Ocean is shown in front of a statue of Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star and current world’s number one men’s tennis player. He got the statue from the Master’s Championship in Beijing last year. It is in the style of the terracotta warriors from the famous archeological site.
We visited the Novak Tennis Center in downtown Belgrade last night. The family with the help of the city has created a tennis center that can host an ATP tourney as well as become a tennis academy. We looked around and will book a court for later this week. They had some reasonable prices and the club seemed very nice. I’ll do a blog post when we play.
Cashing in on his fame - Novak Tennis Center Pro Shop
Djokovic won the Roger’s Cup last night in Montreal, Canada. He raised his record to an amazing 53-1 this year. That is a 98% winning percentage and he is on pace to beat the best single season record ever of 82-3 set by John McEnroe. His 43 consecutive wins to start the season was the most since the ATP era began in 1990. Only Ivan Lendl (44) and Guillermo Vilas (46) have had longer streaks. Federer’s longest streak was 41 and Nadal’s was 32 wins.
The Roger’s Cup victory was his fifth “Master’s” series, also a record in a single season. The Master’s series are tournaments that all the top-ranked players must play and are worth more points and money on the tour. Djokovic skipped the Master’s tourney in Monte Carlo because of a knee injury, otherwise he probably would have had six. He is playing in the Cincinati Masters this week. Besides the Master’s wins, he also won two majors, the Australian and Wimbledon. The US Open begins at the end of this month. Novak also has accumulated almost 8 million dollars in prize money this year and is heading towards the record of Rafael Nadal, who won over 10 million in one season.
I don’t think that his season is getting enough attention. I hope he can finish out the season undefeated, it would be a remarkable feat.
The above video was taken earlier this week before the start of the Partizan versus Genk (Belgium) soccer game. We live in Dedinje and strangely, the two big soccer clubs in Belgrade, Partizan and Red Star, both have their stadiums in the neighborhood, very close to one another. We can hear the singing and chanting of the fans. Last week there were two European Club Championship games. The first was Partizan in a qualifying match for the Champions League. They outplayed the visiting Genk team, but because a defender barely touched the ball with his forearm in the penalty box, Genk got a penalty to tie the game and they won on aggregate goals. The touch didn’t affect play, but the result of the penalty was Partizan was knocked out of the Champions League. That is what I dislike about soccer. Despite being the better team, because of a bad luck, Partizan lost on a penalty that was so slight, but the penalty for it was a goal for the other team.
In the second match of the week. my club Red Star defeated Ventspils of Latvia, 7-1. Red Star moved on to the next round of the Europa League, which is the level just below the Champions League. Both games were completely sold out here in Belgrade. This would not have happened in either Belgium or Latvia and it shows the passion and dedication of the Belgrade fans for sports.
I am still annoyed that the Serbian League doesn’t get its act together and form a regional league like they do for basketball. The current league has the two big clubs, Partizan and Red Star, and one other team from Novi Sad that have a chance to win the league. With Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Bosnia having two teams each, it would be so much more competitive.
Red Star now plays Rennais from the French League in the next round. They have to fight through several rounds even to get to the start of the competition, so I don’t have my hopes up. We’ll see how they do against the French side. They looked great against the Latvian side and i am hoping with the Russian gas company (Gazprom) sponsoring the team and new coach, that Red Star can finally overtake Partizan in the league and continue through the Europa Cup.
As my readers may know, I love sports and always wanted to be a sportscaster and journalist. This post is my thoughts on the Copa America with a Bolivian perspective. A great new sports website, Grantland, also did a preview on the Copa America.
This weekend was the start of the Copa America, which is the South American soccer championship which takes place between World Cups. The host this year is neighbor Argentina and Bolivia had the honor of playing the hosts in the opening game Friday night. They earned a surprising 1-1 tie, and were leading 1-0 in the middle of the second half. I say surprising because Bolivia has not won a game in the cup since they hosted it in 1997. That year they lost in the finals to Brazil, aided by the extreme altitude of La Paz. Argentina has won the cup 14 times, and this year features the best player in the world the past two years, Lionel Messi and a host of European-based superstars.
The Bolivians, whose only cup championship was 48 years ago, feature Marcelo Martins, “El Matador.” He is an aggressive, exciting striker from Santa Cruz, currently playing for Shakhtar in the Ukraine. They played a solid game last night, although Argentina controlled play and had many more chances at goal. Carlos Arias in goal for Bolivia, had an outstanding game. They play next Thursday against Costa Rica (with only 10 clubs in South America, the association invites other Latin American teams to play, this year Costa Rica and Mexico are participating) and they finish up the group stage against Colombia. Hopefully they can take the momentum from last night’s draw to advance out of the group stage, although judging by their history, chances are slim.
It is not really fair for Bolivia to compete in the cup. They are a small nation and the cup is dominated by the two soccer giants, Argentina (with little brother nation Uruguay) and Brazil. They have won 36 of the 42 cups. Brazil won the last two Copa America editions, and outside of hosts Colombia and Uruguay winning recent cups, the two have won the past 7 Copa America tourneys. They should make Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay play in the European Cup and the other nations compete the Andes Cup. It would be much more competitive. I am surprised that Bolivians still follow the games with such low chances of victory. There was a festive atmosphere in the city last night, including our neighbors that were holding a big party to watch the game.
We’ll be following the games and I am looking forward to seeing the new Brazilian star, Neymar, who last week won the Copa de Libertadores, which is the Champions League of South America, with Pele’s former team of Santos. I also enjoy watching World Cup star Diego Forlon for Uruguay. My prediction is an Argentina – Brazil final with Argentina winning in extra time.
Today we ran in the Belgrade Marathon for the third time. We stopped for a photo before the race with the other race favorite, a guy from Ethiopia. It is always nice for the elite runners to get together before the race. I am not sure if he won.
It was a gorgeous spring day! We both finished the race as well as our friends in photo, Michael, Lisa, and Bruce. Nadia and I enjoyed the views of the city and cruised home with 2:09 and 2:05 respectively.
Today we ran in the 18th Annual Novi Sad Half Marathon. Novi Sad is the second city of Serbia and is about 70 kilometers north of Belgrade. Conditions were perfect with cool overcast skies, with temperatures in the 60’s and a very flat course. I finished in 153rd place (out of 295) and ran a personal best 1 hour 44 minutes and 42 seconds.My previous best was last year in Budapest when I ran a 1:57.
Nadia broke 2:00 hours again and finished with a with a 1 hour 58 minutes and 31seconds. This was good for a 238 place. Our friend Eric also broke two hours with a time of 1:51 and another ISB Harrier, Georganne ran 1:30.
The course was a bit monotanous as it looped back on itself several times. I liked that it was completely flat. It also started and ended in the beautiful central plaza. We took the nanny and kids and they had a good time at the McDonald’s, or the Team USA pre- & post- race training center. We used the race as a warm-up to next month’s Belgrade Marathon. I hope to complete a racing trifecta by also doing the Skopje, Macedonia Marathon in May.
One of the race sponsors was the cheese company, Biser. They gave the kids Novi Sad Marathon shirts and Ocean, who loves cheese, was so excited to meet “Sir Milan.” I called him that as a take on Sponge Bob. Sir is Serbian for cheese, and Milan is a common Serbian name.
It was a strange scene last night at the Red Star Stadium here in Belgrade. Northern Ireland came to town for a Group C Euro Cup Soccer Qualifying Match. No one except for 200 VIP Northern Ireland guest supporters were allowed in the stadium. The normal packed scene of lines of fans around the stadium was eerily empty. The only people we saw the press corp and plenty of police and military personnel to keep spectators and hooligans away. (photo below) The Serbian Football Federation was serving a 1-game penalty for fan behavior in October’s match in Italy. The match couldn’t start because of a group of hooligans and Italy was awarded a 3-0 forfeit victory. Last night’s game was the second part of the sanction.
It was an entertaining match. I was surprised because Northern Ireland plays a defensive style and after scoring a beautiful goal off a set play in the first half, (screen shot above from the Serbian television station RTS – Radio, Television of Serbia) I thought it would be more boring delay tactics with nine men in the box for the visitors. Fortunately, Serbia kept on pressing and in a dominant second half, scored two goals to win 2-1. It was odd to watch on TV and hear individual voices of players and coaches.
The first round of games in the group are complete. Despite the forfeit, closed stadium, losing their coach, and suffering many injuries, the “White Eagles” are tied for second place with Slovenija in their group behind Italy. The top two teams qualify for next summer’s European Cup hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine. They have 5 more games with the next game being in Talin, Estonia on Tuesday. Hopefully the momentum of the victory will carry them through a probably cold and dreary game in the far north of the European continent.
Note that the “Gazprom” painting on the seats is the owner of the Red Star professional soccer club in Belgrade. Gazprom is the Russian National Petroleum company. Earlier in the week, Vladimir Putin was in Belgrade and the stadium. Red Star played an exhibition match in his honor with a Russian team.
I can’t wait to go to the next Serbian in September against the Faroe Islands. I think it is good that FIFA penalized the Serbian Soccer Federation. They need to invest in the stadium and clean up those disaffected youths that give the country a bad name. I also feel that the Serbian government is also to blame in that it does not have a good economy to provide opportunities for these young men to put their energy towards making Serbia better and establishing careers.
“March Madness” is a nickname referring to the end of the basketball seasons. The American universities and high schools complete their seasons in the month of March. I am a coach of the high school boys’ basketball team at the International School of Belgrade. March Madness started a bit earlier for us as we won the basketball tourney this weekend. It was hosted by the Anglo American School of Sofia, Bulgaria. We played against four private schools in Sofia over two days of competition. Yesterday afternoon we defeated the Sofia Christian Academy in the finals, by a score of 53-49. It was a great weekend of basketball and besides having fun, we improved as a team. We are preparing for our Central and Eastern European Schools Association (CEESA) basketball championship in two weeks in Riga, Latvia. The Dragons are now 9 wins and 5 losses for the season. We have 2 more games and then we are off to Latvia on March 9th.
Ollie With the Trophy
I also made is a father-son weekend by taking Oliver on the trip. The little guy was a trooper and was patient during all of the games. We went to Burger King three times and swam in the hotel pool. He would sit on the bench next to me and draw pictures. I would then have to run him out to the school’s playground between games. He was a fan favorite there and everyone knew his name. He is a charismatic little fellow with a ton of energy! It was nice to be with him alone and not with his brother and sister. Oliver kept wanted to get food or toys to take back to Belgrade for his big brother Owen.
It was certainly a different experience at the stadium last night as we watched North Korea defeat Bahrain 1-0 in an international friendly (exhibition) game in the National Stadium here in Riffa, Bahrain. The first strange thing about game was admission was free. They don’t have any tickets and do not charge spectators to enter. There were security guards at all the gates and inside the stadium, but a very relaxed atmosphere. The 10,000 seat capacity stadium was probably about 1/4 full. We had a difficult time finding four consecutive seats that were not broken. It is strange that the kingdom has such good infrastructure with roads, lights, etc, and such a poor stadium. The lights were good and the field in decent shape, but the seats, bathrooms, running track, etc. all need to be renovated. I only saw two women in the crowd, one British woman and one local in the black robes. Many fans were chewing sunflower seeds. The only items for sale were pumpkin, sunflower and other types of seeds, soda pop, and “sloppy joes” made with liver.
The game was quite boring with Bahrain trying to attack but with a lot of backwards passing and North Korea mostly playing a defensive, counter-attacking style. North Korea got the lone goal 14 minutes into the second half with a nice crossing pass to a cutting striker. The Korean goalkeeper made some nice stops, but he was annoyingly slow in retrieving the ball and kicking balls from the goal. I don’t see Bahrain getting out of their group and North Korea definitely has to step up their game to be successful in next week’s Asian Cup.
The Home Team Bahrain is in Red Uniforms
Below is the preview I wrote yesterday prior to going to the game.
Tonight I’m taking the boys to the North Korea versus Bahrain international friendly soccer game.
Both teams are getting ready for next week’s Asian Cup in neighbor Qatar. The cup features 16 teams from Asia with Australia, Japan, and South Korea as favorites. Bahrain will be grouped with Australia, India, and South Korea. North Korea will be matched up with UAE, Iraq, and Iran. It would be funny to substitute Cuba for UAE and add Venezuela to get an “axis of evil” tourney going.
Bahrain has never qualified for the World Cup. The past two cup qualifying competitions however, they lost in the final playoff leg, losing to New Zealand last year and to Trinidad & Tobago in 2006. They don’t have any players I recognize, most play in the Persian Gulf region. One guy plays on a first division Swiss team and another for a first division Turkish team.
North Korea is a more interesting team. They were in last summer’s World Cup, but lost three straight games, including a 0-7 drubbing by Portugal. The regime punished the coach by firing him and putting him on a construction job. In another article by Newsweek reporter Eve Fairbanks, she argues that the team should be banned from international competitions and discusses their star player, Jong Tae-se, a German second division player:
People who dismiss boycotts say they punish ordinary people rather than those in power, and furthermore, that cultural exchanges like orchestra tours and sports matches help dispel the sense of otherness that hangs over pariah peoples, allowing us to recognize our common humanity. Permit me to suggest that, in the case of North Korea and the World Cup, this is idiocy. Consider North Korea’s star player, the striker Jong Tae-se. A vocal and charismatic 20-something nicknamed “The People’s Wayne Rooney,” Jong has asserted that North Korea’s participation in the World Cup will do a great deal to demystify the country, win it respect and understanding abroad, and stoke pride at home. Indeed, Jong himself leads a totally normal and enjoyable-sounding life, by professional-athlete standards. He rolls in a silver Hummer, loves to snowboard, travels with an iPod and a Nintendo, and aspires to bed one of the Wondergirls—the Spice Girls of Seoul. He has also never lived in North Korea. He was born in Japan and continues to reside there, in the better-off Korean diaspora. He was the one who told the newspapers about his North Korean teammates’ quaint penchant for rock-paper-scissors. If Jong doesn’t represent the existence of Joe Ebrahim’s “dual life” in terms of North Korean society—in which a few nation-glorifying stars are allowed to pursue a capitalist lifestyle while most forage for food and dream about basic rights—I don’t know what does.
North Korea’s thrashing by Portugal means the team will not play on past their last group match, on Friday against the Ivory Coast. I suspect Jong Tae-se will manage. As for the regular North Korean fans, however, it’s not clear if they’ll be able to keep watching the Cup, thanks to a dispute between North and South Korea that affects the television signal. As for his rock-paper-scissors-playing comrades headed back to the Korean Peninsula, who knows—which is what makes North Korea’s participation in a sporting event like this one really scary. The team’s spokesman told South African journalists that the team’s one aim was to make the Dear Leader (he really said that) happy. A team whose purpose in winning is to bring honor to an inhumane regime—as South Africa’s apartheid rule was—should not be allowed a world platform to do so, particularly when its players face a dark reward for losing.
The team, except for the two diaspora Japanese ringers (Jong and another guy) were publicly shamed in a six-hour assembly. Weird! I wonder in tonight’s game if they will have any fans? I am looking forward to an interesting experience. I predict a Bahrain win, 2-1. I’ll have photos and a match report tonight.
Belgrade is gearing up for the Davis Cup Tennis finals this weekend. Serbia is hosting France in the finals. I took the photo above during an earlier round in the Davis Cup, when Serbia defeated the USA here in Belgrade last spring. Since then, they went on to win at Croatia in the quarterfinals this summer, and earlier this fall, came back from behind to beat the Czech Republic.
There is a really good New York Times article this week about the Novak Djokovic family and Serbian tennis. It appears that Serbia is the favorite. They are at home in the friendly hard court confines of the Belgrade Arena. They have the world’s #3 player in Novak Djokovic, who should get 2 wins. It would then take one more win by Serbia to clinch the best of 5 series. If Djokovic falters, then Serbia could be in trouble. Assuming Novak comes through, where will they get the other win? France will be playing with world #12 Gael Monfils, who is one of my favorite players to watch because of his exciting and risky style of play. They are also bringing 30 year old Michael Llodra who is in top form as the world #23 player. He beat Novak last month in Paris at an ATP-100 tourney event. Serbia will counter with either world #30 Victor Troiki, or world #49 Janko Tipsarevic. Janko was the hero against the Czech Republic last round and I hope they use him, despite the lower ranking. The doubles match will be interesting also with Serbian veteran and world double #3 Nenad Zimonjic.
There is a lot of pressure on the Serbs playing at home, but there will also be a lot of support, which could rattle the French. Guy Forget, the Captain of the French team, has been playing up the “we’re going to a hostile scene” and the “Serb fans could get violent” cards in the media. A good strategy to get his players pumped up.
I won’t be able to attend the games this weekend, sadly. Nadia is going on her annual girls shopping and dining trip to Budapest, Hungary and I’ll be alone with the kids. We’ll watch the matches on TV. The Davis Cup web site will also carry live radio broadcast as well as a blog by The London Times reporter, Clive White, who is here in Belgrade to cover the matches. It really inspires me to play more tennis and get my children started in a tennis academy.
I would like to wrap up this post with a prediction. It is tough not knowing what the match ups will be as both teams are keeping their selections private until the day of the games. It would be nice for Serbia to win. The Serbs are much more fanatic and passionate about tennis than the French are and a win for Serbia would mean much to nation. I predict Serbia winning 3 – 2.
Yesterday was the opening outdoor practice for the Atacante Soccer Klub. Owen and Oliver are both members of the team. The team practices twice a week in the ISB Bubble Gymnasium, and on weekends at various places around the city, mostly at the FK Bulbulderac Field above. This year Owen will be playing in a “real” league for players born in 2002. They will have special uniforms and play weekly starting next week. I am a bit concerned that Owen will be one of the youngest players, as he was born in December of 2002. After reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”, studies show that older players do much better and develop leadership habits on the field when they are older than most of their peers. I’ll see how it goes and how much playing time he gets.
Oliver is enjoying the club also, but he is not quite ready to fully concentrate on the game. He spends a lot of time playing power rangers or looking for bugs instead of soccer during the practices. Oliver is a strong and tough athlete and will be an excellent soccer player.
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