Countdown To The New Season 4: Team - Bayern Munich

The mighty German club Bayern Munich won the Champions' League five seasons back and after that it has really been a very poor performance in Europe and they had to satisfy themselves with a couple of league titles. They had signed on German star Ballack after he led Leverkusen to that incredible run in Europe in 2002 only to lose to Real Madrid in the finals thanks to a wonder goal from Zidane. It's a pity that even with Ballack in their team, they couldn't go beyond the quarter-finals in Europe.

Bayern are a strong and physical team and are tenacious in nature, typical of a German team. They have good defensive players like Sagnol, Lucio, Demichilis and old warhorse Lizarazu. Their midfield is anchored by the German player of the year Ballack, supported by Deisler, Hargreaves and Salihamidzic. The young Schweinsteiger is considered to be a rising star and provides attacking options in the flanks. The attacking partnership of Dutch striker Makaay and Peruvian Pizzaro is very strong and there are young strikers like Guerrero and Cruz on the fringes.

Their goalkeeper Oliver Kahn is exuberant as ever at the age of 37 and is still the number one choice for the German national team, which by the way is coached by ex-star and world cup winner Jurgen Klinsmann. Bayern remain the top team in German football and among the top teams in the European elite list. If they manage to hold on to Ballack this season, they have a good chance to retain their league crown but there is not much of a chance they might succeed in Europe.

They usually play in a 4-4-2 formation which would typically be like this...

Kahn

Sagnol Demichilis Lucio Lizarazu

Deisler Salihamidzic Ballack Schweinsteiger

Pizzaro Makaay

Everton Hopes Buried!

The draw for the Champions League final qualifying round was just made. Everton's hope of a non-Liverpool clash was fulfilled but I am sure they are not going to reach the main draw 'cos they face Spanish team Villareal, who btw, was amazing last season in La Liga.

Villareal has a good squad with players like Riquelme, Forlan (ex-ManUtd player), Sorin and have the capability to topple even a top team. Everton will be cursing their luck for being drawn against them.

Also riding their luck are defending Champions Liverpool and ManUtd, who would have been pleased they didn't get drawn against a Spanish or Italian team. Inter Milan face a tricky situation...they play Ukrainian Champions Shakthar Donestk. (i guess they are champions and i hear they are much similar to Chelsea in their financial might, though not equal)

Real Betis against Monaco is the pick of the matches as is Everton against Villareal. Betis finished fourth in La Liga last season and Monaco third in the French league. After the shocking 5-0 away loss of ex-Scottish Champions Celtic to an unknown Slovakian team, I guess no top team will be complacent even if they are to face a lowly side. The first leg takes place on August 10/11 and the return leg two weeks later. More about the Champions League later!

'Fool'Ball!

Last month, Chelsea bid 38 million pounds for Juventus striker David Trezeguet! Are Chelsea crazy to offer such high amounts of money for a player who is seriously past his best and spent most of last season injured? Are Juventus such fools to reject such an offer for a guy whom most teams wouldn't even offer 15 million pounds?

Also, it seems Chelsea have bid upto 60 million pounds for AC Milan striker and reigning European player of the year Andrei Shevchenko. Chelsea are making a mockery of the transfer system and this is definitely not good for the game. And, AC would be just fools if they reject such an offer!

In other transfer news, Dutch ace Edgar Davids looks set to seal a free move to Tottenham from Inter. ManUtd, who are still not ready to spend big, could have atleast tried to lure Davids, a very good mid-fielder to Old Trafford.

ManUtd are still on their Asian tour and playing well. They haven't conceded even one goal yet but a worrisome factor is Rooney not scoring even once! Ruud, it seems is still not upto his very best and Keane seems to be at loggerheads at Fergie! There have been offers for Kleberson and Phil Neville and ManUtd needs to get everything sorted out including Rio's contract and players for the mid-field positions before they start their season's campaign with the champion's league qualifier.

In other routine news, Real Madrid's defender (though he's yet to touch the ball in a Real jersey!) Jonathan Woodgate has suffered another blow in his bid to make a comeback from injury. This situation might lead to Real cancelling his contract and well, 13 million pounds down the drain!

Real lost 0-3 to a Japanese team on its Asian tour and has decided to solve the problems in its defence by selling central defender Walter Samuel to Inter. ManUtd should now take advantage of Real's precarious position and sell them Rio for 30 million odd pounds. That way, they can get rid of the greedy bastard and they might be even able to make a handsome profit!

Countdown To The New Season 3: Team - AC Milan

If there is one team that's always a favourite for the title of European Champions that would have to be the Italian Giants - AC Milan. They have been one of the most consistent teams in the past two decades and they have won 5 European Cups, only next to Real Madrid's nine.

The Italian football league is considered to be the best in terms of the technicality of the game and this perhaps is both the strength and weakness of Italian football. The Italian teams are very strong in defence and their mentality to be conservative has always proved to be the undoing of these teams in the recent past. The Italian national team lost to France in Euro Finals in 2000 and were knocked out of the World Cup 2002 and Euro 2004 after they were in commanding positions.

AC Milan won their last of their 5 European crowns in 2002-2003 season when they beat fellow Italian team Juventus in a penalty shootout after a lacklustre final. They came close to winning their sixth title when after going 3-0 up at half-time, only to give away three goals in a span of 6 minutes and subsequently lost to Liverpool in a thrilling penalty shootout. The previous season they had lost to Deportivo in the quarters 4-0 after winning their first leg 4-1.

AC Milan has a wonderful squad, players with amazing capabilities; the only thing they perhaps lack is the influx of youth to go with all the experience. When I look at their squad, the only player below the age of 25 I see is Kaka. Most of their players are either above 30 or nearing it. But even at 37, their captain Paolo Maldini is an inspiration to his team and into his 21st year at Milan, still has enough passion and technique left in him to compete at the highest level. I heard the Italian coach is still trying to coax him into playing at next year's World Cup.

Their defence is considered to be the among the very best in the world with Nesta, Stam and Maldini and Cafu, at 35 is still going strong at right-back.The mid-field looks solid with ball-winner Gattuso, playmaker Pirlo, who is also an extremely good free-kick specialist and the superb Kaka. It's a pity though, to see a player like Rui Costa always on the bench.

Their front also looks formidable with the European Player of the Year Shevchenko leading the attack with options like Vieri and Inzaghi to partner him. One player who is expected to make a mark is new-signing Gilardino who has been exceptional in attack for his previous club Parma.

A good formation would be...

Dida

Cafu Nesta Stam Maldini

Seedorf Gattuso Pirlo Kaka

Shevchenko Gilardino

Their Champion's League loss would have hurt them quite a bit apart from the 2nd placed finish below arch rivals Juventus in Serie A last season. They will be looking to make amends this season and I feel they are sure to hold aloft atleast one trophy this season and that might be the their League's.

Viva Lance!

"To the cynics and the sceptics, I'm sorry you cannot believe in miracles. This is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. Vive le Tour forever."

These were the words of Lance Armstrong on the podium in Paris after winning the Tour de France for a record 7th time. What makes his achievement even more spectacular is that he recovered from cancer to achieve this feat and is an icon and hope to all cancer patients throughout the world.

Here is an interesting link which compares him to many other sporting icons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/4711871.stm

It's a pity though not to see a single Indian in the list!

Countdown To The New Season 2: Team - Barcelona

Barcelona, is sort of a country within the country of Spain...proud of its own history and heritage...a fierce rival of the capital-city-team Real Madrid for they have often been looked down upon and never received their due recognition. Real's 9 European trophies to Barca's solitary victory in 1988 makes Barca a bit jealous of their arch rivals. They haven't been able to attract or hold on to their superstars in the past few years 'cos of lack of success but one signing, a couple of years back, that might just push Barcelona into a new era of unheralded glory. Is that possible?

It is possible if Barca hold on to the person who has reversed their fortunes almost single-handedly. He had almost signed for ManUtd but at the last moment he opted for Barca. What was ManUtd's loss was Barca's gain. The rest, as they say, is history. He now is the cynosure of most top teams and has a 100 million pound buy-out clause. Also, he was last year's World Player of the Year. He is Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho.

About 3 seasons back, before Ronnie arrived, Barca struggled to finish 6th and just about managed a UEFA Cup place. The team consisted of several ageing Dutch superstars. After that season, a new coach arrived in the form of Frank Rijkaard, an ex-AC Milan and Dutch player.

A new executive - Joan Laporta was elected on the promise that he would bring in David Beckham. But when Beckham chose to go to Real, he brought in Ronaldinho from PSG. I sincerely thank Beckham that he did not come to Barca for Ronnie alone had what it would take to enthuse the sagging spirits of his team-mates and he has shown what he is capable of in his 2 years at Barca. It is ironical that Real haven't won anything ever since Ronnie came to Barca.

In his first season, after a slow start, Rijkaard took the team to a respectable second position and overtook Real who finished a miserable fourth that year. In his second season, Rijkaard took a good step forward by getting rid of most of his Dutch counterparts from the team and brought in some experienced players like Deco, Guily, Larsson, Edmilson, Eto'o. Even though most of the squad was injured, Barca won the Spanish league after a gap of six years thanks to prolific scoring by Samuel Eto'o(a Real Madrid reject) who took some of the burden from Ronnie's back.

Barca have added Van Bommel from PSV and Ezquerro from Athletic Bilbao to their squad and most of the players have recovered from their injuries. Barcelona should be able to put up a good fight this season both in the league and in Europe. They would be looking to forward to beating their old rivals Real in La Liga and a meeting with Chelsea is what they would relish in Europe after losing to them last season.

Barca plays superbly when they are on attack but one area where they falter is the defence. Puyol could do well with a better partner in central defence and perhaps, with Edmilson returning after injury, would give them a few more options. It was amazing to see a team win a league title with just about 14 fully fit players on the squad but then luckily for them, their main players were always fit.

Their typical formation would be...

Valdes

Belletti Puyol Edmilson VanBronchorst

Guily VanBommel Deco Xavi Ronaldinho

Eto'o

It looks like they are not going to buy any more players this summer even though they are linked with Arsenal's striker Thierry Henry often. With the squad of highly talented players, they have to meet the expectatations of their fans and I hope they conquer Spain as well as Europe!

ThrAshes And The Mad English Media

The Aussies thrashed England by about 250 runs in the first test. The English batsmen always seem to struggle against McGrath and Warne even the two bowlers are past their prime. I'll have to eat my words on what I said about Pieterson in my previous post. In his debut test match, he did not seem to show much nerves and was the only player who seemed to stand up to the challenge and scored half centuries in both innings. Whatever happened to all the talk about the challenge the strong English side would pose?

Well, the English media is always known to glorify their team and players but equally ruthless when it comes to burying them. It happens almost every year during Wimbledon when they hope for an implausible miracle from Tim Henman.

Tim Henman is undoubtedly not as talented as the English media project him to be. They expect him to salvage the British pride by becoming the first British player in almost 70 years to win the Wimbledon. Every year, there is lot of hope when the Championships begin but questions about his retirement pops up as soon as he fails. This is the era of Roger Federer, who has already won Wimbledon thrice in as many years and it'll be nothing short of a miracle to beat him. Age too is not on the side of Henman and at 29 (I guess), he better bid farewell to his hopes of raising aloft the Wimbledon trophy lest he faces the media which would question him his passion for the game and hunger for success, after every failure.

It's a pity that the English football team with all the talent has only to show a World Cup success achieved some 40 years back and still pride themselves to be the very best among European leagues. Come World Cup or the Euro Championships, the media just sings paeans about their formidable team and how this year would be 'the year'! Somehow, they always seem to lose and an attack by the media follows, who would quite often find a scapegoat to blame.

In World Cup '98, it was Beckham's irrefutable red card against Argentina, in 2002 it was the costly error by ageing goalkeeper David Seaman and in Euro 2004, the referee who disallowed a goal that should have stood. The media has already started hailing the mid-field pair of Lampard and Gerrard as the best in the world and with the self-proclaimed world's best defender Rio Ferdinand in the team and teenage wonder-kid Rooney at the front with goal-scoring machine Owen, the media has identified the next year's World Cup as their best chance to end their drought of trophies. It would be difficult for the team to escape unscathed from the media, should they fail!

Meanwhile, Alonso now has a firm grip on the F1 Championships after winning the German Grand Prix yesterday. His challenger Raikkonen retired due to his car's mechanical failure and Schumi only managed a fifth position. Narain Karthikeyan finished 16th. Montoya came 2nd and Jenson Button managed to be on the podium after a very long time with a 3rd placed finish. Button, being British, too came under the media spotlight during the previous race at Britain. He did not perform well and the media again came on to him.

Maybe, it's the fear generated by the media in the hearts of these sportspersons the reason for lack of success. Although, the lack of any success of great significance in recent years has the media craving for a champion in some sport!

The Ashes - An Update!

The Ashes got off to a terrific start yesterday...England managed to bowl out the Aussies for 190, with Harmison capturing 5 wickets. But then, the English batsmen struggled against a fired up McGrath who retaliated with a quick 5-wicket haul. As I write this post, England are all out for 155, Kevin Pieterson the only player to make a respectable score.

I feel Aussies have an edge in the mind-games and have always tried to intimidate other teams. England do have some good players but unless they are able to match the Aussies in their mental strength, it is going to be tough to beat them and reclaim the Ashes.

Countdown To The New Season 1: Team - Manchester United!

The new football season is just 3 weeks away when the EPL starts followed by La Liga in Spain and Italy's Serie A. In the countdown to the new season, my posts will analyse of some of the prominent teams in European football, their chances in their respective leagues, in Europe etc. I will start with one of the world's popular football team - Manchester United FC!

It is too early to say ManUtd is in some sort of a crisis. They have been ruling English football for more than a decade now but the last 2 years were somewhat barren with just one FA cup to show. They have finished 3rd in the league for the past 2 years and crashed out even before reaching the quarters in Champion's League. Now, for a club of ManUtd's stature, it is indeed very poor performance.

The team has some good solid British players like Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Neville around which the squad is built. Young players like Rooney, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Smith still have a lot to prove and there are also some experienced players like Ruud, Van der Saar who are yet to win a Champion's League medal. Park is a new addition this year. Having seen him play really well for PSV, I have very high hopes and am sure his signing will not turn out to be another blunder like Djemba-Djemba.

The overall squad looks very solid except in 2 places. In defence, Ferdinand needs someone better than Silvestre or Brown as his partner. Perhaps, Heinze, who btw, was voted the best MaUtd player last season by its fans, could come to the centre of defense and O'Shea could occupy the leftback position!

In the centre of mid-feld, Keane is no longer his best. He has grown old and he can't play many matches, though he still plays with such passion and energy. I fall the players play with such passion, I am sure ManUtd has a very good chance to wrest the title from Chelsea. Fergie has plans to use Alan Smith in Keane's position but it is highly unlikely he'll be as good as Keane. It would be much better if Fergie bought a good mid-fielder like Ballack or Essien.

Up front, the team looks really good with Ruud, Rooney, Saha and Smith but the player I am eager to see is the teenager Rossi, who it seems, was amazing for the youth team last season. The main problem last season, was the inability to score many goals and lots of 0-0 draws. With strikers of such quality, ManUtd should be able to do better.

ManUtd has always done best when it attacks from the flanks. Park, Giggs and Ronaldo would have to fight it out for the 2 positions in the wings. If Ronaldo improves his finishing, he would be much more of a threat to the opposition.
The formation should be something like this...

VanderSaar

G.Neville Ferdinand Silvestre Heinze

Ronaldo Keane Park Giggs

Ruud Rooney

So, what are ManUtd's chances this season? They will finish in the top 4, but unless they buy one good central mid-fielder they are gonna struggle to top the league. They can perhaps make it to the quarterfinals in Europe, if they are lucky to play against a weaker team. Their best chances would be in the F.A.Cup and Carling Cup but even if they win these cups, it would not be a successful season unless they win either the English league or the Champion's League.

About Barcelona in my next post...!

The Gentlemen's Game - Cricket!

The Indian squad for the cricket tri-series in Srilanka was announced a couple of days back and there were a few surprises. J.P.Yadhav, at 30, was picked and Y.Venugopala Rao was also picked after his impressive performances in the Ranji Trophy matches. As expected, Dravid was appointed captain in place of the suspended Ganguly.

It is difficult to imagine Ganguly being picked up for World Cup 2007 if his lack of form continues. Sachin, I believe, would be a liability, at the World Cup since he's often injured these days and has lost his ability to evoke fear into the minds of the bowlers. But knowing the Indian selectors and the BCCI, these two will be in the Indian squad for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the mind games have already started ahead of the Ashes, which I think starts in a couple of days. Hayden has started to claim an Aussie an victory in the world-famous cricket test series which originated way back in the 19th century. Warne believes he is the key-player for the Aussies and judging by the performance of England against Warne over the last decade, I must say he is.

England has stunned everyone by choosing Pieterson over the experienced Thorpe, who by the way, has a 100 test matches behind him. Though Pieterson played superbly in the one-day matches, I don't have much faith in him in the longer version of the game. But if Engalnd do manage to pull off an upset series victory, this would definitely signal the end of Aussie dominance in cricket for the last 10 years.

Meanwhile, West Indies cricket is further into its worst ever phase...they have been playing with a weak team against the Srilankans because most of their top players including Lara had a row over personal sponsorships. I can't imagine the plight of West Indies cricket which until the late eighties were the most dominant team in cricket. Btw, the other teams that have qualified for the World cup 2007 are Scotland, Holland, Canada, Bermuda and Ireland. The groups...

Group A

Australia

South Africa

Scotland

Holland

Group B

Sri Lanka

India

Bangladesh

Bermuda

Group C

New Zealand

England

Kenya

Canada

Group D

Pakistan

West Indies

Zimbabwe

Ireland

Is This a Wright Move?

Manchester City has agreed to an amount with Chelsea for Shawn-Wright Philips. Is this a right move for SWP when Chelsea already has so many wingers fighting it out for places in the team? I feel SWP could have chosen to move to Arsenal (Yeah, I still hate them!) where he is sure to have been guaranteed a spot in the starting eleven. But finally, it was Roman's billions that spoke the loudest!

I do pity for players like Duff and Cole. The quality players they are, they would have in any EPL team's starting eleven but in Chelsea, they would have to fight it out. Though this is a good thing - competition for places, until there is some injury to a first-team player, I notice, managers rarely change their squads.

Now, Essien looks like he is sure to move to Chelsea but is he guaranteed a start in every game, the wish of most players. I think Chelsea's squad will look like this in the coming season:

Cech

Ferreira Carvalho Terry DelHorno

Makelele

SWP Lampard Essien Robben

Crespo

This is a terrific and frightening team and it sure will be difficult for teams to even manage a draw. Anyway, the coming season is going to be really exciting. Just 25 days to go...

Kick'em out!

Viera completed his move from Arsenal to Italian champions Juventus. Arsenal have pocketed a cash amount of 12 million pounds from the sale and I have to say it was a good sale fro Arsenal's viewpoint.

The fact is Viera has become old. He never did well last season and was in the team mainly because he was the captain. Wenger could not leave him on the bench and Viera was allowed to play even though his performance was below-par. This perhaps was one of the reasons why Arsenal flopped last season. Wenger has realized that it is time to try someone who could be the next Viera. I pity Juventus for spending too much on Viera when he seems he's past his best!

Meanwhile, Liverpool added one more player to their squad. They whisked Sissoko away just when he was about to sign for their arch-rivals Everton. The Reds coach considers Sissoko to be the next Viera. Only time will tell whether it'll become true, lest he ends up like Djemba-Djemba who was spoken of as the next Roy Keane! Haah!

Meanwhile, ManUtd have still not signed a mid-fielder they are in dire need of. It's a known fact that Keane would not be able to play all the matches this season. He's 34 now. That's too old for a mid-fielder considering the fact that he has to keep running the entire 90 minutes. I hate Fergie! When the need of the hour is a good playmaker, he goes on and signs an unknown young goalkeeper! With age, Fergie has lost his mind and ManUtd could well start looking for another manager next season.

There are lots of good managers around. One that comes to mind as a replacement for old Fergie is Gus Hiddink, the PSV coach. He took Korea to the World Cup semifinals and last season, with PSV, won the league and cup double and reached the Champion's League semi-finals too where they lost to AC Milan.

Frank Rijkaard has done a good job at Barcelona winning the la liga title in his second season at the club. With his squad of players, he will surely hope to achieve sucess in Europe too this season. Meanwhile, Chelsea coach Mourinho shoots off his mouth once again claiming the fixtures for the season favoured Arsenal who play at home after every European game while Chelsea play away.

ManUtd's defender Rio Ferdinand is still refusing to accept an offer of 100 thousand pounds per week and is holding out for 20 thousand more. ManUtd is better off without such greedy assholes and could use the 20-odd million pounds from his sale to buy equally good players for less amount of money. They could buy a defender, say, for 8 million pounds and a good mid-filder for 12 million pounds. When I say 'good-midfielder', I do not mean some obscure player from an obscure club (Djemba is again an example) or Patrick Viera.

Reds n Blues!

First Qualifying Round of Champion's League 2005-2006
Reds struggle to beat Welsh team TNS 3-0. A week after deciding to stay in Liverpool, Gerrard scored a hatrick for the Kops as they overcame a fighting and spirited display put up by the little known team. Though they will win easily, the Reds could do with a better performance in the return leg next week.

In the latest transfer news, well...nothing has happened in the past 2 days! Teams are still waiting for Chelsea to make their move. Wow! Things sure have changed since Roman's riches came into play!

Summer Activity - Football, F1, Cricket!

Football - Liverpool has been the most active team in the transfer window. Rafa adds to the Spanish influence in his team by bringing in Jose Reina from Villareal. He has also added Zenden from Boro on a free transfer and 3 other players. They are also trying to sign Louis Figo and Saints striker Peter Crouch. In my opinion, now that Gerrard is staying at the club, a good defender is all they need. I look at their squad and see a lot of left wingers - Kewell, Garcia, Riise, Warnock, Zenden (although, he can play anywhere in the mid-field), Gonzales and there is dearth of wingers on the right-side, Nunez all set to leave for Celta Vigo.

Surprisingly, Chelsea has made just one high-profile signing, bringing left-back Del Horno from Spain. Mourinho was left fuming when Gerrard decided to stay in Liverpool after Cheleas's 32 million pound offer was rejected by Liverpool. Chelsea are also looking to add Man City winger Shaun-Wright Philips (when they already have 2 world-class wingers in Duff and Robben) and Michael Essien from Lyon, a defensive mid-fielder when there is Makelele playing superbly in that position!

ManUtd has made just 2 signings - goalkeeper Van der Saar and mid-fielder Ji sung-Park. With lots of recent signings flopping, I sincerely hope these 2 well! A defensive mid-fielder (a cover for Roy Keane) would just be the best way to complete their summer signings. A few options for them - Essien, Ballack, Gattuso, Mascherano, Baptista...

Arsenal has made one major signing in Hleb, a mid-fielder for 10 million pounds. Whew! That's a lot of money Wenger has spent on a single player considering the fact that he usually prefers the French & Spanish U-21 and U-18 internationals!

Tottenham seems to be associated with almost any player these days. They have already made a few signings - Routeledge, Davies, and a few others. Even though their squad looks good, I am not sure they will pose a serious threat to the top teams.

A perplexing transfer was that of Vieri moving from Inter to city rivals AC Milan. AC already have strikers like Sheva, Filipo and Tomasson and are linked to young Parma striker Gilardino too. Vieri, already 31, is way past is best and doesn't deserve to be in AC.

Barcelona has made just 2 signings - Van Bommel and Ezquerro and with the squad they have, they are a strong favourite for the league and European titles.

Real Madrid, usually makes some of the worst signings - Woodgate, Samuel last years are some examples. This year, they have bought Pablo Garcia and have set their sights again on a striker (Robinho) when they already have many! Real and Juventus are set to fight it out for Arsenal captain Viera!

F1 - Mclaren close in on RenaultOne more terrible week for Ferrari as Mclaren's Montoya and Raikkonen finished first and third respectively abd Alonso in second. Karthikeyan was the only driver who retired! It just doesn't feel like F1 without Ferrari on the podium :(

Cricket - Aussies fight back to level seriesAfter losing the first match, the Aussies proved yet again they are the team to beat after winning the second match of the Natwest series to take it to the decider. Brett Lee took 5 wickets and Ponting has struck form with a century! The Aussies then won the next game thanks to a scintillating century from Gilchrist to bag the series. The Ashes which starts within 2 weeks should be really interesting!

Champion's League 2004-'05 - A Review!

What is the biggest club tournament in the world?

Undoubtedly, it is the Football Champion's League where some of the finest European clubs compete against each other. It has always been dominated by the top teams like Real Madrid, AC Milan but however, the past 2 years, Porto and Liverpool were surprise winners beating better teams, against all odds.

Present Chelsea coach Mourinho announced himself to the world by taking a team of unknown players from Portugese team Porto and winning the Champion's League. Mourinho had formed a team with talented individuals and guided them a memorable season when they won the European crown, the league title and the league Cup.

Liverpool, a dominant club back in the seventies and eighties, last season was re-building its team around its inspirational captain Gerrard, under new coach Rafa Benitez. Though they were terrible in the English Premier league, they were doing ok in the Champion's League. They were lucky to scrape through to the knock-out round after a close finish against the Greek club Olympiokos.Meanwhile, all the usual suspects like AC and Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, ManUtd, Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea too made it to the next round.

These were the pick of the matches in the 2nd round...

ManUtd vs AC Milan

Barcelona vs Chelsea

Bayern Munich vs Arsenal

Real vs Juventus
I was hoping my favourites ManUtd and Barcelona would make it to the Q/Fs and Arsenal and Real, the teams I loathe, would lose. Arsenal did lose and maintained their dismal record in Europe. But ManUtd lost to AC and Barcelona lost to Chelsea after a thrilling second-leg match. Ronaldinho proved why he is the player of the year with a wonder-goal though he ended up on the losing side.

The loss made ManUtd realize that they needed to get a reliable goalkeeper and a creative midfielder if they ever have to succeed in Europe again. I was very upset that my favourites had lost but the fact that Arsenal and Real too had lost cheered me up. For the first time in so many years, a Spanish club was missing in the quarter-finals!

Meanwhile, Liverpool slowly but surely were disposing off their opponents. They beat Leverkusen easily and then pulled off a major upset beating Italian giants Juventus after a dull 2nd leg match. Chelsea beat Bayern and AC won over city rivals Inter. The Dutch club PSV Eidhoven produced an upset beating high-flying French club Lyon.

The Semifinals:

Liverpool - Chelsea

AC Milan - PSV Eidhoven

Everyone had their money on Chelsea, who had just been crowned EPL champions, and on AC to meet in the Finals. I was not a huge fan of Chelsea. I had liked the team before Roman Abromovich took over and began to spend millions on new players. At least he did not follow the stupid Spanish team in buying only superstars or 'Galacticos' as they were called. It was such a pleasant sight to see Real go without a trophy for the second consecutive year! Liverpool pulled off another big upset by beating Chelsea after a controversial goal. It was not a pleasant sight though to see Chelsea players ending up in tears after the final whistle!

In the other semis, AC Milan played badly and just about managed to win on away goal rule over the Dutch team. Though I liked AC, I felt sorry for the Dutch club who had played good football. Already, some good players have been captured by other clubs. Their captain Van Bommel left for Barcelona and Ji sung-Park became the first Korean to sign for an EPL club in ManUtd.

The Finals:

In India, all Champion's League matches were telecasted live late at mid-night. I usually woke up and watched the matches. For the finals too, I got up just before the match was about to start. Though I liked AC Milan better, I decided I would support Liverpool. I really like the way they played passionately and the supporters' passion towards their club. The match couldn't have started on a worse note for Liverpool. My all-time favourite footballer Maldini opened the scoring for the Italians. Soon, Kaka turned provider for 2 goals from Crespo and before half-time the scoreline was 3-0 in favour of the Italians. I felt the 2nd half would be boring since the Italians would just defend in their own half. I could not have been more wrong when I saw the news next morning.

Liverpool had won! They had somehow equalised in a matter of 7 minutes in the 2nd half and then the goalkeeper Dudek's amazing one-handed saves from Shevchenko took the game to the penalties. Dudek emerged the hero for Liverpool after saving two penalties. When everyone had thought they were dead and buried at half-time, the Liverpool supporters still believed they had the chance, encouraged their team and Liverpool amazingly, managed to pull themselves up and won an incredible final.

How much ever money is spent on the squad, how many ever superstars a club may have in its squad, without team effort and passion to achieve something for the club, it is not possible to achieve success, I realized.

The European Champions - Liverpool

Tango for Cash!

Hmmm...what would I do with if I get £100,000? I would quit my job, put all the money in the bank and lead a comfortable life! Now what if I get £50,00,000!!?? I would buy a new car every week, have beautiful girls swirling around me while I am wearing just a 'chaddi' shamelessly, very much like our famous business tycoon and Rajya Sabha M.P.! Well, that'll just remain a dream to me. But just to imagine footballers are paid such amount of money, I wonder if things might have been different had I not stuck to cricket when friends were playing football at school!

Coming to the point, footballers especially in Europe are being paid embarassing amounts of money. Some might argue that they have a very short career that might be curtailed even further in case of a serious injury. Even then, 5 Milion pounds a year ???!!!

And, some players do not seem to be satisfied with the already huge amount of salary as with the case of English and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand. This guy was suspended for 8 months due to failure to take a drug test and during that time the club remained loyal to him and even paid his salary. But after the season ended, when few other top clubs become interested in him, he wants a better deal, a higher salary (he is yet to accept a £100,000 a week offer!)

On the other hand, there are players like Jon Obi Mikel of Nigeria who had signed for Manchester United but later claimed he was forced to join that club while his heart was always beating for Premiership giants Chelsea! Now then, his heart-beat would have stopped if it wasn't for Roman Abromovich's multi-million pound takeover of Chelsea and his huge investment had not brought the Premiership title!

There is always someone like Louis Figo, a superstar until a few years ago but now relegated to the substitute's bench. He says he won't leave for another club unless the club can match the salary paid by his present club! C'mon! You are nowhere near your best, neither are you any younger, but you still want to be paid 100 million pounds a week??!!

And yesterday, Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain says he wants to leave the club. This after just 6 weeks after he won the European Cup and said he would not leave the club. As I write this piece, my friend points out to me that Gerrard has just made a u-turn by opting to stay at Liverpool! So much for loyalty to the home-club!

When I talk about loyalty and passion for the club, I should mention the ManUtd players and not just because they are my favourite! Good British players such as Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and many others have been in the squad for more than a decade and were never tempted to leave the club they are so passionate about! I am also reminded of an AC Milan player (I forgot his name) back in the late seventies who refused to move to fierce rivals Inter when AC was relegated to first division. He stayed with the club, brought it back to the main league, won the league title and the European Cup! He is a legend at AC Milan! So is Paolo Maldini, the former Italian captain and current AC Milan captain who has remained with the club for 20 years!!!! And some players are not even loyal to their club for 20 months!!!!

These days, there is no such passion for a club. It is difficult to find a one-club player. The players are always looking to jump when a better club at that moment offers them a higher salary. It's a pity that there are very few Keanes and Maldinis while there are lots of Mikels and Ferdinands!

Legends, Champions and Losers!

Another year at Wimbledon concluded with Federer winning the men's crown and Venus Williams the women's. That Federer would win was a foregone conclusion as Arsenal flopping in Europe! But Venus did surprise everyone by winning the biggest tennis tournament for a third time, though she was a ranked outsider this year.

Federer now has completed a hat-trick and at 23, that he is yet to reach his prime has his rivals shivering! With a 36-match unbeaten run on grass, he's just 7 short of Bjorn Borg's record. Also, he has already set his sights on Sampras' record 7 Wimbledon titles. His rivals, especially Hewitt and Roddick, are way too below his level and to prove he is an all-time great, he has to win the only Grand Slam that has been eluding him - the French Open.

Though it was saddening to watch my favorite, Sharapova lose, Venus did play really well against her as well as Davenport in the finals. She would win many more titles if she is able to keep her focus on the game.

Watched the World Youth Football Championships Final between Argentina and Nigeria. It was amazing to watch young players play so well and one particular player caught my eye - Argentina's Lionel Messi. A young Barcelona forward who had just recently scored his first goal for his club hit the headlines when his 2 goals took Argentina to victory over Nigeria, thereby taking his overall tally to 6 in the tournament. Barca had to immediately give him an improved contract to ward off any prospective buyers. Good to see one more good player coming through in my favourite club!

About the U.S.Grand Prix, it was a blow to the FIA's efforts to make F1 a popular sport in the U.S. Michelin made a big mistake in not bringing safe tyres for the track and then had to ask the teams running on their tyres to pull out citing safety reasons. They have no right to ask for an extra chicane at a curve - this would actually help their teams. If safety was a concern, why not compromise on speed at that curve?
The teams did turn out for the French Grand Prix and Fernando Alonso cheered up the home fans of the French contructor (Renault) and the tyre manufacturer (Michelin) with a good victory from pole. The Finn Raikkonen (McLaren) did extremely well to finish second (he started at the back of the grid) and Schumi finished third in his Ferrari. Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan of India, finished 15th, two places behind his team-mate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal.

In the prelude to the Ashes, England and Australia played out an exciting draw in the finals of their one-day series. England would be posing a serious problem to the mighty Aussies in the upcoming test series if they keep up their good form.