Euro 2008 - Friday the 13th - Group of Death

Brrrrrrrrrrr...how ominous is today, its Friday the 13th and the most dangerous group, in the Euro 2008 football tournament, has two very critical matches. This group, the group of death, consists of 3 teams currently ranked in the top 10 teams of the world, world champions Italy, Netherlands and France.

The Dutch have been the most impressive, already thumping Italy 3-0. France has been dull, playing a very lackluster 0-0 draw with Romania. That brings us to today's fixtures, first Italy versus Romania. Must win game for Italy otherwise they are probably out and will no longer control their destiny. The second game is Netherlands versus France. Again France needs to win to remain alive. The draw between France and Romania has complicated matters but definitely made this group even more interesting...

My predictions for today ;-)
Italy wins 1-0 against Romania
1-1 draw between France and Netherlands

ps: I have a day job so don't go putting money behind these predictions :D

UEFA Champions League

Liverpool and AC Milan despite losing the first leg of their respective semi final matches came up with much better performances to win their second leg matches and make it through to the finals. The match up of Liverpool and Milan in the finals, which is the repeat of the 2005 finals, is the best I could have hoped for. In 2005 Liverpool beat AC Milan in penalties, this time I want and also think AC Milan to and will win. You have to look at Milan's matches with Manchester United to see why...

Liverpool had lost 0-1 to Chelsea in the first leg but won the 2nd leg 1-0. Being tied at an aggregate score of 1-1 the teams headed for penalties where Liverpool's goalkeeper pulled off two magnificent saves. He guessed right twice and saved two low and hard drives to send Liverpool into the finals. I saw the first leg and Chelsea looked better and I felt Chelsea would win the second leg too. But, I missed the second leg, from the reports I read Chelsea played with a very bad defensive strategy. They thought they would sit on the one goal lead but Liverpool made them pay. From the highlights Liverpool did look as the better team.

Now in the other semi final match up, AC Milan in the first leg, despite a stunning performance by Kaká had lost 2-3 to Manchester United. Dida, Milan's goalkeeper, had a very poor performance where he committed two bad mistakes that had resulted in goals. Dida's performance was so frustrating that one Milan fan had put Dida up on sale on eBay and just before eBay pulled out the auction item the best bid for the goalkeeper was just 96$s! Dida's second mistake was in the 91st minute deep in extra time that resulted in Milan going into the second leg down 2-3.
In the second leg Milan just outclassed ManU, winning 3-0 and thus going through on aggregate 5-3. I saw both the matches and ManU was a shadow of its own self in the second leg. They gave the ball away 21 times and C. Ronaldo was responsible for many of those. Kaká and Seedorf executed a perfect script to embarrass ManU. Milan used the home field advantage thoroughly, the San Siro crowd cheering every Kaká move and jeering every C. Ronaldo slip up.
Here is what one report had to say “Certainly, C Ronaldo owes his manager a performance after last night, so too Wayne Rooney, both of whom only needed to look to Kaká and Clarence Seedorf to know how true winners respond.”

During the first leg the commentators had gotten into an argument about who is better Kaká or C. Ronaldo. And obviously one English commentator picked C. Ronaldo and went on and on about his pace and brilliance. But the two matches showed how people should not even be mentioning C. Ronaldo along with Kaká. Kaká scored 3 goals in the two matches and two of them in the first leg were just his own sheer brilliance. C. Ronaldo had so much possession and took so many free kicks all amounting to nothing. But anytime Kaká had possession he was breathtakingly fluid with sublime control. He created opportunities all round and just ripped the ManU midfield and defense. After these two matches there is no doubt in my mind who I consider to be currently the best footballer in the world.

Highlights from the the first leg of the Milan vs ManU match, just keep your eyes on Kaká:

So now the world cup is over. There were these low, stupid and disgusting moments. There were these moments when all of us, great couch coaches that we are, were left scratching our heads as to what was going on the field with the players and coaches. We can argue how players play so well for their clubs but fail for their countries. BTW that to me is obvious given that they play for their club and the teammates there all year round, day in and day out but only start really getting ready for the world cup finals maybe only a month before. Some playing for foreign clubs return to their country only for that month. So let's not debate that. Actually I agree the bad moments in this world cup were probably in the majority but forget all that, this world cup did have its gems, it had a great changing of guards and it had its brilliant moments. I for one am going to look at what went well and not at how some of the players, coaches and teams, well, sucked and screwed up. You expected them to do well given their caliber and club record and past performance??? Well, too bad they dashed your hopes :)

This world cup as usual threw up its hard working and dedicated players like Pirlo (ITA), Gerrard (ENG), Cannavaro (ITA), Kaka (BRA), Cafu (BRA) etc who turn up to play every match for the love of the game and not worry about the money from the club vs the country. Zidane played well in the 2nd phase but his name is sadly missing due to the head butting incident but ya, he was good. It has thrown up loads of new talented players like Lahm (GER), obviously Messi (ARG), Tevez (ARG), Schweinsteiger (GER), Rebery (FRA), Podolski (GER), Van Persie (NED) etc. These are the players that I will follow and look forward to seeing them in action. Who cares about the C. Ronaldos etc etc. Not interested in them! :)

The names I listed above are not complete, there were players from less powerful football-ing nations who showed lot of speed, talent and grit. Maybe they played so well because they had nothing to lose, but yes lots of them were really good...

Now on to the Le Tour. You want a sport where everyone gives 100% all the time and that too, most of the times, for someone else? Go see the Tour de France...
Do you know who was the most popular sports figure in Germany in 2003? Michael Schumacher? Nope...Jan Ulrich, the leader of the T-Mobile cycling team. Sad that he was pulled out just before the start of this tour due to a doping allegation. Hope he clears his name...

The Azzurri win the world cup!!!
It was a hard fought game with Italy dominating the first half and the French coming back strongly in the second.

In the first half France got an early penalty and from what I saw it clearly looked like simulation. Malouda went down in the Italian penalty box and really there was no contact. The referee was a little far away and probably didn't see. Zidane took the cheekiest of penalties and scored with the ball luckily deflecting in after hitting the cross bar...
Italy struck back, Materazzi got redemption 13 minutes later as he headed in a perfect curving corner kick from Pirlo for a deserved goal. Materazzi had brought down Malouda earlier and conceded that penalty and maybe that’s why after scoring the goal he had both his hands raised and fingers pointed towards the heavens as a thank you gesture...

In the second half it was Buffon's two awesome saves, one off Zidane's powerful header and one off a lighting quick strike by Henry that kept Italy in the game.

Going into extra time the now infamous head gore incident happened. Zidane just lost it. It was totally uncalled for and very unsportsmanlike. He made full contact and knocked the player down. He was obviously sent off... At what point do you go from playing a sport to acting like a deranged person and assaulting a fellow player??? Sad ending to his illustrious international career…

Going into penalties, players from both the sides were inch perfect in their shots and both the goalkeepers couldn't get to anything. The only miss came from Trezeguet's, who had earlier replaced Henry for France, penalty which hit the cross bar and bounced out. So it ended 5-4 in Italy's favour. In my opinion Cannavaro was the man of the match. He tirelessly defended for the whole 120 minutes hardly putting a foot wrong and kept Zidane, Henry and Rebery at bay. Awesome effort and display…

Then the celebrations started and it included Camoranesi getting his long hair chopped to half its length probably due to a bet/wager...

I felt it was a deserving win for Italy for the way they played this whole world cup...

Italy vs France final hmmm...

The second semi-final between Portugal vs France just got over. France won 1-0 getting a goal through a penalty but Portugal played really well and had some really good chances. The best chance came from the free kick by C. Ronaldo. it was one of the best I have ever seen, the vertical dip the ball took was some sight, Barthez in the French goal had no idea and he just couldn't handle it. The ball bounced just off his chest and Figo had a free header from the rebound off Barthez but ended up heading it high.
Portugal kept trying and had a lot of near chances but failed to convert any. The commentators kept saying that they needed two forwards but Scolari never added the additional striker. In the dying minutes Portugal including their goalkeeper came up all the way into the French penalty box and there were quite a few nervous moments especially those final 2 corners. I felt Portugal deserved a goal but they lacked the finishing...

None of my 4 top teams made it to the final...at least Italy who was in the second list has made it :) France has peaked at the right time in this tournament. Zidane has taken opposing players to school on the field in the last 3 matches but my pick is still Italy to beat them in the finals. The only concern is the lack of a world class striker up front for the Italians...

Everything has its ups and downs and the football WC'06 had its major down yesterday.
The much awaited match between Portugal and Netherlands was expected to be a nail biting affair expected to go all the way to the penalties. A matchup of two teams so equal that almost everyone was having trouble picking the winner. Unfortunately the match turned out to be "bruiser" with regular fights breaking out. 16 yellow cards 4 players sent off, Luis Figo the captain and senior player of Portugal head butting a Dutch player. Any time there was a foul there would be a huddle with heated arguments between players and then suddenly players would fly out of the huddle...

Portual won 1-0 but they paid a heavy price and may be without their top 3 playes Figo, Deco and C Ronaldo when they meet England (#$%@#$ England have really gotten lucky) next. At full strength Portugal would have beaten England fairly easily but now England have the upper hand...

I played football :)))
God knows after how long I stepped on to a proper playing field (not court, mind you) and played for nearly 2 hours with a fairly serious set of players :)))

German Engineering...
That's how I would describe Germany's 3-nil victory over Ecuador. Engineered as well as their Mercs or BMWs...
Obviously with this result I take away the "Dark Horse" label from Ecuador...

Couple of funny incidents:
- During the Croatia vs Japan match, Croatia's player Srna who had already missed a penalty and in the 4-5 corner kicks he had taken he had stupidly curled 3-4 of them over the side lines (rendering them "out" from the time he had kicked them), so at the 6th or so corner the commentator goes dryly "Mr Srna, if you want to have a professional career after the world cup, you better not curl this one over side line". :)))

- In the England vs Sweden match, after England had made about 10 or so dry, and harmless passes in the backfield the Swedish crowd started boo'ing them and the commentator goes "The Swedish crowd boo'ing England. England maybe think they are Argentina" obviously referencing to the fabulous 24 pass goal by Argentina. :)))

Here is how I think the teams are stacking up...

The top 4 (in descending order):
- Argentina
- Germany
- Brazil
- Spain

Teams that are waiting at the front gate:
- Netherlands
- Italy

Teams that are knocking on the back door (trying to sneak in when everyone is looking away):
- Portugal

Raauuuuul!!!

Thats the sound of the pressure being released from the pressure cooker situation in the Spain vs Tunisia match when Raul scored a goal to equalize 1-1. Tunisia scored early in the 8th minute and it took until the 71st minute of the match for Spain to strike back. Spain played an amazingly controlled and patient game never deviating from their style and kept bulding the pressure until it all paid off with Raul's goal...

Since then they have scored again and are now winning 2-1...

This is the 32nd match of the 2006 world cup. Half the world cup is over :(((

In vein with the Da Vinci Code here is a riddle...

The orb that can't be handled by anyone except by one in the rear and was used to escape to victory

Got it??

It’s a football!!! Escape to Victory

So after watching endless hours of the 2006 football world cup matches here are some thoughts…

- Argentina is my pick to win the whole thing and it is the only team that can challenge the Brazilian team. Messi is all that he is made out to be and he is still 18 (till 24th June).

- Czech Republic who I thought would make to the last 4 have done themselves in with their performance against Ghana. Kudos to Ghana. Their group "The group of death" (Italy, Ghana, USA and Czech) is down to the wire on 22nd June. Do not miss those matches. Italy vs Czech and Ghana vs USA.

- Asian teams will probably not shine like the last world cup. Rooting for Korea, they will have to play really well to beat France next. Saudi Arabia really lucked out against Tunisia.

Awesome matches
- Australia vs Japan. 3-1. Australia score 3 goals in the last 8 minutes after being down 0-1.

- Argentina vs Serbia & Montenegro. 6-0. School is in session :)

- Czech vs USA. 3-0. Total football by Nedved and Rosicky.

Bad matches
- Anything with England :). Seriously.

- Italy vs USA. The players are not to blame the referee just got it all wrong. The 2 red cards to the USA were totally out of whack.

Dark horses
- Ecuador

More later...