Just the other day, I was thinking how I might get rid of Peacock since we've now completed binging Modern Family, Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine--and no one else in my house is especially interested in doing Cheers or Roseanne. Man, I'm so glad now that I got distracted by something and forgot to cancel it!
1. France 0 gold, 0 silver, 0 bronze
Previous reports:
At this point, however, I'm watching the Olympics on "the networks of NBC" on the big TV in my living room. We've got men's soccer on USA Network, and we just had a furious, 16th-minute-of-stoppage-time rally by Argentina--several shots on goal, some off heads, some off feet, at least one bouncing off the upper rail of the goal--that ends with a looping ricochet into the net over the Moroccan goal-keeper who was splayed out on the ground after a diving save. That's a 1-1 draw.
ReplyDeleteSports is so great!
ReplyDeleteNow on USA, we've got Team USA against the home team, France, in men's rugby sevens. I guess this is not live, given that nowhere on the screen does it say it's live. But, whatever, I don't know what's going to happen. It's 0-0 with 3 minutes, 46 seconds to play in the first of some unknown-by-me number of periods (halves, quarters, thirds, stoppage times, etc.)
ReplyDeleteWell, heck, I just looked at my phone to see an alert about Associated Press political analysis of J.D. Vance's "childless cat ladies" chuckle with Tucker Carlson, and now I look up to discover France is leading this rugby-sevens business, 5-0.
ReplyDeleteAnd now there goes a USA guy! ... Racing down the field, ahead of the French defender, into the wide open goal, between the uprights ... Score!
The USA successfully executes a dropkick through the uprights, and now it's 7-5, Team USA ahead of France.
We are now 2:23 past regulation time for the first whatever. #smdh
Men's rugby 7s per USA Network on my big TV:
ReplyDeleteFRA 12
USA 7
2:32 2ND
A Team USA guy goes sliding into the left end of the end zone. That's five more points! It's a tie! But this time they have to attempt their dropkick from an extreme angle, and it's no good.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow! Team USA reacquires possession just as regulation time in the second (and final) period expires. A penalty is called on France at about midfield. That means Team USA gets one final possession with the score tied at 12. Team USA immediately kicks the ball out of bounds to end the game in a 1-1 tie, and the (mostly) French crowd (lightly) boo the standings-strategic choice.
ReplyDeleteProgramming note: Confirmed that that USA-France men's-rugby-sevens match/game was not live, as now we have Ireland and the (cheating) Russians on the screen, which USA Network indicates on the screen is live.
ReplyDeleteIt's way, way, way too early in these Games, of course, to make this declaration, but I do believe that rugby sevens has a good shot to be my personal breakout sport of Paris 2024. I initially put an exclamation point on that sentence but decided to revise to a period in that it's such a preliminary situation.
ReplyDeleteRugby-sevens games are quick--so quick that the Team USA men have already played two today. The second was a blowout: Fiji 38, United States 12. There have been medals awarded for rugby-seven in two previous Olympics, and Fiji won the golds in both men's competitions.
ReplyDeleteTeam USA has never medaled in Olympic rugby sevens. The men finished ninth at Rio 2016 and sixth at Tokyo 2020; the women, fifth in Rio and sixth in Tokyo. The women have also qualified for the tournament at Paris 2024.
Programming note: The live blog at Olympics.com is outstanding!
ReplyDeleteMen's football Group A live on USA Network: Nils at the half, Team USA vs. France.
ReplyDeletePerfect example six minutes ago of the brilliant blogging at Olympics.com:
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand have just beaten South Africa 17-5 to finish the first day of action at the Stade de France in the men's competition.
Here's a recap of all of today's scores: ...
The standings after Day 1 are as follows:
Pool A: NZL 6 pts, IRL 6, RSA 2, JPN 2
Pool B: ARG 6, AUS 6, SAM 2, KEN 2
Pool C: FIJ 6, FRA 5, USA 3, URU 2
That's everything you need to know right there, fellow rugby-sevens fans.
Also, I just discovered a terrific phrase at the blog of which i don't believe I'd ever heard: "goalmouth action."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, the men's football second half is underway on USA Network ...
58:14 and now we've got some goalmouth action! Team USA zips a knuckleball toward the upper right of the goal, but it ricochets off the top rail. Still 0-0.
ReplyDeleteArgh! Unfortunately for Team USA, the goalmouth action continues at the other end. A French dude is kicking the ball left to right in front of the goal and then whips the ball back into the left corner beyond the Team USA goal-keeper at 61 minutes flat.
ReplyDeleteUSA Network: "And the home nation really get their party started!"
Olympics.com blogger: "The Stade Vélodrome in Marseille erupts! France take the lead through Alexandre Lacazette! A hit from distance, around 20 yards out, and it's a fantastically clean strike that beats everyone and finds the net."
Things are really happening now. In the five minutes of game time it took me to put together this comment, Team USA has had two more tantalizing shots on goal.
Mali appears to have a men's football player named Hamidou Diallo, but I don't think he's the same dude who played basketball at UK in 2017-18 (and played two games with the Washington Wizards this past NBA season).
ReplyDeleteOK, things have gotten away from Team USA on USA Network.
ReplyDeleteWhat a goal! - FRA 2-0 USA (69')
Michael Olise, freshly signed by Germany's Bayern München, has just scored a screamer.
It's the perfect curler from outside the box into the bottom corner.
The USA have had their chances but not taken them, and now France are two up.
The excellence of the Olympics.com blogger is making me rethink my own approach to HP-ing these Games.
Final: 3-0, France.
ReplyDelete"The Allez Les Bleus flags are being waved with gusto in the stands," accurately notes the excellent Olympics.com blogger.
ReplyDeleteDay -2 competition in Paris is finished. USA Network is showing some more tape-delay men's football, but I already know who won. The other networks of NBC don't appear to have yet converted to Olympics programming (if they are, in fact, still going to convert this Olympics, given Peacock's proliferation and the poor TV ratings around Beijing 2022). Big Channel 6 is showing Kelly Clarkson; CNBC is talking drug stocks, and MSNBC is replaying a pleasant exchange between Vice President Harris and Brett Cavanaugh from 2018.
ReplyDeleteSo, anyway, that's a wrap for me today. I'm traveling a good bit the next 10 days, but I'm looking forward to Peacocking and HP-ing Paris 2024 on my phone. Au revoir, les amis!
There was a short period at the turn of the century when I got a little into windsurfing. It was in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon.
ReplyDeleteI found surfing surfing to be repulsively hard as a beginner--even getting off my stomach and onto my knees is a total struggle, much less actually standing up. But windsurfing is really, really inviting for a beginner. The boards (at least the ones that the rental places gave me) are very wide, and you can stand on them and stay standing without much problem if you're on not-violent water. And if you're surfing along and find yourself starting to tip over, you can simply drop the sail and steady yourself pretty quickly. It's fun.
Some places on the internet--including some Wikipedia pages--call this sport "sailboarding," which makes a lot of sense. And, in fact, it is considered among the 10 events within the "sailing" discipline (as opposed to the two events within the "surfing" discipline), in Wikipedia's conjure of the Paris 2024 program of sports. That might or might not align with the official Olympics.com hash--probably does--but I'm not going to be tempted into checking. The last 15 minutes of my life that I've spent trying to organize all of this in my brain after watching Israel win the/a(?) men's windsurfing event on Peacock's GoldZone channel has reminded me that the key to my Olympics enjoyment every two years is to go deep, go wide, go inside, go outside ... whatever floats my boat while it's still actually floating my boat. But stop when it's not and find and do something different. There's just so, so much in the Olympics.
ReplyDeleteThank you, GoHeath, for your posts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during this past first week of competition at Paris 2024.
ReplyDeleteOther than the cultural hissies that turned up on my Facebook feed over the opening ceremonies and the woman boxer, I've enjoyed these Olympics a great deal. And I'm glad to see that the TV ratings are up, as GoHeath predicted they would be when I was so discouraged during the pandemic lull.
ReplyDeleteWe were traveling for college visits in North Carolina most of the week, and most of the Olympics that I watched were in the gaps with my wife and daughter. Consequently, it was a lot of gymnastics, 3x3 basketball, skateboarding, kayaking, beach volleyball, archery, surfing and Snoop Dogg--all fun.
ReplyDeleteAnd swimming, of course. As my daughter has said at least once every day, "so ... much ... swimming." She doesn't mean it as a compliment, but I like it.
ReplyDeleteLast night, back in Madisonville, my father-in-law and I got totally jazzed by an amazing, six-game semifinal in men's table tennis. It had to be the longest I'd ever stuck with watching a match.
ReplyDeleteThere was a young guy from Brazil who was the first person from South America to advance so far in Olympic table tennis (I think that's what they said). He was seeded fourth in the Paris 2024 tournament, and he was playing against a younger guy from Sweden who was seeded 19th.
The Brazil dude did this crazy serve where he tossed the ball maybe five or 10 feet into the air before striking it at almost table level. The Sweden dude also had an interesting serve, except his was all very close to the table, and he sort of huddled over the whole action--with the ball suddenly springing out from his full-body spasm.
Again and again, the higher-seeded guy from Brazil would spurt out to a lead, only for the Sweden guy to claw back. It was a grueling match, and, during a timeout in the sixth set, the Brazil guy changed into his third shirt of the night because of all the sweat. The crowd was going bonkers, and eventually the Sweden guy turned the big upset.
I don't know whom they will be playing, but, unless they're Americans or French, I'll be rooting for both of these dudes in their medal matches--today or Sunday, presumably.
We have live women’s soccer quaterfinal on USA Network: Team USA vs. Japan. It’s scoreless after regulation and stoppage, and now we have “ET1” action. This is the four quarters today—to be followed by Spain vs. Colombia, Canada vs. Germany and France vs. Brazil. The women’s medalists at Tokyo 2020 were Canada (gold), Sweden (silver) and United States (bronze), so I wonder what the heck happened to Sweden. Maybe they redirected all of their resources to table tennis.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia: "Sweden, runners-up of the 2016 and 2020 Olympic tournaments, failed to qualify for the 2024 tournament after being eliminated in the group stage of the UEFA Women's Nations League."
ReplyDeleteAt 96:30 or so, Team USA has a big runout where it's the U.S. player alone with the ball 25, 20, 15 yards away from the goal. Japan's goalkeeper keeps coming out toward the U.S. player, reducing her angle to possibly launch a kick toward the goal. Eventually, it's a tepid try that the Japanese woman smothers with her legs.
ReplyDelete"This has become a grind," says the USA Network play-by-play guy.
U! S! A!
ReplyDelete"The goal was totally out of step with the rest of the match, which has been a tough watch, as I'm sure you would certainly agree."
ReplyDeleteUSA Network's play-by-play guy don't play.
The same U.S. woman who missed the runout early in ET1 is the woman who scores at the end of the first half of ET1. And, yes, it turns out there are halves in extra time. So, anyway, we're having a break, and shortly we'll get back to however many more minutes of ET "action." Presumably, this will be "ET2."
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a journalism teacher at WKU who suggested that sports writers should actually read the rules of the sports they are covering. I thought that was silly since I was such a big sports fan already, but then I realized the validity of his point when I wrote a bunch of stupid stuff into fall 1986 Lady Topper volleyball coverage.
ReplyDeleteET2 (confirmed) is underway ...
ReplyDeleteTeam USA leads the all-time soccer medals standings, with four gold—all by the women.
ReplyDelete1. United States 4 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze (8 total)
2. Hungary 3, 1, 1 (5)
3. Great Britain 3, 0, 0 (3)
4. Brazil 2, 5, 2 (9)
5. Argentina 2, 2, 0 (4)
The old Soviet Union was also awarded two gold medals in Olympic soccer tournaments, but they’re huge cheaters. Canada also has been awarded two, but now we’ve learned that they’ve apparently been cheating all over the place, too. An IOC of all mes would absolutely send home all of Canada’s athletes from these games if we were convinced this story was all true. I’m a no-death-sentences/no-mandatory-sentencing/let’s-have-good-cable-TV-and-snacks-in-safe-jails guy in daily life, but I totally go all cancel-culture/SMU-death-penalty up in here when it comes to supposed-to-be-fun stuff like sports, especially the Olympics.
We're up to 118:47, 118:48, 118:49 and ticking in ET2 at Parc des Princes, and it's still 1-0, Team USA ...
ReplyDeleteI think we're down to one minute of ET "stoppage" time.
ReplyDeleteSuper Wikipedia: "Originally called Stade Vélodrome du Parc des Princes, the stadium was inaugurated on 18 July 1897. Situated in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the area was a forested parkland used by the royal family before the French Revolution. This gave the Parc des Princes its name."
ReplyDeleteIndeed, there were 38 more seconds played after two minutes of stoppage time (added to two 15-minute halves of extra time (following two 45-minute regulation halves (and then four minutes and change of stoppage time))), but finally we have a final from Parc des Princes:
ReplyDeleteUnited States 1
Japan 0
On to the women's soccer semis for Team USA!
Oh, I almost forgot: This Wednesday Tweet from @JamesRWithers, on archery, really is a stunner.
ReplyDeleteX, I mean.
DeleteMy favorite songs from the first week of Olympics coverage:
ReplyDelete1. "Public Service Announcement," Jay-Z from the Google Gemini commercial
2. "We Quilt This City," Quilted Northern commercial
3. "That Target Feeling," parody of Michelle Branch song in Target commercial
4. "The Olympics on NBC," John Williams
5. U.S. national anthem
6. Breakdancing song in Accenture commercial
7. "The Time Has Come," Chemical Brothers from the GMC Hummer commercial (previously of a Budweiser commercial)
8. Ukrainian national anthem
9. French national anthem
10. "Perfect Day," Lou Reed in some commercial
"We Quilt This City" is a (terrific) parody, of course, of the Jefferson Starship song.
DeleteI love Simone Biles.
ReplyDelete