Viva Espana!

Spain are the World Champions!

After all the build-up the FIFA 2010 final turned out to be a slugfest that had more of WWE in it and less of the 'beautiful game'. The Dutch in all honesty should take a large part of the blame for this. The intention from the outset was to stifle the Spanish midfield and make the passing game that Spain plays so well difficult. While I have no complaints about the strategy the Dutch opted for, the execution was crude and medieval in nature. None more so, than the blatant kung-fu kick from De Jong. That should have been a straight red card.

Holland were lucky to have all 11 men on the field till the second half of extra time. Van Bommel's tackle on Iniesta would have been a straight red too on most occasions. While the jury is out on the referee role yesterday (an astonishing 14 yellow cards were handed out by Howard Webb), I think the nature of the game played by the Dutch called for some punishment (OK maybe 14 yellow cards was a bit too much). 

Finally the better team won and Iniesta's goal  was a consolation for all football lovers who had, till then witnessed a pretty boring match. The Dutch wasted two golden opportunities and Spain will have to thank Iker Casillas for denying Robben, of what seemed the best chance for the Dutch to score.

The Dutch go home once again having lost the finals and they are to me in football what South Africa is in cricket. Never been able to win when it really mattered. I never understood the Dutch tactics. It wasn't that they were a team without talent. Their midfield duo of Snjeider and Robben were equally good if not better than Xavi and Iniesta and they had a good solid defence and could have played free flowing football too. That may have dramatically increased their chance of scoring and making the finals a really 'beautiful game'.

The 3rd place playoff between Germany and Uruguay clearly demonstrated the class of football that could have been played when teams are not under the pressure of playing a final. Sadly it wasn't to be. However as a Spanish supporter, I am overjoyed with Spain's victory and they have finally buried the tag of the best team not to have won the World Cup! 

The WC has once again demonstrated the virtue of humility and dedication to the game, traits exemplified by Xavi, Iniesta and Casillas. At the beginning of the championship, the talks and headlines were all about the Rooney's, Ronaldo's and Kaka's but in the end it was the humble Spaniards that had the last laugh.

A salute is in order for Paul the Octopus too! Wonder if the German government will use his services to predict which European country will be the next to default. Hopefully Paul doesn't favor Spain again!

I as happy to read that Tomas Mueller got the golden boot award. He is surely a superstar in the making. I'm hoping clubs don't fork out gazillions for his services and make him a multi-millionaire overnight. He is still very young and the last thing he needs is too much money working its magic in a wrong way.

Lady luck continues to elude Alonso and Ferrari. I think their hunt for the drivers and constructors championships is pretty much over. Red Bull and McLaren to me are the ones that will continue to slug it out although a big blow up at RBR seems apparent sometime soon.

Now with the world cup done with, attention turns to cricket and the series at Sri Lanka, but I'm not sure too many people are going to watch this series. India and SL have played each other enough number of times to last the next 50 years. I hope the morons at the BCCI realize this and bring in someone with common sense to schedule future series!

On the work front, happy news after 2 years! I finally got a promotion and was pleasantly surprised with the hike I received. My father is working miracles from heaven! A 3 week trip to Mexico beckons but I am in no mood to travel that far to help on a project that is going to get done by the end of next month. I am fervently praying that the plan gets canceled. Sreesanth is out of the series with another injury and I am beginning to think this is the end of the road for him.

A visit to Tirupathi is on the cards and the family leaves tomorrow and I am hoping that the almighty grants us another good darshan as he always has. A new hair style also beckons as I will be shaving my head! 

After months of deliberation we finally have a new sofa for the house and we made our choice pretty quickly yesterday. Suddenly the drawing room doesn't seem to be spacious anymore. But that has been compensated by the comfort that the sofa offers. Next on the agenda for mom is a new dining table.

Books and Goals!

After a long spell of lethargy, i finally managed to revive my reading habit and as always it has resulted in me reading almost every day. Just finished reading two very fascinating books. The first one is titled Code Name God by Mani Bhaumik (apaprently the inventor of the technology behind the LASIK surgery). Mani's book examines the relationship between physics and consciousness and brilliantly describes how breakthroughs in quantum physics over the last century are proving without a doubt, the hand of God in the creation of the Universe. God here refers not to Ram, Jesus or Allah but to the collective consciousness of the universe, of the all pervading BRAHMAN that the Vedas talk about. 

For someone interested in spirituality and the mysticism of India, the book only reaffirms the wisdom of the sages and rishis of India. To think that they understood everything about creation thousands of years before we discovered quantum physics is mind numbing and sort of scary too! For anyone wanting to get their hands on a copy visit www.flipkart.com (for those in India). Speaking of Flipkart, I am totally bowled over by thier service. Absolutely awesome and they have a wide variety of books to choose from and last but not the least the shipping within India is free.Do we finally have our answer to Amazon?

The second book I just finished reading is How We Decide (got this one thru Flipkart) by Johnan Lehrer. The book describes the workings of the human brain in making choices and decisions. It is TOTALLY RECOMMENDED for anyone interested in knowing about evolution's crowning jewel - the human brain.

A copy of AJT Johnsingh's book has just arrived and judging by the size, I should be able to complete the book by the end of the evening.

I finally sat up and watched the semi final between Spain and Germany. Spain's midfield trio of Xavi, Xabi and Iniesta were totally mind blowing. The control and precision of the passing by the Spaniards did not give the Germany's any offensive room and the Die Mannschaft found itself doing defensive duties for most part of the match.I was sharing some thoughts on the match on Twitter and was surprised to see a lot of people lamenting about how 'boring' the game was. I thought the level of football played by both teams was pretty high and I admit that I did add a comment on Twitter suggesting that Spain be more attacking but given the quality of the German defence (the Germans were physically towering over the Spaniards, more like The Great Khali vs Hornswoggle. OK I was kidding!) Spain played a very tactically good game and a large part of the credit must go to Xavi and Iniesta - Generals in the Spanish Armada for sure. Credit should also be given to Vincente Del Bosque, who is known in footballing circles as being a master tactician and someone how puts a big emphasis of technical finesse, something amply demonstrated by Iniesta.

The finals against the Dutch will be an intriguing final and already Twitter is abound with thoughts of Mark van Bommel doing his best to get rid of Xavi :). Will be interesting to see how the Spanish defence handles Sneijder and Robben with Sergio Ramos almost never being inside his own half. Both teams have never won the Weltmeisterschaft so it will be more heart breaking for the loser. Paul, the Octopus seems to be the most sought after football pundit this world cup and I'm sure a lot of folks are waiting for the outcome of Pauls next decision. I, for one am rooting for Spain but may the best team win! (Yeah cliched I know)

Off for sappad now and the settling down to some more reading!

Sports Mania!

June and July are totally action packed this year for the sports fan and for someone who loves sport, there is simply too much on TV these days but I am not complaining. House hunting yesterday meant that I could not watch the F-1 European Grand Prix but followed some highlights and read about the whole safety car incident and I endorse Ferrari's views on Hamilton not being penalized enough for overtaking the safety car. meanwhile Vettel to me looks like the next world champion. He is pure class behind the wheels of an F-1 car.

Speaking of class, Germany was all of it in yesterday's world cup match against England. Having said that England played like a bunch of grand daddy's on the field and if I was John Terry, I'd probably pack up my bags and go on a indefinite vacation. Thomas Mueller was fantastic as were the other young Germans. It was good old fashioned counter attacking football at its best! 

Argentina to me, look like the team to beat. Higuain and Tevez are looking solid and then you have the magician, Messi who makes even the best defenders look stupid. The game against Germany should be a cracker. 

Spain and Portugal clash in another classic encounter. I think Spain have just about enough fire-power to over come CR7 and his team. I din't like the way Brazil played against Portugal. Looked like a wrestling contest and I'm hoping Brazil play with their usual flair in their next game. For all footie fans, a visit to the website www.zonalmarking.net is a must. Splendid analysis of all on-going WC matches. They cover all the major football leagues as well. 

Dhoni and his men won the Asia Cup although I remain very skeptical about our chances in the World Cup next year.  We simply don't have a bowling punch to restrict teams that bat deep like Australia and England and I don't see a Zaheer Khan emerging for us over the next year. Nehra is always good when his rhythm is good and the conditions helpful but I don't think the pitches in India are going to favor him. And while I am on the topic of cricket, I must make a humble request to the morons from the BCCI who do all the cricket planning. No more Sri Lanka-India series please! At least for another 5 years! Speaking of the BCCI morons, the selectors have picked Yuvraj Singh for the test squad. Why was he dropped in the first place?  Does he have his form or fitness back so soon? Rohit Sharma merits a place instead but the wise men of Indian cricket always have it in them to make the such awful decisions. Must part of the the job description!

Valentino Rossi's chances of another world title are down the drain after his horror crash in Mugello. Good news however is that he plans to be back in action at the Czech Grand Prix in Bruno. I'm only hoping that the Doctor doesn't carry the mental scars of the crash with him to the race track.

Wimbledon season is here too and surprisingly both Federer and Nadal have struggled through to the round of 16 and the questions over Nadal's fitness are making the rounds once more after he received treatment in the last match. Soderling looks dangerous and the way Nadal's playing I dont give him much of a chance against Soderling. I'm praying that I'm wrong!

Nothing much happening at work. I am off to Trivandrum this week to attend a childhood friends wedding. Will be seeing his mom and dad after 12 or 14 years. Really looking forward to it! 

Meanwhile the hunt to buy a house continues and the a good property at a reasonable price continues to evade us. We came across a nice one yesterday but the vaastu of the place seems to be totally haywire and the family has rejected this. Let's see what the almighty has in store for us.