BCS National Title Game: Gators are CHOMPions

It was the perfect end to a great year of sports with the Florida Gators being the first team in NCAA history to win the National Basketball and Football titles in the same year. And what a way to win the football title – annihilating No.1 Ohio State Buckeyes 41-14!!

I had been screaming hoarse throughout the season that the Buckeyes were overrated and the Gators deserved to be No.1 after facing way tougher opponents in the SEC. With teams such as Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas and Alabama to contend with and playing against a great team like FSU every season as an out of conference opponent, and beating them all in the same season, the Gators were a more deserving team.

The Buckeyes dominated the game for all of 16 seconds from kickoff. After that, they didn’t even get time to figure out as to what hit them. The explosively quick Florida defense was something that the Buckeyes had never encountered (and will never encounter in the Big Ten conference) and this became evident as their quarterback Troy Smith kept getting hit from behind.

If the defense was relentless, the offense was spot on! The two quarterbacks strategy of Urban Meyer was something the Buckeyes had no answer to. Chris Leak silenced his critics by coming good in the big game and Tim Tebow has the Buckeyes scampering with his rushing skills.

You can read more about it here at CNNSI and ESPN.

Go Gators!!!

Magnificent 700: Shane Warne crosses another milestone

It was a lazy morning after a long weekend and I was in no mood to go to work. Switched on the television while sipping on a hot cup of tea and saw that England had lost two wickets and Strauss and Collingwood were doing a job of damage control. But I was more intently listening to if Shane Warne had claimed either of those two wickets. Warne had entered the test match with his tally of wickets at 699.

Soon after the English had reached their century, Brett Lee unleashed a beauty to get rid of Collingwood. Warne came on to continue from the other end. The first ball didn’t pose any problems for a well set Strauss who was batting on 50. Warne came in to bowl the next ball, he gave it a good flight, the ball reached the peak of its trajectory, Strauss read it fine so far and took a stride forward to drive it…then the ball suddenly dipped, pitched outside off-stump, spun viciously and went through bat and pad and the death rattle sounded as it hit the middle stump. Wicket number 700 for Shane Warne! And what a perfect wicket it was – knocking back the middle stump of a top order batsman who had just scored his half-century. The entire ground erupted waving colorful placards with the number 700 printed on them.

It was as perfect a moment as a person can wish for – establishing a new record in front of your home crowd – and a well deserved one too. After going through a huge turmoil in his married life, being involved in the lewd message scandal and serving a one-year ban for using banned diuretics, Warne has come back stronger than ever and claimed over 200 wickets in the last 36 test matches (5.7 wickets per match!). And considering he hunted in pair with Glenn McGrath who himself has claimed over 500 wickets, it’s a great achievement.

Warne is definitely one of the greatest bowlers the cricketing world will ever see. He has single-handedly revived the art of spin bowling among the cricketing nations that do not come from the Indian sub-continent. As Warne is set to retire at the end of the current Ashes series, let’s wish him all the best for his future.

Michael Schumacher finishes in style

The last race of the 2006 Formula One season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, turned out to be an emotional one. Felipe Massa won his home race to give Ferrari a well deserved finish at the top of the podium. Fernando Alonso retained his driver’s title with a well-controlled race. But above all, Michael Schumacher gave us a stunning display of driving by finishing fourth after some disastrous moments beyond his control in the final race of his brilliant career.

It seemed like luck had deserted Schumi when a fuel pressure problem forced him out of the 3rd round of qualifying pushing him down to 10th place on the starting grid. As the race began, Schumacher applied pressure on Fisichella and overtook him in the 9th lap. However, he soon pitted to replace a tyre that was probably damaged by debris left behind by Rosberg’s crash. He fell down to 19th position, but what followed was some superfast, record-setting laps. In due time, he passed Barrichello and with 9 laps remaining, he forced Fisichella to make a mistake and go wide and overtook him.

But immediately he seemed to lose speed and it felt like the fuel pressure problem had kicked in again, but he soon got back upto speed and challenged Raikkonen who did well to block him on one lap. However, Schumi pushed hard again and squeezed his way through the inside as Raikkonen desperately tried to close the small opening between his car and the pit wall. That move right there was proof enough that Schumacher was still at his peak.

One can only wonder what the result would have been had engine trouble not hit Schumi during qualifying. Though not a fitting end to an illustrious career, the race was a fitting end to the 2006 season.

As for Schumi, well, let’s all wish him good luck for his future and thank him for all the wonderful racing that he has treated us to.

Sizzling Sachin

How does God announce his arrival?

He goes about doing his thing as if it’s business as usual.

It was touted as Sachin Tendulkar’s comeback game. After recovering from a shoulder surgery that kept him out for what seemed like ages, today Sachin Tendulkar was at his vintage best – caressing the ball to third man, flicking it off the stumps to square leg and effortlessly launching the cherry into the crowd towards the end of the innings. More importantly, he returned unbeaten with a big hundred scored at almost a run-a-ball.

As always, the little master let his bat do the talking for him by getting his 40th ODI century. That surely won’t stop the detractors from reaching for his throat, but hey, it’s a free world and even the village idiots have the right to voice their opinions right?

Welcome back Sachin!

Andre Agassi bids adieu to Tennis

On Sunday, Andre Agassi played the last match of his illustrious tennis career when he lost in the 3rd round of the U.S. Open to Benjamin Becker.

His groundstrokes were as powerful as ever but in place of that faint smile and that peppiness around the court, you could often see Agassi wince after serving and pull up short instead of reaching out for that passing shot. He was clearly struggling due to his injury but he was not going to go down without a fight.

Agassi has always been a fighter, right from the days of being a long-haired, denim clad youngster out to have fun to the present day eight Grand Slam winning, shaven headed, tennis-white clad champion. He did not have the booming serve of Ivanesevic nor the agility of Becker or the speed of Chang. He was not uber-talented like Sampras or Federer. All he had was powerful groundstrokes, the best service return and a lot of fight! And it is this that helped Agassi become only the fifth player to have won all the Grand Slams.

Agassi has been my favorite tennis player, not for his talent but for his sheer determination. He reached the top in an era that was dominated by the big servers and bore a lot of semblance to my other favorite – Ivan Lendl.

I watched the first set of his final match and when he lost it to a double fault; I was almost in tears and could sense that this was going to be the end. Half-way through the second set, I just couldn’t watch it anymore and though I may never get a chance to see him play again, I believe I made a good choice by turning off the match as I am sure that I would not have been able to control my tears at the end.

Thank you for treating us to some of the most colorful, vibrant and mesmerizing tennis ever. Take a bow Andre!

England awarded Test match win

The latest news about the 4th Test match between England and Pakistan is that Pakistan has forfeited the match and England have been awarded a win. According to the laws of cricket, this is a correct decision in the event of Pakistan refusing to take the field after the tea-break on the fourth days play.

However, this incident has completely marred the entire series and the spirit of cricket in general. It is rather shameful that a match in which Pakistan has had an upper hand since the very first ball that was bowled, should be lost in such a manner. England, though in a good position, were still far from posting a challenging target for the Pakistani batsmen who seem to be in great touch – especially Mohammed Yousuf.

The way I see it is that no team would wait to lose the series and then tamper with the ball in a game that they were headed to win comfortably. At this point of time and from the way the match has progressed, I just refuse to accept that Pakistan tampered with the ball. No bloody way!

Is it just me, or do you see a pattern here? Good ol’ Darrell Hair is almost always the instigator of a controversy involving Asian cricket teams.

Hope the truth of the matter becomes clear as soon as possible. Seems like a bad week for cricket with South Africa pulling out of the tri-series in Sri Lanka and the series eventually being washed out by rains and now the resurgence of a ball tampering controversy.

Pakistan caught in ball tampering controversy…again!

With England trying to save the 4th and Final Test match, controversy struck in the afternoon session. At the end of the 56th over, umpire Darrell Hair went over to his colleague and the two seemed to discuss the condition of the ball. They then asked for a box of balls to replace the current ball. It seemed a routine change till Darrell Hair indicated a 5-run penalty awarded to England. This upset Inzamam-ul-Haq considerably as it directly hinted at ball tampering by Pakistan.

After the tea-break, the umpires and the English batsmen walked out on the field but the Pakistan team refused to take the field. The umpires took off the bails to indicate end of play and left the field. After some meetings, the Pakistani players appeared on the field. However, the umpires now refused to take the field and the players left the field again.

I don’t think this match is going to restart. No one knows for sure as to what exactly materialized out there in the middle, but whatever happened, it is definitely a shameful incident for the game of cricket. Keep checking to watch the story as it develops…

Zidane “uses” his head, Italy are World Champions

At the end of one the most brilliantly fought matches, it boiled down to penalties and the Azzurri were flawless scoring 5/5 from the spot. I am still in awe and absolutely elated that the team I was supporting in the finals won.

However I am sad that the most amazing career of one of the legends of soccer came to a disgraceful end. Why? Why? WHY oh Why? Why did Zidane – the most cool-headed footballer in recent years – in a moment of indiscretion do that headbutt? It really brings tears to my eyes even writing about it. He can’t even take part in the presentation ceremony. Good luck to you Zidane. God bless. Thank you for the years of mesmerizing soccer that you treated us to.

Nadal stretches Federer

Roger Federer won his fourth Wimbledon title 6-0, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3, but not before having to fight off Rafael Nadal who was on high-octane. Federer lost his first set of the tournament and he had to play his longest match of this tournament.

Nadal seemed to be a ball of nerves in the first set. After all, he was on Center Court, playing in the Wimbledon finals against The God of Wimbledon. But he found his rhythm and he made Federer play that one extra shot on each rally. For a clay-court specialist to adapt so well to grass speaks volumes of this kid’s talents. I think Nadal has proven his critics that he is a good all-round player. You CANNOT reach the Wimbledon finals and give Federer a run for his money if you are not talented…period!

The Brilliant Azzurri

The World Cup semi-finals, the most consistent team against one of the most criticized team that many considered was lucky to even be here. The Germans were considered outright favorites, but the Azzurri (Italy) had different ideas.

The game kicked off in an attacking mode, was extremely fast and it never lost pace. Every attack was responded with a fitting counter-attack and before you knew, the game was in extra time. The start of extra time saw Italy hit the goal-post twice within a minute and one could not help but think that it probably was Germany’s day.

With two minutes left in extra time and penalty shoot-out looking a certainty, a forceful Italian attack saw Grosso produce a brilliant shot to give Italy the lead. A deathly silence seemed to spread across the stadium. The Germans had no option but to push forward and try to score and this move backfired since they left their defense wide open and Del Piero scored to take the Azzurri into the finals beating the Germans 2-0.

This was soccer at its best and considering the way Italy is peaking at the right time, I would not be surprised if they go all the way to be World Champions.

Brazil gets Les Bleus

It was supposed to be a repeat of the World Cup 98 finals and Brazil was seeking revenge. But instead they got the blues against Les Bleus (that’s what France is calling itself in this World Cup)

If you hadn’t seen the 98 finals, this match was almost a rerun of it. Brazil looked completely listless and clueless. Their big stars – Ronaldinho (FIFA footballer of the year), Ronaldo (the most feared striker) and Kaka were completely shut out by the French defenders and the Brazilian mid-field seemed like it had never ever heard of the word “creativity”.

On the other hand, Zidane has gotten better with each game and seems to reserve his best against Brazil and yesterday he was the Wizard of the French mid-field. Henry was explosive in spurts but was well marked by the Brazilian defense. However a rare lapse in concentration saw Henry being left unmarked and Zidane’s masterful cross was bang on target and all Henry had to do was put his toes to it and France was ahead 1-0.

Aggressive substitutions saw Adriano and Robinho take the field for Brazil to add some sting to their attack but it was little too late.

No South American team has ever won the World Cup when it’s held in Europe except on one instance. This instance was in 1958 and the team was none other than Brazil and that was also the last time Brazil had beaten France in a competitive match. So I was hoping against hope that Brazil would be able to break that curse again, but it was not meant to be. They will have to wait another four years to take a shot at the cup. It also marked the end of the World Cup carrier for Ronaldo, who would have been thrilled to have at least scored against the French.

Another One Bites The Dust

So another game went down to the wire and Portugal eliminated England from the World Cup via the penalty shoot-out. The game was a closely fought one with neither team willing to budge.

The game started off at a really fast pace with both teams attacking relentlessly, but after the initial burst, the game slowed down a couple of notches with neither team really troubling the opponent goalkeeper. From the statistics, it would like both teams deserved to win. However the actual game was different all together.

I would say that England lost the game due to a lot of missed chances. Right from the start of this World Cup, their passing has been atrocious and though the team consists of the best players from England, it is not the best team from England! The players seemed to lack the pin-point accuracy displayed by Argentina, Brazil and Germany that comes only when the players know each others game inside out.

Another big factor in this loss was the outright stupidity of Wayne Rooney. While jostling for the ball, he stepped on his tackler while he was down. The referee intervened and this is when Rooney should have just walked away. Instead he stayed on and shoved aside Cristiano Ronaldo who was protesting with the referee. The referee did not hesitate in flashing the red card to give Rooney the marching orders. This was definitely the turning point of the game.

As for the penalty shoot-out, the lesser said the better. I will sum it up in three words – Royal Mess Up!

Lady Luck (and the referee) ignores Argentina

It was THE match of the World Cup and it didn’t fail to impress. Both Argentina and Germany played some amazing soccer and it was really difficult to differentiate between the two teams during the first 90 minutes and then through the 30 minutes of extra time. It was the sort of game where you would say “may the better team win”, but in this case it was more of “may the luckier team (aptly aided by the referee) win”.

No, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to take away any credit from the Germans. They played some brilliant soccer, especially Ballack, who carried on, assisted in their only goal during regulation time and even took a penalty kick despite and niggling leg injury. However the match referee Michel Lubos was blatantly harsh on Argentina and just ignored any German misbehavior. While Rodriguez was shown the yellow card for play-acting when in fact he was fouled, Ballack was just let go when he play-acted. Germans were awarded free-kicks even when the player took a fall themselves whereas the game went on even when the Argentina players were blatantly tripped and pushed. Though it did not directly count towards a goal, this does go a long way in messing up the players focus and that could be clearly seen in the way Argentina began to lose focus towards the end of regulation time and looked completely down during extra time.

Luck seemed to be against them too when they lost their best goalkeeper Abbondanzieri to an injury that in turn reduced their substitution options. Earlier in the second half, Ayala opened the scoring through a beautiful header off a perfect cross from Riquelme. But soon the refereeing started getting horrible and in between losing their focus and their goalkeeper, Argentina conceded a goal to the Germans. The goal itself was a brilliant piece of soccer from Ballack and Klose.

Argentina also flawed in their tactics by replacing a Riquelme with Cambiasso and Crespo with Cruz a little too early. Cruz was a complete dud and moved around as if he had an iron ball tied to his legs. I am still clueless as to why Messi wasn’t unleashed on the Germans?

When it came to the penalties, Neuville, Ballack, Podolski and Borowski all managed to score for Germany. Cruz scored the first one for Argentina. Next up was Ayala who looked all but confident as he walked up to take the kick. His shot was pathetic and was easily saved by Lehmann. Rodriguez scored and Cambiasso came up to the spot. He had to score but his body language said otherwise. His shot was kept out by Lehmann and I just couldn’t control my tears.

My favorite team is out of the World Cup and now its time to root for the other South American magicians – BRAZIL!

Argentina’s Six-Shooter

What a performance!!! Argentina has made the entire soccer fraternity to take notice with their majestic performance against Serbia and Montenegro. It was an all-out assault that was executed with utmost precision. What we saw yesterday was a perfect combination of team-work, superlative soccer skills and the South American flair.

It took all but 6 minutes for Argentina to open their account with some brilliant passing between Sorin, Saviola and the finisher Rodriguez. Serbia was continuously under pressure with the incessant attack from Argentina.

The second and probably the best goal of the game came in the 32nd minute when the ball was beautifully swept across the field from one player to another to arrive at Cambiasso’s feet. He slid it to Crespo who skillfully back-heeled it to Cambiasso who nailed it in.

The third goal came close to half-time when Saviola’s shot was deflected by the goalkeeper towards Rodriguez who netted his second of the match.

The first half hour of the second half was full of missed opportunities by Argentina. With barely 15 minutes left, the teenage sensation Lionel Messi took the field and after being on the field for all of 3 minutes, he carved out Argentina’s fourth goal by using his skill and speed to outwit the defence and send a low cross in the penalty box to Crespo who did the rest.

Tevez, another sensational young forward, outwitted two defenders and sent low shot into the net for the fifth goal.

In barely another 3-4 minutes, Messi burst into the penalty area and Tevez fed him with a beautiful pass and the teenager did the rest to score the sixth goal.

This game showed the world as to why Messi is so highly rated since he is not only a great finisher but also a brilliant creator. Watch out Brazil, here come Argentina!

Brazil Fail To Impress

After waiting to watch Brazil in action, I geared up to stay up late in the night to watch them play Croatia. The Brazilians were in the attack mode right away with Ronaldinho coming within striking distance within the first 5 minutes itself. Then Roberto Carlos unleashed a furious shot that Pletikosa did well to clear over the crossbar. Another brilliant save followed within a minute or so off a Ronaldinho shot.

The Croatians counter-attacked and seemed to be completely unfazed by the mighty Brazilians. However the game lacked the flair that the Brazilians bring to soccer. Ronaldo seemed to be out of sorts and looked like a blob on the field and most of the Brazilian team seemed to be uninterested in the proceedings.

I was planning to switch off the television at half-time and go to bed. Just then, Kaka unleashed a scorcher from outside the penalty area and scored the first goal for Brazil. I thought – “Ah! Here we go now!” But that was not meant to be. After the break, the Brazilians returned more lethargic than before and the Croatians attacked relentlessly.

Within 5 minutes of the start of the second half, Dida had to keep a shot out of the Brazilian goal and within 2 minutes was again left fending off another great shot from the Croatians. Ronaldo gave us a flash of his capability when his shot just sailed over the crossbar, but that was about it and he returned to his laziest best. Ronaldinho seemed to be the only busy person and only a great save from Pletikosa kept his header out. Croatia was attacking again and was applying relentless pressure on the Brazilian defense.

Though Brazil came out victorious, they were made to work hard for it till the very end and I feel that they were quite lucky to not have drawn or lost this game. I personally felt that Croatia played a better game and I would not have felt bad had they won.