Sport Sunday: August is August. The Doldrums. Pro Soccer will star up in Europe later this month, Track and FieldChampionships are in their preliminaries. We here hope you are enjoying the beach and/or pool, or for those in theSouthern hemisphere, mebbe a ski trip.
Aussie Rules Football today features an arch rivalry, like no other, Adelaidev Port Adelaide at, where else, the Adelaide Oval. South Australia'smost important game on the footy calendar takes on extra significance for twoof the premiership contenders. TheAdelaide Crows currently are in 1st place in the standings, and the PortAdelaide Power at 5th place. The 43rd edition of the Showdown promises tobe a beauty, with the Crows and the Power coming off amazing results lastweekend. The Crows showed tremendous fight to rally from 50 points down earlyin the third quarter to secure a draw against Collingwood at the MelbourneCricket Grounds, while a bit of Patrick Ryder and Robbie Gray brilliancedelivered the Power a thrilling two-point win over St Kilda. Thetop-of-the-table Crows will be slight favourites to win their fifth straightShowdown, they have certainly dominated the series in recent years. The fifth-placed Power need a victory to keeptheir founded hopes of finishing in the top four alive. This will be a contestbetween two of the top three scoring teams in the competition. The Crows areranked first with 111 points per game, while the Power are third with 99. Butthe Power are the best defensive team in the League, conceding just 76 pointsper game, while the Crows are fourth (81). This promises to be a very close game, too close to call. Spanishsoccer has been thrown into some chaos this weekend, with top players movingout of the country, or threatening to do so. Former top Barcelona player and Brazilianforward Neymar Jr received a hero's welcome from Paris Saint-Germain fans attheir Parc des Princes home on Saturday as he vowed to win "lots oftrophies" following his world record transfer. Neymar, 25, was presented to fans on thepitch ahead of their opening Ligue 1 match of the season at home to Amiens,telling fans: "Thank you! I'm very happy, I'm delighted to be here forthis new challenge." The Brazilian,who cost a world record €222 million in the contract which precipitated histransfer, then delighted fans by running over to the end where PSG's mosthardcore supporters converge and launched his jersey into the throng ofdelirious 'Ultras'. Meanwhile, Coach ZinedineZidane of Real Madrid appears to want to pour kerosene on the flames of histeam's self destruction. Coach Zidaneessentially called for the transfer of top player Gareth Bale, well known toreaders of this space, and a popular player among fans. The peaceful Welshmanis not given to egotistical rants, which apparently makes him unsuitable toFrench Zidane. Real Madrid has donenothing, apparently, to calm their temperamental but magisterial playerCristiano Ronaldo, who again is saying he wants to move back to England. Ronaldo has scored more than 400 goals forPrimera Liga champions Real since arriving in 2009 and he won three PremierLeague titles and the Uefa Champions League with Manchester United. He has become so miserable under thepersecution and prosecution of a judge who represents an overreaching and moneygrubbing legal system (well known for its maverick judges who try to make namesfor themselves by prosecuting stars, athletes, cyclists, politicians). Neglected as he has been by his teamadministration, Ronaldo is ready to move out of this Iberian country. While early on he said he wanted a return to ManchesterUnited, now he is so frustrated, it seems anywhere in "England" willdo. Hard to see a country's soccerexpertise self destruct. Meanwhile,Rafael Nadal is poised to return to the number one ranking in worldwide men'stennis. Andy Murray has suffered frominjuries, and is at the point of losing his top spot. Also, Men's Shot put finals today in theInternational Track and Field Championships in London. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 8/06/2017 01:58:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
