Homage To Espana

The famous Bobby Jones quote about Jack Nicklaus 'he plays a game with which I am not familiar' -meaning he had taken the sport to another level-comes to mind after seeing Spain outclass Scotland with a 3-1 win on Tuesday. Scotland needed a win to qualify for Euro 2012, but Spain made it look like an exhibition. Like Barcelona, the Spanish team have great skill combined with superb fitness. They monopolise possession with their passing game & when they do lose it, can often quickly win the ball back with their pressing. Spain finished with a 100 % record-the only other nation to match that is our old chums Germany. Holland lost their perfect streak in a 3-2 loss to Sweden. Spain are in a class of their own at the moment, & can be the the first nation to retain the Euro title. The Germans & the Dutch will be the main challengers, with England another notch below.

US Open Tennis

Djokovic's win at the US Open means he joins a select list of men in the Open era to have won three slams in a calendar year (Federer, Nadal, Laver, Connors, Wilander are the others). He is nailed-on for me as the sportsperson of the year. Currently out with a back injury, his win-loss record for the year is a staggering 64-3.
Andy Murray's run was ended in the semis by Nadal, but it meant he became only the 7th man in the Open era to reach the semis or better of all four Slams in a calendar year.
Oliver Golding is the 1st Brit since Murray to win the boys title-in fact GB provided 3 of the 4 semi-finalists (Kyle Edmund & George Morgan the others). Add in that Liam Broady was the RU in the boys at Wimbledon & the future for the GB men is very bright; not forgetting the promise of Robson & Watson on the womens side.

Performance of the month-September

When originally drafting this, I was going to give it to Ireland for their first ever RWC victory over Australia, but they were knocked out by Wales in the quarters last Saturday.
The honours go instead to Mark Cavendish. Cav topped an incredible year by becoming the world road race champion, his honours list already boasting the Tour de France green jersey, 5 Tour stage wins & 2 Giro stages.