Friday, July 28, 2006

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.

Monday, July 10, 2006

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.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

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.


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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.

Monday, July 03, 2006

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 !!

Sunday, July 02, 2006

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

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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.

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