Wow! Where do I start? This weekend was jam packed full of sporting events full of potential excitement and boy did they deliver, the Ferguson's had a weekend they would like to forget, Monza had a fascinating qualifying and race, the Pakistan team have shown some genuine performances, the US Open has blown me and some of the players away, Sky showed the way in Stoke, the second week of Aviva Premiership was close everywhere, another English side lost on penalties and the always confusing Super League Play-offs began. If you have no idea about what just said then
As many of you know at 2pm on Saturday Alex Ferguson's Manchester United threw away a 3-1 lead against Everton in injury time and ended up drawing 3-3 at Goodison Park. Not to be out done by his farther, just over four hours later, Darren Ferguson decided to go one better a Turf Moor. With his Preston side leading 3-1 with 10 minutes to go they went down to 10 men, thanks to a second yellow card picked up for time wasting, and somehow contrived to lose 4-3 to Burnley. I don't fancy being at their family meal this Sunday evening.
In Monza this weekend, no matter how clichéd it sounds, Formula One was the true winner. Alonso, Button and Massa qualified 1st, 2nd and 3rd and that is exactly where they finished. With the top five in the drivers championship finishing in reverse order (Hamilton DNF, Webber 6th and Vettel 4th) the gap between Webber in first and Vettel in fifth is now only 24 points, less than one win. Special note should go to Sebastian Vettel's driving this weekend, he drove on the soft compound from Lap 1 to 52 of a 53 Lap race nearly twice as long as anyone else.
The Pakistan team has been under the strong media limelight recently and their performances in the twenty20 showed for all to see that there was unrest in the changing rooms which was affecting the on field. Come the 5 ODI matches I was honestly thinking that it was going to be an easy whitewash for the England Camp. But I have been wrong the Pakistani have put in two very good performances so far and have forced England to actually play well to win. They may very well be disappointed that they didn't win this Sundays match after posting 294-8 they let England score 75 runs in the last 10 overs.
Flushing Meadows was more aptly name 'Gushing Meadows' the strong winds, from the nearby hurricane, hit the US Open with full force this weekend. But it wasn't the wind that blew me away but the form of Rafa Nadal, the unstoppable Belgian force that is Kim Clijsters and the ever entertaining contest that was Federer versus Djokovic. I will be doing a full review of the US Open tomorrow after Nadal completes his Grand Slam set tonight.
Team Sky sprinter Greg Henderson dominated stage two of the Tour of Britain to Stoke-on-Trent to claim the overall lead in the race. The New Zealander got plenty of help from Team Sky team-mates Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas before outsprinting Michael Albasini from Team HTC - Columbia for the first stage victory for Team Sky in their home tour. The trio opened up a big lead ahead of the peleton to put Bradley in a strong position for the rest of the tour.
The second round of Rugby Union's Aviva Premiership saw the newly promoted Exeter come close to beating Leicester at Welford Road. Leicester were forced to come from 20-10 behind at half-time as Exeter put in a spirited performance to try and add Leicester to the scalp of Gloucester from last week. Also this weekend saw close victories for Bath, Gloucester and Northampton with losing bonus point, for losing by less than seven points, going to London Irish, Leeds and Harlequins.
It doesn't seem to matter which sport it is in, if an English team has to take part in an penalty shoot-out they're doomed to fail. England's Women Field Hockey Team missed out on their first World Cup final with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out semi-final loss to reigning world and Olympic champions the Netherlands. But they did go onto their best-ever World Cup finish by beating Germany 2-0 in the bronze medal play-off in Argentina.
And finally the ever so daft and confusing Rugby League Super League Grand Final & Play-offs started. The play-off system rugby league means that the top 8 out of the 14 Super League side stand a chance of winning the Grand Final in three weeks time. To put it simply the 1-4 play-offs and 5-8 play-offs, 1-4 play-offs losers play 5-8 play-offs winners, then the winner of the 1-4 play-offs with the highest seed number chooses, in what is one of the most bizarre evenings of sport the 'Club Call', which winner on the 1-4 play-offs losers versus 5-8 play-offs winners they want. And finally the winners of thoose to matches meet for the Grand Final, simple.
Well after being spoiled this weekend by excitement on multiple fronts I hope I can say the same about next weekend.
As many of you know at 2pm on Saturday Alex Ferguson's Manchester United threw away a 3-1 lead against Everton in injury time and ended up drawing 3-3 at Goodison Park. Not to be out done by his farther, just over four hours later, Darren Ferguson decided to go one better a Turf Moor. With his Preston side leading 3-1 with 10 minutes to go they went down to 10 men, thanks to a second yellow card picked up for time wasting, and somehow contrived to lose 4-3 to Burnley. I don't fancy being at their family meal this Sunday evening. 
Flushing Meadows was more aptly name 'Gushing Meadows' the strong winds, from the nearby hurricane, hit the US Open with full force this weekend. But it wasn't the wind that blew me away but the form of Rafa Nadal, the unstoppable Belgian force that is Kim Clijsters and the ever entertaining contest that was Federer versus Djokovic. I will be doing a full review of the US Open tomorrow after Nadal completes his Grand Slam set tonight.
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