australian open

March 17, 2015

Late round up of the sporting month of February

February did not disappoint

A month in sports

We know we are a little late but there is a good reason we promise, you can sign up for our newsletter for the full low down.

NBA All-star game, Cricket World Cup, Copa Libitadores, Red Bull Air challenge, Tokyo Marathon

American Football:

So though we talked about it last month, and it seems a long time ago now, february was Super Bowl month and also Pro Bowl as well. Surely you have seen the Super Bowl or read the 1 trillion write ups that are either sport focused or halftime show focused.

But maybe one image can sum up both

Left shark meme

The sensation of the Half-Time show

If you missed what “Left Shark” is all about it is worth checking out on YouTube, talking about YouTube, here are the highlights from the Pro Bowl that were promised

The Pro Bowl is the All-Star game for American Football. In the other sports, the All-Star game is a mid season spectacular but as the NFL season is so short and brutal, the Pro Bowl is at the end of the season and doesn’t seem to get the same love that the other All-Star games get.

Football/Soccer:

African Cup of Nations

After promising to dominate African Football for many years the Ivory Coast finally won on a thrilling penalty shootout, here you can see Didier Drogba’s reaction

We all know if that had been an Arsenal player celebrating, he would have injured himself and been out for the season.

Copa Libitadores

The Copa kicked off in February and is billed as the South American Champions League. It is a who’s who of the up and coming South American stars of the future. Who will be the stand out this season…

Winter World Cup

A final point in the Football/Soccer section is about the potential of a Winter World Cup
FIFA Secretary General Valcke on the concept of a winter World Cup:

“I think we should just accept it…why should we apologise for the decision made yesterday.”

Winter Sports

World ski championships

Vail and Beaver Creek in Colorado hosted the World ski championships this year and Team Austria were on top form.

World Ski championship 2015 medal table

World Ski championship 2015 medal table

Skiers Cup

Then there was, what can only be described as the “Ryder Cup of skiing, the Skiers Cup. This the Europeans won, beating the Americans winning 16-20
Here are some of the highlighs

It looked epic

Cricket World Cup

The world cup is still going and we have reached the knockout stages of the tournament. There have been a lot of amazing games and catches

To keep up with it all visit the Cricket World Cup website

NBA All-Star game

Let’s let the game do the talking here

The other highlight are the Dunk Contest (we still think that they should get the best dunkers from YouTube videos and put them against the NBA dunkers…but that might just be us), and the Celebrity All-Star game

OPD Highlights

We have a new member of the team Jakub, who is working his ass off and already bringing a huge amount of value to the team a bigger, better update about him will be coming very soon.

We have also added Ultimate Frisbee to the list of sports, do remember that if your sport is not listed, you can use the Miscellaneous sport and just title the Event so everyone knows which sport it is.

There are going to be a lot of changes and improvements to the platform, some that are going to be obvious and some not but all will benefit the OPD players.

If you are not already signed up as a Player, remember to #GetintheGame

February 3, 2015

What a January

The month in sports

It seems that the pro athletes around the world take getting rid of the Christmas fat seriously, just think about all the major tournaments that have been happening worldwide this January or are coming up in February?

Australian Open
African Cup of Nations
Asian Cup
NFL Playoffs
Dakar Rally – one of these days…
Handball world championship – a strangely brutal game for those of you not familiar
The X-Games – an OPD favorite.

This is just the big specials, of course lots of leagues are active. Surely the Premier League will create a winter break sometime in the future, maybe not over Christmas but a January or February break wouldn’t hurt.

Australian Open highlights

As always there have been some shocks and unfortunately also some big controversy, with the sexist comments from one of the commentators. It is a real shame that we are still having to fight these problems but at times, sports is the last bastion of the neanderthal, unfortunately.

Quick update:
Serena Williams won a fantastic contest against Maria Sharapova
Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray as he collapsed in the final, there has also been claims from Murray that Djokovic feigned an injury during the final that gained him an advantage.

African Cup of Nations highlights

After changing the location of the tournament at the last minute, it all seems to be going very well, a real relief after the Togo team bus attack a few tournaments ago, Zambia are the defending champions just so everyone is up to date, though it does not look like they will be defending their title as they sit at the bottom of their group.
As it stands now the woman’s final will be Serena Williams against Maria Sharapova, while the Andy Murray is waiting to find out who he will be taking on.

Asian Cup highlights

A few goals There is one highlight that we will focus on, not to take away from the tournament but this deserves that extra bit of focus, step forward Tim Cahill, you maybe wrapping up your career in the near future but DAMN! you are intent on going out in style. Just a friendly piece of advice though… practice that knee slide a few more times.

NFL Playoffs highlights

The NFL Playoffs are only about one thing

Dakar Rally

It looks from the highlights that this might not be a Dakar Rally that the navigators can be proud of as the latest highlights will show you that there was a slight detour to Argentina Though we know that this was planned, it just seems like it could have been funnier if it was the first Dakar Rally that was done with Sat Navs only.

World Handball Championships

As we said earlier a strangely brutal game that is tougher than it sounds. Though the thought of seeing a major league pitcher playing would be interesting. The highlights can be found on the BeIn sports website

X-Games highlights

Do you really want us explaining what happened here or do you want to watch the official Look Back? Just as we thought, here it is: Speed skating is also in full flow, a round of applause to the size of the thighs. Good luck fitting into skinny jeans with those, just google Speed skater thighs if you dare.

Coming soon

 

SuperBowl

We have talked about #deflategate but as anyone that is just an American Football fan for one game, sorry NFL, there are lots of them out there. The big issue is the halftime show and who will win the advert war. There are a few bits of information that have leaked out but we shall see what it all brings on the night.
The Patriots won a very interesting game, for more on this, we will have a full write up at the end of the months

NBA All-Star weekend

This is taking place in New York the home of basketball, oh wait, it is the home of the Knicks so it cannot be the home of basketball, that is cold! Maybe next season the Knicks should take a try at Handball, it might work out better. Quick sidebar, anyone that is a NY sports fan especially of the blue and orange persuasion, understand the phrase “the worst team money can buy” and the Knicks are living upto that. Back to the All-star weekend quickly. We just pitched it to @TheWhistle that maybe a way to spice the Dunk Competition up would be to bring in some amateurs to throw down a few against the pros,

just look at @teamflightbros to see what type of talent there is out there. It would be a great way to get the fans involved a bit more.