This one is not about cricket, but I have to blog on this. Canada just took the Gold in Men's Hockey in the Winter Olympics. They almost lost, 2-1 up and US scored an equalizer with 20 seconds to go. All was quiet in Vancouver. The game went to over time and rising upto everybody's expectations, Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal for us. It was bloody brilliant!
But as proud as I am of Team Canada, one look at the US goalie's face took half my joy away. People will brand me a traitor, but sometimes one man's feat is so great that you can't help feeling bitter sweet when your team wins over his. Or loses. I felt similarly during the last Football World Cup when Italians stole that win over France. I was devastated, but slightly happy for Buffon at the same time.
Ryan Miller is the only player in the US hockey team that deserves some praise. Frankly, Ryan Miller IS the US hockey team. He had to play all by himself in the first quarter, where Canada attempted shots after shots. To give you an inkling of how good he is, let me tell you that just last week, when the two teams met during the group stage (and Canada lost!), Canadians attempted 49 shots...got only 3 in. As opposed to US's 7 tries and 5 goals. Canada was terrible at finishing on that day, but trust me that is not a reflection of the team's abilities. That was the Ryan Miller show. His defense let the Canadians get close to the goal every time, and he deflected their shots...every time.
As the goal medals were carried past the US players in a platter, Ryan Miller shook his head in disbelief. After all the hard work and heroics, he goes home with the Silver. It is unbelievably harsh. And this is something that happens in almost every sport. It happened to one of my favourite South Africans, Lance Klusener, during WC99.
The following is a commercial that I am proud of and is really one that says 'In your face'. But, I still dedicate it to the Ryan Millers of the world. You may be playing our game Ryan, but you play it damn well. And for that we applaud you.
13 comments:
Sidney Crosby will be all over Sportscenter tonight :)
Million dollar professional athlete getting a silver medal - ZERO sympathy.
Amateur athlete with a day time job and only shown on TV every four years getting a silver medal - Yes, applause indeed.
Go the Norwegian curling team!
-Frau
The title made me think you were talking about the Field Hockey World Cup which began yesterday. India beat Pak 4-1 - what an awesome game. Regarding winter olympics - Congrats to Canada for their 14 golds.
My questions is, yahoo sports shows US as the number one ranked in winter olympics 2010. Does that mean the country which scores more medals wins or the country which has more golds wins the olympics?
There's not really a "winner" for the olympics, though they do pay attention to who has the most medals. In (e.g.) Russia, the US and Germany they will typically pay attention to who has the most medals (because they usually top those rankings) while Canada and Norway will pay more attention to who wins most gold medals.
(Norway won most gold in Lillehammer 94 and Salt Lake City 02, but we've never been in the top three for most medals).
But there is no official "winner" of the Olympics (although a few newspapers will call their own country the winner in headlines)
-Frau
@Frau - Thanks for the explaination. No wonder different websites from different countries show varied rankings in olympics. I used to always get confused but now I understand.
Yay I watched the super over, what a nailbiter, when the guy took that last wicket havoc broke loose!!! Congrats to Canada and also to the Canadian women... just in case you didn't realise, they won the hockey as well :P
Frau, the German ranking counts the gold medals, because they are more important than anything else.... USA should actually change their ranking system too, or why are the US boys so shattered about winning silver, if it counts the same to them as gold? USA considering themselves No.1 just means they have the most runs. But they never won a world cup, they are midget stat whores... I mean...
Seriously the ideal system would probably be a mix of both, you get a different number of points for each medal. This would put the emphasis on gold, but also take into account that the US have a really impressive number of runners up ^^
Why go to different websites for the medals tally when you can see it on the official website?
The Summer Olympics consider a gold medal better than any number of silvers or bronzes while The Winter Games only consider the total tally. If you check out the website for the Beijing Olympics you'll see China at the top even though USA won more medals.
Sid Crosby... good times.
Rayden, what Frau said.
Frau, curling is the strangest game on earth!!
Congrats to your hockey team,
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