Das schöne Spiel

Bayern München Kit Launch

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:56:14 -0500

Watch this video: http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x67tpy&related=0

Bayern München lanuched their new home and away kits. I don't really know what my response is. I feel, odd. This the a very strange way to launch a kit. The normal convention is to call for a press meet, bring some of your top players with their new kits on to the stage. Then, there would be a photo session. End of matter.

Look at the video. Insane. Initally the music sounds ok. Later on, it get so violent. Not only the music but also the dance. I felt that tribal rituals in remote Indian villages would be more pleasant than this one. Why can't they just do it the Arsenal way ? ;-)

source: bundesliga offside

TWIF 4

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:37:34 -0500

Nothing much happened last week. So I delayed the post. There are some insane quotes. Have fun.

Check it out: TWIF 4

League matches - Stage 2: Top XI players

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:10:01 -0500

Goal Keeper: I should really go with Van Der Sar here. Gigantic and solid. I know Buffon did well saving a penalty. Especially facing not only Mutu but also elimination staring right in his face. But he had very little to deal with.

Defence: Not very impressive defence but Bosingwa was good going forward. It's an unexpected name to be in here, but, Boulahrouz deserves it. He did so well in containing the likes of Malouda and Ribery ( who roamed all around ) He went in flying into the tackles he made but won almost all of them. Lahm was as usual. Wonderful. Passionate. Rather desperate, given the circumstances. Carvalho did great back in the centre especially with Pepe being a little dodgy. Carvalho got him totally covered. Šimunić won the arial battle with the "germans" especially with the likes of Ballack running constantly in to the box. So, he deserves a place too. He sat deep, but never allowed any space for the German attackers.

Midfield: Deco did well. Scored a goal and supplied a terrific pass that created the second goal for the Portuguese. He had an excellent game. Modric was terrific. Outstanding passing and vision. He is the one you need to have in your team. Niko Kovač was brilliant holding the germans off. He and Modric outplayed the full strength German midfield.

Wingers: Ronaldo scored a great goal. His well timed run and unselfish play very late in the game that saw the the Czechs off were wonderful. Robben was excellent. Made timely runs forward for the counter attacks. I'll go with a five man midfield because we can't leave out Sneijder here. You know why.

Striker: Sublime Villa bags this one. What a run, a little cut inside and bang! Spain qualified. Absolutely fantastic.

Boss: Marco Van Basten - for his brave substitutions.Bringing in two injury prone attackers into the team when they were leading 1-0 was not a normal thing to do. Bravo Van Basten.

So, our team of the stage 2 looks like this. Opinions ?

Van Der Sar

Boulahrouz - Carvalho - Šimunić - Lahm

Modric - Kovač

Ronaldo - Robben

Sneijder

Villa

TWIF 3

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:16:54 -0500

As usual. This week's TWIF ( The Week In Football ) is shared in my Google Notebook.

TWIF 3 : Many on Scolari

Croatia vs. Germany

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:28:40 -0500

I know that all the news papers will blasting the Germans into pieces with their words, over appreciate the class of Modric and how he will help the Scum to glory. It happened when Italy lost. It will happen again today. I agree that Croatia were great tonight. gThey were well oranized, disciplined and fought well all the 90 minutes.

Croatia won "because" the Germans were bad. Just too bad. Misplaced and over hit passes, lack of cohesion in the team, wrong choice of players contributed to their loss. I will try to analyse what the problem was. The Croatian fans contributed a lot too. Looked like it was anti-German all over the stadium.

In the Attack, Mario Gomez was utter rubbish. He was isolated and looked like he belonged to a 3rd team. Never linked up with any of the team. He need to time his runs better than he did. I say, he's not ready for international football.

I did not understand why Miroslav Klose was playing in a deeper role. With less pacey defenders to face, Jogi decided to go with young legs and thus pushed Klose into a support role. He was confusing and did not look confident. He also missed a couple of half chances in the first half and lacked motivation.

In the defence, Jansen in the left flank did not do well. For the first goal, he had Srna covered until the ball dipped in. For one second he had no idea where Srna was and BANG! Srna scored with his leg stretched from behind Jansen. What's with the left footers ? He could have easily swung his right foot and cleared the ball out of sight. Instead, he decided to go with his strong left foot, lost his balance when the ball was coming in and was in a totally awkward angle to defend any kind of attack from Srna. The cross was tremendous anyway.

As for the second goal, it was very lucky for Croatia. Deflected cross going into the goal, blocked , hit the post and fell to Olic who was left with a simple task to tap the ball into the net. Lehmann could have done better dealing with the deflected cross. He was solid until then.

The goal that didn't really matter in the end came only after Schweini was brought in. There was a gibberish mix in the positions at first half. With Jansen removed, Lahm went to the left, Fritz moved to right back and Odonkor was placed at right midfield. When Schweini came in for Gomez, Podolski took his place and Schweini played in the left midfield. Schweini and Lahm combined well with Podolski. For about 5 minutes, 3 of them linked up very well and bombarded the Croatian defence. A Great volley by podolski. He's now 3 goals away from equalling his international goal tally ( 28 ) with his club football goals (31) I half expected the Germans to bounce back and snatch a point. But, all my hopes were smashed when Schweini got sent off. Hard luck mate. I knew he would do this some time. He's too aggressive. Additionally, he was frustrated. Ballack shouldn't have got himself booked. Too risky. He might get booked in their final group game and he would miss the Quarter Final. Probably against Portugal because I don't see Portugal losing to the swiss or Croatia losing the Poland.

Fritz is better than Jansen. So, I think it would have been better if Germany Started like this:

Lehmann

Fritz - Metzelder - Mertesacker - Lahm

Trochowski/Hitzlsperger - Frings - Ballack - Schweinsteiger

Klose - Podolski

The Lahm-Schweini-Poldi combination proved good in the world cup. We also saw today glimpses of what it could accomplish. But, now it's too late. Schweini would be better for the German Army considering his short-tempered nature and great punching ability. He wouldn't play another 3 matches(?)

The Croats were perfect. They were lucky to score their second. The Germans were poor. Disappointing. Didn't create enough chances. But, I hope Jogi will motivate them well for the final group match against Austria in 4 days time. I hope they qualify. The road is now relatively smooth for Slaven Bilic's men who will face either Czech Republic or Turkey in the Quarters which would easier compared to facing Portugal. I wish either Croatia/Germany wins the Euros.

MD6 predictions

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:35:44 -0500

CRO 0 - 1 GER: Croatia performed well in the first match. But, the attacking threat they showed would n't be enough to beat the Germans. I guess Germany will win this one with a bit of hard work. Klose to score.

AUT 2 - 1 POL: Again, I don't really care. Random prediction.

Everyone who did not watch yesterdays Switzerland vs Turkey game missed a lot. The game was action packed, funny and tense. The game as concluded with a goal in the last minute ( deep into the injury time ) to the Turks. But that just does not tell the whole story. The heavens opened up. And the ground was getting worse every minute. By the time the clock showed 30 minutes, there were puddles of water all around the place. The ball just didn't move. The Turks had their hearts in their mouths when a back pass was intercepted by one such puddle. The ball stopped midway between the Turkish keeper and a Swiss player. Luckily for the Turks their keeper was quick to clear the ball. At one stage all the players resorted to play the ball in the air and air alone. During the break, groundsmen punctured the pitch for the water to drain quickly. The second half didn't involve any such drama but it was highly competitive. The shot for the last goal took a wicked deflection off a Swiss defender, looped over the Goal Keeper into the goal. Very unlucky for the Swiss indeed.

I hope today's matches are just as exciting as yesterday.

MD5 Predictions

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:30:03 -0500

CZE vs POR: We already saw, in their previous encounter against the Swiss, how dodgy the Czech defence is. Though Gomes did not seem very prolific, there are other match winners in portugal. Baros might play this game with Pasil being a doubt. The Czechs might switch to a 4-4-2 with Baros and Koller upfront. It all depends on how well Pepe deals with Koller. When Senderos supressed Koller, I don't think it will be a problem for Pepe/Carvalho. I think the Portuguese will win. This is defenitely a match to watch.

I am predicting CZE 1 - 2 POR. The Baros factor might help the Czechs pull one off. But, their sluggish defence will suffer from pacy counter attacks.

SUI vs TUR: The turks lacked adventure in thier game against Portugal. They seemed to stand still when they allowed a centre back run into the box. The swiss at the same time tried everything they could against the Czechs. And the did it well. Comparing these performances, it looks like the home side are going to win it. But, the will badly miss Frei. The fans surely will give them an edge. How will the Swiss deal with the loss of Frei would be the deciding factor. This one is going to be close. I would say SUI 1 - TUR 1

Deco, Ronaldo, Baros, Barnetta, Nihat: Two of them could score.

Round 1 XI

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:27:15 -0500

Goal Keeper: Edwin Van Der Saar, Petr Cech, Lehmann, Pletikosa, Isaksson etc. have all got clean sheets. Coupet had nothing to deal with. So, I am not including him here. Van Der Saar saved wonderfully from Pirlo's free kick and dealt 1v1 against Toni late in the second half very well. His imposing figure did not allow Toni a proper sight at the goal. Lehmann showed good reflexes and positioning was decent. But both of their defenders contributed much. My vote goes to Petr Cech who was confident and well positioned between the posts with a comparatively nervy defence infront of him. They allowed 16 shots out of which 8 were on target. He saved ever one of them with ease. Great goal keepers just make it look simple.

Left Back: This position is inarguably bagged by Giovanni Van Bronckhorst who held the flag of total football proudly high. Clearing off the line and running the length of the field to supply a deep cross. Later running again to score a decent header was amazing. There was no other left back so far who contributed better than he did.

Centre Back: Playing 1-2 with the attackers, running into the box in open play was not a normal thing to be done by a centre back. You know who I am talking about. Yes, it is Pepe. He continues to keep his Real Madrid form. He was good in the air. He headed accurately but he was in an offside position. Undoubtedly he wins one of the two berths in the heart of the defence.

Centre Back: Normally people would expect Italians here. I am sorry, but - Italy - cannavaro/nesta = shaky ( as mentioned in whoateallthepies.tv ). Now the real debete starts. Metzelder, Mertesacker, Carvalho, all did well. Again, I am avoiding the French because they had no real threat to deal with. Mathijsen and Ooijer dealt with Toni well. But they didn't battle in the air with him. They let him against van der saar alone a couple of times. Toni should have finished well but, luckily for the dutch - he did not. I am not sure whom to put here. I will probably go with Carvalho because he dealt with better quality , confidently, than the rest of them.

Right Back: Philipp Lahm and Sergio Ramos were the ones who impressed most going forward as well as defending. Not because I am a German fan that I will choose Lahm but because he was full of passion and confidence. Ramos was a little precarious. Got beaten a few times. But Lahm was solid. So, Philipp Lahm it will be.

Left Midfield: Who do you expect to be here but Wesely Sneijder. One volley that comprehensively finished the conter attack and thus finishing off the Italians. He won't find a better birthday present.

Central Midfield: I would put Luka Modric at one of the midfield positions because of the all-round performance. He attacked well, defened well. He also looked comfortable when he was asked to play in the hole. If he had been allowed to attack in the second half too, I am sure there would have been atleast another goal.

Central Midfield: Michael Ballack, Van der Vaart, Xavi all impressed and would deserve a place here.Ballack and Frings were natural dictators in this area. It was as if they owened the place. They faced very little competition. Van der vaart faced tough opposition. But he was too attack minded. I agree he contributed massively in the attacks. But, the one we need here has to be a complete midfielder. For me, the one who stood out is Xavi with his presicion passing, distribution and attacking. He was just outstanding and was at the heart of almost every Spanish attack. He tackled well late in the match when the Russians really looked like they were going to come back which eventually never happened.

Right Midfield: Again this position raises questions on the selection. There is Freddie Ljungberg. He worked tirelessly all night, has been very clever in his passing. But it just didn't work out well on the receiving end. He burst forward and also urging his players to do so like a proper captain. And there is Dirk Kuyt who also impressed with his work rate and contributed two crucial assists and was so good on the counter. Again, considering the opposition, Dirk Kuyt wins this. But, special praise to Freddie.

Strikers: Every one will probably agree with me on this one. It's going to be Lukas Podolski and David Villa. Excellet double and a hattrick respectively. Villa worked very hard all through the match and scored truely deservered 3 goals. Podolski allowed little smile on his face as he had mixed emotions on scoring against his land of birth. Though he played on the left side of the midfield, he had few defensive duties and played as a massively attacking left midfielder and third striker.

Any arguments ?

The boring group ?

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 12:57:15 -0500

ROM 0 - 0 FRA:

I did not see the complete match yesterday due to dilemma on where to eat. By the time I came back to watch France vs Romania it was 55th minute. I wondered how much I missed. I thought I could see in the match analysis on the TV. I abandoned any such plans once I watched the rest of the game. The game was never entertaining. It was horrible. France started with two midfielders who are completely defensive minded. I suppose they should have gone with Nasri from the beginning. Benzema was OK. But he wasted a half chance by shooting agonizingly wide. The second half was all france. Romanian fans started whistling from the 83rd minute itself. It was evident that they would be content with a draw. Nasri came in for Benzema, Gomis for Anelka. Nasri is not a striker, we know that. But Gomis is. Instead of waiting to counter attack in the last few minutes when Romania were awarded a free kick very close to the corner flag, Gomis was in the box - Defending. Both the substitutes played very deep.After this draw France's hopes are limited. This was a must win game for them with Netherlands and Italy coming up. The game was all long ball. The land which gave birth to the great Arsene Wenger can't play long ball. How could they? Too bad. It wasn't wingplay either. As I said, I don't know what happened in the first half but Malouda was largley anonymous in the second half. Prasant was totally right. The French never seemed capable of scoring a goal from open play. What about the set pieces ( you might think ) ? I'll tell you what. They forced just 3 corners in the whole match. Just 3. Only Sagnol's crosses seemed close to something like a threat. But, the Romanian defence repelled any kind attack. What a horrible match for the French fans.

NED 3 - 0 ITA: ( You read it right. It's not a mistake )

This is arguably the best game of the tournament so far. High tempo game right from the first minute. Wonderful short passing by both the teams, exciting midfield battle, pressing hard from both sides forcing errors occasionally. After Toni missed a glorious chance in the 10th minute by heading wide, it looked like the dutch are going to sink. But, the flying dutchmen fought their way through the hard waves of italian defenders taking continuous splashes in the form of professional fouls. Was the first goal a clear offside ? I am not sure. When Sneijder culred the free kick from a wide position, buffon punched it clear knocking an italian defender ( not sure who it is ) and a dutch player ( not sure of who this is either ) The Italian lay there on the ground beside the goal and behind the line. Does that mean he's the one playing Ruud onside when he scored ? It was a close call if that defender is not involved in play. But it looked like Ruud was around a yard out when the ball was passed or I should say "shot" at him. Controversy apart, two magnificent counter attacks from the dutch destroyed the italians. Just tore them apart. Italy could not keep up with the pace. Van Bronckhorst clears off the line, someone passes to van der vaart, van der vaart plays a teasing through ball across the field to Bronckhorst who crosses far beyond the post to Kuyt. Kuyt heads it back to Sneijder in the centre who finishes brilliantly. A great birthday gift to Sneijder. "One pass to split them all" - some the credit has to go to van der vaart who had a decent game. His through ball to Ruud in the first half was magical. It should have been scored but buffon saved well with his leg. Toni had another chance in the second half. He controlled the ball quite well but tried to chip the ball over van der sar but ended up chipping the ball over the bar. The second counter attack came late into the second half. Pirlo's freekick was wonderfully saved by Van Der Sar, who just like a captian pushes his players forward for another counter. Bronckhorst, Van der vaart, Sneider, Kuyt involved yet again. This time Bronckhorst deserved his headed goal. The game never lost it's tempo. Great team work by the Dutch. Even the substitutes Van Persie and Afelley went close. They shot wide and hit the bar respectivley from acute angles. It might not be over for the Italians yet who have to paly Romania and France. Which means, the France vs Italy would be the most important clash. Holland, having beaten Italy, paved half the road to the quarter finals. This win is a massive confidence boost.

Tomorrow's predictions:

ESP 2 - 0 RUS: With Arshavin suspended , I clearly sense a break in the supply chain. There's not way the Russians are going to score.

GRE 1 - 1 SWE: I am not confident with this. I does't look like it's going to matter much.

Zlatan, Torres, Villa, Gekas: any two would score.

Poldiiiiiiiiii Poldiii

Sun, 8 Jun 2008 23:44:53 -0500

I got the predictions spot on. 0-1 and 2-0. Podolski scored. The second goal should have been scored by klose but it was mishit and later volleyed in perfectly by Poldi. The credit goes to Schweini who's hard work made the goal in the first place. He was an immediate impact on the right. Lahm had an excellent game inspite of his diminutive stature beside the rock solid centrebacks Metzelder and Mertesacker. The poles threatened a few times. Their crosses were dangerous but there was no one on the end of it. Łobodziński kept on shooting from 30 yards out late in the first half. That wasn't of much use either. Few were on target. Ballack and Frings commanded the midfield. Zee Germans fielded two most unlikely players on the left and the right side of the midfield. Podolski and Fritz respectively who did their job very well. Enough praise for the Germans now. What's up with the fans in the stadium ? There were hoards of Polish supporters making a hell of noise. Never heard a single German chant during the match. Why do people hate Germany so much ? Ooohh! bad.

Coming to today's predictions:

ROM 0 - 1 FRA ( 1800 CET ) : I am not sure about this one. France has an ageing but experienced defence. The Romanians also had a great qualification campaign. Also, the frecnh are so unpredictable. I hope they win.

NED 0 - 1 ITA ( 2045 CET ) : I would have predicted a 0 - 0 if the fragile dutch players weren't injured. What would have been the best attack vs. the best defence now seems unlikely with key attackers robben, persie and babel injured along with the god Cannavaro.

Ribery, Benzema, Toni, Pirlo - two of them might score.