The Grey Cup

To my surprise the Grey Cup was featured live on ESPN2 yesterday. It was fun to watch even if not a terribly exciting game. Montreal tried to threaten a bit in the second half but with little success so BC took it rather handily. For some reason the TV definition was not the best and because it was a direct feed from CBC we had to put up with their constant bombardment of logo identifiers. Also the referee’s mike wasn’t working which made the coverage seem a bit amateurish.

The Spanish language announcers had a great time with the weather information and the unique differences in the Canadian game. They also took time to explain the difference in the pronunciation of Saskatchewan depending whether you were from the French or English part of Canada. And I bet you didn’t even know that.

Hugo Sanchez

As predicted some time ago the Argentine, Ricardo La Volpe, who coached the Mexican National Futbol team thru the World Cup in Germany last summer has folded his tent and moved on back to his homeland to coach one of the strongest teams in the Argentine primera league. The Mexicans did not exactly fire him but it was clear he had come up a bit short with the talent he had to work with.

From Wikpedia: "Hugo Sánchez Márquez (born July 11, 1958 in Mexico City) is the current coach of the Mexico national football team and a former striker, considered the greatest Mexican footballer in history and one of the most prolific scorers of his era. Sánchez played twelve seasons in the Spanish Primera División, and is the second highest goalscorer in the history of the Spanish league. He was a member of the Mexico national team for 17 years and participated in the World Cups of 1978, 1986, and 1994. After winning 2 championships as Head Coach of UNAM Pumas and briefly with Necaxa, both teams in the Mexican Football League, Sánchez was named head coach of the Mexico national football team aimed to reach the World Cup 2010 finals in South Africa."

They love him here. It will be interesting to watch his progress over the next four years.