It's Sunday morning and I am sitting down enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee from Dripping Springs based roaster Greater Goods. Used my trusty Hario 60 Pour over, with a medium grind from the Sculptor Timemore grinder to make the cup. It was full of flavors of a proper English Tea, stone fruits, and honey. A delicious cup that inspires me to take a break, think about the last couple of days and write some.
I've got some sports thoughts that I'll get to in a second, but first, a quick TV recommendation. If you are not watching the outstanding HULU series Shogun you are really missing out. Starring the always great and criminally under utilized Hiroyuki Sanada along with Cosmo Jarvis this adaptation of the classic James Clavell novel pulls you into the show from the very first scenes. Tremendous cinematography, wonderful fight choreography and top notch acting makes this a show that you need to sit down and check out. In total there will be 10 episodes, although only the first two are currently out. It's been ages since I have watched the original Shogun adaptation that came out in the early 80's, but from what I remember this one just feels better. While the acting in the original was good (you had Richard Chamberlain and Mifune in it after all), this just looks and feels more realistic. Go check it out.
On to sports. First some thoughts on my dear Liverpool football club. A slow start to a midweek 5th round FA Cup match against Southampton ended strongly with a 3-0 victory and an advance to a match against the hated ManU. I was a little worried that the very young squad Klopp threw out there wasn't going to pull it out, but a score before half let them into the locker room up by 1 before the Reds fully took over in the second half. The Reds more traditional experienced squad hit the pitch yesterday morning against Nottingham Forrest. Once again the cardiac Reds kept the fans in suspense as to whether or not they would win the match. Back up keeper Kelleher continues to do a great job while Allison is out, but the Reds struggled to put the ball in the net. Just when I thought the match was going to end in a 0-0 tie Darwin Nunez scored at the 98th minute to win the match with a beauty of a header. Just a tremendous goal that got me out of my seat. The Reds stay busy this coming week with a Europa League match against Sparta Praha before facing a must win Premiere League match up against Man City. Fingers crossed that the Reds can put it to City and get the points to stay on top of the table.
Not only did yesterday morning have a great match from the Reds it was also the first race of the Formula 1 season, the Bahrain Gran Prix. Unsurprisingly, Red Bull's Max Verstappen lead from lights out to checkered flag with no one making an attempt at challenging his dominance. His teammate Checo came in second allowing Red Bull yet another 1-2 finish. Somewhat surprising was a third place finish by a Ferrari Driver, just not the one you expected. It wasn't LeClerc, but Sainz leading Ferrari to a third place finish that was surprising. My team, McLaren finished slightly lower than I had hoped at P6 and P8. I really had hopes that Lando was going to track down Russell and finish ahead of the Mercedes driver. Overall though, still MUCH better than last year's start, so hopeful that McLaren continues to improve and put pressure Ferrari and Mercedes.
Which leads me to overreactions after one race:
1) A year from now Ferrari will have a worse driver line up than they do today. Look Hamilton was a great driver, maybe the greatest of all time, but he isn't that driver anymore. Sainz is better and will go somewhere next year making a big impact.
2) Maybe not an overreaction, but Red Bull will walk away with the top of the Constructors championship and driver champions with Max. But the competition for P2-5 will be tremendous and one of the best in recent years. Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin will all be fighting for those positions every race.
3) Those 4 teams along with Red Bull are so good that there may be a lot of teams with hardly any points as I expect most of the teams above to score double points each race.
Next week's race at Jeddah should be good as everyone finished the race and there weren't any crashes or damaged cars coming out of Bahrain. Hopefully McLaren can crack a podium position, but so far I'm pleased with how team papaya are doing.
What are your overreactions after one race?
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