I’ve been totally into Euro 2008, the third biggest sporting event next to the World Cup and the Summer Olympics.  The championship started out with a crawl, the games now are absolutely riveting.  If you want to get introduced to soccer on the grandest stage, Friday’s games are the ones to watch.  Italy-Romania will feature the current World Cup holders trying to recover from the blistering embarassment from their loss to Portugal.  Holland-France should be a riot, as the French must get a result from this game and the Dutch looked as good as Spain and Portugal have so far.

iTunes has some great podcasts that I’ve been listening to while working (head to Sports & Recreation in the podcasts section to find the Guardian’s podcast and World Soccer Daily’s, the two best out there).  Best websites to stay up-to-date include Grant Wahl’s daily blog, Fox Sports World,  and Nick Webster’s blog (also on Fox Sports World).  You can follow the games on Soccernet through their Gamecast (click on Live Scores, then pick the game and click on Gamecast).

Probably the news of the weekend was Big Brown’s first to worst finish in the Belmont Stakes.  I’ll admit that I’m glad that he didn’t win the Triple Crown, although my reasoning probably doesn’t make any sense.  I know less than nothing about horse racing, only watching during the Triple Crown races.  Let me give you my perception of what it has become, though.  It seems as though a ton of horses are tossed into the Kentucky Derby.  More often than not, the Derby favorites get blasted by some other horse who no one had talked about.  Then that winner heads to the Preakness, often without most of his friends from the Derby.  If he wins, then only a few horses show up at the Belmont Stakes.  Often, a couple of good Derby also-rans join some new horses that we’re told are tailor-made for the 1.5 mile trek.  My impression in listening to everyone was that this year was some sort of down year in horse racing, that Big Brown was a pretty pig in a bad litter.  Missing really is the great build-up duel that us sports fans can just drink up.  Horse racing needs Affirmed vs Alydar.

Here’s a great recap of that 1978 duel, narrated by Jim McKay, who passed away this weekend.

Affirmed won the three races by a total of less than two lengths, and the races still are riveting.  McKay is a broadcaster who will never exist again.  Not one of the beautiful people nor a guy, not prone to overhype, he became one of those iconic voices and faces of sports.  ABC Wide World of Sports was part of my youth, and McKay was always there.

The Belmont Stakes of 1978 has to be one of the top five horse races of all time.  Affirmed and Alydar were basically two horses who could run exactly the same speed lining up and running neck and neck for a mile and a half.  It’s still an incredible thing to watch, these two horses running like a rope connected their necks for the last mile.

The greatest horse in my lifetime won the Triple Crown after a long drought similar to what we’re in the midst of.  I don’t have to give you the name of the 1973 Triple Crown winner.  McKay’s description is above, and ESPN Sports Century’s two-parter is below.  The Belmont Stakes run is described very well in the 2nd part below, a Forest Gump-like sprint for the ages.  It was a freak of nature performance, “…an almost supernatural experience.”

Another major disappointment from the weekend was the men’s French Open.  I was a big-time youth tennis player and used to eat up everything tennis for a long time.  I don’t follow tennis much anymore, and it’s hard to figure out exactly who Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal really are.  Federer is possibly the greatest player in history, in the tiny group that includes Rod Laver, Pete Sampras, and Bjorn Borg.  Nadal seems more like Guillermo Vilas to Federer rather than Laver’s Newcombe, Sampras’s Agassi, or Borg’s McEnroe.  This was supposed to be the year that Federer finally pushed through in the French Open.  After the 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 bludgenoning in the final, it is clear Federer will never beat Nadal at the French Open.  His only hope to take down the French is for Nadal to be hit by a truck.

I spent most of my time when I wasn’t working this summer watching Euro 2008, arguably the third biggest sporting event in the world after the World Cup and the Summer Olympics.  The Group of Death starts today (Holland, Italy, France, and Romania).  There is a real magic to the start of every match, and every match is exactly the same.  The two teams walk out side-by-side, each holding the hand of a young boy or girl in their opponents kits or uniforms (incidentally, just to show you how we can screw this up, the kids walking with the US-Argentina players in the Meadowlands last night were wearing McDonald’s t-shirts).  The teams line up on either side of the referees for the match at midfield, then the national anthems are played.  No over-the-top singers, just half of the players gabling the words, half of the players stone-faced, and half of the stadium screaming the lyrics with national pride.  The camera pans every time from the center down to the last player, showing each player’s face.  Rinse and repeat for their opponent.

I sweated my buddy Liz Lieu through most of the night as she went deep in the $2.5k NLHE event at the WSOP.  Busted late in 28th place, which I’m sure she’s excited about yet frustrated with.  When you can look around and see the Final Table so close, it stings that much more.