regarding Hockey Night in Canada panelist Al Strachan's suggestion last night that Mats Sundin may be headed to Vancouver. It's certainly an intriguing notion: the Canucks' major weakness is a lack of deep, consistent scoring, which Sundin would certainly provide. However, given that he's likely to only be a rent-a-player and wind up back in Toronto next season, the question is if he's worth the steep price the Leafs will certainly demand. My thinking is he is, but only if two conditions are met: first, that Vancouver's playing well enough that his addition would be enough to push them over the top into the realm of serious Cup contenders, and second, that the Canucks don't have to mortgage their entire future to grab him.

The first condition seems to be a bit of an iffy proposition at the moment, as the Canucks haven't played consistently lately. After falling behind to Detroit, one of the best teams in the league, they mounted an incredible comeback and only lost in a shootout. However, they then fell 4-3 Saturday to the Los Angeles Kings, one of the worst teams in the league, on Hockey Night in Canada. The Canucks seemed to catch fire later in the game, and easily could have tied it with chances like the one Ryan Kesler had with less than a minute left: however, as Kesler himself said, they never should have been down that far.
"We seemed to be all over them at the beginning, but for us to be down 3-0 to the last-place team in our conference is inexcusable for us," Kesler told Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province.

A positive that can be taken from the game was the Canucks' generation of offensive chances: however, their defensive play that has stood out for most of the year was noticeably absent. They'll need to find a way to get both to click simultaneously, and on a consistent basis, if they want to be a serious contender. Interestingly enough, this condition is necessary for more than one reason: not only do the Canucks need to be able to challenge for the Stanley Cup to have a Sundin trade approach the realms of rationality for the organization, but they'll likely need to be in contention in order to have Sundin consider it, due to his no-trade clause.

On Condition II: it's uncertain what the market would require, so this is hard to discuss at the moment. I would certainly jump at the scenario Sportsnet hockey analyst and former Leaf GM Gord Stellick proposed in Rick Westhead's Jan. 9 Toronto Star article: swapping Sundin straight up for Cory Schneider, Mason Raymond and Taylor Ellington. This is nice because Schneider isn't that incredibly valuable to a Canucks team that will live and die on Roberto Luongo's play (and has also been getting strong backup play from Curtis Sanford). Drew MacIntyre has also shown himself to be a good prospect, and has been actually outplaying Schneider so far this year from what I understand, making Schneider a very expendable prospect (but one the goaltending-troubled Leafs might be interested in). Losing Raymond and Ellington would hurt a bit more, but many would happily give up both for a chance to win the Cup: this scenario also allows the Canucks to retain their draft pick this year, a good move considering that this draft is supposed to be very deep. However, my guess is that John Ferguson Jr. (or his successor) would want more for Mats, including picks.

Perhaps a better option is lurking out there in Peter Forsberg. Zanstrom wrote that Forsberg claims to be completely healthy and might be a possibility for the Canucks. If so, the Canucks would be a great fit for him, due to both Swedish ties and potential to contend. They also have enough cap space (especially if Morrison's injury turns out to be longer-term) to make Forsberg a decent offer. His injury problems notwithstanding, this is a gamble the Canucks should try. If it fails and Foppa gets hurt, all they've lost is a chance to make a run this year, rather than pieces of their future.

Related:
- Alanah's take on the Sundin/Forsberg situation
- Zanstrom's thoughts

Other links of the day:
Hockey
- Tom Benjamin's take on the Toronto situation
- James Mirtle on the records teams will need to get into the playoffs

Soccer
- The always-inspiring Uli Hesse-Lichtenburger of ESPN Soccernet has a great piece on how media oversensationalize even the most routine goals
- Stephen Brunt's take on the possible split between Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr (originally with the great headline "Doomed to Walk Alone")
- Brunt's compatriot Ben Knight of the Globe and Mail on Kevin Keegan's return to Tyneside
- Soccernet has Hicks denying the split
- A piece I wrote for my Journal blog about the Premier League title race

CIS
- Neate Sager has some interesting thoughts over at The CIS Blog about the NCAA situation
- Speaking of the NCAA: my long-in-the-making piece for the Journal on the situation appeared on Friday: I'll have more on it both here and in Tuesday's Journal
- Mark Wacyk of cishoops.ca on U of T's recent win over the Gaels in CIS basketball
- Sager again on his personal blog, talking about the weekend that was in CIS hockey and basketball

Football
- Bill Simmons' always entertaining mailbag and picks
- Brunt again on the Patriots' triumph over San Diego

Baseball
- Sager with Brunt's thoughts on why he didn't submit a Hall of Fame ballot: very interesting stuff. I admire Brunt for taking a stand for what he believes, but as Sager points out, it's a shame he's not voting while far lesser minds are
- Jeff Blair on an interesting clause in Scott Rolen's contract
- Blair's globesports.com colleague Larry Millson has a nice retrospective on John McHale, the former Montreal Expos
president who died Thursday

Why they still play the games

Last weekend in the NFL was a case in point as to why we still bother to actually play out the games, even in this day and age of intensive statistics, research and computer analysis on sporting events. Against the odds and the collected wisdom of the pundits and prognosticators, two underdogs (the San Diego Chargers and New York Giants) knocked off heavily-favoured teams (the Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys). The classic "any given Sunday" line became true again, which is a great thing for both the league and sport in general. Hopefully, this will continue: it will certainly make next week's
games interesting if the Chargers and Giants can at least give the Patriots and Packers a run for their money. All sense, odds, and logical thought again favours the home teams, but as this past week showed, the league can't simply be turned over to the statisticians and computers. It should be a great round of games.

Links of the day:
- Stephen Brunt has a great piece in the Globe and Mail on the Patriots
- Bill Simmons went 3 for 4 straight-up, amazing considering the two underdog wins: he even violated his own rule by taking Eli Manning and the Giants!
- The Vancouver Province's Marc Weber has a great piece on yesterday's decision to allow Canadian schools to apply for NCAA Division II membership (I'll have a story on this in Friday's Queen's Journal).
- James Mirtle weighs in on the NCAA situation on The CIS Blog
- Neate Sager has an interesting angle on how many Canadians are lost to the NCAA already
- Ben Knight on the atrocious current form of Liverpool FC

49th Parallel War/Links of the Day

Currently watching the Canada-U.S. showdown at the World Juniors. Good game so far: the first period was a little defensive, but as a Canucks fan, I can hardly complain about that! Canada broke through in the second with a nice goal, and both teams seem to have decided to turn up the offensive pressure as a result. Kyle Turris is having a solid game, and just recorded Canada's second goal on the power play (after the U.S. was called for too many men on the ice) What I find weird about this match is how many, including the Globe's Tim Wharnsby, have labeled the Canadians as underdogs. Sure, they lost once in the group stage this year to a very good Swedish team (who knocked off Russia earlier today to advance to the finals), and came in through a quarterfinal win over Finland, but they've still won the last three world championships, and killed the Russians in the Super Series earlier this year: that deserves a little respect in my books at least. In contrast, the U.S. hasn't accomplished much at this level since their 2004 upset of the Canadians. They have many highly-touted players, but Canada can match them in skill with players like John Tavares and Kyle Turris, and Canada's quotient of hard workers and grinders is second-to-none. The Canadians also realize how important this tournament is to their country, and know they're playing on a national stage: skill guys like Tavares are willing to take whatever role they're given to help the team, while the U.S. philosophy seems to be more about advancing one's own stock and less about the team game. I think that difference in attitude will give Canada enough of an edge to hang on to the lead here and beat the Swedes for the gold.

Also interesting: Canadian starting goaltender Steve Mason got traded right before the game started. Can you imagine that happening at any other tournament?

Links of the Day:
- Alanah's take/open thread on this game
- James Mirtle's thoughts: he also sees the US as favorites
- Wharnsby reports that Canada's set to host the juniors three out of the next four years: should be a nice home-ice advantage
- Zanstorm's review of last night's epic Canucks-Rangers clash
- The Province's Jason Botchford has a nice piece on Ryan Kesler
- Ben Knight has a fascinating column up today: apparently Bayern Munich is trying to lure Jose Mourinho after Ottmar Hitzfeld leaves at the end of the season. That would be something to see!
- Michael Grange has an interesting post on the links between the Raptors and tonight's opponents, the Detroit Pistons
- Bill Simmons' playoff predictions (he also has a cool new column up and some new links)
- Great piece by Dana Kennedy of the Huffington Post on the Tony Parker non-scandal and the woman who started it
- Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a hilarious column picking out the most trite sporting cliches of the year
- Richard Sandomir of the New York Times dissects the problems with Bryant Gumbel's announcing
- The guys at Orland Kurtenblog found a Dan Cloutier mousepad on EBay

Kahn!

Oliver Kahn is one of the all-time great goalkeepers, and also one of my favorite players, but he's gone too far this time. Kahn was recently suspended for a game and fined 25,000 euros for "disciplinary reasons" by Bayern Munich manager Ottmar Hitzfeld. The club didn't explicitly say why Kahn received such punishment, but according to the ESPN Soccernet article linked above, it's likely related to the recent criticisms he made of Bayern's new signings in kicker magazine, one of the leading German soccer publications.

"The new players need to get used to our high expectations." Kahn told the magazine. "It is not good enough to make a bright start. One or two (players) have got to work out that two or three good games are not enough. Bayern is not Marseille or Fiorentina; we are like Real, Man United, Barca or Milan. It is hard to get a team together because we always need three interpreters. There is no pleasure in our game anymore, and every player has got to ask themselves why."
a
Kahn is wrong here on several counts. Firstly, he singles out Franck Ribery and Luca Toni (Marseille and Fiorentina are their old clubs) for special criticism. Anyone who has watched a Bayern match this year will tell you that Ribery and Toni have consistently been two of their best players: Ribery has brought a brilliant new creativity to their midfield, while Toni has formed one of the most lethal strike partnerships in all of Europe with Miroslav Klose. Sure, language barriers can make team comraderie difficult, but Bayern gains far more from the inclusion of Ribery and Toni than they would from having a linguistically homogeneous team. It's a reality of high-level soccer now that players come from all cultural and linguistic backgrounds: this diversity hasn't held back clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal, and Barcelona, so I don't see why it's suddenly a problem for Bayern. A footballer should be judged by his performance on the pitch alone, not his racial, cultural, or linguistic background.

Secondly, Kahn went about his criticisms the wrong way. If he has a problem with his teammates, he should talk to them about it first, and then if it remains unresolved, he should go to the manager. As the captain, he does bear some responsibility for how the team is playing, so if he feels Ribery and Toni aren't performing as well as they could, he should go to them directly or call them out in the locker room. As a member of the press myself, it sounds odd to say this, but the media is not the place to resolve a conflict within an organization, although it makes for great ccopy (just look at the trouble the Toronto Maple Leafs have gotten themselves into with Richard Peddie's comments about hiring the wrong general manger). Teams' dirty laundry should remain in the locker room, not be aired out in front of the fourth estate. As a long-serving captain at both club and national level, Kahn should be well aware of this by now.

Thirdly, the captaincy itself is a problem. Can Kahn's teammates have any trust in him as a leader after he's shown his willingness to throw them from the train? Moreover, can his manager count on him any more? This situation looks especially bad, as Kahn is not only Bayern's captain, but a national hero and the face of the franchise. For hockey fans, this would be the equivalent of the Canucks suspending Markus Naslund or the Leafs benching Mats Sundin: can you imagine the furor that would arise? I think Hitzfeld made the right decision here, as someone had to show Kahn that this type of backstabbing wouldn't be tolerated, but the negative side effect is that his response has made this into a global story, as opposed to a few comments in a German-language magazine. It's focused a lot of negative attention on both Kahn and the club, which doesn't bode well for the future. Hitzfeld may even be forced to remove Kahn from the captaincy, which would be tragic, but perhaps necessary to ensure team unity.

The most unusual part of this scenario is that Bayern have actually performed well to date. A disappointing fourth-place finish last season left them out of the Champions League and without even a cup title to their name, but they reloaded and restocked, bringing in new talent like Ribery and Toni. In fact, they spent nearly $94 million US on new signings, more than the majority of clubs in much bigger leagues than the Bundesliga. This catapulted them to fifth in the world in Sports Illustrated's pre-season power rankings, ahead of such giants as Manchester United, Inter Milan, and Liverpool. So far, they haven't disappointed: they lead the Bundesliga by two points over Werder Bremen, and they're tied for second in Group F of the UEFA Cup, sitting only one point back of leaders Bolton (who have also played an extra game). Sounds like anything but a crisis to me, which makes Kahn's actions all the more unusual. He's really hurt his team here, not only by breeding an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust but also by forcing them to do without his goalkeeping services for Saturday's clash against Hertha Berlin. Soccer is at its very essence a team game, and Kahn would do well to remember that. For the moment, Bayern fans can emphasize with James T. Kirk and his angry cry of "Kahn!"

Links of the Day: A round-up of the best of the interweb

Soccer:
- Richard Starnes on Stephen Ireland's latest antics
- Bobby McMahon's latest Speakers' Corner responses: he likes Capello for England and has some great views on how fans should learn a club's history
- L.A. Galaxy manager Ruud Gullit and AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf have some reservations about the Capello for England movement
- Burglaries aren't limited to American football players: some thugs broke into Steven Gerrard's home last night, following with the Liverpool trend (Pepe Reina, Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt and many more have all been burglarized recently)
- The New York Times' Jeffrey Marcus on the recent soccer violence in Mexico

Hockey:
- Zanstrom previews tonight's Canucks-Ducks matchup
- The Vancouver Province's Gord McIntyre's take on Roberto Luongo's injury and the end of Brendan Morrison's ironman streak
- The Province's Ed Willes on the lack of offensive play in the NHL
- Alanah on the Canucks' current injury woes and Mason Raymond's rise to stardom
- James Duthie on the lack of trades in the NHL
- James Mirtle on how bloggers and mainstream media don't need to hate each other.
- David Staples of the Edmonton Journal has an interesting blog post about Shawn Horcoff, trading Joffrey Lupul not necessarily being so bad, and giving Kevin Lowe the benefit of the doubt (can't say I agree with him, but he makes a good case)
- Varius clears through all the muck surrounding the Ducks' tagging room

Basketball:
- Neate Sager has a nice piece on Raptors' guard T.J. Ford's injury last night
- The Globe's Michael Grange on how bad this injury could be and what it could mean for Ford's career, especially given his spinal cord problems
- The Canadian Press reports that Ford's 'doing better' and should be back in T.O. today
- The Times' Howard Beck on Isiah Thomas' latest confrontation with fans

Baseball:
- Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci on why former Montreal Expo Tim Raines deserves to make the Baseball Hall of Fame
- The Associated Press on the looming release of the Mitchell Report
- The Globe's Jeff Blair on the Paul Lo Duca saga
- ESPN's Keith Law on the recent controversy over his non-admission to the BBWAA (check out Neate's post here for the original details)

A sad day for England

According to a Reuters story today, Jose Mourinho has ruled himself out of contention for the England national soccer team manager's job. As I laid out in an earlier post on my Journal blog, Mourinho was far and away the best candidate for the job: he had enjoyed fantastic success with both minnows (FC Porto) and giants (Chelsea), and had also proven himself capable of both managing superstar egos and getting the most out of limited talent. He is also perhaps the only person adequately prepared to survive the storm of scrutiny that goes with the England job, which is unparalled in professional sports. In fact, Richard Starnes muses that it may have been the prospect of this scrutiny itself that led Mourinho to decline. If the self-anointed "Special One" who played the media like a fiddle during his time at Chelsea can't handle the prospect of even more invasive media coverage, who possibly can?
Of the remaining candidates, Martin O'Neill and Jurgen Klinsmann stand out as good choices: neither is too likely to get the job, though, as O'Neill has already said he doesn't want it and Klinsmann would probably want to stay in California, which would not sit well with the English FA. Fabio Capello has said he's interested, but I'm not sure that he'd be the best fit: he speaks little English, seems uncomfortable with the media, and had difficulty managing egos during his time at Real Madrid. He's had considerable club success, but I don't know if he has the personality required to translate that into national success. Marcello Lippi's proven that he can succeed on the national stage, but again, language and personality are issues. It will be interesting to see how the situation develops: will O'Neill change his mind, will the FA be willing to bend and accomodate Klinsmann, will they take a chance on Capello or Lippi, or will they go with some dredged-up Englishman like Sam Allardyce, Steve Coppell, or Harry Redknapp? My hope is for one of the former possibilities, but the latter has a strong chance of happening due to the "We need an Englishman" sentiment. As Ben Knight remarked a while ago, England needs to accept that the best managers are no longer homegrown.

Links of the Day:

- A great interview with Sir Alex Ferguson by the Telegraph's Tim Rich
- The Guardian's sport blog list of the top six soccer books of all time
(thanks to Bobby for the links)
- Jozy Altidore on the NY Times Soccer Blog about his training with the U.S. Olympic team
- James Mirtle's list of the NHL's best penalty killers: some interesting names, including ex-Canucks defenceman Brent Sopel
- James Duthie on oversized goalie equipment (and Marty Turco's suprising thoughts on it)
- Alanah's top ten reasons why hockey's better than other sports
- The Province's Gord McIntyre previews tonight's Canucks-Kings clash
- Neate Sager on the state of the Kingston Frontenacs.