The Beautiful Game

Just as the world senses it ending, it is here ... of all World Cups in recent times, this one has written stories that find their ways into history books .... if for nothing else, we will have a country that has never lifted the FIFA WORLD CUP ever before ... of that, we have a team that has never reached the final before this and the other which has had to give up TOTAL FOOTBALL to get here, after 40 loooooong years ... over the last month, the world has seen MEN cry, MEN fight, MEN lose, MEN win and overall MEN play (i mean this not in a masochist way) .... we have the smallest minnows put their best foot front and stare into the eye of the storm... we have seen the biggest stalwarts meet their waterloo... we have seen character and grit win ... we have seen noise and flair being ruthlessly silence ... we have seen moments of madness, moments of brilliance .... we have witnessed adrenaline and we have witnessed subtle mind games ... the FIFA WORLD CUP has shown us all!! n if u havent seen it yet, u can c the winning captain take the trophy from NELSON MANDELA!! .... it cannot get bigger

One month after it started, you wonder how did it get over so fast ... but it has to ... 31 teams shall stand witness to see the other stake its claim to glory and adulation!! ... you may criticize them for being defensive, abhor them for not being attractive, but you cannot deny them the moment of reverence the world will generously shower on them ....

Never did i imagine girls would talk so knowledgeably of the game ... who imagined they saw football beyond cute players, hot enviable wags, and most of all - A SILLY GAME!! .... i am not saying they have matured out of it entirely (its cute when they do it), but you can be really happy when they talk of off-side rules, hand-balls, players like Yakubu and Yobo, Spain only passing the ball ..... most wannabe guys who know no more than Brazil need to read up internet sites to talk like that!!

From the qualifying build up to the grand finale, the FIFA WOrld Cup has been eventful in every way possible

France should never have been allowed to compete in the tournament ... from the time they qualified to the time they (thankfully) left South Africa, all that they did was to spoil the flavour of the beautiful game.... they needed two undeserving goals (one a clear offside and the other a CLEARER handball) to defeat a team that entirely deserved to fly to South Africa ....surely, the tears of the Irish players will haunt Domenech and his idiots until they lie 6 feet under a dumping ground ... from the time they landed at the airport in South Africa, they were all but distasteful .... the whimsical management of domenech, the confrontation of anelka, the town-crying of Evra ... it just doesnt augur well for a team .... for me, France should not be allowed to play for another 2 World Cups if the spirit of the game is to be kept intact!!

To meet France at the airport (after meeting them in the Finals 4 years ago), the Italians have eroded their respect reserves in a way that will need a couple of decades of repair!! ... it is indeed a sorrowful day in the history of a football loving country, where their players went down without a fight .... its pricks me to speak ill about the Azzurri, but they have done nothing that should deter me from speaking like! Post their appalling exit, Lippi may have made a feeble attempt to salvage some pride by taking on all the blame, but, for the record, he is responsible for the pathetic ad pitiable shape of the Italian football team .... his team selection has beat reason ... his faith in the old warhorses is unjustifiable ..... realistically, the Italians never looked like they'd mount a challenge to successfully defend their honor ... but they never even put up a fight.... it needed an over-dramatic reaction from Danielle De Rossi to get level with New Zealand, a team that was ranked a good 70 odd places below them .... 2 points out of 9 for th defending champions is preposterous ... a team led by a captain who cannot find a club in Europe, a team whose strikers didnt looked like scoring the the I-League, a team whose midfield jsut looked liek an assembly of monotony-laden individuals without Andrea Pirlo have rightfully exited early

If it just pricked me to speak with negative passion about the Azzuri, ti gives me immense pleasure to malign the the Three Lions who were no better than rats!! .... England for me were the most wasteful team that came to South Africa ... many argue that they met a rampaging Germany on the wrong day and maybe on another day, they would have put up a fight... the truth is, they played no better before that fateful day.... for their good fortune, the opponents prior to Germany were just not good enough to exploit the frailty .... a team whose captain was found in bed with his team-mate';s wife surely cannot play as a unit ... you can hire the most expensive no-non sense Italian coach with a stone face and an impressive resume ... but if he is inclined to believe that club performances would be replicated in the World Cup, then only poor quality opponents could defer the blushes!! .... excessive pressure on a 23 old striker who over-played himself in carrying the hopes of his club isnt really smart .... picking an old, heavy, slow-moving bull to shield him is the epitome of stupidity .... a captain who just tried to over-do everything after scoring in the first 5 mins can all but do nothing ... in simple words, England were JUST SHIT!!

For all those who recited the litany of experience need to run a search on wikipedia to know the ages of the German players.... a team that was written off even before the tournament started just proved the new mentality of a young team that dismantled teams who were superior on paper ... who knew Mesut Ozil??... who ever thought Thomas Mueller would be in the running for the Golden Boot??... who ever thought Miroslav Klose (after having the most dismal year in the running to the WC) would miss out on equaling or even bettering the record for the most WC goals only because of an injury in the last game?? .... who ever thought Germany were capable of playing ATTRACTIVE FOOTBALL?? ... we all heard and learnt about BLITZKREIG in history textbooks .... ths youthful team showed us what it looked like ... they surprised not only their opponents, who are still wondering what struck them, but had the world stand up and take notice!! ... when they went out to a tactically superior (but until then, plain lucky) team in the semi-finals, people actually felt bad .... its is a STORY for a team to evoke such reactions when they werent expected to go beyond the group stages!!

When one talks of Germany, it is jut complementary to talk of the ORANJE!! .... it appears to be an exchange of footballing styles between the two ... perhaps the most consistent under-achievers in World Cup football are on the brink of glory!! the exponents of total football have shown the world they can effectively play a game, devoid of flair .... it'd be grossly incorrect to conclude they are boring, but they are far from their attractive play ... call it what you may, they are here after 40 loooong years!! this is their MOMENT OF TRUTH .... if it doesnt happen now, i will never happen for a looooooooooooooong time.... seldom do you see Dutch teams characterized with discipline and industriousness and not easily will you see it again ... GO ORANJE!!

If you can see ORANJE, u inevitably gotta see the Spanish Armada .... the team which has gotten rid of all their regional differences and played as a team has for the first time, in their history, reached the penultimate step of the summit!! ....a team, where half of it players come from the world's best club (it is like a national team for Catalonia), the players looked very well knit, which is a luxury for Spanish coaches ... many may argue Spain are riding their luck and are here because one player has made the difference is wasteful quality of passing and poor finishing .... whichever way you look at it, you cannot morally deny their Golden Generation (you here this word about England too ... it is true only for Spain) of players a shot at the most priced trophy in international team sport!! now many hav perhaps appreciated the uncelebrated contribution of their coach!! .... the only man who had the rarest ability to have the likes of Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo and Beckham play in the same team has done an encore!! .... to be spoiled for choice is perhaps the most unenviable position to be in ... nonetheless, he has done justice to it and HOW!!

i somehow wanted to have this paragraph put under the one that spoke of Germany, but in a "best from the best" situation, i shall salute the Uruguay team ... before anyone starts cribbing about the modern hand of god, which i do not disagree was anit-sporting, i think we should spare a thought for the young player who could see nothing but his team being playing in the World Cup semifinal after 4 long decades... it may hav come at the cost of a team that had never been there, which was carrying the hopes of the entire continent ... barring that incident, Uruguay hav displayed grit and determination ... for a country with a population of just 3.5 miliion people, it is more than commendable to have reached as far as they did .... one man, single-handedly has carried the team to where it belongs - THE ELITE of WORLD FOOTBALL.... DIEGO FORLAN ... words fail to delineate the contribution of this man ... perhaps one of the greatest talents of his decade, who unfortunately timed his club football poorly has today stamped his authority .... be it his wonder strike against holland or his last minute strike against Germany that hit the bar, Diego Forlan has done everything that justifies his nomination as the Player of the Tournament ....being at the wrong side of 30, playing his last World Cup, Forlan has just silenced all his critics who dubbed him FORLORN!! ..... had i not a bias for the ORANJE and Wesley Sneijder, Forlan is my Player of the Tournament!!

And it is indeed befitting that the FAVORITES, who just managed to reach the World Cup, be spoken about at the end .... i am indeed talking about Argentina!! a team that could lend a few attacking players to others and still have sufficiently enough to substitute players at will tried doing it purely on adrenaline .... they never seemed to have put a foot wrong, until they saw some BLITZKREIG .... an eccentric coach (perhaps the greatest player of his time) who selected hsi team on dreams was all but exposed when he was tested .... nobody can take away the passion for the game from Maradona, but the World cup cannot be won purely on zeal .... it was heart-breaking to see Maradona cry but he did nothing to save himself the fate.... if you pick a player at 35, who 8 years ago was left out because he was too slow, you are perhaps living in ECSTASY!!

and just as the post-morterm, this World Cup has been the best ever for me....for the first time, i saw it with a new perspective, new horizons and new dimensions ... never knew players could be mean and sweet!! .... never thot a song like tshabalala-jabulani-vuvuzela-jabulena wold be the cutest thing i ever heard!! ... never imagined i'd actually talk of a game at the oddest hour when i spent most of time planning my future @ 40!! .... bye bye world cup.... i wish you stayed longer!!