Mega Sports Updates

It’s been a busy - and random - sports week since the last post on Carolina Hellenic Blue. In the last four days we've been to two Nats games, one United game, and watched some Greek soccer and basketball. Here’s a quick rundown, in no particular order:

Hellenic Hoops

As part of the preparation for the 2009 European Championships in September, the 'new' Greek basketball team is playing a series of exhibition games and tournaments. Thanks to our new dish, I was able to watch Greece lose to Serbia last week 82-83 in Athens.

It's considered a 'new' team since - for the first time in years - the Hellenic squad is without Theo Papaloukas and Dimitris Diamantidis, arguably the two best Greek hoopsters on the planet.

The new team is also notable for having two Greek-Americans on their roster: THE Ohio State University's Kosta Koufos, and Nick Calathes (whose last name roughly means 'person with basket' or ‘basket maker’ in Greek). Koufos left school early, and had a decent rookie season last year for the Utah Jazz, and is the only Greek or Greek-American in the NBA. Fans may remember that after years of having at least one and usually two Greeks in the league, there were no Hellenes in the NBA during the 2007-2008 season.

Koufos was one of only two active NBA players in the game versus the long-time European hoops power, with Nenad Krstic of Oklahoma City playing for Serbia.

Neither Greek-American had a great game, though each had their moments and Koufos started. Calathes looked a lot quicker than anyone else on the floor and had a number of nice takes to the basket. His scoring though was off set by 5 turnovers while running the point as Greece’s back up one. Spanoulis led Greece with 21 points, and Sofoklis Schortsianidis had a great game off the bench. Greece's 'Baby Shaq' looks like he has lost a lot of weight.

Though they lost, Greece looked pretty good especially when former Houston Rocket Vassilis Spanoulis was running the point. Greece’s starting five – Spanoulis (Panathinaikos), Nikos Zisis (CSKA Moscow), Efstratios Perperoglou (Panathinaikos), Antonis Fotsis (former Memphis Grizzilies, currently Dynamo Moscow), and Koufos – make them one of the favorites to medal or win the European Championship next month in Poland.

Nationals

As noted a few blog posts ago, my Nats fever was cured by two moribund losses this week (witnessed in person on Wednesday and Friday nights). Let's hope the offense – which finally scored some runs on Saturday and Sunday - and John Lannan get back on track.

I went to the Strasburg press conference on Friday, which was kind of dull and staged (actually, they were ON a stage near third base). But I was impressed that about 1,000 fans showed up. Like the Caps until a few years ago - the Nats only draw around 20,000 a night - the Nats have a small but dedicated fan base, one that seems energized by Strasburg's signing.

DC United makes the blog!

Evan and I went to see David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy take on our hometown DC United on Saturday night. Unlike the last time he visited, a packed house of 40,000 to RFK to witness his MLB debut two Augusts ago, last night's game drew around 20,000 fans. Not only that, Beckham was consistently booed and mocked by the hard-core DC United fans (Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava, etc.; we had seats directly behind them.). Beckham made a few nice passes but overall was no big whoop, and the game itself did not have much flow or rhythm. DC United kept Landon Donovan, who played despite having the H1N1 virus, in check and he only had one or two nice runs but that's it. In general, the excitement generated by that game matched the final score, 0-0.

But United will take the tie; they’ve been struggling of late.

One more football update, then I’m off to bed.

Panathinaikos lost at home to Athletico Madrid, 2-3, on Tuesday in the play offs of the European Champions League. The Greens dominated the first half but still trailed 0-1 after 45 minutes. In the second half, Athletico Madrid scored two nice goals where they simply schooled – embarrassed - the Panathinaikos defense and keeper.

Sebastian Leto scored a nifty goal to get Pana back in the game, but Athletico tightened up their defense and that was that.

Game two is Tuesday in Madrid. Panathinaikos has to score at least 3 times and keep Athletico to one goal or less to advance, so the Champions League season in probably over for the Greens.

In contrast to Panathinaikos, who drew a match against a team from arguably the best league on the globe, Spain, Olympiacos easily defeated a team from Moldova in game one of their series. Game two, in Pireas, is Wednesday.