"He can put the ball on Crouch's eyebrows"

England meets Croatia in a crucial Euro 2008 qualifier later this month and the crucial decision for England Manager Steve McLaren is to decide whether to play David Beckham or not. The decision is further complicated by the bunch of injuries plaguing the England side.

The doubts for Beckham's choice is more from the point of view of how the strategy for the game will be. As Croatia's chief scout Goran Vicevic says: "The one thing we must do is stop Beckham. He can put the ball on Crouch's eyebrows."

Such is the fear of the Beckham free kick delivery. He will be targeted so much when he is in possession of the ball that Croatia will try to make it difficult for England to deliver long balls to the lanky Peter Crouch. However, this will actually work in England's favor. If Croatia try too hard, they will concede fouls at strategic Beckham range points which the guy will use to exploit the Croat defense. And also take advantage of Crouch's 6'7" frame.

Hope they win. Or at least draw the match. Or else it's adieu to the Euro 2008 competition.

Eating your own words

If you follow the trials and tribulations of the England Football squad, you would know that Manager Steve McLaren kept David Beckham out of the squad almost as soon as he stepped in as Manager. And he kept him out for more than 11 months.

And what does he have to show for it? A dismal performance by the England team and a troubled place in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. And at a point where they needed to get wins in all their upcoming games.

So McLaren finally relented and recalled Beckham to the squad to play against Brazil in the friendly last week. And boy, did Becks show him! His trademark pinpoint accuracy pass led to England leading the match for most of the time (Brazil equalized in added time). Well, last night, he made two more passes, one to Peter Crouch and another to Michael Owen, to complete England's 3-0 win over Estonia.

In McLaren's own words:

'That's three of the four goals he's set up (in the last two games), and that's why he's in team. David Beckham is a very, very good player, and he deserves to be in team as he's shown in last two games.'

That is why Becks is Becks. People ignore his talent as a footballer because of his presence in the world of glamour. But nobody bailed England out - not Steven Gerrard, not Frank Lampard (who is largely a failure in an England jersey), not Wayne Rooney - and it took a Beckham to deliver the goods.

Way to go, Becks! Keep your head high...no matter what crap they spew.

Becks back, Giggs gone

David Beckham made his return to the England squad in the friendly against Brazil last weekend. And he showed how wrong Steve McLaren (the England manager) was to leave him out of the squad. Personally I believe the reasons were more personal and had nothing to do with football whatsoever. But Becks was back with a commanding presence in midfield.

His pin-point accuracy delivery helped John Terry thump the ball into the back of the net to allow England to take the lead against a side that boasted of Ronhaldo, Kaka and Robinho as their attacking options.

After some eight substitutions (including Becks, John Terry, Joe Cole and a bunch of others), a fresh set of legs came onto the field which disturbed the momentum of the England side. Which Brazil took full advantage of. And equalized in stoppage time to end the game level.

Since it was a friendly, it's not a big deal. But it shows the amount od leverage the side has when Becks is delivering the ball into the box. Had he not performed well, it would have been the perfect reason for McLaren to give to keep him out for good. But after his performance in the game, there is no way in hell that he is going to be out of the squad.

On a completely different note, Ryan Giggs retired as a Welsh international after playing his last match against the Czech Republic. From now on, he is purely a Manchester United player. What does not change one bit is the fact that he is a fantastic player and leader. It is always a treat watching him make those runs down the flanks and deliver amazing balls into the box with his famous left foot.

A win and a loss for football in general, so a mixed weekend in sport.

Roma get's SMASHED!

Did I pick a match to not watch!?!

Last night, while I was sleeping instead of staying up and watchin, Manchester United decimated AS Roma by - get this - 7:1 !!! That's right. Seven goals were scored against AS Roma at Old Trafford, the venue of the second leg of the Champions League quarter finals.

In the first leg, as you might remember, we lost 2:1 when we went to Rome. The second game at home would have to be a must win for us if we had to go to the quarter finals. Immediately after this game, we lost a premier league match to cap a disappointing week.

And then yesterday, we demolished AS Roma to breeze through into the semi finals, staying on track for the title. This was the highest margin of victory in the knock-out stages of the Champions League EVER and also Roma's biggets drubbing. If there was a way to demolish a side's confidence, this would be it!

Watch and enjoy!!! (It's great even if the commentary is in Spanish)



See all these great goals being ranked! Yeah, usually people rank goals for a season or a championship, but so many goals were scored, they had to do this...



The Red Devils are at it again!

Of demons and devils

Don't worry, I am not talking about any unworldly phenomenon...well, not in the way you might think.

Manchester United took on Blackburn Rovers in the EPL today. And at the half time, they were a goal down, had a critical injury to Nimanja Vidic and had too many shots on goal deflected away. It was, as one of the commentators said, as if there were demons in the goal preventing the ball to go in. So ManU went into the second half by a goal's margin against them.

And this is where the Red Devils showed exactly why they are the Premiership leaders by such authority. The second half was a blitzkreig of activity where United put so much pressure on the Rovers that it looked as if the game was being played almost exclusively in the Rovers' half. And in that pressure, they hit 4, yes FOUR, goals...all of them wonderful.

One was a wonderful move by - who else - twinkle toes himself! Ronaldo weaved through into the box and then crossed which came to a calm Michael Carrick who slotted it past the goalkeeper for the equalizer. Then came a brilliant piece of action from Paul Scholes as he moved across four defenders to put the second one in. Then a powerful free kick from Ronaldo again which rebounded off the hands of the goalkeeper right towards Ji Soong Park who put the third one in. And then, just to make it look so easy, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who came on as a substitute for the dying minutes of the match, put another one in the back of the battered Rovers' net.

Final score: 4 - 1 in utterly convincing fashion.

If you missed this match, you missed some great United football. Oh, and incidentally, Liverpool beat a ridiculous looking Arsenal by the same margin. Ha ha ha!

Getting tagged

Yeah, I know. It's been a while. And for good reason.

My daughter has been unwell the whole of the last week. So the time was mainly spent at home making sure she's OK and making sure she wasn't getting bored (name one child who wouldn't get bored after staying at home for a week).

So what's happened in a week?

It started with a fine round of golf (what else?). This is of course before my daughter fell ill. I went over to Johor Bahru (Malaysia) with a friend of mine to play at the Palm Resort course. We decided to play Allamanda, one of the three courses they have there. You might remember this was the first time I was playing since I won the runner up trophy last month. This would be my second round in two months.

We started on the back nine. My tee off was an unusual dipping drive which hooked to the left of the fairway. My tee shot would bother me for the entire front nine, missing five out of the seven fairways. I redeemed myself with some great apporach shots and played a 42 (6 over) for the 9 holes.

And then the swing began to click together. On the remaining nine holes, I hit every single fairway, but only 3 greens in regulation...something that I am not too bothered with as I missed the greens with only a very short margin. I recovered most of them to end the 9 holes with a 40 to bring my score to an 82 (10 over) for the round.

While this is the 3rd lowest score I have ever shot, I think it could have been a lot lower had the course been a bit better. Mainly the greens. Let me explain with an example.

On the dog-leg-right 7th hole (par 5), I hit a great tee shot to the left side of the fairway and had only a 9i approach to the green. As I hit the ball and watched it go towards the green in perfect trajectory, I could see that it was headed to just a few inches right of the pin and should have landed pin high. Thinking I would be on track for eagle, I waited for the ball to land where I thought it would. And land it did. Exactly where I wanted it to.

And then it bounced almost the height of the flag!

Yes, You read that right! It bounced really high, as if it had landed on concrete, and then rolled off the green. So instead of being in position for eagle, I was off the green trying to scramble for par...which I did make. But I left the green feeling really bitter about missing yet another chance to go lower.

This did not happen just once. The greens were in such terrible shape, the ball was bouncing rather than rolling its way to the hole. Every single approach shot that hit the green was a puff of sand when it landed. The greens never held the ball. So now you know.

Saturday and Sunday nights were spent sleepless mainly because of my daughter's fever and tending to her. Poor thing had a few disturbed nights and was burning with fever. The doctor said she had some sort of viral fever going around, something she must have picked up at school.

Since I was mostly up until late the last couple of days, it prepared me to stay late and watch ManU destroy Spurs 4-0. It was a great game, but one that I expected United to do well.

I was in a training for three days in the middle of the week (an expensive one that was planned for a few months) and was rushing back home to be with my daughter. I would sit doing the homework I was supposed to do as preparation for the next day's class after she was asleep. Needless to say, I spent most of the week with very little sleep.

I'm glad to say that she's feeling a lot better now.

Another thing that happened last week was I got tagged by a pal. As part of being tagged, I need to tell you five things you would not otherwise know about me. So here goes:

1. As part of school sports days, I had enrolled in the four events that Carl Lewis had won in the Olympics to emulate Jesse Owens. I had specifically chosen to participate in those because I was enthralled with Carl's achievements. During the long jump event (which I eventually won), I managed to twist my leg and was hobbling around in pain. My coach advised me to pull out of the last event, but that meant I would have to give up my quest for the 4th Gold Medal. I chose to ignore the suggestion and ran the last event despite the pain. And we won! As I hobbled out to take my medal, I realized the school had recognized the effort and asked my Mom to present the medal to me. It was my proudest moment! I still look at that photograph in amazement.
2. I, along with a friend, won a local Breakdance competition. As you might recall, Breakdance was the rage in the 8Os and we kids were quite taken with it. When we heard there was a competition, we jumped at it. We practised for hours and choreographed it to the last detail on Chaka Khan's "I feel for you" (according to me, the perfect song for Breakdance). And we won! The award is sitting somewhere in my parent's house.
3. Diwali (or Deepawali) celebrations in India are known to be loud with firecrackers and bright with all the lights. After all, this is the festival of lights. I remember carrying a fire cracker in one hand and a sparkler in the other. Somehow, a spark from the sparkler landed on the fuse of the cracker and WHAM! the cracker exploded in my hand. I had a swollen blistered hand for a month and could not do anything on my own. Every night, whenever I turned on my side, I would wince and wake up from the pain. It was probably the most physically painful month in my life.
4. As a kid, I used to take things apart and put them back together, all of this while my Mom had her siesta. If she caught me dismantelling some of her expensive stuff, she would kill me. So I would do it only when I was sure she was asleep. She only found out years later when my sister ratted on me. And by then, I was too grown up for a reprimand. Thank God!
5. I met one of my closest friends on a bus! I was visiting my old friends from school and was coming back home by bus. A couple of my friends were travelling with me. To pass the time, we started to sing songs. Taking our initiative, the people sitting in the row ahead of us started singing as well. At one time, by sheer coincedence, we started the same song. So I suggested we all sing together. The introductions followed and we had a great time all the way home. This guy and I kept in touch all this while and are still very much in contact. This is probably 14 years since the episode. He got married two days before I did (and so I could not attend his wedding...something he rubs in all the time), but he did make it to mine. His daughter is born a few days before my daughter and his son shares my birthday. Cool, huh? Ever since, I have come to realize that you never know under what circumstances you will meet a good friend. You just need to keep an open mind.

Ok...Now you know a lot more about me. Time for me to tag a few people. But here's the problem. There aren't too many people around me who blog! Everyone I know and everyone whose blog I read are either not within my organization or have already been tagged. So I guess the tag dies here. Maybe I will append it someday.

What else happened? Oh, Real Madrid coach Capello brought back David Beckham in an effort to save his own job. And Becks responded by scoring the winner from a free kick against Real Sociedad. This is the quality of the player. He has been benched ever since he announce he will move to Los Angeles after his contract expires this year. Real was at a two game losing streak which made fans call for the coach's resignation. Out of sheer desperation and after mounting support from Real team mates, Becks was brought on and boy, did he deliver!

Losing to a worthy opponent...and Boo Hoo to you!

Sounds contradictory?

Last night I stayed up to see ManU lose a fantastic game of football to Arsenal. I celebrated with them when Rooney ended his goal drought by scoring a fantastic header and then watched in horror as Arsenal equalized with only 8 minutes to go. And then saw Thierry Henry head a nice goal to seal the fate.

Well played Arsenal! I am not a big fan of the club (in fact, I hate them...save for Henry and Fabregas). But they played really well. So well done.

The night before, I watched with glee as Chelsea went 0-2 down to Liverpool! I watched as the richest team in the EPL struggled to get a decent pair of central midfielders into the game and ended up getting thumped by The Reds!

As expected, Jose Morinho (or should we call him Mourn-inho) cribbed about how he did not have his best players in the game, how they were struggling to accomodate with John Terry's absense. And here's the thing...

The Blues have spent the most amount of money and yet are cribbing the most about the lack of players!

Boo Hoo! Oh, Sfo sfad fwar fyou!

That is the difference between Chelsea and ManU. Even Liverpool. Even Arsenal. It takes a lot more than money to become a great club.

So Chelsea does not have the best players in the world playing at the same time and so they lose matches. Well, surprise...surprise! Look around you.

Every team has a few superstars and a few not-so-superstars. What matters on the pitch is how well the team plays together. Look at Arsenal. They have one of the worst defender (according to me) in Senderos and yet they play on. Toure is not the greatest defender in the world and yet they trod on.

Look at the Chelsea lineup. Drogba, Robben, Lampard, Ballack, Makalele, Essien, Ashley Cole, Wright-Philips, Carvalho, Terry, Cech....with a lot of talent on the bench. That's a star studded line-up. And yet they struggle.

So the points difference stays at six. ManU could not capitalize on Chelsea's defeat at the hands of Liverpool. But that's OK. With 14 matches to go, I am still hopeful that ManU will lift all the trophies this season.

May the sublime football continue.

One man blamed for the failure of an entire team

So David Beckham is being maligned by pretty much everybody. From Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello to former England Manager Bobby Robson and of course, the British Press. Everyone is having a field day about Beckham's decision to move to LA to play in the US Major League Soccer.

However, support has also been coming in from surprising quarters. England International and Bayern Munich star Owen Hargreaves said "Beckham will have the last laugh". Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard has questioned Real's decision to freeze out David Beckham. The Spanish press has asked for the resignation of Real's President Ramon Calderon after he made remarks about Beckham moving to the US because he wanted to be a movie star. And of course, the fans have come out in full force. They don't want to see him go, but they are behind him in this melee.

Here's my view:

Beckham joined Real which already had a formidable side with "The Galacticos", all superstars in the lineup. Yet no one bothers to blame a Zidane or a Raul for the lack of trophies added to the Real cabinet. The blame is on Beckham.

A similar reaction came when England fell out of the World Cup last year. If you analyse the situation, Beckham was involved (in some form or another) in most of the goals scored by England. Let's look at the situation, shall we?

England vs Paraguay (1 - 0)
The goal was declared an own-goal after it hit the Paraguayan goalkeeper before going into the net. But the pin point accurate delivery was from Beckham from his free kick spot.

England vs Trinidad and Tobago (2 - 0)
England struggled to put the ball in the back of the net for most of the game until the 87th minute when Peter Crouch headed in another accurate deliver from Beckham. Of course, later came the Superman Steven Gerrad to seal the match with a classic goal.

England vs Ecuador (1 - 0)
Another Beckham goal of breathtaking precision. No chance for the goal keeper.

It must be remembered that this world cup should as much be remembered for Zidane's headbutt as for the lacklustre performances from Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, John Terry and the rest of the England gang. The only player who played his heart out and was outstanding was Owen Hargreaves, the same guy jumping to Beckham's defense.

They are looking for a scapegoat and they have found one. Instead of twiddling his thumbs waiting for Coach Capello to get him off the bench, David made his move. Whether I agree with his move to the US or not is not the point. It is his decision. Where I stand is people not giving him his due. He has been a successful England Captain and a great player to watch for so many years. His success off the pitch has actually been a disadvantage as he is increasingly considered a commercial prospect rather than a player.

That is what I mean by not giving a person his due.

What we need is non partisan reporting where facts and not opinions get reported. The viewership / readership around the world is smart enough to make their own damn mind.

A happy new year to all of you

I know I am a couple of days late, but it's the thought that counts.

Here's wishing all of you a Happy New Year and a great 2007 ahead! I hope this year is way, way better than anything you have ever experienced so far and may it be the stepping stone to a better, brighter future.

Now, back to my usual stuff.

So the new year came and went without too much pomp. It was a subdued celebration with a quiet dinner by the Singapore river at Boat Quay along with my family and my in-laws. A few beers, a few bites and then back home before the clock struck the magic number.

We did manage to catch my family on Skype (cause that's the only decent VoIP software available for the Mac) for a video call to wish all of them. And that too on the stroke of 12.

The day before, we had taken my in-laws to the standard Sentosa Island tour that we usually take all our guests to. This time, though, we decided that we all would not see the whole thing along with the guests. My daughter and I have seen these exhibits a zillion times and are not really interested in seeing them again.

So we decided to do our own little trip. My wife would take her parents to the major attractions and my daughter and I would spend time with each other.

I had, however, warned eveyone that Sentosa would really be crowded on Sunday, mainly because the sun had come out after a week's worth of rain and because most people had a long weekend. So Sunday was always going to be crowded. What my wife did not expect was the number of people who queued up to get into Sentosa.

My daughter and I took the cable car from Mount Faber, where the queue had to be wound around three times in that extremely cramped up space. But we did get into the cable car before my wife (along with my in-laws) had even got the tickets! That's how crowded it was.

So obviously, we reached the island(!) way before them.

I took her to the 4D Magix show (which I would strongly recommend to everybody, just for the fun experience) where she had a ball. She was talking about it for more than an hour after the show finished. Of course, we had to wait for an hour before we got in, that's how long the queue was.

From there, we took the Dragon Trail, which is like a nature walk with a few dragon figurines thrown in. But it was a great stroll with her chattering away with all sorts of questions and all kinds of observations. She really is a smart kid!

Then, while the rest of the family watched the Dolphin show, the two of us went across this rickety (well, not really) bridge to the marketted lowest point of the Asian continent. A few more pictures there and we had a really great time. Running on the beach, playing games, we just had a great time together.

Then it was back home to watch ManU beat Reading 3-2 with a Ronaldo double (AGAIN!). It was great to see Solksjaer in the form of old, with great first touches and even better finishes. Of course, Reading did not look boring at all. They had me on the edge of my seat for a while. And of course, it wasn't until Giggs came on that we started to make penetration into the Reading box more often. So it was a great night of football, especially since Chelsea drew with Fulham to go even further back.

As I write this, both ManU and Chelsea have drawn their respective matches last night (against Newcastle and Aston Villa respectively) and so the lead is now 6 points.

What I hated the most was Jose Mourinho cribbing that he could not win because he did not have the best players in the world. Yeah, John Terry and Petr Cech are out with injuries, but to say an entire side cannot perform "because the best players are not there" is insane. Whatever happened to Lampard, Drogba, Essien, Ballack, Ashley Cole, Makalele, Carvalho, Robben, Kalou? Most of these are part of the so called "Untouchables" in Jose's list...his first team people. All of them are fit and playing.

Just goes to show that just throwing money at the game does not make a great team!

Sure Chelsea have spent more money in the last couple of years, but ManU has been working towards building a team which works. And this is despite people like Rooney not completely firing right now. It has been a while since Rooney scored, but it's only a matter of time. And when that happens, may God have mercy on Chelsea!

But...enough of soccer. What else did I do?

Oh, we went to IKEA yesterday. I noticed that the bookshelf we had bought (also from IKEA) when we moved here was sagging under the weight of all the books that we I had brought with me from India and the additions that I have bought since. So we needed a bigger, better book case.

Which we did get. We also saw a great showcase that we liked and which was really cheap. So we got that as well. And so the evening was dedicated to putting them all together. A couple of hours of work and the new book case, complete with all the books put in, and the showcase were assembled and in position. A satisfying few hours. I really love putting these things together. It's probably one of the reasons I love buying stuff from Ikea. They design such great stuff, such precision. It's just fun to get my daughter involved and assemble everything.

So that was yesterday, which incidentally was a holiday for us. It's back to the grind from today.

The new year beackons.

No...not really!

Nope...I've not been on vacation. The long silence just goes to show that it's been a hell of a busy time.

So...what's been happening, eh?

A couple of weeks where my time was booked from 8:30 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening. I had thought a lot of people would take leave around Christmas, but boy...was I wrong? Almost every single customer of mine seemed to have something or the other happening and I really ran out of time.

To add to that, my parents-in-law are in town. So the customary rounds of Singapore are on. And they seem to have the impression (which I can't blame them for) that I'm working longer hours just because they are in town! Luckily for me - probably luckily is not the right word, but it's the most apt - I was working long hours even when my parents were here. So at the very least, they cannot accuse me of discrimination!

Now...some bad news.

My best pal lost his father a couple of weeks back to Lung Cancer. I was hearing about one of the fittest men I know withering away. All in a month's time. This was the man whose house is a second home to me. I've lived there for days on end, made food requests to his wife and just had a whale of a time. Even though I couldn't speak to him in those last days (mainly cause he couldn't, not for lack of effort), I wish I had. I will miss him.

What else?

Oh, more bad news...but not the tragic kind. My golf buddy has gone back to India, leaving me alone to deal with the decline in my game. Yeah, he's gone already. Must have played a couple of rounds there by now. So I'm by myself all over again. Thankfully, golf is a solitary sport. I WILL endure this as well. I am not so sure how I am going to endure, but I will give it one heck of a go.

And it's been raining buckets here in Singapore. It's been so gloomy the last few days, it's even more depressing.

But then there's ManU!

One extremely lackluster game (loss) and two absolutely fantastic ones (wins, of course)! A cracker of a goal from Paul Scholles, definitely the goal of the season, and a few more by Ronaldo. Of course, a few great goals from Drogba & the rest of the EPL gang and football never felt better.

To take it a step more, Chelsea drew their Boxing Day match against Reading & ManU stuffed Wigan 3-1 on the same day to extend the lead at the head of the table by 4 points.

Some sunshine in all this gloom!

A cracker of a game and 8 points clear

It was worth the wake!

Arsenal went to Stamford bridge to meet Chelsea for what promised to be a fabulous match. Of course I stayed up and watched! (Just FYI, the match starter at 12 midnight my time).

Surprisingly, Arsenal dominated the proceedings for two thirds of the first half. They had most of the possession, made Chelsea look queasy and did not let their opponents settle into any rhythm. What they also lacked was the shots on goal as they pretty much created no chances. They sorely missed Thierry Henry, who is out with a neck strain.

So the first half went 0-0 and I was in no shape or form going to miss the second half.

I think the lockerroom saw some Morinho screams cause Chelsea looked a lot more lethal in the second half. They hit the post three times and created a lot more chances. But Flamini struck a nice Hleb pass into the Chelsea goal to take Arsenal one up.

That is when they experienced the wrath of Chelsea. The pressure Chelsea put on Arsenal's young defence was unbearable and something had to give. But the defence was not the reason the equalizer came.

It was a fabulous strike from Michael Essien from outside the box that sealed it. And while it was a great strike, it could have gone any way. And so I attribute the equalizer to luck more than great play. But Chelsea deserved the goal and should have gotten one in by the level of play.

At the close of play, both teams returned with a point each.

Which means Chelsea slip a further two points away from ManU!!!

YESSSS!!!!

ManU calmly destroyed City in another derby-day contest with a cool 3-1 score line. Now ManU are sitting pretty at the top of the table with an 8 point cushion over Chelsea. Even if Chelsea win the game in hand they have, they will still be five points behind...a change from the three point gap that existed before this game. An even bigger change from the greater-than-15-points-difference Chelsea had last year.

Go ManU.

And I cannot believe I am saying this, but a big thank you to both Arsenal and Chelsea for giving all of us such a wonderful match to watch.

This is why the English Premier League ROCKS!!!