Sporting Madness

Photo: Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates with teammate Deco after the two combined for one of Portugal's three goals against the Czech Republic Wednesday (Photo from CristianoRonaldos ) Breaking down Day Five of the European Championships... Match IX: Portugal 3, Czech Republic 1 So much of the talk about Portugal so far has been about moves taking place beyond the pitch, with the endless transfer speculation about Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid and the just-confirmed appointment of Portugal manager Luis Felipe Scolari to take over Chelsea after the championships conclude [Ben Knight has some good analysis of that move at On Soccer : Stephen Brunt also weighs in ]. Their performance Wednesday against a very solid Czech team showed that they deserve lots of credit for their play on the pitch, though: they dominated the entire match, scored three brilliant goals, and ensured their qualification for the next round after Switzerland lost to Turkey in the late game. It wasn't just th...

Photo: David Villa celebrates with fellow Spain striker Fernando Torres after notching one of his three goals Tuesday in a 4-1 win over Russia. (Photo by Paul White, The Associated Press , via Slam! Sports ) Breaking down Day Four of the European Championships... Match VII: Spain 4, Russia 1 Well, the Spanish won in glorious style as usual, and their striking pair of David Villa (who recorded a hat trick) and Fernando Torres looks to be one of the best in the tournament. The Russians were a bit unlucky that the score wasn't closer, as they created several good chances and rang a few off the woodwork, but Spain certainly deserved the win. Don't read too much into this for the long-term, though: Spain has a long history of excellent play in the group stages and then sudden collapses in the elimination rounds. As Stephen Brunt writes , they've broken plenty of hearts before. "We have all been there, tempted by a car or a watch or another, sucked in by the magnificent aest...

Photo: A screen capture of SI's original Tim Donaghy story from beRecruited . Well, the NBA has managed to find a way to blow it yet again. The Tim Donaghy scandal had almost died down, and all of a sudden, the league starts demanding $1 million he doesn't have in restitution. In response, Donaghy's lawyers file letters and documents with the sentencing court alleging that officials altered the outcome of at least two specific games or playoff rounds: Game Six of the Los Angeles Lakers - Sacramento Kings Western Finals clash in 2002 and the Houston Rockets - Dallas Mavericks series in 2005.As respected ESPN legal analyst Lester Munson writes , accusations that easily could have stayed quiet have now become a dark shadow cutting to the very heart of the league. "Donaghy's sentencing is scheduled for July 14. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison for conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce. In the usual...

Photo: Trevor Linden celebrates his game-winning (and series-clinching) goal against Dallas in the 2007 playoffs (Photo from Matt Gunn's blog ). The TEAM 1040's Jeff Paterson announced tonight on his blog at the Georgia Strait 's website that Canuck forward Trevor Linden will offically announce his retirement at a press conference tomorrow, 20 years to the day after he was drafted secondoverall in the 1988 NHL Draft by the Canucks (behind only Mike Modano). It's somewhat fitting that he played such a key role in knocking Modano and his ilk out of the playoffs last year. This retirement was perhaps inevitable, especially after Alain Vigneault's contract to coach the Canucks was extended. There have been several suggestions [Brad Ziemer, Vancouver Sun ] of Vigneault-Linden disagreements over the last couple of years, especially when Vigneault continued to inexplicably bench Linden in favour of inferior players like Byron Ritchie, Mike Brown and Jeff Cowan. Linden wa...

With Game Three of the NBA finals set to tip off shortly, I figured it's time to look back at Sunday's Game Two and what it can tell us about tonight's game. On Sunday, the Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers again [Michael Grange, The Globe and Mail ] to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Paul "The Truth" Pierce proved that there weren't too many lingering effects from his Game 1 injury, as he went off for 28 points, four rebounds and eight assists. Kevin Garnett recorded his typical double-double with 17 points and 14 boards, Ray Allen showed that he may still be a part of the "Mid-Sized Three" [credit to Matt McHale ] with a 17-point performance, Rajon Rondo had a 16-assist night and Leon Powe, of all people, put up 21 points in 15 minutes. " Still, the first big story of the night was the Lakers' play down the stretch. They piled up 41 points in the fourth quarter [The Associated Press] and cut a 24-point lead with 8 minutes left do...

Photo: Dutch striker Robin van Persie comes on for Ruud Van Nistlerooy (photo from The Malta Times ). Breaking down Day 3 of the Euro 2008 championships... Match V: France 0, Romania 0 I was expecting much better from this one. Instead of going for a win, both teams played not to lose and generated remarkably little in the way of offense. That's perhaps understandable from the Romanian side, as they were the underdogs, but it was disappointing to see from the French. There were some strong individual performances from the likes of Franck Ribery, Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Karin Benzema, but on the whole, it wasn't a good day for the Tricolour (yes, there are more teams with that nickname than just Queen's). Consider these quotes from Makelele on the Euro website: "Claude Makelele conceded that France 'should have taken the three points' as he took the Carlsberg Man of the Match award following Monday's 0-0 draw with Romania in Zurich. The 35-year-ol...

Photo: For Hockey Night in Canada, the song doesn't remain the same. (Photo from The Globe and Mail ) CTV announced today [ tsn.ca ] that they've acquired the rights to the popular "Hockey Theme", better known as the opening soundtrack to the CBC's Hockey Night in Canada , "in perpetuity." This comes shortly after the CBC's last-ditch attempt to bring in Gord Kirke as a mediator (as if he didn't have enough on his plate with the Leafs' GM search). There are several intersting aspects to this move. First, it draws a hell of a lot of attention to TSN's new six-year deal with the league, and with every one of their games now featuring at least one Canadian team, the case can be made that their "Hockey lives here" slogan is becoming more and more accurate. It continues their attempt to look more like the first line instead of the grinders and checkers. It also should bring a fair bit of public goodwill to their side: just look at ...