Zlatan Ibrahimovic may have scored the best goal of Euro 2012: VIDEO

The group stages of Euro 2012 finished tonight, as England 'beat' the Ukraine 1-0 (we all saw that ball cross the line, FIFA and UEFA better stick their heads in the sand again!) and Sweden stunned France 2-0. In the relatively meaningless latter game (Sweden were out no matter what), Zlatan Ibrahimovic may have scored the goal of the tournament.

Judge for yourself, but his beautiful, crisp volley, executed at speed with the clinical precision of an assassin, might be hard to top.






Whatever about the goal itself, the marvelous commentary is worth hearing on its own. Any commentator that excitedly yells 'Abracababra Sweden!' is OK with this column.

Of course, he will have to do this a few times to come close to topping the all time greatest European Championships goal, and one of the greatest goals ever scored. Step forward, Mr. Marco Van Basten.



Hard to see anyone topping that, however we do have a fabulous knock out round to look forward to, and as 'Ibracadabra' showed tonight for Sweden, anything is possible!

Isn't this just one of the greatest tournaments you have ever seen?

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Irish fans sing The Fields of Athenry, Spain v Ireland Euro 2012: VIDEO

So tonight Ireland's Euro 2012 effectively came to an end. Sure we still have to play Italy, and who would bet against the Irish playing out of their skins and causing a huge upset, this team has a lot of pride and will want to go out on a high, not just for themselves but for their loyal fans too. Tonight however they ran up against possibly the greatest team in the world in the Spanish, and the result was a predictable 0-4 trashing.

Bizarrely, what most will remember from the match will be the absolutely incredible display of support the magnificent travelling Irish fans showed, as the clock ticked down first to 90 minutes and then through the last three minutes of added time. With the match dying out, the masses of Irish fans ripped out a six minute long, stirring rendition of 'The fields of Athenry'. Several TV shows (I hear German, Dutch and even Spanish) deliberately didn't speak over the singing to allow their viewers experience it properly.

There are going to be plenty of cynics who try and bring this wonderful little moment down, but just ignore them. Crank up the volume, sit back and enjoy the 6 minutes video from German TV below. This is just a wonderfully unusual moment in sports, a moment of goodwill, kindness, passion and loyalty.

Enjoy it for what it is. Support, in the truest sense of the word. No Nazi banners, no bananas thrown on the pitch, no angry, hateful chants. Just pride and passion, displayed in a dignified, moving way by literally thousands of Irish who refused to let the score get in the way of their support for their boys.

We live in what can be a nasty, brutish world, it is heart warming every now and then to find an oasis of goodwill and humanity.  Low lie, the fields of Athenry..

Update - Friday15th June
The morning after

So UEFA have forced YouTube to take the original video in all its brilliance down. Congratulations to UEFA for trying to stop people enjoying a wonderful sporting moment. Brilliant minds at work in there obviously. Fear not. We have trawled the web and come up with the below alternatives.

This is a simple, short one with excellent audio.




Another short, grainy one that nonetheless has superb audio. Notice this is well after the match has finished and the Irish are still singing!


Finally, a top notch video and audio rendition, however I am not confident UEFA won't swoop on this one also.



There we go. Big Brother can go take a hike. We will make sure a working video of the amazing Irish supporters stays up on this come hell or high water! Enjoy.


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Bryce Harper 'That's a clown question, bro!': VIDEO

Well, if there is anything that Bryce Harper hasn't done at this stage, we at Irish Central sure aren't aware of it. The 19 year old Washington Nationals phenomenon has gone to the minors and gone yard at a ridiculous rate. He has gone to the majors, he has gone deep in big league ballparks all over the States. Now, for his latest trick, he has gone viral.

It all started innocently enough, a Canadian journalist asking Harper what kind of beer he was into. Of course Harper is a devout Mormon, and thus does no partake in such a beverage. Harper's answer to the gentleman? 'That's a clown question, bro'.

Perhaps Harper was confused and thought the scribe asked, 'Bryce, which Joker was better, Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger?' in which case his answer would have made more sense.

Love him or hate him, Harper is a powerful force of nature. The combination of youth, funky hair, a big swing and his impressive self confidence make him a seriously interesting character, and make people all over the Internet spend hours doing this. Our gift to you, the best of today's 'That's a clown question, bro' tribute videos all in one handy to use playlist.

Hang in there for the sensationally funny Jessica Simpson clip at the end of the playlist. Worth it, trust me.

Enjoy






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Boxing's remaining dignity left in tatters in the wake of the Pacquiao Bradley fight

Sadly, the once proud and noble sport of boxing, is swiftly becoming one of the ‘I remember..’ sports. In other words, ‘I remember when Ali was a glorious leading light’ or ‘I remember the drama and suspense before and often after Mike Tyson fights’. I remember my family bringing home a new puppy when I was young, and the obvious choice for his name was ‘Bruno’, it being the night of the Frank Bruno\Tyson fight and the crowd baying ‘Bruno, Bruno, Bruno!’.

I remember Tyson, Bruno, Evander Holyfield, George Foreman and heck, even Lennox Lewis had a certain ‘draw’ to him. The great heavyweight fights, the drama and the prestige. Being allowed stay up late to watch a big bout. People talking about it the next day in school, college and then work. Well, people are still talking about fights, however the water-cooler conversation is now invariably based around whatever controversy is drowning Boxing at the time.

The once great sport is absolutely reeling right now in the wake of the incredible scenes after the Pacquiao versus Bradley fight from the weekend just passed.

Essentially, every single person who watched, commentated on or wrote about the fight is saying, with authority, that Manny Pacquiao was the clear winner of the fight. Post-fight analysis of the statistics is also showing, again with authority, that Pacquiao was an overwhelming winner. The only dissenting voices around? Two of the three judges. Duane Ford and C.J. Ross both scored the fight in favour of the challenger, Timothy Bradley Jr, thus awarding him the welterweight title fight 2-1.

If you didn’t see the fight the evidence that Pacquiao dominated and should have won, easily, is all around. Take for example these telling excerpts from this excellent round-by-round account in the LA Times.

•  Round 3 Pacquiao is bobbing and weaving, looking for an opening. With 90 seconds left, he finds it and gets off the kind of lightning-fast shot Bradley fears.
• Round 4: The most action in the fight so far with both men mixing it up in the center of the ring. Pacquiao is getting the best of it, and Bradley is cautioned for a low blow
• Round 5: Bradley has become much less aggressive, and now it's Pacquiao who is charging forward, his confidence growing
• Round 6: Bradley lands a soft left, but it doesn't hurt Pacquiao, whose speed is overwhelming the challenger. Bradley flinches every time Pacquiao so much as feigns a punch. Pacquiao gets off a good left counterpunch.
• Round 7: It took Pacquiao most of the first two rounds to get a feel for Bradley, but he's unstoppable now.
• Round 12: The fighters touch gloves to start the round. Bradley needs a knockout

In reading even that alone the most casual of observers would obviously say that Pacquiao must surely have been given the win. Despite all of the above obviously pointing to a clear and easy Pacquiao win, those afore mentioned judges found a way to award Bradley the fight on points. ESPN reported the end of the match as such;

"Nearly every media member at ringside, as well as HBO's broadcasters, had the fight as a wide victory for Pacquiao and the crowd of 14,206 rained boos down when the result was announced.’’

HBO boxing analyst Max Kellerman is reported as having said he scored it eight rounds to four for Pacquiao, and that he thought doing so was being generous to Bradley. Manny Pacquiao clearly won the eyeball test. For the duration of the fight, particularly the middle rounds, he constantly outfight, harassed and at times clearly terrified Bradley. Manny Pacquiao clearly and undeniably won the statistical battle also.

ESPN.com scored the fight 119-109 for Pacquiao. HBO's unofficial judge, Harold Lederman, also had it 119-109 for Pacquiao, meaning he gave Bradley only one round. Most ringside media also scored it clearly for Pacquiao.  Pacquiao also dominated in the ‘CompuBox’ punch statistics. According to CompuBox, Pacquiao landed 253 of 751 punches while Bradley landed only 159 of his 839 attempts. Pacquiao also connected with 82 more power punches (190-108) and landed more overall punches in 10 of the 12 rounds.

There is not one shred of evidence, visual or analytical that even hints at suggesting a Bradley win. So, where did it all go wrong?

Let’s start with boxing mega promoter Bob Arum, who interestingly promotes both Pacquiao and Bradley (conflict of interests, much?!). In the aftermath of the fight Arum has presented himself as an angry man, disgusted at the result. Despite promoting Bradley, he has shouted very loudly that the result was wrong. He has gone so far as to submit a formal request to the office of Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto for a "full and complete inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the scoring" of Saturday's fight.

Arum is quoted as saying;

"The public has a right to know (what happened). The fighters have a right to know. The only way to restore fans' confidence in boxing is by letting an independent body investigate every detail of the fight no matter how big or small. Sunshine never hurt anyone."

Arum continued to play to the crowd with the following vociferous monologue;

"What the hell were these people watching? ... How can you watch a sport where you don't see any motive for any malfeasance and yet come up with a result like we came up with tonight. How do you explain it to anybody? Something like this is so outlandish, it's a death knell for the sport. This is f------ nuts. I have both guys, and I'll make a lot of money in the rematch, but it's ridiculous. You have these old f---- who don't know what the hell they're looking at. It's incompetence. Nobody who knows anything about boxing could have Bradley ahead in the fight."

Here’s a thought, and it is based around Arum. Maybe this is exactly the way it was meant to happen. We are already hearing about a re-match. Maybe Arum and co will re-brand the re-match as a ‘redmeption’ match, ensuring a massive buy-in from the angry boxing public. Arum is spouting vitriol to everyone and anyone who will listen to him, and his protests are so vehement that, at this stage he is starting to insist a little too much upon us. He isn’t just spouting off about the result, he is wandering around like some sort of modern day Iago and placing the seeds of doubt in anyone who will listen’s mind, take for example this pithy little anecdote he was spreading around post match

"I went over to Bradley before the decision and he said, 'I tried hard but I couldn't beat the guy.'"

Bob, you can fool some of the people some of the time…

Meanwhile, Arum’s stable is dutifully spitting out the company line. Bradley himself is barely able to conceal his interest in a re-match "We definitely have to do it again."  Pacquiao said he wants the rematch, too. "No problem, I'll be ready for the rematch." Of course he will be ready, he has $26 million reasons to be ready, and Bradley will take another $5 and laugh his way to the bank. Those are the dollar figures both men earned in 'round one'.

The wheels are in motion. The awful decision on the night is already almost behind us. Arum and his cohorts are busy moving the chess pieces around the board.  Bradley and Pacquiao will fight again, and everyone connected with the fight, the boxers themselves, Arum, and all other interested parties will make a large yacht full of money. Everyone will forget Ford and Ross, and the whole venture will be deemed a success.

A success at the cost of sporting-justice.

A success at the continued and eventually complete erosion of boxing’s remaining dignity.

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Ireland and the Boston Celtics lose, but their fans come out winners

It is going to take a while to shower the clingy, sticky mucus that was the sporting weekend just past off. For fans of the Irish soccer team and fans of the Boston Celtics (and indeed fans of both like myself!) Monday morning is depressing to an extra factor of twenty after the brutal results Saturday and Sunday night. Don't even talk to me about the Red Sox.

The Celtics, injury ravaged to an unbelievable degree, teased us with an early ten point lead, only to tire and get worn down with the ridiculous LeBron precession to the free throw line, finally succumbing to the abhorrent Heat and their Nuremberg Rally like fans (Note to Miami: Big rallies where everyone dresses the exact same, and chants to pre-arranged material handed down from 'the authorities' has been done before, and is pretty creepy). Ireland? What can you say about Ireland? Well, I had this to say about them last week in my Irish Central column;

''There are some in Ireland suggesting this Irish team might unite the country much like the Jackie Charlton led teams and indeed the Mick McCarthy World Cup team did in years previous. Largely fueled by greedy companies trying to cash in on merchandising and such, Ireland is being led down a blind alley of false hope in the inevitably doomed belief it might win a match or two and qualify for the next round. A huge dose of realism is well overdue. Glenn Whelan in midfield? This might be the single worst quality team to qualify for a European Championship in the last decade. Having said all that, Ireland's undoubted grit and determination, and wonderful, colourful and positive fans (the single greatest traveling fans, bar none, in all sports) will bring something to the tournament, even if Ireland don’t score in any of the three matches.''

Now, in light of the unbelievably poor showing against Croatia, we don't want to get all Brian Griffin on you, however, it must be noted, we did tell you so!

However, the 'lost weekend' of sports wasn't without a couple of dignified, heart warming aspects to it. First to the incredible Irish soccer fans who have traveled to Eastern Europe to follow their team. It is important not to just nod your head and mumble 'yeah I know, they are great'. What we are seeing unfold in front of us is one of the greatest displays of support ever seen in soccer and maybe in sports as a whole.

Think about it for a second.

Despite a knee-buckling recession in their homeland, Irish fans have thrown caution to the wind and flocked en-masse to follow a team that includes such luminaries as Keith Andrews, Simon Cox and, yes, him, Glenn Whelan.

They not only deserve our adulation, they deserve a medal! UEFA release some incredible figures last week, as it turns out, Irish soccer fans bought up 35,000 tickets to the finals. By comparison, English soccer fans bought a miserly 15,000. That gives you some idea how passionately the Irish support their team.

The fans in green are being recognised around the world for their magnificent support. Take for example this comment from The Guardian;

''The remarkable Irish supporters had scarcely been cowed even by the disturbing start. Those fans made such an impression in noise and number as the match began that they might have been mistaken for followers of a host nation.''

Even better yet, the Irish fans are doing it all with a smile on their faces. First here...

...and then, a little inside, I know, but this is a cracker

Now to the Celtics fans, and their incredible display of support as Game 6 slowly phased itself out to a close. At first glance this below footage may not look like much, but then consider the context, Boston had just been beaten up by LeBron and the Heat, on their home court. Consider the likelihood that this was probably (and as it turned out, most likely) the last time these fans would see these players together as a unit.

Then consider the sheer volume and passion of the 'Let's go Celtics' chant that hovers in the air for a full four minutes as the game fades away slowly to zero seconds.





You can see LeBron and his cohorts chuckling away to each other as the game dies out, however we all know full well they were thinking 'I wonder is this how Miami fans would react?' 

For me, this amazing display of passion from the Boston Celtics fans was a dignified and heart warming 'thank you' to the big three in particular. Everyone knows the team will probably be blown up this off-season, and Celtics fans have loved every second of cheering for Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and their team mates.

Despite being down and beaten on the night by Miami, the look on the faces of Allen, KG and Pierce is one of incredible dignity and thankfulness to have played in front of such a basketball-knowledgeable  and passionate crowd. That thankfulness is repaid in full by the Bostonians in attendance on the night.

Terrible sporting weekend, however the memory of the incredible Celtics fans, and the colourful, passionate and gregarious Ireland fans will live on way longer than the score of any game.

Let's go Celtics. Come on Ireland.

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Boston stuns Miami: Rajon Rondo wins the night: VIDEO

This is Rajon Rondo's world. The rest of us are just living in it.

Last night the Boston Celtics absolutely stunned the Miami Heat with a potentially devastating hay-maker of a game five road win. Several key plays accumulated to the Boston win, and several Boston players are walking around with a little extra swagger this morning. Michael Pietrus, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, amongst others.

However, none more so than the sensational Rajon Rondo.

First the game itself.

Kevin Garnett finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds, Paul Pierce scored 19, including the second biggest play of the night, and the Celtics beat the Heat 94-90 on Tuesday night, taking a 3-2 lead in the East finals that now move to Boston for Game 6 on Thursday night. The Celtics were down by 13 points in the second quarter, then down nine in the third, and answered with veteran authority both times.

Allen and Mickael Pietrus scored 13 apiece for the Celtics, who also got a loud 10 from Brandon Bass. Pietrus hit two huge 3-pointers in the fourth quarter for Boston, which remained perfect during the Pierce, Garnett, Rondo and Allen era when facing a Game 5 with a series tied 2-2. The Celtics are now 9-0 in that scenario, with that group.

That is simply an amazing fact.


Our choice for the two big plays on the night? Number two, the afore mentioned Pierce bomb from downtown. In the final minute, with the Celtics clinging to a 1-point lead and the shot clock worn down, Pierce launched a massive bomb of a three point shot from deep behind the line, right in the face of Uber-Super-Star and ESPN super-deity LeBron James, the often self appointed greatest player in the Galaxy. Nothin. But. Net.



The biggest play of the night might not look pretty but there is no doubting its significance. Dwayne Wade started the incident with a great block, and as the ball zipped back out, Rondo leapt and beat LeBron to the ball, tipping it strongly out to Michael Pietrus for the huge three point dagger shot to the heart of the Heat.



Watch the play several times, only then do you appreciate its significance, the much smaller scrapper, Rondo, quite easily beating LeBron to the ball, keeping it alive for the absolute dagger three.

Rajon Rondo is taking flight for the playoffs. The Celtics are enjoying the ride. Only Rondo knows how far this flight is traveling, but goodness it is enjoyable to watch.

We are all witnesses.

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The James LeBron agenda - why is ESPN so in love with The K$ng?

Forget Roswell. Forget the Grassy Knoll. Forget Bigfoot. When are we going to uncover the answer to a great contemporary mystery, why are ESPN such slathering, dribbling sycophantic fools for LeBron James? At this stage their man-crush on The K$ing is getting quasi embarrassing. There would appear to be almost no depth too low for ESPN to stoop in their deification of The K$ng.

Consider the weight of evidence to date.

Let’s start with the most recent and work backwards to the most dramatic.

During the epic game four on the weekend between Boston and Miami, you could genuinely have thought it was a Miami based station delivering the broadcast. Over the course of the game ESPN cut away several times to syrupy, schmaltzy vignettes about LeBron, including a particularly wince inducing piece on how he really wanted to learn the piano, because his momma wanted him to, and he always thought he had an aptitude for it. We also saw several shots of LeBron reading a book (it was right side up, sadly) so we all know that yes, LeBron is cultured, even if that book was ‘The Hunger Games’. Let’s point out the obvious here, no other player was afforded the same level of adulation.

Kind of odd that ESPN would single out LeBron on his own, and insist upon us how cultured the gentleman is, no? However, this is definitely not a new phenomenon.

During the Heat playoff run last season, which eventually belched, farted or oozed to a halt in the finals against a superior Dallas ‘team’, ESPN screamed at us all playoffs long as to why we should appreciate the Heat, and most of all The K$ing. There was one particularly  sycophantic ‘article’ on why we should admire what LeBron was doing in those finals, followed by this puff-piece of incisive, hard hitting news as to how LeBron would go into ‘attack mode’ for the rest of the finals.


Upon reading that you would be excused if you pondered, ‘eh, what?’.

Entirely pointless ‘article’.

ESPN were barely able to conceal their huge LeBron-crush last season. A visit to ESPN, keying into their NBA coverage during the finals against Dallas and you would have been forgiven for thinking you had landed on the Miami Heat official team page. All week ESPN bombarded us with reasons why we shouldn’t hate the Heat. They came at us from all angles. Online in print and later on their various shows. It was almost Orwellian in content. You should love the Heat, you should not hate the Heat, these NBA finals are going to be awesome!

Have a look at this laughable excerpt from ESPN’s report on game one;

‘’The Miami Heat are three wins away from the reason why the Big Three came together in the first place.’’

What, the Heat are three wins from a massive truck of money pulling up at their Miami mansion and dumping seven bazillion dollars on their lawn? Really?

Of course, how dare we accuse ESPN of bias, they raised some very serious questions in their coverage. Take the notes section of the game report;

‘’In his annual state of the league address David Stern was asked about how James, Wade and Bosh all ended up in Miami last summer. ‘’I don’t consider it colluding’’

Oh, well that’s that then! Aggressive, Incisive reporting by ESPN, really cutting to the bone of the issue. Give me a ducking break. Quack quack. Lest you be in any doubt about ESPN’s true colours on the Heat, just remember ESPN is the same media giant that removed one of its own articles an hour after publishing it for no other reason than LeBron’s team didn’t like the way it portrayed their ‘product’, LeBron James. Thankfully the Internet is an elephant that never forgets and you can read the article here. Read it in full and then ask yourself if you want to root for LeBron during these NBA finals.

The fact of the matter is, you will not read a bad word about LeBron or his Heat boy-band on ESPN. It simply won’t happen, and if any ESPN journalist goes AWOL and tries to sneak one up, it will be yanked down faster than you can say ‘disingenuous’.

Ever since their disgusting ‘The Decision’, ESPN has been pushing LeBron on us like some kind of sweaty, desperate aluminum siding salesman. The questions remain, why on earth are they doing this, and will it ever end?

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