Pirate Galaxy » spread around CNBC, MSNBC and U

LILLE, France -- The Welsh have a word for it: Hwyl. It means passion, in the emotional or spiritual sense, in their Celtic language.And the Wales team has certainly been mining a rich seam of it at the European Championship. It beat a strongly-favored Belgium side 3-1 on Friday to line up a semifinal against Portugal, the national teams biggest achievement since reaching the quarterfinals of the 1958 World Cup.However, its a case of sporting success with a tragic backdrop.Over the past five years, the Welsh squad and its supporters have been coping with the sudden death of its coach, Gary Speed, who was found hanged in his home in 2011 at the age of 42.His childhood friend and fellow coach Chris Coleman took over the work that Speed had just begun with Welsh football, a sport constantly in the shadow of rugby -- in which Wales has enjoyed global success -- and in a country with a population of just over 3 million.Speeds progressive methods were starting to pay dividends when he died, a blow to Welsh football lovers who saw the young coach as a role model. He played 85 times for Wales and was its coach for less than a year.At every major game, the Welsh fans still sing in memory of Speed. Theres only one Speedo, goes the chant.At Euro 2016, excitement about the national team is clearly growing and tens of thousands of fans are expected to make the journey across the English Channel next week for the game against Portugal in Lyon.That support has become crucial to Welsh success. From a country famed for its singing, the national anthem of Wales, the 1856 song Hen Flad Fy Mhadau -- which translates into English as Land of my Fathers -- seems to inspire the team.You only have to listen to the `hwyl (of the anthem) to know the effect it has on the boys, spectator James Owen of Abertillery, southern Wales, said in Lille. The national anthem brings tears to your eyes and makes your hair stand on end when its sung in a football or rugby stadium.Only the Welsh understand the power of their anthem, which translates as follows.The Land of my fathers is dear unto meLand of Poets and singers and people of statureHer brave warriors, fine patriotsShed their blood for freedom.When Coleman took over in January 2012, Wales had recently been outside the top 100 in the world by FIFA rankings. Wales came into Euro 2016 in 26th position and will rise even further following its run to the semifinals. With 10 goals from five games, Wales is also among the top scoring teams in the competition.From the qualifying competition to the final tournament, success has helped to make Wales a closely-knit squad -- and that also includes their children.After the final whistle, as the crowd sings to the team, the players regularly bring their children onto the pitch and let them run around kicking footballs. About 10,000 fans cheered Gareth Bales three-year-old daughter in Paris when she managed to kick the ball into the net.We never forget our belief and our identity, Coleman told a news conference after Fridays victory.Bale is the teams undoubted star, but he is much more of a team player with Wales than he is with Real Madrid. As captain, he leads by example, working tirelessly.His relationship with Wales could not be more different than that of his club teammate Cristiano Ronaldo with the rest of the Portugal squad. Ronaldo often appears aloof from other players in the national side, and he can win games single handedly.There is also a contrast between the fortunes of the Welsh and their neighbor England, which still sees itself as a footballing giant despite a consistent record of tournament failure since winning the World Cup in 1966.Welsh fans chanted, Are You Watching England as Wales scored its third goal in the victory over Belgium, one of the tournament favorites.England failed to make it beyond the last 16, slumping to an embarrassing defeat to Iceland.From watching Euro 2012 on TV to playing in the semifinals of Euro 2016, the turnaround for the Welsh is little short of remarkable.Four years ago we were as far away as you can be from where we are right now, Coleman said. We find ourselves in an incredible position.Adidas Superstar Nederland . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. Adidas Falcon Goedkoop . Isner, ranked No. 14, won his eighth career singles title and took the title in New Zealand for the second time after his victory in 2010. The match was similar to Isners quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber which went to three sets, all tiebreaks and contained no breaks of serve. http://www.nmdtekoop.com/futurecraft-4d-sneakers.html .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at Boston Strong - a citys recovery from tragedy. Adidas NMD Aanbieding . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Adidas NMD Te Koop . After the whistle, Thornton skated the length of the ice, pulled Orpik to the ice from behind and punched him in the face several times.NEW YORK -- NBCs plans for the Olympics in Rio over the next two weeks define the term exhaustive.The network, its cable sisters and Olympics website plan 6,755 hours of coverage through the Aug. 21 closing ceremonies in Rio de Janeiro. Obsessive fans have plenty of viewing options, since every Olympic competition will be available live online along with the popular events airing in prime time on NBC.That includes Fridays opening ceremony, which is oddly being aired via tape delay despite Rio being only one hour ahead of Eastern time in the U.S.Bob Costas is the prime-time host for his 11th Olympics, and his continuity defines NBCs coverage. While there are new wrinkles every year -- Ryan Seacrest hosts a new late-night show, Mike Tirico joins from ESPN -- the NBC playbook and personnel remain very consistent. NBCs 170-member broadcast team includes a stable of former athletes, including swimmer Rowdy Gaines, gymnast Tim Daggett and diver Laura Wilkinson, that has combined for 59 Olympic medals.NBC executives strongly believe in how they cover the Olympics, particularly the menu of sports offered on the network each night, and consider the events ratings strength is a public endorsement. The company paid $1.2 billion for the broadcast rights.The opening ceremony will be delayed an hour before being shown on NBC because the network wants the entertainment spectacle, which was seen by 40.7 million people in 2012, to be shown completely in U.S. prime time. NBC was also reportedly upset that because the Portugese language is being used for the parade of nations, the U.S. team (or Estados Unidos) will file into the stadium relatively early.In what is becoming an Olympics tradition, the run-up to the games was filled with foreboding stories: the Zika virus, polluted water, security concerns. HBOs Real Sports aired a thorough investigation last month into the International Olympic Committee and demands placed on host countries, but dont expect something similar on NBC.The network plans to address many of the issues unique to Rio early, perhaps in a one-hour preview scheduled for Thursday night, but will turn to the competition unless something unusual happens.I think when people are tuning in to watch the Olympics, theyll want to watch the Olympics, said Jim Bell, executive producer of NBCs Olympicss coverage.dddddddddddd.Unlike previous Summer Games in Europe, Asia and Australia, the Rio games provide NBC a favorable time zone allowing it to televise many events live in swimming and track and field. With only a few exceptions, those sports -- along with gymnastics and volleyball -- get virtually all of the attention on NBCs prime-time broadcast.The rest of the sports are spread across 10 other networks, many with particular specialties.The Golf Channel, for example, concentrates on the Olympic return of its namesake sport. NBC executives expressed disappointment that several of the worlds top golfers, including Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, are staying away from the event because of concerns about the Zika virus, and suggested theyd someday regret it.Bravo will be the Olympic home of tennis. NBC is also setting up speciality channels for both basketball and soccer, although those sports will also be shown on other networks.The NBC Sports cable network will be the busiest, airing 330 hours of Olympics programming covering 20 sports. On most days of the games, NBCSN will air Olympics coverage from 8 a.m. to midnight. Other coverage will be spread around CNBC, MSNBC and USA. Telemundo and NBC Universo will narrate events in Spanish, focusing on sports and athletes popular in Latin America.NBC, which likes to use the Olympics as a laboratory for new technology and ideas, will also distribute 83 hours of coverage in the 4K Ultra HD format.Once again, the NBC Olympics website offers live streams of every competition. To access this material, a customer must validate an account with a cable or satellite provider.The attention speaks to the huge economic opportunity the games provide NBC in a fragmented media world. NBC is betting, and in fact has advertised the Olympics, on the idea that viewers can use a pick-me-up from a drumbeat of bad news.Theres been a lot of tough things going on in the world, Bell said. I think it will be nice, fingers crossed, if we can have a couple of weeks to give people something to cheer about.---Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder ' ' '