Sports brushstrokes in 2014

2014, a year of joy and pain for the United States of America, in relation to sport. During this year, a wide range of events have taken place. It's not over yet, but the moments lived have been unforgettable, for better and for worse.

First of all, the main soccer event, apart from the MLS annual championship, has been the World Cup in Brazil. It's widely known that, wether USA National Team is the best in generations, they can't compete with the first-level selections, such as Spain, Germany, Brazil... But the truth is that an american hero has emerged; Tim Howard.

Howard in the World Cup. Source: Creative Commons Search

The soccer team was kind of a roost, due to the fact that Landon Donovan, the best american player in history, wasn't selected in the 23 players that were going to Brazil. In the first knockout serie, against Belgium, they were quite inferior. USA managed to eliminate the Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo, but they weren't able to defeat the sensation of the tournament.
Even though they lost, their goalkeeper, Tim Howard, had an incredible performance, with 16 saves, setting the record of the World Cup.

Changing ball, in basketball USA has smiled this year. The three main events were: the NBA Finals, the World Cup in Spain, and the women's World Cup. The american teams of basketball managed to win both tournaments, without almost no problems. However, the expected final against Spain couldn't be carried out because of our prompt elimination.

Khawi Leonard during the NBA Finals. Source: Creative Commons Search

In the national tournament, the NBA, San Antonio Spurs won against Miami Heat comfortably. It wasn't Lebron James, Tim Duncan or Tony Parker but Khawi Leonard won the MVP of the Finals with three incredible performances that gave the Spurs another ring.

Last but not least, as every year, the most important event was the Superbowl. New Jersey was the scenery of the XLVIII edition of the NFL final, that faced the Broncos of Denver and the Seattle Seahawks. The team of Seattle won, achieving their first Superbowl in their history.

NFL Superbowl. Source: Creative Commons Search

The duel against Russel Wilson and Peyton Manning was decided, with the win of the hawks player. However, the hawks quarterback wasn't the MVP, delivered to Malcolmm Smith for his decisive touchdown.

Tomás Orihuela
Journalism

Jumping to fame

USA isn't Spain. Football, soccer wrongly called, isn't the daily bread. In the States, not even Pelé; one of the best football players in history, was able to make this country focus away from basketball, baseball and 'their football'. Sport is above all, and englobles them all. Someone defined it as the most important thing of the less important things in life. Impossible to be more accurate.

The truth is that sports in the US are organized in such a proper way that it isn't a surprise the fact that every four years they are fighting against China and Russia in the Olympics for medals. Wide range of different modalities, more of the same of americans posing for photos kissing medals. They actually are an example worth to follow. Good management, better athletes: Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Joe Montana, Tiger Woods, Zack Greinke, Landon Donovan, Tyson Gay... 

  

Michael Jordan and his famous dunk which earned him the nickname of 'Air Jordan'. Source: Creative Commons Search


But, why sports? First of all, because I'm passionate about it and I'm fond of sports: I love practicing, I enjoy watching it in TV, listening to it in the radio, reading about it in the papers; everything. I've been attached to them since I learnt to speak. It all starts with football, then you get interested by other sport, later on you practice another one, and finally you end up watching Eurosport weekly. The second reason is that I'm curious about it, I reckon that it's required to be curious not only to one, but to sports in general. If you really like something, you should be willing to keep learning more and more, it's never enough. The more the merrier.
I started playing all sort of games at the age of 5, and it was a matter of time that I wrote about them. So asking the question, my connection to this topic is that I'm keen on writing about it, and give my personal view over different aspects. Furthermore, I have some experience in this, proof of that are the blogs I've been trying to get updated in order to learn and to tell people stuff I consider remarkable.


Tomás Orihuela.
Journalism