I like to watch

I admit it. It’s not something I’ve owned up to before but it’s just something I’ve noticed recently. I might just catch a glimpse out of the corner of my eye and before I know it, I can’t take my eyes off it. Sometimes I watch by myself. Sometimes I watch with others.

OK, enough of the suggestion of voyeurism. I’m talking about the Americas Cup. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you’d know that I haven’t been the greatest fan of this yachting/business event. To me it epitomises all the classic clichés about rich boys with their expensive toys; the amount of money spent by each syndicate is obscene.

But despite this, I’ve actually started taking a degree of interest in this finals series. And I don’t know why.

I know much of the country is now getting into it in a big way but I’m not actually jumping on the bandwagon as such. I still find yachting an elitist, snobby sport. I still find the biased TVNZ commentary team frustrating to listen to (although on Radio Sport, the commentary of Pete Montgomery and Craig Monk is outstanding). But I’m now watching the races most days.

There are a couple of reasons. One; it’s actually exciting to watch. These massive feats of engineering excellence often clock up speeds of over 40 knots. Leads of 300 metres are often reversed in a single beat to windward (don’t’ know what that means). The boats tack and gybe (??) their way to the lay line as they raise a code zero. Centreboards, foils, rudders, bowsprits and spinnakers. Any sport with this many unique and confusing terms must be worth a look.

Jimmy Spithill is the skipper of Oracle. He’s aggressive, rude, arrogant, antagonistic and a drama queen. He’s also a damn good sailor. The way he’s turned around the fortunes of the once dead and buried Oracle syndicate has been quite astounding. The other reason for this turnaround is...

…Sir Ben Ainslie. The British yachting legend was subbed into the Oracle team as tactician and the results changed almost immediately.

Teamwork has been Team NZ’s big advantage throughout this finals series. Oracle has at times looked shambolic in contrast. Unfortunately Oracle has sorted out that aspect, as well as making a few tweaks to their boat that I have absolutely no chance of understanding and as a result they are now humming through the San Francisco waters.

The moment that summed up the whole Americas Cup for me happened on Saturday (our time). The issue of a race time limit was disgraceful. Rumour has it that American TV insisted on being able to include two races in two hours each day. Therefore a 40-minute time limit was imposed. When the 40-minute limit was reached in the race on Saturday, Team NZ was about two minutes away from the finish line and was over a kilometre ahead of Oracle. I just think this was symbolic of everything that is wrong with American sport. It is an environment where cash is king. It is a place where someone like boxing promoter Don King can become powerful and wealthy. Timeframes are frequently dictated to by the television hierarchy with their big fat wallets full of dollar bills – for example NFL games stop for TV advertising breaks.

I’m writing this on Sunday night. I’ll finish this piece tomorrow (Monday) after the final (I hope) race.

OK, it’s Monday now – and what a couple of races they were this morning.

In the first race that lovely Spithill chap seemingly out-manoeuvred the Kiwis at the start yet again and despite a gallant comeback, Oracle’s multi-national team prevailed to make the score 8-4.

In the second race, Oracle raced away early and were never in trouble as they strolled to a straightforward win. 8-5.

As I’ve made clear, I know nothing about yachting. Quite simply the Oracle boat is simply moving faster through the water than Team NZ.  When this is all over, I’d like someone with yachting knowledge to tell me what exactly changed on that ‘American’ boat to make it travel so much faster than it had been travelling previously. All I know is that if Team NZ makes no changes for the next race, we could be witnessing one of the most amazing sporting comebacks ever.

You’ll Never Walk Alone

I think it’s pretty clear to most people that, just like Mr Jason Pine, I am a MASSIVE Liverpool fan. This season has already been a rollercoaster of emotion for me. An unexpected three wins to start the season was amazing. A subsequent draw against Swansea was mildly disappointing but understandable. But a loss this weekend (playing at home) against Southampton that knocked them from the top of the Premier League table was simply unacceptable. Liverpool looked devoid of any ideas on attack and their defending, with the exception of their keeper Simon Mignolet who was again outstanding, was shambolic and embarrassing.

Manager Brendan Rodgers curiously started the match with four central defenders at the back, which was a disaster right from the outset. In midfield Lucas was seemingly absent for most of the match, new recruit Iago Aspas, who was substituted at halftime, looked completely out of his depth, and his replacement Raheem Sterling, although still only 18 years old, didn’t look much better. Jordan Henderson was industrious, as were Victor Moses and Daniel Sturridge.  And it was abundantly clear that they missed the brilliant Brazilian Coutinho oh so much.

But at the risk of infuriating my fellow fans, the biggest disappointment for me this season has been the legendary Steven Gerrard. The 2013 model is now 33 years old and to be honest is starting to look a little off the pace. He still produces moments of magic from free kicks. But to me he seems to spend a lot of each game walking (alone). His darting runs into the opposition penalty area are now few and far between, his defence-splitting passes aren’t quite as piercing as they once were and his tackling not quite so fearsome. It’s almost becoming a luxury to play Gerrard, Lucas and Henderson in the same team. I hope that Stevie G. is just in the middle of a lull right now. And I really hope he rediscovers the old magic because LFC needs him to be firing. But I also wonder if Rodgers is going to be the manager who is forced to do the unthinkable and in the next couple of years call time on the career of one of the true Liverpool greats. 

Footy on the Interweb

Well, I did it. I splashed out $127 (including a 15% discount for being a Telecom customer) for access to Premierleaguepass.co.nz so I can watch Premier League football. This morning as I watched a game for the first time (Southampton were playing someone – I don’t want to talk about it). It was a pretty good quality picture on the laptop, but obviously a 15 inch viewing platform is not acceptable. So I plugged it into my 59 inch screen. The resultant picture quality was fairly inconsistent; it ranged from ‘hey isn’t that a PlayStation 3 game on the screen?’ to ‘it’s 1970 and they’ve just invented colour TV’. Either way, the game was being played on my TV and that’s all I really cared about. A good friend of mine has today moved my modem from the garage (why the heck was it in the garage in the first place??) to the lounge. I’m hoping that helps. I’ll let you know.

The Midas Touch

Wayne Bennett is amazing. The ‘Supercoach’ has just about done it all in rugby league, including joining forces with the Kiwis to mastermind the defeat of his fellow Australians in the 2008 World Cup Final.  He won several premierships with the Brisbane Broncos before sensationally quitting and moving to the unfancied Dragons in time for the 2009 NRL season. The Dragons won the minor premiership (top of the table at the end of the regular season) in 2009 and 2010 and the overall premiership in 2010. In 2011 he again announced he was leaving to take on the challenge of the unfashionable Newcastle Knights. It was an unsuccessful season in 2012 – the first time in 21 years a Bennett-coached team had not appeared in the finals. Now in 2013 his Knights team are one win away from making the Grand Final. He is arguably the greatest league coach of all time. If the Knights deliver Bennett’s eighth premiership title, there will certainly be no argument as to who is the greatest of them all.

Till next time,

SG