So, I am done with school for the school year. It seems like a good time to do a year in review. It’s been a mixed year, with three major championships and the worst season in NBA history. The Hurricanes also flirted with the bottom of the league.
As I was driving through NYC on Saturday, I got to listen to the nervous end of the Reds-Yankees game. Sometimes I think living in NY would be great. Others, I think terrible. Interesting stuff on the radio is a plus, but to be clear, I am a Reds fan. I’m in Baltimore for the summer though, and the Orioles are in first place! The Orioles still manage to to live in a bizarro world where their away record (15-6) is much better than their home record (12-10). Whatever works, I guess. To be truthful though, I have never followed MLB that closely. I’m much more interested in the ACC Championships, which start tomorrow. Go Tar Heels!
The school year started out great with United playing lights out until they got destroyed by City. The end of the year was equally excited, until City won in Fergie time.
In between my boys in Tuscaloosa won NCAA Football and my boys in Lexington won NCAA Basketball.
Around the rest of Europe…
Sadly, FC St. Pauli and Bristol Rovers did not get promoted. At least neither got relegated!
Celtic won SPL easily with Rangers in dire financial trouble, but managed to not win either cup. Currently Malmö FF is in 2nd, but Elfsborg is 6 points ahead 1/3 of the way through the season. Unless they hit injury trouble, I don’t see Malmö catching them.
I don’t care much about Italian football, but my boy Ibra lost the league championship for the first time in almost a decade! I started following Barca when Ibra was there, but I care even less about the Spanish league these days. It’s hard to care too much while in law school! Kim Källström is my only reason for following French football, but for the sake of completeness I’ll mention Lyon finished 4th.
Spartak Moscow came in 2nd and thus qualified for the play-off stage of the UCL. There is rumor that Aiden McGeady could be heading out of Russia, and if that happens, I will likely stop caring about Russia! That will be nice, since the Russian league is not oft on television here in the states!
Other Continents
Like Sweden, the MLS is a summer league. DC United is currently 4th in the MLS, but literally all the other teams have games in hand. There is a lot left to the season and with the European transfer market in the middle of the MLS season, anything can happen. I feel like there is a bigger likelihood of game-changers in the MLS than in Sweden.
Orlando Pirates won the championship!
I’d love to follow the Vietnamese league, but until Google adds it to their Scoreboard app, it isn’t going to happen…and Google hasn’t added anything in a long while. Also, it would be awesome if EA Sports would add it to their FIFA title, but at the very least China and Japan will come before Vietnam. If India’s league takes off, I’m sure they’ll get the nod over Vietnam too. If EA can work things out, I don’t suspect it will be long before the Chinese league, which is growing in stature, makes the game.
Let me know if you think I missed something of note!
What’s Next?
Euro 2012, ACC Championships, USA v. Brazil (I’m going), Tottenham v. LFC (I’m going), Olympics, College World Series? What would you like me to focus my summer attention on? There’s also the NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs, but my teams are out, so I only care but so much. Too much else is going on in the world!