Normal Service in The Premiership But Surprises Around The Globe
The weekend sports headlines were a mixture of the commonplace and the amazing. On one hand Manchester United maintained their charge for the Premiership title but Great Britain also produced World Champions in bobsleigh and an 18 year old shocked professional golf.
Manchester United reeled off yet another victory, although this one was at least enlivened by Blackburn scoring against Sir Alex Ferguson’s iron defence. In fact, the Red Devils didn’t play well by their standards.
Despite moderate form they were still able to force a win- an object lesson on how to win championships and a lesson that Liverpool weren’t able to follow on Sunday. A draw with Manchester City handed a 7 point lead to Old Trafford.
In pubs and workplaces across the country the talk will be of a title race that’s over. The professionals like Rafa Benitez and his players won’t concede at this stage but no one outside of Anfield- and not many inside- still believe the Reds can catch their bitter rivals.
Without Steven Gerrard and Xavi Alonso, Liverpool lacked creativity. By contrast United could afford to leave Carlos Tevez and Ryan Giggs on the bench against Blackburn.
Liverpool might have to turn their attention to securing their second place as Chelsea and Aston Villa are close behind. With changes to the Champions League qualification next year, the fourth-placed team in the Premiership will face a very tough qualifier to get to the group stage.
Another Manchester United victory raised no eyebrows but not so the news that a British duo had won the World Bobsleigh title in Lake Placid, USA. This was Great Britain’s first Gold Medal in the sport since 1965.
On closer examination this wasn’t the massive shock it seemed as Nicola Miniechello and Gillian Cooke are solid competitors in the sport’s season-long World Cup that takes place each year. Driver Miniechello won a World silver medal in 2005 with another partner.
Great Britain also have a strong recent record in the individual sport of ‘skeleton’, with medals in the past two Olympics but to have a world champion pairing from a country which has hardly any facilities for the sport is still a stunning achievement.
To put the task into perspective Germany had captured six of the golds awarded in the women’s world championships since they were introduced in 2000.
In Australia teenager Danny Lee, a New Zealand amateur, produced a stunning victory in Perth’s Johnny Walker Classic to leave some of the European Tour’s finest in his wake. It made him the tour’s youngest ever winner.
He’s inviting comparisons with Tiger Woods because he’s lifted the US Amateur title already (at a younger age than Woods) and the world will get to see him at the US Masters in April. The most impressive statistic is that he won in Perth by posting four birdies in the last six holes.
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- How Many Trophies Can Man U Rack up?
