Rally Cap Sports Blog

Dab.Docler Successfully Defends Title

2013-03-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

MOL League Championship Series (Part 2)

icehockey.hu

@Zavodszky

Once everything was settled after a hard fought battle in which home ice advantage was non existent after game one the Dunaújváros Acébikák (Dab.Docler) were crowned champions of the 2012-13 MOL League. This was the second time that DAB has won the MOL League and is the first team in the short history of the league to successfully defend their title from the previous year. In a best out of seven series that DAB ended up winning 4-2 with only the first match going to the home team.

The first two matches were covered in the previous article on icehockey.hu, that were split by the two teams, after the series moved to Csíkszereda the away team DAB took back the series lead 2-1 after a 4-3 win in over time. Unlike the first two matches game three had a rather high scoring first period, DAB took the lead 1:20 into the match when Jozef Mihalik set up Imre Peterdi for the even strength goal, the home team answered back two minutes later on a goal by Vaclav Novak. Just past the 10 minute mark the Transylvanian club took their first lead of the match when Attila Góga was able to beat DAB keeper Peter Sevela and put the puck in the back of the net. The home team was not able to get out of the period with the lead, with about five minutes left in the first Nikandrosz Galanisz and Dávid Szappanos teamed up to even everything at 2 all with Szappanos getting the goal and Galanisz the helper. After an exciting first period the next goal in the match did not happen until the 44.50 mark of the third, DAB attempted to put the game away when Galanisz and Szappanos switched roles Galanisz getting the goal and Szappanos the assist this time around. Csíkszereda was not ready to call it a game yet, when the two goal scorers teamed up to even the game at three all when Góga registered his second of the match and Novak getting the assist. Unfortunitly for the home club they could not score again and 3:44 into extra time Attila Pavuk beat Stanislav Kozuch for the game winner. Góga, Novak, Szappanos and Galanisz all finished with one goal and one assist a piece.

Unlike game three, game four had most of the excitement in the third period. Dab.Docler came out guns blazing and showing that they are ready to pull away, less then a minute into the match Pavuk and Szappanos set up Galanisz for the early goal. Neither team was able to take advantage of multiple power plays on each side until the 45:55 mark when István Nagy and Jan Fadrny took advantage of the extra attacker and pulled Csíkszereda even with Fadrny getting the goal. Less then five minutes later Csíkszereda jumped on the man advantage again, this time Tihamér Becze set up Jaroslav Kmit for the go ahead goal. Not to be out done DAB scored their own power play goal less then two minutes later when Lajos Tőkési took a pass from Mihalik and beat Kozuch to put DAB even at 2-2. Just like in game three the home team lost in overtime when Mihalik registered his second assist of the game with Peterdi putting the pass in the back of the net for the game winner. Mihalik was the leading scorer with his two assists.

After game five a clear pattern had developed during the series with excluding the first match the rest were won by the visiting team and all of them being won only by one goal, with three of them being in overtime. With the series now back in Hungary DAB was looking to win the series on home ice and to raise the trophy in front of their great fans. DAB was well on their way to do this, Tamás Gröschl set up Artyom Vaszjunyin who put the puck in the back of the cage at the 12:10 mark. DAB was thirty minutes away from being crowned champions when Huba-Ferenc Bors scored to even everything up at one, Fadrny and Becze had the assits. The match remained scoreless for the rest of the sixty minutes; almost an extra period of overtime was played, at the 77.07 mark Fadrny decided to postpone the celebration for the Hungarian team by scoring a goal off of a pass from Ervin Moldován and winning the game 2-1. Fadrny was the leading scorer with a goal and an assist.

Just to stay with the road team winning every game except for the first one DAB decided that it was time for the to close out the series and bring home the trophy. They did this with a relatively simple formula, lean on the players that brought you this far with a couple other players helping out and you goalie getting a shutout. Sevela did just that by keeping Csíszereda off of the scoring sheet on their home ice. The first goal did not come until the almost four minutes into the second period; Pavuk took a pass from Szappanos and was able to beat Kozuch to go up 1-0. At the half way point of the match Viktor Papp doubles DAB’s lead, Zsolt Azari and Gröschl closed the book on Csíkszereda by scoring at the 57:27 and 58:21 respectively and this way insuring the match and the title for the Hungarian team.

There are some rumors that Dab.Docler is having an eye not only at the Austrian 2nd division but possibly making a jump to the EBEL, but that is a story for another time. Check back in the coming months to see if it comes to fruition.

Here is a look at the MOL League awards as well as the all-star team which was voted on my the writers.

Best Goalie: Patrik Polc-Brassó
Best Defenseman: Victor Lindgren-Dab.Docler
Best Forward: Nikandrosz Galanisz-Dab.Docler
MVP:Nikandrosz Galanisz-Dab.Docler

All-Star Team (voted on my the writers)
Goalie: Peter Sevela-Dab.Docler
Defensemen: Attila Góga-Csíkszereda; Dániel Kiss-Dab.Docler
Forwards: Josh Bonar-Brassó; Nikandrosz Galanisz-Dab.Docler; Dávid Szappanos-Dab.Docler

The Finals are Set

2013-03-08T07:07:00.001-08:00

MOL League Playoffs (Part 2)

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu

The MOL League championship series match up is set, Dunaújváros (DAB) will be meeting the Transylvanian team Csíkszereda in a best of seven series to decide who is the best team in the league. Let us recap how we got to this, after the first two matches were split in Dunaújváros Miskolc was unable to capitalize on their home ice advantage by losing both matches and there for DAB winning the best of five series 3-1. In the other semi finals pairing Csíkszereda took care of business as fast as possible by winning games one and two at home and then closing out the series with a solid win on the road.

In game three it seemed that Miskolc would be able to take advantage of the home ice by jumping out to a 1-0 lead just past the half way point of the first period when Martin Saluga and Vladimir Dubek set up Adrián Toth for the even strength goal. Miskolc’s lead would last for a grand total of 25 seconds when Jozef Mihalik pulled the game even on a goal that was set up by Zsolt Azari and Imre Peterdi. There would be no scoring in the second period, however in the third period DAB would put three past the Miskolc keeper in a span for 3:14 when Nikandrosz Galanisz scored twice and Lajos Tőkési once to set the final score at 4-1. There were no major penalties in this match and Galanisz was the leading scorer with his to goals.

The fourth game of this series was a must win for the home team Miskolc, just like in game three the home team took the lead on goal by Justin Smith, who took a pass from Levente Szilágyi and put it behind the DAB goalie for a 1-0 lead. The score stayed the same the same for the rest of the period and almost through the second as well. With just over half a minute left in the second period DAB was able to tie up the game at 1-1 with an Azari power play goal, Marek Chvatal and Peterdi had the assists. The match stayed tied up at one all the way through the end of regulation; in overtime DAB was able to pull out a second road win when Richárd Nagy was able to close out the series two minutes into overtime which was set up by Mihalik and Ákos Kiss. Attila Pavuk received a game misconduct at 28:24 which meant that he was done for the day.

In the other semi final series Csíkszereda continued game three right where they had left off in game two. After letting Nové Zamsky take a 1-0 lead on a goal by Lukas Ruzicka Csíkszereda scored four unanswered goals to sweep the series and move on to the finals. Lubomir Hurtaj had two goals with Zsombor Molnár and Ervin Moldován have one a piece.

The best of seven championship series starts Tuesday the 12^th with games one and two in Dunaújváros and then the series switching to Csíkszereda for matches three and four. Games five and seven will be played in Hungary and game six in Transylvania.

Be sure to check back for more information in the finals

Szabolcs Závodszky

Twitter: @Zavodszky

Excitement Grows in MOL League Playoffs

2013-03-06T06:10:00.001-08:00

MOL League Semi-Finals (Part 1)

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu

In the MOL League semi finals both best of five series have played two matches with two different out comes. After two matches in Dunaújváros (DAB) the series heads to Miskolc with both clubs tied up at one. In the other semi final series Csíkszereda has capitalized on having home ice adavtange with taking a 2-0 lead over Nové Zámsky (Érsekújvár) Ice Tigers.

In game one of the Hungarian match up the home team took a 4-0 lead just over 12 minutes in to the game at which time Tim Kehler decided to pull his keeper Krisztián Budai for Dávid Gyenes. Less then a minute into the match, DAB took the lead on a goal by Ákos Kiss on a pass from Nikandrosz Galanisz, about four minutes later Kiss made it 2-0. Not to be out done Galanisz chipped in his on goal after being set up by Kiss and Marek Chvatal, Jozef Mihalik’s shorthanded goal was the one that ended up chassing Budai from the cage. The goalie switch looked like it payed off with Miskolc closing the gap to 4-2 on two goals by Martin Saluga, however they could not get any closer with DAB scoring three more goals. Richárd Nagy and Dávid Szappanos scoring goals five and six with Kiss completing his hat trick with goal number seven. Just for some little excitement at the end Zsolt Azari received ten plus two plus two for checking in the back, roughing and a misconduct. Galanisz lead all scores with five points, a goal and four assists.

Miskoc’s fortunes changed in game number two with a 4-2 win, this time Gyenes got the start from Kehler between the pipes. Justin Smith broke the scoreless deadlock halfway through the first period on a goal assisted by Krisztián Nagy with David Cowen setting up Vladimir Dubek before the end of the period to take a 2-0 lead. DAB was able to even it up on two power play goals by Azari and Szappanos but that was all that DAB was going to get. Smith and Gergő Nagy closed out the scoring, Smith ended up leading all scorers with his two goals and Balázs Láda received 20 plus five for a knee and a game misconduct. Matches three and four look to be a thriller just as the first two have been.

In the other semi final series Csíkszereda won game one 5-3, however they were down 2-0 and 3-1 as late as the 36^th minute. Rastislav Barcák opened up the scoring for the Ice Tigers and Konstantin Mikhailov put one in the back of the net early in the second period to give the team from Slovakia a 2-0 lead. Dániel Tranca brought Csíkszereda back to with in one but less then a minute later Vladimirs Mamonovs put the Ice Tigers back up by two. Zsombor Molnár’s goal closed out the scoring in the 2^nd period, after 40 minutes the score was 3-2. The 3^rd period was all Csíkszereda who had an even strength goal by Tihamér Becze and Tranca had his second one of the match by scoring one short handed. Vaclav Novak closed the door on Nové Zamsky with an empty netter in the closing minutes of the game. This match had its share of penalty minutes with both Tamás Áron Bíró and Martin Baron both getting 10 minute misconducts and Baron receiving another two plus two for roughing. Becze led all scorers with three assists

Game two of the Csíkszereda-Nové Zamsky match up simply put was a blow out for the home team Lubomir Hurtaj opened the scoring at 3:10 of the first, the Transylvanian home team did not let up until the final horn sounded. Hurtaj scored his second one of the match with Novak putting the puck past the keeper for the third goal of the period. After the first it was 3-0 and the Ice Tigers coach decided to pull the keeper Karol Krizan in favor of Jakub Zima. The next 20 minutes were slightly better for Zima then the first 20 was for Krizan, Hurtaj completed his hat trick in the second and Ervin Moldován made it 5-0 after two. Jan Fadrny and Szabolcs Szőcs scored the sixth and seventh goals of the game to give the home team a 2-0 lead as the series moves to Slovakia. Zsombor Molnár got 10 minutes for a misconduct and Hurtaj was the leading scorer with his hat trick.

Check back soon as we close out the semi finals and look towards a promising MOL League finals.

Szabolcs Závodszky

Twitter: @Zavodszky

It’s Not the NHL But It’ll Do

2013-02-28T04:50:00.001-08:00

Background on the MOL League

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu

The questions that people ask with a slight surprise is “is there hockey in Hungary?” and once they get the answer of YES the next question is “and is it any good?” Well is not the NHL but nothing really is. For five seasons now the top hockey league in Hungary has been running under the name of MOL League. The MOL petrol company has been the main sponsor of this multinational league. Much like the EBEL (Erste Bank Elite League) in Austria which is made up of teams from five different countries, the MOL league is made up of teams from three countries this season (with an eye to expantion). In the past the number of the teams in the league has fluctuated anywhere from seven to ten. The 2008-09 season was the first year of this multinational league with ten teams and the league could not have pictured of having a better inaugural season. The league had four teams from Romania, two Csikszereda teams, HC Csikszereda, and SC Csikszereda, Steaua Bucharest, and Progym Hargita and six from Hungary with three being located in Budapest, Újpest (ÚTE), Ferencváros (FTC) and the newly former Budapest Stars. Rounding out the league was Dunaújváros Acélbikák (DAB), Miskolc Jegesmedék (MJSE) and Székesfehérvár II (the farm team for a team playing in the EBEL).

That first season was a rather exciting one in which ice hockey fans in Hungary had the opportunity to see teams play in a league that they had not really seen before. That first season was won by HC Csikszereda with a very talented and multi ethnic team.

The next season, 2009-10 the number of participants in the league dropped down to seven teams. The two Csikszereda teams merged to form HSC Csikrszereda, Bucharest and Hargita decided to only play in the Romanian league, on the Hungarian side Székesfehérvár decided to not enter a team since they thought they were streched too thin with playing in the Austrian EBEL as well. However not all was lost, a team from Brossó in Romania was formed to have the seven team league. The league title went to the Budapest Stars who after the regular season had finished third but ended up upsetting the heavily favored team from Dunaújváros. The Stars picked up a number of players down the stretch.

The third season proved that this league was on the right track; all seven teams from the previous season were back along with two teams that had sat out the last season. Bucharest was back but rebranded as the Bucharest Rangers and Székesfehérvár’s farm team was back as well. The nine team league title went to HSC Csikszereda, which still had a number of players from the HC Csikszereda team that had won the first title. Unfortunately signs began to show that financially not all teams were on the same level. ÚTE before the season decided to almost go with a complete amateur team with most of the players either still being students or having a job on the side. The idea was to build up a roster of homegrown talent for a couple of years.

Before the start of the fourth MOL League season there was some shocking new to the Budapest hockey community, the Budapest Stars have decided to stop operating their adult (the youth system was left untouched) and the league would be down to eight teams. The league was won by DAB who that season decided not only to play in the MOL League but also in the Austrian 2^nd division with an eye on the EBEL in the future. In the past DAB had in the most consistent team through out the history of the league but had yet to win the title, this was finally accomplished after a grueling season where they made the playoffs in the Austrian 2^nd division as well.

As we are on the cusp of the start of the playoffs for this years MOL League we can notice that hockey in Budapest is bit on a down slide with both ÚTE and FTC missing the playoffs. However there is some good news in that the league has expanded into a third country, Slovakia. This season the league was down to seven teams, Bucharest again decided to sit out the season and Székesfehérvár thought that they would be stretched too thin with their younger players already playing in the Austrian U20 league. To keep the league at seven, Nové Zamsky Ice Tigers from Slovakia have joined the league and made it to the playoffs. This season the playoffs is a final four with the Ice Tigers playing Csikszereda and with MJSE and DAB making up the other semi final pairing.

Check back for more news on the MOL League playoffs

name	season in mol	mol team	nhl draft	drafted by	nhl matches
John Wilkstrom	2008-09	HC Csik.	1997, 5th rd.	Red Wings	0
Cam Severson	2008-09	Steaua	1997, 8th rd.	Sharks	37
Rod Hinks	2008-09	DAB	1993, 8th rd.	Islanders	0
Peter Polcik	2008-09	Stars	2001, 8th rd	Capitals	0
Kristian Kovac	2008-09	Stars	1999, 4th rd	Avalanche	0
Tamás Gröschl	2008-	Stars,DAB	1999, 9th rd	Oilers	0
Branislav Fabry	2009-10	ÚTE	2003, 2nd rd	Sabres	0
Martin Cizek	2009-10	MJSE	2002, 9th rd.	Sabres	0
Marko Kiprusoff	2010-11	Stars	1994, 3rd rd.	Canadiens	51
Nathan Martz	2010-11	Stars	2000, 5th rd.	Rangers	0
Marko Makinen	2010-11	Stars	1995, 3rd rd.	Sharks	0
Chris Eade	2010-11	FTC	2000, 4th rd.	Panthers	0
Jozef Cierny	2011-12	Brassó	1992, 2nd rd.	Sabres	1
Lubos Velebny	2011-12	DAB	2000, 7th rd.	Leafs	0
Marek Chvatal	2012-13	DAB	2002, 3rd rd.	Devils	0
Konstantin Mikhailov	2012-13	IceTigers	2001, 8th rd	Canucks	0

Names in italic were under contract and played match for teams in the MOL but never dressed for a MOL League match

NHL Draft Pick in Budapest?

2013-02-21T05:33:00.001-08:00

@Zavodszky

icehockey.hu

Yes if this would be the 2009-10 hockey season then us the hockey fans in Budapest would have had a chance so see the first pick of the 2012 NHL Draft playing for Reaktor Niznekamsk of the MHL. Nail Yakupov is playing his rookies season in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers. During the 2010-11 season Vladimir Tarasenko played for Sibirskie Snaiperi Novosibirsk, who this season as a rookie with the St.Louis Blues has 11 points in 13 games. In case you missed it but every hockey fan has a chance to see someone, one that might become a future NHL star this season in Budapest. The 2012-13 season has been the inaugural season of Patriot Budapest in the MHL, a junior hockey league. The MHL which stands literally for youth hockey league but more known as minor hockey league, is functioning as what the junior leagues are acting as in the U.S. and Canada.

The MHL is the major junior hockey league in Russia and is the stepping stone to the KHL. Unlike in North America where someone is drafted into one of the three Canadian major junior leagues (QMJHL, OHL, WHL) the MHL signs players who have a chance of being called up to the KHL. Almost all the teams in the league are affiliated with a team in the KHL or VHL (Russian 2nd division) almost like a farm club, the KHL/VHL team can call up a player from the youth team if they feel that that player has out grown the junior league, other times they will call up a player from an actual farm club in the Russian second or third division. Below the MHL there is a second tier, MHL-2, the MHL has a relegation system where at the end of the season two teams go down to MHL-2 and are replaced by two that come up. Since the founding of the KHL the Russian ice hockey federation has been trying to copy the North American system the best it can and theatrically in the end pass up the NHL has the top hockey league in the world. Based off of this logic they are setting up a similar junior system as the one found in North America.

The actual on ice product is quality hockey that at times is rare to see. The league is up there with the rest of the top youth or junior leagues through out Europe just like in Sweden and Finland. Benjámin Nemes, Hungarian All-Star center of Patriot Budapest says that the top teams in the MHL are on the same level as the top teams in the Swedish U20 SuperElit league. The MHL also reflects the style of play that one might have to come to know from Russian players, the flow of the game is a faster pace with more passes. Nemes continues saying that the Russian style is not as restrictive in a style as he experienced in Sweden where everything is played within a structured system.

The MHL has proved that it is an adequate league to be tapped into drafted by the NHL. The last five drafts 35 players have been drafted. Compared to junior leagues in North America and the NCAA (U.S. college league) the MHL has been right in the middle of it. Excluding the OHL which has double digit first round picks and the WHL the MHL has been right behind the WHL and the USHL. Do not be surprised if the MHL closes the gap in years to come
Either way it will be an exciting end to the season for Patriot Budapest, this season could have gone better for the team on the ice. Once the regular season is over they will fight to stay in the MHL and hope to avoid relegation to MHL-2 and to be back better then ever for the 2013-14 MHL season.

Check back in the coming weeks to get a first hand account of the All-Star gala and other news about Patriot Budapest.

Cherno Charges On for Win

2013-02-13T04:03:00.000-08:00

@Zavodszky

In case you missed it here is the recap of the Hungary-Romania icehockey match from last friday. The story can also be found on the English part of icehockey.hu

The national team wins match for new coach.

In what turned out to be a relatively easy win, Hungary put a beating on their neighbors to the east with a 7-0 win over Romania. Hungary took the early lead 1:36 into the first on a goal by András Benk with István Bartalis assisting on the goal. The Huns doubled their lead with Bartalis scoring one for himself from a pass by the 3rd member of their line, Ladislav Sikorcin. The so called “third line” would go on to score 5 out of the 7 goals. With five minutes left in the first period István Sofron received 2 minutes for checking to the head/neck and a misconduct that goes with it. Tamás Pozsgai got 2 minutes for cross checking, luckily the boys managed to kill the penalties.
The second period started off much like the first with the “third” line scoring at 2:33 into the period. Benk put the puck in the back of the net with the help of both Bartalis and Sikorcin. For the rest of the period neither of the red lights lit up behind either goal, however the Hungarians kept up their visits to the penalty box. Bence Szirányi for slashing, Benk for cross checking, and Dániel Kiss for tripping all received two minutes each with Botond Flinta joining in on the fun from the Romanian side for tripping as well.
The third period was the exact opposite of the first except that the Bartalis, Sikorcin, Benk line continued the production; the third period had four Hungarian goals with zero penalty minutes. Bartalis had his second of the game assisted by Viktor Tokaji and Sikorcin to make it 4-0. This was followed less then two minutes later by a János Vas (a: János Hári, Kiss) goal. Balázs Ladányi set up Sofron for the sixth and Benk completing the hat trick to set up the final score on an assist by Bartalis who led all scorers with five points. Miklós Rajna kept the net clean for the shutout.
Check back tomorrow for a review of the Hungary-South Korea match.

Let’s Meet Cherno, the New Coach

2013-02-11T04:16:00.003-08:00

@Zavodszky

As I mentioned in my previous post I have been writing for the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federatio, this is the article I wrote about a week ago before Hungary played in a 4 team tournament in Poland. Just a review what has happened since November.

The National Team Prepares Under a New Coach.

After playing an Olympic qualifying tournament on home ice that ended in disappointment to say the least the ice warriors are back at it again. A lot has happened since that November 11th shootout loss to the Netherlands. Just to give a recap, after the qualifying tournament the Hungarian Ice hockey Federation set out to find a new head coach for the national team. The short list was made up of 5 gentlemen, Luciano Basile, Rich Chernomaz, Bob Leslie, Stephan Lundh, and Lance Nethery. All five of these men have qualities that put them on the short list for the post. Leslie, Nethery and Chernomaz at point or another during their coach career have been in charge of a team in the top German (DEL) flight while Basile was familiar with Hungarian hockey when he was with Briancon and coaching Balázs Ladányi, Dr. Viktor Szélig and Bence Szirányi. Basile also has gained international experience at the helm of the Spanish national team, with Lundh and Nethery being the skipper of the Swedish and Swiss teams respectively in the past. In the end the federation thought that Chernomaz was the best choice to take the Hunagrian team back to the elite level of international hockey.

Rich Chernomaz not only has coached at a high level but also played at a high level as an 80kg 180cm right winger. Cherno spent his junior years playing in the WHL and would be drafted by the Colorado Rockies (known today as the New Jersey Devils) in the 2nd round of the 1981 NHL draft. He played 51 games in the NHL, 360 in the AHL and 442 in the IHL before moving on to play in Germany. Taking a look at his coaching CV he has gained valuable experience in the DEL.
Mr. Chernomaz’s first challenge will be to find out what Hungarian players fit where into his system. After a short training camp he will be making his coaching debut on Thursday February 7th in Tychy Poland verses Romania. Rounding out this 4 team friendly tournament will be matches against South Korea on Friday and the host nation, Poland on Saturday. None of the three matches are guaranteed cake walks when you consider that he will be bringing in some new players to the squad, however there will be some familiar faces behind the bench in assistants Diego Scandella and Balázs Kangyal.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the training camp roster at first glance is how young the goalies are. Of the five net minders on the training camp roster no one is above the age of 22. On the blue line the roster is almost completely reversed with a couple of players in their early 20s you can also see the usual veterans as well as someone who is 40+. With regards to the forwards you have the usual mix of international experienced players from Fehérvár, with the youthful future sprinkled in as well.

We will have more in the coming days, weeks and months as the national team prepares not only for the upcoming tournament but for the world championships as well.

Szabolcs Závodszky
Twitter: @Zavodszky

The final roster for the Euro Ice Hockey Challenge:

G
Bence Bálizs (Fehérvár)
Dávid Gyenes (Miskolc)
Miklós Rajna (Fehérvár)
D
Balázs Gőz (Miskolc)
Ádám Hegyi (Miskolc)
Péter Hetényi (Fehérvár)
Dániel Kiss (Dunaújváros)
Balázs Láda (Miskolc)
Attila Orbán (Fehérvár)
Tamás Pozsgai (Fehérvár)
Viktor Szélig (Briancon)
Bence Szirányi (Miskolc)
Viktor Tokaji (Fehérvár)
FW
István Bartalis (Troja/Ljungby)
András Benk (Fehérvár)
Nikandrosz Galanisz (Dunaújváros)
Roland Hajós (Fehérvár)
János Hári (Modo)
Csaba Kovács (Fehérvár)
Balázs Ladányi (Bolzano)
Bálint Magosi (Fehérvár)
Attila Pavuk (Dunaújváros)
Ladislav Sikorcin (Fehérvár)
István Sofron (Fehérvár)
Balázs Somogyi (Dunaújváros)
Dávid Szappanos (Dunaújváros)
János Vas (Dijon)
Márton Vas (Fehérvár)

2013-02-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

Guess Who's Back

Rally Cap is Back but a bit different

@Zavodszky

After some timeoff I am back to the blog, however most of my posts will be about Hungarian ice hockey. Both the men's and women's national teams as well as the youth teams. I will also be covering the MOL League, EBEL as well as any Hungarians playing abroad.

The reason for this is that the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation has hired me to write for them in English to spruce up the English part of the website, icehockey.hu (click on the British flag for English language), feel free to check it on a regular basis. This was all because of the post I wrote just before last years world championships by the tittle Hungarian Hockey: Its a real Paprika.

Check back regularly for your Hungarian hockey news and other sports thoughts as well. Send me a tweet for opinions or questions.

Euro 2012

2012-06-09T10:08:00.001-07:00

Here we are at the Euro 2012, the major football event where all the world watches and everyone outside of Europe feels left out. The beauty of this tournament is that it is only sixteen teams and therefore all matches are played at either 6.00pm or 8.45 pm CET. If you are working in Europe during the day then you don’t miss anything. I will just get right to it and get on with my picks.

Group A

Russia- The lads from Mother Russia got a lucky break with the group that they are in. In almost any other group they would probably struggle to advance to the next round. They will advance but this is not the same team from four years ago.

Poland- In every major tournament the host team or teams always make it the second round, sometimes they are pushed through by some “lucky” calls, expect this from Poland. Robert Lewandowski is expected to have a big tournament.

Czech Republic- This is a Czech team that in any other tournament they would finish second in this group. Rosicky needs to stay healthy for them to have a chance.

Greece- Not expecting them to be blown out but don’t expect a lot of goals either. They could be fun to watch with their emotions.

Group B

Netherlands- The Dutch are one of the favorites to win the tournament. They will win the group on goal differential. Like any classic Dutch team they will be playing total football or totaalvoetbal in Dutch. They have a lot of fire power, Kuyt, van der Vaart, Robben, van Persie just to name a few.

Germany- The Germans just like the Dutch are favored to win the Euro. They will finish second because of the goal difference. This is a hard one to pick. The Germans play a more defensive style compared to the Dutch.

Portugal- Cristiano Ronaldo can not do everything by himself. Yes Nani is ok but the Portugese need about another three Nanis for them to have a chance to advance. Look for Pepe to get sent off in one of the matches.

Denmark- Denmark will not be letting in a lot of goals but will not be able to keep pace with the other three in the group of death.

Group C

Spain-

The defending Euro and World Cup champions are looking almost as good as in the past. Almost all the players closed a great season on their club teams. With David Villa being out with an injury and Fernando Torres not being him self the past couple of years the scoring may be down then in the past.

Croatia- They are my sleeper pick, with Olic out with an injury I am not as confident about this pick as before. The Croats have the midfield and the D to make a surprise run.

Italy

- Italian football is not exactly living its glory days. Some players have to miss the Euro because they are caught up in the match fixing scandal that is going on in

Italy

. The Italians are also missing the power forwards that we have come used to seeing.

Ireland- The Irish will bring the though football that we are used to but it won’t be enough for them to get out of the group.

Group D

England-

Every time you look up it seams that a player has come up injured. The Three Lions are already with out Lampard, Cahill, Ruddy, and Barry, with Rooney being suspended for the first three matches. For some reason

England

is not expected to do anything beyond the group stage, therefore there is no pressure on them.

Sweden- The Swedes have one of the best forwards in the game who has just finished a great season. Ibrahimovic is unstoppable at times when he is not being moody. The Swedes do not have as much depth as usually needed to go deep in the Euro.

Andrei Shevchenko

France-

The previuse generation has just about retired and the next generation for the French as not as good. Yes Benzema is coming of a career year with Real Madrid but they are missing another big time scorer and depth as well.

Ukraine- The Ukraine has gotten a lot weaker in the past couple of years.

Ukraine

has been as good as Shevchenko has been. As Shevy has aged the team has weakened.

Finals Results will be:
1. Spain
2. Netherlands
3. Germany
4. Croatia

A Cup Final With Everything: Hooligans and Racists

2012-05-03T06:23:00.002-07:00

Tibor Ladányi, László Zsidai, Tamás Kulcsár

I usually do not write about personal experiences or a sporting event that I was at and witnessed with my own eyes or how I saw something. What I experienced on May first has me pretty upset and I thought I would write about it. In case anyone missed it Debreceni VSC who is leading the Hungarian first division was playing MTK Budapest who is one point away from securing promotion back to the top flight, for the Hungarian Cup at the Puskás stadium in Budapest. MTK Budapest historically is considered a Jewish team or a team that was supported by the Jewish community just like Tottenham Hotspurs in England and Ajax in the Netherlands, and Debreceni VSC who was supported by the railway workers in the eastern part of the country. The basic scoop on Debrecen is that they are going for their 6th title in the past eight seasons and just about have it in the bag along with a spot in the Champions League. MTK Budapest last season was relegated to the second division, this season they have yet to lose and have pretty much guaranteed themselves promotion. Just like in any other league, winning the domestic cup earns you a sport in the Europa League unless you have a spot in the Champions League which DVSC already seems to have, and there for MTK would take the Europa League spot even if they lost the cup. Based off of all of this regardless of what happened in the cup final both teams can safely say that the season has been a success. About 12 of us decided that it would be worth the 1000 HUF (about $5) to check out a cup final.

The match itself was exciting and had everything a person that is not a big fan of football (soccer) would have also had a great time. There was a nice family friendly environment in the 4,000+ fans that were in attendance.The first 45 minutes was exciting back and forth with both teams having scoring opportunities. The match was scoreless until the 45th minute when Norbert Könyves put MTK up 1-0 with a blast into the bottom right corner of the net. Both teams made some substitutions early in the second half and DVSC tied it up in the 51th with a goal from French international Selim Bouadla with Péter Szakály putting them up 2-1 five minutes later. In the 60th minute DVSC defender Balázs Nikolov picked up his second yellow card which left Debrecen a man short for the rest of the match. Two minutes later MTK capitalized on this when Tibor Ladányi lofted the ball over the keepers outstretched arms to even the match at 2-2. MTK kept Debrecen under pressure for the remainder of the match when in the 87th minute when László Zsidai put the team from Budapest up 3-2 and it seemed the cup was in the bag for the blue and whites. The MTK youngsters were unable to hold on to the lead for the last three minutes when Szakály struck again for DVSC and sending the match into overtime. After two times 15 minutes the match was still 3-3 which meant it was time for a shootout. The shootout went to the 9th round when DVSC keeper István Verpecz saved Dávid Kálnoki Kis’ shot to give Debrecen their third Hungarian Cup in five seasons.

As we left the stadium with our heads a bit lower then we started the match since we were pulling for MTK we could not really complain since the match had six goals, overtime and a shootout and a player being sent off. We also kept on saying its ok these two teams will meet up again for the Hungarian Super Cup as well. On the metro ride back to the city center at one of the stops two boys in their late teens-early twenties who thought they were hard asses went up to a guy in his mid twenties sitting next to his girlfriend and wearing his MTK jersey and one of them spits on him and demanded he take his jersey off, this punk then follows this up by stating to everyone on the metro that he doesn't want to see any Jewish stuff. The guy with his girlfriend pulls his jersey off embarrassingly and seemed like he was happy nothing happened. The two guys work their way down the car until they get to us were by now there are five of us left from the original group that we had went with. Three of saw what had originally happened at the other end of the car however our friend who organized the excursion had his jersey on as well did not see what had happened. The two guys come up to our friend Zoli, who is rather large and around 190 cm, and ask him “I bet you are Jewish as well so you better take your shirt off”, keep in mind none of us are Jewish. To this Zoli responds back be saying you want it then take it off me. This goes back and forth a couple of times as the two instigators can not come up with anything original. Eventually Zoli gets sick of this and asks them what is their problem with MTK Budapest and what team do they root for. Of course we knew that they didn't care about soccer at all, they were just trying to act like hardasses.

In the end nothing happened but we all felt sick, after a nice afternoon and evening watching some football the day had to be ruined by some clowns like this. There is no room for this in professional sports. When you think of hooliganism you think of England but this would never happen at the FA Cup final, unfortunately these acts still happen in Hungary and other former Soviet bloc countries. When one goes to a sporting event they are supposed to be there to enjoy the family friendly environment, root for their team and hope that your team gets the W.

Gone But Not Forgotten

2012-05-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article in Sports Illustrated about the Titanic and how there were two world class tennis players on the ship when it went down. Both of them survived in different manners and about three months later they faced each other in an exhilarating five set match. Karl Behr would defeat Dick Williams 0-6, 7-9, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 at the Longwood Bowl in Boston. Williams would go one to be U.S. singles champion, be doubles champion at Wimbledon and at the 1924 Olympics won the mixed doubles gold medal. Behr would be a member of a number of Davis Cups teams and would eventually be on a winning Davis Cup team with Williams.

Dick Williams and Karl Behr

This got me thinking about the numerous transportation disasters in which members of sports teams or entire sports teams had perished what might have happened if they had survived.

On May 4th 1949 a plane carrying the entire Torino FC team crashed into a hillside as it was returning from Portugal after playing a friendly versus Benfica with 18 players, five club officials and the crew perished in the accident. Today Torino is known as the ‘other’ team in Turin next to Juventus and this season they won the Italian second division to get back to the Seria A. In 1949 they were the defending champions and were a star studded squad hoping to repeat as champions when the disaster happened. Three of the players did not make the trip, Sauro Toma was injured, legendary Hungarian László Kubala who was just recently reunited with his family after they fled communist Hungary stayed in Turin to be with his sick son, and Luigi Gioliano did not receive his passport in time. For the remaining four matches in that season Turino had their junior squad play the matches, in honor of the fallen the remaining four opponents also sent out their junior team to face Torino’s. Torino would win the final four matches and win the Seria A for the 5th time in the 1940s, this would be the last trophy the club would win until they won the league again in 1976.

On February 6th 1958 a flight made a third attempt at taking off from the Münich airport but was never actually able to lift off the ground and skidded off the runway into a fence and a house. Sitting on this flight to Manchester was the Manchester United football team who was flying back after a 3-3 tie against Red Star in Belgrade. Eight players and three staff members died in the crash. At that time Manchester United was coming off back to back titles and would end up making a run to the semifinals of the European Cup when they lost to eventual runner up AC Milan. Among the survivors was nine players among them Sir Bobby Charlton and team manager Matt Busby. Two of the players who survived suffered career ending injuries in the crash

On October 29th 1960 Cal Poly football team was planning on flying back to California after playing a game in Ohio against Bowling Green State University. This ended up being one of those situations where anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. The plain was a World War II aircraft that was taking off from the Toledo airport when it crashed, broke in two and caught fire. Twenty two of the 48 people on board died including sixteen players. At the time of takeoff the aircraft was about 2000 pounds over the max capacity, visibility was less than what was prohibited for a commercial plane at takeoff and there was partial power loss in one of the engines at takeoff. It was later found out that the pilot of the plane was flying with a suspended licence. After the crash Cal Poly cancelled their last three games of the season and would not play a game outside of California until 1969.

Laurence Owen

There has always been a debate about the Sports Illustrated jinx and if it really exists. The February 13th, 1961 Sports Illustrated cover featured Laurence Owen with the caption “America’s most exciting girl skater”. Two days later on the 15th a Boeing 707 crashed while circling the Brussels airport waiting to land. The plane crashed to the ground and caught fire as it hit the ground killing all 72 passengers which included Laurence Owen and the rest of the U.S. Figure Skating National team on their way to the world championships in Prague. The flight had a number of world champion hopefuls, the U.S. had dominated world figure skating in the 1950s and looked to continue at the 1961 world championships. The world championships were cancelled because of the tragedy. This crash wiped the U.S. skating program off the map. No American would win a major competition until the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble France.

1970 November 14th Marshall University’s football team was returning home from a defeat to East Carolina when the plane carrying 37 members of the team and a number of boosters crashed as it was making its final approach. The entire program was wiped out except for a couple of players and two coaches. The idea of disbanding the program altogether was brought up but a squad was put together for the 1971 season with players from the the JV team and athletes from other sports, some who had never played football in their life.

I am sure most of you remember remember when this past September 7th when Lokamotiv Yaroslav was flying to Minsk Belarus to kick off the KHL season against Dinamo Minsk. Apparently the weather conditions were not ideal and the plane did not reach a high enough altitude to clear a tower which it hit and caught fire. The team perished in the accident, among them were former NHL players Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Alexander Karpatsev, Igor Korolev and Brad McCrimmon.

Busted: When 1st rd Picks Don't Pan Out

2012-04-27T12:50:00.002-07:00

Akili Smith

I always believe that the only time of a year that every NFL team believes that they are a winner is when the NFL draft is held. The NFL Draft is all about optimism and potential, this is why when we look at a draft class five or ten years down the road and one player doesn't pan out as expected then people always talk about disappointment and how the NFL didn't do their homework. This is why I have decided to choose the top 15 draft busts from the past 15 years. In my book to become a bust you could not play in the league for more than 3 years after you were drafted, this is because the average NFL career is just under five seasons. Also if your career is cut short because of injuries you are not a bust since the NFL team could not see into the future. Therefore to be a bust you had to have played 3 seasons or less, had legal issues, in team disciplinary problems or were straight up stupid.

JaMarcus Russell QB 2007 1st pk Raiders- Russell size wise could have played on the defensive front seven for any team in the league and had a cannon for an arm. He was just lazy and didn't put in the time to study the playbook. Some can say the red flags were there at LSU.

Ryan Leaf QB 1998 2nd pk Chargers- Probably what magnifies this choice even more is that the Colts decided to go with Peyton Manning at #1 instead of Leaf. Leaf much like Russell was also lazy however he had more of a natural ability to play the position. He had some authority problems at Washington State. A Leaf since leaving the NFL has been arrested for a number of small crimes and last week was arrested twice.

R. Jay Soward WR 2000 29th pick Jaguars- The red flags were there when he came out of college but his upside was too much to pass up for Jacksonville. Soward could not handle the pressure of being a first round pick and only lasted one season in the league before he was suspended for substance abuse.

Marcus Nash WR 1998 30th pk Broncos- This is one of those cases where in college was a starter on a powerhouse team and put up the right numbers at the combine and in the individual workouts, he had no red flags personality wise either. On paper he was what an NFL wide receiver should be, maybe he wasn't first round talent but still good enough to cut it. Once he was drafted he just wasn't that good and was able to fool the right people, he was out of the league after two seasons, Nash ended up having a very good Arena Football League career.

Dimitrius Underwood DE 1999 29th pk Vikings- He left the team during training camp of his rookie season saying that he could not handle playing in the NFL and being a man of Christ. His mother said that he had joined a cult and they were messing with his head, he also tried to take his own life.

John Avery RB 1999 29th pk Dolphins- Much like Nash, Avery was a very good college player but his style and his size did not translate well to the pro game. He was out of the league after two seasons, he did have some success in Canada.

Rashaun Woods WR 2004 31st pk 49ers- Woods was one of the top receivers in college, great hands good speed. For whatever reason he could not get onto the field with the 49ers, he was out of the league after two seasons.

Charles Rogers WR 2003 2nd pk Lions- Rogers probably could be higher up on this list. Unlike some of the other wide receivers on this list he could play the game at the next level, the only problem was that he would rather beat women and smoke weed the play pro football.

Rae Carruth WR 1997 27th pk Panthers- Carruth’s career wasn't anything great he probably would not have been on this list except for the fact that he had conspired to have his girlfriend killed in 1999. He is expected to be released in 2018.

Trung Canidate RB 2000 31st pk Rams- This one you can't really blame Canidate, he was picked by the Rams you at that time had future Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk, where he got very little playing time. Trung was traded to the Redskins after two seasons but with the ‘Skins he never stepped onto the field and decided to retire.

Akili Smith QB 1999 2nd pk Bengals- Smith was the second QB taken in that great quarterback class of ‘99 that was expected to rival the class of 1983. Smith had started only one season at Oregon and was light out, but he wasn't really a proven player. He struggled with the speed and the complexity of the pro game.

Michael Haynes DT 2003 14th pk Bears- Haynes did nothing in the NFL based on his workouts and what he did in college he was first round talent but was not able to beat any of the guys who were already on the roster and after three years he was released.

Peter Warrick WR 2000 4th pk Bengals- Warrick was one of those players who at the college level is fast enough to look fat and blow by most of the defenders but not all. In the NFL the guys who make are the ones that you can not blow by in college. Same with his size, in college his size was good enough but not big enough to be drafted in the first round. When you saw his college tape you had to say how can this guy not be first round talent. He should have gone in the 3rd or 4th round. At Florida State he did have some off the field issues.

Jim Druckenmiller QB 1997 26th pk 49ers- he was supposed to be the future QB for the 49ers once Steve Young retired. He only played in a handful of games and was horrible in those. He was traded to the Dolphins and then released.

This year just like any other NFL draft has some first round busts we just don't know who they are. I feel there are a couple in this year’s group for sure. Statistically speaking one of the four quarterbacks taken in this year's draft will be a bust, same goes for one of the three running backs.
Ryan Tannehill QB Dolphins- He played more games at wide receiver in college then quarterback.
Dontari Poe DT Chiefs- Was a workout warrior however struggled against the weak competition in the Conference USA.
Bruce Irvin DE Seahawks- Is small and is a pure pass rushers. he will have trouble with most offensive tackles. Was a reach to get in the first round, would have still been available in the second round.
David Wilson RB Giants- I think he is too small and probably could have found a similar if not better running back in the second round.

Canton or Bust: 2012 Mock Draft

2012-04-25T14:21:00.004-07:00

What Andrew Luck will look like with the Colts

2012 Mock NFL Draft
Some of these players will end up in the Hall of Fame others will become total busts.

1. Indianapolis Colts- Andrew Luck QB Stanford
He looks to be the safer bet between him and RG3. Has been compared to Peyton Manning and has a vast understanding of a pro style offense. he might not end up being as good as Manning but should be a solid starter for years to come.

2. Washington Redskins- Robert Griffin III QB Baylor
I would not be surprised that if he turns out to be the better of the two quarterbacks, he has the arm strength and the mobility. Unlike other dual threat QBs in the past he prefers to stay in the pocket and air it out.

3. Minnesota Vikings- Matt Kalil OT USC
The Vikings need to beef up their O-line to protect second year QB Christian Ponder. Kalil is by far the best linemen in the draft.

4. Cleveland Browns- Trent Richardson RB Alabama
The first time since the Cleveland Browns have come back into the league in 1999 they are taking a running back. In a division that is dominated by strong defense look for him to struggle early but will get his footing once the winter rolls around and the passing game starts to struggle

5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers- Morris Claiborne CB LSU
With some of the members of the defensive backfield starting to age the Bucs have an opportunity to grab a talented DB, I don't see Tampa drafting this high in the next few years. Claiborne did have some off the field issues.

6. St.Louis Rams- Justin Blackmon WR Oklahoma State
The have the QB and the RB now it is time to give Sam Bradford some toys. Justin Blackmon is in the mold of the top caliber wide receivers in the league such as Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson and Andre Johnson.

7. Jacksonville Jaguars- Melvin Ingram DE South Carolina
Remember offense wins games defense wins championships. The Jaguars have been building up a strong D the past couple of years. They could go with Michael Floyd but they can grab a WR early in the second round.

8. Miami Dolphins- Ryan Tannehill QB Texas A&M
Ryan Tannehill is one of those high risk high reward type picks, he could become the next Akili Smith, Tim Tebow or Steve Young. He is mobile and a tremendous athlete but started his college career as a WR and only recently moved to quarterback.

9. Carolina Panthers- Fletcher Cox DT Mississippi State
The Panthers like the Jaguars need help at WR as well as on the defensive line. look for the Panthers to take Cox the top rated defensive tackle to plug up the middle of the D-line.

10. Buffalo Bills- Riley Reiff OT Iowa
I would say that Reiff is a top pick talent and the Bills are lucky that he will fall to them. Buffalo started great last season but struggled the second half, look for Reiff to protect Fitzpatrick and have the Bills just miss the playoffs.

11. Kansas City Chiefs- David DeCastro OG Stanford
Last year Kansas City had a great defense but struggled to keep their quarterbacks healthy, Cassel, Orton and Palko all got beat up during the season. KC needs some help on the O-line.

12. Seattle Seahawks- Luke Kuechly ILB Boston College
Luke Kuechly is one of those prospects that come through the draft and you know he will probably be a Hall of Famer right off the bat, he is top 10 pick talent but since teams in the top 10 do not need a linebacker or have more pressing needs he could fall even lower in the first round. I would not be surprised if a team in the bottom 10 trade up to grab him.

13 Arizona Cardinals- Cordy Glenn OG Georgia
The Cardinals need some help in the interior of their offensive line.

14. Dallas Cowboys- Mark Barron SS Alabama
Next to Brodney Pool the Cowboys basically have no one that has the talent to be starting in the NFL. Barron is the type of player that the Cowboys desperately need and no one picking ahead of them really needs.

15. Philadelphia Eagles- Michael Brockers DT LSU
Brockers has a lot of potential and the Eagles need a defensive tackle. This is one of those situations where the team is taking the best player available within reason.

16. New York Jets- Quinton Coples DE North Carolina
Coples is one of those “tweener” players, he can play both defensive end and outside linebacker. Since Coach Ryan is a defensive type of guy look for the Jets to strengthen their front seven.

17. Cincinnati Bengals- Michael Floyd WR Notre Dame
The Bengals already have a young star on the one side for Andy Dalton to throw to why not force the teams in the AFC North to leave on WR on single coverage. The Bengals also need a defensive back, look to see them take one with their second first round pick. If Floyd is gone then flip it, DB first and WR later.

18. San Diego Chargers- Courtney Upshaw OLB/DE Alabama
Courtney Upshaw is the same type of player as Coples but I give Coples a slight edge and dropping Upshaw down to the Chargers. The two could go the other way with Upshaw to the Jets

19. Chicago Bears- Whitney Mercilus OLB/DE Illinoise
Mercilus will be the third tweener to go in the past four picks, the Bears would be happy to take any of the three and will probably take the one that is still on the board at number 19

20. Tennessee Titans- Stephon Gilmore CB South Carolina
The Titans really need help in the defensive backfield, the need a shutdown cornerback for sure. If Gilmore is off the board at this pick then look for the Titans to go with Dre Kirkpatrick.

21. Cincinnati Bengals- Dre Kirkpatrick CB Alabama
If Gilmore is off the board at 17 when the Bengals have the first of their two first round picks then they will select Kirkpatrick there. If they are both available at this pick then the Bengals will take Gilmore, I feel they can't lose with either one.

22. Cleveland Browns- Kendall Wright WR Baylor
With the Browns taking care of one offensive problem at pick number four with Richardson then with this pick they will take the best receiver left. Don't be surprised if they snag a QB here.

23. Detroit Lions- Jonathan Martin OT Stanford
The Lions have the defense, the RB, the franchise QB and Megatron at WR, now all they need is protection for Stafford to make the offense click. What better way to do this then an offensive tackle.

24. Pittsburgh Steelers- Dont’a Hightower ILB Alabama
If Cox, Brokers or Kuechly are still on the board then they will take any of them. The Steelers will be needing a defensive tackle in a few seasons but when they can add an elite inside linebacker to the great history of linebackers that they have had they won't pass on Hightower.

25. Denver Broncos- Jerel Worthy DT Michigan State
A Lot of people will say that the weak point for the Broncos was their QB but they have a future Hall of Famer under center, now they have a chance to make their defense even stronger.

26. Houston Texans- Stephen Hill WR Georgia Tech
Like most of the teams that made the playoffs the Texans are one player away from making it to the Super Bowl. The Texans have a strong defense and arguably the best running back in the league. With Matt Schuab healthy all the Texans need is an elite WR to take some pressure off of Andre Johnson

27. New England Patriots- Nick Perry DE USC
The Patriots got their act together as the season progressed but it was still not the caliber that Super Bowl contender should have. Expect them to address their D-line.

28. Green Bay Packers- Dontari Poe DT Memphis
Can’t really go wrong with whoever they pick. Its is a good opportunity to add depth and build for the future.

29. Baltimore Ravens- Peter Konz C Wisconsin
Matt Birk isn't getting younger and the Ravens have to look for the future. This pick also gives the Ravens some versatility on the offensive line.

30. San Francisco 49ers- Coby Fleener TE Stanford
The 49ers already have Vernon Davis and Nate Byham on the roster but they look to be taking a page out of the Patriots playbook. Fleener can be used as a traditional blocking TE and also is a receiving threat. Fleener can also lineup in the backfield as an H-Back where he can block and catch.

31. New England Patriots- Ronnell Lewis DE/OLB Oklahoma
Just as with their earlier first round pick they will be using this one also on defense.

32. New York Giants- Mike Adams OT Ohio State
When you are the Super Bowl champion it doesn't seem like you have too many weaknesses. If the Giants don’t try to add depth on the O-line then they could go with the D-line.

Youth Gone Wild

2012-04-24T02:59:00.003-07:00

Bobál twins

This past week a set of twins from the Hungarian football club Budapest Honvéd was on a tryout with the English Premier Club Manchester City. Gergely Bobál and Dávid Bobál are 16 year old twins who have pretty much out grew the Hungarian U-17 league. With Manchester City offering them trial period the question has been brought up is it the best situation or the best choice for the twins to move abroad at such a young age. There have been a bunch of situations in the past where Hungarians have left Hungary before they turned 19 with some of them panning out and others being a complete bust.

Ádám Dudás, Kristitán Nemeth, András Simon

It would probably be the easiest to look at Hungarians who have played in the past five years to get the most accurate comparison to what the Bobál twins have gone through and what they should expect. We can take a look at the 2009 U-20 team that finished 3rd at the U-20 World Cup, Attila Filkor, Ádám Bogdán, Balázs Dzudzsák, Ádám Pintér, Ádám Vass, Ádám Szalai and Krisztián Tamás.

Basically there are two arguments, does the young football star leave Hungary at the age of 17 or at 21-22. At 17 they have more potential and just like in the NBA draft you can not learn potential. At 17 a major club from England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France or even the Netherlands offers you a tryout or a youth contract you take it. You either fly through the system and in a couple of seasons you are a major contributor to the first team or you are ok at the age group level but you can't crack the first team lineup, you get loaned out to a 2nd division team and when your contract runs out you are back in Hungary. This is where things get interesting, if the kid who is now 20 or 21 has his head on straight looks at the positives and know that they learned a tremendous amount both on and off the pitch and carry themselves in a professional way then in two seasons they should be able to go abroad again, worst case to Belgium, Austria, Switzerland or to any or the major 2nd divisions. If they wait till they are in their early 20s they are going abroad mentally more mature however you know what you are getting. I say at the age of 17 go west to the top leagues, 22 go west to any of the leagues, 30 go anywhere in Europe, 35 go to the middle east for one major paycheck to live off of for the rest of your life.
If we look at the 2006 U-17 squad that finished 5th at the European Championships, at that time only Vladimir Koman was playing outside of Hungary with the Italian side Sampdoria. Koman would eventually work his way up and become a regular for the Seria A side. This past winter transfer window he left Sampdoria and signed with the French 2nd division club Monaco. Over all we can say that it was a good move that he left Hungary at the age of 17. Other guys from that team also played abroad, Attila Busai was a reserve player for MTK Budapest when at the age of 21 signed with the Swiss 2nd div. team FC Wil where he played two seasons, now he is back in Hungary at the age of 23 and starting for Ferencváros and showing how mature of a player he has become. Ádám Dudás was the first player to move from the country after Koman, after a trial with both Arsenal and Rangers he was loaned out to Spartak Moscow because his parent club Györi ETO did not want to sell him. After only a couple of appearances Dudás was back in Györ where he struggled with fitness and was loaned out he has finally come around as a full time starter. This year he is having one of the best seasons in the Hungarian league, look for him to move on from Györ to another country.

Krisztián Nemeth and Vladimir Koman

Another two players from this youth team was the Simon twins Ádám and András, András a striker was sold by MTK Budapest to Liverpool where he played on the reserve team when he was healthy and was on loan to Spanish 2nd div team Cordoba, eventually his contract ran out and Liverpool did not bring him back. He spent one season in Holland with Excelsior before he came back to Hungary to play for Györ. Ádám a defensive midfielder on the other hand went the other route, he was sold from MTK Budapest to Szombathelyi Haladás, after a couple of seasons at Haladás this past summer he was bought by the Italian 1st division team Palermo and is now loaned out to Bari. One twin left young and came back the other one left late and is now in Italy. Here are some of the other players:

Krisztián Nemeth- Was bought from MTK Budapest by Liverpool, after a couple of successful seasons on the reserve team he was loaned out to Blackpool in the 2nd division. In his first match he broke he cheekbone and was done for the season. Was later loaned out to the Greek club AEK Athen and then bought by Olympiacos, he is currently playing his first season in Holland for Waalwijk, look for him to move on to a bigger club.

Peter Gulácsi- Like Németh he was also bought from MTK by Liverpool, he has been said to be the future keeper for Liverpool. He has spent the past couple of seasons as the number two or three keeper for the side and has been on loan with Hull City in the past. Look for him to replce Pepe Reina eventually.

Zsolt Korcsmár- Zsolt was not on the U-17 team however he was already part of the U-19 team years later that finished 4th at the European Championships. Korcsmár stayed with his parent club till he was 21 and then signed with SK Brann in Norway, look for him to make a move to England or Germany in the near future.

Bálint Bajner- Bajner is a very peculiar situation, at 16 he debuted with Sopron in Hungary at 17 he made the move to Liberty Oradea in the Romanian 2nd division, then went on loan to West Ham and Budapest Honvéd. After making a permanent move to Honvéd he is now playing in the Italian 4th division. After making a move that makes scenes he follows it up with playing with a random team.

András Gosztonyi- He has spent his entire career in Hungary except for half a season when he was 20 with Bari, look for him to play in Italy again.

Roland Varga- Varga left MTK Budapest when he was 18 to play for Brescia which didnt go as smoothly as planned, after being loaned out twice (once in Hungary and once in Italy) he is back in Hungary playing in Györ. This kid is too unpredictable to predict his future.

Balázs Megyeri- At the age of 17 he made the move to Bristol City after one season he was back in Budapest, right now he has just finished his second season with Olympiacos and his first as the number one keeper, look for him to move on to a better league.

Markó Futács- Made the move to Nancy in France when he was 16, after three seasons moved on to Werder Bremen and now he is in Portsmouth. He can probably play in all the top leagues in the world once he physically matures.

Markó Futács

Ádám Kovácsik- He moved to Reggina when he was 17 and pretty much has been the number keeper all along, he will eventually get his chance.

Attila Filkor- Inter Milan signed him when he was 16 spending his years on the youth teams he was loaned out to a number of Seria B clubs before making a move to cross town rival AC Milan where again he has been on loan in the 2nd division.

Ádám Bogdán- He made the move to Bolton at the age of 20 two years later he became Bolton’s number two choice keeper, in January of this year the number one keeper went down with an injury and Bogdan was called in to be the number one man. Since then Jaaskelianen his healthy but Bogdan has held on to the spot and has saved Bolton from relegation.

Balázs Dzsudzsák- He moved to PSV at the age of 21 for only a couple of million euros, in four seasons in Holland he scored 55 goals as a midfielder which lead to Anzhi Makhachkala purchasing him for 19 million euros and a half season later made the 24 million euro move to Dynamo Moscow. He is right now the most expensive Hungarian in the market but there seems to be an asterisk next to his name since he is playing in Russia. Look for him to make a move to Italy in the future.

Ádám Pintér- Much like Dzsudzsák, Pintér did not make the move from Hungary until he was a bit older, at the age of 22 he was sold by MTK Budapest to Real Zaragoza in Spain, in his second year in he has become a regular in the first team.

Ádám Vass- Vass at the age of 16 was bought by the English club Stoke City where he spent one season before moving on to Italy where he has played for Brescia. Since the age of 17 he has been a regular for the Italian club. Look for him to move to a larger Italian side in the near future.

Ádám Szalai- At the age of 16 he made the move to German side Stuttgart where he spent three seasons, next he moved on to Real Madrid in Spain and now he is back in Germany playing for Mainz and is a real scoring presence when he is healthy.

Ádám Szalai

Krisztián Tamás- Not that many people know about this kid, last summer at the age of 16 he made the transfer from Szombathelyi Haladás U-19 team to AC Milan U-17 team and has already appeared in a reserve match for AC Milan. Right now the kid has potentially eventually when he gets too old for the reserve league he will probably be loaned out to a couple of 2nd div. teams until a small first div. club picks him up.

Aside from the one Simon twin, Dudás and Varga anyone that has gone abroad has done relatively well. Yes some are not with the superstar club that originally signed them but they are playing at a higher level then they would be in Hungary. With regarding the three that are back in Hungary they are all playing in Györ and helping the club to what looks to be a second place finish in the standings. Györ has a team that can make a push for a club title in the 2012-13 season. If I had to predict what will happen with the Bobál twins then I would have to say that they will be signed by a team in one of the top leagues in Europe maybe not Manchester City but it seems like they have the physical presence to succeed. Worst case they will be playing in Holland.

The Nomad Coach

2012-04-20T11:04:00.001-07:00

Larry Brown

A nomad is a person who never really stays at one place for a long time. A person who always seems to be on the move. Professional head coaches always seem to be on the move, in European football it is not uncommon for a coach to be in charge of 5 or 6 clubs during their career, in North America they don't not move around as much or should I say they are only in charge of one or two organizations during a career. Legendary coach Phil Jackson coached only the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers, of course that also helped he was winning. Then there is Larry Brown the nomad of basketball, Larry Brown has never stayed longer at one place more than five years. Coach Brown was hired as the Southern Methodist University coach, he has not coached since he stepped down from the Charlotte Bobcats last season, one of his hand full of losing seasons he has ever had.

Larry Brown started his coaching career in the now defunct American Basketball Association (ABA) with the Carolina Cougars leading them to the playoffs in both seasons he was with them. Following the two seasons with the Cougars the Denver Nuggets picked him up where he lead them to the ABA finals in his second season and was with them in their first three seasons in the NBA after the NBA-ABA merger. Browns first three seasons in the NBA were all winning after which he sent two at UCLA, where he took the Bruins to the tournament in both seasons and reaching the Final Four in the first one. After the two years at UCLA Brown was on the move again and back to the pros where he took the reigns of the New Jersey Nets, in the first season he took them to the playoffs but six games left in the 1982-83 season he stepped down with the Nets standing at 47-29. After just two season in the NBA Larry Brown was back in the college game and coaching Kansas, this would end up being Brown’s longest tenure in the college game and his second longest stay in one place overall. In the five seasons at Kansas he took the Jayhawks to the NCAA tournament every season and not losing more than 11 games in a season. Kansas made to the Final 4 twice and winning the national championship the second time around with Danny Manning being named the player of the year. Of course after winning an NCAA title Coach Brown was on the move again back to the NBA, in his five seasons at Kansas and the two at UCLA he had won 74% of his games. Next Brown would coach the next 18 seasons in the NBA, during this string he would coach six teams. He would go one to miss the playoffs only three times, make it to the conference finals five times, making it to the NBA Finals three times and winning it once. In those 18 season Brown coached the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks.

He is probably most known for trying to keep Allen Iverson and his ego in control for six seasons and making it to the NBA finals in 2001 to the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2004 he finally won his NBA title with the Pistons by beating the Lakers 4 games to 1, to be fair the team was already pretty good they just couldn't get over the hump of making it to the finals. In 2005 the Pistons lost to the Spurs and Brown was lured away from Detroit by the big city lights of New York and the paycheck of the Knicks. Brown ended up spending one season with the Knicks, took three season off, which was the longest he had been away from the game since he started playing as a kid. Michael Jordan and the Bobcats brought in Brown and in his second season he took them to the playoffs but got off to a slow start this season and stepped down after 28 games.
From SMU’s standpoint hiring Brown looks like a stroke genius, they will be moving to the Big East conference with a coach with a name. On the flip side Brown has not coached the college game in twenty five years so it will be interesting how it will go.

That Boy Clint Dempsey

2012-04-13T05:23:00.003-07:00

Clint Dempsey

“He scores with his left, he scores with his right, that boy Clint Dempsey make Drogba look shite”. Will the tribune at Craven Cottage be echoing with these lines next season? This season Clint Dempsey has set the Fulham record for most goals scored in an English Premier League season breaking Louis Saha’s and also set the single season and career mark for goals scored by an American in the Premiership. With Clint having such a phenomenal season by all accounts his value has skyrocketed which leads to an age old question that any mid level (even though I am a huge Fulham fan we all know that they are not at the same level as a Man U, Chelsea or Arsenal) team has in any sport, should they keep their best player or sell him and strengthen other parts of the squad.

Lets look at what we know, Dempsey has had his best season so far, his past couple seasons have been pretty good as well but this is the first one where his goal scoring has shown, we don't know if he will keep this up (yes he will) and he is not getting younger so there for right now Fulham can get the most cash for him. Also if Fulham wants to make a deep run at any of the trophies they will be playing for next season, they will need to bring in another forward, midfielder and a center defender. This of course costs money, which they can get by selling Dempsey. So if the price is right Fulham will let Clint Dempsey go.

Lets look at it from Dempsey’s point of view, he will not be moving to a team that is not at least playing in one of the two european tournaments. This leaves us with seven teams, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs, Newcastle United, Chelsea and Liverpool. I want to rule out Manchester City because he would not be a big enough signing, he does not have that international wow factor. City right now is basically trying to do what Real Madrid did in the late 90s and early 2000s, bringing in superstars and filling the rest of the roster with players from their youth system. Manchester United can also be eliminated for the time being because they have some many attacking midfielders that Dempsey would not get any playing time. Of course Giggs and Scholes are up there in age and Anderson should be on his way out, that would leave Dempsey competing with Nani, Antonio Valencia, Park Ji-Sung and Ashley Young, not that they are all better then him but Sir Alex Ferguson will play the hot hand. If anyone struggles at Man-U they are rotated out of the lineup. Chelsea is similar to Man City in that they bother sign the big name stars. Chelsea’s midfield is not as strong as it has been in the past and he could probably start for them but I do not see Clint moving to the other side of the neighborhood in London to play for the rivals.

This leaves us with Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle. Supposedly Arséne Wenger has shown interest in Dempsey and I think Arsenal would be a good fit for him however he would be in a similar situation like in Man-U that he would have to rotate with a number of other players, however at large clubs such as Arsenal that would be competing for 4 trophies you need the depth to survive the long season. At Tottenham I think he would be a great fit with all the other attacking midfielders however playing at left wing is the 22 year old Gareth Bale, Bale could move back to left back but I don't see that happening with the type of season he has had. Newcastle is making a strong push at a Champions League spot and if they pull it off they will be looking for some scoring power at a reasonable price. he could easily be the best midfielder on a squad that would have a chance of making it past the group stage. If Newcastle does not make it to the Champions League a move up north to the Toon would be looked at as almost being a lateral move. The Liverpool situation has become very interesting since thursday when they let go of their director of football operations in a move to have a major overhaul at the club this off season. I would assume that there will be midfielders coming and going in the upcoming offseason at Anfield Road, if you look at the current standings Liverpool is only three points up on Fulham and have a guaranteed spot in the Europa League since they have already won the Carling up and are still alive for the F.A. Cup. It would look like a lateral move, however they have the history and are still considered one of the top clubs in Europe with an American ownership group that is willing to spend money.

So to sum up what we have learned is that boy Clint Dempsey has an opportunity to do something that no American player has yet to do and could become one of the top offseason transfer moves. Depending on who the last five rounds of the EPL turn out Clint Dempsey will be playing for either Liverpool or Newcastle next season if he does not leave Fulham.

Then again he could also end up in a different league.

Baseball Foreign Policy

2012-04-12T01:02:00.002-07:00

Ozzie Guillen

What was Ozzie Guillen thinking....? He wasn't like most most of what Ozzie says, its impulsive and could be said that something was lost in translation. I feel that there are two parts to this Ozzie Guillen-Fidel Castro story, however I feel that one part has nothing to do with the other and what the repercussions that followed have to do with everything in the first place.
If I understand correctly what Ozzie Guillen the manager of the Miami Marlins was saying was that you have to give a guy dibs who has been in power for this long with all these people trying to take him out, which was misconstrued as him saying that he loved Castro which would make Guillen a communist in an area of the country where there is a large Cuban presence and the Miami Marlins are trying to get their image up in the south Florida region.
First of all what is a baseball manager being interviewed by Time magazine on any political or foreign policy topic? I was not aware that Guillen had a background or a degree any of those topics. I agree with all the Cuban immigrants getting upset and peeved with Ozzie Guillen.
The other part of this political snafu was that Major League Baseball has suspended Ozzie for five games. Like I said before that Ozzie should have shut his mouth and not said anything and I do not agree with what he said at all, however I do not see how what he said is worthy of suspension. Major League Baseball should be worried about how to handle steroid testing and Ryan Braun’s 50 game suspension that will not be happening this season because of a loophole in the system. I don't see who a comment about foreign policy deserves a five game suspension, do you get one game for mouthing off at your neighbor? Sometimes the people that run the MLB just blow my mind.

Fear the (Playoff) Beard

2012-04-11T02:31:00.001-07:00

Henerik Zetterberg

Ok boys its time to use the razor for one last shave before you pack it away until after Lord Stanley’s Cup has been hoisted. Thats right its time to grow out your playoff beard, the more you look like Grizzly Adams the better your team is doing. This is also where you can separate the boys from the men, literally. Men can grow full beards and end up looking like axe murderers (Henrik Zetterberg) and other look like that 14 year old neighbor who is trying to grow out his first mustache and just looks like a straight up creeper (cough cough Sydney Crosby). Which leads me to my predictions for the the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, for hockey fans this is as close to heaven as one can get. So lets just get right to it.

Sydney Crosby

Eastern Conference

#1 New York Rangers vs. #8 Ottawa Senators
This matchup should be smooth sailing for the Rangers, the Senators had to fight their way in to snag that last playoff spot. As long as the Ranger do not look too far down the road past the Sens then they should be ok. Rangers in 5.

#2 Boston Bruins vs. #7 Washington Capitals
The Bruins are the defending Stanley Cup champions and did not really lose anyone from last years squad. Ok so Timmy Thomas is not had a year like last season but he is still one of the top 2 goalies in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals in the last couple of years had arguabley the best young firepower on any one roster but this season they have fizzled and are entering the playoffs with an unproven keeper do to injuries. Bruins in 5.

#3 Florida Panthers vs. #6 New Jersey Devils
Even though the Panthers are the three seed they are not better then the Devils. If we were seeding teams according to total points and ignoring division winners then the Panther would be the 6th seed. This Devils team fits the mold of the past where they play hard nosed D and dont really win in a high scoring fashion. The Panthers have adequate goaltending expect that it was almost by committee which usually does not work in the playoffs. I am taking New Jersey in 6.

#4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. #5 Philadelphia Flyers
The Penguins were the hottest team in the league even before Crosby came back. Even after Crosby came back the Pens kept their top two line combinations together and have been on fire since. If the Penguins were playing any other team aside from the Flyers I would predict a straight sweep or at the very least a win in 5 games. However this series is between bitter interstate rivals and could end up going to 7 games. The Flyers started the season strong but have picked up some injuries as the season has progressed. Unfortunately this is a first round series that I think will end up being won by the Penguins in 6.

Western Conference

#1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #8 Los Angeles Kings
The Canucks are the defending Western Conference Champions, year in and year out they have scored goals, won games at a pace that has netted them the past two Presidents Trophies for having the best regular season record just haven't been able to go all the way. I don't really see them having any problem in disposing the Kings. This could be a sweep but I am going with the Canucks in 5.

#2 St.Louis Blues vs. #7 San Jose Sharks
The Blues have the top goaltending combination in the league. There is not a drop off from one to the next however you can not be switching goalies in the playoffs. Usually a team will start out with one and if they struggle then the make a move to the second one. In this case if they go with Halak first and then switch to Elliot it will be almost impossible to switch back to Halak. The Blues look good on the blue line but they do not have the offense to go all the way. They have some veterans that have lifted the Cup in Arnott and Langenbrunner. The Sharks on the flip side have some offense but the defensive depth is a bit lacking, the Sharks can pull off the upset if they can keep the series as short as possible. I am taking the Sharks in 5.

#3 Phoenix Coyotes vs. #6 Chicago Blackhawks
The Coyotes have won their first division title since they left Canada, but they will be meeting up with better Blackhawks team that is peaking at the right time. The Hawks are a young team that is also experienced with winning the Cup a couple years back. I am predicting a sweep. Blackhawks in 4.

#4 Nashville Predators vs. #5 Detroit Red Wings
All I can say about this series is that I wish this was a match up taking a place later in the playoffs. The Wings bring the same energy and veteran leadership year in and year out, but age is starting to catch up with them. The Predators would have had an easier time had they finished 6th or 7th. In the cage they have Pekke Rinne (one of the funnest names in sports) who has been lights out this year, I would give him the Vezina Trophy hands down. They have three solid defensemen in Weber, Gill and Suter but eventually the Wings will grind them down, look for the Predators to make a deep run next season. Red Wings in 7.

As of right now I am going with the Penguins to take the cup over the Blackhawks in 6

Protecting the Plate

2012-04-10T01:36:00.000-07:00

Crash Davis

The baseball season isn't even a week old but for some reason I keep noticing the young catchers that are calling the games this season. Usually catchers are known for their experience and that give it your all attitude. Basically a better hitting version of Crash Davis from the movie Bull Durham. The reason I say better hitting is that Crash is in the minors and these catchers are not only in the majors but are starting and calling the games for some of the best pitchers to ever play the game.

Some of these guys are known for their hitting and will probably move to another position later on in their career, others are known for their maturity on and off the field other for their arm strength and general awareness behind the plate. There were players that were expected from the start to potentially become the next Johnny Bench like Matt Wieters was projected to be. Wieters slipped to the 5th overall pick to the Baltimore Orioles because the Pittsburgh Pirates did not want to pay the money that is agent would ask for. So far defensively he has proven to be the real deal with winning the American League Gold Glove last year however his bat is still slacking but I am sure that it will eventually come around.

Matt Wieters

With Jason Varitek retiring the Red Sox are looking towards Jarrod Saltalmachia to fill the shin pads and to make a name for himself and I don't mean by having the longest name in MLB history. “Salta” is on his third team in his short career, this is not because he lack talent. He just always happend to play for a team that had another good young catcher or a veteran and it was easy to trade him for talent for a playoff run. Expect Jarrod to take advantage of his first season as a full time starter.

The Toronto Blue Jays look to have J.P. Arencibia behind the plate. Last year was his first season as the number one guy behind the plate, he showed some power which he should build on this season as he hit a 3-run homerun on opening day. He did however lead the league with 12 passed balls last year.

Carlos Santana of the Cleveland Indians is like any other player from the Dominican Republic in that he was signed at the age of 15 or 16. Defensively he is adequate but with his bat he is like any other power hitter who is not patient at the plate. He hits his fair share of home runs but also gets his strikeouts.

Alex Avila had a huge breakout season last year with the Detroit Tigers, it was his first season as the starting catcher, he caught Justin Verlander’s no hitter, was an all star and won the American League Silver Slugger award. Expect him to be around for some years in Detroit.

Buster Posey

After having a very interesting and scary offseason Wilson Ramos expects to follow it up with an even better 2012 then a 2011. Ramos was kidnaped and held hostage in his native Venezuela during the offseason and will try to move past it. In 2011 he was chosen for for the all-rookie team after a great rookie year for the Washington Nationals.

To bookend this list of young catchers I have chosen Buster Posey. Posey just like Wieters was taken 5th overall when he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants. He was rookie of the year and has already won a world series, but what I like about Buster besides his first name is his tough as nails attitude and the only way to knock him out of a game is with a broken ankle. Posey is a great defensive catcher and has the luxury of calling the games for arguably the best pitching staff in the league, he isnt known for his power but has a life time average a shade under .300.

Hungarian Hockey: Its a real Paprika

2012-04-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year that all hockey fans wait for, when everyone grows out their playoff beard and hope that their team is the first one to win 16 games. I think that the hockey playoffs is the most grueling playoff system in North American team sport. The players put everything on the line for an enormous silver chalice that is better known as Lord Stanley’s Cup. The Stanley Cup playoffs are not only a big deal in the U.S. and Canada but also in other hockey nations such as Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. For smaller nations the Olympics and the World Championships is almost on the same level since they only have a handful of players from their country in the League and they always have a chance of pulling off an upset and finishing on the podium at the two international events, Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany fall in the group. There is a group of countries where the Division I World Championships carry the most weight. This is Hungary, Slovenia, and Austria, these countries have never had a player play in the NHL or can count on one hand the number. For these countries winning the Div I championship means that they will qualify to play with the big dogs in 2013.

The 2012 Division I championships will be held in Slovenia and joining the host country will be Hungary, Austria, Great Britain, Japan and Ukraine, with the top two teams moving up. This tournament will run from April 15th through the 21st with Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Ukraine having almost an equal chance of moving up, all four teams have played at the next level in recent years with Hungary playing in 2009. The interesting part about the Hungarian team is that they have only played at the top in 2009 after qualifying in 2008 in a thrilling fashion and just missing out last year in a hearbreaker. There has never been a Hungarian that has played in a game in the NHL. The closet they have ever been was Levente Szuper who was a goalie for the Calgary Flames sat on the bench for a couple of games since number one keeper Roman Turek was injured. There have been a total of four Hungarians drafted in the NHL, in 1990 the Minnesota North Stars picked Frank Kovács in the 4th round 71st overall. Kovács was actually born in Canada with Hungarian ancestors and would later gain Hungarian citizenship and play for the national team after playing a number of years in the minors. In 1999 the Edmonton Oilers picked Tamás Gröschl in the 9th round, supposedly the the Oiler scouts thought that Gröschl was Swedish since he was playing in Sweden at that time. When they found out he was Hungarian they decided to send him to the ECHL instead of the AHL. The following year Szuper was drafted in the 3rd round by the Flames. The latest but hopefully not the last was János Vas by the Dallas Stars in 2002, Vas like Szuper almost made it to the big show but could not get past the AHL.

Levente Szuper

There have been a number of Hungarian players who just like Szuper and Vas have played in some of the top leagues throughout Europe. If you take a look at the current squad you have Zoltán Hetényi a goalie who is in the Finnish SM League, defenseman and team captain Dr. Viktor Szélig who plays in France, and István Bartalis who is János Vas’ team mate in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Most of the players that play in Hungary play for Alba Volán which actually plays in the Austrian League, which has actually help Hungarian hockey develop in the past couple of year. I would just like to mention one of the youngest players in the squad János Hári, Hári played a season of junior hockey in the prestigious QMJHL in Canada and is now playing for MODO in Sweden under the watchful eyes of hockey legends Ulf Samuelsson, Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund and has a chance of being taken in the upcoming NHL draft.

János Hári

It is interesting to see how Hungary has dealt with the turnover of talent that naturally happens on any team legends of the past such as Gábor Ócskay, Kristián Palkovics, Balázs Kangyal, Gergely Majoross, and Roger Holéczy have retired or moved on, but now there are young players coming up to join the veterans. Young guns such as Attila Orbán, Tamás Pozsgai, István Bartalis, János Hári and Bálint Magosi try to keep up with veterans such as András Horváth, Tamás Sille (who is 42!), Viktor Tokaji, Csaba Kovács, Balázs Ladányi, and Márton Vas.

I really believe that Hungary will qualify for the 2013 World Championships and will pull off a couple of upsets to stay in the top level for 2014, but before I get ahead of myself let us just enjoy this upcoming tournament and the first round of the NHL playoffs.

Domino Effect in the NFL

2012-03-21T10:52:00.001-07:00

Now that Peyton Manning has signed with the Denver Broncos this will start a domino effect throughout the NFL quarterback community. The last time there was such a chain reaction was in 1998. In 1998 just like right now everything was because the Indianapolis Colts were going to draft a Quarterback with the first pick of the NFL draft.

In after a horrible 1997 season the Indianapolis Colts were going to start fresh by taking a quarterback with the top pick. Similar to this season the Colts were looking at two QBs who they thought they could rebuild their franchise around, however that is a story for another time. The Colts knowing that they were going to draft either Peyton Manning or Ryan Leaf started a series of moves by trading starting QB Jim Harbaugh to the Ravens which was followed by Vinny Testaverde going from the Ravens to the Jets, Neil O’Donnell from the Jets to the Bengals and filling their need for a starting QB since Boomer Esiason had retired.

Of these previously mentioned players Peyton Manning has pretty much turned in a Hall of Fame career and Vinny Testaverde had some fun moments with the Jets before he moved on. Harbaugh stay was forgettable and O’Donnell was pretty much Jeff Blake’s backup.

Peyton Manning

Let us now take a look at the current free agent merry-go-round, the Colts just like in 1998 are stuck between drafting Andrew Luck out of Stanford and Robert Griffin III from Baylor and just like in ‘98 the Colts have to move their starting QB except this time around they released Peyton Manning. Manning has signed with the Denver Broncos, the top QBs that the Broncos had on their roster at the end of the season are also gone Tim Tebow has been traded to the Jets, now we wait and see between Drew Stanton and Greg McElroy who will be sent packing. MarK Sanchez will probably be the starting QB, but will Tim Tebow even be a quarterback or will the Jets use him as a running back or an H-back. The other former first round pick that the Broncos had on their roster, Brady Quinn has signed with the Kansas City Chiefs. Kyle Orton has gone from the Chiefs to the Dallas Cowboys where he has a pretty good chance of bumping Tony Romo to the bench, with Jon Kitna retiring the chain has come to an end just like in 1998.

Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow

There are of course still many more dominos to fall, we have yet to see all the teams that were in the Peyton Manning hunt fill their need. Matt Flynn has signed with the Seahawks after beeing the backup to Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, will the 49ers resign Alex Smith? or will he move to Miami where Chad Henne has left to go to Jacksonville however the Dolphins have brought in David Garrard. The Dolphins lost out on Manning and don't think they have a chance with Smith so they picked up Garrard thus forcing Henne to the Jaguars.

Loaned Out

2012-03-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

In case you people who only pay attention to the Premier League, La Liga, Seria A and the Bundesliga arguably one of the top 10 football/soccer leagues just kicked of the other day. I am talking about the MLS (Major League Soccer) and don’t give me that crap about it being a horrible league, when was the last time you actually watched an MLS match?...I thought so. One aspect that is different from North American sports leagues and European leagues is how players switch teams. In North America players get traded from one team to another for other players, or when their contract runs out they are free to sign with any team they want. In Europe players are sold for millions of euros, and very seldom when a contract runs out they can sign with another team as in North America. In the NBA, NHL, or MLB when a player is not producing as they are expected or are young and just need more playing time they are usually sent down to the minor leagues to the parent clubs minor league affiliate. In Europe what they do is they loan players out to teams, sometimes to ones in their own league sometimes to teams in other leagues.

Landon Donovan

In the past couple of years players have been load out from the MLS to clubs in Europe from January till the start of the MLS season. In Europe the season runs from fall to spring were in the MLS the league runs from spring through the summer and into early fall. Because of this players can not be loaned to Europe at the start of the European season since the MLS season is on its last few weeks and in the playoff run. The next time the European transfer window is open is in January when it is also the MLS off season. Another problem with the MLS is that it very rarely sells players, they wait until someone’s contract runs out. Based off of this there is about a two month window when a player can go on a loan from the MLS to Europe.

David Beckham

In the past there have been only a handful of players that have been on load to a European club from the MLS. David Beckham went on load to A.C. Milan twice the second time ending in an achilles injury, Landon Donovan went on loan to Bayern Munich which had mixed reviews but his two stints with Everton were very successful. Robbie Keane was loaned to Aston Villa and Thierry Henry was back at his old club Arsenal. These two spells were very successful but how would players who are not superstars do in the Premier League or the Seria A? Will this become a new trend? Will clubs take a player on a two month loan as a trial period and then try to sign them at a later time if everything turns out fine?

I think that it is a great opportunity for players form the MLS to make a big splash but they still now that there is no pressure on them since no matter what happens after two months they will be back in the U.S.

Phd. in Bracketology

2012-03-12T11:13:00.001-07:00

The Plumlee brothers and Seth Curry

It is that time of the year again when terms such as Cinderella team, sleeper pick, sweet sixteen and elite eight are thrown around. Almost every male between the ages of 12 and 65 believe that they have a masters in bracketology. If you are thinking how on earth does a children's story, a teenage girls most important birthday and some sort of a made up science connect with each other then let me explain. At the end of the college basketball season just like any other sports season you have a championship tournament. In the NCAA Div. 1 it is a field of 68 teams that play a single elimination tournament until there is a champion to be crowned. Just like any other science there are a number of terms that one most know before completely understanding what is bracketology.

Backetology-The science of picking the NCAA basketball championship tournament correctly or to near perfection as possible.

The Big Dance- Slang term used for the tournament and the field of 68.

Cinderella Pick- A team that is picked to make it deep in the tournament, “Cinderella crashes the big dance”

Sweet Sixteen- The final 16 teams left in the tournament.

Dickey V

Elite Eight- The final 8 teams left in the tournament.

Final Four- The last 4 teams left, this is a pretty big step in a basketball program

Sleeper pick- a team that is picked to win a couple games but is not expected to make a run as deep as a Cinderella

Dickey V- The voice of this great science.

This madness is known as March Madness, of course you very rarely have all the number 1 seeds in the final 4 or all the 1 and 2 seeds making up the elite 8. 2008 was the last year that all number 1 seeds made it to the final 4. If we take a look at last season the number 11 seeded Virginia Commonwealth was the Cinderella that crashed the big dance making it to the final 4. Of course you can never forget about the thrilling finishes of what seems to be every game.

After all this you realize that it is almost pointless to analyze everyone and just go with the gut pick. So here are my picks.

South Region
Kentucky                      UConn                   UConn
UConn
Witchita State              Witchita State                                    Duke
Indiana
UNLV                           UNLV                     Duke
Baylor
Notre Dame              Duke
Duke

West Region
Michigan State         Memphis
Memphis                                                    Long Beach State
Long Beach State   Long Beach State
Louisville                                                                                         Murray State
Murray State           Murray State
Marquette                                                  Murray State
Virginia                    Virginia
Missouri

East Region
Syracuse               Syracuse
Kansas State                                            Syracuse
Harvard                 Wisconsin
Wisconsin                                                                                       Syracuse
Cincinnati              Cincinnati
Florida State                                             West Virginia
West Virginia        West Virginia
Ohio State

Midwest Region
North Carolina     North Carolina
Creighton                                                  North Carolina
South Florida      South Florida
Michigan                                                                                         North Carolina
N.C. State           N.C. State
Georgetown                                              Kansas
St.Marys             Kansas
Kansas

Final Four
Duke over Murray State
Syracuse over North Carolina
Duke winning the championship over Syracuse

Yes I know there are a number of upsets that I picked, you just sometimes just have to go with the gut feeling, everyone knows that there will be upsets you just have to which one of them seems to out there that it just might actually be worth the pick. I am sure you noticed that I have #6 Murray State coming out of the West over #12 Long Beach State, I just don’t see Missouri making it and Long Beach has had one of the highest strength of schedules.
I have also decided to pick the NIT, CBI and the CIT.

NIT Final 4
Seton Hall over Arizona
Tennessee over Dayton
Seton Hall winning a title for the senior Herb Pope

CBI Final 4
Pitt over Butler
Oregon State over Washington in a PAC 12 match up
Pitt wins the title in an effort to end a forgettable season on a high note

CIT Final 4
Robert Morris over Manhattan
Drake over Kent State
Drake taking the title

Peyton's Place

2012-03-08T05:22:00.006-08:00

Peyton Manning with the Cardinals?

I’m just going to cut right to the chase, the million dollar question is what city will Peyton Manning be calling home for the 2012 season? We know that the Giants, Cowboys, Eagles, Packers, Lions, Bears, 49ers, Saints, Panthers, Falcons, Patriots, Steelers, Bengals, Texans, Chargers have a pro bowl quarterback or someone very close to it. The Vikings, Rams, Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Titans drafted or invested in young QBs the past couple of years. The Bills, Jets, Ravens, and Raiders have QBs that are above average and would rather fill other needs. The Chiefs can bring back Kyle Orton and have Matt Cassel also on the roster who are both adequate and they have other spots that need attention on the roster. The Browns and Seahawks are just not close enough to having a winning season and Peyton wont sign with a team that he does not feel that they are close to making a run at a title. I don’t see Peyton wanting to face his brother Eli twice a year so the Redskins are out. That leaves us with the Cardinals, Dolphins and Broncos, the Denver Broncos are riding the wave of Tebow mania and it could be bad PR. So I think that Manning will either end up in Arizona or Miami.

Let us take a look at the Denver situation, yes the Broncos have said that they are committed to Tim Tebow in the future but they may only be a hall of fame QB short of being a real tittle contender. I don't know how much Timmy would like to sit for three seasons behind Manning? Yes he could learn from Manning and the Broncos could use him on a couple of plays in each quarter, but for some reason I dont see the Broncos makeing a real hard push for Manning.

Arizona would be a good choice, just imagine Manning throwing down field bombs to Larry Fitzgerald, and the Cardinals have the cap space I think to make a run at Reggie Wayne as well. The Cardinls team is actually pretty good and did put a string of wins together at the end of the season. The Dolphins team is not as good as the Cardinals and have a couple more problems to take care of, the weather is just as nice in south Florida as in Arizona. What the ‘Phins do have that the Cards do not is that the Mannings own a place down there and the state of Florida has no income tax. It will definitly be interesting to see where Peyton Manning ends up.

Just Say NO

2012-03-07T14:19:00.004-08:00

Len Bias

What does Len Bias, Eugene and “Big Daddy” Lipscomb have in common or “Bam” Morris and Tim Montgomery? Before we answer that question we should take a step back and take a look at the four gentlemen; Len Bias was the number two pick over all by the Boston Celtics in 1986, Eugene Lipscomb was a Pro Bowl defensive end from 1953-62. Bam Morris was the starting running back for a number NFL teams and completing the pair is Tim Montgomery who was won a gold medal in the 2000 Sydney games. Bias and Lipscomb ended up just like former pro wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow and Oklahoma tight end Austin Box. Bias died of a cocaine overdose the day after he was drafted, Lipscomb died of a supposed heroin overdose (Steelers owner Dan Rooney refutes this since according to him Lipscomb was afraid of needles), Austin Box overdosed this past year. Bam Morris and Tim Montgomery spent part of their life just like Travis Henry, in jail. Morris was sentenced to 30 months for drug trafficking, Montgomery was sentenced to 46 months for heroin trafficking and Henry 36 for drug trafficking.

Just like society pro athletes are usually doing the same drugs, acid in the late 60s and 70s, coke in the late 70s and 80s. The Len Bias was not the only one with drug problems from the 1986 NBA draft Chris Washburn was the 3rd pick over all by the Golden State Warriors was banned by the league by 1989 for failing three drug tests, Roy Tarpley went number seven to Dallas and got the boot from the league for violating drug policies in 1990, and William Bradford went six to the Suns and was busted a couple of times for drug possession (idiots).

Darryl Strawberry

What I don’t get is why someone would throw everything away on drugs. You are at the top of the world you play a game for a job and you are living the dream that millions have dreamt. If was a pro football player you get to watch film on a 3-4 defense and break down the tendencies a wide receiver has when they run a crossing route. If you are a basketball player you can work on your jump shot all day, who wouldn’t want to do that.

I just don’t get what would make you even think about touching, coke, heroine, X, or meth, when you can work on you slap shot or fielding grounders, you get to be a child all day and it is OK!! You are a looser if you throw it all away. I really don’t see the positive side of being involved with drugs as an athlete. You also have to think of the fans, I was crushed when I found out that Darryl Strawberry was busted for coke and I would never want a kid to think of me like that…Say it ain’t so Joe.