The fun continues…

Today is just the ninth day since the fun began. The fever is yet to soar and the drama is yet to reach the pinnacle! As the carnival continues, I thought of recalling the vivid memories thus far through few noteworthy remarks:

1. Brilliant hat-trick by Gonzalo Higuain in their match against South Korea. Though the goals came from Higuain, it was again the Lion-el Messi at the helm of affairs playing artistic football. The victory just reaffirms the prowess of Argentina this time around and virtually seals for them a place in the second round. While Nigeria is almost out of the tournament, Greece and South Korea will battle it out for second team to qualify from this group.

2. Spain losing its first game against Switzerland was first of major upsets. More upsets followed when France and South Africa lost their second group matches in Group A and Germany lost their match to Serbia in Group D. This essentially means that teams to go to next round from Group A could very well be Uruguay and Mexico. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Group D on the other side is still wide open.

3. Excellent form of Netherland continues which has taken them to second round. Cameroon really played well, but I am afraid they have to say “Goodbye South Africa”. If Denmark at all would want to make a point, they need to drastically improve their defense line.

4. Brazil is off to a great start with all the players looking in great touch. They displayed their typical deft style in their opening match against North Korea. Quite insipid performance by Portugal in another match of this group which led to a tie against Ivory Coast. This group is wide open too.

5. Few more insipid performances by Italy and England. England indeed struggled against the minnows Algeria. On the other hand, USA has shown great character to draw both their matches after trailing for a fair amount of time during the match. I am shocked to see the way Rooney has played. He is not at all living up to expectations.

6. Except a few games, there have been a lot of draws and bigger teams are lagging behind in the race to final 16. There have not been too many goals either. Teams are defensive in their approach and injury to some key players has not helped much either. A lot of penalty strokes have been awarded to the teams which is so unusual. Messi, Robinho, Forlan, Sneijder, Blanco, Hernandez, Higuain, Gyan, and Kyut have sparkled brilliantly through their individual performances.

The Vuvuzela Roars when Hips Don’t Lie and The Carnival Begins…

As the clock slowly ticked its way to 18.00 hours (GMT) this past Thursday, the world witnessed one of the most enthralling evenings straight from Orlando Stadium at Johannesburg. “Waka waka” is what everyone chanted with the gorgeous Shakira. She had the audience going crazy and the vuvuzela going even crazier with the most popular number of this century - Hips Don't Lie. The tempo picked up when stars like K’naan, Khaled and Kuti added vivacious flavor around the entire ambience. The celebrations continued till late night. The very next day saw terrific sky activities and Mr. Jacob Zuma’s address to mark the beginning of the excitement and captivation.

By the time one could come back to normalcy after such eventful time, real field action set the pulses racing and swaying. Opening day was scheduled for two matches from group A and would you believe that! The vuvuzela roared and roared even more when Tshabalala opened the goal account for this world cup by capitalizing on a wonderful pass from Modise and gave the hosts a dream start. The hosts played beautifully throughout the match but a very poor defense at the late stage of the game cost them the win. The match ended as a draw but both the teams had reasons to smile especially when other match of the group finished the day with a dull 0-0 score. If France fails to up the ante in its next two games, I am afraid it may be a repeat of 2002 for them. Uruguay, fourth team in the group, as it is did not show much of a prospect.

Two games from group B and one from group C were completed in day two yesterday. The gear suddenly jumped several notches up when two main contenders of the competition took the field. Something roared too on this day but not the vuvuzelas. The real lions were roaring on the field led by artistic and magical Lionel Messi. Watch out for Messi – he is going to be a hero if Argentina at all manages to lift the cup. Though he found a super goalie in the form of Enyeama inside the Nigerian D-box, Heinze’s header sealed the match for Argentines. South Korea in other game of group B made a mockery of Greece and won comprehensively by 2-0. Argentina and South Korea are likely to make the cut easily from this group unless Nigeria produces something out of the world in their next tie.

I wish I could have watched third and last match of the day from group C (though I did not watch earlier matches too). The match was supposed to be one of the high voltage clashes between USA and UK. Playing without Ferdinand and Beckham, England is still a force to reckon with and it was evident from Gerrard’s right-footed shot within minutes of start of play to give England an early lead. England played an absorbing game of football and should have had USA trailing by many goals. But destiny of the game was decided by the blunder from English goalie Green. I wondered how he could let the ball go inside the net. It was absolutely dismaying for English fans. England took their points tally to only one after this draw, but they are here to stay for long. They seem to easily qualify for next round, as other two teams in the group Algeria and Slovenia lock the horns in today’s game. Group D teams will also be opening their tally later tonight.

The fun continues...

96 Hours To Go - The stage is set!

Yes, few more hours to go and mother of all battles is about to get underway. After hosting several sports event successfully, South Africa gets to host World Cup Football across Africa for the first time. And they have left no stones unturned for this special event. They have built several new stadiums and upgraded existing venues. They have invested heavily in public transports and safety measures to ensure smooth traffic of fans.

Coming on to the tournament, once again 32 teams are participating in this World Cup. Each of these 32 teams has appeared in at least one of the world cups earlier and South Africa being the host automatically qualified for the final round. Final Draw of the teams happened in December 2009. As the event kick starts on Friday, I would be looking forward to great individual displays from the teams like Brazil, Argentina and England. It would be equally fair to expect great team game from Italy, France and Netherlands. South Africa will have home advantage for sure but I do not see them making it to final four. Mexico and Spain are the underdogs which can be a challenge for bigger teams in knock out stages. I am not sure who will be the surprise package this time from the minnows (Have not followed much recently). Having said this, I would love to see a Brazil-Argentina final match.

Though actual results may differ from my thoughts and may leave me astonished after 35 days, I cannot wait to submerge into the ocean of football and experience outstanding beauty of skill, grace, power and resistance.

10 days to go... I hope to write about this soon...

Crazy work hours not allowing to write anything, quiet a few things in mind over past few days... Would like to leave this space with this wonderful song for the moment though... I would be here always

15 days to go...

Zidane’s heroics really began to sink in with arrival of FIFA World Cup in the Asia. Playing without him, France was shocked by Senegal in the opening match itself. Their misery did not end here. They went out of the tournament without scoring a single goal. Senegal on the other hand impressed everyone with their agile performance and made it to quarter finals when Turkey finally ended their spree. There was another team which did the entire continent proud with astounding showcase of the game. Joint host South Korea became first Asian team to enter semifinals at the cost of very strong teams like Italy, Spain and Portugal. However, both these teams were stopped in the semis by two seasoned teams of all time. With a strong midfield line and one of the greatest goalkeepers at the helm, Germany made a mockery of its opponents. Of course, Oliver Kahn stood at the goal post like a wall and made some great saves which meant there was only one goal against them till final. On the other hand, Brazil continued with where they left in 1998 and the demolisher-in-chief again the famous duo of Ronaldo and Rivaldo. Final match was being hailed as a battle between Ronaldo-Rivaldo-Ronaldinho and Oliver Kahn. However, absence of Ballack (due to cumulative yellow cards till previous game) gave Brazil a little edge which indeed mattered in the end. How can one forget that famous presence of mind by Rivaldo which allowed Brazil to complete a 2-0 victory! They really deserved this win and can be safely called one of the most successful national football teams. This world cup saw the best of Ronaldo and he won golden shoe award after narrowly missing it the previous tournament.

Germany had little consolation in the sense that the tournament was returning back to Germany in 2006 after several years. I had a chance to watch this world cup out of Green Bay in USA. This time around, 8 out of 32 teams were playing for the first time and all of these 8 teams were from small countries like Togo, Trinidad, Ivory Coast etc. Fans could not witness many goals in knock out stages which resulted into 4 out of 15 such games (including the final) being decided by penalty shoot out. Brazil once again started off very well and reached quarter finals within flash of time. Rebounding from their embarrassing performance, France made a slow start but picked up from round two. They took out Spain, Brazil and Portugal from the tournament to cement a place in final. Similarly, Germany entered semis with players firing in with all cylinders. Likes of Kahn, Ballack, Klose, Podolski and Petit ensured that Germany played great football and was one of most aggressive and in-form teams. Facing them in the semis was Italy who had an easy competition till this game. Game went into additional time at 0-0. A last minute substitution by Italy changed the pace of the game. Del Piero had saved all his energy for this moment and Germany went crashing out again, all dreams shattered leaving all fans disheartened. Final between Italy and France was an equal contest and score read as 1-1 at end of scheduled time. No goals were added in the additional time. Additional time however saw an unpleasant moment when Zidane head-butted Materazzi and was shown red card. This butt more or less decided the fate for France and Italy had won their 4th title!

Countdown begins - 18 days to go!

Come June 11, 2010 and a stupendous fireworks is expected to rock Johannesburg. And why not, Africa gets its first ever chance to host the FIFA world cup. While the entire world is eagerly waiting for the kick start of another breathtaking one month of joy, tears, agony, rivalry and sportsmanship, I would like to pause for a moment and take a tour to previous four world cup tournaments which I have witnessed with my eyes.

FIFA went to USA for the first time in 1994 hoping that it would lead to growth of interest of this game in USA. Though team USA’s performance did not soar very much in the subsequent tournaments, attendance at the grounds skyrocketed and broke all the records since 1950. Major surprise of the tournament was the absence of Britain from tournament for the first and only time till date and major setback was the end of Maradona’s career due to failing a drug test. Biggest surprise however on the field was power packed performance of Bulgaria. Led by joint golden shoe winner of the tournament, Hristo Stoichkov, they eventually made it to the semifinals before being defeated by Italy. Italy on the other side survived a few narrow chances in the group stages before Roberto Baggio lifted the spirit of the team by his extraordinary ability to goal at the crucial moments. Between Italy and the world cup stood the Brazilians who had a smooth run till the finals. Both these teams were eyeing their fourth world cup win. Both the teams made several scoring chances but could not produce a result in the scheduled 90 minutes and additional 30 minutes. For the first time in history, the winner was to be decided by penalty shoot out. After 4 rounds of penalty shoots, the score read Italy: 2, Brazil: 3 with Italy to strike their 5th one first. I recall Roberto Baggio taking this one for Italy and what happened then is a history. He missed the goal bar by several inches and Brazil had clinched their 4th title. They owed this title to a wonderful team effort and dream run of Romario.

World cup moved to France for the second time in 1998. For the first time, 32 teams were playing the finals. This tournament also marked the conception of the golden goal rules and extra time play for stoppage times. Greatest surprise on the field this time was the way Croatia made their way to the semi-finals. Suker for them rose to the occasions more than once and eventually took away golden shoe award. Though they could not surpass rejuvenated hosts in the semis, they did manage to beat Dutchs to end third in the competition. Brazil as usual was on roller coaster ride with best forwards of the game doing the maximum damage against the oppositions – none other than the duo of Rivaldo and Ronaldo. Unfortunately for them, Zinedine Zidane had other plans for the final night at Paris. He scored no goals (except one in penalty shoot-out against Italy in quarter finals) in the tournament till this game and did not use his feet either in the finals to score the goals. Two strong headers and the game went begging away from Brazil handing over France their first title.

As Zidane’s heroics began to sink in, world cup made its way to Asia for the first time and in the process became first tournament in the history to be hosted by two countries – South Korea and Japan.

To be continued…