Ladies and gentlemen, take a bow.
MC Mary Kom has won her fifth world championship title. You might not have heard much about her feat till Sachin Tendulkar heaped praises on her achievements.
If you want to learn more about her
http://www.marykom.com/marykom/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kom
We need more champions like her who have braved the odds to win. I hope she brings home 2012 Olympics gold.
Cheers
Friday, September 24, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
What went wrong with England ?
This is the second part of my analysis of a few team from the World Cup. I had started off with France in one of my previous posts. Now its time for some English bashing.
England came into this World Cup as one of the favorites alongside Brazil,Spain and Argentina. I still do not understand why they were labelled as favorites. Yes they were on a good run in the Qualifiers.They were in a pretty simple group where Croatia were the ones they posed any threat. The matchups were hyped even further as Crotia beat them twice in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. A comprehensive beating of Croatia gave the English media and fans a sort of self belief that maybe they never had in the last 6 years.
The Euro 2008 debacle was long forgotten in the run up to South Africa. England now had a new coach in Fabio Capello, a man with pretty decent coaching credentials. He had managed a couple of Europes top clubs in AC Milan and Real Madrid.
This engine of this England unit is still based on England's golden generation of the 2000's, (they have one every decade). This set of players included Terry,Gerrard,Lampard and Owen. Michael Owen unfortunately had fallen out of favour with Capello. The hype was huge. Rooney was having the seasson of his life at United. Four months before the world cup things were about to change.
Rio Ferdinad got injured while on club duty, Garreth Barry is injured towards the end of the season, lampard a minor knock and then the major blow that I thought was the turning point. Wayne Rooney is injured in the first leg of the Champions league 1/4 final against Bayern Munich. He is taken off. He forces himself to play the second leg and then Van Bommel(I would dedicate a blog on him later), gets the better of him ina tackle. Rooney has to go off, United lose, their season derails. Such was his form last year that he could alone have taken them to league and CL glory. Rooney never recovered and so did England.
England's opening Group B fixture was against the USA, a good team coached by Bob Bradley. In their ranks they had a quite afew good players who plied their trade in the Premier League. England were still the favorites going into the game. Their captain for the world cup, Rio Ferdinand took the flight home before the first game. David Beckham suffered a really bad injury at Milan and was ruled out for 9 months atleast. He took his place on the coaching staff. Coming back from injury were Rooney and Ashley Cole arguably the only two world class players in the English setup. Gareth Barry figured in Capello's central scheme of things in the run up to the cup. His injury was a setback to their preparations.
Capello's team selection left a lot to be desired. With Barry out of the team for the first game, he preferred to play James Millner, the young midfielder from Aston Villa. Lest I forget, dropping Walcott from the 25 man squad which was announced caused the maximum flutters all round. Walcott plays on the right wing and he was competing for a place with the likes of Aron Lenon and Shaun Wright Philips. Lenon has good pace on the wings, but he would have been better off plying his trade in sprints rather than on the football field. His clubs performance in the league last season was also one of the factors that contributed to his call up to the team. Wright Philips continues to be a boy wonder, his height and his boyish looks at 32 maybe helps create this notion, but I think he will remain one all through.
So England start off the first game with Rooney and Heskey upfront, with Gerrard playing in a widish left position behind them. Millner links up play to Gerrad from the back. Lenon plays out right and surprising Lampard plays the role of the central midfielder. The defence consists of Glen Johnson on the right, the Liverpool man who makes good runs down the right but his crosses leave a lot to be desired. Tracking back during a counter attack is again not one of his favorite things. The central defence consists of Terry and King. Mr. Chelsea, John Terry was not having the best of seasons which was compunded even further by off-field problems. Ledley King was in inspite of his no practice only matchday football condition because there was no once good enough other than him to play in the centre of the defence alongside Terry. Ashley Cole played in the left back position. Cole is a super player, whose speed moving up and his ability to stop the best i business on the right side have won him accolades the world over. Inspite of all this he has never shown his best form for England. Cole's biggest achievent in his carrer was the way he took to Cristiano Ronaldo when the latter was playing for United. I remember game when ronaldo had to moved out right or to a more central position in matched agianst Chelsea to nullify the Cole threat. Make no mistake as CR7 was voted the World Player of the year that season. In goal for England you had Robert Green, the West Ham United man, a controverisal choice considering they had the eccentric David James and Joe Hart to chose from. Hart was coming off a brilliant loan season at Birmingham City, a performance that has seen him replace Shay Given as the first choice keeper at Eastlands.
Stevie Gerrard put England ahead after he combined well with Heskey. That I think was the only high point for England at the World Cup. USA equalied through a Clint Dempsey strike which I think was more of a Green howler. Robert Green it seemed had BP oil on his hands and the Americans slipped one through. Millner got injured in the first half(replaced by the boy wonder) and King was replaced by Carragher. The game was a disaster. Luckily England managaed to retrieve a point from it. They were plain lucky.
As I finish the first part of the English bashing I would like to ask a few things to M/s Cappello and Pearce.
1. Why was Walcott not included in the squad of 25 ? Are Lenon and Wright Philips better ? Didnt Capello watch Walcott play the Champions league game against Barcelona ?
2. With Barry not sure whether we would play the group games, why did Capello play Carrick in the warm up games only to replace him with Millner. Playing Carrick simply has its own advantages. The quality of Carrick's distribution is better than Barry/Millner on any given day. As for the defensive qualities, all of them can be rated at the same level. For me England sorely missed Hargreaves in th centre of midfield, his longterm injury meant he missed a lot of football.
3. Even after failing for 3-4 times at major competitions why wasthe Lampard - Gerrard combo tried out. Lampard somehow never manages to link up with Gerrard and Capello should have taken note of that. Gerrard links well with Rooney and the huge number of goals in the qualifiers gave Capello a false sense of confidene.
4. With all this central midfield option what harm would it have done Capello to bring Scholes out of retirement, something which he just did not have th guts to do.
5. This brings me to the goalkeeper. Why was Ben Foster in the reckoning, when he was having a horrid time at United. The first choice goalkeeper was never decided. Capello it seems gambled on Green right on the morning of the game but alas it did not pay off. Hart for me would anyday have been better option.
6. Micheal Owen may have fallen out favor with Capello. He may not play again as long as Capello is the boss. But if Capello was playing a 4-4-2 in the first place I would play Crouch because of his aerial superiority and his ability to climb over the opposition and score. With his pruned team he should definitely have played a 4-5-1. But again I do not have a coaching badge. How can Heskley play international football, the guy just dosemt have it in him. Crouch and Defoe are a million times better.
Will continue on the England story and also on the basic issue...
England came into this World Cup as one of the favorites alongside Brazil,Spain and Argentina. I still do not understand why they were labelled as favorites. Yes they were on a good run in the Qualifiers.They were in a pretty simple group where Croatia were the ones they posed any threat. The matchups were hyped even further as Crotia beat them twice in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. A comprehensive beating of Croatia gave the English media and fans a sort of self belief that maybe they never had in the last 6 years.
The Euro 2008 debacle was long forgotten in the run up to South Africa. England now had a new coach in Fabio Capello, a man with pretty decent coaching credentials. He had managed a couple of Europes top clubs in AC Milan and Real Madrid.
This engine of this England unit is still based on England's golden generation of the 2000's, (they have one every decade). This set of players included Terry,Gerrard,Lampard and Owen. Michael Owen unfortunately had fallen out of favour with Capello. The hype was huge. Rooney was having the seasson of his life at United. Four months before the world cup things were about to change.
Rio Ferdinad got injured while on club duty, Garreth Barry is injured towards the end of the season, lampard a minor knock and then the major blow that I thought was the turning point. Wayne Rooney is injured in the first leg of the Champions league 1/4 final against Bayern Munich. He is taken off. He forces himself to play the second leg and then Van Bommel(I would dedicate a blog on him later), gets the better of him ina tackle. Rooney has to go off, United lose, their season derails. Such was his form last year that he could alone have taken them to league and CL glory. Rooney never recovered and so did England.
England's opening Group B fixture was against the USA, a good team coached by Bob Bradley. In their ranks they had a quite afew good players who plied their trade in the Premier League. England were still the favorites going into the game. Their captain for the world cup, Rio Ferdinand took the flight home before the first game. David Beckham suffered a really bad injury at Milan and was ruled out for 9 months atleast. He took his place on the coaching staff. Coming back from injury were Rooney and Ashley Cole arguably the only two world class players in the English setup. Gareth Barry figured in Capello's central scheme of things in the run up to the cup. His injury was a setback to their preparations.
Capello's team selection left a lot to be desired. With Barry out of the team for the first game, he preferred to play James Millner, the young midfielder from Aston Villa. Lest I forget, dropping Walcott from the 25 man squad which was announced caused the maximum flutters all round. Walcott plays on the right wing and he was competing for a place with the likes of Aron Lenon and Shaun Wright Philips. Lenon has good pace on the wings, but he would have been better off plying his trade in sprints rather than on the football field. His clubs performance in the league last season was also one of the factors that contributed to his call up to the team. Wright Philips continues to be a boy wonder, his height and his boyish looks at 32 maybe helps create this notion, but I think he will remain one all through.
So England start off the first game with Rooney and Heskey upfront, with Gerrard playing in a widish left position behind them. Millner links up play to Gerrad from the back. Lenon plays out right and surprising Lampard plays the role of the central midfielder. The defence consists of Glen Johnson on the right, the Liverpool man who makes good runs down the right but his crosses leave a lot to be desired. Tracking back during a counter attack is again not one of his favorite things. The central defence consists of Terry and King. Mr. Chelsea, John Terry was not having the best of seasons which was compunded even further by off-field problems. Ledley King was in inspite of his no practice only matchday football condition because there was no once good enough other than him to play in the centre of the defence alongside Terry. Ashley Cole played in the left back position. Cole is a super player, whose speed moving up and his ability to stop the best i business on the right side have won him accolades the world over. Inspite of all this he has never shown his best form for England. Cole's biggest achievent in his carrer was the way he took to Cristiano Ronaldo when the latter was playing for United. I remember game when ronaldo had to moved out right or to a more central position in matched agianst Chelsea to nullify the Cole threat. Make no mistake as CR7 was voted the World Player of the year that season. In goal for England you had Robert Green, the West Ham United man, a controverisal choice considering they had the eccentric David James and Joe Hart to chose from. Hart was coming off a brilliant loan season at Birmingham City, a performance that has seen him replace Shay Given as the first choice keeper at Eastlands.
Stevie Gerrard put England ahead after he combined well with Heskey. That I think was the only high point for England at the World Cup. USA equalied through a Clint Dempsey strike which I think was more of a Green howler. Robert Green it seemed had BP oil on his hands and the Americans slipped one through. Millner got injured in the first half(replaced by the boy wonder) and King was replaced by Carragher. The game was a disaster. Luckily England managaed to retrieve a point from it. They were plain lucky.
As I finish the first part of the English bashing I would like to ask a few things to M/s Cappello and Pearce.
1. Why was Walcott not included in the squad of 25 ? Are Lenon and Wright Philips better ? Didnt Capello watch Walcott play the Champions league game against Barcelona ?
2. With Barry not sure whether we would play the group games, why did Capello play Carrick in the warm up games only to replace him with Millner. Playing Carrick simply has its own advantages. The quality of Carrick's distribution is better than Barry/Millner on any given day. As for the defensive qualities, all of them can be rated at the same level. For me England sorely missed Hargreaves in th centre of midfield, his longterm injury meant he missed a lot of football.
3. Even after failing for 3-4 times at major competitions why wasthe Lampard - Gerrard combo tried out. Lampard somehow never manages to link up with Gerrard and Capello should have taken note of that. Gerrard links well with Rooney and the huge number of goals in the qualifiers gave Capello a false sense of confidene.
4. With all this central midfield option what harm would it have done Capello to bring Scholes out of retirement, something which he just did not have th guts to do.
5. This brings me to the goalkeeper. Why was Ben Foster in the reckoning, when he was having a horrid time at United. The first choice goalkeeper was never decided. Capello it seems gambled on Green right on the morning of the game but alas it did not pay off. Hart for me would anyday have been better option.
6. Micheal Owen may have fallen out favor with Capello. He may not play again as long as Capello is the boss. But if Capello was playing a 4-4-2 in the first place I would play Crouch because of his aerial superiority and his ability to climb over the opposition and score. With his pruned team he should definitely have played a 4-5-1. But again I do not have a coaching badge. How can Heskley play international football, the guy just dosemt have it in him. Crouch and Defoe are a million times better.
Will continue on the England story and also on the basic issue...
Is the Fed-Ex era in tennis over ?
It been a while since I have been up all night watching a game of tennis. Last Saturday night/Sunday morning, I decided I would watch the Federer v Djokovic semifinal. I had not watched a single match at the US open this year. I had been reading reports of Federer's form this year at Flushing Meadows. There was a lot to write home about or so the newspapers would have me believe. The match report of the 1/4 final vs soderling was ample evidence that the great man had regained some sort of form.
2010 has been one of Federer's worst years on the tour. He really didnt have much to show after the Australian Open win in January. There was an injury setback in March which kept him off the tour for a while only to make a comeback three weeks before Paris.
Paris has been a place where more often than not he has come up second best to Rafa. Even though he had won last year, Nadal was in top form and the most optimistic of Federer fans wouldnt have backed him to win this time around. Federer's come back to form was halted rather early by Soderling who put in a sterling performance to erase his 0-12 head to head carrer record against Fed-Ex. The worst though was yet to come...
Day 1, The Championships,Wimbledon. Defending champion Roger Federer V unknown Colombian Alejandro Falla. 90 minutes of tennis and Federer is 2 sets down. Third set, everyone expects a federer comeback, instead he is down a couple of match points. The great champion that he is, digs deep and finds a way to win the game. Federer never looked so fallible. Come the 1/4 finals he loses to Berdych. Huge shock on Day 9 of the Championships. The All England Club is still coming to terms with the loss me thinks :-P
The vulnerability that has crept into his game this year was something that has never been seen. He dropped to number 3 in the rankings for the forst time in maybe 6 years.
Now why I think the era of the Roger is coming to an end.
1. His ground strokes are'nt as lethal as they used to be. They are still very good, but unforced errors have crept in.
2. The new guys, hit the ball so hard that at times it seems that during long rallies Federer can in no way get past the other guy. The defensive game of these players is again very very good. They run everything down.
3. If you observe closely that this on the rise smack of the ball has also ensured that he has had to resort to use the drop shot far too often. Fantastic change to his game and on his day people generally do not manage to get to the drops.
4. His single handed backhanded versus Nadal's top spinning curler, something that he has never managed to control.
5. The problem with ground strokes has led him to depend on his serve too much. Make no mistake he has one of the best serves ever but then there might be a day (last Saturday) where you manage to put in 55 percent of your first serves. The opponent dosent have much to do. Lots of second serves to attack and slice defense can be breached by some real hard hitting.
6. Too many unforced errors have crept into his game.
Federer dosent seem to be the master that he used to be. He is still one of the greats to have played the game and I just hope that he keeps winning more grand slams. I want him in more finals, playing Nadal in some awesome matches like the 2008 Wimbledon. It is the best game of tennis that I have ever watched.
Though I now doubt whether we would see matches of that quality in the near future..
2010 has been one of Federer's worst years on the tour. He really didnt have much to show after the Australian Open win in January. There was an injury setback in March which kept him off the tour for a while only to make a comeback three weeks before Paris.
Paris has been a place where more often than not he has come up second best to Rafa. Even though he had won last year, Nadal was in top form and the most optimistic of Federer fans wouldnt have backed him to win this time around. Federer's come back to form was halted rather early by Soderling who put in a sterling performance to erase his 0-12 head to head carrer record against Fed-Ex. The worst though was yet to come...
Day 1, The Championships,Wimbledon. Defending champion Roger Federer V unknown Colombian Alejandro Falla. 90 minutes of tennis and Federer is 2 sets down. Third set, everyone expects a federer comeback, instead he is down a couple of match points. The great champion that he is, digs deep and finds a way to win the game. Federer never looked so fallible. Come the 1/4 finals he loses to Berdych. Huge shock on Day 9 of the Championships. The All England Club is still coming to terms with the loss me thinks :-P
The vulnerability that has crept into his game this year was something that has never been seen. He dropped to number 3 in the rankings for the forst time in maybe 6 years.
Now why I think the era of the Roger is coming to an end.
1. His ground strokes are'nt as lethal as they used to be. They are still very good, but unforced errors have crept in.
2. The new guys, hit the ball so hard that at times it seems that during long rallies Federer can in no way get past the other guy. The defensive game of these players is again very very good. They run everything down.
3. If you observe closely that this on the rise smack of the ball has also ensured that he has had to resort to use the drop shot far too often. Fantastic change to his game and on his day people generally do not manage to get to the drops.
4. His single handed backhanded versus Nadal's top spinning curler, something that he has never managed to control.
5. The problem with ground strokes has led him to depend on his serve too much. Make no mistake he has one of the best serves ever but then there might be a day (last Saturday) where you manage to put in 55 percent of your first serves. The opponent dosent have much to do. Lots of second serves to attack and slice defense can be breached by some real hard hitting.
6. Too many unforced errors have crept into his game.
Federer dosent seem to be the master that he used to be. He is still one of the greats to have played the game and I just hope that he keeps winning more grand slams. I want him in more finals, playing Nadal in some awesome matches like the 2008 Wimbledon. It is the best game of tennis that I have ever watched.
Though I now doubt whether we would see matches of that quality in the near future..
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