Thursday, July 13, 2006

Hamari Azzurri Kahani


Football is a religion for many. I belong to the many. And mere mortals could experience a slice of heaven as the footballing demi-gods descended upon Deutschland. The last one month has been exciting & there are so many around the world that would be feeling lost now that the tournament is over.
The Italians are elated. After the Serie A was rocked by the match fixing scandal, I think Italy finally has a reason to celebrate again. It was a world cup to remember with some exciting games. This tournament has been dubbed the Defenders tournament & that is how it was till the end. The team with the better defence won took top honours. Fabio Cannavaro who I first saw at Parma along with a young Buffon. Of course the both now play at Juventus. I had predicted at the start of the world cup that the partnership of Cannavaro & Nesta would be unbreachable. Although Materazzi deputised for Nesta, he was no slow poke although he made a few mistakes sometimes. But he was a busy man in the final, he equalised, made some ruthless tackles, got headbutted & dispatched the spot kick.
Enough can not be said of Cannavaro. He was the player of the tournament for me & deserved the Golden Ball more than Zidane. Zidane only came into his own after the match against Spain, Cannavaro had been a rock for Italy since the first game. He marshalled his troops and was the perfect captain throughout. He will now occupy a special place in Italian football history alongside some legendary names life Giuseppe Bergomi,Franco Baresi & Paolo Maldini. Along with the menacing wingbacks Zambrotta & Grosso, they had a formidable defence. Their brain & braun central midfield consisting of the grimacing Gattuso & the sublime Pirlo was instrumental in their victories. Though their attack was lacking, Toni & Totti showed rare glimpses of their true self. I would not say that the best tean won, but definitely the most organised team won.
Talking of the best team, I definitely think Germany or Argentina should have taken the prize but luck had a different say. The four teams ie. Australia, Argentina, Germany & Italy, I was rooting for played against each other & consequesntly knocked each other out. Australia along with Ivory Coast, Ukraine & Ghana were the surprise packages of the World Cup. The Socceroos comebacks against Japan & Croatia trult epitomise the Aussie Spirit.
The Albioceleste of Argentina had the firepower & the defence that a tournament of this nature demanded but luck wasn't on their side. The Germans were dazzling going forward with Klose,Podolski,Ballack & Schweinsteiger. Solid in defence, Mertesacker is a name to look out for in the future. But this world cup has done them a world of good.
The French... Zidane could well have the architect of a french win, but it was a sad end for the mercurial playmaker. But youngsters like Ribery & Malouda made their presence felt.
Brazil was just as they were reaching their peak, the french pulled the carpet from beneath them. Roberto Carlos who I thought was the best left back ever was at fault for Henry scoring.
Spain still remain PERENNIAL UNDERACHIEVERS.
The Dutch will surely be better next time around because they had a very young team this time & these guys are sure to mature.
The Portuguese were a tough outfit but filling the shoes of Luis Figo will be a tough task.
The names of Ballack, Klose , Robben , Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Zidane , Vieira, Cannavaro, Totti, Pirlo ,Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney , Beckham, Raul ,Torres, Messi ,Tevez etc will be etched in out memories forever.

6 comments:

Vemana said...

Nice review of the world cup man..What Zizou did was wrong .. yet he ddi deserved golden ball cos he along wiht ribbery brought a dead french team to life..
The saddest part was the highly unfortunate way the best sportsmen in the world were knocked out.. Aussies deserved to win tht game
nice post

Anonymous said...

anna..nice post..world cup revisited..u rock..

Anonymous said...

I disagree on the point about per mertesacher...i think that he aint such a good defender apart from his physical aspect..he cant read the game too well and isnt too fast. btw, schwienstiger means "Pig Marshal" in german...LOL!


loved the title!!

Anonymous said...

hey... was wondering WHEN this wud come up... n it DID :) ..missing football huh??

PS: germans shud have won for the "cuteness" factor :(

Anonymous said...

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dint know where else to comment.. happened to get this link.. n i went on n on for hours... about the rains.. politics... one last time... WILL U MARRY ME???

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