The fortress has finally been breached. As expected it was not one or two individuals who stormed the fortress but an entire team led by a very able general.

India beat Australia in Perth after playing some fantastic cricket over four days. This has to be without a doubt India’s most memorable victory overseas. For all the brouhaha about being such a dangerous venue for India, Perth has been kind to the Indian team- Kapil Dev got his 400th wicket here, Tendulkar took one giant step forward in his career when he hit 114 in 1992, Kumble took his 600th wicket on the second day and now we have beaten the Australians.

Consider the odds- full strength (barring Hayden) Australian line up, four dangerous fast bowlers, a fast pitch and coming off a very emotional two weeks after accusations and counter accusations have been bouncing off the two teams. And India had two players coming in after a full year away from the side, a very inexperienced bowling line up, and yet managed to win the game in four bloody days!

Team Performance

What is most heartening about the test win is that almost every player contributed: Jaffer and Sehwag gave us two good starts and Sehwag took those two crucial wickets on the fourth day. Dravid made that fine 93 in the first innings and reminded us why he is considered to be one of the best at the number 3 in the line up. Tendulkar made a crucial 71 in the first innings. Laxman made a top class 79 in the second innings and continued to be a big thorn in the Australian plans.

Ishanth Sharma has been bowling so well in all three test matches he has played that it seems to me that Sreesanth is going to find it tough to get his spot back. His first spell on the fourth day was absolutely top class and the way he tormented Ricky Ponting will be a talking point for years to come. RP Singh was fantastic in the first innings, swinging the ball both ways and pitched in with two crucial wickets in the second.

Irfan Pathan- it is so good to see the smile back on his face. Crucial wickets in both the innings and pitching in with an invaluable 40 in the second innings as a night watchman. The decision to keep him out of the final eleven in the first two matches seems utterly ridiculous now.

And Anil Kumble, at the age of 37, he hits his first 100, he takes his six hundreth wicket and leads India to such a victory. It couldn’t have happened to a more committed cricketer and the way he is going, it looks like he definitely has another two years of test cricket in him. Expect a post about him soon.

The Australian Performance:

The Australian team never really got out of second gear in this test match. Barring Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds, and Michael Clarke to a certain extent, none of the other players established their authority in the course of the four days. Shaun Tait looked totally out of sorts and surely there must have been tremendous pressure on him considering all the expectations. One feels for Chris Rogers, Hayden will come straight back into the squad in Adelaide and he will probably continue there for another couple of years.

Ricky Ponting’s dream run over the past two years has ended and it looks like the law of averages has finally caught up with him. The 16 overs which Symonds and Clark bowled on the third day as Ponting tried to catch up with the over rate clearly made a big difference in the final result.

The Final Result:

The Perth test couldn’t have come at a better time for both the test series and world cricket. All the nonsense that has been come out of the Indian and Australian medias finally stopped as everybody started to take stock of the drama that was unfolding at the WACA. More importantly, this victory should give heart to the other teams that Australia can be beaten and beaten at home, but as Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark showed in that fantastic partnership, the Australians fight and fight hard till the last man.

On to Adelaide. Can the Indians do the unthinkable and make it in two in a row? Or will the Aussies revert to the status quo and kill the series at the Oval. It all remains to be seen.

Watch the video of Ponting struggle Ishant Sharma here

Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer ever born… and the 2008 Olympics haven’t even arrived. Tiger Woods can be beaten, Federer can as well (and even has a nemesis in Nadal), but Phelps is the metaphorical mile ahead of everybody. Watch him win 8 or 9 gold medals next year.

He won only 6 gold medals in the last Olympics, but salvaged his reputation with a mindblowing performance at the 2007 Melbourne world championships in March (keep a close eye on all the red lines in the video, and remember that nobody else in the world, all 100 billion human beings who have ever lived, had ever crossed the line he consistently swam two bodylengths in front of.)

The 2007 US National championships were held in Indianapolis early this month. This event is considered the warm up for the 2008 US trials for Beijing, and Michael Phelps came to the city with a full head of hair and an ugly French beard (which he thankfully shaved off a couple of days into the competition.) He was known to be on a light training schedule at the time: he supposedly was swimming only three times a week, and considering the average number of swims per week during peak training season is about ten, it gives you an idea of how important he considered this competition.

Phelps swam only the events he had no intention of swimming in the Olympics. In the 200 Breaststroke, he came in in a lowly third place… in the B Final. He then dived in for the 200 Backstroke and took it easy, to end up behind Ryan Lochte and the formerly unbeatable Aaron Peirsol. A gold in the 200m Freestyle with the second fastest time in history only meant he was over a second slower than his world record.

He then reeled off an almost-world record in the 200m Backstroke (an event he will not swim at the Olympics.) A quick dive in for the 100 Butterfly (the only ’strength’ event he couldn’t dominate Crocker over… until 2007 arrived), and he won it but without the American or world record. (Ian Crocker pulled off another disqualification in this event after that controversial early dive he pulled off early in the year. The story goes that in Melbourne, after Phelps whipped Crocker in Crocker’s pet event, the 100m Butterfly, Crocker replied by diving off the blocks a tad early (0.61s, to be precise) in the 4×100m Medley relay qualifiers, thus pulling off a DQ for Team USA and thus denying Phelps a record-breaking 8th gold medal at the world championships.)

The 100 backstroke was all Phelps magic, though. He never swims this event since he’s got better things to do, but decided to tread on Peirsol’s and Lochte’s feet for kicks. He whipped off his iPod, dived in, ended the 50m in second place, turned and… finished 0.03s off the world record, with enough energy left to glance at the electronic timing board and then scream in frustration about what might have been. Two days later, he decided to lead off the 4×100m Medley relay time trials for the Wolverines in another highly anticipated bid to break the world record in the last event of the championships, but in spite of timing under WR pace over 50m, he ended with a slow 53.17, almost 0.2s off Peirsol’s record. (Yes, the individual world record counts if set in the first leg of a relay.)

A few other fantastic American swimmers also have to be written about. Dara Torres, a 40 year old former 50m Freestyle world record holder, just came back from retirement (and childbirth) to easily dominate the 50m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle at the Indy championships: the shorter event with a new American record to boot. To put things in perspective, she was 17 when she first swam for the USA in the 1984 Olympics. There are whispers about her being “on the juice”, though…

Erik Vendt, Phelps’ Club Wolverine teammate, is another person to look out for: like Janet Evans, he is physically tiny but really pulls his weight in the long distance events. He used to concentrate on the 400 IM, but sensibly switched to the 1500 Freestyle after coming out of retirement because of the appearance of The Lochte. He dominated the 800m and 1500m Freestyle events over Larsen Jensen and Peter Vanderkaay at Indianapolis, and should be worth rooting for in 2008.

Of course, to every Federer there is a Nadal who would be the best in the world… but for the other guy. In this case, the guy’s name is Ryan Lochte. This man consistently clocks world records only to find that Phelps got there first, two seconds before he did. He is going to win 4 gold medals in Beijing: two relays and the two backstroke events as well as a ton of silver medals… and maybe, just maybe, might pull off a victory over Phelps in one of the IMs.

The 2007 US nationals can be viewed online, legally and for free, here. Timed Finals is also a great collaborative blog on swimming, similar to this one. There’s also quite a nice blog about Indian swimming here.

Fantastic Video Compilation of the Top 10 Goals from Copa America 2007 being held in Venezuela.

Top 10 Goals

Liverpool as expected annouced the signing of Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid for 26.5 Million Pounds. His arrival will hasten the departure of Craig Bellamy, who besides the goal against Barcelona hasn’t performed upto the expectations of Rafael Benetiz. Torres will partner Peter Crouch in attack.

It remains to be seen if Torres is the guaranteed 30 goals a season player that Liverpool have missed for seasons now. He has flown under the radar of critics at Atletico Madrid scoring just 82 goals in 214 games for the Castille team. His team was often blamed for his lack of goals. With the 26.5 mill pound capture, and the hopes of a club who are waiting for their first league championship since 1990, he will no longer have that luxury.
Rafa has not had the best luck with his Spanish signings. Only Xabi Alonso has been able to lock in a starting spot in his team. Ex Pool Morientes had a horrid time at the KOP and Rafa will be wishing that those mistakes don’t repeat with Gillette and co breathing down his neck.

In my opinion, Torres has taken far too long to translate potential into goals and doesn’t look like a player capable of solving Liverpool’s inadequacies. Liverpool have taken a huge gamble on this former prodigy, who showed all but flashes of brilliance during his time at the Vicente Calderon. From what I’ve seen, his off the ball movement is top class but his finishing isn’t. I expect him to score not more than 15 goals per season (in the league) at Liverpool, in keeping with his scoring record at Atletico Madrid.

Torres Videos:

Torres Compilation 

Torres Interview (subtitles in English)

Well, United’s summer has certainly started in an explosive fashion. According to a statement on the official website, it looks like the club has signed two young starlets from FC Porto- Nani and Anderson. Definitely looks like two potential replacements for Scholes and Giggs. And Sir Alex has always been exceptional in the way he has handled potential superstars. It is going to be interesting to see how he handles the two next season.

You can read the rest here- Guardian Football

Videos:

Nani Compilation- Click Here
Anderson Compilation- Click Here

After 120 minutes of football that bordered on the tedium, we had a winner, and quite fittingly it was Chelsea’s man of the season who finished Manchester United off. The setting, the new Wembley , was spectacular but the football played sadly wasn’t, it hardly justified the occasion.

It was the case of who could wear out the other faster. I guess both team had their moments and neither team deserved to win it. The game had very few talking points, may be the Giggs incident is the only one. Ronaldo has proved the big game bottler again. Giggs had some sloppy moments. Rooney was better than the other two. But in a game in which cried out for the flair players of Manchester United to do something, they failed miserably. Chelsea used their usual power play game and got their result. Fair play. A word on Essien, I mean what a player! Not a club in Europe would not want his service.

Its bit of an anticlimax for Manchester United who could rightly feel that they have let things slip in the fag end of the season. As for Chelsea and Mourinho, I think Jose would do very well if he went inside and gave Drogba a big hug. Drogba has been the difference between a trophy less season and one with 2 cups. Whether it was enough to keep Jose’s job? I have my doubts.

< Video of Droba's Goal:
Video of Drogba’s Goal

For the second time in three years we are going to have a Liverpool vs Milan final in the UEFA Champions league. Milan confirmed their position in the final after thumping Manchester United 3-0 in Milan to win the tie on aggregate 5-3.

If the previous final is anything to go by, we can expect a treat. I expect Liverpool to win, they are much better (in Europe, mind you) than what they were two years back. The middle of the field looks very settled with Mascherano and Alonso. And of course Benitez really seems to have mastered tactics required for success in Europe. For both the clubs, this trophy represents the only chance to redeem what has otherwise been very disappointing seasons at club level.

Manchester United:

A woeful defense and players like Ronaldo going AWOL cut short any hopes of a final and a shot at a second treble. United now need to recover by Saturday when they play Manchester City in the derby. The league title is in their hands but will they slip up?

The best player in the world

Before the semifinals, there were two contenders for the best active footballer in the world. And over the two legs, Kaka has made that position his own. Of course, 1) Gattuso hacking down Ronaldo all over the park and 2) United’s terrible defense have certainly helped.

The Goals from the match:

First goal - KAKA

Second goal- SEEDORF

Third goal- GILARDINHO

Liverpool are through to the Final of the Champions league after defeating Chelsea on penalties. What a relief! This way we wont get to hear Jose Mourinho rave about he had led two different clubs to the Champions League title (not yet).

I expect United to go through tomorrow, a Liverpool vs United final in Athens will be absolutely cracking. But, with the Athens Police Force set to go on strike (for higher wages), this could turn into a big mess.

But for now, congratulations to Liverpool and the Kop!

You can watch the video of the highlights here: Highlights

You can watch the Penalty Kick Shoot Out Here:  Penalties

2006 gave its share of incidents and some override others for their display of impudence, trickery or maybe even idiocy. These are our Top 5 footballing moments(On the pitch) of the year:

5) Gerrard’s goal in the FA Cup Final

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Into stoppage time in what turned out to be one of the most exciting FA Cup finals ever, Liverpool were trailing to a reselient and a “fluky” West Ham side. My head was all over the place. Liverpool had retrieved a two goal deficit only to go and let a cross in. 3-2, with seconds on the clock.

Most Liverpool supporters were probably thinking ’surely they can’t equalize now’ (I was, for one), when the stadium announcer went ‘The fourth official has indicated there will be a minimum of four minutes added time, four minu…’

The ball went to Steven Gerrard swung his right foot nearly 40 yards out to send a missile straight into the bottom corner of the net. Cue crowd exploding (the missile had nothing to do with it), Martin Tyler screaming like an idiot, and Gerrard pointing at the name on the back of his shirt. Liverpool went on to win the Cup on penalties, but even if they hadn’t, that goal would have gone down in history.

View the Video here: Gerrard (Liverpool vs West Ham United)

4) The Wink

The English National team is synonymous with under achievement and especially under ex boss Sven Goran had the dastardly habit of entering big tournaments under a blizzard of hype and then leaving the tournament without as much as a whimper. And for the third time in as many tournaments, Sven had to meet his nemesis Scolari as England faced Portugal. For once, England seemed to be having the edge until Wayne Rooney got involved in an off the ball incident with Ricardo Carvalho. The kick seemed innocuous but before the referee could stop and think, Rooney’s pain in the butt teammate Ronaldo arrived and protested to the referee. Whether or not, this lead to Rooney’s subsequent sending off is anyone’s guess, but the English forward blamed the sidestepping Right winger for his role. The highlight of the night was when Christiano looked over to his bench and made what is now the infamous wink.

Since then, the two (Rooney and Ronaldo) have sorted things out and look set to capture the EPL championship this year, much to Roman’s chagrin.

View the video here: Ronaldo Wink (Rooney send off)

3)Champions League Final- Juliano Belleti & Thierry Henry

For sheer drama and intensity, few matches in the year would compare to the CLE final of 2006. Although, the match could have been better had it ended 11 v 11, it had its share of heroics from Juliano Belleti and Henrik Larsson, villains in Jens Lehman and Almunia and the downright pathetic from Thierry Henry - 2 guilt edged chances and 1 blubbering rant. All in all, a Fantastic match to cap off a great tournament. Here’s hoping that Champions League 2007 lives up to the billing.

Video: Belleti against Arsenal

2) Grosso 119 minute strike

Prior to the World Cup, only the most avid soccer fan would have known of Fabio Grosso. A left back of an unwieldy nature, Grosso played for a Serie C team as late as 2001. Even he would not have predicted his meteoric rise. What was to happen in 5 years time was the stuff of legend. After winning a dodgy penalty in the final stages of a tense encounter against Australia, Grosso put his own stamp to the semifinal against the hosts with the most exquisite of strikes. Operating with a small window , he managed to curl the ball into the right corner. The Germans were shell shocked. A penalty shootout would be straight down their alley but Italians can thank god for grosso. He went on to slot the winning penalty in the shootout against France in the Final.

View the goal here: Grosso’s goal against Germany

1) THE Headbutt

The Number one Moment of the year has to be the infamous Zidane Headbutt. I’m sure the world gasped when television cameras caught the Frenchman knocking Marco Materazzi off his feet with a head butt that would do The Great Khali proud.There was much speculation as to what had provoked such a reaction but the incident was the butt(no pun intended) of several jokes from Late Show hosts and TV Sitcoms and even spawned a clothing range. What is known now is the Materazzi had made obscene remarks on Zizou’s sister. But little did he know that he would become the world most famous punching bag.

View the Video here: Zidane headbutt Materazzi

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lpxft-zWts]

From Cricinfo:

That match was played at Sion Mills, in County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, on July 2, 1969.

It was an official West Indian touring side (they lost the Test series in England that season), although the captain Garry Sobers didn’t play in this match, and the tour manager Clyde Walcott, who was 43 and had retired almost a decade previously, did. On a sporty pitch, West Indies were shot out for 25 - Grayson Shillingford top-scored with 9, and Walcott made 6: Ireland’s captain Doug Goodwin had the amazing figures of 12.5-8-6-5, and Alec O’Riordan took 4 for 18.

Ireland passed the West Indian score for the loss of one wicket, then kept on batting. It was officially a one-day, two-innings match - but there was an agreement that the side ahead on first innings would be declared the winners.

There’s a mischievous rumour that West Indies’ spectacular collapse - they were 12 for 9 at one stage - owed much to a visit to a nearby Guinness brewery, but actually there was barely time for that: they had only finished a hard-fought Lord’s Test against England late the previous day.

A big thanks to Cougarcricket sports club, which has developed a dedicated fan base if the number of subscribers to the youtube account is anything to go by.

Z

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