Read Between The Community Shield

Manc-ini-hester City Tactics: Mancini had the perfect setup to attack the Red Devils and his plan were going smooth and on track till half time, but after half time the defense just fell apart or should I say the Champs were playing like one. The tactics which could have made City the runaway winners, changed the Hash Tag on twitter to #ManchesterisBlue rather than #ManchesterisRed and put a stamp on them being the title contender with the Big-4 for the coming season took a 360 degree turn and had a head on accident when the 2-0 deficit was turned into a 2-3 victory for the devils.

Fill In The Blanks: City were attacking and scored 2 goals also to have a lead of 2-0 at half time but in the second half they were just not able to reach the Devils box and were defending most of the time. That is when I feel a man like Tevez was missed his never die attitude & his ability to take the ball from his defense to the opponent was surely missed, I feel Mancini should really rethink his plans keeping the charismatic captain in mind and yeah make him feel homely.

YOUNG was no more ‘Young’: In the last quarter of an hour Ashley YOUNG was the oldest player in the red jersey wish we could have digital jersey name and could have the Englishmen’s name to changed from YOUNG to say OLDEST but on a serious note a bright future awaits the Red Devils. Players like Smalling who was playing out of position, Welbeck who was given a nod above Berbatov, Tom Cleverley was playing like clever matured player, Phil Jones was matching every penny of his price tag, Evans who played as if his only motive was to silence his last season critics and the player I love Anderson was proving his metal in the squad. I say job well done by Sir, Scouts and youth system.

At last he proved his quotes were more than just words: You know since Ronaldo left I must have heard Nani saying it for a zillions of time that he wouldn’t let Trafford faithful miss him. I know right now many Devil’s supporter must be abusing me but really ask yourself this question, Nani might have been scoring some goals & might have been the perfect trickster and speedster but do u think he has even come close to what Ronaldo had achieved as a number 9. But last night I was honored to see the great player Nani was, playing the perfect passes, always available to receive passes, scoring the perfect goal and scoring the winner in the 90th minute he might not be Ronaldo but he was a complete player.

At the end Gunners were the happiest: Like really, what was Clichy thinking as now he has a higher price tag on him the ball would get attracted to him. Come on Mr. Frenchmen Kompany is not superman that he can stop whatever you throw on to him what could have been a return ball into Devils box was turned into a winning goal for Manchester united by none other than Nani who never gave up on the ball. Sorry but for me it wasn’t Kompany’s mistake but a brutal howler by Clichy and one good step by Arsenal in the transfer market was now in front of us all.

Listen to the words of Scholsey: Just retired Manchester maestro Scholes was quoted saying why are we looking for my replacement outside when you can find them in-house. After yesterday’s game I totally agree to that point when needed Rooney was playing deep and providing inch perfect long ball to the wings and in the second half there was a near perfect partnership between Anderson and Cleverley which were just so pleasing to the eyes. And when you have a manger of the stature of Sir Ferguson I am sure even if they don’t sign Sneijder Manchester midfield would be fine. I also feel a player like Anderson and Cleverley now deserves their chance.

Masterpiece is made by talent not money: Manchester City have been big spenders in the transfer market for a long time now and yes they achieved a 2 goals lead last night one  goal being a setpiece header by Star Wars Lescott and a long range goal by super happy Dzeko. But for me a beautiful masterpiece was created by the red devils when they scored their second goal which was started by young Cleverley and included 2 back heals by Rooney and Welbeck and a beautiful run of play finished with a finesse by man of the moment Nani. Its likes Red Devils like making masterpiece against their city rivals remember Rooney’s overhead kick.

I’LL BE A BIG BOY ONE DAY

This is what normally a kid says to his mother after feeling inspired by his father almost identical situation have been seen in this summer transfer market with number of clubs displaying a strong ambition to be among the top clubs of their league. What this would do is may be make the competition more intense by making the life difficult for the big clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, AC Milan & Lyon. Now again going back to the young age some kids do grow up to be like dad and some don’t which means intent is not everything you have to work towards your goal, input some extra hard work and be clear about your short term goals cause at the end it’s the short term goals which make up the long time goals. Same way all these hungry clubs have to be clear about what they want to achieve in one season at a time and accordingly the players would have to give in some extra hours of practice to at least snatch one medal off the chest of the big boys.

So I’ll be looking at four different clubs from four big leagues, their ambitions, their new signing, their coaches and everything they have to challenge the big clubs.

Malaga

League: Liga BBVA

Owner: Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani ( Qatar)

Home: La Rosaleda

League Position (2010-11): 11^th

Manager:

Manuel Pellegrini

One of my favorite managers in the world very calm very composed and both these words are always on display in his style of play. Joined Malaga on 5^th Nov 2010 when Malaga were in a sad state hovering in and around the relegation zone and with few good signings in the winter transfer window took the side to a respectable 11^th position by the end of the season. If Manuel is given the right guys in the team he is like the man who talks less but works magic with his hard work.

2011 Big Summer Signings

Martin Demichelis

Ruud van Nistelrooy

Nacho Monreal

Joris Mathijsen

Jeremy Toulalan

Joaquin Sanchez

Isco

Santi Cazorla

Player to Watch

Santi Cazorla – ESP – MF – 26yrs

A midfielder who is a passing maestro, he possesses great speed and is still 26 years old, surely a man for future. Snapped up by Villareal just before he turned 18 since then spent seven seasons as the yellow submarine and now when as he has left the club he is already considered to be a legend at El Madrigal.

AS Roma

League: Serie A

Owner: Thomas DiBenedetto (USA)

Home: Stadio Olimpico

League Position (2010-11): 6^th

Manager:

Luis Enrique

Roma is not that much of a small team they are three times Serie A winner but the only issue they have lost their way completely. Even though they finished a respective 6^th position but few of the dismal performances were not expected from a club with such great history and players hence I say they have the right man for the right job. Luis Enrique born and bred in the essence of Spanish football played for Gijon, Madrid and Barcelona. And for past 3 seasons Enrique has been the coach of Barcelona B so I feel he knows the perfect ingredients to make a club dream and also transform the dream to realty.

2011 Big Summer Signings

Erik Lamela

Jose Angel

Gabriel Heinze

Bojan Krkic

Stekelenberg

Player to Watch

Erik Lamela – MF- ARG – 19yrs

He is a home grown Argentinean, born and brought up at recently relegated River Plate. Surely a part of very sad story of Argentinean football but would want to put the relegation story behind him now especially as he is at a very big club very mistakes are not digested easily. Surely the winning buy for Roma as all the big clubs were behind him. His attributes include bag full of tricks, deadly at set pieces and ferocious left foot.

Paris Saint Germain

League: Ligue 1

Owner: Qatar Investment Authority      

Home: Parc des Princes

League Position (2010-11): 4^th

Manager:

Antoine Kombouare

He is the man that you actually need at the manager seat right now as he has seen the club from the eyes of a player who won the Ligue 1 title for PSG that being one of the two titles they have won till now. And for a man who knows how it feels to hold that cup he also know what needs to be done to achieve that single moment of glory. Now as he has been the coach of PSG since 2009 he knows exactly what the club needs. Hope he brings the glory days of 1994 also as a coach as he did as a player.

2011 Big Summer Signings

Kevin Gameiro

Milan Bisevac

Jeremy Menez

Blaise Matuidi

Mohamed Sissoko

Salvatore Sirigu

Javier Pastore ( going by Zamparini official comments )

Player to Watch

Javier Pastore – MF –ARG – 22 yrs

I call him the brain child of Zamparini because no one knew him till he was bought by Palermo. And what a great 5 million buy he turned out to be leading the club from the front with his quick 2 feet and his eye to make perfect through ball actually brought him to the world stage and also his first senior team call. Bought for almost 43 million euros by PSG he better proves his big money price tag but I feel he would.

Manchester City

League: English Premier League

Owner: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan      

Home: Etihad Stadium (previously City of Manchester Stadium)

League Position (2010-11): 3^rd  

Manager:

Roberto Mancini

The Italian known for his no nonsense attitude and his ability to turn a season into a year of silverwares as he did at Inter Milan from 2005 to 2008 winning 3 consecutive Serie A titles. His team talks do wonders even from the days of his playing career when he would give the same during half times. His style of play is always attack inclined as it was visible from last season when he turned the defensive midfielder of Barcelona into more of an attacking midfielder of Manchester City yup I am talking about Yaya Toure. I believe this just might be the season for Manchester City with UEFA Champions league qualification and I feel Mancini is the man who can make the dreams of all the citizens possible.

2011 Big Summer Signings

Gael Clichy

Stefan Savic

Kun Aguero

Timo Hildebrand (deal close by)

Player to Watch

Kun Aguero – ST -23yrs –ARG  

He surely had become a household name in Madrid attacking the defense of any team with such ease and spear heading Atletico Madrid attack. Son in law of the great footballer Maradona has such charismatic style of play that giving him a small little space in the defense is nightmare time for the opposition. If he is able to make up a good partnership with Dzeko and Balotelli and also Tevez if he stays Manchester City is going to be a force to reckon with this season.

IGNORANT FOOTBALL FANS IN INDIA NEED TO RISE

I still remember the morning of 28^th April 2011 when all my friends who were Real Madrid and Barcelona fans were in a tussle on Twitter, Facebook and all social platforms available, all this cause of the sending off of the Madrid central defender Pepe when he had actually not touched Dani Alves. And the social football fight was also there on 7^th May 2009 when Barcelona knocked out Chelsea with Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo disallowing many of the penalty chances that Chelsea should have actually got with Ballack and Drogba leading the race to shout at the ref. But on 24^th of July 2011 everything was all cool why should there be any issue no EPL no La Liga no SerieA so just for my so called football loving friends to know on 23^rd July 2011 UAE defeated India 3-0 in the first leg of the World Cup qualifiers.

Oh please don’t stress your head thinking why is this Jughead making such a hue and cry about a loss as it keeps happening in sports. I am making this hue and cry because India ended the match with only 9 men in blues on the field, with Red card being awarded to Debabrata Roy and Subrata Pal when there wasn’t much of a physical contact in any of the two situations which led to the penalties and also the red cards. Now where are the Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea fans gone come on how can you be a club faithful if you are not even close to being a country faithful?  Every player in the world says and feels there is no better feeling than playing for your national team. Please a humble request don’t start with the age old topic that Indian football is not that great come on how can it be great when their own countries football supporters have no idea about what they are going through.

The referee in that match was Banjar Al Dosari who is from Qatar, just asking the FIFA committee what were they actually thinking when they knew India were suppose to play Qatar before the qualifiers why designate Dosari to take control of the match. Me being very neutral follower of football won’t comment anything more on this but would surely want to bring your attention on to the two Red card situations.

Debabrata Roy Red Card

One of the UAE midfielder sent in a cross which was met by a deflection and was falling in the path of the UAE striker with Roy only chasing him and Subrata Pal in total control to snatch the ball from the air but then the Striker came tumbling down holding his ankle with there being no physical contact from Roy only a defensive pressure. What next? Debabrata was given his marching orders.

Subrata Pal Red Card

Considered to be one the highly experienced and talented shot stoppers in Asian sub continent especially due to his Spiderman style reflexive saves. Almost same situation as the first one the ball crossed in the box and the ball being in the reach of the Indian keeper he jumped caught the ball took a step and raised his knees to his abdomen as all keeper do which is very normal. And with the striker charging towards him Subrata just brushed the UAE striker on the side ribs and the striker who had a good course in play acting and loved the lush green turf started to roll on the lush green turf which I would say surely deserved a yellow card. But Subrata’s past reputation (Junior Incident) came to haunt him and was shown the red card.

Has anyone got any reason that would speak in favor of the mockery made by the referee of the beautiful game? But surely everyone would want to congratulate our coach Armando Colaco who has done a great job with his side, even after being nine men down for most of the match we played much much better than 11 men under Houghton. We were passing well, we were trying to attack and we played as a unit, what more can you expect 9 men to do against 12 men (ref included). We displayed courage, talent and passion to win.

Now my question comes back to all the readers where were all the football followers in India when this was happening why were there no fights on the social network forums? Where had your football following spirit disappeared? If this sought of situation would have happened in cricket I’ll tell you what all would have happened:

1. A group would have been made on Facebook say "BAN DOSARI" with 1 million followers.
2. May be a Candle march may be at India gate.
3. Or if it was a very critical situation say with respect to a match with Pakistan there would have been a massive discussion in parliament with bats and wickets been thrown around.

But in this case what happened NOTHING. For everyone who says India is not a footballing nation but a cricketing nation wouldn’t it be better if we would be known as Sports Nation of the world. If I take the first red card scenario and compare it with Puyol doing the same my Catalan supporter friends would have had the FB status “Puyol was at his amazing best but the ref was biased” and as for Pal’s situation if Casillas would have got red carded my Castilian supporter friends would have had the status “Dosari has no idea what goalkeeping is all about”. Come on guys I know Indian football still needs to develop a lot but come on show some respect, trust and support in your national team Climax holds same importance to Indian football as Dhoni does to Indian cricket.

"THESE ARE MY VIEWS ALONE"

For more of sports related article go to www.isport.in right now.

REAL MADRID THE CLUB OF MADRIDISTAS

I am a Real Madrid fan and people ask why Madrid and not Man U Barcelona or AC Milan and I say nothing and just smile so here I am giving my brain some peace and my heart some love by replying to all those beautiful people who asked me why Madrid??

Alfredo Di Stefano

 Quinta del Buitre

Am I a Blancos fan because we are the best European team with nine Champions League title to our name, which included five consecutive titles. OR is it because we always have the most expensive team line-ups. OR is it because we have Di Stefano’s name engraved on each and every brick of Santiago Bernabeu. OR is it because we brought fashion to the green turf with an all white kit in the early nineties. OR is it because when you think of Real the faces that start flashing in my head are of Stefano, Butragueno, Manuel Sanchis, Rafael Martin Vasquez, Miguel Pardeza, Hugo Sanchez, Zidane, Roberto Carlos, Hierro, Salgado, Raul, Casillas, Ronaldo, Figo, Beckham, Morientes, Van Nistelrooy, Ramos, Pepe, CR7, Ozil, Kaka, Di Maria, Joselu, Jesus, Morata, Sarabia and the never ending Galacticos. Now looking at other side of the coin do I follow Real cause even though we have the brightest or if I can say whitest bright history, in the past 6-7 seasons we have been nothing but just a name a brand and I want to see the old Blancos back?? Or is it cause I am tired of the politics within the club and want the brutal and almost killing news of Del Bosque been sacked removed from my head?? I say I am a Blancos follower cause I BELIEVE. I am a Real Madrid follower cause this is the club which comes to my mind when I think about the most beautiful and magical game in the world. And with this belief and trust comes both side of the coin which I just talked about which gives both immense pleasure & satisfaction and also immense pain & sadness.

And this season again I know we are not the Tiki-Taka maestros or we don’t have the backing of crazy but filthy rich oil tycoon or we don’t have a knighted manager on the sidelines but one thing we surely are and have been in the dry and lacklustre recent seasons is that we are a unit and I am sure this season again all the Madridistas around the world are again going to dream to bring the silverware home and give their 110% support to “the most magical club in the world” i.e. Real Madrid. And on a personal note I do believe we have the team this season to relieve those dreams again which saw Hugo Sanchez scoring goals at will, which saw Di Stefano being the most decorated footballer in the world which saw Zinedine Zidane walking all around Bernabeu with tears of joy in eye and a bottle of champagne in hand.

Zidane with 9th UCL

Many say we are only European glory hungry that is why we keep buying very expensive players and don’t care about our youth. Totally disagree we do have a good youth system may be not as good as La Masia or the Arsenal Football Club academy. And excuse me but don’t make stupid comments that Los Merengues don’t care about La Liga we still are the most successful team in Spain with 31 league titles. Surely agree we have strayed away from our path but we are coming back and when we do my words won’t hold any importance because action speaks louder than word.

So this is to all the Blancos fan all around the world keep the BELIEF TRUST & RESPECT for REAL MADRID stronger than ever cause those 11 players in White kit with gold stripes on the green turf deserve that. 

And a well made video by Galaktyczny1990 for all the Madrididistas do check it out:

SHOWING TONIGHT ON BROADWAY: DISSAPOINTMENT

Being a football aficionado I stayed up late this weekend to watch two of the much anticipated matches of Copa America Uruguay vs Argentina and Paraguay vs Brazil but at the start of the week all I was left with was disappointment and discontent. Uruguay vs Argentina one of the biggest rivalry in International football having played each other numerous times and having the honor to be called the original El Clasico was a lively match with Uruguay being victorious at the end of the game. Brazil vs Paraguay once the super power in World Football Brazil had lots of question to answer and lots of critics to prove wrong but they failed to do all this while Paraguay played like a unit and with the backing of Larissa Riquelme booked their place in Semis.

So here I am writing few points that I felt were responsible for the fall of the South American Giants:

Argentina

Throughout the tournament there was only one question that was being asked why is Messi not playing well? First of all I say Messi, be it his club Barcelona or Argentina he is a winner and gives 200% for all his matches. Second of all did the media or the critics or the fans ever thought the team has ten other players that they were actually ignoring a team might surely be built around a player but that player doesn’t make the whole team. Messi was magical in this tournament also but surely he is more amazing and untouchable when he plays for Barcelona why because he has Xavi and Iniesta to support him where as throughout the tournament I felt the mindset of the coach Batista seemed like oh don’t worry we have Messi we would surely win.

Did he care to see what was in his defense an ever injured Milito no doubt at one stage he was the best they had but come on you don’t win Cups thinking about your past laurels. Uruguayan striker Sebastian Abreu joked “if you want to stop Messi slaughter him” why he only spoke about Messi not Higuain not Di Maria not Aguero why because he knew that is how Argentina was playing.

Why to blame Messi or as a matter of fact why to blame Tevez some other day its possible that Messi would miss a penalty, it wasn’t the fault of La Albiceleste faithful who were impatient they have full right to be specially when you live in the country of world’s most talented and decorated players and still for the past 18 years haven’t seen a silverware return to your country. I solely and tactically blame El Checho for this failure.

A coach is not only supposed to be tactically strong and knowledgeable about the beautiful game he has to have a strong head to make correct decisions. How can you make the team believe in something when you yourself don’t believe in it? Everyone knows that Tevez is going through a bad patch of his career and Batista himself did not feel right to start with the Manchester City striker but he under the pressure of media and public did start with him what was he actually thinking it is not a trial and error round this has to be done before the tournament. El Checho was indecisive that he was just not able to make the right changes that would help the Argentinean side turn the tide around. While the world has been screaming Pastore’s name for his amazing performance for Palermo last season and every big club have been running for his signature and making Zamparini happy you decide to keep him to bench him and give him only 5-10 minutes of playing time.

I am not saying replace Batista but come on you belong to the country of Maradona one of the best of the best footballers I say the players the fans the country deserve much much better. Common no doubt you are an Olympic winning coach but you got to remember you replaced the best player of his time Diego Maradona and when you replace a man of his caliber the benchmark is raised to another level. No doubt that team under Maradona was erratic scoring 10 goals and conceding only two in four matches and then there match against Germany they were crushed 4-0. But what different situation is Argentina football right now there is no goals no free flowing game no beauty and at the end no silverware either.

It was very beautifully quoted by Daniel Edwards in his article, he quoted the words of respected Pagina 12 journalist Ariel Greco "The word failure has been bastardised in the world of football... but for this year's Copa America participation no other adjective fits,"

Brazil

Almost every time they play its expected that they would win and all this because of the standard they have achieved they might be the only team which plays to the beats of Samba music and when they score they show the world the Samba dance. But it was disappointed to see the standard they achieved throughout the tournament in short all they displayed was a dismal performance. I remember watching Brazil’s first match against Venezuela which all pundits had declared to be a goal rout turned out to be a nil nil draw. What I felt seeing that match if given a chance Julio Cesar would forget his goalkeeping and would want to try his luck in scoring a goal. It seemed everyone had forgotten their role the calmness and stability was up in the air. Andre Santos and Dani Alves as if had forgotten what amazing in Box crosser they are and all they knew was how to shoot long range shots if they could have hit them a bit harder would surely have had reached the space.

And that’s what has been happening throughout the tournament every player on the field has a defined and designated role but it was sad how bad Brazilian players memory have been in the past week. The composure to make magic on the field seemed like a long lost past the midfield was in a disarray with Ganso being the only shining star defense was scattered with age showing in Lucio and for god sake where is the era of Claudio Taffarel gone can someone please go ask Julio Cesar to take some rest he must be tired from diving over the ball. Players like Kaka and Ronaldinho were hugely missed and that was made clear by the crowd when they were chanting Kaka’s name these are the mould of players who serve goals for the striker to finish that connectivity from midfield to strikers were just not there.

Average price tag on the available strikers in starting 11 must be around 40 million at the same time average age was 22 years come on you can’t expect them to shine just like that even if they might be an important member of their club. Give them some friendlies, let them feel the heat of the crowd, let them learn to handle pressure for god sake don’t hurry their development. And it was a howler of a mistake not to select talented Hulk in the squad he has the experience and talent that Pato and Neymar really lack. One thing that really struck to my mind was the new generation of Brazilian players lack physical presence. Players like Cafu, Ronaldo & Roberto Carlos are the players with talent muscle strength and speed which is a deadly combo to bring any opponent to your feet. If they want to do something in 2014 home World Cup they better starting building and joining the dots right away because there is still a lot of work left.

If in few words I could sum up Brazil’s performance it would be lack of experience, lack of player’s knowledge to the coach, lack of creativity (beating a defender is not creativity), lack of mental (inexperience) and physical toughness, lack of combinational play, lack of Kaka or Ronaldinho (Ganso is just half of them when it comes to talent), lack of good defensive combination (Dani and Maicon are best but who to choose) and in shorter words these players just could hear the SAMBA tune. Please don’t forget to ask Cesar to take rest I know I am being rude but really really disappointed with him.

And I almost forgot yes the pitch at La Plata was really bad but tell me something if Brazil knew this why in the world they didn’t finish the match in 90 minutes or why in the world each player coming to the spot was taking such long run-ups. Where there is a will there is a way, so stop crying and please everyone out there wants to see the Brazilian magic flow with the hint of Samba dance football style involved.

ON THE SAME NOTE I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE A STANDING OVATION TO MUSLERA AND VILLAR TO SHOW THE SPIDERMAN 3 AND 4 MOVIE AND PLEASE FROM MY SIDE I REQUEST THE URUGUAYAN AND PARAGUAYAN BOARD TO ALLOW THEM TO PLAY WITH SPIDERMAN DRESS IN THE NEXT MATCHES THEY CAN FLY WITHOUT THE WEBS ALSO AND HAVE REFLEXES WHICH IS NOT FROM THIS PLANET.