Grandstand

A big day of sports today.

Football: good game between Man City and Spurs.  I think it's fair to say that Liverpool have a good chance of winning the league now!  Lots of talking points - not the least of which is yet more very dubious decisions by VAR.  I'm going to keep on saying this, but it simply doesn't work for the English game and we should just get rid of it.  Also, officially worried about Palace now.  That's 6 games without a win, little activity in the transfer window and the lack of goals continues to be a major worry.  Next games coming up are critical: Everton, Newcastle, Brighton, Watford, Bournemouth.  I would like to see 3 wins out of these if we are not going to get dragged into a relegation scrap.

Rugby: did England deserve to lose?  Yes.  Did England suffer from some kind of Rugby World Cup hangover?  Yes.  Do I think its coincidence that a lot of the Saracens players seemed to play particularly badly?  No (bunch of cheats).  Do I think it's ridiculous that France have a load of South Africans and Pacific Islanders playing for them?  Yes (though England are also guilty of similar).

Tennis: been watching quite a lot of the Australian Open, though not so much the finals because the time difference results in those games being played in the early hours here.  Of the big 3, I like Djokovic the least so it was disappointing to see him win.  Though I did catch the best match of the tournament, which was Federer's epic quarter final win where he saved 7 match points.  I hope he wins one more major, though I fear his great career is almost at an end.  It's also fascinating how little fanfare the American winner on the women's side has been lauded over here.  Very unusual.  I have no idea why - is it because she is Russian born?  Is it because she isn't black (the commentary and coverage of American women's tennis here seems to focus almost exclusively on the Williams Sisters, Coco Grauff and to a lesser extent Sloane Stephens - the others are almost an afterthought).  Reverse racism?

American Football: of course, let's not forget that today is the biggest sporting spectacle of the year in the US - the Superbowl.  I'm writing this bit before it starts: it's an intriguing match up between 2 good but stylistically opposite teams, the offensive Kansas City Chiefs and the defensive San Francisco 49ers.  I predict either a really close and exciting game, or a total blow out by one of the teams (though I'm honestly not sure which).  For such a potentially interesting game, I must confess to a certain amount of indifference to it (though just glad that none of the teams I really hate are competing in it - the worst of who are obviously the New England Patriots).  And I certainly don't give a monkeys about all the big money Superbowl adverts or some crappy halftime show.  Now I'm writing this sentence after the game: I did end up watching a lot of the game.  And it was a good Superbowl, close, seemed to go quickly (American Football can sometimes horribly drag) and happy that Andy Reid (the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs) finally won a Superbowl.  Someone local must be a Kansas City fan because I heard some fireworks going off after the game.  Or perhaps it was just a Seahawks fan happy that San Francisco (Seattle's biggest rival) lost!