Sporting Wishes

There is a song from the 1990 movie Pretty Woman which starred Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The name of the song is called King of Wishful Thinking, by Go West. I have to say that there are many occasions when I do in fact feel that I am the king of wishful thinking; especially regarding sports. I know that some of these wishes are quite improbable and it may seem that I am hoping beyond hope, but on the other hand, some wishes seem quite likely to come to pass. So here goes. First the improbable; in football, The Netherlands will recover from its current dreadful showing in the Euro 2016 qualifiers and make it to France next year. They will then go on to erase bad memories of the debacle in Poland 2012, where they finished bottom-last in their group and ultimately the whole tournament, by going all the way to the final where they will beat long-time rivals and current World Champions Germany 3-2 in an epic encounter to win their second major title. Robben will score a hat-trick. 

 In tennis, an American other than Serena Williams will go on to win a Grand Slam singles title. More surprisingly, the player will be Caucasian and male. Maria Sharapova will play an entire match without shrieking. In MMA Ronda Rousey will suffer the first loss of her professional career. Her opponent would be Miesha Tate who, ironically, will win by an arm-bar submission. Cris Cyborg will admit that she is transgender. She will then fight Fallon Fox. The bout will end in a draw. Many experts will hail it as the best fight ever.  Boxing:Vitali Klitchsko will come out of retirement to fight younger brother Wladimir. They will both agree to fight at the MGM in Las Vegas. Wladimir will knock his big brother out in the tenth round.

More likely to happen: A Spanish team will once again go on to win the Champions League. The team will be either current champions FC Barcelona or Real Madrid. England will once again be knocked out of the Euro tournament at the quarterfinal stage.  Spain will make at least the semifinals. Lionel Messi and his Argentina team will once again come up short at the Copa America. Serena Williams will break Margaret Court’s record for most Grand Slam Singles titles won and will be hailed as the greatest female player of all time. She will also win an Olympic gold medal. The American men’s and women’s 4x100m track and field relay teams will once again drop the baton in the Olympic final and get disqualified. The Jamaicans will win both races. Usain Bolt will win three gold medals once again in world record times.

The Chinese will dominate in the diving and table tennis competitions. Katie Ledecky will emerge as the next big American Olympic star in swimming with a very impressive multiple gold medal haul. She will be hailed as the female Michael Phelps and her image will appear on the Wheaties cereal box because it is the breakfast of champions. The Americans will once again dominate in the Olympics and end up on top in the final medal count. Host Brazil will have its best ever medal haul and end up in the top five. They will finally win gold in football in both the men’s and women’s competitions. The more impressive will be the latter as they will finally defeat their great nemesis USA in an epic final at the Maracana. Marta will emerge as the hero.