The Spanish Armada Marches On!

Good day ladies and gents (here forth known as insert catchy name for followers here), on this Tuesday the 14th September. So let’s look at what’s on my mind today.
When 2010 started, there was a feeling of pure joy here in South Africa. The biggest event in the world is coming and we will be the hosts. The whole world will be watching us. The “Gees” will be amazing. This will be our year. And true, many will think of South Africa when they think of 2010, but undeniably the year of 2010 belongs to Spain. In the year that has passed we have seen some truly incredible Spanish victories and the year aren’t finished yet. Sure we could talk about the fact that there hockey women lost to ours, but let’s focus on the big things.

Spain are the Fifa World Cup champions and will hold this title for the next four years. They currently have 9 players in the top 40 of world football according to the Castrol index. They are also the Euro champions and to top off their domination of World Football a Spanish team (Barcelona) are currently the World Club champions. For the first time in my life one team is completely dominant. France in the late 90’s were great, but their club sides didn’t dominate either!

The only race that really matters in Cycling is the Tour de France. Although many of you will know my feelings on cycling and the Tour de France in specific, there is no doubting that the best extreme cyclist in the world right now is Alberto Contador. He dominated the Tour this year and deservedly triumphed in the Paris. Alberto Contador is a Spaniard.

Next we will look at the first tennis player since Rod Laver to hold Wimbledon, the French Open and the US Open at the same time. Yes it is the one and only Rafa Nadal. Pundits all over the world wrote him off due to injury plagued 2009. He has troublesome knees and will never be that good at the hard court season. He decided to re-invent his game and the now 24 year old has become the outright favourite for the Laureus Sportsman of the year. He has now won 9 majors and should he stay fit he will comfortably beat Roger Federers record haul of majors. I was never a fan, but I was amazed at his comeback this year.

The other man I would like to talk about is Fernando Alonso. I am a McLaren fan and as a result also a Lewis Hamilton fan. I don’t like Fernando Alonso. However, I would like to point out how brilliant he was at Monza this weekend. What a win for the Ferrari team. Alonso has not had a great car, yet with just 5 races left he is within a win of the leadership of the championship and the way this year is going I wouldn’t be surprised if he won this again.

In the two wheel version of the sport, Jorge Lorenzo is running away with a championship that was previously owned by Valentino Rossi. He is currently 63 points clear and is just riding through the motions of winning the championship. And would you believe it? He is Spanish!

And in completely other news, a Spanish speaking country won the Women’s Hockey World Cup! Congratulations to the Argentineans! Well done to the South African women too, except for a harsh call against India, they could have finished 9th. As the lowest ranked team at the World Cup we can surely be proud of this and build on it!

So in leaving you this week, I leave you with this thought. If you really want to win something this year, hope for luck, or alternatively get a Spanish passport!

In sport
Jabu

On a side note. Thank you once again for all the votes! Please keep voting for All Things Jabu and any other categories if you are keen! Please leave comments if you would like to see change!