Farewell, Euro

June 30th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

After Spain finished off Germany in comprehensive fashion yesterday, I — sheepishly watching the game in my hungover state — got a text from my roommate.

“I’m sad it’s over.”

That came from a person who was, before two or three months ago, entirely uninterested in soccer. I bought FIFA 2008. He had an incredible amount of fun playing it. He was convinced to give the real thing a shot. Now, he owns two jerseys — one for Lithuania, his parents’ homeland, and one for his favorite player, Thierry Henry. This man is now a legit soccer fan, in just three months’ time.

Euro 2008 helped with that. I’m wondering, like Cardillo at Deadspin today, if it will help others will follow suit. Much maligned in 2006 — they had Marcelo Balboa calling games, for chrissakes — ESPN’s Euro 2008 coverage was brilliant. I’m not a huge fan of Tommy Smythe, but their decision to temper him with Andy Gray, and to let Gray call all the big matches, was genius. As I’ve written before, Gray is a top-notch color analyst. Unlike so many, he doesn’t detract from the game. He adds to it.

I don’t know that soccer will ever acheive mainstream acceptance in the U.S. Maybe it won’t. All I know is that if it is going to happen, Euro 2008 covered all the bases. If you didn’t like it, you just don’t like soccer. That’s OK. But no more can external factors be blamed.

Still, if my roommate can go from hating soccer to loving it just thanks to a videogame and a European competition, there’s hope for everyone else.

Andy Gray has been a pleasure to watch

June 16th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

You’ll have to forgive me for this little bit of heresy: I’ve been paying just as much attention, if not more, to Euro 2008 as I have to the ongoing NBA Finals saga.

The Finals have been disappointing to me; the Lakers have been flat and uninspiring, the Celtics have been businesslike and boring (they managed to somehow maintain that ethos even as they were coming back from 24), and the notion that Paul Pierce’s game is currently more successful than Kobe Bryant’s is baffling to me. Piece is like a good Antawn Jamison. The mind boggles.

So the Finals are not really getting it done for me. I’m still watching. I’m just not as excited about it. Which is why it’s worth heaping praise on ESPN’s soccer talk gun-for-hire Andy Gray. Gray has been brilliant announcing Euro 2008 matches thus far, something EPL Talk nails today:

Gray is a perfect fit for ESPN and American soccer fans. The way that he’s so naturally enthusiastic about the games makes you want to watch them. Plus, I find myself listening to the commentating more closely. I’ve learned something in every match I’ve watched so far where Andy Gray has been co-commentating.

Agreed. Gray has been insightful, endlessly enthusiastic, smart, funny … he’s been, as he might say, a pleasure to watch. He’s no Marcelo Balboa, but he’s OK.

On three: Hahahaha. Marcelo Balboa. Just kidding. Andy Gray is eight thousand bajillionzillion times better than Marcelo Balboa. Maybe even more times than that. I’m not very good at math.

This weekend was exhausting

June 9th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

It’s been a long time since we don’t a Monday morning recap of the weekend’s sports, but think about everything that happened this weekend:

– Euro 2008 kicked off, featuring four matches on both Saturday and Sunday
– Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer faced off in the French Open final
– Big Brown attempted to win the Triple Crown
– The U.S. faced the No. 1 team in the world, Argentina, in an international friendly
– The Lakers and Celtics played Game Two of the NBA Finals

I’m almost positive I’m missing stuff. Like, somewhere, Tiger Woods probably played a hobbled round of golf. College football players were probably doing nefarious things after summer practice. NASCAR probably had some sort of circular driving competition. A tree fell in a forest. Etc.

So, in the spirit of comprehensiveness, let me see if I can remember everything I felt about sports this weekend:

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