The newest "fresh love story" from Bollywood was released on Friday -- Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (Whether you know it or not).
Aamir Khan's nephew Imran Khan makes his full debut in a film that on surface contains a rehashed Bollywood story about best friends falling in love. But the film has been getting really good buzz and I am looking forward to seeing it. Also A.R Rahman's music is just refresing with the Aditi... song a pleasant summer breeze.
And then there is the fun song and video Pappu can't dance.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Thursday, July 03, 2008
1 Guy, 3 women, beautiful locales...
And that is Bollywood in a nutshell. If Hollywood has its summer blockbusters, then Bollywood won't be the same without its big banner films, complete with romantic stories in picturesque locations.
And Ranbir Kapoor's new film trailer, Bachna Ae Haseeno, does show the best sides of Venice and the Australian beaches. I truly love the first trailer, partly because of the smart remix of the classic old Indian song Bachna Ae Haseeno and the spliced images of the beaches, Venice and ahem, the film cast. Can the film live up to the trailer? For now, I just want to enjoy this short clip and not worry about the film's fortunes.
Quick summary of Trailer 1:
A guy. Hot sun. Beach. Snow. Solo Traveler, facing the sun and ready to go out in the world. Women. Let the chase begin. A girl in a soccer net. A fling here. A fling there. Another beach. And then there is always Venice, eternal love? Nah. Onto the next fling.
Trailer 2:
Having seen enough Bollywood films and judging by the trailer (and the title), this is how the characters appear to stack up:
1) Ranbir Kapoor -- clearly playing a free spirit who can't stop falling for women in general. His character effortlessly flirts with women so much so that it is second nature to him.
2) Minissha Lamba -- playing the cute and sweet girl next door. The scenes where she is swinging in the soccer net and running through the market are probably for a song where she is expressing her new found feelings of love for Ranbir's character.
3) Bipasha Basu -- as usual playing the sultry woman who guys cheat on their loved ones with. She may even be married and Ranbir's character is taking risks with this one.
4) Deepika Padukone -- hard to tell. So I am guessing she must either fall in between the two other women or she could be the one playing the guy?
We know how these films end right? The guy goes for the sweet innocent love so Bipasha's character ending with Ranbir's character is out of the question. But what if a fourth woman shows up at the end? I guess the ending is one I might have to wait to find out.
And Ranbir Kapoor's new film trailer, Bachna Ae Haseeno, does show the best sides of Venice and the Australian beaches. I truly love the first trailer, partly because of the smart remix of the classic old Indian song Bachna Ae Haseeno and the spliced images of the beaches, Venice and ahem, the film cast. Can the film live up to the trailer? For now, I just want to enjoy this short clip and not worry about the film's fortunes.
Quick summary of Trailer 1:
A guy. Hot sun. Beach. Snow. Solo Traveler, facing the sun and ready to go out in the world. Women. Let the chase begin. A girl in a soccer net. A fling here. A fling there. Another beach. And then there is always Venice, eternal love? Nah. Onto the next fling.
Trailer 2:
Having seen enough Bollywood films and judging by the trailer (and the title), this is how the characters appear to stack up:
1) Ranbir Kapoor -- clearly playing a free spirit who can't stop falling for women in general. His character effortlessly flirts with women so much so that it is second nature to him.
2) Minissha Lamba -- playing the cute and sweet girl next door. The scenes where she is swinging in the soccer net and running through the market are probably for a song where she is expressing her new found feelings of love for Ranbir's character.
3) Bipasha Basu -- as usual playing the sultry woman who guys cheat on their loved ones with. She may even be married and Ranbir's character is taking risks with this one.
4) Deepika Padukone -- hard to tell. So I am guessing she must either fall in between the two other women or she could be the one playing the guy?
We know how these films end right? The guy goes for the sweet innocent love so Bipasha's character ending with Ranbir's character is out of the question. But what if a fourth woman shows up at the end? I guess the ending is one I might have to wait to find out.
When failure is an option...
History will show that on July 3, 2008 the French Soccer Federation decided that they were more than happy with keeping their national soccer team in a state of disarray. The Federation voted 18-1 in favor of keeping the current French soccer manager, Raymond Domenech, and as a result have ensured that no creativity or innovation will ever dare to invade the French soccer team. I suppose there is nothing wrong in this decision. Not every nation should aspire to greatness in soccer. Nowhere does it mandate that any country should try to play beautiful and flowing football, even if that nation has some of the best soccer players on the planet.
C'est la vie.
Once upon a time there used to be a really good soccer team from France.....and I mean once upon a long long time ago…..
notes: my catalog of Mr. Raymond's failures are painfully listed in the Euro 2008 Anatomy of failure section and in a note about his marriage proposal.
C'est la vie.
Once upon a time there used to be a really good soccer team from France.....and I mean once upon a long long time ago…..
notes: my catalog of Mr. Raymond's failures are painfully listed in the Euro 2008 Anatomy of failure section and in a note about his marriage proposal.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Three Explosive Women
Question: What do the films Day Night Day Night, The Terrorist and Dil Se have in common?
Answer: All three have female leads who are on a mission to blow themselves up for their cause.
Motives and Organizations:
Neither film clearly spells out the exact reasons and organizations the women are seeking to kill themselves for, with Day Night Day Night being the most vague of the three movies. In Santosh Sivan's The Terrorist we can guess the identity of the group which is training the terrorists because the setting of Southern India & the bombing method evokes memories of how Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber in 1991. Whereas in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se, a few background scenes gave the cause to be related to conflicts in North Eastern India.
Story:
Day Night Day Night
: The story is more interested with the character's last day before she heads to New York for her mission. We never meet the people who are directing her for this mission and even though a few of her accomplices come to meet her, they are hidden behind masks. For some reason, everyone in the film is so friendly when talking with the female suicide bomber, who is extremely polite herself in answering questions regarding the mission's execution. She is completely relaxed to go on her mission and only when she reaches New York does she show signs of weakness and nervousness. In one scene, she phones her family but does not have courage to speak on the phone. This is the only film of the three where the girl attempts to query God when she finds herself afraid and weak to carry on with her mission.
The Terrorist
: The story starts off at the training ground where Malli (Ayesha Dharker) is getting her education in killing people. She is picked to be a human bomber and we follow her as she heads to a village before she will get the call to kill the 'minister'. Along the way, she befriends a little boy and gets better acquainted with a family in the village.
Dil Se
: A love story which seeks to pierce through the surface and understand what true love is about, including the seven stages of love.
Character(s) in focus:
Day Night Day Night
: The movie stays completely focused on the female suicide bomber at all times with her accomplices hidden behind masks.
The Terrorist
: Even though the center of attention is Malli, the film includes brief screen time for a little boy she befriends, a tiny cameo for a militant boy she has a fling with, an older grandmother in a coma along with Malli's trainers (without masks).
Dil Se
: Manisha Koirala plays the suicide bomber but since Shah Rukh Khan is present in the movie, the camera clings to him quite a bit. On top of that, most people will remember this film as the debut of Preity Zinta whose bubbly character lights up the screen.
Locales:
Day Night Day Night
: Concrete jungle -- a chaotic New York city with the skyscrapers, bright lights and throng of tourists. Also there are plenty of food places for the female character to spend her last few dollars on and also to lessen her stress. A candy apple, two pretzels and a single slice of tomato are the items she feeds on. Incidentally, she gets charged 0.65 cents for a slice of tomato.
The Terrorist
: Lush Jungle -- the forests of Southern India form both the training ground for terrorists and serve as a beautiful cinematic backdrop. Since Santosh Sivan is one of the best cinematographers in Indian cinema, the background is perfect for him to capture prize shots of lotuses, dew drops on leaves, calm waters and the enchanting forests. On top of that, Sivan uses the environment as symbology to depict certain incidents in the film. For example, a lotus flower sinking in the water foreshadows the coming death of an innocent child.
Dil Se
: The entire Indian subcontinent is a backdrop for this rich musical. From the heart pounding train song of Chaiyya Chaiyya shot in Ooty (Southern India), to the Indian deserts in Western India to Kashmir in the North with key scenes taking place in the capital New Delhi. Santosh Sivan is the cinematographer of this film which was released a year before his directorial venture The Terrorist.
Background score and music:
Day Night Day Night
: Shot with a digital camera, we do not get any background score but only the sounds that echo around the character, be it in her hotel room or in the traffic jammed city.
The Terrorist
: There is a background score which attempts to raise tension and give clues about the oncoming danger but for me, the film's images were far more memorable and powerful than the music.
Dil Se
: This film's music and songs have been some of the best to come out of Bollywood in the last decade. Of course, with lyrics by Gulzar and music by A.R Rehman, the songs were sure to leave a lasting impression. But the videos do justice to the poetic lyrics. The most popular song was Chaiyya Chayyia which featured soulful vocals provided by Sukhwinder Singh & Sapna Awasti. Also the memorable video with a dazzling Malaika on top of a train has played countless times on Indian channels around the World.
Note: Spike Less used Chaiyya Chayyia in the opening credits of Inside Man.
Even though I love Chaiyya Chayyia, the song that cast a spell on me was E Ajnabi (O Stranger). I can remember quite a few rain soaked nights that I heard this song on.
Overall impressions & comments:
Even though I thought highly of the cinematography in The Terrorist, I was not impressed by how the character's decision process was simplified; Malli's decision to take her life was difficult but the emotional hooks used to ease her choice were not to my liking. In fact, I felt the emotional hooks (grandmother in a coma to name one) were typical of most Bollywood films and had no place in a much superior film structure that Sivan was trying to construct.
Although there are no easy emotional hooks in Day Night Day Night, the overall friendly tone of the film's first half seemed a bit odd to me. I can understand the intent of Day Night Day Night was to remove any political agenda and only focus on the female character but the film appears to be too light weight and more of an experiment to make a meaningful film compared to a film like Paradise Now, which was completely gripping and engaging.
My most memorable moments of Dil Se center around the songs and a few collected scenes involving the chance encounters between Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala's characters. The film was supposed to usher in a new wave of Indian film making as it was the first collaboration of heavy weights such as Mani Ratnam, Shekhar Kapur and Ram Gopal Varma. The three directors were supposed to work on more films together but after the box office failure of Dil Se, no other projects between the three took place and they all went on to more fame with their separate paths -- Kapur with Elizabeth; RGV with Satya, Company and other Mumbai underworld films; Mani Ratnam with A Peck on the Cheek, Yuva and Guru.
Answer: All three have female leads who are on a mission to blow themselves up for their cause.
Motives and Organizations:
Neither film clearly spells out the exact reasons and organizations the women are seeking to kill themselves for, with Day Night Day Night being the most vague of the three movies. In Santosh Sivan's The Terrorist we can guess the identity of the group which is training the terrorists because the setting of Southern India & the bombing method evokes memories of how Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber in 1991. Whereas in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se, a few background scenes gave the cause to be related to conflicts in North Eastern India.
Story:
: The story is more interested with the character's last day before she heads to New York for her mission. We never meet the people who are directing her for this mission and even though a few of her accomplices come to meet her, they are hidden behind masks. For some reason, everyone in the film is so friendly when talking with the female suicide bomber, who is extremely polite herself in answering questions regarding the mission's execution. She is completely relaxed to go on her mission and only when she reaches New York does she show signs of weakness and nervousness. In one scene, she phones her family but does not have courage to speak on the phone. This is the only film of the three where the girl attempts to query God when she finds herself afraid and weak to carry on with her mission.
: The story starts off at the training ground where Malli (Ayesha Dharker) is getting her education in killing people. She is picked to be a human bomber and we follow her as she heads to a village before she will get the call to kill the 'minister'. Along the way, she befriends a little boy and gets better acquainted with a family in the village.
: A love story which seeks to pierce through the surface and understand what true love is about, including the seven stages of love.
Character(s) in focus:
: The movie stays completely focused on the female suicide bomber at all times with her accomplices hidden behind masks.
: Even though the center of attention is Malli, the film includes brief screen time for a little boy she befriends, a tiny cameo for a militant boy she has a fling with, an older grandmother in a coma along with Malli's trainers (without masks).
: Manisha Koirala plays the suicide bomber but since Shah Rukh Khan is present in the movie, the camera clings to him quite a bit. On top of that, most people will remember this film as the debut of Preity Zinta whose bubbly character lights up the screen.
Locales:
: Concrete jungle -- a chaotic New York city with the skyscrapers, bright lights and throng of tourists. Also there are plenty of food places for the female character to spend her last few dollars on and also to lessen her stress. A candy apple, two pretzels and a single slice of tomato are the items she feeds on. Incidentally, she gets charged 0.65 cents for a slice of tomato.
: Lush Jungle -- the forests of Southern India form both the training ground for terrorists and serve as a beautiful cinematic backdrop. Since Santosh Sivan is one of the best cinematographers in Indian cinema, the background is perfect for him to capture prize shots of lotuses, dew drops on leaves, calm waters and the enchanting forests. On top of that, Sivan uses the environment as symbology to depict certain incidents in the film. For example, a lotus flower sinking in the water foreshadows the coming death of an innocent child.
: The entire Indian subcontinent is a backdrop for this rich musical. From the heart pounding train song of Chaiyya Chaiyya shot in Ooty (Southern India), to the Indian deserts in Western India to Kashmir in the North with key scenes taking place in the capital New Delhi. Santosh Sivan is the cinematographer of this film which was released a year before his directorial venture The Terrorist.
Background score and music:
: Shot with a digital camera, we do not get any background score but only the sounds that echo around the character, be it in her hotel room or in the traffic jammed city.
: There is a background score which attempts to raise tension and give clues about the oncoming danger but for me, the film's images were far more memorable and powerful than the music.
: This film's music and songs have been some of the best to come out of Bollywood in the last decade. Of course, with lyrics by Gulzar and music by A.R Rehman, the songs were sure to leave a lasting impression. But the videos do justice to the poetic lyrics. The most popular song was Chaiyya Chayyia which featured soulful vocals provided by Sukhwinder Singh & Sapna Awasti. Also the memorable video with a dazzling Malaika on top of a train has played countless times on Indian channels around the World.
Note: Spike Less used Chaiyya Chayyia in the opening credits of Inside Man.
Even though I love Chaiyya Chayyia, the song that cast a spell on me was E Ajnabi (O Stranger). I can remember quite a few rain soaked nights that I heard this song on.
Overall impressions & comments:
Even though I thought highly of the cinematography in The Terrorist, I was not impressed by how the character's decision process was simplified; Malli's decision to take her life was difficult but the emotional hooks used to ease her choice were not to my liking. In fact, I felt the emotional hooks (grandmother in a coma to name one) were typical of most Bollywood films and had no place in a much superior film structure that Sivan was trying to construct.
Although there are no easy emotional hooks in Day Night Day Night, the overall friendly tone of the film's first half seemed a bit odd to me. I can understand the intent of Day Night Day Night was to remove any political agenda and only focus on the female character but the film appears to be too light weight and more of an experiment to make a meaningful film compared to a film like Paradise Now, which was completely gripping and engaging.
My most memorable moments of Dil Se center around the songs and a few collected scenes involving the chance encounters between Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala's characters. The film was supposed to usher in a new wave of Indian film making as it was the first collaboration of heavy weights such as Mani Ratnam, Shekhar Kapur and Ram Gopal Varma. The three directors were supposed to work on more films together but after the box office failure of Dil Se, no other projects between the three took place and they all went on to more fame with their separate paths -- Kapur with Elizabeth; RGV with Satya, Company and other Mumbai underworld films; Mani Ratnam with A Peck on the Cheek, Yuva and Guru.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
And in other news, continued.....
If the papers can repeat like a broken record, then so can I. Two weeks ago, I posted a link to a NY Times article which as usual blamed the increasing oil prices on rising demand from China and India. Well this sunday's NY Times has another article which gets a bit creative when blaming increasing oil prices to problems in Nigeria along with sharply declining production in Mexico and slowing production in Russia, the North Sea and Venezuela, all in the face of steadily rising demand by fast-growing behemoths like China and India..
If it were not for the addition of these inventive words fast-growing behemoths.. then the article would have looked quite stale!
Graham Bowley's article has the sensational headline:
One Reason Gas Is Emptying Your Wallet: Nigeria
Wow. Really? You mean this is a new development? What about the mid 1990's when crisis in the Niger Delta caused the prices of oil to jump to $50 a barrel? Haven't things in Nigeria being in a downward turn since then? Apparently not according to Mr. Bowley because he is really concerned about the current problem.
How about the following headline?
One Reason Gas Is Emptying Your Wallet: Because you drive a gas guzzling vehicle!!
Come on Mr. Bowley, why don't you mention that? Why go on blaming the rest of the world when people all around you are wasting gas by driving gigantic behemoth vehicles!
It does seem that the editor of the NY Times section wanted to balance things out because right below Mr. Bowley's article is the following article which shows how cheap gas is in America.
I guess no one stops to think that it is quite strange that oil extracted from Canada and transported to the US is cheaper at the pumps for Americans than for Canadians who live around the oil fields. Why? Because of higher gas taxes in Canada. And errr, something about a Free Trade agreement between Canada and the USA as well...I should not mention that though...
Instead, Daniel Plainview cue music...
If it were not for the addition of these inventive words fast-growing behemoths.. then the article would have looked quite stale!
Graham Bowley's article has the sensational headline:
One Reason Gas Is Emptying Your Wallet: Nigeria
Wow. Really? You mean this is a new development? What about the mid 1990's when crisis in the Niger Delta caused the prices of oil to jump to $50 a barrel? Haven't things in Nigeria being in a downward turn since then? Apparently not according to Mr. Bowley because he is really concerned about the current problem.
How about the following headline?
One Reason Gas Is Emptying Your Wallet: Because you drive a gas guzzling vehicle!!
Come on Mr. Bowley, why don't you mention that? Why go on blaming the rest of the world when people all around you are wasting gas by driving gigantic behemoth vehicles!
It does seem that the editor of the NY Times section wanted to balance things out because right below Mr. Bowley's article is the following article which shows how cheap gas is in America.
I guess no one stops to think that it is quite strange that oil extracted from Canada and transported to the US is cheaper at the pumps for Americans than for Canadians who live around the oil fields. Why? Because of higher gas taxes in Canada. And errr, something about a Free Trade agreement between Canada and the USA as well...I should not mention that though...
Instead, Daniel Plainview cue music...
Euro 2008: Underdogs no more!!!!!
Sunday, June 29, 2008:Germany 0 - 1 Spain(Torres 33rd minute)
It was not a great final but Spain did enough to squeak by a completely inept and awful German team to win their first major tournament in 44 years. After being the pre-tournaments for a majority of the World Cups and European Champions since the mid 1990's, Spain have finally delivered a winning team. Overall, Spain went unbeaten through their 6 games, winning their groups games 4-1 vs Russia, 2-1 vs Sweden, 2-1 vs Greece followed by a penalty shoot-out win over Italy in the Quarter Finals (0-0 after 120 min, 4-2 on kicks) and a 3-0 result over Russia in the Semi's. Spanish striker David Villa, who was injured for the final, ends the tournament as top-scorer with 4 goals.
Germany on their part were nothing but drama queens. The German captain Ballack was more concerned about showing his anger at the officials and running around shouting at them and even at his team-mates. They never tested the Spanish goal-keeper and despite having all three forwards on the pitch near the end, could not even get the ball on target.
It was not a great final but Spain did enough to squeak by a completely inept and awful German team to win their first major tournament in 44 years. After being the pre-tournaments for a majority of the World Cups and European Champions since the mid 1990's, Spain have finally delivered a winning team. Overall, Spain went unbeaten through their 6 games, winning their groups games 4-1 vs Russia, 2-1 vs Sweden, 2-1 vs Greece followed by a penalty shoot-out win over Italy in the Quarter Finals (0-0 after 120 min, 4-2 on kicks) and a 3-0 result over Russia in the Semi's. Spanish striker David Villa, who was injured for the final, ends the tournament as top-scorer with 4 goals.
Germany on their part were nothing but drama queens. The German captain Ballack was more concerned about showing his anger at the officials and running around shouting at them and even at his team-mates. They never tested the Spanish goal-keeper and despite having all three forwards on the pitch near the end, could not even get the ball on target.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Euro 2008: Films vs Football
With Italy getting knocked out by Spain on penalties in the Quarter-Finals, my Euro 2008 prediction is gone out the window. I had predicted Italy to beat Germany in the final with Portugal and France also making the semi's. As it stands, only Germany has made the semi's from my predicted four teams, with Germany standing a great chance to make the final.
So now is a good time as any to compare the Euro 2008 Film Festival results with the soccer games.
Films vs Football Comparison:
Only three countries had both their films and soccer teams advance to the quarter finals. Portugal and Spain won their respective groups in both cases with Germany finishing second in both Euro 2008 and the film festival. Interestingly, the winners of Group B, C and D in both cases ended up with a rating of 9 -- 9/10 for the film festival, and 9 points (or 3 straight wins) in the soccer tournament.
Only one quarter final was similar for both the film and soccer tournament with the same outcome, Germany winning on both counts. Spain also triumphed in both film and soccer results.
Soccer Film Festival Final:
Score: Poland 3 (Acting, Story, Cinematography) - 3 Romania (Acting, Story, Direction)
Winner: Romania (12:08 East of Bucharest), on a subjective penalty shoot-out.
Euro 2008: Semi's overlook
I would honestly prefer a Turkey vs Russia soccer final as both teams provided some of the best soccer memories during this tournament. Russia have played the best football of the tournament in their perfect demolition of Holland and Sweden in their last two games. Turkey on the other hand have provided the best drama of any team with three late thrillers. Turkey stunned the hosts Switzerland with a last gasp winner and followed that with 2 goals in the final few minutes to dump Czech Republic out of the tournament. But Turkey saved the biggest drama against Croatia in the Quarters. After Croatia scored what looked like a winning goal in the 118th minute, Turkey shocked everyone by tying the game up with a few seconds left on the clock. Croatia were in such a state of shock that they could not even put away their penalties and were easily brushed aside in the shoot out.
However, Turkey is missing quite a few players via injury and suspensions for their semi-final encounter against Germany. I am not sure where a Turkish goal will come from with the absence of Nihat, Tuncay Şanli and Arda Turan. On top of that Turkey might struggle to fill the bench with enough substitutes so it will be a very tough job for their wafer thin squad. I cannot look at the German team without thinking of their cheating ways. Against Portugal, the third German goal was illegal as Ballack pushed Paulo Ferreira out of the way before heading Germany's third goal. But the officials did not see the offense and the goal was allowed to stand. On top of that, Christoph Metzelder and Ballack faked their dives and injuries against Portugal. Everytime I saw the bearded Metzelder and Ballack, I could not avoid seeing the huge CHEAT sign hanging over their heads. If Germany were that good, then why did some of their players (including their captain) need to cheat? Unfortunately, Germany might still stumble into the final due to the absent Turkish players rather than any brilliance on part of the German players. Nonetheless, it will be an emotional match with plenty of Turkish neighbourhoods across Germany tuned in.
I am looking forward to the Spain - Russia game. I believe the first game between the two (Spain won 4-1 in the Group D game) can easily be ignored as the Russian defense was nervous and the team had no attacking bite. With the return of Arshavin, Russia is a completely different team altogether. Spain showed their shortcomings against Italy when a tactically clueless Italian team were successfully able to neutralize a talented Spanish side. The Italians were awful and one-dimensional; in every attack they only looked for Toni who was ineffective. On top of that, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni was unable to make any relevant changes and deprived the opportunity to inject some pace into a lethargic Italian team by not giving any chances to Quagliarella or Borriello. So the second semi-final will come down to a battle of wits with the two coaches (Guus Hiddink vs Luis Aragonés). If Russia can stop Xavi, Cesc (provided he starts) and Iniesta in the Spanish mid-field, then David Villa and Torres will be unable to inflict any damage. On the other hand, if Spain can somehow control Arshavin, then Russia will be done. For now, I am backing Russia to advance.
What If......
What if Eduardo was not injured for Croatia? Then Croatia would not have needed extra-time to beat Turkey!
What if I had gone with my original Turkish film selection of Climates by Nuri Bilge Ceylan? Well then Turkey would have won the Euro 2008 Film festival!! Even though I gave Climates a rating of 9/10, its beautiful cinematography would have been enough for it to have edged the German, Polish and Romanian films. Unfortunately, Climates was not available back in Feb-March and I could not risk waiting until June to see the last remaining film festival selection.
And finally......
Overall, the soccer at Euro 2008 has been much better than the entire Euro 2004 & 2002 World Cup combined; Russia's 3-1 win over Holland is clearly the best international game I have seen in quite a few years. I enjoyed the 2006 World Cup as there were some lovely moments (Argentina's 24 pass goal against Serbia, Italy fielding 4 strikers against Germany in the semi's and France's neutralization of Brazil to name a few) so I cannot say that Euro 2008 is better than the 2006 World Cup but after a few dull opening days, Euro 2008 certainly kicked into life.
[Update: Wed, June 25, 2008]
As expected Germany reached the final of Euro 2008 with a 3-2 win over Turkey. But going by the 90 minute match, it was indeed a surprizing result as Turkey took the game to Germany. The make shift Turkish team shackled Germany and rendered them ineffective for a majority of the game until a late goal send Germany through. Turkey started the tournament by giving up a late second goal to Portugal but for the next three games, it was Turkey who scored the late goals. On Wed, after Klose had headed Germany into a 2-1 lead, Turkey tied things up with 4 minutes left on the clock. But the fairy tale came to an end as Lahm ended a neat passing move to score the late winner. Overall, Turkey played quite well and deserved to make the final.
Note: The Klose goal was one that the entire world missed as a power outage in Basel took down all the satellite feeds.
[Update: Thu, June 26, 2008]
Russia 0 - 3 Spain
For now, I am backing Russia to advance.
Ha Ha. Shows how much I know. But then I also said...
If Russia can stop Xavi, Cesc (provided he starts) and Iniesta in the Spanish mid-field, then David Villa and Torres will be unable to inflict any damage. On the other hand, if Spain can somehow control Arshavin, then Russia will be done.
Obviously, Russia could not stop Cesc. Even though Mr. Aragonés, the Spanish coach, really wanted to hold Cesc back and only he knows why. So when Villa got injured, Aragonés brought on Cesc. But what if Villa was not injured? Would Cesc have come on? Sometimes, we never will know.
So the final is between Germany and Spain, the two teams picked by a majority of journalists & soccer pundits to win the tournament. Germany was an easy pick to reach the final as they had no real competition from their side of the draw. Portugal didn't count because as long as they had Big Phil as their coach, they would never win anything. Yes I know Scolari won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 but that was because none of the other teams gave a damn back in 2002, except Korea. The real tough draw was between Group C and Group D, where the likes of France, Italy, Holland and Spain would have battled it out. France were never a threat because their coach had his girlfriend in mind, Italy were too much in love with Toni to bother passing the ball to anyone else and Holland were in denial that Russia was playing the Dutch way of football to bother trying. So all Spain had to do was survive a clueless Italian team and then let Cesc do what he does best against Russia. Ofcourse, the Spanish plan involved an injury to David Villa and only then could Cesc come on. Simple really.
So now is a good time as any to compare the Euro 2008 Film Festival results with the soccer games.
Films vs Football Comparison:
Only three countries had both their films and soccer teams advance to the quarter finals. Portugal and Spain won their respective groups in both cases with Germany finishing second in both Euro 2008 and the film festival. Interestingly, the winners of Group B, C and D in both cases ended up with a rating of 9 -- 9/10 for the film festival, and 9 points (or 3 straight wins) in the soccer tournament.
Only one quarter final was similar for both the film and soccer tournament with the same outcome, Germany winning on both counts. Spain also triumphed in both film and soccer results.
Soccer Film Festival Final:
Score: Poland 3 (Acting, Story, Cinematography) - 3 Romania (Acting, Story, Direction)
Winner: Romania (12:08 East of Bucharest), on a subjective penalty shoot-out.
Euro 2008: Semi's overlook
I would honestly prefer a Turkey vs Russia soccer final as both teams provided some of the best soccer memories during this tournament. Russia have played the best football of the tournament in their perfect demolition of Holland and Sweden in their last two games. Turkey on the other hand have provided the best drama of any team with three late thrillers. Turkey stunned the hosts Switzerland with a last gasp winner and followed that with 2 goals in the final few minutes to dump Czech Republic out of the tournament. But Turkey saved the biggest drama against Croatia in the Quarters. After Croatia scored what looked like a winning goal in the 118th minute, Turkey shocked everyone by tying the game up with a few seconds left on the clock. Croatia were in such a state of shock that they could not even put away their penalties and were easily brushed aside in the shoot out.
However, Turkey is missing quite a few players via injury and suspensions for their semi-final encounter against Germany. I am not sure where a Turkish goal will come from with the absence of Nihat, Tuncay Şanli and Arda Turan. On top of that Turkey might struggle to fill the bench with enough substitutes so it will be a very tough job for their wafer thin squad. I cannot look at the German team without thinking of their cheating ways. Against Portugal, the third German goal was illegal as Ballack pushed Paulo Ferreira out of the way before heading Germany's third goal. But the officials did not see the offense and the goal was allowed to stand. On top of that, Christoph Metzelder and Ballack faked their dives and injuries against Portugal. Everytime I saw the bearded Metzelder and Ballack, I could not avoid seeing the huge CHEAT sign hanging over their heads. If Germany were that good, then why did some of their players (including their captain) need to cheat? Unfortunately, Germany might still stumble into the final due to the absent Turkish players rather than any brilliance on part of the German players. Nonetheless, it will be an emotional match with plenty of Turkish neighbourhoods across Germany tuned in.
I am looking forward to the Spain - Russia game. I believe the first game between the two (Spain won 4-1 in the Group D game) can easily be ignored as the Russian defense was nervous and the team had no attacking bite. With the return of Arshavin, Russia is a completely different team altogether. Spain showed their shortcomings against Italy when a tactically clueless Italian team were successfully able to neutralize a talented Spanish side. The Italians were awful and one-dimensional; in every attack they only looked for Toni who was ineffective. On top of that, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni was unable to make any relevant changes and deprived the opportunity to inject some pace into a lethargic Italian team by not giving any chances to Quagliarella or Borriello. So the second semi-final will come down to a battle of wits with the two coaches (Guus Hiddink vs Luis Aragonés). If Russia can stop Xavi, Cesc (provided he starts) and Iniesta in the Spanish mid-field, then David Villa and Torres will be unable to inflict any damage. On the other hand, if Spain can somehow control Arshavin, then Russia will be done. For now, I am backing Russia to advance.
What If......
What if Eduardo was not injured for Croatia? Then Croatia would not have needed extra-time to beat Turkey!
What if I had gone with my original Turkish film selection of Climates by Nuri Bilge Ceylan? Well then Turkey would have won the Euro 2008 Film festival!! Even though I gave Climates a rating of 9/10, its beautiful cinematography would have been enough for it to have edged the German, Polish and Romanian films. Unfortunately, Climates was not available back in Feb-March and I could not risk waiting until June to see the last remaining film festival selection.
And finally......
Overall, the soccer at Euro 2008 has been much better than the entire Euro 2004 & 2002 World Cup combined; Russia's 3-1 win over Holland is clearly the best international game I have seen in quite a few years. I enjoyed the 2006 World Cup as there were some lovely moments (Argentina's 24 pass goal against Serbia, Italy fielding 4 strikers against Germany in the semi's and France's neutralization of Brazil to name a few) so I cannot say that Euro 2008 is better than the 2006 World Cup but after a few dull opening days, Euro 2008 certainly kicked into life.
[Update: Wed, June 25, 2008]
As expected Germany reached the final of Euro 2008 with a 3-2 win over Turkey. But going by the 90 minute match, it was indeed a surprizing result as Turkey took the game to Germany. The make shift Turkish team shackled Germany and rendered them ineffective for a majority of the game until a late goal send Germany through. Turkey started the tournament by giving up a late second goal to Portugal but for the next three games, it was Turkey who scored the late goals. On Wed, after Klose had headed Germany into a 2-1 lead, Turkey tied things up with 4 minutes left on the clock. But the fairy tale came to an end as Lahm ended a neat passing move to score the late winner. Overall, Turkey played quite well and deserved to make the final.
Note: The Klose goal was one that the entire world missed as a power outage in Basel took down all the satellite feeds.
[Update: Thu, June 26, 2008]
For now, I am backing Russia to advance.
Ha Ha. Shows how much I know. But then I also said...
If Russia can stop Xavi, Cesc (provided he starts) and Iniesta in the Spanish mid-field, then David Villa and Torres will be unable to inflict any damage. On the other hand, if Spain can somehow control Arshavin, then Russia will be done.
Obviously, Russia could not stop Cesc. Even though Mr. Aragonés, the Spanish coach, really wanted to hold Cesc back and only he knows why. So when Villa got injured, Aragonés brought on Cesc. But what if Villa was not injured? Would Cesc have come on? Sometimes, we never will know.
So the final is between Germany and Spain, the two teams picked by a majority of journalists & soccer pundits to win the tournament. Germany was an easy pick to reach the final as they had no real competition from their side of the draw. Portugal didn't count because as long as they had Big Phil as their coach, they would never win anything. Yes I know Scolari won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 but that was because none of the other teams gave a damn back in 2002, except Korea. The real tough draw was between Group C and Group D, where the likes of France, Italy, Holland and Spain would have battled it out. France were never a threat because their coach had his girlfriend in mind, Italy were too much in love with Toni to bother passing the ball to anyone else and Holland were in denial that Russia was playing the Dutch way of football to bother trying. So all Spain had to do was survive a clueless Italian team and then let Cesc do what he does best against Russia. Ofcourse, the Spanish plan involved an injury to David Villa and only then could Cesc come on. Simple really.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
French Stereotypes
It is good to know that there are two men out there who are reaffirming the romantic stereotype normally associated with Frenchmen.
El Presidente: In the last few months, there have been more articles written about French president Nicolas Sarkozy's wife than about his policies. A month ago, Doug Saunders of The Globe and Mail reviewed a year in Sarkozy's life with respect to 5 women. Ofcourse, it is the 5th women in that list, his wife Carla, that has been getting all the attention. When Sarkozy went to England at the end of March, the papers gushed all over Carla. Canadian papers followed the example as well. And on Sunday, the Carla bug touched down in the NY Times.
National team manager: Then there is the strange case of Raymond Domenech. Moments after his French team got knocked out of Euro 2008, he apparently proposed to his girlfriend Estelle Denis in a television interview. A day later he tried to play the incident down but honestly, that was just bad timing.
But what is interesting is this rumour regarding Ludovic Giuly and Estelle. This is the first I have heard of it but is this a reason why Giuly was dropped from the national team? In reality, there are better players who can play instead of Giuly for France but could his sending a text message to Domenech's girlfriend have cost him a place in the French national team? Not sure. What I don't understand is why Domenech dropped Robert Pires? I have felt that Domenech has been a bit vengeful in his team selections and does not often give valid reasons. For example: why were Sagna & Clichy not at the Euros?
If the French team manager was more concerned about his girlfriend, then is it any wonder why he looked lost and unable to inspire his players? On the other hand, the French players showed no mental strength and were not at all interested in the games. Why did Thuram opt out of the final game against Italy? Were all the French players instead thinking of their women and how they would rather spend time with them on a beach somewhere rather than run around for 90 pointless minutes? We will never know.
But what is interesting is this rumour regarding Ludovic Giuly and Estelle. This is the first I have heard of it but is this a reason why Giuly was dropped from the national team? In reality, there are better players who can play instead of Giuly for France but could his sending a text message to Domenech's girlfriend have cost him a place in the French national team? Not sure. What I don't understand is why Domenech dropped Robert Pires? I have felt that Domenech has been a bit vengeful in his team selections and does not often give valid reasons. For example: why were Sagna & Clichy not at the Euros?
If the French team manager was more concerned about his girlfriend, then is it any wonder why he looked lost and unable to inspire his players? On the other hand, the French players showed no mental strength and were not at all interested in the games. Why did Thuram opt out of the final game against Italy? Were all the French players instead thinking of their women and how they would rather spend time with them on a beach somewhere rather than run around for 90 pointless minutes? We will never know.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Euro 2008: Everyone stand back, the maestro is here
He missed the first two games of Euro 2008 through suspension but since his return, Russia have been dazzling.
Andrei Arshavin is a genius! His performance against Holland in the Quarter-finals was mesmerizing. As was the entire performance of Russia; they were faster and more agile than the Dutch. Russia passed the ball nicely and tried to carve open Holland on numerious occasions while Holland were pedestrian and only threatened to score a goal via free-kicks or crosses. Holland didn't deserve to tie the game up with 4 minutes left on the clock, but not to worry. Russia ran them off the park in extra-time and deserved their 3-1 win.
Holland for all their counter-attacking football in the first two games could not manage a decent passing move in the entire 120 minutes against Russia.
A new star has arrived. Ofcourse, Zenit St. Petersburg have known that for a while as was demonstrated by Arshavin's displays in their UEFA Cup victory.
Soccer to Arshavin: Welcome. This game has needed someone like you!!
I started watching the game back in 1988/89 because of Marco Van Basten; his goals and attacking play got me hooked to soccer. But pity that 20 years on as coach of the Dutch team, he lined up a team designed to counter-attack and not attack. He has used 2 holding midfielders so far in the tournament(Orlando Engelaar, Nigel de Jong) and against Russia, he once again went with the pair along with Kuyt up front. That meant that Holland had three players who were more useful for fouling opponents as opposed to breaking down defenses with clever play. And it showed. Holland were woeful against Russia and fully deserved to go out. Against Italy and France, when the Dutch took leads, they sat back and benefitted from the desperation on part of Italy and France to get an equalizer. But today against Russia, when they needed to do the hard part themselves, Holland were clueless.
Andrei Arshavin is a genius! His performance against Holland in the Quarter-finals was mesmerizing. As was the entire performance of Russia; they were faster and more agile than the Dutch. Russia passed the ball nicely and tried to carve open Holland on numerious occasions while Holland were pedestrian and only threatened to score a goal via free-kicks or crosses. Holland didn't deserve to tie the game up with 4 minutes left on the clock, but not to worry. Russia ran them off the park in extra-time and deserved their 3-1 win.
Holland for all their counter-attacking football in the first two games could not manage a decent passing move in the entire 120 minutes against Russia.
A new star has arrived. Ofcourse, Zenit St. Petersburg have known that for a while as was demonstrated by Arshavin's displays in their UEFA Cup victory.
Soccer to Arshavin: Welcome. This game has needed someone like you!!
I started watching the game back in 1988/89 because of Marco Van Basten; his goals and attacking play got me hooked to soccer. But pity that 20 years on as coach of the Dutch team, he lined up a team designed to counter-attack and not attack. He has used 2 holding midfielders so far in the tournament(Orlando Engelaar, Nigel de Jong) and against Russia, he once again went with the pair along with Kuyt up front. That meant that Holland had three players who were more useful for fouling opponents as opposed to breaking down defenses with clever play. And it showed. Holland were woeful against Russia and fully deserved to go out. Against Italy and France, when the Dutch took leads, they sat back and benefitted from the desperation on part of Italy and France to get an equalizer. But today against Russia, when they needed to do the hard part themselves, Holland were clueless.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Imagining words through a cinematic lens
Here's an open question:
When you read a book (fiction or non-fiction) do you just read the words and absorb the essence or do you visualize the images that the words evoke? And if you form images, then how do those images get formed?
In some cases, the writer goes to the effort to allow the reader to get a sense of the book’s surroundings but in other cases, the writer may leave it up to the reader to form their own visions. It is harder to form any visual images of the surroundings if one has never been to (or is familiar with) the places being mentioned in the book. Sometimes, I have found that films fill the gap by providing images of cities that I have not visited. There have been many cities that I learned about via cinema before I actually visited the places and then found my preconceptions to be either validated or corrected.
The reason I am curious about that question is because a strange thing took place when I read Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran a few months ago. This book was on my planned reading list for a while but I kept putting it off. Before I picked up the book, I learned that Paul Greengrass would be directing a feature film based on the book. I figured this was a natural progression for Greengrass as he was advancing from pre-attack (United 93) to espionage (The Bourne Ultimatum) to post-attack (Green Zone). But what I didn't count on was that his name would distort my views while reading Chandrasekaran's words. Right from the opening pages when I read the words, I was not visualizing what Chandrasekaran intended; instead I kept seeing things as how Greengrass would shoot them in the movie. The Green Zone cafeteria suddenly presented plenty of close-up opportunities that Greengrass used in United 93 or The Bourne Ultimatum. And when Chandrasekaran left the cafeteria to go outside, well then things got even more clouded for me. I started visualizing things as per the check-point camera sequences from Brian De Palma's Redacted, a film which used plenty of hand-held camera footage.
It took a while before I could get back to reading the words and forming my own visual images as opposed to imagining where the camera would hover around each character. Strange first there!
It appears that nowadays for some popular books, the timeline between the book getting published and the film adaptation being made is getting reduced. Ofcourse, there was the case back in the early 90’s when the movie rights for John Grisham's The Firm were purchased even before the book was published. I never read the book but I did see the film. I can only imagine if the film studio had announced that Tom Cruise would be the lead before the book was printed, then that would have certainly ensured that a majority of the book’s readers visualized him while reading Grisham’s words.
Ofcourse, it is also tricky when one attempts to read a book after seeing a film version of it. If I ever pick up Upton Sinclair’s Oil! in the future, I doubt if I can shrug off the shadow of Daniel Day Lewis’s character from There Will Be Blood.
When you read a book (fiction or non-fiction) do you just read the words and absorb the essence or do you visualize the images that the words evoke? And if you form images, then how do those images get formed?
In some cases, the writer goes to the effort to allow the reader to get a sense of the book’s surroundings but in other cases, the writer may leave it up to the reader to form their own visions. It is harder to form any visual images of the surroundings if one has never been to (or is familiar with) the places being mentioned in the book. Sometimes, I have found that films fill the gap by providing images of cities that I have not visited. There have been many cities that I learned about via cinema before I actually visited the places and then found my preconceptions to be either validated or corrected.
The reason I am curious about that question is because a strange thing took place when I read Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran a few months ago. This book was on my planned reading list for a while but I kept putting it off. Before I picked up the book, I learned that Paul Greengrass would be directing a feature film based on the book. I figured this was a natural progression for Greengrass as he was advancing from pre-attack (United 93) to espionage (The Bourne Ultimatum) to post-attack (Green Zone). But what I didn't count on was that his name would distort my views while reading Chandrasekaran's words. Right from the opening pages when I read the words, I was not visualizing what Chandrasekaran intended; instead I kept seeing things as how Greengrass would shoot them in the movie. The Green Zone cafeteria suddenly presented plenty of close-up opportunities that Greengrass used in United 93 or The Bourne Ultimatum. And when Chandrasekaran left the cafeteria to go outside, well then things got even more clouded for me. I started visualizing things as per the check-point camera sequences from Brian De Palma's Redacted, a film which used plenty of hand-held camera footage.
It took a while before I could get back to reading the words and forming my own visual images as opposed to imagining where the camera would hover around each character. Strange first there!
It appears that nowadays for some popular books, the timeline between the book getting published and the film adaptation being made is getting reduced. Ofcourse, there was the case back in the early 90’s when the movie rights for John Grisham's The Firm were purchased even before the book was published. I never read the book but I did see the film. I can only imagine if the film studio had announced that Tom Cruise would be the lead before the book was printed, then that would have certainly ensured that a majority of the book’s readers visualized him while reading Grisham’s words.
Ofcourse, it is also tricky when one attempts to read a book after seeing a film version of it. If I ever pick up Upton Sinclair’s Oil! in the future, I doubt if I can shrug off the shadow of Daniel Day Lewis’s character from There Will Be Blood.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Euro 2008: Anatomy of a failure
After the final group games on Wednesday, June 18 the following are the 8 teams moving on to the Quarter-Finals:
Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and Russia.
While the following are the 8 teams going home:
Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Romania, France, Sweden, Greece.
Prior to the tournament, Austria were labeled as the worst team out of the participating 16 nations. But after the first round games, Austria have redeemed themselves as they were far from the worst team. The worst teams in terms of points and goal difference are:
Note: GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Difference
Greece: The 2004 Fairy tale finally comes to an end
Back in Euro 2004, Greece were drawn in Group A along with hosts Portugal, Spain and Russia. Greece stunned the hosts Portugal with an opening day 2-1 win and followed that with a 1-1 tie against Spain before a 2-1 defeat to Russia. They edged through to the quarters on goal difference over Spain and won all their next 3 games by a margin of 1-0. Their wins were due to team-work and organization and not to skill and technical ability. This time around, Greece got 2 of the same group teams from Euro 2004 in Spain and Russia, along with Sweden. In the end, the other teams were clearly a class above Greece in terms of on the ball ability and Greece could not manage to get away with their set-piece and defending acts like 4 years ago.
France: Les Terrible! The French rot continues from 2002
This French team was doomed for failure even before the tournament began due to Raymond Domenech's awful team selections. At left-back, Domenech picked Patrice Evra ahead of Gael Clichy; at right back, he picked Willy Sagnol ahead of Bacary Sagna. Both Clichy and Sagna were voted by their peers in the English Premier league Team of the Season and if Domenech had watched any English league games, he would have known of Clichy's pace and ability to offer options down the wings. Sagna was one of the best players for Arsenal and he would have brought strength & leadership to an ailing French defense. Even though Sagna was injured for the last few weeks of Arsenal's season, he was never given a chance to prove his fitness either. On top of that Domenech picked Eric Abidal who had a dreadful season at Barcelona. In midfield, Domenech was bent on taking an injured Patrick Vieira as opposed to picking a youthful Flamini, who had an outstanding season for Arsenal. Vieira never played a minute for France and occupied a spot in the roaster that could have gone to an able body like Flamini.
It is known that Domenech has had a difference of opinion with Arsenal's Arsene Wenger. So maybe that is why he left out three capable Arsenal players (two if you count that Flamini will be at AC Milan next season) and only took Arsenal's William Gallas. This is a reasonable assumption as Domenech has been known to spend more time with personal duels with his players than team tactics. Robert Pires and Vikash Dhorasoo come to mind. Moreover, Domenech has shown to be incapable of understanding the tactics of this French team and has often picked the wrong players or slotted players in incorrect positions.
In the end, it all came undone for France against Italy when Domenech's awful selections contributed to a worthy French exit. It is rumoured that Thuram asked not to be played in the center of the defense which led Domenech to play Eric Abidal there. Just three minutes into the game, Abidal almost presented a gift to Luca Toni but as has been common in this tournament, Toni missed his chance. 22 minutes later, Abidal was ball watching and lost track of Toni. In a state of desperation, Abidal brought down Toni resulting in a penalty for Italy and earning himself a red card. If Abidal had any sense, he would have let Toni go on as chances are Toni would have missed his clear chance. The 10 men of France never had a chance after Pirlo converted his spot-kick. Now then there is the case of Patrice Evra. He was absolutely useless against Italy. Not only was he pedestrian, he offered no help in creating France's offense down the flanks. He was so happy to play ball boy and offered to take all the throw-ins, thinking that would merit his contribution. In truth, he merely hid from his responsibilities and offered to stay away from the action. But he should never have been playing at Euro 2008 in the first place.
Domenech took an old and aging French team to Euro 2008. He had hoped that these old stars would work their magic and bail France out as opposed to coming up with a tactical plan himself. In the end, his aging team were too tired to bother playing and Domenech had no options on the bench to change things around.
Poland: bright start then fade to black
Poland were not that bad in their opening game against Germany as they attempted to string together some decent moves. The introduction of Roger Guerreiro in the second half certainly gave the Poles an attacking bite but they could never put away their chances. Poland were lucky to get away with a 1-1 tie against Austria as they should really have been 3-0 or 4-0 down in the opening 20 minutes. Poor Austrian finishing and some good saves from Artur Boruc kept Austria at bay. Poland needed a miracle in their final game against Croatia to advance but they never looked up to the challenge.
Austria: The co-hosts do themselves proud
Austria certainly played well but poor finishing cost them goals and points. Still it was good to see them holding their heads up high and attempting to create chances.
Romania: 2 points but could have been so much more
Romania have no one but themselves to blame for their early exit. If Romania had been a bit more adventurous they could have beaten France in the opening game but they settled for a 0-0 tie. Against Italy, a mistake from Zambrotta led to Mutu putting Romania ahead. However, a minute later they let in a soft goal to allow Italy to come back into the game. In the last 10 minutes, Romania got a real gift when they were awarded a non-existent penalty. But Mutu could not put his kick away and Buffon was the Italian hero as he saved the penalty. Still Romania could have advanced against a changed Dutch team in the final game. But for whatever reason, Romania refused to attack against Holland. Maybe they were hoping that the Dutch would score a few own goals but the second string Dutch squad were in no mood to make life easy for Romania.
Czech Republic: no creativity costs them in the end
It is certainly hard to replace players like Nedved and Rosicky but the Czechs offered nothing in their opening game against the co-hosts Switzerland; they were lucky to get away with a 1-0 win as they did nothing in the game. They tried to play some football against Portugal but were no match for the speed of the Portuguese. Even though they built up a 2-0 lead against Turkey, the Czechs could not cope with wave after wave of Turkish attack and mentally folded to bow out of Euro 2008.
Sweden: lack of pace, tired legs and sitting back prove costly
Sweden only needed a draw against Russia to advance out of Group D and it looked like Sweden only wanted to play for a draw. They offered nothing in terms of attack and Russia should have easily won their game by a 4 or 5 goal margin. It was shocking to see such a terrible display from the Swedes but then again, they put in a dull second half against Spain which cost them dearly in the end when David Villa scored a 90th minute winner.
Switzerland: like Austria, co-hosts do themselves proud
Things could have been different had Switzerland put away their chances against a dull Czech Republic in the opening game. But the injury to their captain and star player Alexander Frei certainly took a bite out of their offense. Switzerland were unlucky against Turkey as well losing to a last minute strike. Atleast, the Swiss ended the tournament with a well deserved win over group winners Portugal.
Portugal, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and Russia.
While the following are the 8 teams going home:
Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Romania, France, Sweden, Greece.
Prior to the tournament, Austria were labeled as the worst team out of the participating 16 nations. But after the first round games, Austria have redeemed themselves as they were far from the worst team. The worst teams in terms of points and goal difference are:
Note: GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Difference
Back in Euro 2004, Greece were drawn in Group A along with hosts Portugal, Spain and Russia. Greece stunned the hosts Portugal with an opening day 2-1 win and followed that with a 1-1 tie against Spain before a 2-1 defeat to Russia. They edged through to the quarters on goal difference over Spain and won all their next 3 games by a margin of 1-0. Their wins were due to team-work and organization and not to skill and technical ability. This time around, Greece got 2 of the same group teams from Euro 2004 in Spain and Russia, along with Sweden. In the end, the other teams were clearly a class above Greece in terms of on the ball ability and Greece could not manage to get away with their set-piece and defending acts like 4 years ago.
This French team was doomed for failure even before the tournament began due to Raymond Domenech's awful team selections. At left-back, Domenech picked Patrice Evra ahead of Gael Clichy; at right back, he picked Willy Sagnol ahead of Bacary Sagna. Both Clichy and Sagna were voted by their peers in the English Premier league Team of the Season and if Domenech had watched any English league games, he would have known of Clichy's pace and ability to offer options down the wings. Sagna was one of the best players for Arsenal and he would have brought strength & leadership to an ailing French defense. Even though Sagna was injured for the last few weeks of Arsenal's season, he was never given a chance to prove his fitness either. On top of that Domenech picked Eric Abidal who had a dreadful season at Barcelona. In midfield, Domenech was bent on taking an injured Patrick Vieira as opposed to picking a youthful Flamini, who had an outstanding season for Arsenal. Vieira never played a minute for France and occupied a spot in the roaster that could have gone to an able body like Flamini.
It is known that Domenech has had a difference of opinion with Arsenal's Arsene Wenger. So maybe that is why he left out three capable Arsenal players (two if you count that Flamini will be at AC Milan next season) and only took Arsenal's William Gallas. This is a reasonable assumption as Domenech has been known to spend more time with personal duels with his players than team tactics. Robert Pires and Vikash Dhorasoo come to mind. Moreover, Domenech has shown to be incapable of understanding the tactics of this French team and has often picked the wrong players or slotted players in incorrect positions.
In the end, it all came undone for France against Italy when Domenech's awful selections contributed to a worthy French exit. It is rumoured that Thuram asked not to be played in the center of the defense which led Domenech to play Eric Abidal there. Just three minutes into the game, Abidal almost presented a gift to Luca Toni but as has been common in this tournament, Toni missed his chance. 22 minutes later, Abidal was ball watching and lost track of Toni. In a state of desperation, Abidal brought down Toni resulting in a penalty for Italy and earning himself a red card. If Abidal had any sense, he would have let Toni go on as chances are Toni would have missed his clear chance. The 10 men of France never had a chance after Pirlo converted his spot-kick. Now then there is the case of Patrice Evra. He was absolutely useless against Italy. Not only was he pedestrian, he offered no help in creating France's offense down the flanks. He was so happy to play ball boy and offered to take all the throw-ins, thinking that would merit his contribution. In truth, he merely hid from his responsibilities and offered to stay away from the action. But he should never have been playing at Euro 2008 in the first place.
Domenech took an old and aging French team to Euro 2008. He had hoped that these old stars would work their magic and bail France out as opposed to coming up with a tactical plan himself. In the end, his aging team were too tired to bother playing and Domenech had no options on the bench to change things around.
Poland were not that bad in their opening game against Germany as they attempted to string together some decent moves. The introduction of Roger Guerreiro in the second half certainly gave the Poles an attacking bite but they could never put away their chances. Poland were lucky to get away with a 1-1 tie against Austria as they should really have been 3-0 or 4-0 down in the opening 20 minutes. Poor Austrian finishing and some good saves from Artur Boruc kept Austria at bay. Poland needed a miracle in their final game against Croatia to advance but they never looked up to the challenge.
Austria certainly played well but poor finishing cost them goals and points. Still it was good to see them holding their heads up high and attempting to create chances.
Romania have no one but themselves to blame for their early exit. If Romania had been a bit more adventurous they could have beaten France in the opening game but they settled for a 0-0 tie. Against Italy, a mistake from Zambrotta led to Mutu putting Romania ahead. However, a minute later they let in a soft goal to allow Italy to come back into the game. In the last 10 minutes, Romania got a real gift when they were awarded a non-existent penalty. But Mutu could not put his kick away and Buffon was the Italian hero as he saved the penalty. Still Romania could have advanced against a changed Dutch team in the final game. But for whatever reason, Romania refused to attack against Holland. Maybe they were hoping that the Dutch would score a few own goals but the second string Dutch squad were in no mood to make life easy for Romania.
It is certainly hard to replace players like Nedved and Rosicky but the Czechs offered nothing in their opening game against the co-hosts Switzerland; they were lucky to get away with a 1-0 win as they did nothing in the game. They tried to play some football against Portugal but were no match for the speed of the Portuguese. Even though they built up a 2-0 lead against Turkey, the Czechs could not cope with wave after wave of Turkish attack and mentally folded to bow out of Euro 2008.
Sweden only needed a draw against Russia to advance out of Group D and it looked like Sweden only wanted to play for a draw. They offered nothing in terms of attack and Russia should have easily won their game by a 4 or 5 goal margin. It was shocking to see such a terrible display from the Swedes but then again, they put in a dull second half against Spain which cost them dearly in the end when David Villa scored a 90th minute winner.
Things could have been different had Switzerland put away their chances against a dull Czech Republic in the opening game. But the injury to their captain and star player Alexander Frei certainly took a bite out of their offense. Switzerland were unlucky against Turkey as well losing to a last minute strike. Atleast, the Swiss ended the tournament with a well deserved win over group winners Portugal.
Euro 2008: Group stages complete
Group D: The Russians are coming....
Spain 2-1 Greece Russia 2-0 Sweden
The Dutch better beware as the return of Andrei Arshavin has suddenly revolutionized the Russians into a pacy and potent attacking force. With the aid of Arshavin, Russia dispatched a slow, tired and generally poor Swedish team with considerable ease. Arshavin scored the second goal but the game should have been over long before that as Sweden offered nothing except a looping Larsson header that hit the woodwork. It appeared Sweden were content to sit back and hope for a 0-0 tie but Russia had other ideas in mind.
Spain scored two second half goals to finish the group stages with a 100% record. A completely revamped Spanish side were still too strong for the defending European Champions who ended the tournament as the only side on zero points. Atleast Greece managed to score one goal, a beautiful header by Angelos Charisteas via a free-kick. The Greek goal certainly evoked memories of Euro 2004 as back then it the headed efforts of Charisteas that led Greece to their unlikely European title.
The Dutch better beware as the return of Andrei Arshavin has suddenly revolutionized the Russians into a pacy and potent attacking force. With the aid of Arshavin, Russia dispatched a slow, tired and generally poor Swedish team with considerable ease. Arshavin scored the second goal but the game should have been over long before that as Sweden offered nothing except a looping Larsson header that hit the woodwork. It appeared Sweden were content to sit back and hope for a 0-0 tie but Russia had other ideas in mind.
Spain scored two second half goals to finish the group stages with a 100% record. A completely revamped Spanish side were still too strong for the defending European Champions who ended the tournament as the only side on zero points. Atleast Greece managed to score one goal, a beautiful header by Angelos Charisteas via a free-kick. The Greek goal certainly evoked memories of Euro 2004 as back then it the headed efforts of Charisteas that led Greece to their unlikely European title.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Euro 2008: Dutch and Italian delight
Group C: Holland and Italy advance
Holland 2-0 Romania France 0-2 Italy
Holland did their part by winning their 3rd straight group game and knocking Romania out of Euro 2008. As expected, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar started for the Dutch and scored a goal. How much longer can he stay at Ajax? Surely a bigger club will snatch him up. Van Persie stayed on his feet and blasted in a powerful second goal to finish off an impressive first round for the Dutch. Holland won their first three games 3-0 over Italy, 4-1 over France and now 2-0 over Romania. Out of the 9 goals the Dutch have scored, seven different players have found the net -- Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder (2), Van Persie (2), Van Bronckhorst , Kuyt, Robben and Huntelaar.
Italy got a stroke of luck with their second goal when Thierry Henry deflected De Rossi's free-kick into the French net but overall, I cannot feel any sympathy for France, even though they lost Ribery to an early injury. The best chance France had was when they were 2-0 down with Benzema striking a beautiful curler but Buffon made a remarkable save. If the French Federation does not fire Raymond Domenech in the next 24 hours, then well there is no future for French soccer.
Holland did their part by winning their 3rd straight group game and knocking Romania out of Euro 2008. As expected, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar started for the Dutch and scored a goal. How much longer can he stay at Ajax? Surely a bigger club will snatch him up. Van Persie stayed on his feet and blasted in a powerful second goal to finish off an impressive first round for the Dutch. Holland won their first three games 3-0 over Italy, 4-1 over France and now 2-0 over Romania. Out of the 9 goals the Dutch have scored, seven different players have found the net -- Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder (2), Van Persie (2), Van Bronckhorst , Kuyt, Robben and Huntelaar.
Italy got a stroke of luck with their second goal when Thierry Henry deflected De Rossi's free-kick into the French net but overall, I cannot feel any sympathy for France, even though they lost Ribery to an early injury. The best chance France had was when they were 2-0 down with Benzema striking a beautiful curler but Buffon made a remarkable save. If the French Federation does not fire Raymond Domenech in the next 24 hours, then well there is no future for French soccer.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Euro 2008: Signs of life & some shock therapy
I have learned a lot of things via soccer but on Sunday, I learned something new entirely. Turkey's stunning 3-2 comeback win against the Czech Republic was just a phenomenal result but the manner of their late winner can be attributed to a footballing example of "shock therapy". Naomi Klein's excellent book The Shock Doctrine talks about how various individuals and corporations use(d) time of emergencies to sweep wide changes to take advantage of innocent citizens. The rationale behind this is(was) that when people are in an emotionally vulnerable mental state, then anything goes. Turkey were trailing 2-1 with less than 5 minutes to go when a fumble by Petr Čech allowed Turkish captain Nihat to level the game up. The Czechs were in a state of shock so much so that less than a minute later, another Turkish attack allowed Nihat to break free and curl a beautiful shot to lead Turkey into the Quarter finals.
Petr Čech is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best. This was just a rare mistake by him. Last year, he fumbled a corner against Arsenal which allowed William Gallas to head Arsenal to a 1-0 win over Chelsea. On Sunday, he stumbled yet another cross but before that, he and the entire Czech defense were busy trying to withstand wave after wave of Turkish attacks. But his mistake sent the entire Czech team into a state of disbelief. And it was then that they were most vulnerable and Turkey were full worth for their remarkable win. Another example of this "shock therapy" took place in the 1999 European Cup Final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. Back then, Munich took an early lead and dominated United but they were unable to score a crucial second goal. With time running out, Man Utd tied the game up. Bayern were in such a state of shock that less than a minute later, they let Man Utd get another goal to win 2-1 -- two goals in 2 minutes gave Man Utd the European Cup. In the 2005 European Cup final, Milan raced to a 3-0 half-time lead against Liverpool. Milan dominated the game except for 6 second half minutes when Liverpool scored three goals to tie things up. In those 6 minutes, Milan looked completely disorganized and disoriented.
It was good to see Turkey come away with a win. Yah for attacking football! And the tournament is finally showing some signs of life. In fact, one had to wait until the 4th day for two teams to score goals in a single game. When Spain beat Russia 4-1, the lone Russian goal was the first time at this year's tournament an opponent managed to find the target. The 8 previous games had ended 1-0, 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, 0-0 & 3-0. A majority of the football has been cautious and dull but there have been some rare delightful moments. And Turkey's magical final 15 minutes stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Also, the game showed that sometimes the margin between defeat and victory is separated by a tiny fraction. Czech Republic could have made it 3-0 and finished the game off but their shot hit the post. On the other hand, Arda Turan's 75th minute goal hit the inside of the post and went in to make it 2-1. When Nihat curled his stunning shot, the ball appeared to be curving above the goal until it hit the underside of the crossbar and settled in gracefully into the net.
After Round 2, only two out of 16 were eliminated
It was good to see that after all the teams had played their first two games, only two teams were officially eliminated (Switzerland and Greece). All four groups had been won with a further 10 teams in contention for that crucial second place.
After Sunday (June 15) & Monday's (June 16) games, both Groups A & B are now decided.
Group A: Portugal and Turkey advance
Switzerland 2-0 Portugal Turkey 3-2 Czech Republic
Group B: Croatia and Germany advance
Austria 0-1 Germany Croatia 1-0 Poland
Day 8 -- Sat, June 14:
Group D: Spain wins group
Spain 2-1 Sweden Greece 0-1 Russia
David Villa just keeps increasing his asking price. Villa scored a delightful last minute goal to lead Spain to a worthy 2-1 win over Sweden. Even though there were some nasty fouls in the game, both teams played a technically delightful game to watch. The first half was a real joy to observe in terms of the effort from both Spain and Sweden. However, in the second half Sweden sat back allowing Spain to play some clever balls and display some tricks. Still Sweden looked dangerous on the counter-attack and both teams tried to get a winner until the final minutes, even though both attempted to push for a winning goal within the confines of their cautious framework.
Petr Čech is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best. This was just a rare mistake by him. Last year, he fumbled a corner against Arsenal which allowed William Gallas to head Arsenal to a 1-0 win over Chelsea. On Sunday, he stumbled yet another cross but before that, he and the entire Czech defense were busy trying to withstand wave after wave of Turkish attacks. But his mistake sent the entire Czech team into a state of disbelief. And it was then that they were most vulnerable and Turkey were full worth for their remarkable win. Another example of this "shock therapy" took place in the 1999 European Cup Final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. Back then, Munich took an early lead and dominated United but they were unable to score a crucial second goal. With time running out, Man Utd tied the game up. Bayern were in such a state of shock that less than a minute later, they let Man Utd get another goal to win 2-1 -- two goals in 2 minutes gave Man Utd the European Cup. In the 2005 European Cup final, Milan raced to a 3-0 half-time lead against Liverpool. Milan dominated the game except for 6 second half minutes when Liverpool scored three goals to tie things up. In those 6 minutes, Milan looked completely disorganized and disoriented.
It was good to see Turkey come away with a win. Yah for attacking football! And the tournament is finally showing some signs of life. In fact, one had to wait until the 4th day for two teams to score goals in a single game. When Spain beat Russia 4-1, the lone Russian goal was the first time at this year's tournament an opponent managed to find the target. The 8 previous games had ended 1-0, 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, 0-0 & 3-0. A majority of the football has been cautious and dull but there have been some rare delightful moments. And Turkey's magical final 15 minutes stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Also, the game showed that sometimes the margin between defeat and victory is separated by a tiny fraction. Czech Republic could have made it 3-0 and finished the game off but their shot hit the post. On the other hand, Arda Turan's 75th minute goal hit the inside of the post and went in to make it 2-1. When Nihat curled his stunning shot, the ball appeared to be curving above the goal until it hit the underside of the crossbar and settled in gracefully into the net.
After Round 2, only two out of 16 were eliminated
It was good to see that after all the teams had played their first two games, only two teams were officially eliminated (Switzerland and Greece). All four groups had been won with a further 10 teams in contention for that crucial second place.
After Sunday (June 15) & Monday's (June 16) games, both Groups A & B are now decided.
Group A: Portugal and Turkey advance
Group B: Croatia and Germany advance
Day 8 -- Sat, June 14:
Group D: Spain wins group
David Villa just keeps increasing his asking price. Villa scored a delightful last minute goal to lead Spain to a worthy 2-1 win over Sweden. Even though there were some nasty fouls in the game, both teams played a technically delightful game to watch. The first half was a real joy to observe in terms of the effort from both Spain and Sweden. However, in the second half Sweden sat back allowing Spain to play some clever balls and display some tricks. Still Sweden looked dangerous on the counter-attack and both teams tried to get a winner until the final minutes, even though both attempted to push for a winning goal within the confines of their cautious framework.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
And in other news....
The Group of 8 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States — are many of the world’s largest consumers of oil. But most have little say over production, and over drivers of oil prices like rising demand from China and India.
Yes there is rising oil demand from China and India. I think every one gets that now as it cut and paste in every article about rising oil prices. But how many of those new vehicles on the Chinese and Indian roads are gas guzzling suv's, mini-vans and hummers? Let's see now. America and Canada sucks up oil for decades in wasteful vehicles but if other nations need the same oil for their tiny cars which can't ever go over speeds of 60 Km/hr because of congested roads, well the West does not like it. I suppose Daniel Plainview put it best:
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