Sports Garth McLennan sports @theotherpress.ca Royals shine at home opener By Jeff Feinstein I was very impressed with the Douglas College Royals baseball home opener, a double header game against Edmonds Community College, on March 30 at Queen’s Park .Stadium. Great players, great stadium and lots of sunshine made for an entertaining and enjoyable Sunday afternoon. There was no shortage of hard- hitting action and good defensive plays. In the first game, first year third baseman John MacNeil had an outstanding outing. Early in the first game after bare-handing a slow rolling grounder along the third base line, MacNeil made a good throw to get the Edmonds runner out at first base. Then at the top of the fourth inning John made an exceptional catch on a foul pop up near the third base stands. He also hit a very hard shot up the middle in the bottom of There are few Canadian colleges where students can of the second inning. Regrettably, I had to leave before the second game ended. The games were a good caliber of ball played in a very nice stadium with hundreds of seats with backs, covered under roof, clean new washrooms, a great sound system with a silky-voiced announcer, an organ—the works. The Royals play in the fourth. cheer fe or their own a league with very stiff Infielder Michael baseball team. American competition (the Caleb also made some centre-fielder for Edmonds good plays. Right after Community College, just MacNeil’s bare-handed catch and _ outside Seattle, made an unbelievably throw out, Caleb made a nice recovery on a difficult to handle hard hit ground ball and finished the throw-out at first. Caleb, along with Brandon Kaye and Jordan Olar had three blast singles up the middle over second base in a row in the bottom of the second inning as Olar sent Kaye home on a RBI. In the second game Jordan Padrince hit a long drive to deep left field for a double in the bottom spectacular catch, running up towards the centre field wall that belonged on a major league baseball highlight reel). There are few Canadian colleges where students have the opportunity to cheer for a baseball team, so go out and have a good time at Queens’ Park watching the Douglas College Royals. There are several Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoon games in the summer. “Group of the Death” dominates Euro 2008 Which two teams will advance to the quarter-final? By: Kevin Wong :, ee fans will love this summer. The Euro 2008 soccer tournament will be hosted by two countries, Austria and Switzerland, in June. This exciting tournament is played only once every four years just like the World Cup. The Euro tournament features 16 teams which are divided into four groups, from Group A to Group D. The best two teams from each group then advance to the quarter-final. Normally, fans would be most concerned about the standings of their home teams, but this year things are a little bit special and more exciting. Surprisingly, three powerful European soccer teams, Italy, France and Holland have all wound up in Group C which has been dubbed the “Group of the Death.” Along with the three superstars, dark horse Romania is also in this group. Italy and France originally played in Group B in the qualifying round, and they played against each other twice. France won 3-1 at home and they tied with Italy 0-0 on the road. Each team seem to know its opponent very well. They will now battle against each other on June 17 in Zurich. What about Holland and Romania? Both teams first competed in the same group, Group G, in the qualifying round, and also played against each other twice. The first game was played in Holland and the final score was 0-0. Then, Romania defeated Holland 1-0 at home. Surprisingly, Romania ended up finishing in the first place in the qualifying round. These two teams will meet again on June 17 in Berne. These four strong teams have played against each a few times before. In 1996, Romania and France were in the same group in the first round. France won the game 1-0. Then, France advanced to the quarter-final and won a close victory against Holland. The French won 5-4 in the penalty kick. The eventual winner of the tournament was Germany, however. 16 In the Euro 2000, France and Holland were placed in the same group, Group D, in the first round. Holland won 3-2. That same year saw Italy score 2-0 to beat Romania in the quarter-final. Italy and Holland advanced to the semi-final and they competed against each other. In the regulation game, the score was 0-0, leaving Italy to defeat Holland 3-1 in the penalty kick. France and Italy met in the final and after 90 minutes, both teams were tied at 1-1. France then scored the “golden goal” to defeat Italy 2-1 in the sudden death overtime, dramatically winning the championship. So which two “Group of Death” teams do I think will advance to the quarter-final in 2008? My picks are Holland and the underdog, Romania. There are four main reasons that I think Holland will advance to the next round. First, their head coach, Marco van Basten, will quit his coaching job after this tournament. Van Basten was one of the key players responsible for helping the Dutch team to win the trophy in the Euro “88. He’s likely to go out fighting. The whole team will use their traditional “attack” style to score as many goals as possible in each of the match. If “the Orange” can defeat Italy in the first match, the victory would definately boost up the confidence of the whole team and impress the coach. Second, Holland has a lot of great forwards and mid-fielders on their team, like Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin van Persie, Dirk Kuyt, and Arjen Robben. Each of them have great scoring abilities. Third, the strong Dutch defensemen at the back of the field, and the team’s goalie, Edwin Van der Sar, plays consistently in the net. Although Van der Sar is 37, his saving percentage is still very good. I don’t think the age of Van der Sar would affect his performance in this tournament. Fourth, I strongly believe that the Dutch team will be passionately motivated to revenge their earlier loss to Romania in the qualifying round. My second favourite is Romania. Why not Italy or France? I know that there are less superstars on the Romanian team, but I believe they still have a strong ability to defeat their opponents. Indeed, as underdogs the Romanian players have less pressure psychologically than the players of the other three teams. Romania might perform well simply because they have nothing to lose. Don’t be surprised if this “dark horse” makes it to the quarter-finals —or beyond.