Soccer, football, the beautiful game; whatever you want to call it, it’s a sport suffering from a debilitating illness. One symptom of this illness is players flying through the air whenever they are so much as grazed by an opposing player in a pathetic, yet all too often fruitful, attempt to draw the referee’s attention.
Sports
The latest in McGill and world sports.
FROM THE CHEAP SEATS: Canada, Tom sucks!
I guess I’m unpatriotic. Though, born and raised in Canada-and a lifelong fan of the gridiron game-I have never made a secret of my disdain for this country’s knock-off brand of football or its ramshackle convening body, the Canadian Football League. What mystifies me most about the CFL isn’t its poor management, weak talent pool, inferiority complex or laughable quality of play.
THIRD MAN IN: Hail to the true home run king
I hate this article. I hate the necessity of this debate. It disgusts me, as it disgusts many, that baseball has become a witch-hunt; a magnet for cynics. Baseball is a beautiful, unappreciated sport. It is exciting, deeply cerebral and rich with history.
ON DECK
Martlets Soccer-McGill vs. Sherbrooke; Friday, 6p.m. The Quebec champion Martlets open the season in the friendly confines of Molson Stadium against Sherbrooke. In what should be a challenging game against an always fiesty Vert et Or side, McGill will have the chance to show the home fans why they are a top contender for the ultimate prize at the end of the season-the National Championship.
FOOTBALL: Redmen let upset slip away
There’s an old cliché in sports: “You have to play 60 minutes to win.” McGill found out the hard way on Saturday that there’s still a lot of truth in that expression. Despite going into halftime with an 11 point lead, the Redmen failed to pull off what would have been a huge upset against the top ranked team in the country, losing to the Laval Rouge et Or 43-27 in front of 1,749 spectators at Molson Stadium.
Doyle reflects on head coaching experience with hockey Martlets
An 86-game winning streak, three players on all-Canadian teams, and a silver-medal finish at Nationals. Not a bad result for a first -year hockey coach. Then again, experience with the team is one thing Martlets interim Head Coach Amey Doyle had in spades when she took over Canada’s most successful women’s hockey program from Peter Smith at the beginning of the year.
SPORTS BRIEFS
Martlets chalk up another win McGill’s rugby women got the regular season off on the right foot on Sunday, crushing Bishop’s 55-0. Centre Laura Belvedere led the team with four tries, while prop Valerie Evans and fullback Julianne Zussman each scoring twice.
WOMEN’S SOCCER: Second half surge sinks Sherbrooke
The third ranked Martlets got off to a slow start in Friday night’s season opener at Molson Stadium. But a much stronger second half allowed them to escape with a 2-0 victory over the visiting Sherbrooke Vert et Or. Neither side had been able to find any rhythm or assert itself during the first frame.
THIRD MAN IN: Sportsophobia
Sports are boring. Let’s talk about baseball – I don’t care if it is “America’s pastime,” but when a game only becomes exciting after two and a half hours and consists of waiting to find out whether a player will hit the ball – or if it’s really heated, whether a player will catch it – then I believe it’s time to find a better way to spend the afternoon.
PROFILE-MEN’S ROWING: From flyers to a flying finish
While very few university students can say that they are on their country’s national rowing team, even fewer can say that they have won a medal at the World Rowing Championships. However, Derek O’Farrell can lay claim to both. Over the summer, the U4 physiology student finished third in the Men’s Coxed Pair at the under-23 World Rowing Championship in Eton, UK, becoming the first McGill rower to ever reach the podium at a World Championship.