Cannavaro wins European Footballer of the Year Award (Ballon d'Or)

Hi all,
Finally Ronaldinho has been stripped off his title, which he held for 2 yrs consecutively. The guy who has done that truly deserves it.

Real Madrid defender Fabio Cannavaro won recognition for his stunning World Cup performance as Italy skipper by winning the prestigious European Footballer of the Year Award (Ballon d'Or) on Monday. The 33-year-old Neapolitan succeeds Barcelona star Ronaldinho, winner of last year's award, but who placed fourth this time largely as a result of his World Cup performance as Brazil crashed in the quarter-finals to France.

Cannavaro with 173 points took the honour ahead of Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (124) of Italy and Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry (121).

France's Zinedine Zidane, who retired after reaching the World Cup finals, placed fifth with 71 points.

To read the complete story click here

This post has been Cross-Posted @ Whatever!!!

njoi,
Kurt

Clash of Titans...

Hi all,

It was indeed Clash of Titans. Yesterday (i.e. 26th November), i along wid the millions of others worldwide saw two Premiership Gaints ManU & Chelsea, clash against eachother @ Old Trafford. Now ManU was in a bad mood after their loss against Celtic in UEFA Championship Group matches. Fergurson was quoted saying, "We'll avenge our Championship loss by defeating Chelsea @ home...". I know tht's a brave statement to make, but Alex is known to make such statements.

Abt the match:
It was a very well contested match, both the teams played some good football. ManU with backing of their home crowd started off with a bang & took Chelsea completely off gaurd. Ronaldo spear-headed ManU's attack, with his sheer speed he made A Cole life a living Hell. Chelsea managed to break most their attack even though they had some goof-ups in their defense. In the process they also took some shots @ ManU's goal. It was ManU who drew the first blood & it was none other than Luis Saha who found the back of the net. Just as he scored the entire stadium burst into a roar, all the ManU fans were shouting, jumping & cheering for their team. Soon it was half time & it looked as if ManU would run away with an easy win.

Second half was a complete different story.They had an early change, Robben was introduced into the attack. Chelsea had fire in their eyes which was missing in the first half (i wonder wht did Jose do in the changing room??). Suddenly one could see ManU on the backfoot, they had majority of their ppl in the defense. Chelsea kept the pressure on ManU and finally they succeded in scoring. It was a corner kick & the scorer this time was Caralvanho (the Portugal Defender). After the goal the stadium went dead silent, only the away fans were cheering this time around. ManU did try to come back but their attack was killed in the bud itself. Soon its was fulltime & the scoreline was ManU 1 - Chelsea 1.

After the match Jose Mourinho was quoted saying, "It's a fair result, ManU were best in the first half & Chelsea were best in the second half."

In all the match was a true entertainer. I felt the refree was a jackass coz he gave away a lot of unwanted fouls against Chelsea. It was indeed a high voltage game. Looking forward to see many more games like this...

This post has been Cross-Posted @ Whatever!!!

njoi,
Kurt

P.S.: This version is Chelsea friendly, if you want a ManU friendly version. Please go somewhere else.

Magnusson takes over West Ham

So finally, West Ham is being taken over. Speculation was pretty much going on since the start of the season that West Ham might be taken over. It was just a matter of when and by whom.

And when the Argentine duo of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano were signed by West Ham, various conspiracy theories were being espoused. The most interesting among them was that this move was just a trick to bring them into EPL and finally the duo or at least Tavez would be bought by Chelsea. It was also suggested that Roman Abramovich might eventually also buy West Ham.(Not sure, if the rules allow that). But, as of now those speculations can be put to rest. :-)

But, what will be the fate of Tavez and Javier? According to the article,

The futures of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano look less secure.

The Argentina internationals were brought to West Ham by Iranian-born Kia Joorabchian, who then led a takeover attempt that failed to lead to any offer for the club.

Tevez and Mascherano have played sporadically and their arrival has coincided with West Ham's recent slump.

Frankly, I haven't see either of them play really well or for that matter, even play for West Ham this season :-) I do like Tavez, so I hope he stays fit and plays for West Ham. But, with the new owners, probably they would be sold to bring in the cash and some footballers who will actually stay fit and play.

Also, West Ham has been one of the teams that I rooted for last season and it’s pretty disappointing to see them play this season. But, in the last match against Chelsea, they fought bravely and that augurs well for the rest of the season.

Although, earlier I had hoped that the speculations surrounding West Ham can be put to rest now but just one doubt in my mind. Is Roman Abramovich driving this deal??

Whatever, the scene is heating up! Watch Out!

Cheers,
HP

Explosion of the Arsenal!!!

The biggest disappointment of this EPL season has been Liverpool, with a lineup of Gerrard, Alonso, Crouch, Bellamy, Kyut to name a few they were expected to fire and give a shot at the title. But that was not to be, their play not only lacks fire but quality too. It seems they just can't keep up the pace with anyone, finding difficult to hold on even to the second level teams. The irony is that they seem to have the problem only in the EPL, as they have played pretty well in the Champions league, with 10 points from 4 mathces they are sitting comfortably on top of their group. With talk of trouble between Gerrard and Rafa Benitez subsiding it was expected that better days might be here soon, But the talk of the club changing hands seems to bring in more uncertainity and it seems the troubled days are here to stay.

The other disappointment had been Arsenal, though their situation has not been as pitiful as Liverpool. They have had some great quality games as expected from a team of highest quality but their biggest trouble in the last couple of months has been their ability to score goals. They would play a beautiful game with perfect passing but would fail when it matters the most that is in scoring goals. So much was I frustrated with lack of Arsenal goals that I switched off midway in their last few games as I did last night. Thankfully that wait seems to be over, with hat-tricks in the matches against Liverpool and Hamburg they seem to be getting back their killer instincts. Though the gap at the top of the EPL is becoming pretty wide for them to be considered for the title, but they are still not out of contention and can surely turn the tables around.

Some Football Action

Its been a long time since I posted anything about football. And, with the EPL season well on its way, expect more football related posts from now on..Now, stop groaning...please...

Already, I am disappointed to read that Chelsea lost to Spurs in the league. This year, Chelsea have not had the dream run like last year and they have also been losing matches after taking a lead which is quite annoying, to say the least. Also, the fact that the big signings have not fired has not helped matters at all. And, I also think letting Gallas go was not the wisest thing that we did this season. I know Kurt does not agree with me but Gallas was a real good player for Chelsea. But, all said and done, Jose needs to get the players performing once again in the league. And, the fact that Man Utd have been playing like a dream in the league make matters worse for us. Here's hoping that we soon overcome whatever problems we have and strike fear in the rest of the EPL teams.

And hope, just hope that Frank fires...Chelsea's winning/losing a match mutch depends upon Terry and Lampard performing. So there....

Cheers,
HP