Upsets galore

The teams that fought for the title in the 2006 World Cup in Germany are now part of the trash heap as France then later Italy, the defending champion, crashed out.

The World Cup in South Africa has featured so many upsets, but while these may be upsetting to the fans of the teams, such have made the tournament very interesting.

The coming round of 16 match between England and Germany will be a renewal of an old rivalry and I would have easily dismissed the English side based on the performance of both teams in their opening games of the tournament, but that can’t be said now.

While England looked scrappy against the United States and the Germans worked like a brand new Mercedes Benz, the shock loss of Germany to Serbia proved the team’s vulnerability.

After the round robin group stage, it’s do-or-die in the succeeding stages giving the teams no room for mistakes.

With David James back tending the England goal, the Germans can be given a run for their money, but I still believe that Germany will have the edge, but then so many things can happen in the two 45-minutes halves of the game.

There are more sleepless nights ahead for us football fans.

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Some of us have long days at the office, but if you are a professional tennis player, taking a little over 11 hours to finish a match, without overtime pay, is really grueling.

Such was the case for John Isner and Nicholas Mahut, who completed their five set match in 11 hours and five minutes with Isner winning.

Isner is still a long shot from winning the Wimbledon title, but he has made history. Mahut should be given credit too for providing the most even match for his opponent.

I thought that long battles were only stories in epics like Biag ni Lam-ang, which we took up back in freshman high school.

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Two big tournaments happened the past two weeks at the Cebu Country Club – the 4th Y101 Corporate Cup and the 17th Business in Golf.

My teammates in the Corporate Cup for the Vanex Trading team, which finished second runner-up in the Silver division, did much better in the BiG taking the first runner-up honors in the field of 50 teams.

Congratulations to my big brothers Ang Chiong, Inting Go, Arturo Go and Ramon Sebastian, who played for Shell 2 in the BiG event.

I had lots of fun during the BiG too playing with good friends Titing Gamallo, Etok Wong, Freddie Salimbangon and Regan King.

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MILESTONES: I’d like to greet Freddie a belated happy birthday as he turned a year older yesterday. He had a great game last Thursday as some sort of advanced birthday present hehehe…

Today’s greetings go to a dear friend from back our grade school days – Carmela Costales, who was also my classmate in high school and college. 

Tomorrow’s greetings go to Chris Sagun, Cres Lawas, Al Rollan, Eve Lyn Espiritu, Balamban Councilor Dave Karamihan, and former Talisay City Vice Mayor Lani Abarquez.

More power to all of you!