It is a discreditable way to win

The neutral s and especially the Real Madrid fans, would feel that Real Madrid were denied of an equal chance and lost to Barcelona in yesterdays Champions League Semi final first leg mainly due to the mistake of the Referee. The one brainless decision to straight away red card Pepe for a non malicious ordinary foul virtually sealed the match and in most probability the Semi final. The same thought was expressed by Jose Mourinho the Real Madrid Coach, who said "Obviously in the return leg it's a very difficult mission, It's not very difficult, it's impossible.”

The people who saw the match yesterday will know that even if Barcelona played the better football they never ever looked threatening as long as it was 11 on 11, and would have struggled to score even a single goal. It was interesting to note that the very famous Barcelona players were great play actors and tried to get extra punishment by holding their faces when they did not even get a touch any where near their face (Pedro and Puyol are best actors whose performance is still very vivid in my memory). So it was hardly surprising when the red card was finally shown, it was like the Barcelona players had just won the Oscars.

I have two questions to ask one is why do we have these referees for such an important game? And secondly, why does this always happen to opponents of Barcelona, especially in key matches?

Sure it can not be coincidence, and like Jose mourinho said this is not the way a great team like Barcelona should make it to the final, if they make the final and win it, it would be a shame. This match was rightly called the ‘Scandal of the Bernabeu’ and brings into memory Barcelona’s infamous win against Chelsea, who were denied multiple penalty claims, before losing in the semi final, which eventually Barcelona won.

It is a pity that such a great team like Barcelona, needs these favourable decisions to win the key matches especially in the Champions League.

World Cup & South Africa - Part 1 - Johannesburg

I should say I am fortunate as a football fan, for not every fan will be able to fulfill one of their greatest dreams of seeing the Football World Cup in South Africa, and for this I am obliged to God. The credit for me making this successful trip should also go to three people who are very close to my heart – Zacchy, my nephew for planting the idea in my head, Bindu, my wife for supporting and encouraging me all along and Jeff, my close friend the main reason for the trip besides football.

I reached OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg on the beautiful morning of 23rd July 2010 at 8:30 AM by the South African Airways flight. The 30 minute wait near the FIFA ticket counter, as decided earlier for Jeff, was mixed with anxiety and Joy, and I should say, I was pleasantly surprised and quite relieved to see Jeff coming, in his trademark walking style, with a large bottle of ‘Lambs Rum’ in one hand. After all Jeff was an international travel veteran and did most of the planning if not all, for this dream come true trip. We quickly collected our match tickets, the local MTN sim and were enquiring about the transport facilities in the FIFA information counter when we apprehensively noticed a little smiling man, showing more than the casual interest in our conversation and said that he would be willing to drop us to our place in his car for a more economical amount of 150 Rands. Jeff and I, reluctanly started talking to this man but quickly decided to travel with him. Little did we know that this man, Samuel would be our travel guide and become our very good friend in the course of the next couple of days.

We reached the ‘Medhurst Complex’ in Johannesburg University where we had booked our stay along with 3 other friends from Singapore (Farhan, Kieth and Diana), whom Jeff had made friends through online interactions,who were also going to accompany us for the rest of the trip.
Just as we were settling in to our room, Farhan entered with a bottle of whisky and couple of glasses in his hand, from that very first moment, I felt we shared something nice, so we decided to say ‘cheers’ with the smallest of drinks, served more as a welcome note. One look at their room was all it took for Jeff to realise they will not be able to travel with us immediately, so Jeff and I, left along with Samuel in his car, after weighing our options we decided that we will go to Gold Reef City.

Gold Reef City is a uniquely South African, world famous theme park which is just 8 kilometres from the centre of Jo’burg, offering the widest range of features and attractions in Africa and with an exhilarating Casino complex, alive with the excitement and buzz. It had a lot of really exciting thrill rides like Tower of terror, Jozi express, the Anaconda, Golden loop and the Miners revenge, along with lots of other less adventourous rides and children rides. Please use this link to explore all the rides in the park http://www.goldreefcity.co.za/themepark_rides_home.php.

I should say some of the rides were really intimidating, allowing us to scream, bringing out the children in us and enjoying the thrills to our hearts content. We quickly covered most of the challenging rides, and also got see some live entertainment like the tribal dance, and got a little insight into Jozi’s story of Gold and also got to see the ‘Gold panning’ the way it was done traditionally.

We asked Samuel to take us to traditional African style restaurant for lunch and he took us to moderate restaurant in town, where we had Rice and gravy with large pieces of meat, which was quite nice. I should admit though the place had a strange smell of non veg soup/gravy which was not too comfortable. We then went to the local market and brought a couple of ‘vuvuzela’s the famous plastic horn, usually of about 2 feet long, that produces a loud monotone note. Next, we headed to the Sandton City, shopping centre, where we got our faces painted by a pretty lady, with flags of our supporting nation, for the evening’s game between Germany and Ghana. We also did a little window shopping, with the sole intention understanding the cost of things in this part of the world.

Time was just flying and we realised that it was time for us to head to the FNB or Soccer city stadium, the largest stadium in Africa, with a maximum capacity of nearly 85000. The 2 odd kilometre walk from where Samuel dropped us to the stadium was a pure delight, with hundreds of football fans from different nations, singing and blowing vuvuzela’s, showing their passion and joy of going to see the world Cup match.

It was fun to be moving along with such a passionate crowd, our hearts filled with the excitement and joy, realizing that we were extremely close to realising our dream and that of every passionate football fan, to see a World Cup match. The stadium was site to behold, its earthen colours with a ring of lights running around the bottom of the structure, simulating fire underneath the pot, making a perfect back ground for some memorable pictures.

The security check was swift and orderly, and Jeff in his unique style managed to sneak in the hip flask with the precious Lambs rum. After soaking in the atmosphere in and around the stadium we reached our clearly marked chairs. The stadium had three tiers of stands and we were in the top most of them, giving us clear picture of the ground below and also the nearly capacity crowd.

Jeff and I shared few drinks right in the stadium, where beer was the only allowed drink that too which had to be brought from the stadium premise.

Seeing the two teams practice, coming out of the tunnel, lineup for introductions, and actually playing right in front of you is something which can not be expressed, it has to be experienced to be believed. It was sheer pleasure to be midst of 84000+ football passionate crowd, actually seeing what you always dreamed of. On the 60th minute of the game we witnessed our first world cup goal, the only one of the game scored by Germany’s Mesut Oezil.

It was interesting to note that Ghana had the majority of the support, being an African nation and the Goal actually dropped the enthuiasm of the crowd. The crowd had a happy ending because though Ghana lost the match, they had qualified to the next stage thanks to results of the other match played at the same time. It was great to see the unbound joy of the supporters as the large screens flashed the news of Ghana qualifying to the next stage. We hence had the privilege of seeing the whole stadium celebrating together because of the unique situation, and what a celebration it was! It was an effort actually to not get too involved in the celebrations and make way to designated place where we were supposed meet our friends from Singapore.

We got a drop to our hostel, in one of their friend’s car and we reached our rooms quite late, in the early hours of the next day, after a little adventure of losing our way, which I was completely unaware as I had fallen asleep on the way, and was informed when we stopped to buy quick take aways to satisfy our hunger.

Jeff and I, bieng early raisers got up by 7:00 AM and strolled around the University campus, clicking a few pictures and went to have a great breakfast in Mike’s Kitchen, a family oriented restaurant serving some amazing food (http://www.restaurants.co.za/details.asp?resId=3652). The university had a large campus and a beautiful ground, and incidently the Dutch football team had used this as their practice ground. We packed our luggages and realised that waiting for our Singapore friends to join us for sightseeing was not a posibility atleast in the morning; as they were still asleep after an extra long night and also seeing the things they had to pack considering that we had the 6:00 PM flight to Port Elizabeth. So we called Samuel and decided to spend the day ourselves, promising to pick them before going to the Airport.

We headed to the place called the ‘Cradle of the humankind’ a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. This site currently occupies 47,000 hectares and contains a complex of limestone caves. The name reflects the fact that the site has produced a large number, as well as some of the oldest, hominid fossils ever found, some dating back as far as 3.5 million years ago and it is widely believed that life originated from here.



We realised that there was also a Rhino and Lions Nature Reserve with in the ‘Cradle of humankind’ and the combined tickets for the seeing the Caves and the Nature reserve was a good bargain. The Reserve is 1200 hectares and has more then 600 animals with nearly 30 different species, including 3 of the big 5 namely Lion, Buffalo and Rhino.

The interesting part is that we can self drive the car along the well marked route, and our initial sightings included ostrichs, Wild Beasts and Deers. As we moved in furthur we saw a herd of Bisons, and encouraged by the cars ahead of us we stopped our car in the middle of the herd and it was nice feeling to be surrounded these huge beasts.

The next sight was nothing short of astonishing, we saw a lioness lying near the road allowing us to get very close, within a few metres, and watch her peacefully soaking in the warmth of the sunlight. We alaso a saw few Rhino’s before heading to the entrance of the cave for the guided tour.

The Wonder Cave is the third-largest cave chamber in the South Africa and believed to be about 2.2 billion years old. The sixty metre deep cave can be accessed by combination a narrow flight of steps and a classic elevator. It was discovered in the late 19th century by miners who dynamited and excavated limestone for the making of cement.


The cave has about 14 stalactite and stalagmite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalagmite) formations up to 15 metres high, 85% of which are still growing. One such formation has got the name of ‘The praying Mary’ due to close resemblance and is a true wonder to watch considering it has taken millions of years to form.

We went back to the town to pick our Singapore friends and we all just reached in time to board our British Airways flight to Port Elizabeth after grabbing some quick takeaways from “Subway’ within the Airport as our lunch/snacks, bidding temperory farewell to Johannesburg.

Click here to read the second part our experiences in Port Elizabeth and Garden Route

Football - My Passion

There have been a lot of people who have asked why I am passionate about football and why I travelled to South Africa to see World Cup considering the risks involved, I always found it extremely hard to make them understand, and according to me it has to be experienced. For someone like me who grew up playing football from a very young age in a small village called Venkitangu in Kerala, for whom playing football was experiencing ecstasy beyond compare, enabling me to exhaust all my physical strength, forgetting everything from pain to sorrow, football is much more than a'passion'.

I still remember the earlier days, when we used to play matches with neighboring villages having just 3-4 members a side, the amount of running one had to do was unbelievable even for a 40 minute game, and you could not stop even if you are hurt, even if one player stopped then the team was sure to lose. we played like there was no tomorrow, falling often and getting scars some of which have remained till date, but I still do not remember stopping a game because of pain, it was only after the game you realized the pain, and you always felt the game was worth it and there was never ever even a slightest feeling of regret.

Football had become a part of me, so when I moved to Bangalore I could not help but continue playing the beautiful game. I remember the games with my cousin and a few friends on the tarred roads of first block Koramangala and matches in the Police quarters ground with my school mates and their neighbors. Then I moved to 7th block Koramangala and almost the same time I joined St. Josephs school, the high school days were filled with football, on a typical day I would spend 20 minutes playing football while waiting for the school bus, almost 30 minutes after lunch in the school and atleast about an hour in the evening near the house. Saturdays and Sundays saw us playing matches with the neighboring blocks in Koramangala, most notably with the KHB colony team. I remember most of us played the opposition like they were our enemies; it would be fair to say that it is only after the game that we became humans again.

Football taught me to respect people for the their game, I remember the captain from KHB colony team who used to the target of our calculated attacks when we play, but after the game I always had a feeling he was a very good person just by judging the way he plays football and behaves on the field. Football gave me some of my best friends, most notably Gopakumar (Gopi) who was one year my junior but the respect for each others game became a pivotal bonding in our unforgettable friendship. Playing football in St. Josephs I H S during lunch break was an experience, on a typical day there would be around 20-25 teams playing on the two grounds available. So a ground of 150ftx250ft had about 100 odd children playing and it was common for someone like me to run past the players only to bang head-on to players from other teams apart from your opposing team. And a lot of times the game used to be played using the ‘rubber balls’ or ‘tennis balls’ and you can imagine the task of guiding the small ball through a crowd of players with out getting kicked on your legs. I also got to play couple of times for the school team when they had shortage of regular players. I was never part of regular school team, for a couple of reasons one I was not so good and the second I was never able to go for the practice and it was mandatory to go for morning practices at about 6 AM to be part of the regular team.

The college days in St. Josephs was fun although the playing time reduced considerably, we still played whenever we could, sometimes even in the commerce college grounds. The highlight happened during my degree days (3 months before I joined engineering), we had an intra college tournament and I was the captain of my ‘class team’ and we won 6-7 matches to win the championship defeating the teams from 2nd and final year degree classes. I just can not forget the final against a third year team which had 7 players from the college team; we beat them in the penalties after a 1-1 draw in the regular time. The only goal in regular time from our team being scored by me, I also managed to score in the penalty kicks. This was great achievement as we had put together a new team from our class 40 odd students, most of us hardly knowing each other as we had joined Degree College just a month or two back.

The engineering days gave opportunity for even more football, we used to play almost every evening even compromising the time with girls/girlfriends, going for movies and of course drinking with friends, which was the most sought after activities in small town like Tumkur. For a few of us football had the top priority and everything else came a distant second. I was lucky to have room mates like Jeff and Jijo, who were equally passionate about the game. Most of the days we used to play till it becomes dark and then have a lazy walk to our house to have showers and by the time we are back from the mess after a good dinner we were completely exhausted to do anything but sleep. In our college we had the inter-departmental tournament every year and I remember I had the privilege of being in the Electronics team all the 3 years it was conducted, it was achievement to be in the team when I was in first year as we still had the last batch of annual scheme and a lot of players from 2nd to 4th year. I remember the team had more than 70 percent of players from final year and annual scheme, and there were only Rajeev and me that played from 1st year. We won the tournament all the three years and I also had the privilege of being the captain of the team when we won the tournament during my final year.

After the engineering days I still continued playing football regularly for the next 3-4 years. During this period I also experienced my most difficult time on personal front, staying alone in an isolated room for reasons I can not detail, being away from my complete family for the first and only time, football being only recreation and the saving grace. The trying times for any normal person became truly an enjoyable time for me that was the time I realized that I do not need anyone or anything in the world as long as I had football. I realised that throughout my life with its moments of despair, playing football was the most important aspect which kept me happy and healthy.

The regular work timing has almost completely stopped me from playing football since 2004, and as they say in football 6 years is a very long time, which I realized the hard way in the occasional games I play with my nephews and their friends these days. I am rusty and with a pouch the size of a small football, it is battle to keep up with the younger lot, but I still try my best.

After all these years living with football and giving it the most priority even more then some of my loved ones, I hope atleast few will be able to understand why I keep saying football is my passion. Let me conclude by quoting the famous phrase of Bill Shankly, who was a good player and even greater manager, notably for Liverpool “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that”.

Spain falters at the first hurdle

This had to happen sometime and I believe we waited pretty long for the first upset of the 2010 World Cup. Spain the joint favorites with Brazil, was beaten by Switzerland yesterday in a match, in which they had the more than 60% of the possession of the ball. I have been a fan of Spain from the last European Cup and expected much more from them, than merely kicking the ball around.

Seeing the match I felt they lacked the pace and penetration, it was like they had 10 kg stone tied to their legs. The injury history to most of their significant players could be the only excuse they can come up with, that too is not really convincing. It was frustrating to see arguably the best strikers and midfield players unable to even score one goal.

I really get the feeling they took the game lightly and should learn a lesson or two from the Germans.

The Germans at their best

Germany Vs Australia was probably the match of the world cup till now. This has been the first time in this World cup that you saw a ‘favorite team’ play to their potential completely battering the opposition. The football showcased by the Germans was of the highest quality.

The Germans have the knack of peaking at the right time and making a significant impression in the tournament. They usually do not have the favorite’s tag, but always seems to make it to Semi or finals. This time too it may not be very different.

One really good sign is that the team has good mix of youngsters and veterans. The mix though is favoring the youngsters with Lahm being the youngest captain in German history. It was also nice to see the youngsters like Mueller rising to the occasion and making sure that the team did not miss the big name absentee, Ballack.

The team played with tremendous pace and exposed the weaknesses in the aging Australian team. I always believed goals makes the difference, and no wonder that this was the highest scoring match in the world cup so far.

The Inter wall tames the Barcelona floods

Last night Inter Milan lost to Barcelona 0-1 in the return leg, but successfully managed to move in to the Champions league final, thanks to their first leg win by 3 goals to one. This was an extraordinary match, not for the beauty of football on display but for the defensive tactics of Inter Milan. I have not seen another match which showcased such a spectacular and spirited defensive display.

Barcelona was the defending champions and currently the best team in the world according to many, having lost to Inter in the first leg, they were expected to be at their attacking best in their home ground. Yesterday’s did nothing to indicate they were the best in the world, with all their attacking might, spearheaded by Messi, they were unable to score more than a solitary goal. That goal too loses significance when you consider that it came very late after Inter having played with just ten men for nearly 60 minutes of the game, and that too which quite clearly was an offside. Inter was unlucky to have Motta dismissed before the 30 minutes mark which hardly looked like a serious foul.

It was wonderful to see spirited defensive display of all the 10 Inter Milan players against formidable opposition and they played like their life depended on it. It was very clear to see the influence of their coach, Jose Mourinho, as not even once in the match you felt that Inter looked like losing, apart for may be the last few minutes after the goal. The confidence of the Inter players was there for all to see.

I agree that their game may not be a treat to the eye, but what is the point of kicking the ball around to entertain the audience with out scoring goals. My question is if Barcelona is the best team in the world currently, what you would call a team which convincingly beat them with a goal aggregate of 3-2 in more than 3 hours of football, having played the last one hour with only 10 men.

I read a few articles in the morning and was really surprised to find them hesitating to applaud the great effort by Inter Milan, which prompted me to write this blog. Some coaches need a great team to win matches and some coaches make any good team perform great to win matches. Jose is one of the rare ones; no wonder than he is called the ‘Special One’.

Inter gains the slightest advantage over Chelsea

Inter milan 2 - Chelsea 1 (Champions league last 16, first leg at San Siro)
Yesterday's match, or should I say today mornings match between Inter and Chelsea, put me into a rather interesting dilemma as to which team to support, being Chelsea supporter and Jose Mourinho fan, I guess it was quite natural to be confused. The fact that I became a Chelsea supporter mainly during the Mourinho era and this being a crucial Champions league first leg only added to the drama. So I was dilpomatic and decided not to support any team in particular and hoped the best team on the day wins.

It would be an exaggeration if I said it was a great match, I feel it failed to bring out the best football in both teams, as it usually happens in the matches between high profile teams. Chelsea defintely had more pocession and arguably created more chances but Inter looked solid in defence, except for a very ordinary effort from the keeper which resulted in a goal. Inter probably had the best chance to score, which was wasted by Eto and if you consider the freekick by Drogba which hit the crossbar it would be a fair assumption that both teams had equal chances.

It looked like Chelsea were missing the Cole's, which hindered their penetrative attacking runs from the left. Inter scored two beautiful goals thanks to milito and Cambiasso, the timings of which always gave inter the upperhand in the match. The first was in 3rd minute and second only 3-4 minutes after chelsea scored their only goal, making sure Inter was almost always leading.

After seeing Chelsea for so long, I thought they would a little more probably bringing on Joe Cole would created a little more innovation in the attacking front. It looked liked Chelsea are preserving their best for the second leg in Stamford Bridge, but having an opposition managed by their best coach in history may be the deciding factor. Whatever the result of the Second leg I am sure we will be able to watch a great match, and the results will have huge impacts in the leagues, the transfer markets and also in the personal battle of 2 of the greatest coaches in the market today.

Mancini for Hughes - Man City moving ahead

Well now you know that Manchester City have big plans, and hey my predictions about this club posted earlier is proving right. It was surprise to fire the manager with such a short notice, but such things are expected of clubs with big plans. I am not at all surprised; it was more like I was expecting it. Hughes I feel has done a good job, but then he was never the material they had in mind for the long run, I was sure they would be looking for a bigger manager who can help bring quality players to the team. I am surprised they actually compromised for Mancini, indicating the Clubs failure to sign bigger names like SAF, Mourinho, Hiddink etc.

Mancini is going to baptized by fire entering the reckoning in the most difficult of periods (End of December is arguably the toughest period for EPL, as they have a number matches around the Christmas which can be extremely distracting and hence unpredictable; unlike for example the Italian league which has a couple of weeks break during this period). I feel there two reasons Mancini has come in at this odd time, one is for the January transfer window, I feel Man city will again buy players and they want some one with experience to buy the right players. The second I feel is to make sure that the team finishes in the first four, automatically qualifying them for the next years Champions League. Mark my words if that does not happen, Mancini will follow Hughes.

Chelsea geared up for the testing times?

Chelsea is one of the teams doing extremely well these days. They are leading the EPL and have already qualified as group leaders in the Champions league. More importantly they are getting close to the invincibility associated with Chelsea team, during their prime under Jose Mourinho. They are definitely looking like the favorites for EPL, so what do I mean by testing times. Last year this time Chelsea was almost in the same position, leading the table with Liverpool when they played the critical (proved later) match with Arsenal on 30th November which they lost 1-2 thanks to the 2 goals by Van Persie.

This was critical because it started their decline, ultimately getting the manager Scholari dismissed. If history can be given any merit Chelsea will be aware of this fact at the back of their minds. So this weekend’s match with Arsenal can be testing times for the character of the Chelsea players, one which I believe will crucial to their hopes of winning the EPL this year, considering also the fact that they will be playing much of January with out some of their key players, unavailable due to the African Cup.

I do not believe in history too much, and feel Chelsea will not crumble like last time, even if they lose the match this weekend, but then Foot ball is a strange game with unpredictable results and anything is possible. So lets wait and watch one of the much awaited matches of this season with our fingers crossed, as this might be more crucial then it seems.

Transfer Market: The genius of the Special One

This probably should be one of the reasons they call him, Jose Mourinho, as the ‘Special One’. In a transfer window which would be remembered for the buying prowess of Real Madrid and Manchester City, and transfers of 2 of the 3 arguably the best players in the world (Messi, Kaka and Ronaldo), there was one team called Inter Milan which went about doing their job fantastically without much distraction.

The master plan was started by Jose Mourinho with the sale of Zlatan Ibrahimovich to Barcelona for 69 Million Euro’s (€46 Millions + Eto valued at €20 Million + € 3 million compensation for Hleb’s loan transfer refusal), imagine getting €49 million and a competent striker in exchange for one very good striker. He brought in Wesley Sneijder from real Madrid for 15 million euro’s , Diego Milito and Thiago Motta from Genoa, for an undisclosed amount and in exchange for 4 Inter players. He also brought in Lucio from Bayern Munich for an undisclosed amount.

I am sure overall he would have spent about € 30 million euro’s in the transfer market having a net profit of nearly €19 million and I sincerely feel he has improved the team over all with addition key players in important positions. He also achieved his aim of trimming his squad but increasing the number of quality players.
Kudos to the special one.

Tactical fouling killing the beautiful game

The last week Manchester United Vs Arsenal match created enough impact for me to actually write this even though it is late by a few days. The feeling I got after seeing the full match was that Arsenal did not deserve to lose; the match was more or less fought on equal grounds with arguably Arsenal having the slight edge because of their style of play. The flowing single touch passes of Arsenal was quite a pleasure to watch but it was unfortunate that Manchester United successfully managed to spoil their rhythm with the huge number of fouls, Fletcher in particular looked like he was there only to foul the opposition, a fact which also was pointed out by Arsene Wenger. The irony is that fetcher fouled no less than 6 times but did not even receive a single card for it. I do not think the English referees are too keen on seeing nice flowing football, as I am sure quite a few teams would have noticed this and will employ the same strategy with teams like Arsenal and for that matter even with Barcelona. I believe that you can do anything to win, but a team like Man U doing this surprised even me.

The second thing that struck my mind was the vulnerability of the Arsenal boys against the experienced men of Man U, it was for everyone to see that they were nervous but to concede a own goal (by Diaby) from a unchallenged cross is something that I have not seen for ages, and showed in full the darker side of team Arsenal. They say experience is everything and I could not agree more after seeing Ryan Giggs being the creator of both the goals (The pass to Rooney which crated the penalty and also the cross from which Diaby scored the own goal). Arsenal definitely needs some experience and needs to buy a few senior players, it is sad that they did not continue the good work after buying Arshavin, who again proved what experience can bring to the team by scoring a fantastic goal. This Arsenal team, I feel will disappoint its fans in the critical games, more often than not.

EPL Midweek: Testimony of things to come

The Premier league is less then week old, and clearly there were a lot of unpredictable results already. Most notable may be the triumph of the newly promoted Burnley, over Manchester United, a remarkable achievement for a club who has not been in the top flight since 1976. Things are not looking too good for Man U though, after the narrow win in the first match, the loss here clearly shows that they have lost their most lethal weapon in attack, their cutting edge by not having Ronaldo.

Second was the 4-0 Liverpool win over Stoke, to come here after the loss in the first match and put a performance of this magnitude takes some doing, highlighting the quality of the team and at the same time the unpredictability.

Most positive result was that of Tottenham’s 5-1 victory over Hull City, what a start to the season for the Tottenham, although it is too early to say, we might just see them giving fight to the last four, as they say well begun is half done.

One predictable result was that of the Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Sunderland, and more importantly showing that there are possibilities of succeeding with the Diamond formation. It was the best we have seen of Deco for sometime and probably this is the best place, top of the diamond, where he can do his bit. The bonus of course was getting Ballack on the scoring sheet, a few more goals and we may see a completely different Ballack, hopefully doing justice to his potential.

Chelsea bring down the hulks of Hull city

I may not be the only one, after seeing the Hull City team, who needed to confirm that their team name was Hull City and not Hulk City, with the current set of players the latter name actually suits them better.

Chelsea definitely had more possession of the ball, but found it really difficult to break down the City defense; they also had a little difficulty in dealing with set pieces largely due to height advantage of the Hull City players. It looks to me that the diamond may not always be the right approach to bring out the best from Chelsea players. Yesterday the Diamond was not very effective as there was no width and midfield was crowded to say the least. It was not a great game to watch for the Chelsea fans, as they would believe the team is capable of much more.

Two players who did not play to the potential was Mikel and Anelka, Mikel was steady but definitely lacked the pace and Anelka never looked like he was going to score and was more effective when he strayed away from the box.

The man who made the difference was definitely Drogba, his first goal was excellent from a superbly taken free kick. The second goal needed a little bit of luck, but no surprise it was with, arguably the best player of the day to give Chelsea 2-1 lead and the match in the 90th minute of the game. Carlo has got the first taste of the pressure being a Chelsea coach and if he doesn’t change things soon, there may be more such experiences to follow.

Chelsea Bags the Community Shield

It was a great match for a friendly cup, and I feel the better team won. Manchester United never looked the same side which won the premier league last season and it was quite evident that they missed the cutting edge of Ronaldo. The dominance shown by Chelsea in the second half will surely give something to think about for SAF, even when Chelsea was leading 2 goals to 1, it was Chelsea who was playing the more attacking football, and it never looked like Manchester United will score. They did score though thanks to brilliance of Rooney and for someone who watched second half it was a surprise they did. The penalties also showed the strength and experience of the Chelsea squad as they never missed a penalty and Manchester United could convert only one from their 3.

This Man U side looks the weakest I have see in the last few years, and gives a lot of promise for Chelsea and Liverpool and their title hopes. It is too early to say though and Man U is famous for springing in surprises most often then not, but if Sunday’s match was testimony of things to come then I would not feel too comfortable, if I was a Man U fan.

As they say well begun is half done, Chelsea has begun well but they have miles and miles to travel this season.

Manchester City on Target?

Manchester City’s leviathan spending spree this year will not ensure that they are contenders for the Premier League title but then I do not feel that it is their target too. Their only aim this year is a Champions League birth, anything more is a bonus.

Let us be realistic they have enough and more money to buy the best, but how will you attract the best without the incentive playing in the champions league. If premier league was their objective than they would have surely replaced the coach, Mark Hughes, who was a great player but his status as a coach is still questionable. Is this the foundation for much more and better things to come, may be, as a matter of fact I strongly feel so. They have spent 200+ million dollars now and I understand that it is not even in the club’s balance book, it was just a gift from the owners, that’s right, a small gift. They were ready to pay John Terry 250000 pounds a week, almost twice the money he was getting which was 135000 pounds a week in Chelsea which has now been increased to 150000 as per the new contract. (It is different matter that John Terry did not take the bait and preferred to stay at Chelsea).

What I am pondering though is will the likes of Christiano Ronaldo and John Terry among others be able to resist a move for almost double their weekly wages if Manchester City had a coach the caliber of the Special One (Jose Mourinho), or SAF or Gus Hiddink and if they were playing in the champions league next year and with the prospect of buying more best players. I do not think anyone, remotely human can resist it. So if you see in reality when money flow is infinite then only thing they are aiming for this year is first 4 finishes in the premier league which will enable them to play in the Champions league next year. I believe with the current purchases of Tevez, Cruz, Adebayor, Gareth Barry, and the two defenders along with Robinho they have enough strength to fight for a first 4 finish, looks like it will a close though with Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal being the favorites to be the best four. It will be battle between City and Arsenal for the fourth place.

If they qualify for the Champions League then the next year transfers will be even more maddening, easily humbling the extravagant spending of Real Madrid this year, probably starting with a new manager with an unimaginable pay. So do you think they are on target? Your suggestions are welcome.

Kaka Vs Ronaldo

This post might be a week or two late, but the great joy at seeing Kaka move to Real Madrid and the fact that I am constantly thinking about the news, is making me write this now. Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, more commonly known to the world as Kaka, after nearly 6 years at AC Milan moved to Real Madrid recently, in what I believe would be the biggest transfer of the season, yes I feel it is even bigger then Christiano Ronaldo’s move, why? Let me try to explain my view.

I have seen them both play and it would be very difficult to say who is a better player as of today. Christiano Ronaldo played majority of his football for Manchester United, a club with an outstanding coach and cohesive blend of quality players. It would be very difficult to say he was the only contributor to their success; I would like to believe that he was only one of the key contributors. His performance for Portugal has certainly been good but nothing spectacular. He joined Manchester united after 2003 season, and has rocketed to fame mainly in the last two years only. Kaka joined AC Milan in 2003, and was almost an instant success. He was at his best by 2007. Most interesting aspect is his performance is that he was playing for a club, which got into match fixing controversy and were reduced points for their involvement, and still went on to win the champions league in 2007, probably the ageing squad and defensive style of Italian football may have hindered him and club from achieving greater success. One more aspect is his style of play, it is more artistic, graceful and free flowing compared to the ruthlessness one would arguably, associate with Ronaldo.

The personal lives of these players are also quite contradicting; Ron has a tendency to get into controversies, craves for attention and limelight, and also has a liking for late night partying. Kaka on the other hand is role model for younger generation, a devote and faithful man, known for his compassion to the society, his contributions on and off the field also made The Time magazine name him in “Time100” an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. This I agree does not provide the edge on a football field, but certainly does when you would want to admire a player.

Ron donning the ‘Real’ Colors

80 Million Pounds is a lot of money, and if Real Madrid is paying so much for Christiano Ronaldo, they mean serious business. It may not be coincidence that both football and business are more often linked together these days. Real Madrid’s pitiable showing last season and the outstanding game showcased by Barcelona may be some of the key reasons for the signing apart from the apparent compulsive nature of Perez.

The last season was major success for both Barcelona and United, and having players like Messi and Ronaldo have done wonders for the popularity of their clubs. In football sometimes the players are admired more then club, probably it is because people are able to relate more easily to individuals. It was quite obvious that there were not too many neutrals passionate to see Madrid play last season. This time around with Kaka and Ronaldo, that is definitely going to change, winning or losing comes next, real has won even before the ball can be kicked. It will certainly not be a surprise if I, a Chelsea fan, find time to see more Real Madrid matches the coming season. This in all probability is the most valuable reason for Madrid buying the two star players.

But, whether the next season will be success for real Madrid in terms of trophies will be anyone’s guess, because you need a team to succeed, and quite definitely the club has a big concern in the defense, with Cannavaro, moving on to home terrain, and also the lack of a quality holding midfielder may create enough vaccum for good teams to exploit.

Now for the million dollar question, “will he succeed in the Real Jersey?” I think he will, he needs a good team to come good, that will be assured now, thanks to his and Kaka’s acquisition, which will also be an incentive for other good players to join their team.