Like a frog in a well
Trending
I have been a very athletic individual all my life (not to be understood as showing off, rather a true testimony) and hence always been part of my school and college teams in most sports. I even ran the 100 meters once in under 11 seconds, okay now I have to stop with the trumpet blowing. Anyway my strong point was the game of basketball and I possessed highly accurate shooting skills. Ergo I got picked for my school team and had to represent in a state-level tourney. Back in my school I was making baskets at will and entertaining the crowd with the suave dribbles. My initials, M J, also were doing their bit to draw all these comparisons with the legendary Michael Jordan, and the cheering classmates of the opposite gender only made matters worse and added teeth to my haughtiness and overconfidence.
It was time now to play that much awaited competition and we were traveling by bus carrying loads of smugness and pride. When the match began we left the opponents bamboozled with our passing and shooting. I once during a defensive play stole the ball from the point guard and ran towards our basket, but when I reached the 3 point line shot it from ‘downtown’. It was a sexy basket; in fact that was what a girl standing in the sideline shouted. I felt like I had reached the pinnacle of my life. A few minutes later things started to change and our opponents began to unleash their virtuoso. We just could not control possession for more than 20 seconds at the most. At half time my coach even managed to slide in a caustic comment asking me to join him and our girls’ basketball team in their draw of the competition. We were defeated black and blue and on our journey back to our campus we were fabricating stories about how we lost a very tight encounter so that we would look like brave heroes in front of our classmates, and also to prevent a barrage of rotten egg projectiles. The other night Manchester United would have gone through a similar range of emotions after their drubbing at the hands of FC Barcelona, the only difference being that the entire world was witness to this depressing display against just a few hundred boys and girls at our game back in school.
He was a lone star
Well-begun is only half done!!!!!
In the run up to the game I had written a piece on how the finals would definitely not disappoint the football enthusiast in terms of being a tough and nail-biting contest. But I stand corrected as the match turned out to be as one-sided as a 100 m sprint between a grown adult and a cheetah. The lesson we have just come to learn is that in this case it really does not matter if the man was me or Usain bolt. The opening 10 minutes was the only period when Man Utd showed vigor and intent and during this period I feared the worst as J S Park did everything possible to shut out Messi and neither could Xavi or Iniesta get any meaningful touch on the ball. But as the game proceeded into the 15 minute mark sanity prevailed and we were all witness to some fabulous display of passing and dribbling. Much was expected out of this match and hence the disappointment came out to be much larger at the end of it all. I am not qualified enough to judge the strategy of Sir Alex, but all I do know was that the ploy just had no semblance of success. The last thing you would want to see when the catalunyans are playing is give them space and play high up on the defensive line. Well that is what exactly transpired and Pedro and Xavi combined wonderfully and through a truly clinical finish Barcelona went up 1-0. The vision of Xavi and the deft pass from the outside of the foot was equally well anticipated by Pedro. All was still not lost and I knew if there had to be a surprise trigger it had to come from the industrious and relentless legs of Wayne Rooney whose strike after capitalizing on an error-fraught throw-in energized the Red Devils and pacified the fidgety Sir Alex.
The more they change, the more they remain the same!!
At the half-time whistle there was absolutely nothing to choose between the two sides, from at-least the score-line, but to talk in terms of chances that went amiss FCB were ahead by a mile. The sports analysts on Ten Action were quite critical of the style of play exhibited by Man Utd and I had to completely agree with each and every word they uttered. Messi was weaving his magic all along by falling behind at times and playing in line with Xavi and Iniesta and this made me feel that he would not
I can do this all day
probably equal that record 12 goal level at the UEFA Champions League. Then out of nowhere he held the ball just nudged a little to his left and drove the ball quite low to probably surprise the entire gamut of spectators as well as Van Der Sar. What followed was something I have never seen from the tiny destroyer, Messi as he burst towards the corner flag and kicked a giant microphone off the ground. The excitement was quite understandable as it put the Blaugrana back in the lead and he also silenced critics who said he could not score on English Soil. A few minutes later the last missing jigsaw from the MVP (Messi, Villa, Pedro), David villa scored a curler that truly was the last nail on the English side’s coffin. The goal margin was just 2 and this by no means can be termed as a one sided affair but just the quality of one-touch football and movement by the players when they did not have the ball made Man Utd seem like a 2nd division side.
Let all arguments cease!!!
On top of the world
This tagline is always something I will never forget as ‘The Hindu’ newspaper had used this very headline after the second consecutive century by Sachin Tendulkar in Sharjah which took India past the Aussies. The article propounded the theory that there was only one man standing in the path of greatness and Lara had lost out hands down. I cannot forget those centuries for one more personal reason and not a very memorable one. I had spent little time preparing for my Engineering entrance exams as I was busy watching Sachin battle the sandstorm (thanks a lot Sachin for ruining my career). Now that I watched the UCL final on 28th may, I can only think that media men and fans of football all over the world can let Mr. Ronaldo rest a little as there is truly no match to this petty Houdini called Messi. I would right now go on and claim that this footballer is non-pareil even if you considered Pele and Maradona as I have not seen many who could live upto the expectation of a semi-final and final of pre-eminent championships like UCL and deliver time and time again. Frankly speaking where would you place a player like Messi when we see CR7, his closest competitor scoring 10 goals in 3 games of absolutely relevance in the last week of La Liga but hibernating throughout the semifinals and other El Clasico encounters. Along similar lines we can also safely say that Barcelona is more than a club, it is an institution of greatness.
A sea change around me
Something that has really filled my heart with unabating joy other than the outcome of the match itself, is the way the world media and Sir Alex have resoundingly accepted that FC Barcelona are the best side they have seen in a long while. A good friend of mine who is a staunch fan of the English club even added humor to the whole series of unfortunate events by saying that the club played more like Man ‘Who’ rather than Man U. A couple of teenage kids in my vicinity solemnly surrendered to the supremacy of the Spaniards and managed a smile when I did my usual round of trash-talking and called their side ‘Mansuckster’ United. I have been writing various pieces on this website literally beseeching my fellow-writers and readers to see, and think beyond the Iron Curtains laid around English football and I believe this particular match will be successful in achieving that and this can only be for the better of the game. The British tube rail has the signboard saying ‘Mind the gap’ to caution the passengers before boarding the train. Well I am cautioning the European clubs to mind the gap, but the Spanish side has already raced ahead on track
