The Dust settles

What a day of football has it been. First off, we were treated to the attacking splendors of the Chileans. Then, we have got what everyone was waiting for. An upset. Yes, Spain have been beaten 1-0 by the Swiss. A great game for the Swiss. They stuck to their game plan, let Spain keep all the possession and struck them on the counter. This upset brought both, joy and sorrow to me. The sorrow was in a fantasy world that I keep visiting when there is football on TV. My Spanish contingent return miser results. The joy was in the real world. I've started to get frustrated by Spain in recent time. Especially with the Catalans. The way in which they were trying to get Fabregas away from Arsenal is the obvious reason.

Round 2 of football has begun and the signs are looking good for the tournament. We've got 3 goals from Uruguay against the hosts, South Africa. Hope this trend keeps up throughout the tournament. I've only seen the first goal before I turned off the TV. It was brilliantly taken by Diego Forlan.

I finished Round 1 ranked 60th. Not bad at all. Eh?

Fantasy World Cup Update & the Samba boys

I do not have any work to do at office as the end of my internship draws closer. I can't help but engage myself in blogging to keep away from boredom. The matches that took place yesterday were:

New Zealand  1 vs 1     Slovakia
Portugal          0 vs 0     Ivory Coast
Brazil              2 vs 1     North Korea

I had only watched bits of Portugal vs Ivory Coast before watching Brazil vs North Korea. I was hoping to see some good football from the Samba boys but, I was left disappointed. This was largely due to the way the North Koreans played. They were organized and defended well as a unit, not allowing the Brazilians any room. I should say that they weren't a team intimidated by Brazil. When they had the ball, they tried to create their own chances on the counter attack. Maicons' beauty and Robinhos' inch perfect pass sealed the game for the Brazilians while, North Korea grabbed a well deserved consolation later in the game.

Kaka and Maicon were the players of interest, as they were in my fantasy team. They did not disappoint and grabbed 5 attacking bonus points each.There are two more games left before the round finishes. I'm currently 15th in the world. Can I finish as the round winner? I will have to wait and see.

Till then.

It gets better! I'm surprised :P

Van Der Wiel, RvP and Zambrotta played for me in yesterdays' matches. Only VDV produced good results while the others faltered. I thought that my rank is going to drop, but to my surprise i found out that I've climbed to number 48 in the world. I have a few good players to come in, lets see where I will finish at the end of this round.

Kick Off

Well, the world cup has started. I watched a few matches already and I should say that Germany were absolutely ruthless against Australia(thats what I've gathered from the first half). I'm keeping myself engaged with fantasy football and the Germans have provided me superb returns.

Messi was fantastic against Nigeria. So was the Nigerian keeper, Vincent Enyeama. I did not watch any group A matches but, I was impressed by the way Ghana played against Serbia.

Round 1 hasn't finished yet, in the McDonald's FIFA Fantasy game and I'm ranked 176 in the world. I do not know how it will last, but I'm enjoying every moment of it.

:)

We have Netherlands vs Denmark today and I'm hoping for a few goals from the Dutch. Take care, all.

Going to get a lot tougher

Well, what can you say? Life is tough and you have to deal with it. I am almost at the end of completing an internship, during which i have put aside my hobbies (mostly because of my laziness and because it is difficult to find people who share my interests at the place where i work). I have had some tough times recently. The work that I've been given is not that challenging, but, frustrating. There are no openings here. And, I know that there is a high probability that I may have been placed by now if i hadn't meddled with the PS station preference order given to me by KPK.

Then there is Cesc Fabregas, whom i adore. The arsenal captain. He feels that he needs to go out to Barca. I respect Barca for the way they play football but, the way they tried to tap up Fabregas and drive down the price was absolutely disgusting. Atleast, Real Madrid pay for what the player is worth. (OK OK, they pay more than his worth).

It has been quite some time since my parents shifted to a somewhat rural part of Vijayawada. I would like to call it a suburb. But, I cannot. There is no broadband, because, there are only a few houses in the colony. An apartment is being built. A hospital and an educational institution are also under construction nearby. I would have to wait for some more time before the cable operator feels its feasible for him to provide internet in the colony.

"I am very thankful to my parents for their support through these hard times. They are being patient and I wish to re pay their faith."

On a lighter note, the above sentence might be familiar if you are a football fan. Most footballers say it, referring to their manger and fans. Speaking about football, we are about 8 days away from the world cup. And I'm one day away from being able to set up my team in the official FIFA World Cup fantasy game. Do join up, if you like fantasy sports.

Ooooh, thats a lot of gold!

I would have supported Spain for this years' world cup but, then I realized that it is only when Fabregas goes to Spain that all kinds of crap floats around in the papers. So, fu*k off Spain. There are only a very few teams in the world that have as much popularity as the Brazilian football team do. They are one of the favourites for the trophy, and I'll be watching them closely. Another team that I like to watch is the Netherlands. I hope they achieve success in this tournament. I do not believe Italy, France, Portugal and England can win it this time, but you never know. "You never know". What a phrase. You can predict whatever you want to and also be on the safe side.

Just had a quick look at the teams again and here is my final prediction.

Winners: BRAZIL
Possible Winners: ARGENTINA,NETHERLANDS,SPAIN

Well that is all for now. I will share my views on the tournament, when it actually kicks off. Till then, have a great time.

Who do you think will win the world cup? Share your opinion int he comments section.

FIFA WORLD CUP 2010: SOUTH AFRICA

Here is the official poster for the event. It's brilliant. The shape of the continent turned like a footballer's head. Wow!

World Cup 2010 Qualifiers: Saturday

There is no good sport on Indian TV this weekend. There aren't many matches from the European leagues. They are busy with the World Cup 2010 qualifiers. I loved football right from my school days but, never this much. I used to be a Manchester United fan. The lack of proper knowledge about other teams might be a reason. For the people outside England, Manchester United is the name associated with English football and also success. That might be a reason why most of the people from Asia are MU fans. But, I used to be a fan of their success, never their football. Now, I've grown older and more mature in my thinking. I know my football and absolutely love the way Arsenal play their football. That's the reason why I'm Arsenal Till I die.


South American Grouping: Top 4/5 go to the world cup i guess.


Asian Group Qualifiers:


Grouping of African teams:


European Grouping:


Here is list of European qualifiers this Saturday. I will mark the teams that I think will win in Green.

Hungary vs. Albania
Malta vs. Denmark
Portugal vs. Sweden (Need to win)
Luxembourg vs. Latvia
Moldova vs. Switzerland
Israel vs. Greece
Northern Ireland vs. Poland
Slovenia vs. Czech Republic
Russia vs. Azerbaijan
Wales vs. Finland
Germany vs. Liechtenstein
Armenia vs. Estonia
Belgium vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina
Spain vs. Turkey (Will make it 10 in a row)
Romania vs. Serbia
Lithuania vs. France (Must win)
Cyprus vs. Georgia
Montenegro vs. Italy
Republic of Ireland vs. Bulgaria
Netherlands vs. Scotland

I couldn't pick a clear winner in the other games. Let's see how many of them that I've predicted right.

Check out this link for detailed information on the World Cup 2010: Click here!