Link between La Liga and EPL !

2001 Real Madrid-Manchester United
2002 Valencia-Arsenal
2003 Real Madrid-Manchester United
2004 Valencia-Arsenal
2005 Barca-Chelski
2006 Barca-Chelski
2007 Real Madrid?-Manchester United

Weird eh ?

40 Signs that it's summer.

1) Thierry Henry is off to Barcelona.
2) You keep checking the internet to see if you've signed someone. You just did it now.
3) And again.
4) The Mailbox is half as long as normal.
5) Thierry Henry is off to Real Madrid now.
6) ManYoo release a new kit.
7) Football pundits find themselves shoehorned into covering other sports.
8) As do football journalists. Quick, look busy.
9) Someone English is cheered all the way to the fourth round of Wimbledon from Henman Hill or Murray Mount or somewhere.
10) Actually, Andrew Murray's f**king Scottish, isn't he? Let's not cheer for him.
11) Sue Barker sits there and tells you it's a "Great British summer of sport".
12) You end up knowing the names of half the footballers' agents in the Premier League.
13) Old pros are forced to play football as satellite TV desperately scrabbles around for material.
14) Spurs target a top-four finish.
15) Your skin has gone a funny lobster colour and hurts.
16) Golf seems interesting.
17) Everyone gets excited waiting for the fixture list. Ooh, we play every team twice! Once home and once away! I can't wait!
18) You actually start to miss Alan Hansen.
19) Cricket is the new football. So we're told.
20) You try to convince yourself that the awful player linked with your club has just been misunderstood in the past.
21) And as for those players you've never heard of, well, best check their stats on Football Manager. That'll work.
22) You start to fancy Clare Balding.
23) Sky Sports News is even duller than normal.
24) Fernando Torres is linked with a move to the Premiership. (Note: In previous years, this role was regularly filled by Benni McCarthy).
25) You tell yourself staying up all night to watch the Copa America and MLS is normal.
26) It's Liverpool's year.
27) You suddenly realise you've got a wife and kids and that you haven't spoken to them for nine months. And they hate you.
28) You contemplate seeing if you can find your old Subbuteo set in the loft.
29) You persuade your family this year's holiday should be in Norway just so you can watch live football. Brann are top, you know, and Odd Grenland have only won once. Fascinating.
30) You persuade yourself the Intertoto Cup is really great.
31) You start craving cold lager at 10am every day.
32) You get so desperate that you start watching Eurosport 2 in the hope some football comes on.
33) You find yourself travelling 100 miles on a bus to watch the youth team's reserves playing a pre-season friendly.
34) You realise it's 3pm on a Saturday afternoon and you're holding your missus' bags in Top Shop. And even though she's trying to talk to you, all you're thinking is 'Ooh, I remember when Top Man used to sponsor Leeds'.
35) You love being top four or hate being in the relegation zone. Even though the league is entirely alphabetical.
36) You breathe a sigh of relief when you realise pre-season friendlies start in the first week of July. Because watching your out-of-shape side play Stevenage is just great, isn't it?
37) Newcastle sign 15 players. Only one of them is a defender.
38) You start to work out how many players it would take for your side to break into the Big Four. Then you think how great it would be if you somehow won your first ten games and managed to stay ahead of the rest and be in with a shout of the league.
39) You convince yourself it's worth sticking a quid on it at 2500/1 odds. 50p, at least.
40) You put the other 50p on ManYoo getting relegated at 7500/1. Anything's possible, right?

Source : F365

Good bye, Ruud.

Its official now, Ruud van Nistelrooy has moved to Real Madrid. I don't know if this happens only with me or everyfan has the same feeling, whenever a player I love leaves the club I have a strange empty feeling in the guts. It happened when Beckham moved and now when Ruud goes.
Maybe football is not all about money and power the emotions teamspirit and all those beautiful ingredients of the beautiful game are still there, just a bit soiled and oiled though.

I hope Ruud has a satisfying stay at the Bernabeu.

Au revoir, Zizou

Sadly, this is the last we have seen of the great zinedine zidane. I don't know why the geniuses leave in such extraordinary manner, why cant they fade out like a normal human like me and you. After Maradona was thrown out of the world stage after the doping scandal, Zidane just went on to prove geniuses don't just burn and fade out they like to end with a flash. 100 minutes after scoring a penalty in a way only he can dare to zidane drove his head into materazzi to be shown a red card and end is career leaving the fans in shock.

Italia it is !!

Italy won their Fourth World Cup Title when they beat France 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 deadlock.

• Fabio Grosso scored the winning penalty for the Azzuri, while David Trezeguet was the unfortunate frenchman whose penalty hit the crossbar.
• Zidane had earlier scored the opening goal in the 7th minute from the penalty spot after a clear dive by Madoula in the italian penalty box.
• Another Italian defender Materazzi then equalised in the 19th minute with a powerful header from a Pirlo corner.
• One of the bizarre events of the world cup took place after 110 minutes of paly when Zinedine Zidane decided to end his glittering career in a disgraceful way by Headbutting Materazzi out of nowhere, he was sent off rightfully.

**********************************************************************

Photo : Defender Materazzi points to the sky as he is surrounded by his team-mates after levelling the scores in Berlin


Photo : Fabio Grosso takes the decisive penalty and coolly slots home past Fabian Barthez to win the World Cup for Italy


Photo : Grosso's winning spot-kick sends his team-mates into a frenzy as Italy win the World Cup for the first time since 1982

Photo : Italian captain and also the Man of the Tournament Fabio Cannavaro for me lifts the trophy for the Italians. They were worthy winners !

Photo : The 2006 FIFA World Cup Winners Italian Team . Congratulations to them !!

Who will it be ??

THE FINAL

France Vs. Italy

9th July

# République française :

Key Players : Zinedine Zidane, Theirry Henry, Patrick Viera, Lilian Thurram

Strengths : probably the most experienced team at this world, 5 of the current squad members were also present at the 1998 triumph, Zizou and the french are peaking at the right time after struggling initally through the group stages, are playing displined football making it difficult for the opposition to score or control the game at all for that matter, moreover we are yet to see the best of henry who knows it might be his day !!

Weakness : Havent really looked convincing enough when it comes to scoring goals and now they face what is undoubtedly the best defence in the world, so will have to really sweat it out in order to find the net, with age and experience also come tired legs and Thuram and copany will have keep up with the energy of the italian forwards !!

# Italia :

Key Players :Buffon, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Totti, Gattuso

Strenghts :The good old italian defence is as strong as ever with Cannavaro-Nesta central defence bieng rock solid and Materazzi filling in for injured Nesta once in a while. Midfield is strong with Gattuso , Cameronesi doing the holding job and Pirlo providing the creativity.

Weakness :The forward line is a bit weak so could find it tough to score goals sometimes. Del Piero and Inzaghi have the expirience but are too old to run around for 90 minutes while Toni and Gilardino have the energy but lack the experince and temperament.

# Italians are surely the favourites going into thsi one. They have continued their run of reaching the Final every 12 years (1970, 1982, 1994, 2006), lost twice to Brazil outside Europe (1970, 1994) but won against the germans in spain (1982) , and by the look of things its their turn to win again. They will be depending on the same old strategy of defend-and-counterattack though they surprised a many with their free flowing play in the semi-finals. Cannavaro and Buffon will again be standing there as the wall between the italian goal and the french forwards, while Gattuso and Pirlo will fight out it out in the midfield. Strikers are the only concern for Lippi , though he has made it clear he would start with Toni and Totti and later replace them with Del Piero/ Inzaghi / Guardino. It looks all set for the italians , they havent really got anything to worry about they just need to go out their and perform as they have been for last two matches and they will be lifting the cup.

# The French will be agin be enjoying the status of underdogs and they will not be complaining. Zizou is back with a bang and what a perfect way it will be for him to end his career by the lifting the trophy which made him the star is he is 8 years ago. But the credit for the recent renaissance will also go to the likes of Viera , Makelele , Thuram and the young rising star Ribery. We are yet to see the best of Theirry Henry. Coming back to the final , it will be hard for the french to break the italian deadlock and so they will again have to rely on their midfield to control the pace of the game and suit their needs. They cannot afford to allow the italians any space because they have shown in the last one month that they dont need too many opportunities to score and have some clinical finsiheers in their line up.

It is only the second ever final for france but five of their current starting eleven were also an important part of the 98 winning team.

The Euro Four

Semi Final One

Germany Vs. Italy

4th July

# Deutschland :
Key Players :
Michael Ballack , Klose-Podolski pair, Philip Lahm , Frings, Klismann (their young enthusiastic Manager)
Strenghts :
Home nation, Efficient well organised attack, front two (Klose-Podolski in great form), All players fully fit and in form, Have tightened up their defence after intial hiccups, They have the status of the underdogs(so nothing to lose), Young team, Hungry for sucess, Klinsmann has given their nation a new hope and belief !

They are on a high right now , after beating Argentines, regrded by many as the best team in this tournament, in the quarterfinals.
Weakness :
Their only weakness so far (unless the Italians expose some other) has been their young un-experienced defence , but the Germans know their weakness as well as their strenths so you expect them to work on that !!

# Italia :
Key Players :
Buffon, Nesta, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Totti
Strenghts :
The good old italian defence is as strong as ever with Cannavaro-Nesta central defence bieng rock solid and Materazzi filling in for injured Nesta once in a while. Midfield is strong with Gattuso , Cameronesi doing the holding job and Pirlo providing the creativity.
Weakness :
The forward line is a bit weak so could find it tough to score goals sometimes. Del Piero and Inzaghi have the expirience but are too old to run around for 90 minutes while Toni and Gilardino have the energy but lack the experince and temperament.

The last time these two teams met in WC was the 1982 final when Italy won its only post-wars title. The Italian team that time was in deep controversy with their captain Rossi under match-fixing charges. Deja vu?? 13 italian players are involved in the biggest ever match-fixing scandal coming into this match including the likes of Buffon, Del Piero & Co. Anyways the Italian game plan is cleat , the eternal defend-counterattack strategy which has worked quite well for them this time around too. But they would like to avoid taking the game into penalties as Germans have never lost in a penalty shoot-out in a World cup match (the Argentines bieng their latest victims.)

The Germans have never lost in Dortmund, are on a high after that epic win against Argentina, won their world cup last time in Italy itself, won the last world cup held in Germany, all their players are fit and in form. They just need to break the italian deadlock and im sure they could reach yet another WC final. thats what they are good at. reaching finals. They have played in 7 (more than any other team.) They were there last time around in 2002, they made 3 consecutive times in 1982, 1986, 1990. They are GOOD !!

Deja vu for England, Brazil !!

England Vs. Portugal

Score : 0-0 (1-3 on penalties)

# It was Deja vu for England as they went out of a major tournament on penalties for the 5th time in 16 years (WC 1990, 1998, 2006 ; Euro 1996, 2004) oddly enough it was Portugal who knocked them out on penalites in the Euro 2004 Quarterfinals too.
# Well the similarity dont end there, it was a young Manchester United player David Beckham who was sent off for kicking his opponent in 1998 before Argentina beat them on penalties , it was a young Manchester United star called Wayne Rooney this time.

# Ironically this was the first match in these finals when England actually played well , but were knocked out at the end of it.
# While Portugal missed their 2 penalties by simply shooting out , England missed their 3 after soem great saves by Portugese goalkeeper Ricardo.
# Frank Lampard took over 30 shots on goal in these finals (more than any other player.) but still couldnt score . Ironically he couldn't even score in the penalty shoot-out. Some things are not meant to be they say.



Photo : English Captain David Beckham spent what turned out to be his last hour of the world cup on the sidelines after picking up a foot injury.



Photo : Moment of Madness by the young Wayne Rooney.
Sent off after repeated requests from the portugese led by Ronaldo to the referee. Ronaldo was later seen winking at his teammates when referee showed the red.


Photo : Frank Lampard looks up for help after his penalty was saved by Ricardo.
Lampard took over 30 shots on goal in these finals (more than any other player.) but still couldnt score . Ironically he couldn't even score in the penalty shoot-out. Some things are not meant to be they say.



Photo : Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring the winning penalty that took his team into the semi finals

*******************************************

Brazil Vs. France

Score : Brazil 0 : 1 France

# Deja vu for Brazil, as the Les Blues led by the old horse Zinadine Zidane stunned them once more, 8 years after they defeated them 3-0 in the 1998 world cup final.
# As was the case 8 years ago , Brazil were clearly outclassed by the french specially by the twice former footballer of the year Zinedine Zidane. Yes !! He is back !!
# Brazil could not even manage a single shot on target the whole match until that late late weak header by Adriano. They were clueless while Zidane weaved his magic back. He was everywhere and it was he who delivered the inch perfect cross that was put in by a clinical Henry finsh. That goal saw one of the most horrible piece of defending in this world cup !! There were 5 brazilian players standing outside the penalty box, all alone, while just 3 brazilian defenders were marking 5 french players inside the penalty box. no one was marking Theirry Henry !!



Photo : Real madrid teammates Ronaldo and Zidane , two great players of their generations greet each other before what wud be the last WC match for one of them. (turned out to be ronaldo.)



Photo : Zidane in action , teasing the samba boys.



Photos : Brazil players dejected. Down and Out.

********************************************************

Down to the Big One's !!

QUARTERFINAL ONE
Germany Vs. Argentina

30th June

# Deutschland :

Key Players :

Michael ballack , Klose-Podolski pair, Philip Lahm , Frings, Klismann (their young enthusiastic Manager)

Strenghts :

Home nation, Efficient well organised stable attack, front two (Klose-Podolski in great form), All players fully fit and in form, Have tightened up their defence after intial hiccups, They have the status of the underdogs(so nothing to lose), Young team, Hungry for sucess, Klinsmann has given their nation a new hope and belief !

Weakness :

Their only weakness so far (unless the Argetines expose some other) has been their young un-experienced defence , but the Germans know their weakness as well as their strenths so u expect them to work on that !!

# República Argentina :

Key Players :

Juan Requilme, Maxi Rodriguez, Hernan Crespo, Lionel Messi, Roberto Ayala

Strengths :

has to be their Attack, they are playing the beautiful game the beautiful way, they have the right mixture of experience and youth

Weakness :

There are doubts still that will their style pf play work against good old european defensive set-up (they have struggled to score in their last 2 matches), thier defence isnt fool-proof.

# Well it doesnt get bigger than this, by far the biggest game of the WC yet , many fans are considering it to be the final itself. Two teams with rich WC history and tradition , 5 titles between them meet in the 72000 seater Berlin Stadium. The only disappontment bieng, its just a quarterfinal, but what the hell , its still special.

Its a repeat of the 1986 and 1990 world cup finals (Argentina and Germany won them respecively.) and there was nothing to choose between them at that time and the situation hasnt changed much today too. Though the Germans will go into this game as Underdogs but they have a tradition of doin well against the run of play , against the expectations , surprising everyone.

Both teams have brilliant attacks ; though differnt styles of play altogether, both defences are young and unexperienced , though Argentina hold the advantage here with the ageing veteran Ayala in their army. It could very well turn out to be a game of midfield battle (Ballack&Frings Vs. Riquilme&Co.)

Also Germany have had a easier run , havent really been tested as yet while Argentina had to swet it out against Ivory Coast,Holland and Mexico on their way.

So lets wait and watch as the two giants battle it out to get into the last four of what has been a really exciting world cup so far !!

QUARTERFINAL TWO

Italy Vs. Ukraine

30th June

# Italia :

Key Players :

Buffon, Nesta, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Totti

Strenghts :

The good old italian defence is as strong as ever with Cannavaro-Nesta central defence bieng rock solid and Materazzi filling in for injured Nesta once in a while. Midfield is strong with Gattuso , Cameronesi doing the holding job and Pirlo providing the creativity.

Weakness :

The forward line is a bit weak so could find it tough to score goals sometimes. Del Piero and Inzaghi have the expirience but are too old to run around for 90 minutes while Toni and Gilardino have the energy but lack the experince and temperament.

# Ukrayina :

Key players :

Andriy Shevchenko, Andriy Vorobyey

Strenghts :

good attack, status of underdogs, and also the tradition of one surprise semi-finalist supports them.

Weakness :

Big holes in the defense.

# Italy go into this match as hot favourites and Ukraine have nothing to lose , their world cup campaign bieng already a success having reached the quarterfinals in their first world cup appearance ever. Ukraine will go all out and give their everything , their star strikers against the reliable italian back four(they havent conceded a goal except that blunder own goal against US in the group stage.) but Italy would like to kill this game off early rather than leaving it to the 90th minute(like against Aussies). Lets hope Marcello Lippi doesnt take up the defend-and-counter-attack approach again and we get to see some exciting football from both sides rather than Shevchenko & Co. sweating it out against Cannacaro-Nesta and still ending on the losing side.

Prediction : Italy to win 1-0.

Top of the Tops !!

Top Matches : (in order they were played)

Germany Vs. Costa Rica (4-2) :
The best opening match EVER !! it was a thriller , a roller coaster ride , a perfect way to kick off things.

Italy Vs. USA (1-1)
Crazy Match No. 1

Sweden Vs. England (2-2)
One of the best goals, Late drama, End to end stuff, Joy to watch for the nuetrals.

Argentina Vs. Mexico (2-1)(ET)
Argentina had to sweat it out against a bold Mexican team , it took one of the best world cup goals ever by Rodriguez to finally jump the mexican hurdle !

Portugal Vs. Holland (1-0)
Crazy Match No. 2

Spain Vs. France (1-3)
A brilliant come-from-behind victory by France, Heartbreak for the underachieving Spanish. The ageing French superstars announced their arrival led by Zizou !!

Top Goals :

Torsten Frings Vs. Costa Rica , 4-2
A stunning unstoppable 40 yard drive was a joy to watch. The 87th minute strike also took off the pressure and put the game beyond Costa's reach.

Cambiasso Vs. Serbia , 2-0
A mersemerising 24 pass move by the argentines saw one of the best ever team goals in world cup finals, brilliant one touch football before Crespo's cunning backheel proved to be the killer pass that Cambiasso finished off.

Joe Cole Vs. Sweden , 1-0
A breathtaking 30 yard , diagonal volley from the young england star looped over as the goalkeeper stretched as fr as humanly possible only to brush the ball which went into the top-right corner. UNSTOPPABLE !!

Maxi Rodriguez Vs. Mexico , 2-1 (ET)
This has got to be the best Goal , not just quality wise but also because of the context in which it was scored. 8th minute of extra time and both teams were too tired to create anything when suddenly the genius in Rodriguez took over as he chested a lose ball and let in a scorcher from the corner of the penalty box and the whole world missed a heart beat as they saw the ball loop in over the goalkeeper's stretched hands in to the top left corner of the goal.