sportstv

Sunday afternoon I went to see Ultimate Fighting Competition episode 65 at Mike's place.

Mike and Maya had recorded the pay-per-view show which was broadcast the Saturday night before and they organized a nice BBQ to watch the show with a group of 10 people.

I had never seen this type of show before -- I saw some WWF wrestling games but those are scripted (fake) games and really not that exciting. I really enjoyed the UFC games which were relatively short (between 3 and 15 minutes per game) but full of action.

The most interesting game was between Sylvia and Monson. Sylvia is a very tall guy (6"8) and Monson is only 5"8 although they're the same weight. So it was the big, long-armed boxer against the short fujitsu wrestler. Sylvia was defending his title and after 4 round Monson could not capture the title, but it was an entertaining game.

I was supporting Hughes when he fought against St. Pierre, but St. Pierre dealt some severe kicks and basically knocked out Hughes with 1 feet kick to the head followed by a kick. George St. Pierre, the Canadian, is now the UFC Welterweight Champion. Later a Dutch guy played also, and I was happy to see him win. The food was good too - I tried pickled onions from Winston Salem, NC, and devilled eggs.

It was a very entertaining evening.

We just watched the World Cup 2006 final. Yesterday's game was great, today's was even better. Yesterday we saw Germany beating Portugal with 3-1 in a beautiful game, and today's game was -except for Zidane's last action in international soccer- a great game to watch.

Zidane had announced he was retiring after this game, and I thought he played very well today. Scoring the first goal, making many plays, almost scoring a second and staying in the game after a shoulder injury -- I thought he was well on his way to make a great final performance.

Sadly, he lost his temper in extra time and made gave a Materazzi a headbutt in the stomach, and was rightly sent off the field by referee Elizondo for this nasty foul. It was a disgraceful end of his career, and perhaps also of the game: the shock of losing the experienced captain, just after Henry was replaced, may have proven too much for the French team.

Italy ultimately won on penalty kicks -- I was supporting France, and thought that they were playing better than Italy but that's how the game is sometimes. This has been a great World Cup to watch, and we're looking forward to the 2008 Euro Cup.

Today we saw the game between Portugal and the Netherlands in the knock-out rounds of World Cup 2006. Portugal won with 1-0, eliminating the Netherlands from the tournament.

It was a very rough match: there were 4 red cards and many, many yellow cards. I felt that the Dutch team was playing much better than Portugal, but at the end of the day the Portugese scored and Holland didn't, bringing the game to an unfortunate 1-0 result.

We saw the game in James Mackey's Pub in downtown D.C. The pub was dedicated to the Oranje team, courtesy of NL Borrels, a Dutch social club. Everybody in the bar was wearing orange and cheering for Holland. There were even kroketten to complement the Dutch company and Heineken. A sad ending of an otherwise very nice weekend.

We had a soccer-dedicated weekend. I'll admit, I don't often watch soccer but I really enjoy large tournaments like the World Cup now or the Euro Cup two years ago.

Saturday afternoon we saw a very exciting game between Ghana and the Czech Republic. I really like Czech' soccer, but felt this was a deserved win for the Ghanese. A friend in Amsterdam (who lives in a very international neighborhood) told me that everytime Ghana scored there were loud cheer from the high-rise buildings opposite their apartment. Kingston did a great job as goalkeeper for Ghana.

This game was just the warming up for the main game of the day: the United States vs. Italy. We went to Summers around 2.30 pm, but the pub was completely full and didn't allow more customers to enter. Instead we went to Ragtime, another bar up the street, where we found a good place to watch the game. It was a very exiting, surprising game, with 3 red cards. The U.S. coach, Bruce Arena, was getting very angry during the game. The U.S. played much better than against Czech Republic a week ago and deserved this draw. Let's see how they will play against Ghana this Thursday.

Sunday evening I went for a bike ride after dinner (Arlington Triangle, 17 miles) and just got home when it was getting dark.

This afternoon Sasha and I watched the Dutch soccer game against Côte d'Ivoire. In my lunch break I went to Sasha's work where a large group of her colleagues, from the Netherlands, Côte d'Ivoire and many other countries had settled in front of a large TV in the cafetaria.

It was a very exciting game, and even though no goals were scored in the second half, there were many attacks from both sides that made for a great game to watch. Obviously we were very happy with a 2-1 end score, but I'm afraid the game against Argentina is going to be very difficult.

In the evening we saw the replay of the surprising Angola - Mexico game. It will be interesting to see who will go to the next round in that group.

We saw Brasil - Croatia on TV tonight. It's great that Telemundo, a Spanish broadcaster, is repeating all games in the evening. Just too bad that it's impossible not to know the result before we get a chance to watch the replay (the games are during the day in the U.S.). Even though we knew the result in advance, Brasil - Croatia was a awesome game to watch with many goal attempts and great soccer from both teams. Kaka's goal, just before half-time, was really nice.

Monday I had lunch with three new colleagues to welcome them to our company, and in the restaurant there was a large screen with the match between the Czech Republic and the United States. We couldn't see the game from our table, but when in the 28' minute Claudio Reyna hit the post there was a disappointed "ohhh" sound going through the restaurant.

I was not surprised that the Czech won -- they have a very strong team.

This morning we watched the first game for the Netherlands at the 2006 soccer World Cup. I woke up exactly at 9.00 am, and immediately switched the TV on to watch the match.

I was a bit disappointed that there was no second goal after Robben's goal in the 18th minute, but it was a nice game to watch. The Netherlands is one of the few teams at the World Cup to play in a 4-3-3 formation, which typically makes for attractive soccer. Apparently it was very warm in Leizpig, where the game was played, and according to coach Van Basten that was the reason there were no other goals after the first. The final score was 1-0 for the Netherlands.

It's been a long time since the Netherlands participated at a World Cup -- four years ago the Oranje team didn't qualify. Sasha and I watched some of the games of that tournament in Frankfurt, Germany, right after David & Milena's wedding. Turkey did surprisingly well, and so did South Korea, beating Italy and Spain.

Four years earlier, in 1998, Sasha and I were in the United States in Tannersville and I would take long lunch breaks to see the Dutch team playing. The Netherlands lost from Brasil on penalties in the semi-finals.

I am very excited that the World Cup 2006 has started. The Netherlands and the United States are both participating, and so is Togo, a small African country with a population of 6 million.

We saw the first half of tournament's first game during lunch. I went with my colleagues to a sports bar nearby and we saw Germany vs. Costa Rica.

I'm playing in a pool with some of my friends also. I was the only person in our 23-person pool to correctly predict the 2-1 score at half time, and because no one predicted the final score correctly I was (at 2 pm today) the number one in our pool.

Sunday morning is the first game for the Dutch team, against Serbia. It's at 9.00 am EST.

This week there is a series of baseball games in Puerto Rico.

Baseball is a very popular sport here and somebody pointed me to tonight's game between Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. Apparently this is the first time the Netherlands are joining the World Baseball Classic tournament. I was working in the bar of the hotel tonight and the game was on.

In the mean time, it seems like United has lost my bag (it took them more than 24 hours to get a phone call from the airport) and I bought some clothes here. Travelling back tomorrow, I wonder if the plane will be on time.

Last night was the Superbowl, the final match in the American Football competion. The game was between the Pittsburg Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks. I was supporting the Steelers. The Seahawks team kicked the Redskins out of the play-offs, and a couple of my colleagues are fan of the Steelers as well.

I watched the game with Prakash, a colleague, at his place on a huge screen with a projector. We had an excellent time, drinking Budweiser and jenever (he brought a few bottles from Holland a few years ago). We enjoyed the game and the famous commercials. The game itself was not the best football game I've ever seen, but I heard that's quite common for Superbowl matches because the teams are very nervous. The Steelers won with 21-10.

I was home quite late, and packed my bag around midnight. The alarm went at 4.30 am, to be on time for my 7 am flight to Puerto Rico.