King Fed!

Did anyone think old Fed was losing his way?? Well then, you're wrong!
Whatever you say, he still rules the court. Of course I was kind of irritated when he steamrolled A-rod 6-4 6-0 6-2.... being a Roddick fan. But for him, someone said "Revenge is sweet". The Ace of Grace wasted no time in finishing off the 6th seed. His game was superb. This was in the Semis. The result was almost inevitable, Federer winning the Aussie Open yet again (his tenth Grand Slam Title). The first set was aamzing with both players stretching themselves to their limits. Federer got broken once.. he immediately broke back in the next game though(now.. that's not the first time we've seen that with Fed). He took complete command of the tie breaker winning it 7-2.

Gonzalez seemed to have run out of steam after the first set. The final result was Federer winning 7-6(2) 6-4 6-4. During the presentation, (unfortunately u could say) he didn't start crying! Well, at least the emotional side of him shows how human he is.. even with all the machine like consistency and results of his. Last time, I vividly recall him getting emotional. Poor Baghdatis must've been wondering what happened.

I've been posting more about Roger than about anybody eles.. even though he isn't my favorite. I guess that's because everyone knows what is going to happen... and well...WHY couldn't Roddick leave the Exhibition match and go for this one!!!!!!

Interview with A-rod

Here's an interview with a-rod taken after the match...

Q. How important was that win today over Roger?

A. I don't know. As I said yesterday, I'm not going to come in here-I think it needs to be done on a big stage...........

To continue reading
AAMI Classic : Andy Roddick, 13 Jan 2007

A Reversal of Roles

Hey everyone (everyone?!.. well... anyone who's visited my blog in the past two months)

I'm kind of getting bored- don't have much time- spend most of my time doing brain dead activities.. so I thought I'd get back to what i used to call my "passion"- blogging.

There are too many things to tell that have happened in the past three months.. United are playing AMAZING in the premier league and the shock of the ... um.. let's say.. millenium!?

ANDY RODDICK BEAT ROGER FEDERER

And the scoreline: 6-3 2-6 6-3

The match was supposedly amazing... pity they didn't show it on t.v. The Aussie Open starting tomorrow... with Roddick and Safin finding themselves in the top half of the draw well good old Federer on top as usual. Anyway.. I hope i'll be more regular now.Have fun.. :P

And there goes United again!

Well, well... If you thought everything was going on well for United, think again. They suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to SOUTHEND of all teams, placed some 43 places below them. Here's the video of Southend's only goal, which sent United crashing out of the Carling Cup.

Anyway, They are a clear 3 points ahead of Chelsea, with a match against Blackburn this Saturday. Hopefully United will consolidate that lead of theirs!

To get a preview of todays match:
SAF is set to name an unchanged team as United travel to Blackburn for Saturday's tea-time clash..........

More Posts Later!

Dussehra and Diwali (It's a late Post)

Welcome back. Well.. with my Dussehra holidays coming to an end, I begin posting. I've sort of been a bit too lazy through out, but let me tell you the legend behind Dussehra and then follow up with the latest in sports(I've got a lot to cover. I know!).

During this time(around October), we get what we call "Puja holidays". There are ten days... The first one being Mahalaya and the last one being Dussehra. The festival of nine nights and nine days before Vijay Dashmi or Dussehra during these ten days, in Sanskrit are termed as "Navaratri".
I don't know why I'm posting all this after its over.. but anyway another IMPORTANT Indian festival "Deepavali", commonly known as Diwali is comin' up soon. So more hols.. Yaay!

Anyway.. forgetting festivals for a while, lets come back to my favourite topic!
Sports.....
aaand heres this week's headlines:

• In soccer, Manchester United take the lead , in the Premiership table, edging Chelsea on Goal difference. But the Chelsea match was CRAZY - both the keepers, Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini getting hospitalised. To continue reading what happened go to this link.
• With Schumi's last race ever coming closer, let's all just hope Renault messes things up. There's this really interesting story on how the Star Power will decline after Schumi retires. Bad news is no Star to replace Michael.
• And Wow.. what a close match it was between Roddick and Gonzalez in Austria. Gonzalez edged through in a third set tie breaker.
  

Oh well... thats it i guess... I hope I'll be more regular later on... And plus I have loads of work to do. I'm planning to make my own template soon. When that'll work out I don't know.

I am Baaack!!

Well....At one point last month i was considering closing my blog for good! But I didn't!
Anyway- School Rocks!!(for a change)

There's lots.... and when I say Lots I mean TONS of awesome stuff going on in the Sporting World... Including:
Connors coaching Andy Roddick
Van Nistelrooy moving to Madrid

And Of course.... Loads more...
Talking about Andy Roddick... Sad to see the former World No. 1, ace-hitter Roddick at no.10 right now.... I felt he played really well against James Blake at the Indianapolis final...but then.. I guess he didn't have much of a chance...... then again he isn't the greatest of players.. Hopefully he'll come back strong at Flushing Meadows..

Aaand... Ruud Van Nistelrooy finally decided to switch over to Real Madrid... After the atrocious end to his 2005-06 Premiership season he decided to make this move.. He basically had a row with old Fergie.. it looked similar to Becks' row wid him... anyway- they are team mates now... not much for Real Madrid to worry about..one more star to their star studded team!!


Thats it i guess... for now atleast.. I'll be back in a few dyas time...Hasta la Vista!

A Long Break

Hey everyone,
I'm back after a long break. lol. I had a lot of fun. School's re-opened. I'm in my new school now.... it's awesome really. Getting back to the news~~Chelsea sign Shevchenko, Nadal and Federer keep it going for a Roland Garros Final, There's the WORLD CUP in seven days, um....Alonso won the Monaco GP.... well.... that was long ago and Schumacher was stripped of his pole, India lost the ODI series 4-1 against the Windies, Miami Heat enter the NBA finals!!!!

Um... I really don't know whats gonna happen at the World Cup!!! Let me see: I'm a Brazil, Cote d'Ivoire and um.. England supporter. But hopefully Brazil will win for the "sechs" time. We already know about England and the Wayne Rooney injury. I think the Ivory Coast a.k.a Cote d'Ivoire is a good soccer team, even if it is qualifying for the first time. The Cote d'Ivoire squad includes Didier Drogba, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue.

Did you Know??
This Football World Cup's "Group of Death" is Group C. This Group includes:
Argentina, Netherlands, Cote d'Ivoire and Serbia & Montenegro.

To continue reading visit: SR-Soccer.com

Other sources: Cote d'Ivoire WC blog

No Posts!

Hey everyone!
Lots of things going on in Soccer and tennis, but no posts. Actually I'm going to be pretty busy for a while now. So there won't be any posts coming up soon.

By the way,the link "nikki's site" is shaping up really well. Visit it and enjoy!

Sorry for the irregularity.

The Red Devil,
Blog Administrator

"The Nations Unleashed" (Part 3)

Sorry I haven't written a post this week. I've been pretty busy actually. I'm going to a new school called National Public School. It's supposed to be the best in Bangalore. Anyway, I don't think I'll have much time for posts soon- school is re-opening on June 2. I've been spending more time surfing the net and found some hilarious instances. Here are some BBC guidelines for the World Cup commentators:

1. Within one minute of kick off in the opening match (Germany vs. Costa Rica) of the world cup, the commentators must mention England.
2. The commentator should refer to Falkland Isles in passing at some point in the match if England play Argentina.

For more BBC Guidelines, visit : The Site of Doom.

Coming back to the World Cup, I'll forget the other top seeds for a few more days and have a look at some of the underdogs. There are a lot of surprise finalists and first time qualifiers this time. These include Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Ukraine and Trinidad & Tobago. I'll begin with Ukraine, the highest seeded first time qualifier[26].

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, he Ukraine National football team played its first match as Ukraine against Hungary on April 29, 1992. Despite having one of the best players in the world, Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine has failed to qualify in any major event till 2005. There are 6 players named Andriy, the most famous being Shevchenko. the others are Rusol, Nesmachny, Husin, Voronin and Vorbei. Let me give you a factfile on Andriy Shevcheko, Ukrainian Captain and AC Milan Striker.

FACTFILE

• Andriy Shevchenko, nicknamed "Sheva" started his career with Ukrainian club, Dynamo Kyiv in 1994.
• He was named the European Footballer of the year in 2004.
• He was a boxer before he switched to soccer.
• He is the first ever Ukrainian player to win the Champions League.
• In November 2005, in the second rnd of the CL, he scored all 4 times in AC Milans 4-0 whitewashing of Turkish side Fenerbahce. He became only the 5th man in the history of the Champions League to do so.
• Brazilian Legend Pele has named him in his Top 125 living football players.
  

I was going through many soccer blogs the other day. To get more info and tidbits on other countries and players, I suggest you visit the following links:
Deadspin
Ukraine national football team (wikipedia version)

The FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League

Let's take a short break from the World Cup and check up the latest news in the FA Cup and the Champions League.

Hmmm....In the most prestigious English Cup, The FA Cup , Liverpool beat West Ham United 3-3(3-1 on penalties). It was an amazing match. Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard scored an unofficial hat-trick and guided them to victory. Stevie-G saved the Reds from embarrasment twice in the actual match and once by scoring in the Penalty Shoot Out. The Reds were trailing the Hammers 2-0 at one stage, when Djibril Cisse came up with a brilliant goal just before half time and after that Stevie-G took the game away from the hammers. On the whole it was a nice, neat game and nothing like the previous year's final.

In the Champions League, well... many would say its a battle between Ronaldinho and Henry. Barcelona are no doubt the more superior team, but Arsenal's comeback in the English league and the Champions League has been amazing. They finished fourth in the Premiership, which means they don't have to WIN the Champions League to secure a berth next season. The Final is coming up on the 17th of this month, and I'll be up and awake watching it till 3 a.m.(IST).

This was just a small post to give you people and idea of what is going on elsewhere in football, 'coz I'm suddenly obesessed with the World Cup. Anyway, more posts later.