Summer of Sports: What's This Soccer Speak?!

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports rolls on, and after both a compelling NBA Finals and Stanley Cup, the focus shifts to baseball, major championship golf, Wimbledon which begins next week, the wheeling and dealing of free agency, and most especially the sport that's referred to worldwide as football, but commonly called in this country, soccer. The FIFA Women's World Cup begins its quarterfinal phase this weekend, while the COMEBOL Copa America tournament continues down in Chile, and the young men from Serbia bask in their FIFA U-20 World Cup upset win over Brazil.

   Soccer has grown leaps and bounds in mainstream exposure here in the United States, and of course, it was last year's FIFA World Cup in Brazil that had something to do with that. The sport is more popular than ever in anglophone America, in addition to the traditional hotbed of Hispanics and those migrants who brought this game to our shores. Those who avidly follow the beautiful game know that there's a dictionary all it's own when it comes to following the sport that, outside of the U.S., Canada and Australia, is referred to worldwide as football.

   For sports fans like me, there's a lot of words, lingo and jargon we use in following, covering and watching the sports we love. We use it everyday when we talk about the players, teams and events, and often it sticks out so much it even applies to everyday life as well. It might be a bit complicated for those outside of the hardcore soccer fanbase to find out what the lingo of a game growing in interest in this country at first, but when you get the hang of it, you'll catch on to the unique glossary of the world game. After the jump, DCBLOG brings you a sampling of the words that's used in the world of soccer.

Summer of Sports: It's Major - Golf's Biggest Stage

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

As two sports step aside, this week sees the world's top golfers converge for the first time on the Pacific Northwest for golf's 2nd major championship of the year, the U.S. Open. Out for the four tournaments that mean the most in the game, this is the most rigorous test of its kind. This is part of a journey that takes golf fans from that great Spring tradition of Augusta in April and all the way to August to determine the best players in golf when the spotlight is shone the brightest on their sport.

   Being someone who watches a good amount of the Golf Channel and weekend PGA TOUR coverage on the networks, as well as my bro in law being an occasional golfer, I've gained a great appreciation for golf over time. And much like every other event in the sports world, I look forward to the time when it becomes the big sport during a particular weekend and where there's more attention paid to the game than in a given week on Tour.

In American sports, the number "16" is a significant one: the Summer and Winter Olympics both take place over 16 full days of competition, a fortnight spanning three weekends. It takes 16 wins for a team to win the NBA championship or hoist the Stanley Cup. There's 16 games in an NFL regular season, and we give the Regional Semifinal round of NCAA March Madness the nickname Sweet 16. The knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup and most other continental soccer tournaments begins with 16 teams, and each of the four Grand Slam events in tennis take place over two weeks.

   For golf, 16 is the total number of days (barring extra days due to weather and/or a playoff if necessary) that the year's four major championships are played, taking place from April to August. Along with the PGA Tour's flagship event - THE PLAYERS, the fall match play team competitions, World Golf Championships and events on other tours, it's The Masters, The U.S. Open, The Open Championship in Great Britain and the PGA Championship that are the tournaments that matter, both to the golfers and to the public. They are the most-prestigious annual tournaments in the sport and bring the casual sports fan & TV viewer to join the game's avid followers to the events that mean the most in a sport rich in tradition and history.

Summer of Sports: The Greatest Fighting Show on Earth

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

At our house, my family maintains an extensive library of VHS tapes and DVD's covering all sorts of genres, from movies to concerts, sports and more. For me inside a few red storage boxes, I have nearly 60 tapes that have about 300 hours' worth of Olympic coverage (mostly from since Beijing 2008), plus most every Super Bowl, Grammys and other events & shows I've recorded in the last 20 years. Sometimes I would always like to think of my VCR as sort of the poor man's TiVo.

   Somewhere deep in our collection is a tape that one of my dad's co-workers gave him back about 20 years ago in 1994, and it's of the 2nd & 3rd editions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Back then, this tape might not have been as significant or as huge as any other sports event. But in the long term, it would be part of the beginning stages to what is now a billion-dollar industry that's now a big part of our sports landscape, something those pioneers back then could never have imagined.

Over the years, we have all wondered about which sport can step up to become the next big thing in the American sports landscape. The NBA came back from a dark decade of the '70s to become a worldwide phenomenon. NASCAR would overtake open-wheel racing to become the premier form of motor sports here. Golf has benefited from Tiger Woods' dominance to see enormous growth in the entire sport worldwide. After a devastating lockout 10 years ago, the NHL has recovered to see great growth on both sides of the border. And as the record interest & viewership of the 2014 World Cup proved, soccer has come of age in mainstream America.

   It's also the same thing when you talk UFC and mixed martial arts. It has done what no one ever thought would be possible when it began in 1993: overtake boxing to become the most popular combat sport among U.S. sports fans. What began as just a sport that intended on bringing together all forms of martial arts into the same octagon would then go through a dark period when a powerful Senator threatened to bring it all down. But thanks to a move towards the sport becoming more regulated, its purchase by new investors and a new TV show, the UFC would eventually experience a resurgence that would bring the sport full circle to the point where it's not just a niche sport, but now fully in the mainstream. Although my family still prefers the sweet science, I'm starting to appreciate mixed martial arts and the excitement & intensity of it.

Summer of Sports: These Are The Champions...

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

If Super Sports Saturday of May 2, 2015 was any indication, then we are in one of the best times of the year for sports fans. Postseason is ongoing in the NBA and NHL, baseball is starting to hit its stride, the NFL just had its Draft, horse racing's Triple Crown is once again taking shape, and boxing is bigger than ever. And on the horizon is the traditional Summer of Sports with not only those events, but also major golf and tennis, big UFC fights and the world championships & Grand Prix seasons in Olympic sports as preparations for Rio 2016 approach the "one year to go" marker.
   For fans of soccer - football or futbol outside anglophone North America, this is the best time of the year. The domestic European league seasons have reached their conclusion, and the annual international summer soccer tournaments have arrived. This year in the post-men's World Cup summer of 2015, the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada and the Copa America in South America will take center stage starting this weekend, along with the FIFA Under-20 World Cup currently ongoing in New Zealand. And while playoff fever sets in for those in arenas in North America, it's Cup Fever that has spread throughout the continents, with the finals of the cup competitions to be played at the end of the season.

Outside of the FIFA World Cup, the English Premier League and Spain's La Liga, it has become the most followed football competition in the world. It has one of the most prestigious prizes in all of sports, and is the epitome of soccer at its very best. Elite clubs from all over the continent that is at the heart of the world game play every year over an entire season to find who is the best club in all of Europe. It culminates with the sport's equivalent of the Super Bowl: an event watched by more people than any other annual sporting event, exceeding that of America's biggest unofficial national holiday.

   The UEFA Champions League is the blue-riband event of European football, where the best clubs in Europe compete on a stage unlike any other in soccer. Organized by the governing body of the sport in Europe, the Union of European Football Associations, it's become a phenomenon that has seen the continent's greatest teams and many of the world's biggest players play under the lights. It brings together countries both big & small in a season-long competition mirroring that of national team competitions comprising of qualifying, group play and knockout matches, all leading up to a beginning of summer final match in Europe's greatest stadiums.
   And when you hear the operatic theme music play at the beginning of matches when the players walk onto the pitch, you know it is the best atmosphere in all of sports. And the ones who emerge as the one receive glory and a financial windfall, but most importantly, the title of being Europe's best.

DC Summer of Sports: The Story of My Passion

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

Welcome everyone to the DC Summer of Sports on DCBLOG and DCNOW. Summer is the time when sports is taking over the country's attention during the hottest season of the year. And it will again be a busy time with the FIFA Women's World Cup, NBA & NHL Finals and free agency, baseball, major golf and tennis, NFL training camp & preseason, and much more. And over the course of the next few months, this lifelong sports fan will be devoting his spare time her to covering this passion that I've had since I was a kid.

   DCBLOG will be blogging on the events, sports and much more, with all of those aforementioned events and a lot more to be given at least some coverage from here until fall. Likewise on DCNOW, you will have a front-row seat to the big events with my live tweets, commentary and more from those who play, follow and watch the action. But we begin this Summer of Sports with a brief reflection on this long fascination I've had with sports, my love affair with it and this relationship now two decades old.

As I begin writing the first drafts of this post on Sunday, May 3rd, it's in the aftermath of the most epic sports day we've had in a long time. We saw a fight that everyone anticipated for six years that would be the fight of the new century that turned out to be a runaway for Floyd Mayweather over Manny Pacquiao. We had an epic Game 7 in the NBA Playoffs that came down to the last minute that saw a bonafide star deliver in the clutch that knocked out the defending champs. We joined with fans in Louisville for the annual rite of spring known as the Kentucky Derby, America's greatest horse race. We also had day 3 of the NFL Draft, game 2 of Yankees-Red Sox at Fenway, an NHL Stanley Cup playoff game and day 4 of the World Golf Championships-Match Play in San Francisco. For those also interested, there was also NASCAR at Talladega, Supercross racing, European Champions Cup rugby union, world championships in regular & sled hockey, table tennis and snooker; and England taking on the West Indies in test cricket. And for this Olympic sports fan, down in the Bahamas, the U.S. beat Usain Bolt and Jamaica in the men's 4x100m relay at the IAAF World Relays.

   That Super Sports Saturday saw an unprecedented array of big events that rivaled any Super Saturday at the Olympics (generally the middle Saturday at the summer fortnight), and also gave my family reason to redo the interior of our house for our fight viewing party with my extended family. May 2nd, 2015 proved once again my love for sports that I've had since I was a kid, and proved my passion for the entire spectrum.

There's something about sports that makes this one of the few things that are closest to a religion to me as anything else. Since the 90's back when I was in elementary school, I've been fascinated by it and ever since, I feel like it's part of my lifeblood. I collect programs, lanyards, pins and anything of interest that's related to sports. These days, other than for MTV shows, music or other things, I typically have a sports channel on my TV much of the time. And it's a family trait that's been passed down from my late grandpa to my dad to myself and sometimes extended to our entire family as well. There's nothing like seeing great competition between superb athletes or competitors. There's always a competitive fire that fuels me within when seeing it on screen or that rare instance that I'm there.

   But unlike other sports fans who might be tied down to one or a handful of sports, I am the epitome of someone who is interested in the entire sporting landscape. Sure, my two biggest sporting passions are basketball and the Olympics. But I am also one who watches football, baseball, hockey, golf, boxing, and even sports we don't hear of here but others love elsewhere. I'm one of those sports fans who actually follows countless numbers of sports that are out there that we here in America don't usually think of, at least to the mainstream folks. This is very much similar to how I approach my tastes in music and in certain aspects of TV programming, where I prefer a wide scope rather than just picking and choosing. To put it bluntly, there is so much more to the world of sports than just football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer and a dozen other sports.

   As a passionate Olympic fan, I am used to that wide variety of sports that take place during the fortnight which grabs all my attention during those 17 days every two years. And I keep a tab on Olympic matters in the 18-24 months between Games and always make it a point to tune to any Olympic sports event when possible when it airs on TV. On a given weekend when sports is on broadcast television in addition to cable channels, I can go from one sport to another depending upon what's going on in a certain Saturday or Sunday. Thanks to having an iPad and a YouTube app, I can watch sports from all over the world ranging from ultimate frisbee and roller derby to AFL aussie rules and past events, and the list goes on. And I'm collecting more and more sports publications for both my reading pleasure and for reference in bringing you these posts.

There is that aforementioned, occasional chance I get of attending sports events live, and I've been able to a good number of them, though it's not as frequent as that of other sports fans. The first live sporting event I attended was on Halloween Eve 1993, when the Warriors played the Sonics in a preseason affair. That night, Chris Webber played his first home game, Chris Mullin suffered a hand injury that sidelined him for a small early portion of the season, and Sonics coach George Karl and my dad had a little conversation.

   Ever since, I've been to events in the four major sports, at college level and of course locally where I'm situated here in Milpitas, CA (outside of San Jose). Though the most recent one was back over a decade ago, I've been to a few baseball games (several A's and 1 Giants at old Candlestick) including the first one that took place just one before the '94 players strike - yes it feels a bit creepy to say that. I went to another Warriors game in 2006 - fittingly as I post this just before the 2015 NBA Finals it was LeBron James and his Cavs coming in to visit the Warriors, and then after that me and my cousins went to a local adult entertainment place afterwards (my first visit to a strip club). I've also been to two Sharks games, a Santa Clara college hoops game, and a few Milpitas High games with my cousin who played on the basketball team.

   And it's my sporting passion that also had something to do with finding a newfound love in what some consider the so-called "fifth major sport." I have to admit that before a few years ago, I wasn't really into MTV's The Challenge as much as I am into its sister show, The Real World. But watching the London Olympics and the great competition over the 17 days of the British fortnight in the summer of 2012 gave me a reason to give the show a try, and now a few seasons later The Challenge is now one of my favorite shows. In my primer on that show here, I likened its evolution to that of golf's Ryder Cup, going from a friendly competition between two MTV sister shows to an intense competition which has both big MTV fans like myself and those who are sports nuts glued to that show, including now-former head of Grantland Bill Simmons.

In all, sports is one of those handful of things that I consider closest to a religion than anything to me. I am into all sports, I'm an avid sports TV viewer and I follow it every day. A number of clothing I have in my closet are sports related. I have a strong sports book and video library to relive moments as they happened and for both reading and research. And there's always a passion that comes to me when I get to see competition at its best. And now during this down time in another passion of mine of the MTV Trifecta, it's time to devote the next few months to enjoying the biggest events and moments in sports, and the stories that come with it, right here and at DCNOW with this fan. Bring on the summer.

Be sure to follow my DC Social Network throughout the summer as I will be staying busy both here on DCBLOG and across my social media platforms as we follow the Summer of Sports.

- First, make sure to follow my secondary twitter account dedicated to live tweets, DCNOW at Twitter @DC408DxNow. There, you'll be front row center with yours truly to the big events, starting tomorrow with the NHL's Stanley Cup Final between Chicago and Tampa Bay. On Thursday, the NBA Finals tips off in Oakland with the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers battle for the title with a star matchup between LeBron James and Stephen Curry. On Super Soccer Saturday this weekend, it's the UEFA Champions League Final in Berlin between Barcelona and Juventus, followed by the 1st matches of the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. And horse racing's Triple Crown will be on the line as well on Saturday as American Pharoah looks to become the first to win all three legs at the Belmont Stakes in New York. Major golf & tennis, baseball and more will be live tweeted there too.

- DCBLOG will be devoting more and more of this site to covering the upcoming Summer of Sports. In my next Summer of Sports post, I'll be offering a look at the UEFA Champions League ahead of Saturday's final, plus a number of soccer posts throughout the Women's World Cup. Posts on the NBA, golf's majors, Wimbledon, the Stanley Cup, World Series of Poker and much more are planned here over the summer, so be sure to bookmark this site for extensive sports coverage.

- And if you're an MTV fan, after the WWC I'll be live tweeting season 4-B of Catfish, the revival of America's Best Dance Crew, a new season of Teen Mom 2, the VMA's and the fall's main event for me & some of my fellow MTV fans: Season 3 of Are You The One?. Also expect a DC FORUM post soon with fellow MTV/sports fans Andrew Kirk & Brian Cohen as we discuss recent seasons of the Trifecta, which I also cover extensively here.

- And don't forget to follow my primary Twitter handle @DC408Dxtr, my Instagram account also at the same handle, and at Tumblr at dc408dxtr.tumblr.com.

Thanks for checking out this first DCBLOG post during this Summer of Sports. And be sure to join me both here on the Blog and on DCNOW for full coverage of sports' biggest events, both in blog form and in the social world. Until then, thanks for reading, have fun and talk to you then.

- I AM DC