Shamik Das


Monday, June 28, 2010

The show must go on... and what a show it promises to be!

Kaka-Sneijder

FEAR not, sports fans, for the world has not come to an end; yes, it’s disappointing England didn’t make it to the quarter-finals, but it’s not all doom and gloom - Messi, Tevez and the boys showed how the game should be played last night, and today, Brasil and der Nederlanden take to the stage.

Kaka, Luis Fabiano, Sneijder, van Persie... goals, flair, class, finesse... everything England aren’t.

So don’t be sad, don the brilliant yellow or oranje, marvel at the sexy football and the Samba soccer, look forward to the next two weeks and enjoooooooooy! :P

Sudáfrica 2010: Updated World Cup wallchart - minus England

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Bloemfontein or bust as England take the hard road to Johannesburg

Road-to-Johannesburg

THE old cliché “there’s no easy games in international football” is too often trotted out when facing the likes of Algeria or Slovenia, yet for England to win the World Cup that simple line couldn’t be truer: in the next fifteen days, they will most likely have to beat Germany; Argentina; Spain or Portugal; and then Brazil - only one of whom, Spain in the quarter-finals of Euro ’96, have they knocked-out of a major finals since 1966.

First up, then, are Germany, and though almost everyone will be highlighting the semi-final shoot-out defeats at Italia ’90 and at Wembley in 1996, England’s more recent record against Jogi Löw’s boys is a bit more impressive, winning 2-1 in Berlin one-and-a-half years ago, with at least half the starting XI that night set to feature tomorrow. Also in England’s favour is the style of the new-look Germany, playing with more flair yet less teutonic in defence; don’t expect a nil-all draw, if it goes to penalties it’ll more likely be after a 2-2 or 3-3 scoreline.

After Germany, come Mexico or Argentina, the form team in South Africa, Messi, Tevez and Higuaín taking apart Nigeria, South Korea and Greece with ease. Even Verón’s looking good, and Maradona’s been acting quite sane, the hilarious tiffs with Beckenbauer and Pelé aside.

Then, in the semi-finals, England will have to face Paraguay, Japan, Spain or Portugal. Spain have improved since their opening game defeat to Switzerland, though look shaky at the back, with the seven-goal Portugese both the joint top-scorers and possessing the meanest defence. Look for Ronaldo and co to shade it on Tuesday night, battle past Paraguay or Japan next Saturday and to (hopefully) face England Wednesday week.

In the final at the 84,490-capacity Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday July 11th, the winners of England’s half of the draw will face Brazil, for whom the draw, as if by magic, has opened up, or at a stretch the Netherlands, who always seem to look great in qualifying and turn on the style in the group stages yet have failed to perform in the knock-out rounds in recent years, losing to Portugal (twice) and Russia in their last three tournaments.

The last time England won the World Cup, “Out Of Time” by Chris Farlowe was number one in the charts...


...they’ll be hoping that’s the one thing they don’t run out of over the next four games as they strive to end 44 years of hurt and rush home the gold from South Africa.

Sudáfrica 2010: Updated World Cup wallchart

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

ITV are ruining the World Cup (and so are the teams)

Adrian-Chiles-dunces-cap

JUST when they thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse for team ‘Football United’ - as ITV Sport like to call themsleves - so it did with this morning’s red tops leading on the sacking of ‘pundit’ Robbie Earle for palming off 150 World Cup tickets in contravention of FIFA rules.

The headlines were vintage Sun: “Tout of Africa”; and Mirror: “Earley bath”; while FIFA’s ‘source’ was just, well, FIFA, with the startling observation that the three-dozen leggy broads who had managed to lay their hands on his tickets “didn’t look like his family or friends”.

Just imagine if it had been a certain BBC analyst caught out; ‘Garth Crook!’ they’d scream...

Hyundai-ad

Earle-gate follows the complete f*ck-up on Saturday when viewers of ITV HD missed England’s goal and were instead treated to a Hyundai advert, just as ITV had cut away to an ad-break in the middle of an FA Cup tie 16 months ago, missing Dan Gosling’s dramatic late winner for Everton against Liverpool with penalties beckoning.

The thing is, we’ve almost come to expect this from ITV Sport: it’s all about sponsorship, endorsements and making money. And to what ends? To keep Adrian Chiles in pies?!

But it isn’t just Chilesy who’s got on my tits lately, Clive Tyldesley really, really irked me last night during the Brazil-North Korea match, in which he screamed out loud that Maicon’s goal “came off the keeper... must’ve been deflected off the keeper... a really lucky deflection”, thus ruining the moment.

As you’ll no doubt have seen, and can see again below, the best goal of South Africa 2010 went clean in (try not to smash the screen when you hear Tyldesley’s shrieks):


There’s also Kevin Keegan, who described England’s performance against the USA as “brilliant” and said we “should have won 4-1”; not that we should’ve been surprised of course, given his “I’d love if we beat them, love it” rant and punditry during France ’98, saying “only one team’s gonna win now” - following Michael Owen’s equaliser against Romania - and, when asked if David Batty would score in the shoot-out against Argentina, screaming “yes!”.

Then, there’s fatty Corden. Enough. Said.

However, in the interests of balance, let me remind you that the BBC haven’t had a flawless World Cup themselves... :P


Back to the Robbie Earle story, and the whole ambush marketing angle with the orange-clad blondes promoting Dutch brewers Bavaria, and we get on to the subject of the increasing commercialisation and ‘official commercial partners’, ‘official event partners’, ‘official global partners’ that pop up at the biggest sporting events.

In 2004, during the ICC Champions Trophy, the powers that be even went as far as to ban spectators from taking in packs of the wrong kind of crisps or soft drink or wearing the wrong coloured t-shirt. Though they relaxed the insane regulations through the course of the tournament, the damage had been done, with cricket fans afraid of bringing Walkers crisps or Coca-Cola cans into the ground.

Still, at least today provided us with the first major shock of the World Cup, Spain falling to Switzerland, even though the day ended disappointingly with South Africa getting thumped by Uruguay. We can but hope the tournament, and ITV’s coverage, improve dramatically over the next 25 days.

World Cup 2010 wallchart

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Kaiser kicks ass!

Franz-Beckenbauer-1974

FRANZ BECKENBAUER, perhaps irked by being dissed by Diego Maradona the other night, has laid into England, labelling them a “kick and rush” team and claiming they had gone “backwards” under Fabio Capello.

Quite extraordinary! And possibly quite true, if we’re being brutally honest with ourselves. Aside from the two stunning victories over Croatia, it’s difficult to remember an England performance over the past two years that really set the pulse racing - we’ve certainly not seen it in the run up to South Africa and we sure as hell didn’t see it against the States on Saturday.

Germany, by contrast, were brilliant on Sunday, swatting away Australia with ease, with four of their five strikers scoring; forget what you think you know about Germany, they’re exciting to watch, a vibrant, young team capable of going all the way, free scoring, ego-less and used to playing with each other.

In their last three World Cup openers they’ve scored 8 (against Saudi Arabia en route to the final eight years ago), 4 (against Costa Rica in the scintillating curtain-raiser in Munich four years ago) and now four against the Aussies, while racking up the goals in the 2005 Confederations Cup, Euro 2008 and their near-perfect 2010 qualification campaign.

On the eve of the tournament, Germany manager Joachim Loew called on his players to “humiliate” opponents - that they have done and will hope to do again, against Serbia on Friday and Ghana next Wednesday, and if England aren’t careful, against them a week on Sunday.

Back to the present, and today sees the turn of New Zealand, Slovakia, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal, North Korea and the big ones, everyone’s favourite, favourite team, Brasil, take the stage.

Here’s a little reminder of what the Samba Boys can offer:


France ’98, those were the days! (Pre 9/11 of course, if you tried that this summer you’d likely be renditioned...)

♫ Ô Ariá! Raiô!
Obá! Obá! Obá!
Ô, Ô Ô Ô Ô Ariá! Raiô!
Obá! Obá! Obá!...

♬ Mas Que Nada
Sai da minha frente
Que eu quero passar
Pois o samba está animado
E o que eu quero é sambar...

♫ Esse samba
Que é misto de maracatu
Samba de Preto Velho
Samba de Preto Tutú..

♬ Mas Que Nada
Um samba como este tão legal
Você não vai querer
Que eu chegue no final...

♫ Ô, Ô Ô Ô Ô Ariá! Raiô!
Obá! Obá! Obá!...(2x)

♬ Ô Mas Que Nada!
Ô Mas Que Nada!
Ô Mas Que Nada!
Ô Mas Que Nada!
Esse samba é gostoso
Essa dança é danada
Ô Mas Que Nada!
Ô Mas Que Nada!
Esse samba é gostoso
Essa dança é danada...

♫ Esse samba
Que é misto de maracatu
Samba de Preto Velho
Samba de Preto Tutú..

♬ Mas Que Nada
Um samba como este tão legal
Você não vai querer
Que eu chegue no final...

♫ Ô, Ô Ô Ô Ô Ariá! Raiô!
Obá! Obá! Obá!...(2x)

♬ Obá! Obá! Obá!
Obá! Obá! Obá!
Obá! Obá! Obá!...

♫ Mas Que Nada!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Vuvu-howler

Robert-Green-howler

Rustenburg, World Cup, Group C: England 1-1 USA


ENGLAND fluffed a number of chances in the wake of Robert Green’s fluffed save, lucky to end a disappointing display with a 1-1 draw.

Following a dream start, in which Steven Gerrard needed all of four minutes to put England on the board - latching on to Emile Heskey’s well-placed reverse pass - England allowed the US back in to the game four minutes from hal-time when Green spilled Clint Dempsey’s speculative long-range shot.

Green, however, redeemed himself 20 minutes into the second half, tipping Jozy Altidore’s fierce strike onto the post to safety, with Heskey, who smashed the ball straight at Tim Howard when clean through, and Shaun Wright-Phillips, who should have lashed the ball left-footed - à la Siphiwe Tshabalala’s thunderbolt in the opener - but instead tried to place it right-footed.

Watch highlights of the game below:


So once again questions are being asked over England’s number one, a position even Fabio Capello seems unsure of, leaving it to two hours before kick off to reveal his first choice, and let’s be honest, it isn’t a great choice: Green, David James (who always has an error in him) or the untried Joe Hart.

Looking back through history, from 1966 onwards (and probably even before) seldom has a World Cup been won without a keeper at the top of his game, a cert between the sticks and more often than not the number one goalkeeper in the world - even when won by the attack-oriented Brazilians.

Banks, Félix, Maier, Fillol, Zoff, Pumpido, Ilgner, Taffarel, Barthez, Marcos, Buffon... a line of names to which it’s impossible to see Green, James or Hart added. Ditto the Euros, where the winning keepers since 1980 have been Schumacher, Bats, van Breukelen, Schmeichel, Köpke, Barthez, Nikopolidis and Casillas.

Last night offered further proof that, without a number one number one England will struggle to be the number ones.

World Cup 2010 wallchart

Saturday, June 12, 2010

South Africa puts its Left Foot Forward

Left-Foot-Forward-South-Africa

AS seen at yesterday’s opening ceremony!

And in terms of what happened on the pitch (once it’d been cleared up of course), well, South Africa came within a post’s width of winning it, though a lively 1-1 draw isn’t the end of the world, especially given France’s dire goalless bore against Uruguay later that night:


This afternoon we get our first glimpse of Messi, as Argentina do battle with Nigeria, before the big one, England v the USA, tonight in Rustenburg at 7:30. The talking’s over, it’s time for Diego and then Fabio’s boys to show the world what they can do.

Friday may not have been as memorable as Germany ’06 or USA ’94's opening days, but for the Bafana Bafana it’s a day they’ll never forget.

South African Football Association
World Cup 2010 wallchart

Friday, June 11, 2010

It’s time!



ONE country. One trophy. One world. One winner.

May the best men win.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Look out for the Afghans!

Cricket-in-Afghanistan

THOUGH they failed to produce any shocks at the World Twenty20 last month - beaten comprehensively by India and South Africa - and missed out on the 2011 World Cup, Afghanistan looks set to be the next cricketing nation to emerge.

In last year’s qualifying tournament, they finished a creditable sixth, narrowly losing out to Canada, Kenya, Holland and winners Ireland - a performance good enough for them to be granted full one day international status.

The war-torn nation, which is painfully, slowly, but surely on the road to normalisation, thanks in part to British troops and our former prime minister Tony Blair, is using sport as a means to heal. Where Iraq, the other nation recently liberated by western troops, had football - reaching the semi-finals of the 2004 Olympic Games, beating Portugal en route - so Afghanistan has cricket.

And the reason for my random highlighting of this fact? A net session at Regent’s today, five hours’ worth, for the final part of which we were joined by a 17-year-old Afghan (that’s 17 by Asian date-counting standards!) and boy could this boy play!

As Peter Roebuck explained so eloquently in a recent Cricinfo article titled ‘Cricket in the world’:

“Our sport must embrace the environment it belongs to, engage with it, and move with the times. Cricket’s primary task over the last 30 or so years has been to move beyond its historic and geographic confines and to take its place in a broader, more difficult, less governable and much richer world...

“Geography offers hope. Cricket’s attempt to spread beyond its small picket of committed nations is commendable. Only then will it mature into an international sport and escape its colonial confines. Of course, the attempt might fail. Is hardly to be expected that Test cricket will suddenly be embraced by the newcomers. But the ICC is right to try.

“Moreover Twenty20 provides the vehicle. It has all the ingredients it needs to attract converts. And the benefits of a widening game would be wide, wresting the game from its colonial and post-colonial limitations.

“All the more reason to welcome the breakthroughs in Afghanistan, Nepal, Argentina and other countries with so much to offer. Cricket cannot keep talking to itself but rather must start fresh conversations.

“Rugby has been better blessed, with the rise of the Italians and Romanians offering hope. Cricket needs that same involvement.”

It’s time for the whole world to play up, play up and play the game.

The Rise Of Cricket In Afghanistan
Afghanistan Cricket board homepage

Friday, June 04, 2010

Bangladesh bowlers finally show their class

England-Bangladesh-Old-Trafford-04-06-10Manchester, second Test, day 1:
England 275/5 (Bell 87*, Pietersen 64; Shafiul 2-37) v Bangladesh






Bangladesh built on their impressive performance in the first Test at Lord’s with another decent display of Test match cricket to leave the second Test even after the first day in Manchester, restricting England to a scoring rate of only 3.3 runs per over when bad light and then rain curtailed the day’s play.

Ian Bell continued his fine run against Bangladesh - his current average against them is 197.3 - but it was Kevin Pietersen who once again stole the day’s headlines, pinging the ball to all corners after a slow start. KP struck 28 runs off his last 15 balls, including a wonderful six off Abdur Razzak, before getting himself stumped dancing down the track and completely misreading the spin.

However, it was Bangladesh’s bowlers who’ll feel happiest, picking up where their batsmen left off; unrecognisable in attitude and outlook from the nervy XI who took to the field in the country’s inaugural Test on these shores five years ago, they once more performed like a genuine Test attack, as they’d done on the second day at Lord’s the Friday before. Shafiul Islam bagged two wickets, conceding just 37 runs from his 14 overs, with Shahadat Hossain, Shakib Al Hasan and Abdur Razzak taking one apiece

Bangladesh-Test-record-2010

Were Bangladesh to see it through, and there’s no reason to believe they will, it’ll be the fourth time in seven Tests this year they’d have taken all ten first innings wickets - the challenge, though, is to make inroads in the second innings. So far this year, their second innings hauls have been 8, 0, 5, 7, 1 and 2.

This contrasts sharply with their batting displays; in four of their six Tests this year, Bangladesh’s second innings score has exceeded their first - with only one of those instances, the game at Lord’s, involving them following-on. Bangladesh’s match aggregates have been particularly impressive of late.

As Cricinfo points out, three of their five highest match totals have come this year: their Lord’s aggregate (664) was their fifth-highest in a Test match;, the 690 against New Zealand in Hamilton in February was higher still and their highest (704) was against England in Dhaka earlier this year.

In the field they have also improved, evidenced by Jahurul Islam stunning leap to hold on to an Eoin Morgan cut to backward point, stopping Morgan in his tracks as he threatened to let fly, pegging England back at 223 for 4.

With Old Trafford once again looking like a spinner’s paradise, and Bangladesh’s spin team outnumbering England’s lone offie Graeme Swann, the Tigers look well placed to give England more of a test.

Test Match Special: Live ball-by-ball audio commentary
Cricinfo: Live text commentary of the second day’s play