Waka Waka - FIFA World Cup 2010...lets drool one last time !!!

While we bade farewell to the World Cup 2010, lets take a quick look at the highlights & showstoppers......

Uruguan star striker Diego Forlan won many hearts as he picked up the coveted Golden Ball.....a recognition given to the best player of the tournament. He richly deserved the award, having almost single handedly taken his country to the semifinals & almost took them past the mighty Germans in the 3rd place play off. His freekicks were a treat to watch & his never say die attitude was what champions are made of. He was the soul of the Uruguan squad. That he won the award ahead of favourites like David Villa, Iniesta, Sneijder, Messi & others was a clear testimony to his achievements.

Germany under the coaching of Joachim Loew was an outstanding unit.....very young...very energetic & very attractive in their gameplan, untill they met their match in the semis against the eventual champions, Spain. But the team did enthrall the football fans, the world over with their attacking game. They scored the most goals as a team in this tournament, securing the 3rd place, now twice in succession. Thomas Muller, was fascinating with his goal scoring abilities, picking up the Golder Boot for being the top scorer with five goals to his credit. While, Forlan, Sniejder & Villa also scored five apiece, Muller also managed three assists, more than any of this rivals. German striker Miroslav Klose managed to take his total Would Cup goals tally to 14, one behind the all time leader Ronaldo of Brazil. Chances of his returning in the next world cup looks bleak as of now, & he would be rueing his missed chances. So near...so Klose & yet so far......

Iker Casillas, the Spanish captain & goal keeper deservingly won the Golden Glove award for making some fascinating & awe inspiring saves under the bar & ensuring that the Spanish Armada bring home their maiden World Cup.......finally.

Spain as a team played a game that left viewers asking for more. They captivated the world with their short passing game, which would spread across the whole ground, mesmerising the opponents & scoring just enough to sail through....truly a Champions performance. They focussed on their strength of ball play & possession football & even the ugly physical tackles of the Netherlands in the final could not take away the game. Quite deservingly, Spain won the Fair Play award along with the World Cup.
While, they scored only 8 goals in their seven games, they did not concede a single goal in all the four knock out games they played, becoming the first team to keep a clean sheet in the elimination rounds.
They also became the first team after Brazil in 1958, to win the Cup outside their continent.
Interestingly, they also became the first team ever, to win the tournament after losing their opening game in the tournament.

And finally, it would be incomplete if I don't mention about Paul, the two year old octopus, who was spot on with all his predictions, through the world cup. Housed in the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, Paul correctly predicted the outcome of eight matches, seven for the Germans(two defeats & five wins) & the Spain - Netherlands finals. Despite death threats from various sections, he continued his prophecy. As a prize, the authorities of the aquarium presented Paul with a replica of the World Cup which was garnished with three morsels of mussel (his favourite food). Paul took a while, before devouring his prize food, while paparazzi kept clicking at him.....
Breaking News : Paul, the Oracle Octopus has gone into a Coma !!!!!....apparantly he was asked to predict when India could win the World  Cup !!!!..........hehehehohohohahahahihihihi....

While Spain immerse themselves in a dash of Red & Yellow,......finally, we take a bow at the Champions & look forward to their dominance in this beautiful game of football......

Gracias......Viva Espana !!!!!

Waka Waka - FIFA World Cup 2010...lets drool......6

The World has a new Champion. Finally it is the Spanish Armada that has annexed & romped home the World Cup football 2010. Deservingly so too, as Spain arguably has played the best football in this tournament, closely followed by Germany.
The match did not reach great heights as a game, possibly because both Spain & Netherlands have never ever won the cup in the past. Netherlands have been in the finals twice before, in '74 & '78, but have ended up on the losers side, now thrice, with this edition, giving them the possible chokers tag. Both the teams looked caged in by the big occasion, & were circumspect on the turf.

This Spanish team has its nucleas in seven of the players from Barcelona, playing together for so many years, something no other team could boast of,.....their midfield being the best in the world, with Iniesta & Xavi weaving magical touch play, as if mystically connected, threading through the rival midfield & defence to open up the goalmouth. With Ramos darting down the line from the right flank, & Villa & Pedro upfront, the attack had enough sting. In defence, Puyol, Busquets, Capdevilla & Alonso were just rock solid.
Today of course, the men under the bar, the goalkeepers, Iker Casillas for Spain & Stekelenburg for Netherlands, were at their virtaul best, making some incredible saves to take the match to extra time. While Spain had better control over the midfield, & also the possession play, Robben almost won it for Netherlands, but for Casillas, who took away the ball from the wily striker twice tonight.
The match was marred by a lot of foul play by the men in Orange, who just could not control the game, barring brief moments of brilliance & resorted to tough foul play, earning 8 yellow cards & Heitinga getting marching orders with a red. They ended up playing the last 20 odd minutes with ten men.

It was the genius of Iniesta, who finally slammed in the winning goal in the 116th minute & Spain became the second country after Germany to win the World Cup after winning the European Cup......& they have been the deserving Champions. I had mentioned at the beginning of the tournament, that it was now of never for Spain. They have arguably the best combination in the world today & having won the European Cup two years back, looked every bit the worthy winners. Each player contributed to the winning cause, & finally they have been able to bury the tag of the under achievers in the World Cup stage.

The beautiful football has won.....Waka Waka.....
Lets look forward to this wonderful tournament come again, now in 2014, being hosted by Jugo Bonito...Brazil !!!!

Life sucks....sometimes !!!!

2010 till now has been a huge challenge for me. Be it at work or personal front. Just nothing seems to be going right, & I think the edges of frustration has started to show up.....even for me....behind the normal quiet & smiling disposition, I have started feeling the heat.

At work, it has been going from bad to worse......from the 1st day of the year, even the best of the deals have been going wrong....from a position of strength in December, when everything looked hunky dory....it has gradually sunk to abysmal levels, where even mere survival has become a challenge. Whatever mandates I am working on are all going through an unbelievable low.....just simply crumbling. All efforts are yielding no results & more frustration is creeping in. I am getting into regular arguments with my Managing Partner, & his confidence in my abilities clearly seems to be waning......not his fault, I guess. Its finally the bottom line that matters. With business booming & economy showing promise, such a pathetic state is hard to comprehend. The more efforts we are putting in, the more its going into a loop & the more the frustration is creeping in. The last straw in this crisis situation has been my team members deciding to move on.....one leaving for a better opportunity & the other returning back to Delhi, due to spouse's transfer. Cant blame them or hold them back, & here I am left all alone to face the music....or shall I say cacophony....mayhem !!!!!

On the personal front, its been a catch 22 situation. At the beginning of the year, I had planned to get things organised at the work front, get momentum & make some good money & then take a couple of weeks off to attend to personal issues. However, as always, things don't work the way one plans, & surely enough, I got sucked into more & more work, leaving my personal issues unattended. As a result, my parents are unhappy, my daughter, who has delivered a baby boy recently is unhappy, my friends are unhappy, my near & dear ones are unhappy, & for once I don't know where to start. If I address one issue, the other flares up, & vice e versa......a very close friend & his wife met with a freak accident on their daughter's Bday....the wife expired & the friend & the child are in a complete state of shock.....am at my wits end to help them recover, a teenager, who looks upto me as a mentor, has got into bad company & habits & I am struggling to bring him out of all that,.......small or big, right now there are just too many issues to handle.....life indeed has been very very challenging...without any respite. Life indeed has been a struggle.
Music, which would provide me the comfort, has been in back burner....sports, which has always kept me charged, is not getting any attention. Even backing up my favourite team Brazil at the World Cup football, had to go wrong.......even writing on my Blog has become irregular...so many topics to write on, but just not able to put my mind......Ouch!!!.....just nothing seems to be working.......
Feel like screaming out.......but then all I manage is a tired reticent smile.......what keeps me going is the hope that there is always light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long....So lets hope....lets wait, lets pray & lets just smile.......

In these trying times, as always, I try & keep myself motivated & pushed ahead by a song, written by Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore, (a favourite of my idol, Subhas Chandra Bose)...... Jodi tor dak shune keu na aashe, tobe ekla cholo re......the song urges & exhorts to continue your journey, despite abandonment or lack of support or challenges in life.....

They say that, good times & bad times....all pass by....the wheel of time makes you experience both the highs & the lows in life..... Present moment is inevitable....accept people & situation as they are......this will also pass !!!!.....'But When' is the big question!!!!

Waka Waka - FIFA World Cup 2010...lets drool......5

What a match it was between Paraguay & Spain in the last of the quarterfinals at the World Cup....both sides matching player to player in skills & sheer grit......till the 83 minute, when Iniesta carved a magical run through the defence into the Paraguan penalty area & passed to Pedro whose shot hit the post & on the rebound, the imperious David Villa finally found the elusive goal to put Spain in the semis.....It was Spanish Armada all the way.....the team, which has always been an under achiever at the World Cup...always faltering to deceive at the knockout stages...David Villa is now the leading scorer in the tournament with 5 goals, ahead of all others for the Golden Boot award.

The Paraguans played out of their skin & were the first to find the net....but the goal was disallowed for being offside. However, their pressing football payed dividends, when one of their forwards was pulled down by Pique inside the box, & the whistle blew for a penalty. But Cardozo's shot was brilliantly saved by Casillas & within less than a  minute, Spain had earned a penalty kick at the other end. Xavi Alonso converted the kick with ease, but as he got into celebrations, the referee was already blowing the whistle for a re kick, as one of the Spanish player had moved before the shot. This time, the Paraguan goalie, Villar managed his piece to save the kick, & it was even stevens for the teams......
The match kept moving at a high pace & the ball careened from one end to the other, till Villa found the net for Spain in the 83rd minute.
Paraguans, kept pressing for an equaliser & almost managed one in the dying minutes of the game, but Casillas was impregnable today, taking his side to the first ever place in the semis.....

It will now be Spanish skills against the disciplined but hard game of Germans.......certainly a mouth watering encounter...., while in the other semis, the Dutch take on the Uruguans.....
While, three of the four Latin American teams exited in this round, three out of three European teams waltzed forward to the semis...what a turn around.....

Shakira's Waka Waka is steaming above the Vuvuzels, while we await the semifinal clashes.  

Waka Waka - FIFA World Cup 2010...lets drool......4

Since yesterday night I have been hounded, jeered by friends, colleagues & even my close ones on the loss of Brazil. I had frankly dreamt of a final between Brazil & Argentina this time...... Jugo Bonito vs Albiceleste!!!!
But, as they say.....the best of the dreams go unfounded in the real world......
Yesterday, Brazil lost, & today, Argentina were mauled...completely outclassed by the determined & disciplined Germany.....
Diego Maradona could only grimmace on the sidelines, wishing that he was at least 10 years younger & 30 kilos lesser & fitter.....itching to play himslef & lift the sagging morale of the team.....He had won zillion hearts when he had won the World Cup for Argentina almost single handedly in 1986.....His dream to win the World Cup as a coach, came a cropper......just like Dunga, who had similarly captained Brazil to the 1994 victory, but could not win as a coach.......life indeed is tough!!!!!
As a strategy, the Germans had completely bottled up Messi, & that had closed the supply line of the Argentinian forwards....Tevez, Higuain, Maria et all, kept bumping into the German defense, their attack foiled one after the other. In comparison, the Germans kept playing pressing football, & while leading in the first half by a solitary goal, they pumped in three more in the second half to complete the rout.....probably the worst ever defeat for Argentina in the hands of the Germans.....
 Schweinsteiger, was like an unstoppable engine, taking control of the vital midfield, supplying the forward line & supportng the defense. Along with him were Podolski, Muller, Klose, Lahm, all contributing to this stupendous success.......the country's investment into youth after the last World Cup loss in the semis, has now started to pay dividends.....Coach Joachim Loew, has knitted a really formidable unit. Klose, with two goals today is now second only to Ronaldo of Brazil as the highest goal scorer in World cup.
One feels sorry for Ballack, who watches his team from the sidelines, as he is out of this team due to an unfortunate injury.
The Germans now await the winners of Paraguay & Spain, the last of the quaters. Another mouth watering match in an hour from now.
The Latin Americans are clearly losing the plot in this tournament now. Two of the strongest outfits Brazil & Argentina are out now, with Paraguay unlikely to win against the Spanish armada..... its only Uruguay in the semis.......

The world cup is really unfolding now..... 

Waka Waka - FIFA World Cup 2010...lets drool......3

The biggest shocker of the World Cup football 2010 till now...... Champion probable Brazil knocked out in the quaterfinals by the Orange.....the Dutch !!!!
It took them 36 years to register a win against the Samba football at a World Cup meet & they did this in style, marauding into the semis & making the world staop & take a look at them as a serious contender of the coveted Cup......thier first ever if they can make it...finally !!!!!

The match had started in expected fashin with Brazilians all over the turf, silky Samba touch & when Robinho slotted in the first goal in the 10th minute, it looked like a regular cake walk for the Latin American favourites. Today they had donned blue & white instead of their regular yellow & green, but in the first half it was all Brazil....they had drilled in one more goal which was disallowed for offside, & then a Kaka lob looked like entering the far corner of the net, but was fisted out in time by the Dutch goalie.....the Dutch at that time looked completely mesmerised......
The game was in control of Brazil till the 53rd minute, when a seemingly safe floater at the Brazil goal was inexplicably misjudged by the defenders & the goalie.....allowing the ball to slip past into the net, in a same side goal......the whole team went into a shock, while the Dutch in Orange, had been handed over a lifeline which they took with full vigour & managed to push the famed defence into another blunder & managed the winner in the 68th minute. Arguably the best defence of this world cup, under Julio Cesar, Lucio, Juan & Maicon had developed cracks & allowed two fatal goals.
One had expected Samba football to take over, but surprisingly they panicked & allowed the Dutch to dominate, with Robben, Sneijder, Bronckhorst & Kyut taking total control. Robben in particular reminded me of Zidane(the French master ball player), both in his game and looks, as he tortured & tormented the Brazilian midfield & defence....in fact, in my mind, he was who took the game away from the Samba boys.
The Orange colour look good to reach the finals now.....& who knows.....their first ever World Cup..... all they need to do is to hold their nerves & the game......Kryuff's dream may finally come true....
As I write this, in the other quaters, the indomitable Ghana(lone survivors from Africa) are fighting to the end against Uruguay.
I feel bad for Dunga, the Brazilian coach, who will now have to quit.....under him the team may not have played the traditional football, but had drilled the discipline, which should have taken them the whole distance.....but then all that we dream for does not happen.
Frankly, like millions across the world, I am right now feeling completely dejected at the exit of Brazil.
The World would now have to wait for Jugo Bonito to come back again till 2014......the beautiful football that the Brazilians play & pray.....incidentally its going to be played in Brazil !!!!!