Corner flag (vol 2.8) - Italy's finest hour

The group phase is over and now its time for tears at the end of every game.

And indeed there were tears at the end of the best game of the World Cup so far - when Italy went out to Slovakia. The defending champions finished last and were booted out. It was quite interesting right from the beginning as the Italians went down a goal early and the Slovaks attacked the pretty heavy legged Italians right through the game.

But in the second half of the second half, the Italians came alive to put together a passionate performance that I haven't quite seen before. So much so that I was hoping they score the requisite number of goals to go through. It was driven by the desperation of the situation that the Italians found themselves having to play out of their shorts to get something - fantastic goal by Quagliarella and they should have had couple more; but time ran out and saw Captain Cannavaro shepherding his players back to the dressing room in a hurry. A bit of irony in all of this - the most ineffective Italian team was by the far the most entertaining Italian side I have seen in a long while. Their finest hour in my opinion.

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Game 1 of Uruguay vs South Korea just finished and Uruguay have won. Which was my prediction. Seriously.

Rest of the games are:
1) USA vs Ghana
Ghana to win 1 nil

2) Germany vs England
Germany through hopefully, though Beckenbaur is shooting his mouth as always and thats not a good sign for the Germans

3) Argentina vs Mexico
Though I have just had a fabulous Mexican meal and been hearing all things bright and beautiful about Mexico, Argentina should win quite comfortably

4) Netherlands vs Slovakia
2 - 1 to Netherlands

5) Brazil vs Chile
Brazil to scrape through

6) Paraguay vs Japan
Paraguay 1 nil

7) Spain vs Portugal
Spain to go through. This will ensure the Year of the Tiger shortlist down to 3.

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If everything works as expected, we could see Netherlands vs Brazil quarters. Which will be quite a game I think.

After the most dramatic game, here goes another stalwart - before he catches the flight to the Middle East and work on his pension fund.

Picture from the Guardian: Fabio Cannavaro wipes away the tears as he leaves the pitch. This could well be his last match. What a stinker

                                                             

Corner flag (vol 2.7) - World Cups and the Year of the Tiger

                                     
1. A funny forward that I received this morning:

From an English guy: "This World Cup is like WWII. The French surrendered early, the USA arrive at the last minute and we're left to fight the Germans, ahahaha"


2.  My "welcome" moment to the city that I live in, happened a few hours before the Italy - France final four years ago. Where I realised the rather scientifc Chinese love for astrology. I call it analysing patterns, which is the eternal truth of life: its all about cycles.

Hypothesis: Extrapolating the theory, a quick run through of World Cup winners in the Year of the Tiger and the following emerges:
1998: France
1986: Argentina
1974: West Germany
1962: Brazil
1950: Uruguay
1938: Italy

Conclusion: there has never been a repeat winner during the Year of the Tiger World Cups.

Inference: Looking at the elite 9, this means 4 possible winners: England, Portugal, Spain and Holland.

Action point: To the lucky few who manage to read this, one should use this path breaking finding at the time of the semi-finals when deciding on whom to bet. 

My view: its got 2 of the names I dont want anywhere near the semi-finals, 1 where I didn't think there is any reserve fuel in the radiator and finally the one that I would like to win. So far so good. Lets see how it all develops.


3. Moving 2 dimensions forward into the world of club football and Arsenal Football Club, there is a pretty interesting article on BBC on how Arsenal is well poised at the moment to move ahead of its peers - with the focus on finances. Which is crucial at this time when the Western European economies have got to get used to tighter bank balance sheets.

The article refers to recent Deloitte and Forbes reports on Football clubs, which highlight the uptrend in the financial fortunes of Arsenal - backed by of core footballing business strategy and prudent spending by the manager through the last 6 years or so. Any reader who would like a copy of the Deloitte report can drop his/her email id in the comments section.

Which only leads me to strengthen my belief that the next decade is going to be Arsenal's.Though much work needs to be done this summer: keeping Fabregas, replenishing the defence + goalkeeper smartly and some fresh thinking on the coaching bench.

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Another chap thats done for World Cups and European club football as well. Good night and good luck.

                                                     

Corner flag (vol 2.6) - France vs England

Before I get to my thoughts on the teams that will make it through to the next round, the most captivating development over the 10 days has been the turmoil at the English and French camps.

Hilarious stuff, especially when Richard Williams writes about how John Terry was right to bring up his issues with Fabio Capello publicly and also when he talks about his immense joy at seeing the French cower in mediocrity. Complete SOB this Williams dick - most English scribes have suddenly forgotten how efficient Capello was in disciplining the team and in driving the team to win all their qualifying games. Oops, who cares about that any more, when English passion (epitomised by the holy cunt John Terry) is at stake? The last I heard, some fucking random English journalist was complaining about cutting the WAGs from the squad.Where is Sven they ask.

It is true that the French have been guilty of revolting against their manager in a manner that only they can (refused to train, some one sniched on the other and got him sent off) and it is also true that English have been rather pathetic as a football team. Fucking idiots is all I can say, once again.

Since I dont read French newspapers, I admit I might not be best representing the case of "Who is the bigger twit?": French journalists vs English journalists & English footballers vs French footballers. Such is life.

Moral of the story: there is no difference between the 2 teams. Twits.

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1 final game to go for each team in the first round, and the winners from each group will be:

1) Group A: Uruguay, Mexico
Will be the end of France and the last we should have hopefully seen of Domenech: a twit beyond redemption. 

2) Group B: Argentina, Korea to scrape through
Argentina have been coming together on the pitch and then they do look pretty unbeatable. Until they meet quality opposition I would think, which will be soon. Likely to make it to the semis.

3) Group C: USA, England
Unfortunate, but I hope I am wrong on this one i.e. England should get kicked out

4) Group D: Germany, Serbia
Tough call, as Ghana leads the group as of now - but one has to remain loyal to the initial Serbia call.

5) Group E: Netherlands, Denmark
Pretty scrapy games from the Dutch so far, but being able to grind results without losing their heads is good news. So far. The Danes I believe will have enough to sort the Japs out. Would be interesting how they develop through this tournament, and, of course, much would depend on the availability of Prince Bendtner.

6) Group F: Paraguay, Italy
Must admit that the big surprise was watching the Italians. None of the Armani model look alikes strutting around, but some very lean, balding, young players that want to play football. Clearly they do have the potential to surprise later in the tournament. But their strikers are still quite ugly - footballistically I mean.

7) Group G: Brazil, Portugal
Friday's game should be interesting - will let us know if I was wrong in ruling them out. The Portugal left back has clearly been the player thats caught my eye so far - Fabio Coentrao. And so has

8) Group H: Chile, Spain
Real tough one after the early surprise win for the Swiss against the Spaniards. Nice to see the Spaniards sweat, but should make it through with a win against Chile. Dont think the Swiss will beat Honduras. Their captain however Zokhan Inler has been quite solid at central midfield.
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I think one has finally seen the end of this chap's World Cup career. Adios.

                                       

Corner flag (vol 2.5)

Carrying on from four years ago, listing down my take on what this world cup is likely to offer. I realise that setting targets of this sort is a game of 'analysis' vs 'hope' - and therefore each comment will be qualified as either one of them (A or H).

As I write, its Day 3 already, and have the hindsight of a few games - of which I must admit the England - USA result was reassuring and in line with expectations. Its a nil-nil draw at the Ghana Serbia game at the moment. 

1. Favourites to win the World Cup:  Brazil (H)
Not the usual flamboyant boys, but its the Dunga boys that will do the job. Dogged and quite solid. There is worry about Luis Fabiano scoring goals, but I reckon Kaka will be ready for this; having had a quiet season at Madrid, he is going to be key behind any success for Brazil. 

2. Footballer of the tournament: Kaka (H)
Tough one, considering all the talent that exists in the Spanish side. 

3. Teams among the elite lot that look good and that could win: Argentina (H) & Holland  (H)
Elite set being Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Italy, France, England, Portugal and Holland. Obviously Brazil & Spain are universally recognised as the favourites, which I kind of agree with. But its 2 of the others that I am going to have my eye on - Argentina and Holland.

Despite being led by Maradona, Argentina have a crew of top dog, experienced footballers. Will be interesting to watch their progress and a lot would depend on how much the players want to play for each other.

Which has historically been the problem with the Dutch as well, but I think they have an understated coach and team of former hot heads who have matured over the last couple of years. Questions about defence exists, but quality midfield and forward line.

Portugal - they have been awfully quiet all the way to the finals. To quote Jacques Kallis, do they have some reserve fuel in the radiator to surprise? I don't think so.

4. Teams that wont do well: Spain (H) & England (H)
Nothing much to say over here.

5. Teams from the non-Elite lot that will do well: Serbia (H)
Purely intuitive - ok this is how it goes: Croatia did well in 1998, the Czechs did well in Euro 2004, so one of the teams from that region is likely to do well some time soon. Intuition of the Times of India kind I suppose.

Serbia finds itself in a tough group and its the 66/1 odds that make it interesting. Though I have just learnt that the super, talented striker Stevan Jovetic of Fiorentina plays for Montenegro and not Serbia - which was one of the reasons behind my Serbia pick much before the tournament began.

That incidentally just shows the level of analysis thats gone behind this -  as any astute reader would have already picked up.

(Ghana just scored - so already getting fucked)

7. Source of likely fuck up for me : Not rating the African teams at all (A)

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Since the first round is well under way, I shall update my picks of teams that are likely to progress by Wednesday.

Though I am loyal to no particular team in such competitions, its going to be the Dutch that I'll be following closely this world cup. Heres to hoping that they win.