Obviously, for just about everybody in Canada, the only sporting event that really mattered this weekend was the Team Canada-USA men’s hockey game. There was one other game however, that I was paying attention to, and that happened to be the Saturday Premiership game between league leaders Chelsea, and home side Wolverhampton Wanderers, a game in which the Blues emerged as 2-0 victors at Molineux Stadium, in front of 28,978 enthusiastic supporters, most of them backing the home side. Carlo Ancelotti’s team, on the strength of Ivorian Striker Didier Drogba’s two classic goals, giving him 25 this season, and two brilliant saves from Peter Cech, moved four points clear of rivals Manchester United, after the Red Devils came out on the short side of a 3-1 loss to a fired up Everton squad at Goodison Park.
The win was especially noteworthy for Chelsea, in light of the absence of several key players, including defenders Ashley Cole,Ricardo Carvalho, Alex, Juliano Belletti, and of equal importance, midfielders Frank Lampard, along with Deco. Drogba’s goals were both highlight reel types, with the first one being a perfectly timed finish at the goalmouth, of a Yuri Zhirkov cross in the first half. Drogba’s 25th of the year, was set up by a long play from Peter Cech, in which Drogba held off Christophe Berra and deked around keeper Marcus Hahnemann, to end all hopes of an upset for the Wolves. There are now 11 games left in the E.P.L. schedule, for Manchester United, to try and overtake Chelsea. This was only the Blues 2nd away win in their last 7 league games. They now get set for a mid –week Champions League match with Inter Milan and former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, at the San Siro, with its capacity for 80,000 fans.
OLYMPIC HOCKEY
It’s very easy to recap the Russia- Czech Republic Olympic hockey game. Just like the beer commercial from the 1960’s, in which the punch line was “Just Say OV”. You can bet Jaromir Jagr is at least thinking that, after getting hit by the Washington Capitals captain, Alex Ovechkin. That was a clean hit,a devastating one, and probably as perfectly timed and placed, as anyone I can remember,from any era. I feel that Ovechkin is the best all round player in the game, having that additional element of toughness and physicality, that most superstars tend to shy away from, in order to protect themselves from injury. The U.S.A. victory over Team Canada,is a reminder of what I had written in my blog preview of this event, which specifically highlighted Ryan Miller, and his ability to shut down an opponent. He does this quite often for the Buffalo Sabres, so no one on Team Canada was surprised . In a tournament like the Olympics,where elimination games are part of the process, a hot goalkeeper can win a gold medal, for his team and country. Ryan Miller is more than capable of doing that again, in any of the upcoming matches. As for Team Canada, if they end up playing the Russians after their game with Germany, you can bet that Alex Ovechkin will have his A++++ game going, and with all of the Russian firepower to compliment “OV”, including Kovalchuk, Malkin, Semin,etc., the Canadians will have a brutally tough assignment on their hands, in trying to advance to a gold medal game. By the way, Maple Leafs fans have attempted to taunt Ryan Miller by chanting his name, and he’s acknowledged that this only fires him up to beat the Blue and White even more. Team Canada fans should learn that as well. Chanting his name in a sarcastic manner, will not get under his skin, it will just make his desire for victory even more determined than it already was.