3 posts tagged “football”

First of all, Iraq winning the Asian Cup is a truly remarkable achievement. Its really hard to be proud of your country when its invaded, war torn, leaderless, divided, unsafe and probably a billion other things, but I m sure this is something that every Iraqi is, and should, be proud of. I was left speechless (as always) as people (including the army itself) were dancing in the aisles (and on top of tanks and assorted artillery).

Here in Pakistan, the PSL is underway, and while my contemporaries dont seem to be taking much interest in it, I believe that is a really nice start for football in Pakistan. FINALLY, we have our own league and we can find out what supporting a team really means. I guess I experienced that the other day when I was watching the Peshawer Tribe FC play against (my mighty) 'Quetta Zorawar' - which thankfully enough Quetta went on to win 1 - 0 (though they missed a sitter at the end). The standard of football was much better than expected. The tempo was probably the same as any other league around Asia and with time, this 'should' become a much better cesspool of talent in Asia which other Asian nations have tried to become, but have generally failed (especially India - for a billion people, they really do suck at sports hahaha and fuck you for always trying to portray Pakistan as a failed state - look at your own income disparity before discussing our matters - and no, i dont want any smartass indian or sympathisers to rationalise with me, you know i dont mean all of you).

As for my beloved Arsenal FC, yes the other teams have been spending millions on clearly average players and each day there has been talk about a crisis at the club (seriously, wtf?) and suggestions cum quasi-swipes at how the club has weakened, but frankly, i d rather not have the manager bindipping and spending millions uselessly on clearly average players. A generally second-string arsenal side comfortably defeated psg and inter milan and the same psg side demolished valencia, so all in all, it does go on to show something (with inter being the italian champions). No, I m not saying that Arsenal will win the league, far from it, but it might do much better than what most people expect. Senderos looks greatly improved and Sagna looks a very solid buy. Abu Diaby was in a class of his own and bullied the midfield in a way I ve only seen Patrick Vieira do - just that Diaby was much quicker but made a few more errors than Vieira. Eboue will tear teams apart from the right wing when he gets time off from diving, faking injuries or getting injured in real. Hleb looks really threatening in the central role, and what can I say, Robin van Persie is class. Bendtner looks okay but he is yet to impress me. I think Hleb and Eboue will act more like new signings and will certainly add a dimension to Arsenal and if you couple it up with the actual signings of Sagna and Dudu, it isnt that bad a side. Lets see how it unfolds though. I have my fingers crossed.

what a relief.. pakistan win the abu dhabi series.. not a bad first series for shoaib malik as captain.. there were a few individual mistakes from players but generally, the outlook gives me positive vibes, and so does the captain.. granted, sri lanka had some big names not playing, but then again, any international team is a force to be reckoned with.. they came to play and not to fool around.. besides, i think that it was a necessitated move for them since vaas and murali are at the end of their careers.. same with jayasuria.. they need to find backups, and soon, because the trio formed the backbone of their side throughout the late ninetees till this world cup.. they also needed a backup for sangakkara.. hence the moves.. but good to see my beloved pakistan win again..

a good day for all madridistas too.. what a cracker of a match.. thrills and spills with a red cherry on top.. the old warhorse roberto carlos running the whole length of the pitch in the counterattack and scoring the goal in the 92nd minute.. very nice.. madrid look like a choking ageing engine badly in need of an overhaul but with enough left in them to cross the finishing line somehow.. raul has been mediocre for the past 5 years.. its high time roberto carlos hung his boots up.. beckhams moving to LA and will be swimming in a pool of crisp green currency (much like uncle scrooge) - not that he didnt already.. gago and higuain look VERY ordinary.. cassano looks unsettled.. capello is as good as gone..  theres no credibility in the midfield.. van nistelrooy is the only real goalscorer at the club.. like i said, a massive overhaul is needed in the summer, but this might be enough to complete the 'smash and grab' for the la liga this season.. barca running riot against atletico madrid at the moment - the club for the 'proletariat' of madrid, so to say..

rugby season ended on a sour note with the away defeat against bahria.. miguel is leaving in the summers so we start next year without a coach and without a ground.. with certain players graduating, we will be needing reinforcements from the new batch.. it will be hard to do things without miguel, but lets see.. we WILL move on! had the photograph day for all the sports at lums.. our turn came 2 and a half hour later during which time we kept playing around with lineouts and imaginary scrums/rucks.. and catching up and unders.. to playing baseball with a rugby ball (which ended on the rooftop - believe it or not).. it was fun.. we then headed off to the pond for some unofficial pictures after which our 010 batch was unceremoniously dumped in the smelly swamp - a retarded excuse for a pond..

i for one am quite disappointed by arsene wengers reaction to the aston villa game last night.. i saw most of the match and kept thinking how would i react at a post-match press conference if i was the manager of a top quality side which struggled against a lower quality opposition but came out a winner by a single goal.. same goes for chelsea and sometimes man united.. i think managers (especially wenger of late) have been hiding behind the vinear of the self-titled phrase 'hallmark of champions'.. how can playing crap against a crap team and winning by a dodgy goal be a 'hallmark of champions'.. while i agree that yes, alot of luck is needed in a championship winning season and that this phrase was originally coined for such luck, but managers now seem to hide behind the vinear of this phrase and defend poor performances.. this has been specially true of wenger who always praises the false dawns these 1-0 wins give us.. it was very evident last night that arsenal are currently clutching on straws.. the young squad is unbelievable but that is as much as it can do.. a few signings are definitely needed.. and ofcourse, henry has to go.. we should cash in on him before his value goes down.. his fitness is going from bad to worse and i just dont like his ego.. plus, arsenal do play much better as a unit without him, but the only problem without him is that we dont have a 20+ goals a season striker.. if we could have a villa or an eto'o, no one would need henry... i would love a henry-eto'o swap.. eto'o is unsettled and i guess so is henry and would be in the best interests of both clubs to have such a deal.. other possible strikers can be david villa, perhaps torres.. ofcourse, huntelaar wont be half bad, but perhaps hes not the finished article just yet.. replacing a talisman like henry with him would be a bit premature for me.. wenger better get his act together.. because i m losing respect for that man as a manager quick..

oh, and brendon rogers got voted out.. which is sad.. there were singers worse than him.. but chelo, fair enough, he just didnt set the competition alight and there wasnt a single performance worth remembering from him.. but my god, melinda doolittle really set the house on fire.. shes a star already.. last night just confirmed it.. her vocals just moved me.. more like shook me!