After a gap of a few decades, we watched the Football World Cup final.
It was Spain vs Netherlands.
Spain took the cup in the second 15-minute overtime but the match itself wasn’t very exciting.
Rather ho-hum.
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Right.
The final was ho-hum.
To borrow a famous phrase, “there was only one team that was trying to play
football on the pitch.” The other was intent more on kicking the opposition players
than the ball.
The Dutch delivered a lot of “free kicks” to the Spanish, and in return the referee
awarded a lot of free-kicks to the Spanish.
The Dutch were successful in disrupting Spain’s rhythm, or rather, in not letting them
settle down. But Spain eventually got the better of the Dutch tactics.
I have watched six world cup finals (1990 and onwards), and barring 1998, and to some
extent, 2002, the others have been cagey affairs. Looks like, with the biggest prize at stake, both sides adopt a safety-first approach, and as a result, the tournament finals is rarely the best match of the tournament. That honour usually goes to a semifinal
(Eng Vs Ger in 1990, Ger Vs Italy in 2006 and Ger Vs Spain in 2010).
No wonder the Germans are in it always, because they never know when they are
beaten.
Like all winners, Spain have had luck on their side when they needed them most.
Now, I am not saying that Spain were plain lucky to win the cup, just that they needed
that bit of luck and they cashed in on it. The luck I am talking here is of the “Match Point”
variety (Woody Allen’s movie, that is).
Did you spot Nelson Mandela among the guests ?
Looks like he did not stay for the entire length of the match.
In the movie Invictus, the captain of SA’s rugby team is one Francois Pienaar.
Incidentally SA’s football team (which beat France but crashed out in the first round)
is captained by Steven Pienaar.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: Did you spot Nelson Mandela among the guests? Looks like he did not stay for the entire length of the match.
Yes, we saw Mandela doing the rounds in the cart before the match started. He left early though and the talking heads on TV said he was going home and would watch it on the telly.
BTW, there’s been some chatter on the net that Mandela is senile. If true, it wouldn’t be surprising for the man is in his nineties.
2. Before the match, when we were asked to predict the winner we didn’t dare pick up the gauntlet.
But sometime in the second half we started getting the feeling that the Spaniards would take home the cup.
3. The only excitement today was in the couple of misses.
It was a very horrible game.
I got a severe headache after watching that game. Full of yellow cards. It was terrible.
Had to cool off with a bottle of merlot 🙂 after that game.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Fortunately for us, we had so much Jägermeister before and during the game that we kept nodding off. 😉
Congrats Spain for winning the world cup. They lost to Switzerland in their first round match. After that it has been a rollercoaster ride. Do you know US football team defeated Spain 2-0 in the Fifa confederation cup semifinals last year ending Spain’s 15 match winning streak. US lost to Brazil in the final 3-2 after leading 2-0 in half time.
Will India qualify for Fifa world cup at least once in our life time.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You Write Above: Will India qualify for Fifa world cup at least once in our life time.
The chutiyas have no chance. 🙁
fresh reviewers are saying inception is brilliant and socerers apprentice is a stupid movie,so i’ excited and waiting for s.i review!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
OMG, Nicolas Cage’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice has got just 13% rating on RT.
Beyond horrible.
Inception gets an unf*cking believable 94%.
Will likely watch both.
Well, I guess Kites got 84%. Now that’s unf*cking believable 🙁
I think you should watch both to see for yourself. Inception looks better though, goin by the trailers.
Btw, Watched Sherlock Holmes yesterday(actually, about one and a half hours of it. Will watch the remaining part of the movie today). I never thought the movie would be so fast paced and humorous.
About the worldcup, an octopus Paul has predicted so accurately, the winners of all the matches till now. It rightly predicted who makes it to the finals and who would get the cup. Unbelievable. Much more than just coincidence don’t you think?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You Write Above: About the worldcup, an octopus Paul has predicted so accurately….Much more than just coincidence don’t you think?
We’re sure if you look hard enough there’ll be some Holy Cow in India that can do better than Paul. 😉
off-topic:
@SI:
This news article SCREAMS for an Incredible India post. A Jodhpur hospital, which gained notoriety in February for infecting neighbourhood children with AIDS, continues its killing spree unchecked. Now it has infected several more children with AIDS, hepatitis and who knows what else? 🙁
Check this out.
The February incident.
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/02/10/jodhpur-hospital-injects-kids-with-hiv-blood.html
The tragedy continues to unfold.
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/jodhpur-hospital-continues-to-spread-hiv-among-children-37068?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ndtv%2FLsgd+%28NDTV+News+-+India%29
If you ever get caught in an accident in India and need blood transfusions, may God have mercy on you. The blood in the bottle is deadlier than the sewage on the roadsides, and that’s saying something.
One wonders whether this is just the tip of an iceberg whose full magnitude may never come to light.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Just read both piece in your above links.
Horrifying.
In a little while, we’ll do an Incredible India post on these Killer Hospitals.
It feels somewhat awkward to introduce to a OMG-this-is-the-ultimate-hilarious-spoof soon after telling you about the killer hospitals but you just have to read this. I was laughing so much my stomach started hurting.
http://kbalakumar.com/2010/07/09/another-epic-from-mani-ratnam/
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Read it.
Do we detect your voice in the post or in one of the comments.
Just asking. 😉
read this in ‘vadapalani talk’, a newspaper local to vadapalani.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
What bout Cooum Talk, surely the most popular daily in all of Chennai. 😉
think this blog is by the same person., writes a regular column.
the paper is free.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
OK.