Time to say goodbye

This blog has been up and running for about two months now. It was primarily set up for the World Cup and now that the tournament is over, it is also time for me to wrap it up.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing the blog, just as much as I enjoyed watching the tournament. I must thank malaysiakini for giving me this opportunity to put into words what I have been saying about football all these while.

I must also thank all my guest bloggers for sharing their thoughts with me. Thanks too to all those who commented on the writings – either in the blog itself or through emails.

And finally, thanks to all for visiting this blog.

Now that this blog is officially closed – perhaps until the next big football tournament – please visit my other blog, Ruth Square, to continue reading my ravings and rantings.

Cheers and Goodbye.

K Kabilan

The roll of honour, according to me

Now that the World Cup is over, we can start looking back to see who did what better than the others. Below is a list of my favourites:


Best player: Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)

Although Zinadine Zidane was voted as the tournament’s best player, for me it is Cannavaro without a doubt. He was superb at defending and marshalling the Italian backline. Never once did you see him simply kick the ball out of the danger area. He always found space to wriggle out of danger and then pass the ball to another teammate. Though his immediate future with Juventus is in doubt due to the match fixing scandal besieging his club, he didn’t allow that to interfere in his game. Superb player with excellent attitude and deserved to lift the trophy for Italy.


Best goalkeeping moment: Richard Kingston (Ghana)

There were a handful of good keepers on parade at the World Cup. Italy’ Buffon was outstanding in several matches, Holland’s Edwin van Der Saar was superb against Portugal and Germany’s Jens Lehmann finally proved himself as his nation’s number one keeper. However for me, Ghana’s Richard Kingston was truly outstanding in the match against Brazil, especially in the final 20 minutes when he thwarted so many chances created by the Samba boys. If it wasn’t for him, Brazil would have had thrashed Ghana that night.


Goal of the tournament: Esteban Cambiasso (Argentina)

The tournament started on a bright note with the excellent goal by Phillipp Lahm for the Germans in the opening match against Costa Rica. This was followed by another thunderbolt by Torsten Frings in the same match. After that we saw some amazing long range goals. Joe Cole’s goal against Sweden was a beauty, so was Steven Gerrard’s strike against Trinidad & Tobago. The two Italian goals in their semis against Germany were superb and for Portugal, Maniche and Deco scored four amazing long range goals. Zidane’ solo effort against Spain was outstanding, so was Torres’ goal for Spain in the match against Ukraine. And then we had smart free kicks by the South Koreans and two from Beckham for England. Arjen Robben scored a wonderful individual goal against Serbia. Germany finished it off with two amazing long range strikes through Schweinsteiger against Portugal in the third place match.

But two goals remain a class above the rest. The first is the goal scored by Maxi Rodriguez from Argentina against Mexico in the second round. And the goal of the tournament has to be the one scored by Argentine Cambiasso against Serbia. That goal was a superb team effort, ending into the net after 24 passes and a cool finish.


Best inspirational player in the World Cup: Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)

This will remain a World Cup in which no single player shined. We had some players having one good game and then going missing in the next. In the second stage onwards, perhaps Zidane made the difference for the French. And as I mentioned above Cannavaro was superb for the Italians. Cristiano Ronaldo had a good tournament for Portugal but disgraced himself by falling down too easily. Riquelme was the Argentine conductor and they did well whenever he player well. For Brazil, surprisingly the most effective player was the unassuming Ze Roberto. Apart from these well-known names, no one else managed to get a hold of the World Cup and claim to be the best player around. Biggest disappointment has to be Ronaldinho and Kaka from Brazil and Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard from England.

For me, two players caught my eyes in the first round. One was Stephen Appiah, the Ghanaian captain. He was everywhere in the field, He led by example and I think had a good World Cup.

The other was Didier Drogba for Ivory Coast. This player single-handedly sparked an amazing comeback in their matches against Holland and Argentina. He played as though he was possessed. He led the field and was hell bent in proving his team can play football. And he did that very well. Ivory Coast was unlucky to be in such a difficult group and they didn’t lose easily too. They came close in upsetting both Holland and Argentina as well, thanks to the amazing performance by Drogba.


Underachievers: Spain

Need I say more? They started well, played some good football but still managed to get kicked out. Argentina came a close second. They too started the tournament on fire, playing like champions, only to be kicked out on penalties.


Over-hyped team: England

Less said better about England They came into the finals as joint favourites but never showed us what they are capable of. Played some insipid football and went out on penalties to Portugal. The other one has to be the defending champions Brazil. They never looked like they can reproduce their magic here. Star players looked over-confidence and never really showed their talent. The only good thing to come out for them is Ronaldo’s record breaking goals.


Best match: Germany v Italy

With more teams playing with one striker, goals eventually dried up in the World Cup. We did however had an entertaining first round where teams played more of an open game. After that, it was a matter of teams playing not to lose and defensive mindset came into the picture. Still we had some entertaining clashes throughout the tournament.

So my choice of the best match of the tournament is the semifinal clash between Germany and Italy. Both sides were hell-bent in attacking and looking for that one goal that will take them into the finals. In the end however Italy managed that with two wonder goals in the dying minutes. This should have been the final instead. There were also other interesting matches earlier in the group stage. Holland and Argentina played a goalless match, but what a match that turned out to be. And let’s not forget the superb demolition job done by Argentina in their 6-0 thrashing of Croatia.


Worst match: Ukraine v Switzerland

This was a second round match and it nearly put me to sleep. No one wanted to attack, both keepers not tested and at the end Ukraine won 3-0 on penalties. Ukraine was involved in another boring match - against Tunisia in the group stages and managed to win 1-0 through a penalty. Earlier on Saudi Arabia and Tunisia almost played a similar boring match in the group stages, but still that match ended 2-2.


Worst refereeing moment: 16 yellows and 4 reds

That was the tally of cards dished out by referee Valentin Ivanov in the Holland versus Portugal second round stage. Close behind has to be Graham Poll who gave three yellows cards to a Croatian player before finally producing a red.


Sore losers of the tournament: Argentina

They were beaten on penalties by the Germans and they decided to go out fighting (literally) with the German after the match.


Surprise package of the tournament: Australia

Newcomers Ivory Coast and Ghana did well but I thought it was Australia which actually proved to be the unlucky one this year. They came from behind to defeat Japan, matched Brazil before losing out at the end and battled hard against Croatia for a draw which put them in the second stage. There, they held Italy until stoppage time when a dubious penalty sent them packing.

Italy 1 - 1 France (PEN 5:3) - a video highlight

If you had missed the drama of the World Cup finals last night, here is the video highlights for you - with all the goals, misses, red card, penalties and jubilation.

A moment of Zidane madness

In the final against Italy earlier today, Zidane will be remembered for using his right foot once, and his head twice. On the first occasion, he scored a clever penalty to give France the lead over Italy.

Then when the match was drawn level, he almost put France ahead with a beautiful header which was saved superbly by the Italian keeper Buffon.

And then finally, perhaps the one moment Zidane will be remembered for, now that he is retiring after this, he used his head to butt into Marco Materazzi’s chest. It was an ugly and brutal assault on the Italian player and Zidane deserved to be red-carded.

Sadly, that was to be Zidane’s last move for the night, his last act in international football for the French, now tainted by this one moment of madness.

Television replays showed that Zidane was provoked by Materazzi who had said something as Zidane ran past him. Still, there is no excuse for such an experienced player to lose his temper.

We all have seen Zidane in this mood – remember 1998 World Cup match against Saudi Arabia? As well for both Juventus and Real Madrid?

But you would have thought that for a player who is back to his best and playing for the last time for his country, and within striking distance of that all-important trophy, he would show some form of self control.

For me, I think his best moment in this World Cup must be his excellent performance against Brazil in the quarter finals. That came after he had an excellent game and scored a memorable goal against Spain in the second round. Tonight, he started brightly and was almost there to achieve the dream.

Then he lost it all by not using his head in the proper manner. How sad.

Italy – the new world champions

Who would have thought that the Italians will win the World Cup? They did tonight, and I think they thoroughly deserve it for they were the most consistent team in the tournament from the first match.

Unlike the Italian teams of the past, this team showed more flair than just relying on their defending strength. And tonight against France, when they needed it most, they showed us again, how to defend properly.

No doubt the attacking flair was missing today. In fact Italy’s skilful playmaker Totti was totally out of the game. And what we saw was the tenacious defending passed on from past masters to the current crop.

Fabio Cannavaro was everywhere. So was Gennaro Gattuso. And when they failed, their keeper Gianluigi Buffon was there. And he made one outstanding save to stop a Zidane header from going in.

There was nothing the Italian defence could do against the French goal. In fact, I thought it was not a penalty at all. Still Zidane was ultra composed to chip the ball in, giving Buffon no chance at all. It took the Italians 12 minutes to draw level and the remaining 101 minutes saw the ball being played in the midfield area, giving us a clear clue that this match was heading to penalties.

Once Zidane got sent off on the second period of extra period – for a stupid moment of madness – Italians did look to have an upper hand for a moment. Mind you, that was a period when France were without Zidane (red card), Thierry Henry (substituted), Ribery (substituted) and Vieira (injured).

Still nothing came about. So at the end of the World Cup this year, the script will read that Italy won it – for the fourth time - on penalties. Never masters of the penalty kick, the Italians tonight scored all five.

Now these triumphant players will have to return home to the daunting task of facing the match fixing scandal involving some of the big clubs in their country.

Goodbye divers, adios Figo

For Portugal, the 3-1 defeat against Germany was the swansong for their talisman Luis Figo. He is retiring from international football after today and was given a 15 minutes run towards the end of the match to show the world what we will be missing from him. Also retiring is striker Pauleta.

We will miss Figo no doubt, but I am sure we are all happy to see the back of a team which had so many cheats and divers in them. Don’t get me wrong, Portugal is a good team but some of their players are just rotten.

The way some of their players went down during their semifinal clash against France was outrageous and a disgrace. Their reputation for diving has now preceded them that even when they have been genuinely fouled, they will be not believed.

Mind you, their knack for falling over has totally blinded the simple fact that Portugal can actually play good attacking football. I liked the way their midfielders controlled the games, playing neat passes, and scoring beautiful scorchers (stand up Maniche and Deco), just as I enjoyed watching their defenders doing a proper job.

Portugal has some young, talented and skillful players. In time, they might learn to use their football ability, and not their diving skills, to win matches.

It has been a good WC for the Germans

Germany took the consolation prize of the third spot in the World Cup by soundly beating Portugal 3-1 today.

The game only turned into an entertaining event in the second half after a couple of spectacular long range shots from Bastian Schweinsteiger, sandwiching an own goal from Petit, sealed Portugal’s fate.

Portugal did start the match brightly and offered more than a token resistance to the hosts but I thought Germany deserved this win for the way they have played throughout this tournament. They have been entertaining, full of goals and showed good sportsmanship from their first match.

Much has been said about their young, inexperienced defence but to their credit the green defenders have done well. In fact, I can’t find fault in any of the German players for their professionalism in this tournament. Many of them will now establish themselves as household names not only in their nation but in the international arena too.

They started the tournament as a bunch of no-hopers. Home fans thought a quarterfinals place will be good. But these players exceeded the expectations of all and came very close to the final prize itself.

It was not just the third spot which Germany took home today. They have also earned their reputation as a good host and have rekindled the love for the game in their country. With so many young players in the team, the future of German football looks good indeed.

On top of that, they have got the best young player in the tournament in Lukas Podolski and Mirosav Klose might just win the Golden Boots award. In all, it has been a good World Cup for the Germans.

One just final thought - I have always believed that the third-fourth place kickoff was a waste of time. No one remembers the third place winners. FIFA should just scrap this one match. Otherwise, what is there to stop FIFA in the near future from having classification matches for third to say eight placed teams?

In the place of this third spot match, it will be good if FIFA can organize a charity match involving the best players of the tournament (except for players from teams in the final). It will not be a competitive match but instead one that can drive home the FIFA message of fair play and unity in the game. How about it?

Young Podolski wows FIFA Committee

Lukas Podolski is the choice of FIFA as the Best Young Player of the tournament. He is the first winner of this new award.

Podolski, 21, formed a lethal partnership with Miroslav Klose for the hosts Germany in their spectacular run in the World Cup. Their partnership was a joy to watch and both benefited from each other. Klose is in the run for the Golden Boots award with five goals and Podolski has three goals to his tally.

Unfortunately this duo could not help Germany progress any further as they lost to Italy in the semis and now face Portugal for the third spot tomorrow.

Coming back to the man-of-the-hour Podolski, he was selected from a shortlist of six talented youngsters who played at the tournament. In all 40 players had competed for the title of Gillette Best Young Player.

Podolski, known as Prince Poldi, played a key role in Jurgen Klinsmann's starting line-up. He came into the tournament with a reputation of a prolific striker - 15 goals in 31 games for his country.

Many pundits will say that Podolski, who was born in Poland, had his best game for Germany in the second round match against Sweden. He scored two goals in that match to round up a hardworking performance.

The other youngsters in the short list were Cristiano Ronaldo (POR), Luis Valencia (ECU), Lionel Messi (ARG), Tranquilo Barnetta (SUI) and Cesc Fabregas (ESP).

Personally I think this award was for Messi to take if his country had progressed further. Unfortunately Argentina was kicked out by Podolski’s Germany and with that went Messi’s hope of shining in the tournament.

I suppose Portugal’s Ronaldo would have given Podolski a close run too. He had been amazing for Portugal. He has become such an integral player for them. I enjoyed watching his mesmerizing runs, but not his propensity to fall at the slightest of touch. Sometimes, you need not touch him at all for him to fall over in agony.

Perhaps that was why the FIFA Technical Committee overlooked him and chose Podolski.

These two will come face to face tomorrow in the third place kick off. Let’s see who does better on the field.

If only Roberto Carlos had paid attention to Henry

Thank God Roberto Carlos has announced his retirement from international football. It is about time too. Age must be catching up with him. A friend had sent me a series of photos which showed how Carlos had been slow in tracking Thierry Henry which resulted in the sole goal for France to dump out Brazil.

Here are the photos, as sent to me, for your perusal. Notice how Henry runs pass Carlos and has so much of free space in front of the goal.

p/s Thanks Paul!

Italians and French in jubilant mood

The photos below show a snapshot of ecstatic Italian and French fans after their respective teams made it to the World Cup finals this Sunday.

This photo above shows Italian fans celebrate in front of the Colosseum in Rome after their team had beaten hosts Germany 2-0 in the first semifinal.

And this photo shows France fans waving flags on the Champs-Elysees in Paris to celebrate their semifinal win over Portugal.

This IS a funny one...

Saddam Hussein has been found guilty and sentenced to be shot.

His last request was to name his own firing squad.

He chose Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher from 12 yards.

Portugal losses out in diving competition

History was against Portugal in their match against France today. These two nations have never met in the World Cup but in the last six international meetings between them, France has won all.

France has also been the stumbling block for Portugal in the European Championship, twice denying Portugal a place in the finals. In both 1984 and 2000, France emerged winners after dramatic periods of extra time.

So Portugal went into this semifinal today with the determination to break this cycle of losing and gain revenge over the French. As for the French, it was just a matter of continuing where they left off against Spain and Brazil in the World Cup.

Sadly for Portugal, this wretched record continues. France beat them yet again, this time through a Zidane penalty in the 33th minute, just as how his penalty sent the Portuguese home in the 2000 European Championship semifinals.

Apart from that goal, France however did not contribute much in this dull match. It was Portugal who had all the possession and did all the attacking. They tried everything to get level in this match. They tried the long shots, putting the ball into the French penalty box, crossing from either sides and diving everywhere in the pitch.

As the final minutes drew closer, their dramatic divings and falls happened very often in the French penalty box – they were all at it, none guiltier than Cristiano Ronaldo, Pauleta, and Helder Postiga.

If only they had stood firm on their feet and tried to shoot the ball! They also had one splendid opportunity when French keeper Fabien Barthez fumbled a Ronaldo freekick, giving Figo an opportunity to head into the open net. Figo headed wide.

Thankfully the referee was never conned by the Portuguese theatrics but still the match was decided on a dive which resulted in the French penalty. I thought Thierry Henry fell in a dramatic manner when his leg was caught unintentionally by Carvalho. The referee thought it was a foul and Zidane made no mistake from the spot.

So as it happens, Portugal now play Germany for the third spot while France will take on Italy on July 9. However the French will have to improve tremendously if they want to be a worthy world champion.

Mindless creatures called the WAGS

One sideshow from the England contingent at the World Cup has to be the antics of the WAGS. Who you ask? Surely you have heard of the WAGS. They are as important as the players themselves, perhaps even more popular at times. Still don’t know? Okay, I am talking about the wives and girlfriends of the footballer (aka the WAGS).

I don’t think in the past they have been in the limelight as much as they have been this summer. British newspapers had a number of reporters to cover them – to see what they were doing when their partners/husbands were busy preparing for the matches.

And these WAGS didn’t disappoint anyone. At times, the UK dailies, especially the tabloids, gave them more coverage than the players. The Sun and The Mirror were trying to outsell each other by dedicating pages and pages with photos and snippets of what these WAGS were up to.

So we had stories of these girls boozing and shopping daily. In fact that was what they were up to throughout their stay in Baden-Baden, which was the HQ for the England team. Media reports spoke about daily long night drinking sessions costing some 4,000 pounds and shopping sprees involving amounts equivalent to the GDP of a small third world nation - designer dresses and sunglasses top the list.

They still made it to the frontpages even when they did not go out shopping. On July 3, these WAGS had other plans and the British papers screamed: “England WAGs give the shopping a rest!”

And then you will also see them in the stadiums, cheering their men. You won’t miss them at all. These are the girls who wear big shades, tiny dresses, well made up and give that prompt cheers when they know the cameras are zooming on them.

Another common trait in them is that they are all dressed up to the nines. They’re all highly competitive - each one wants to out-glam the next.


The England WAGS are divided into at least two groups. In one corner, we have the first lady of WAGS Victoria Beckham. She was always seen with singer Cheryl Tweed (fiancée of Ashley Cole). (pix above)

And then we have the clique involving the others - Coleen McLoughlin (Wayne Rooney), Carly Zucker (Joe Cole), Alex Curran (Steven Gerrard), Elen Rives (Frank Lampard), Michaela Henderson-Thynne (Stuart Downing), Lisa Roughead (Michael Carrick) and Toni Poole (John Terry), and others.

In the beginning the novelty of these WAGS took pressure off the team, but after weeks of almost identical behaviour the thrill just faded away.

So much so, the Daily Mail said that “their charm has waned…They possess no curiosity about anything other than clothes, champagne and their reflections. Empty days, mindless nights”.

After the woeful performance of the England players, the British media is now slowly coming round to lay the blame on the WAGS – for being such a distraction to the players!

On the day after England’s defeat to Portugal, these WAGS were jeered and booed off by angry England fans.

For once, we didn’t not see them posing for the media photographers and doing things openly. These WAGS were now into hiding, waiting to get back to England!

With their reputations tattered, one of them, Cheryl, now further strains the image by trying to maintain a distance from the rest. She claimed that she was shocked by the vanity of the other WAGS. She further invited the wrath of the rest by labeling them materialistic.

This is surely not the end of this matter. I am waiting to see how the other WAGS will react.

Italians gatecrash Germany’s ‘living room’

What a game! Italy and Germany most probably played one of the best games in the World Cup. It was an end-to-end action with both teams showing their propensity to attack throughout the normal time and the extra period. I thought the Italians were a shade better and justified that by two glorious goals in the final minutes of extra time to step into the finals on Sunday.

But first some statistics to ponder:

The match was played at Dortmund, a stadium which the Germans call as their “living room” for they have not lost in the 14 matches they have played there – 13 wins and one draw.

And on the other hand, in the six previous World Cup matches they have played against Italy, they have won none – four defeats and two draws.

As such, the match today could have broken either of the records, or it could have gone as a drawn game, to be decided by penalties.

One more statistic for you now – when it comes to penalty kicks, the Germans are the kings. They have taken part in four penalty shoot-outs and won all of them – scoring 17 out of the 18 strikes.

So when the match started today, most of us thought there had to be a winner at the end of the extra period, failing which Germany would win the shoot-outs. The first 15 minutes of the match indicated as much – that this was heading towards penalty kicks.

But to the credit of both teams, we had a sufficient supply of attacking football and clever defending. And again, when the extra period started, both teams came out firing on all cylinders, trying to score that single goal which would be enough.

Italy started better in the extra period, twice going very close with only the German woodwork to deny them. Germany too had an outstanding opportunity to score through Lukas Podolski who headed wide.

Now to the goals by the Italians – and what beautiful goals they were. The first came in the 119th minute as a result of an excellent through pass from Andrea Pirlo, who after collecting the ball from a corner, waited and waited at the edge of the Germany penalty box to find a free Fabio Grosso. The defender lashed an unbelievable, curling left-footed shot beyond Jan Lehmann's outstretched finger-tips into the far corner.

(119’) Italy 1- Germany 0

And just under a minute later, following a barrage of German attacks, the impressive Fabio Cannavaro (pix) ran outside of his D-box with the ball, and then leaving Alberto Gilardino to take the ball to the edge of the German penalty area.

Gilardino kept his composure, took his time and rolled the ball to Alessandro Del Piero who ran the entire length of the pitch to finish off the Germans with a clinical shot into the roof of the net.

(121’) Italy 2 – Germany 0

And just then the match came to an end. What a game! For me the match turned into Italy’s favour with the introduction of Del Piero, Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta as substitutes.

As for the Germans, I think they have exceeded everyone’s expectations by coming thus far and they have had a good tournament. Full credit must go the their coach Jurgen Klinsmann for bringing a bunch of young players and motivating them to play such attacking football.

Falling in love with the Italians

I have never enjoyed watching the Italian national team play. My earliest memory of the Italian game is from the 1982 World Cup when they famously defeated the much fancied Brazil. I was disappointed that night, and that somehow influenced my non-passion for the Italian way of play.

Then eventually I started to admire them, if not for anything, it was for their superb defending skills. Their mantra was to stop the opponents from scoring and they have raised this principle to a high art.

As such, it is no wonder that Italy is renowned for its great defenders. Over the years names like Giacinto Facchetti, Gaetano Scirea, Antonio Cabrini, Claudio Gentile, Giuseppe Bergomi, Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini have all shown us the beautiful art of defending.

And that legacy continues in this World Cup with amazing defenders like Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazzi, Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Grosso. These new batch of defenders – minus the injured Nesta, but we know his pedigree – have defended excellently just like their glorious predecessors. The matches against the USA and Australia are testimonies to that.

Still, this time around, this Italian team is not just about defending. In fact they have surprised me with the enterprise to attack! In the quarter final match against Ukraine, the early goal would usually mean the team getting into defensive mode and merely protecting the one-goal lead. What actually happened was very different – the Italians continued attacking and played for more goals. They played through their midfield, sometimes with some wonderful one-touch passes, to get into the opponent’s D-box.

This is one of the most important changes implemented by coach Marcello Lippi. He has turned a defence-minded team to one that can play positive football.

In this new scheme of things, we can see the importance of midfielders like Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo. The positive play also allows the half-fit Francesco Totti to show us what he can do at the highest level. And the biggest beneficiary of all these could just be striker Luca Toni, who has scored 80 goals in three years in all competitions for club and country.

I have enjoyed watching this Italian team play so far and who knows, when they come up against Germany later today, they might just continue converting the neutral fans with their entertaining and positive football!!

German fans on a prayer

Suddenly the whole of Germany thinks they can win the World Cup. The supporters have been swept away by the team’s performances right from the first game against Costa Rica. And the dramatic victory in the quarterfinal against Argentina has just added more self-belief to these fans.

The German team takes on Italy in the first semifinal on Tuesday, boosted by a strong defence, attack-minded midfield and on-form forwards. On top of this, they have a keeper (Lehmann) who is playing exceptionally well, a captain (Ballack) who is leading by example and a striker (Klose) who is closing in to become the golden boot winner – he now has five goals.

The home support has been vital for the Germany team and as they continued progressing, the support too continued climbing. And now the whole nation is holding their breath, praying for a famous win against the Italians – and then it really is a touching distance to the final.

The day after…(3)

The magnificent Zinedine Zidane slayed Brazil for the second time in eight years in the World Cup tournament. He was the man-of-the-match in the 1998 finals when he scored twice and made the third to ensure France won the World Cup for the first time.

And on Saturday night, once again, he gave a performance of a lifetime to kick out the defending champions. His masterful display even earned rare reviews from the Brazil players.

Now he says the aim is to try and win the tournament and in his present form, you shouldn’t doubt him.

On the other hand, of all the big name players in the Brazilian team, one midfielder stood out for me. He is Ze Roberto. I understand his anguish after the defeat to France (pix). In all the previous matches, he was the player who held the Brazil midfield together.

He tidied up, attacked and defended, chalked up two man-of-the-match awards, and scored a cool goal against Ghana in the second round. I just hope we will see more of him for Brazil in the future. If only the other bigger names had the same level of commitment as Ze Roberto, I am sure they would have progressed further.

The day after…(2)

Steven Gerrard’s season started last July and came to an end yesterday. Throughout this period he had on many occasions come to the rescue of Liverpool, ending the EPL season on a high. As such, there was no doubt that he will be a star in the World Cup.

Somehow things did not work out that way. Either it was the formation which England played or it was just exhaustion as Stevie G failed to reproduce his magic for England. But still, mind you, it was not due to the lack of trying. And he did end up as England’ top scorer at the World Cup with two goals.

The weight of the entire England supporters were on him when he went to take the penalty kick and as soon as he missed, you just knew, it was all over for England.

He is now one of the favourites to replace David Beckham as the England captain following Beckham’s decision to step down today. I am sure he will be a better leader on the field than Beckham was.

The day after…(1)

Cristiano Ronaldo is now being vilified in England for the manner he ran towards the referee as soon as Wayne Rooney left his boot marks on Carvalho. Many believe it was him who influenced the referee to flash a red card to Rooney. In a post-match interview Ronaldo denies this, saying that he just told the ref that ‘my friend’ Rooney has committed a foul.

Rooney has given an interview saying that he will “stick one” at Ronaldo when they meet up again at Old Trafford. I am sure fans across England will also do their bit in giving the stick to Ronaldo whenever he plays for Manchester United – that is if he still remains a Man Utd player. There are speculations that he is trying to maneuver a move to Real Madrid.

And as for those who think it was Ronaldo who got Rooney sent off, just stop being daft. Rooney got sent off for being stupid and for lacking the proper temperament.

Why England failed?

England came into this World Cup with so much of hype and self-belief that they can win it this year. Somehow when they played, their performance on the pitch did not reflect that. They were poor in the group stages, but still managed to win two and draw one.

Then against Ecuador in the second stage, again it was the same tale of poor play and woeful performance.

They once again started the game against Portugal today with Wayne Rooney playing alone upfront. The idea was that the excellent midfield players will somehow find through balls for him to score a handful of goals.

This was the strategy against Ecuador and then it failed. Today, once again, that strategy failed big time and left the England management team with a lot to answer for.

I thought today they let Rooney isolated upfront and started pumping long balls to him, hoping that he could somehow get the ball and then run straight at the Portugal goal.

In reality, Rooney was not getting anything and he had to chase for the ball most of the time. Think about this okay. Here we have a player who has just returned from injury, playing just his second full game and yet the manager plays a system where the player is expected to run around on his own, win the ball and score a goal. Sven Goran Eriksson must be dreaming. Rooney is good , but he is not that good!

So what happened next is easy to predict. Rooney is bound to get frustrated. We all know his temperament and the Portuguese players were there to wind him up. You get the picture surely. I am the least surprised Rooney was red-carded in the 62nd minute.

Mind you, the England players showed so much character in defending stoutly and playing counter-attacks for the remainder of the normal time and the extra time. And I thought Owen Hargreaves was simply superb tonight.

And when it came to penalties, once again we somehow knew that the English never had the luck of the grass to win a shoot-out. So they have crashed out of the World Cup now and I am sure expert pundits will start to conduct post-mortems on the team performance.

In that line, here are my two cents worth of what went wrong and why England never looked like winning the World Cup. My conclusion is simple. The fault lies with Sven and here’s why:

• He should not have picked Rooney after he had broken his foot. Instead he could have taken with him at least two or three other proven strikers. Names like Jermaine de Foe, Darren Bent or even Dean Ashton will surely ring a bell to most England fans. I think the England players started to believe that they can play better only when Rooney is in the team – that was a wrong perception.

• Okay, since he had taken Rooney along, he should not have put so much pressure on the striker by playing him as a sole front man. Any player returning from injury is not going to be sharp and Rooney proved that. He never had the time to settle into the team. I think he was pushed into the firing line too soon.

• Sven should have stuck to his 4-4-2 formation. I don’t understand why he was experimenting at the World Cup. He should have known his best formation and his best team even before the tournament. The 4-1-4-1 obviously did not work for England. All along England had played in the 4-4-2 formation and the players were comfortable with that. When Sven changed his formation, I thought the players were simply confused. Just look at today’s game. Hargreaves was supposed to be the holding midfielder but then time and again we still saw Gerrard and Lampard coming back to defend when they should be up front helping Rooney.
  
  I think the formation changes were made to cater for Owen to play alongside Rooney and then when Owen was injured, the system was in place to suit to Rooney’s game.
  
  The flaw here is that Rooney is not a striker. He plays well to feed another striker but with Owen out injured, did we have another natural striker to partner Rooney? Peter Crouch is not one but at least he does the job for you.

• If that is the case, why wasn’t Crouch playing alongside Rooney in the last two games? Well that’s because some fool had been telling Sven that the team plays long ball with Crouch in the team. Hey, did you watch the game today? Or the one against Ecuador? Crouch was not in either of the matches, but England was still punting the ball up towards Rooney!

• Finally, why did Sven take Theo Walcott and Jermaine Jenas to Germany? Walcott is a striker and even with some striking problems, he never played. Surely some other proven striker could have done the job alongside Rooney tonight.

These are just some of the issues that I have with Sven. Sadly however he will not be answerable as he is out of the job now. We will never know why he made these strange decisions. Was he trying to be different to win the World Cup or was he influenced by some powerful player lobby? Perhaps an autobiography in the future will reveal more.

Magician Zidane makes Brazilian trickery disappear

Both Brazil and France started the World Cup in a slow fashion. They both failed to impress in the group stages. For Brazil, the promise of their beautiful game never arrived. Whatever glimpse we had of that was only in bits and pieces and that too against teams of lower pedigree.

When they were up against France, Brazil looked very normal, failed to show us the fluent play they are known for. They were playing functional football and were doing it badly as well.

On the other hand, I guess France started to believe in themselves after the great comeback against Spain in the second round stage. They continued that self-belief in today’s game against Brazil. Their passing was crisp, their control of the midfield was superb and above all they had a magician in the middle of the field, pulling all the strings.

Sadly that magician, Zidane, will be retiring after the World Cup. His performance today gave us a clue of what we will be missing from him.

Every time he had the ball, you just wish there were some music in the background because it was such a delight to watch him play. He was poetry in motion. His ball control, first touch, distribution, vision and penetrating passes were the key for the French win today.

On the other hand, the Brazilian midfielders were not in the game at all. They were totally out-played by a compact trio of Vieira, Ribery and Makalele. This tight formation allowed Zidane to orchestrate the French attacks.

He did that all through the night, floating past the Brazil midfielders, finding Henry or other players with a chance to score. Finally the goal, when it came courtesy of Henry, was also from a Zidane freekick.

I thought Brazil only woke up after that goal which forced a change in their system. In came Cicinho, Adriano and Robinho and with the speed they brought, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho started to stir. Still, it was too late for the defending champions.

Having won a record 11 successive games, the 12th just proved too hard.

I hope they blood in more younger and newer players in time for the next World Cup so that they will be hungry to win as well as to replace the many veterans who are to retire after today.

As for Ronadinho, I guess he had a woeful World Cup. Not one which he will remember fondly for his excellent plays.

The only consolation must be the fact that the fat boy Ronaldo broke the World Cup scoring record. I bet he will be around for the next World Cup, and perhaps score even more.

So now France will play Portugal on Wednesday for a place in the finals.

England and Brazil booted out

I don’t know if I am sad for the Brazil defeat or the England’s, or for both. Brazil has always been a team which I supported from young and over the years I have come to cheer the English too.

Coming into the World Cup, I didn’t rate England as a potential World Cup winner – even if they had had a fully fit Wayne Rooney from the start. I just thought that they were overrated and overhyped.

As for Brazil, it was the way they played the beautiful game but I said to myself at the beginning of the World Cup that it would be bad for world football if they were to retain their title.

I was determined to watch both the quarterfinals today as a neutral supporter, wishing that the better team will progress to the semis.

But still, there was a tinge of sadness when England first lost out on penalties to Portugal. Then came the second quarter final involving Brazil and France and even when the French scored first, I thought Brazil will conjure some magic to pull level.

As the time went off, I realized that my heartbeat was beating a little faster and at the end of the play, Brazil was truly and fully beaten.

To think about it, I think both the results today were obtained on merit. Portugal did play better than England although their victory was a result of a penalty lottery. And as for France, they were simply magnificent and deserved to win.

As such, I guess, its only fair to be happy as a football fan for two better teams on the night are in the semis now and they can only improve the level of entertainment.

As for England and Brazil, its back to the drawing board again and start preparing for the future.