FOOTBALL VS THE ANTI-FOOTBALL

When jose mourinho was sent into the stands it was pretty much a statement of the obvious considering him and his real Madrid team had been reduced to a bunch of mere spectators on the night! Barcelona came into the bernabeu as the wounded. The wound in this case was pride. The king’s cup final defeat was definitely not easy on them and the mistakes were not to be repeated. But if mourinho’s theory of the pre match press conference being part of the match is to be believed then real Madrid were definitely better placed. Guardiola was clearly rattled and it got the better of him in the conference. The fact that he was with a team missing quite a few first choice players did not help. So considering these factors one would not have been surprised by a shock and awe early attacking burst by the two hundred million odd Euros of attacking talent in the Madrid squad. Unfortunately mr. mourinho was intent on parking the bus. At home! In the first leg of the semi final! Bizarre to say the least but if anyone knew how to stop Barcelona it was him. it was not to be however. One might remember that when mourinho’s inter beat Barcelona in last season’s semi final it was only in the second leg at the nou campthat he decided to park the bus. In the first leg at the san siro barca were beaten hands down three goals to one despite pedro scoring early. Inter’s three goals came in an excellent attacking and counter attacking display which included three strikers in the form of etoo, milito and pandev not to forgetWesley sneijder ( at the peak of his powers) pulling the strings in midfield and maicon marauding down the right flank. This year there was not one out and out striker in the starting line-up. Despite the presence of benzema, higuain and Emmanuel adebayor real Madrid started with cristiano ronaldo as a ‘striker’ if one may call it that with ozil and di maria for support. The other eight (yes eight!) players were given a primarily defensive role. Pepe and lassana diarra playing as defensive midfielders in front of the back four and the immense passing and creative talent of xabi Alonso wasted by also playing him as a midfield enforcer. Needless to say they did precious little in the first half and ozil was replaced by adebayor at half time. Not that this made much of a difference as the tactics didn’t change, just the personnel. Surely it should’ve been one of the holding midfielders and not ozil to be withdrawn halfway through. The second half contained the usual (in recent times) clasico suspects of controversies and marching orders before messi proved he is the best player in the world currently ( not  ronaldo who was off colour and fussy the entire time). Barcelona has a strong foot in the final now and coming back to ‘the special one’ himself- he might’ve proved he knows how to be a winner but in the context of the beautiful game he is fast becoming one of the biggest sinners! ( sepp blatter and his fifa cronies may soon have competition!)

snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

sport has always seen a bunch of chokers come to the fore at crucial times. when i say choker the most common names that come to mind are Roberto Baggio- the divine ponytail missing a crucial spotkick in the 1994 FIFA world cup finals, the comical pair of Klusener and Donald at edgbaston '99, schevchenko in the champions league final in Istanbul '05 and also more recently 'namma' Chennai superkings. this is very much in reference to their crazy game against the kings eleven Punjab- a team who couldn't buy a win for crying out loud! the commentators were calling it a one sided game as the superkings were cruising at the halfway mark of their innings. i still can't believe how they were able to lose the game from the state they were in. forget the super over. getting to a tied score from the position they were in itself seems like a bad joke. there were people actually leaving the stadium after the 15th over thinking that the Chennai outfit would coast to victory. i wonder how they felt when they got home and heard the news.it's almost as if the superkings felt bad for the other team and let them win! two things have been proved by this particular match- number one - t20 is the most unpredictable format and number two- Chennai needs the iceman Dhoni! Kemp getting injured was also a factor and the experiment gone wrong( i'm referring to the 'stroke of genius' promoting goni) but according to me Dhoni not being there was the difference! just imagine the difference had he been there. i'm sure he'd have calmly guided them to victory playing smart cricket rather than taking silly risks and throwing wickets away when the need of the hour was just singles and twos. Dhoni your team needs you! come back soon! bring back some sanity to this bunch of loons.

8300 odd kilometres...

If the title is a bit puzzling let me clear the air. the title refers to the approximate distance between two cities in the united kingdom and the city of Chennai, India. which two cities you may ask. let me give you a clue- think football. unless you've caught on late the two most obvious names to pop up in your head are the answers to my question.no prizes for guessing- Liverpool and Manchester! so let's put the pieces together now- football+Liverpool+Manchester.obvious answer again! the clash between Liverpool f.c. and Manchester united ( yes, you didn't read that wrong , Everton and Manchester city will never compare to the red side of their respective cities no matter what anyone does or says) is always the big clash of the season. now people may say that there's a big four or a big six or a big butt, but for a true fan this is the game to always look out for. derby games will always be derby games but this particular clash combines the tensions of a derby game and a cup final( thanks to the huge tv viewership just for this particular tie). the two clubs have always been fierce rivals and the clashes over the years have been classics. but enough of that now. the reason why the repercussions of this clash in the u.k. are felt in my little household is because we have two brothers who go from being ram-lakshman to pandav-kaurav with the very mention of something related to this tie. i am a liverpool fan and my kid brother supports the red devils. if you thought violent football fans were a sight to see only in footballing nations you'll be surprised at the violence this particular match causes at home. flashback to 53 weeks back from the day and you'll remember liverpool running riot in fergie's own backyard , old trafford. the score? 4-1 in favour of liverpool on that day. you know what's funny? this was a football match but my brother ended up hitting me with his cricket bat! i can assure you that hurt, but it was worth it seeing the reds outplay the red devils. and that's just the first incident that comes to mind. every time the two teams play the aftermath at home is terrible. i'm quite sure our neighbours' are either considering moving or suing us.at times we need to be isolated from each other for days till we cool off. so basically the point i'm trying to make is that this is the kind of passion people can have for sport. sometimes even forgetting the other person is your own brother. being indian caqn cricket ever be out of the picture? the ipl is back for it's third edition now and you might think violence might be on the cards again right? throw this question to my parents and neighbours' and i'm sure the answer will be "thank god they both support the superkings!".