Jameson's Sport Writing Portfolio

Hockey has gone through some tough times between 2020 and 2021. Pandemic, season stoppage, a bubble playoff, a shortened 2021 season, a massive scandal at one of the biggest clubs, and recently, hefty amounts of executive changes with the clubs. Since the end of the last season, starting with the New York Rangers and all the way to the Vancouver Canucks as of December 5th, 2021, there have been five clubs who have decided to sack their executive leaders, be it the general manager, head coach, both, and a combination of assistants and lower-level management. 2021 has been NHL's season of executive turnover, so just what does this mean about the state of club leadership during a time of great change and uncertainty? Hockey has always been a volatile sport from the business side. Coaches get recycled far too often, GMs can fail with one team but manage to pick up a job in the same role with a new club for an even higher salary, ownership groups tend to make very hasty or late decision...

The November international break is coming up with another round of World Cup qualifiers set up for the US Men's National Team. The road to qualifying for the Stars and Stripes has not been smooth, as they have been suffering through what seems like a gauntlet of CONCACAF teams to secure qualification for Qatar in December. Some USA soccer fans are getting a little irritated with the team selection manager Gregg Berhalter has been choosing for these important matches. It is notable the number of MLS players that round out the depth chart for the USA, something fans have taken to social media on more than one occasion to gripe about. Some fans have come to think Berhalter has a certain bias about choosing MLS players over the American players that have made the jump to leagues in Europe. So, I guess the question has to be raised: is there an MLS bias in the USMNT?  It is no secret that US Soccer has long strived to develop its own domestic soccer league, and to a degree, the MLS rep...

This summer was a very peculiar one for Real Madrid, as they seemed to take another page out of their galactico playbook and rehire Carlo Ancelotti as manager. They secured David Alaba on a free transfer, Gareth Bale has returned from a half-decent loan at Tottenham, but Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane have departed and there’s certain to be other players leaving in order to finance the next galactico: Kylian Mbappe. Florentine Perez has made it very clear the Los Blancos are going to sign the French superstar but with what money? And with PSG not willing to sell, it seems kind of dubious to think Mbappe will be leaving PSG for Madrid, yet Perez is making it clear he will get his next talisman. But Mbappe wouldn’t really solve the problems that are crushing Madrid currently.   Madrid has a very old squad, something they have either failed to truly address or one they can’t seem to find a way to move on from. They have seven players over 30 in the starting XI and Carlo seems set to ...

It was a tough summer in the state of hockey, but it was perhaps the moment that was long needed and borderline overdue. Minnesota Wild’s Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, the two stud American hockey players (both from Minnesota, to boot), were given the news they would be getting the final four years of their 13-year, $98 million contracts bought out. This almost feels like a divorce after a marriage that both sides tried to make work for a very long time but the nadir finally reared itself in a time of great turmoil. The turmoil being the pandemic and the Wild’s sudden resurgence with a new superstar at the helm. The fallout hasn’t fully settled yet from Parise and Suter’s departure, but this marks a new era in Wild history. One where they just do not make the same mistakes they made with Parise and Suter.  It would be wrong to blame Parise and Suter for the problems they unintentionally caused Minnesota over their tenure. When you have two players signed to that cap hit, for such a p...

Wow, what a Euros. What more could we have possibly asked for? Every single match was a nail-biter, even with some of the smaller national teams. Fans were back in the stadiums, there was chanting, jeering, whistling, a lot of high moments, some that we wish we never had to witness (glad Eriksen is doing ok), and last night, the champions were crowned. Italy came into this tournament as a potential winner but nobody seemed to truly rate them as a full-on contender. Yet, what we witnessed over the course of this month-long journey was the return to one of Europe's greatest teams. After that penalty shootout against England, it was very clear to me, and the rest of soccer media: Italy is back. Italy's revival was not by accident. Instead, it was a careful, strategic approach to returning to glory. Italy hadn't won an international tournament since the 2006 World Cup, another match that is forever hallowed into the Italian footballing culture. They missed out on the 2018 World...

Even if you are not an NHL fan, you have probably heard about Alex Ovechkin. He's the caveman-looking Russian phenom who has taken the League by storm since he burst onto the scene in 2004. He has been the leading goalscorer for the league for many years, at times the NHL's MVP, winning scoring titles, and bringing a Stanley Cup to America's capital city for the first time in 2018. Ovechkin has been the heart of the Washington Capitals in the modern era. He has overcome many grueling NHL seasons and postseasons to earn his name on the Cup, but now there is one hump he cannot avoid: the cruel fate of Father Time. The clock is ticking on the Capitals and Ovechkin. Their contention window is closing and Ovechkin's contract is expiring. So, the question remains, how much longer can Ovechkin keep up his elite production, and can the Capitals stay afloat? The 2021 season was by no means a bad one for Ovechkin. He shattered more goal-scoring records as he tied Marcel Dionne wi...

Nine years is a long time. People grow, their personality changes, for better or for worse. In sports, nine years is like a century. It almost feels inevitable to try and overthrow a team that’s been at the very top for such a long stretch of time. However, it only takes a small stroke of good fortune for circumstances to change. Inter Milan were the lucky lads who got that. For the first time in nine years, Italian soccer has a new champion. The evil empire that Juventus has become in Italy has been vanquished. Their chokehold on Serie A and Italian cups has loosened. Everyone is thrilled as the parity that once made the Italian league such a powerhouse in Europe is returning slowly but surely. And Inter winning the Scudetto is just the beginning.  Context is important in this manner. Ever since the Italian match-fixing scandal was uncovered in 2006, Juventus have risen from their relegation punishment as something completely different. They have grown into a massive club, their f...