Sports Summer

After the great Euro 2008 in June, which ended with Spain's well-deserved victory, and the Olympic Games in Beijing, where Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt made history, this year's summer is slowly coming to an end. That means two things: US Open and new football season!!!!!!!!

The US Open is starting today but, unlike in the previous years, it isn't a prologue for live tennis action in Bucharest. It sucks a lot that I can't go but I have to get better grades at 2 of my exams and I also wanna be home for my 20th birthday. You can't always get what you want and this autumn will surely be poorer without the crazy days of the BCR Open with my friends :(

But football is starting! I rooted for CFR Cluj last year to get the championship so that they qualify automatically in the Champions League groups. And it happened, so we wll have 3 matches in Cluj! Of course I hope Real will be in the same group as CFR but it'll be OK even if they don't because another big team will come. I hope teams 2 and 3 will be interesting and I will finally get to see live UCL action! The draw is probably this Friday so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Speaking of Real...they won the Spanish Supercup against Valencia last night! And thanks to Arab TV channels I got to see a thorough summary to be able to draw my own conclusions. Valencia had an unexplainably disastrous season, finishing mid-table despite having players like David Villa, Vicente, Joaquin and Silva but managed to salvage some dignity by winning the Copa del Rey (King's Cup). In the first leg of the Supercup, at Mestalla, Real's coach Bernd Schuster made some bad starting 11 choices: he chose to play Robinho, who is involved in a transfer saga with Chelsea so his mind is clearly off the pitch, and picked Salgado on the right flank of the defence. With all the love and respect for Michel, his time has passed and he's a slow defender, not to mention that he attacks half as much as Sergio Ramos does. Schuster realized his mistakes and subbed Salgado for Sergio but it was rather late so Real lost 3-2.

This Sunday, Schuster started with Iker, Sergio, Pepe, Heinze and Miguel Torres in the defence, new signing Rafael van der Vaart, Guti, Diarra and Robben in the midfield and the classic attack formula, Raul and Ruud van Nistelrooy. A very strong team which promised to come back from 1 goal down and take the trophy in front of their home crowd at Santiago Bernabeu. But things didn't go as planned: Silva scored with a shot from outside the box to extend Valencia's lead and a few minutes after, Van der Vaart was sent off for a brutal tackle on Juan Mata. So aafter the half-time whistle, the Merengues were not looking good at all. Soon after the second half started, Raul Albiol forgot what sport he was playing and handballed Ruud's header in the box. Obvious penalty for the home team and Ruud sent in a very confident shot to equalize. His delight lasted only 20 more minutes (meanwhile Royston Drenthe replaced Torres on the lft side of the defence) when he was sent off for two yellow cards. Despite Robben's noteworthy attempts to score, it was Sergio Ramos who scored the second goal, after Guti's corner kick was sent in the post by Diarra and rebounded to Sergio who shot it in. A short while after this goal, Guti and Raul were replaced by promising youngsters Gonzalo Higuain and Ruben de la Red. De la Red is a product of Madrid's youth system and played a few games for the first team two years ago before being loaned out last season. He was in Spain's squad for the Euro where he managed to score a goal, so it was high time he was given a chance to play for Real's first team again. And he impressed everyone with scoring the 3rd goal of Real with a magnificent shot from outside the box to make it 3-1 for the Blancos and to prove his huge talent and potential. Higauin extended the lead to 4-1 after he intercepted Alexis' rookie pass to the keeper, putting the ball past a disappointed Hildebrand. Morientes, Real's former player, reduced the difference but it was worthelss because the time had run out and Real won the Spanish Supercup!!!!! Great display of teamwork and ambition, I hope they keep on playing like this for the rest of the season!