In its match against Sweden yesterday, Poland fell behind in the 81st second. It then went down 2-0, but its players did not give up. With 10 minutes to play, the star striker Robert Lewandowski tied the score with his second goal of the match. Unfortunately, Sweden scored a third time. From the Warsaw Uprising to Euro 2020, the national motto should be “Heroic in Defeat.”
It is interesting watching soccer, a sport in which men drop to the ground in agony when someone steps on their toes, and then watching ice hockey.
I like soccer, but I'm always struck by how, in a sport with so little scoring - yesterday's three Euro 2020 matches produced six goals in 270 minutes of play - both players and fans express utter astonishment when a shot fails to find the goal.
It’s been a tough few days sportswise. Stefanos Tsitsipas took the first two sets in the French Open final and looked as if he was ready to dethrone one of tennis’s 21st century rulers, but he lost the third set and, next thing you knew, he was lying next to his chair getting treatment from the trainer. This was all the encouragement Djokovic needed. Not longer after, he claimed his 19th Grand Slam title, which put him one behind Nadal and Federer.
Yesterday’s Poland-Slovakia match went a bit differently; the Slovaks scored early but Poland responded with a goal near the start of the second half. This energized the men in white-and-red until one of them was sent off with a red card. It was the equivalent of Tsitsipas lying next to his chair. Shortly after the Slovaks scored again, while the Poles – one man down – failed to find the goal.
And then Sunday night there was the Westminster Dog Show. There were four dogs in Best of Show I would have been happy to see win: the English sheepdog, the French bulldog, the German short-haired pointer, and the Samoyed. Especially the Samoyed. But first prize went to the Pekinese, a dog that has become the Novak Djokovic of the Westminster Dog Show but that looks like a shrunken and rejected Mardi Gras float. But unlike Tsitsipas and the Poles, the Samoyed could not have cared less.
The sports press conference has been under attack since Naomi Osaka’s announcement that she was not going to participate in them. I’ve written before that the few I attended were very civil, almost sensitive, affairs, with the reporters treading very delicately among the exposed nerves of the athletes they were interviewing.
In the criticisms of the institution, no one has pointed out its beauty: that it shows us a player’s humanity, something that’s rarely visible in the worldless (at least for viewers) games and matches. In tennis, except for the rare discussion with the chair umpire, and the occasional mumbled monologues and shouts of “Come on!”, we never hear from the players; they are mute animatrons running around the court hitting powerful shots. It is only in the post-match interview, with the victor, or the press conference, that we see who they are (or at least a carefully guarded version).
A tennis writer friend sent me a clip from Medvedev’s press conference after his loss to Tsitsipas last night. Asked about playing at night, without fans, the Russian said it was all about money, and went off on a little riff about the greed of the ATP, noting that the players were getting a smaller percentage of the earnings than usual this year. It was a fascinating moment, as gripping as anything in his straight set loss.
If you’re going to introduce night matches, it’s probably best not to do it when there’s a national curfew. Saturday evening Roger Federer, who for over a year has missed playing in front of fans almost as much as fans have missed seeing him, battled it out till after midnight in a mostly empty stadium. (Coaches and assorted officials were allowed to watch.) You wonder how much of a role this injustice – not to mention NBC’s lame decision to put the match on Peacock – played in Federer’s decision to withdraw from the tournament the following day.
I think a little less of Federer because of his decision. He entered the tournament saying he didn’t expect to win it, which I thought, in addition to showing a great grasp of reality, demonstrated a certain amount of gamesmanship. He was quite honest that he saw the tournament as a necessary warm-up to Wimbledon, the grand slam he has the best chance of winning again. But I didn’t expect that, victorious and uninjured after three matches, he would quietly withdraw. It shows a lack of respect not just for the French Open, but for the other players. He said that, after two knee surgeries last year, he needs to take care of his body, which the three-and-a-half hour match on Saturday definitely wore down. But it would have been more honorable to let his opponent win on Saturday, so he could advance and provide some competition for Berrettini, who now gets a bye and, depending on your thinking, receives some much needed rest or, because of the layoff, loses his rhythm. Either way, Federer, by his selfish decision, has affected the outcome of the tournament.
Serena Williams is also gone, having lost to Elena Rybakina. That she fell to a woman many casual fans had never heard of illustrates the problem she faces trying to get that elusive 24th Grand Slam title (to equal Margaret Court): There are a number of women on the tour now who hit as hard as she does, and there are tons who move a lot better.
As for NBC – if they’re not going to televise the marquee matches on weekends, do they have to prevent the Tennis Channel from doing so? All week the TC does a wonderful job, particularly when Brett Haber and Paul Annacone are announcing. But getting the rights and then putting the match of a legend on its streaming service is reprehensible.