Maybe the greatest Knockout Day in Soccer History

Over the weekend I was thinking to myself that when asked to name the best soccer game I have ever seen, I didn't know what the answer was. The game is played at a pace that when even played beautifully it always ins't the best in sum. It's a lot like hockey (but slower, admittedly), where the sport is brilliant in clip and highlight form, but probably not in a 'let's sit down and watch 90 minutes' way. Certainly, there have been some epic Champions League ties over the years, and some great World Cup and/or Euro games, but so few that featured just extended periods of awesomeness.

Well, after the events of Monday, June 28th, 2020, I can say that is no longer the case. We just wrapped up maybe the most insane day of Knockout soccer in a long, long time. Later on I'll go through some contenders and while there have certainly been days that matched the intensity, nothing matched the absurdity and the brilliance of a 5-3 (ET) game followed by a 3-3 game.

You had two teams coming back from 3-1 down in the last fifteen minutes. A 3-1 lead with in the 70+ min is generally locked in, well - we saw again that lead blown twice in one day. You had in one of the games, the team blowing the lead scoring twice in extra time, and in the other it going down to the 10th and final penalty kick. You had the first major upset of the tournament, ended when one of the best players in the world had a penalty kick denied. You had maybe the rebirth of Spain, twice in one game. You had it all.

If for whatever reason this is not yet to be believed, you had the following in the games as well. A once-in-a-decade blunder of an own goal to put Spain down early. A missed penalty that would've put a team up 2-0 just to see that team then go down 1-2 in about five minutes. Multiple point blank shots saved. 9 incredible penalty kicks. And so much more.

So many times both games seemed to change, from of course the ridiculous own goal that preceded Croatia running play for about 10 min. From Pogba's incredible goal to make it 3-1, seemingly absolutely ending the game. To the start of extra time in the first game where Croatia was very much on the front foot, right before the point blank shot was saved. It was madness.

The games as a whole were excellent from storylines as well, from Croatia's final stand against a Spain team trying to make a name for themselves after a dry spell in 2014 - 2018. You had France trying to do the World Cup & Euro double against a Swiss team that has always been decent but looking for a signature win in its history. You had so many key players make big contributions, from Modric's calm brilliance, to Morata's wonder-strike to win it. You had Pogba continuing to be a monster when playing for France, to Benzema's insane touch.

Of course you had the moments from the 'others', such as most of the other goal scorers for Spain and Switzerland. In the end, there was nothing I've seen like this. I remember right at the end of the Spain v Croatia game one of the announcers on ESPN said something to the effect of "France and Switzerland will have a very tough act to follow." They did, but they arguably exceeded it. We all were the better for it.

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If you want some days that could start to compare, I went back to 2002 (have little memory of knockout stages before this), and there's some that at least had great drama (I only looked at specific days that had multiple games). Nothing will compare in terms of goals. You're lucky to get one knockout-stage game with six goals, let alone two in one day.

2002 World Cup, Round of 16, June 16th

Senegal beats Sweden 2-1  &  Spain beats Ireland 1-1 = only maybe is deserving of mention because Senegal won on a Golden Goal, this being the last tournament with that rule.

2008 Euro, Quarterfinal, June 19th

Germany beats Portugal 3-2  &  Turkey beats Croatia 1-1 = Obviously doesn't match in goals, but it was one round later. On the plus side, Turkey's win was absolutely as bananas, them being the ultimate late goal team. Croatia scored their goal in the 119th minute, but Turkey answered in the 121nd. Anyway, the Germany game had them up 3-1, not as close as the score, but entertaining nonetheless.

2010 World Cup, Quarterfinal, July 2nd

Netherlands beats Brazil 2-1  &  Uruguay beats Ghana 1-1 = The Dutch scored their winning goal way too early to give thsi serious consideration. However, the Ghana game featured the memorable intentional handball by Suarez, the subsequent penalty miss by Gyan, and all the drama that the handball created, ending the run of the last African team in the African world cup.

2014 World Cup, Round of 16, June 29th

Netherlands beats Mexico 2-1  &  Costa Rica beats Greece 1-1 = Ok, now we're talking. Again, way less, goals, but the late drama was incredible. Netherlands goals came in the 88th minute by Sneijder and then the 94th min. The Greece game featured a 91st minute equalizer.

2018 World Cup, Round of 16, July 1st

Russia beats Spain 1-1  &  Croatia beat Denmark 1-1 = Ok, neither of these games were that exciting other than the fact both went to penalties. From what I can tell, this is the only time both knockout games on a specific day go to penalties.

Re-Reading Harry Potter, thoughts through Book 5

Over the past month or so, I decided to take on the task of re-reading the Harry Potter books - though admittedly starting with Prisoner of Azkaban. I may have read bits and pieces of one book or the other, particularly the two I haven't yet reached in this journey, since originally reading them but I am sure this is my first time reading most of these cover to cover since at least 2011 or so. It could be well before that but I have some vague memory of re-reading each of them ahead of hte final Harry Potter movie.

It's been long enough my memory of the plots are more driven by the movies at this point. That's a problem, since the books are almost 100% excellent, and the movies are insanely up and down. The goal here was to better understand the material, reading it not as a pre-teen then teen (in reality, pretty sure I read The Sorcerers Stone when I was 8 or something), but as an adult with a good mix of nostalgia and skepticism.

Anyway, I chose to not re-read the first two as I fully believe that was a more HP 1.0 type time period; the books were short, were far more geared towards kids, had fairly little actual connection to the rest of hte plot (you can argue everything up to the reveal of Sirius being good at the end of the 3rd book is fairly meaningless in teh large scheme). Maybe one day I'll go back and read these two as well.

Anyway, the first thing that jumps out is just how damn detailed the books are with interesting minutiae. Over the years, and again because of the movies, my view of Harry Potter is so heavily plot based with the big points leading up to the ultimate showdown. Because of that you forget how much of these books, particularly Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix are 'moment in time' for such long stretches. There's whole brilliant side-plots I completely forgot about, such as the various allusions to Fred & George testing out and ultimatley setting up their Joke Shop, Hermoine's long crusade for justice for House Elves (fit with great acronyms like S.P.E.W). 

Also lost on / forgotten by me was how much incredible foreshadowing was there - the amount of hints towards Lupin being a werewolf, the allusions to Barty Crouch being the imposter Moody, the never-ending omnipresence of the Department of Mysteries. Maybe my biggest miss, and something I'm sure I just overlooked at the time as a likely half-interested 11 year old, was the whole running Crookshanks vs. Scabbers side-plot in Prisoner of Azkaban is a long foreshadow to how dog-form Sirius communicated with teh cat to bring him scabbers/Pettigrew. Just amazing stuff.

At the time I know I was annoyed by how long Goblet of Fire was and them some angsty combination of annoyed and impressed by the fact Order of the Phoenix was somehow even longer, but the reason they were is so much more clear to me now. This was a long mystery, thriller, but more than that is was the story of so much more. Of children growing up with pain, with anxiety, with successes and failures, with trauma. It was like watching the best high school show of all time, with one of the great fantasy mysteries layered on top.

The way she could make you feel Harry's isolation throughout Order of the Phoenix, the way she could make Umbridge so (admittedly comically) evil. The way she could make the Goblet of Fire into one big puberty story. Rowling had a knack of writing teenage dynamics, but doing it in a captivating enough way for me, the reader now double the age of the kids in the books.

Going back to what I missed the first time, there's really a litany of just incredible moments and subplots that were amazing. Anything to do with Rita Skeeter in book four. The few allusions to Ginny starting to be something new and different in Harry's eyes in book five. The dark tone that surrounded book three - something admirably recreated in the movie as well. The whole Ludo Bagman being a unabashed gambling addict flew hilairously over my head on my first reading. Even though book three was only 300 or so pages, even there the aspects to do with Buckbeak was so much richer in the text.

In a way, I'm somewhat worried about what is to come. I'm fairly sure I've skimmed through books 6-7 more recently, and while I'm sure there will be some great school angst throughout Half Blood Prince (which I'm pretty sure was my favorite book at the time), I also know we get closer to the plot taking over the story. Not always a bad thing, but to compare Harry Potter for some reason to Breaking Bad, that's my one tiny little issue (not really a criticism) with the last couple seasons. The endgame took over.

These middle three were not endgame. Hell, even in my enjoyment when rereading Order of the Phoenix, I got a bit impatient wading through page after entertaining page of school stories wanting them to get to the good stuff. But in this rereading I've changed my mind on what the good stuff is. In fact, Order is the perfect example. Seeing Rowling describe in words the great battle in the Department of Mysteries, frankly isn't as good as seeing the screen depiction. However seeing her write about the day to day happenings of Hogwarts in flux and taken over by the evil Dolores Umbridge is way better in print.

Overall, I'm glad I went back and did this. It was over a decade since I've read these books cover to cover, and even in 2011 probably not with the attention to detail as I have now - again the idea that Dog Sirius was communicating to Crookshanks was complete new to me! What this also taught me is how much better Harry Potter on screen would've been as a Game of Thrones type HBO show where each of these great little subplots got room to breath. Maybe someday in 2040 we decide to remake them as shows. Until then, I can just thank JK Rowling for making this world as rich and complex as it was.

Ramblings on the NBA Playoffs

- First off, loose me on all the talk about how bad this is for the league, how low the ratings will be, the whole "think of the children!" and "woe is the NBA" lines. You do realize one of the following has been in every NBA finals since 1990 (Pistons over Blazers): MJ, Hakeem, Timmy, Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, Wade, Steph, Durant. Many of the series featured multiple of these guys. The NBA for once has a season where really we don't know who'll win, and I can't wait to see how it transpires

- There are four great, competing stories at the moment. Let's start with the most, on its face, NBA-esque, the Clippers. It's so easy to remember this is supposed to be a Superteam. Until they quite memorable fell on their face last year after going up 3-1, they were many experts pick as the champions in waiting, due to their superior wing play, great depth, and the like. Well, 3-1 jokes and Playoff P jokes aside, they still have all those things, and are now finally in the Conference Finals after maybe the greatest single half barrage of offense the league has ever seen. Let's just celebrate the fact they didn't crumble after last offseason, didn't crumble after going down 2-0 to the Mavs, or down 3-2, or 2-0 to the Jazz

- Speaking of not crumbling, my word the Bucks last series was a roller coaster. It was the opposite of their 2019 loss to the Raptors, this time getting rolled twice, squeaking out a game 3 they had little business winning, and then just hanging in there. We can say that those Raptors swept the last four, while these Bucks needed OT in Game 7, but if not for a truly legendary KD performance in Game 5 they win four straight. Yes, we can point out the obvious fact the Nets were less than their best, but its fine accepting the Nets at full strength are probably the best team in the league while also crediting the Bucks.

- On to the Bucks, let's not lose sight of while Durant was putting together something of his masterpiece, Giannis averaged 36 or something over those last five games, all efficiently as well. Yes, the FT issues are stark, but he shot a respectable 60% on them over that stretch. In game 7, KD was truly peerless with 48 points and that bonkers shot to tie the game, but Giannis quietly, I guess, had 40-13-8. He's every bit the monster we always thought.

- I don't really know what to say about the Hawks other than this being one of the coolest most unexpected runs in a long time, something like the 2013 Warriors maybe, the one that was Steph's real breakout, except this one is somehow going. Their play in Game 4-5 coming back from huge deficits, was insane. Trae Young is not Steph, no one is, but he isn't far off. The team is deep, is fun, has an insane swagger that was at first unearned but now very much so. I can't wait to see how they try to combat a Bucks team they match up pretty terribly with.

- For the Suns, it is unexpected if you go a year back, right before the bubble started where they went 8-0. It's not unexpected when you take a look at the season, the 2nd  best record in the league, the brilliant play of most of their team, and the fact that despite Chris Paul's first injury and now COVID absence they're the healthiest team left. They are incredible, play beautiful basketball, and are led by one of the best, and super well fit, tandems in the league in Ayton and of course Booker. To me, they're the favorite in teh West.

- This will go into a few of the teams eliminated (some long so) but the best part of this playoffs has been seeing these young supernovas just be blazing hot day after day. A few of them in Trae Young and Devin Booker (and no one has more swagger than either one of those two) are still playing, but let's pour one out for Donovan Mitchell, for Ja Morant, for Damian Lillard (who's Game 5 against Denver is still my favorite performance), for Luka Doncic and of course for our MVP Nikola Jokic.

- But you know who certainly was not such a player, good ol Ben Simmons. I mean what the fuck? I know he's a lot better than the shell we saw in this series offensively, but him passing up an easy dunk late in the loss to Atlanta is a stunning moment. It probably is the last moment of him in Philadelphia. I have no idea what type of package he gets, lets alone deserves, but he can't return after that

- Similarly the Jazz are in a tough spot. They're a great team that got exposed for not being able to adjust to the Clippers going small. The loss in Game 5 was inexcusable, at home against a team missing its best player. That was when they lost the series. I'm still not sure what happened in Game 6, that comeback happening deep in the throes of me and a buddy at a bar, but they did have a 75-50 lead before one of the more insane stretches of shooting this league has ever seen. They have little choice but to run it back, but you have to feel they lost their best chance at a title

- A few months back I wrote how great the NBA season was but how I was afraid that the league's overall propensity for threes could lead to a lot of blowouts. I'm very happy to say that has not been the case, with if anything the great number of threes allowing for more huge comebacks, like of course the Clippers one. We've had a few blowouts sure, but most have been because one team got too cold.

- Finally, I'm so happy how damn tense these last few games have been, how tense most of the playoffs have been. The games have been slower, better, more caring defense has been played. From the start of the playoffs with the Lakers/Warriors play-in game, the level of intensity has been ridiculous, only helped by fans back in teh building. We really are in the best of times in the NBA, made even better with more care on defense. Long live these crazy, unexpected, incredible playoffs.

Europe's Return with The Euros

We've seen America return in full from Covid; Now, you can criticize it was too soon - I mean even today the case counts in America would be record setting in like half the world. But we've done well to vaccinate half the country, far higher than that in many urban areas - the ones that have had their stadiums open their doors in full. We failed the world in the response but have rallied the world in vaccinations. Europe, well, they didn't. They were struggling. It still isn't at the level the US is - but they've finally got their moment to show the world where they've come to: Euro 2020.

Now, most of the stadiums so far are at most half full and generally close to 25%-35% full, but still after watching a full year or more of empty stadiums, something that was far more stark and noticeable for me than the empty stadia in the MLB or NFL, we finally get the noise, the chants, the vibrancy. And more than even that, we get it all across the continent due to some really nice accidental planning.

UEFA Euro 2020 (Euro 2020 from here on out) was always supposed to be spread all across the continent in a celebration of this being the 60th Anniversary of the competition (no idea why 60 was so important). Even after the postponement, UEFA surprisingly kept the idea around of staging it across Europe. It seemed stupid at the time, from everything we knew of the pandemic, the idea of choosing to play games in eleven different cities, basically do the opposite of a bubble, seemed absurd. In retrospect, its been such a blessing.

We've been able to see Europe's recovery all across the country, from the fans in England, to Italy, to Romania and Russia. All the host cities have been great so far, of course cheering fully for their home teams (particular shout to the fans in Amsterdam in that thrilling Dutch 3-2 win over Ukraine). But the cheers and the atmosphere in teh neutral games like the scenes in Bucharest for Macedonia vs. Austria, have been excellent. The scenes inside a World Cup or Euros is always fantastic. After watching US playoff games in the NHL and NBA for a month with fans it would've been depressing to go back to sterile empty stadiums, but thankfully we've avoided it.

I'll have more to say about the actual tournament later in the week once each team has played its first game, but so far the quality has met the moment. I write this right before Spain plays Sweden, and through nine games we've not had a goalless draw, only one draw period, and only two 1-0 scores. This has been excellent to date, no team seeming completely out of place (even Russia, who gifted Belgium two goals in the 3-0 loss) and many smaller nations seeming very competitive. This has been a lot of fun to date.

There's still time for things to change, but seeing International Competition with fans, with chants, with songs, with passion, has been such a welcome relief. Given the mess we're about to see in Tokyo, this might be the only truly international competition for a while, the world's first test case - albeit in one Continent. The stands may not be completely full, but the brilliance, the emotions, the vibrancy very much is.

Ranking the Weirdest potential 17-game records

The "God damn that looks horrible" new records

18.) 12-5

17.) 5-12

16.) 8-9

15.) 9-8

So, here's my thinking of why these are the worst of the new records. There were a few useful indicative records in the old sixteen game format. A team that went 12-4 or better was generally really good. A team 4-12 or worse was generally really bad. Very few teams lucked their way (or unlucked) into those records. Well, now I have literally no idea what to think of a 12-5 team. 12-4 is great, 11-5 is just very good. 12-5 means nothing. Same about a 5-win team. There was such a difference between an 11-loss and 12-loss team. Winning three of four or losing three of four was important. 

Now for the 9-8 and 8-9.... well that should be obvious. Not having a .500 option aside from a 8-8-1 (honestly, I hope we get one of those a year) is brutal. Just terrible. No other sport has an odd number of games for precisely that reason. We need that equilibrium and the NFL rudely took it away from us.

The "yeah... that's gonna take some getting used to" new records

14.) 16-1

13.) 1-16

12.) 10-7

11.) 7-10

So my issues with 10-7 and 7-10 are similar to the 12-5/5-12 awfulness. 10 wins was meaningful, but so was 7 losses in the opposite direction (and vice-versa for the 7-10 recrds). 10-6 was so much different than 9-7 and for whatever reason 10-7 really seems to devalue a 10-win season in my mind. Seven losses just seems bad. On the other hand, a 7-10 record seems to way overstate a 10-loss season. These are +/- 1 records that anyway indicated something pretty middling (10-6/6-10) so ultimatley not the worst change but it really makes a "10-win" season far more meaningless. 

For the 16-1/1-16, its mostly the fact that it resets a "16-win" and "16-loss" season away from being something historic. It will be annoying when the first time a team goes 16-1 there's a weird debate how the 2007 Pats 16-wins are more pure or whatever. Similar for the first 1-16 team not being seen, righfully so, as being as ignominous.

The "Honestly, who cares" new records

10.) 11-6

9.) 2-15

8.) 3-14
7.) 6-11

These are all fine to me. Honestly, I kind of like the weirdness of these - even the 11-6 which I find even more hilariously indicative of a good but not great team than either 10-6 or 11-5. Same for its opposite at 6-11. For the poor 2-15 and 3-14, their positive counterparts are way further up. To me all of these are fairly inoffensive and other than just all of these seeming somewhat weird, I feel like I'll get used to these pretty quickly.

The "actually, this looks fine" new records

6.) 13-4

5.) 4-13

4.) 0-17

3.) 17-0

I honestly have no idea why I like the 13-4/4-13 set so much. I figure it's because you're making a traditional benchmark (4-win, 4-loss) but making it better on the good side (13-4 vs. 12-4) and worse on the bad side (4-12 vs 4-13). Hidden in this aside from the undefeated and win-less records is the fact these are all combinations of numbers sports fans will be very much used to as they're seeding matchups in March Madness.

Now to the two that very much are not seeding matchups. I actually don't mind 17-0 and 0-17 one bit. For one, the number isn't meaningful at all, its the '0'. Undefeated and Winless remain 'undefeated' and 'winless' though if anything they're more polarizing now. I can't wait for the first 17-0 team (if it ever happens) to argue if that team is better than the 16-0 Patriots (I guarantee you people in Boston will not take this well at all). Similarly the first 0-17 team will be a damn hoot. 

The "you know what, this is better!" new records

2.) 14-3

1.) 15-2

Yeah, these are just great. 13-3 was cool, 14-2 is cool. The record in between is still really cool. There's no ambiguity in the record. A team that is 14-3 is so good they can win fourteen games and fallible enouhg to lose three and those are both very meaningful statements. 

For the coup-de-grace, the 15-2 is just a massive improvement, honestly, on both 14-2 and 15-1. I always found 15-1 a bit strange. I would rather go 14-2 than 15-1 (assuming no seeding impact). 15-1 is so close to perfect. 14-2 is human enough that you lost twice, but still awesome enough that you won 14 games. Well, now 15-2 is the same thing but a whole extra win! 15-2 to me is the new gold standard record.

Pre-Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 25: The 1st Round of the 2021 NBA & NHL Playoffs

The elephant in the room is it is hard to know if the games have really been all that good. Over the course of 16 first round series between the NHL and NBA, at most three will go the full seven games - the Golden Knights win over teh Wild (a generally good series), the Canadiens comeback over the Maple Leafs (not great, but funny) and maybe this crazy "road-court advantage" series between the Mavs and Clippers. There's been a bunch of 5-gamers, a few sweeps, some interesting six games series. There's also been sullen blowout after blowout in the NBA (something I felt would happen given the three-happy world we live in). But years from now, no one will remember all of that noise, we'll remember the literal noise of fans in the stands, in teh most cathartic playoffs ever.

I wrote last week about the joys of fans and all that is true. At this point we've seen all the home games in all the arenas and they've all been incredible. Even the smallest crowds, the 2,000 fans let into Bell Centre in Montreal for Game 6 were amazing, yelling like 20,000 when the Canadiens won in OT. The places long made fun of for lack of fans, like the Florida Panthers and Atlanta Hawks have all been incredible. The joy of hearing the roar of a crowd cheer for a goal, a big save, that dagger three. All of it has been absolutely special. Basketball ended sports last year with the shutdown on March 11th. It was the day America awoke to the Coronavirus. Sports and crowds of thousands indoors have shown us we're ready to move on.

I'll never forget the experience of just watching playoff basketball and playoff hockey like I used to. It's not novel, I mean this is how these sports have worked from roughly before I was born to 2019 - just packing in 2-4 games a night, day after day for about a month. It is sports nirvana. It was also a hellish joy last year in the sullen bubble. Getting it back, seeing these games, the number go to OT in hockey as high as ever. The pace of these games as good as ever. The number of just absolutely boss-man performances in basketball as many as ever. All of it exceptional, and exceptionally necessary.

About those performances in the NBA. The one redeeming factor of a fairly poor 1st round on its face (all the East series ending 4-0 or 4-1...) is the fact we've seen so many insane performances. From Dame Lillard putting on a pure Steph Curry impression but somehow even more audacious, to Trae Young's big balls and incredible bow. From Devin Booker's ridiculous two games to close out the defending champs in embarassing fashion, to Jokic and Doncic alternating nights just abusing everyone in their slow, methodical, magical way. The new stars have been stunning. Of course the old stars are still there, with Durant, Harden and Kyrie just doing stupid things, Giannis being incredible, CP3 bossing his way when healthy. The amount of talent in the NBA at this moment is insane, even if it still leads to more blowouts due to the variance of the three.

Jokic and Doncic have been it for me. Particularly Jokic - playing like some combination of a sluggish Dirk and fat, big Steve Nash. His high arcing shot is so pure. His ability to get to the rim is so insane given his slow speed. His passing is truly outrageous, the best being is perfectly arced, Peyton Manning-esque touch to feed the three late in their Game 5 win. He generally does 3-5 passes a game that are truly unique. He is truly unique. So are so many of the stars today.

Hockey has these guys too and while the brightest stars were knocked out (Connor McDavid prime among them, having the best individual season since Mario Lemiuex in 2001), there are a few still going strong, from Tampa's star-laden (and healthy) roster, to the yearly "best player in the playoffs" in Nathan MacKinnon, to Mark Stone, to so many others. The NHL has a quality of play better than it has had in years.

There's a very good chance next year's playoffs will have more competitive first roudns on the whole. Maybe a few more seven-gamers, a few more walk-off type shots and multi-OT games. This year wasn't too high on any of these. But next year won't be the first year back. It won't be novel to have fans. If anything we may see some empty seats and it being a sign of ambivalence and not persistence. This is the only year we'll cherish a crowd of 10,000, and cherish it more when it grows to 12,000 and 15,000. This is the last year - god hopes - that we have the early games in Canada still being in empty arenas to drill home how lacking the bubbles were in teh end. This is the year we learn to relove sports, and the fact we can do so with so many ridiculous stars is just an added bonus.