Can’t touch this #Shorts

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All the adjectives are for just one player – Zizou. He mesmerized us, take us on the journey of dreamland and then all of sudden dumped us into the debris of a castle destroyed by the very emperor who fondly made it.

Reflections of an inveterate ‘Azzuri’ fan in the wake of the FIFA 2006 Championship Final.

we are left with best two who are all set to give their all to take the coveted trophy back home. Will it be France guided by resurgent Zidane or Italy managed by the ‘Master’ Lippi.

The Golden Ball winner of last edition has to sit ignominiously on bench due to Lehmann choice as number 1 goalkeeper by coach Klinsmann. The performance against Portugal did prove that he is the most talented under bars to sit on bench.

After beating Holland and England, Portugal is finally stopped by France. A very important detail matters. The French style also helped, but most of all, Portugal’s productivity wasn’t just enough; they were too much focused on (Excuse me, it’s again about the World Cup)

It has to be a titanic match and it lived up to the expectations. Italy started with pace in park and creating early openings. With both teams willingness to attack early the match seems to be an open match rather than a tactical stalemate.

These moments are not in any order but a symbol of how they enhanced the beautiful game. Togo’s players celebrating their first goal in the world cup against South Korea in their opening match.

The Galacticos culture has spawned an era where clubs value players more for their commercial utility than their presence on field. Tickets are priced so high that it is almost out of reach of middle class and working class football fans. Worst of all it has made the game more predictable than ever before as the rich are getting richer by taking away from the poor clubs.

England has failed again in penalty shoot-outs at major competition. I saw Stuart Pearce, Southgate, Gareth Batty, Bechkam, Lampard, Gerrard missing from the spot. Why England is keep loosing it in the shoot-outs. What goes wrong?

The World Cup is down to eight countries as we approach the business end of the tournament. This is what happened the four quarter finals and who will be squaring off against who in the semis.

The quarterfinals are over and finally we are left with the four best teams of the competition. In last four we have Germany which has scored most number of goals, Italy which has the best goal difference in the tournament and only goal conceded is an own goal, Portugal which defeated the much fancied English and Dutch side with so much in the tank and France which has risen from the ashes of miserable group stage with resurgence of Zidane. The journey so far of these teams is an interesting tale in itself; Germans were weak in …

To my mind the last great world cup which is etched in every football fan memory is the one of 1986 in Mexico. After that we had a low scoring and boring world cup in Italy, a heat influenced world cup in USA 94, a controversial and lopsided final in 98 and a heat, fatigue and referees robbed one in Korea Japan 2002.