Your “Anyone but France” Championship Sunday Morning Open Thread

Happy Sabbath!

There are a lot of important sporting events happening this morning. Before we begin, did you see this weird Madden glitch  catch on Friday? Maple NFL is so crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjN-bU6_yIA

Here’s what’s on the menu:

1) Wimbledon Final: 5 AM PST. TSN, ESPN

Canada’s Milos Raonic vs Scotland’s Andy Murray: The UK has had a pretty bad four weeks. Brexit turned into a dumpster fire and England lost to Iceland in the Round of 16 at the Euros. The UK are looking for something, anything, to celebrate. Enter Andy Murray. The UK is putting an awful lot of pressure on him to win.

Milos Raonic, on the other hand, became the first Canadian male in history to make it to a Wimbledon final. It would be absolutely hilarious if a guy from the Commonwealth were to crush the hopes and dreams of an already disillusioned UK.  As I said last time, every time Milos wins a game, Seinfeld fans get to rejoice and say:

It’s your geographical duty to cheer for Milos! Plus, I think the UK will be on severe suicide watch if Murray loses.

Maybe we should tell them the last time Canada played Iceland, they tied 1-1.

2) FIBA Regional Finals, 5:55am PST, on TSN 2: Canada vs France

When I last did an open thread, Canada had won and was on their way to the semi-final regionals against New Zealand. They survived and now get to play a pretty stacked French team. The winner of this game qualifies for the Nationals in Rio.

France are the overwhelming favorites as a lot of Canada’s best players aren’t playing right now. Thanks a lot, Steve Nash.

3) Euro 2016 Championship Finals, 12:00PM PST, TSN, ESPN: Portugal vs France

Thoughts:

France are the overwhelming favorites to win this game. They need to capitalize on the home field advantage and take it to Portugal early.

With that said, I actually like Portugal’s chances to win. France has home field advantage, which might make them a little more nervous as the fear of losing infront of your home crowd is real. Championship matches are usually pretty tight, which also plays into Portugal’s hand, as all their matches are close since their coach, Santos, took over 2-3 years ago.

Portugal is actually comfortable playing defense and playing without the ball. If it’s a tight 0-0 game and it’s in the second half, France–a team known for being dysfunctional– might panic, which could lead to a mistake for Portugal to capitalize on.

Just like the UK will be devastated if Murray loses today, France would be crushed if their basketball and soccer team were to lose. Which is why it needs to happen, damnit!

Ideally, Portugal will beat France and Ronaldo will score a goal, which will make him pass Frenchman Michel Platini as the all-time goal scorer at the Euros. That would be an excellent kick to the balls.

Enjoy the games!