QF: Deutschland v Portugal

After Italy sent uncle Henry's France packing, yesterday a young Russian team did the same to uncle Henrik's aging Sweden. Henrik Larsson has been a much better footballer for Sweden, than his 'dark' look alike Henry has been, for France. But amazingly, he having retired once, after Sweden's 2006 WC defeat, wants to continue at the age of 36! I guess old footballers don't die. They just loose their balls.
Talking of people who have lost it (apart from crucial matches) Domenech the Demented takes the cake. He reportedly proposed marraige to his long time partner immediately after loosing the match to Italy. Estelle Denis is the 'lucky' lady - young enough to be his daughter but old enough to be the mother of his two kids. I suppose that the effect that President Sarkozy has on his likeminded subjects. It is Domenech's personal matter but the timing of his announcement, taken together with his other comments (Holland-Romania match will be fixed in favor of Romania, France was done in by the referee against Italy), makes one wonder, whether at all he focussed on job at hand at any point in time. Raymond Domenech has to be, easily the worst coach of Euro 2008, in every respect.

Talk of coaches and the Bundestrainer will be barred from the team dugout for the QF and will have to witness the match as a spectator in the stands - win or loose. Low has other more important problems though. Podolski and Frings are nursing injuries. Thats two lame ducks for Germany if they play. Sweinsteiger, Ballack and Lehmann will worry about another yellow card because if they get one they could miss the SF. Thats four lame ducks and dodo (Lehmann) even before the start of the QF. Add to this the 'invisible man' of Euro 2008 - Miroslav Klose. Throw in Mario Gomez who is just behind Luca Toni in missed opportunities. Interestingly Mario Gomez was scored 19 goals to Luca Toni's 25 in the Bundesliga. Apart from the weaknesses Germany has (as mentioned in earlier post) the one thing that strikes me about this German side is that they seem to have too many of 'exports' these days...a la the French!
All in all, it appears that Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft has Druid Getafix's recipe for total disaster. But as Big Phil admits, count them out at your own peril. Not for nothing, are the German's three times champions of the World and Europe.

And about Portugal - Domenech the Demented was thinking Estelle even as France played Italy for a QF spot. Big Phil and Ronaldo are thinking dollars coming from Chelsea and Real Madrid respectively. A loss in the dead rubber of a last match of the group stage is in no way a morale booster or ideal preparation for the QFs. Also Portugal has no less than five players who will worry about missing the semi-final if they get another yellow card.

It is difficult to tell which of the two sides will be stonger in the mind. Germany for the first time since I started watching football appears to be a shade weaker. They have a 9-2 win-loss record in the knockout stages of the tournament but there is danger it will be dented further tonite.

QF stage

Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Holland, Croatia and one of either Russia or Sweden will fight it out for the semi-final places. I wrote earlier that the best football may already be over and then maybe not. Certainly above named are indeed the best in Europe so there is enough reason to be optimistic. Marco Van Basten's flying Dutch promise the most and seem to be headed for glory this time. The unity in this team is spoken of and written about which is a welcome change for the talented Dutch. They have scored 9 goals in three matchs and outclassed opponents by such huge margins that nothing less than winning the cup is expected of them. Skill, strength, speed, strategy and stars....you name it and they have it. Lady Luck is a different proposition altogether...and the other pretenders to the throne can never be discounted once you go beyond the group stage.
A determined Italy deserved to join the last eight. De Rossi lived up to my expectations and how?! He was the man of the match, more for his box to box play and brilliant passing than because of the goal off old man Henry. How can Domenech the Demented get it so wrong? His team selection, tactics, substitutions confounded both critics and football fans. Once Rebery was injured the French challenge was as good as over. Luca Toni did everything he could to miss all opportunities created by Pirlo, De Rossi, Grosso and others...that was until Abidal choked and saw red. Pirlo prevented any further nonsense from Toni and established Italy on the path to the QF. With no Pirlo and Gatusso in the QF it will be tough for the Azzuri against Spain.
Best part of the match was to watch Donadoni go through a range of emotions. Be it tactics or drama, it was humanely endearing stuff from the Itallian coach. In comparision Domenech the Demented cut a forlorn figure.
Can Russia beat the Swedes? I hope they can. They are the youngest team in the competetion and Sweden are the oldest! Also Russian's, I understand, are the only team of this tournament who do not have their own cook or dietician. What they do have is a Dutch coach with an incredible record at major touranaments with many different sides.
I am supporting the Russians. If they progress they will be everyones favorite underdogs.

Best of Euro 2008

Yes. Perhaps the best matches of Euro 2008 have already been played. The best football of European brand was on display in France v Holland and Turkey v Czech Republic games.
Holland on the face of it thrashed France 4-1 but anyone who saw the game live will tell you that it was a close contest. France was lacking the finish and Henry showed why he never managed to take Arsenal higher in the Champions league. Henry is half a player a Zizou was and that is the best that can be said of him or France without Zizou all things remaining equal - which clearly is not the case any more in the French defence as well. Well, supporters of any team with Henry or Jens Lehmann, must pray more if their team is to win. Having followed the fortunes of Arsenal during the heydey of both Henry and Lehmann,I have seen many a crucial mishaps by both of them. I dare say that German supporters have reason to be afraid....very afraid. All said and done France was at its fluid best for a long time and the match against Holland will surely go down as one of the best matches in Euro 2008. Djibril Cisse must have watched Henry miss those sitters with disgust. If France fail to go through Domenech will be known as Domenech the Demented. But nothing can be taken away from the clinical efficiency or the surgical precision of the Dutch. Arjen Robben has finally arrived if he can guide Holland beyond the quarter finals. They will do well to not allow a rematch with either France or Italy in the SF. Romania deserves to go through for the way the played against Italy. Brilliant football again by the Itallians but clearly Toni and Del Piero have limitations. Toni cannot dribble and use his feet. Either that or he has been told not to. His headers lack the power and precision of the past. Del Piero lacks pace. De Rossi has to come to the fore if Italy has to make it to the next round......also Romania has to loose. Romania's 'Don' Mutu(swami) will forever curse himself for missing the penalty against Italy if they loose the last match against Holland.
Italy's Buffon was exceptional but the best goalkeeper of the tournament has to be Russia's Igor Akinfeev. Spain's David Villa is the find of the tournament so far and only the indomitable Turks - Arda Turan and Nihat Kahveci - together with Holland's Wesley Sneijder compete with him. Turkey v Czech Republic match lived up to expectations. In arguably the match of the tournament so far Nihat led with a lion's heart in Emre's absence, scored two goals in four minutes, as Turkey snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. What a sad end to striker Jan Koller's and coach Karel Bruckner's illustrious careers! Both these teams promised a lot in the last few years and achieved little. Turkey may yet not go the whole distance but with a win like this who knows? They will be all fired up to do the impossible now. Fatih Terim of Turkey and Slaven Bilic of Crotia will now have a face off in the quarter finals for the title of the Best Coach of Euro 2008.
Germany faces death at the hands of Austria....Italy and France pray the Dutch for mercy...Sweden may come to grief against the Russians...perhaps the best of Euro 2008 is yet to come!

Watch out for Italy v France, Sweden v Russia and Crotia v Turkey (QF).

P.S: Greece is out....how wonderful!? The worst team to have won the European Champions tag has a first round exit!!!

Euro 2008

I don't know why Italy and Germany's losses have to be regarded as upsets. In the last decade or so Holland and Croatia have put up some very strong squads that achieved less than what they could have with a little bit of luck. These matches were always going to be close and it shows in the amount interest they generate around the world.
What I cannot fathom is the ease with which Italy and Germany lost.
I started following football since 1982 when Paulo Rossi won the world cup for Italy. Subsequently Maradona and Mathaus ensured that the interest never died and love for game grew stronger. Never mind the fact that Bhutia's India IX rank on the wrong side of hundred in FIFA world rankings.
Talking of rankings here is an interesting statistic on football coaches. That is perhaps one reason why Croats should not have been taken lightly. Of course the team does the job but then they have produced some excellent footballers time after time. Davor Suker from the class of WC 1998 has retired, but this team is equally talented. Luka Modric is, according to the Croatian coach, 2nd best only to Kaka of Brazil. Germany had serious opponent to conquer and they failed.
The Germans and the Italians can still bounce back...Germany though has shown some problem areas. The difference between this side and that of the past is that it no longer reigns supreme in the air (headers). The ability to score from long range is missing and also their strong physical presence on the field has been tempered by the changes to the game that FIFA has implemented over the years.
Bastian Shweinsteiger's red card could come back to haunt Germany even if they qualify for the next round.
Holland v France , France v Italy , Turkey v Czech Republic are all going to be pretty close contests.

IPL

Work, health and other commitments took turns to ensure I stayed away from my blog. But I am back now.

IPL - Was a grand success and I have to admit that it defied my prediction. What I made of the various outfits that competed and also their constituent members including the so called icon players however remains unchanged. A few words on IPL -
Pawar exacted his revenge on Punter as only the wily Maratha strongman could. He also managed to clip the high flying Turbanators wings. Lalit Modi ensured the tournament was a grand success. Shahrukh Khan sold KKR so wonderfully that it has more suppporters that any other team and money as well. Sean Marsh with the maximum number of runs in the IPL hinted that perhaps T20 is not vastly different from normal cricket (Test and ODI). IPL also proved that Australlians still rule the world of cricket - Shane Warne doing a Lagaan with Rajasthan Royals and Shane Watson winning the top cricketers tag at IPL. For Indian cricketers - including those who did not get selected in the national side - the IPL seems to have been a big boost of confidence and bank balance as well. Indeed this confidence reflects in the win over Pakistan in Mirpur by our first eleven yesterday. A record margin at that. Some new names have come to the fore for India because of IPL - Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, Manpreet Gony.
On the flip side -
The 'cheer leader' concept is ghastly. I will say no more about it. The fact that two highly successful teams (Mohali and Jaipur) are owned in part by Lalit Modi's relatives needs to be investigated. There were more than a few administrative glitches that need to be fixed before the next IPL event. Gaps between Indian talent and the overseas talent is immense. Asnodkars, Pathans, Jadejas, Gonys are nowhere near the class of Shane Watson or Sean Marsh. Balaji, Nehra, Zaheer, Agarkar are spent forces. Same applies to Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. Owners of certain teams need to be sober in their actions and words. Case in point is the King of Booze. It was sad to see a few cricketers like Ranadeb Bose get completly shunted out. Some cricketers need to demonstrate some humility - India U19 captain (whatsisname?), Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh amongst many other over rated individuals. Others need to prove that they were born with a brain and still have it - Bhajji, Sreesanth, Nehra. Then those like Jadeja, Asnodkar, Ojha, Saha, Laxmi Ratan Shukla will need a reality check. They may never get beyond IPL unless they improve drastically. I am tempted to add to the last list the names of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman.....in that order.
Dravid perhaps already has done the check himself given his teams performance and his recent comments about T20. Tendulkar continues to play a few matches, despite his injuries and duly gets his stumps cleaned up by ordinary bowlers. His range of shots has gone down dramatically. If Sachin is a lame cow then what can one make of Dada? His repeated assertions about his batting form can fool only himself. He may have chosen to go out screaming, feet first and all that but will need to ensure that his pants dont get pulled off in the process. Laxaman is Laxativeman. Our selectors really need to find a replacement for him in tests as wells. This despite his performance down under.
Well to sum up, nothing succeeds like success and IPL has been a success. Not all owners may have made money ....certainly not the owners of Deccan Chargers who were left holding the wooden spoon despite individual heroics from Rohit Sharma, Gilchrist, R P Singh. It remains to be seen as to what impact this will have on first class tourneys like Ranji Trophy, other competitions like zonal cricket and even local tournaments like Kanga League in Mumbai. History has been made and perhaps the game itself is at crossroads. Where IPL will lead it to only time can tell.

Obnoxious Little Weed V GM Yam

Between my last post and this one a lot has happened in cricket....IPL etc. Most importantly though - The vilest bunch of cricketers the world has ever seen have had their Pinocchio noses rubbed into the Perth pitch. The icing on the cake is that they have been beaten at the very ground they equaled there own world record aided by the most blatantly biased officials any international sport has ever witnessed.
The not-so-great-after-all Australian Cricket team, the reigning ICC Champions, shorn of all official support, with a dose of their own bitter medicine, have now lost a test match and an ODI in their own backyard....and how!!!

The rabid posturing by the Aussie bastards (this isn’t a derogatory term down under) seems to go on from strength to strength. These bastards include everyone from the creeps that insult the baggy green by wearing it, the ACB, their demented supporters and the Aussie media. What the Genetically Modified Supersized Yam, the Hollow Halloween Pumpkin and the Pesky Leaf Cactus started, the stinkers in Aussie media are content to carry forward. The moment it seemed that GM Yam had knocked himself out (and in the process thumbed his nose to his own religious beliefs) the stinkers have entered the ring and tried to put Bhajji out of the game for good.
What these bastards failed to realize because of their collective single digit IQ is that Bhajji would have been dropped by now had purely cricketing merits been a criterion for selection. Be that as it is, it seems that Devine forces were jolted into action by the Sydney events and ever since it has gone all pear shaped for the Pesky Punter. In what is a battle between David and Goliath, David has won yet again. Obnoxious Little Weed was the cause for the downfall of the GM Supersized Yam. God is in heaven. He writes such wonderful scripts. Even if India fails to win the tri-series, from here onwards, the Aussie cricket team will have lost all respect from the rest of the world. Their constituents may love each other to Hell and beyond.

It is now just a matter of time before the Pesky Punter himself will throw in the towel or risk getting booted out by his own board.

6Jan2007: India defeats Australia

Kumble summed it up - "Only one team played the game in the right spirit". Kumble is only 5 tests old and he has with his performance with the bat, ball and as leader of men, established himself as a truly great captain, ambassador of India and also for the game of cricket.
While Australia and Ponting won the Sydney test match, India and Kumble took the game away from team that has been crowned as champions of Test Cricket by none other that that sleeper cell of Al Qaeda ...also know as the ICC.

With only five days of competetive cricket and just one sentence reminiscent of the Bodyline series...India and Kumble relegated the claimants to the 'Invincibles' tag to a position next to Douglas Jardine's Englishmen. Well at the time of writing this Bhajji is banned and Bucknor is damned but we haven't heard the last of this sordid drama, that the cheats down under call aggressive cricket played by the rules. The Taliban commander Rocky Ponting unhappy with his arrangement in hell, might yet order old Mr.Jardine to vacate his seat. Move over Mr.Jardine before you too get banned ....here comes Mr.Ponting.

While Punter is lording over the nether world (as henceforth I shall refer the place they call Down Under), I wonder who is best placed to fan the fire under his constipated ...well...that place down and under? Competetion is hot for the job - Bucknor, Benson, the Monkey, or that young Dog they call Pup?? While all of these creeps have booked their one way ticket to hell to join Punter, I think the one that will not only roast there in peace, but also will be made to work as a slave to fan the fires under Punter's butt has to be the Devil himself.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was that he didn't exist.

The Devil convinced everyone that he is a champion of fair play. He even created a smokescreen of so called opposition to his propositions by own teammates. Unlike Punter he supposedly believes in 'walking' when there is a nick....and so on and so forth... and then when his side seems to be not getting what it wants most at all cost ...at the cost of the game itself... he sheds his garb and rears his ugly head...comes out to show his truly colours. My lasting memory of the SCG test ending on 6Jan'07 will be that of the Devil watching the Monkey's delivery...just kiss the Wall's front pad, with his bat safely away from the kiss of death and so too the gloves. My lasting memory will again be that of the glint in the Devil's eyes..fixed on the ball as it missed Dravid's bat and gloves and ended up in his own. My lasting memory will be that of the Devil jumping up in joy and claiming a catch where there was none and opening up the door to 'victory' for his side....and Hell too. But these now are the days when the Devil keeps wickets for Australia and is known to us as Adam Gilchrist!