A Legend Passes Away!

George Best 1946 - 2005

Ronaldinho Magic!

The much hyped 'El Clasico' between Real Madrid and Barcelona in Madrid turned out to be a forgettable encounter for Real Madrid as the 'galacticos' were humiliated before their home crowd in front of their home supporters. Ronaldinho mesmerized the Real Madrid crowd by his performance and the two goals he scored and becomes only the second Barcelona player after the legendary Maradona to be applauded by the Real Madrid crowd.

Barcelona would be thanking David Beckham for he chose Real over Barca, paving way for Ronaldinho signing for Barca. No other player in the distant past has had so much of an influence on the team that Ronnie has. He has inspired a Barca team that was lacklustre until 2 seasons back and made them into one of the most feared teams in the history of football.

On one hand, as a ManUtd fan I feel sad that Ronaldinho did not come to Old Trafford but on the other, I feel happy that Barcelona has improved so much in the past two years, owing much of their on-field success to that ever-smiling assassin. Barcelona are one of the few genuine contenders for this year's European title.

Ronaldinho is widely tipped to be the man who is going take home the Balloon d'or or the European Player of the Year Award and the FIFA World Player of the Year. But, I am sure, Ronaldinho will forever treasure the day when the Real Madrid fans bowed before him and applauded his brilliance.

Real's envy, Barca's Pride!

El Clasico!

In a few hours from now, one of the most awaited derbies in football starts. The rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona continues on the football pitch when Real take Barca in the Santiago Bernebeau stadium.

The capital of Spain and the capital of Catalonia meet in this season's first 'El Clasico'. Catalonia is a region in the east of Spain which feels independent and one of the ways in which it expresses it is through its football club FC Barcelona. General Franco's regime suppressed the use of the Catalan language and Catalan symbols between World War II and 1975. So, it's more than just a match when these 2 biggest clubs in Spain meet.

It's a pity that I wouldn't be able to watch it being here in India, since Star Sports has discontinued its live coverage of La Liga matches this season. But I sure would be cheering the Catalan club on from my place, following all the proceedings on net.

Goodbye Keano!

There is only one Keane!

Floyd Quotes!

Get U'r Filthy Hands Off

"Wenger is always casting his glances on Chelsea. He is a voyeur." - Jose Mourinho, Chelsea Coach.

Paranoid Eyes

"Mourinho is a very good coach. Football needs more people like him." - Sepp Blatter, FIFA President.

Comfortably Numb

"Smith seemed lost in midfield and I do not understand why they rave so much Fletcher in Scotland." - Roy Keane, injured ManUtd Captain, after the disastrous 4-1 defeat to Boro.

Wish U Were Here

"The team does miss Viera." - Arsene Wenger, Arsenal Coach finally accepting captain Patrick Viera's sale to Juventus has hurt them.

High Hopes

"England can win the World cup." - English players, after a thrilling 3-2 win over Argentina in a friendly.

Brain Damage

"He has an ability to score goals but a player needs much more than that to be a first choice at Real Madrid. " - Arigo Sacchi, Director of Football at Real Madrid, on Michael Owen's sale.

Free Kicks!

I was browsing through my TV channels the other day and to my surprise I came across Real Madrid TV. Yes! Free Real Madrid TV in India! Anything to sell a few more jerseys to pay the bunch of 'galactico' losers!

Being a ManUtd/Barcelona fan, I would happily shell out some money to watch either ManUtd TV or Barca TV (if it exists!)

Live TV telecasts is being blamed for the drop in football spectators at the stadiums in Italy. Perhaps, AC Milan or Juventus should buy David Beckham from Real Madrid! It isn't important how well he plays...they could make money just out of selling his jerseys. These clubs could learn a thing or two from Real.

The Nou Camp football stadium has a capacity of a hundred thousand, just being on the ground surrounded by a full capacity crowd would evoke awe as well as fear in the away team's hearts! It is my favorite stadium not just because it's Barcelona's home ground but also because ManUtd won its second European title here in 1999.

Premiership newcomers Wigan are on a high after 6 wins in a row. Second in the table behind Chelsea, they have surprised many people, including me. But I expect them to go on a slide soon. Their opponents for the next few games - Arsenal, Tottenham, Newcastle, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Charlton! Good Luck to them!

I don't understand why clubs seem so eager to reward players with new contracts just after they have done well in a few games (ex: Wigan's Chimbaonda and ManUtd's Bardsley). Contracts do not matter much anyway. If a big club gets interested in a smaller club's player, there's not much the small club can do, except make some extra cash out of the sale. Also, many a times, I notice the performance of the players just fades away after signing a new contract, Giggs being one a notable example of that last season.

Madame Tussauds has chosen to make a waxwork of Jose Mourinho instead of Sir Alex Ferguson - because more women fancy the Chelsea manager. Aahh! The Special one...perhaps, the ladies fancy him because of his extremely laaarge......mouth!

Sour Grapes, Mourinho and Gooners!

Mourinho feels Chelsea were unlucky to lose against ManUtd after dominating most of the second half. Maybe, luck has finally run out for the Blues who, one might remember, were incredibly lucky in their wins at the start of the season, including wins against Wigan and Arsenal. Sour grapes, Jose...sour grapes!

Barcelona have been always been linked to Arsenal's Thierry Henry. The latest player to be linked with Barca is Chelsea's Frank Lampard. With Barca's attacking prowess already the envy of clubs in Europe, they would do better if they go for defender Gallas and strengthen their leaky defence.

There are rumours of a swap deal next summer, involving Arsenal's Ashley cole and Real Madrid's Julio Baptista. Although I hate both the clubs and as much as I would miss Roberto Carlos' horrendous defending, I do feel this would be in the best interests of both the teams.

Former Gooner captain Patrick Viera has claimed in his new autobiography that ManUtd striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy is a cheat and accuses him of play-acting. This, from a guy who captained a team of goons and collected a whole bunch of red cards in his time at Highbury.

Juventus playmaker Paolo Nedved has finally succumbed to the desire of playing in a World Cup and come out of retirement. He has been named in the Czech squad to face Norway over a two-legged playoff. I hope Czech makes it to the World Cup. They are a good team and World Cup would be much better with them playing rather than Norway.

The Gift!

My immense gratitude goes out to Roy Keane for the way in which the injured ManUtd skipper, with some fierce and harsh comments, spurred on and inspired his team who were on a terrible run, and they managed to beat Chelsea 1-0, ending the Blues' 40-match unbeaten streak in the English Premiership.

ManUtd have taken a huge step in proving their critics wrong by beating reigning champions Chelsea. ManUtd will always remain a champion in the way they have blooded youngsters and home-grown players. What they lack now is a player like Eric Cantona who can inspire the young and talented players in the squad to achieve the heights like they did in the late 90s.

With Keane injured and old, it is time Fergie bought a world-class and proven player in the midfield instead of bringing in untried players such as Eric Djemba-Djemba. In fact, two good players - a holding midfielder and a playmaker would be enough to take ManUtd right back on track. Though it is highly unlikely that this will happen in the January transfer window, I am sure the Glazers will have something to think about after seeing ManUtd's reputation flounder in recent times.

Although I dislike teams such as Chelsea creating an imbalance in the transfer market, I do feel a club with ManUtd's stature should not hesitate to shell out decent amount of money to bring in a world-class player. Fergie is right in accusing Chelsea of trying to stop ManUtd and Arsenal from signing the players they have an eye on - Robben, Essien, and SWP being notable examples. In fact, Chelsea even dared to prise away youngster Jon Obi Mikel who had already signed for ManUtd.

ManUtd do come up with the occasional answer to their critics who question their place in the Europe's elite. I have lost all my respect towards to Franz Beckenbeur who suggested Ballack would better move to Real Madrid than to a fading club like ManUtd. Real was even worse than ManUtd in the past two years with trophyless campaigns ( at least, ManUtd won the FA Cup the season before last!). Of course, Real are a legendary club but no one is more legendary than Sir Matt Busby who built a team of stalwarts from scratch after losing a team of great players in the Munich air disaster. Sir Matt, I salute you and as for you Franz, here...take my middle finger!

In England, only Liverpool can claim to be equal to ManUtd in terms of their history and it is pathetic to see Chelsea buy their way to history! Heartening to see ManUtd showed people around the world that not always does money triumph. If only, players like Essien and Robben understood! Anyway, yesterday's win made my day and what better gift could I expect on my birthday? It was the best birthday gift, ever!

Whatever

These days nothing seems to be predictable in Soccer. For instance, Chelsea have lost to Real Betis at Seville. All logic points to a easy victory for Chelsea with Betis being in poor form in La Liga and missing several key players. Again, Liverpool and Arsenal are winning in Europe while being humiliated in the Premiership. Milan must have been emotionally drained after their win against Juve. There seems to be no other explanation for their loss in the CL.

What all this implies is that the Champions League is turning out to be a farce with bizzare results that defy all football logic. One of the reasons may be that most teams are tired after playing the weekend's matches and/or have lost some players to injury before the CL match. And they also need to have the coming weekend's matches in mind and rest some players for that. You also have the long travel schedules which tire players out. Ultimately, you end up seeing teams like PSV beating Milan or Betis beating Chelsea and are left wondering if you know anything about football at all after watching it all these years.

The one bright spot in all this is realising that Vieira moved to Juve just to win the Champions League. I hope he is left kicking himself when Artmedia win it this year beating Scalke in the final at Paris.