Moments worth remembering from 2011: Part 1

I have only numbered a few moments from 2011 and they are not necessarily ranked in the same order.

1.Pitso Mosimane becomes a laughing stock

Perhaps a little extra caution while skimming through the rules and regulations would have not put the South African coach Pitso Mosimane himself and his team in a state of utter hilarity when he wrongly comprehended the rules set out by CAF(Confederation of African Football). South AFrica lost to Niger for having settled for a draw in the final qualification match for ACN(African Cup of Nations) 2012. Pitso was under the impression that a draw would suffice his team to get into the ACN finals but to his dismay he found out after the game had ended, that a victory was needed in order to qualify for the ACN finals.

Mosimane had presumed that in case of a tie, teams with a better goal difference would qualify but this wasn’t to be in the rule books. In case of teams tied with same points , their head to head would be taken into account and Republic of Niger were ahead of them in this case. This became even more embarrassing as the players, team and the staff celebrated after the match in full joy and colour as though they have reached the “promised land”. Pitso upon such revelation after the game remarked “Do you think I would have left [the striker Lehlohonolo] Majoro on the bench and put on a midfielder if I knew that we needed a goal? It doesn’t make sense.” Apart from the funny side of the story, the one positive outcome was in the form of debutants Republic of Niger. It’s their first ever ACN finals.

2.Hitting the Wrong Keys on a Gray area.

On a very auspicious day, 25th of January 2011, Andy Gray and Richard Keys were sacked for having made sexist comments on a fellow female linesman(or lineswoman!) Sian Massey, even before the game started. It was a match between Liverpool and Wolves and both the clown pundits from SKY ranted about Massey, whether she had any idea about the offside rule or not.

Perhaps the wiser question should have been ‘Are our micropohones on?We might land up in trouble.’ And so they did in much maligned fashion. Behaving like an absolute bunch of ignorants they did themselves no good and were suspended the following game between Bolton and Chelsea. Keys and Gray were in hunt for a while, for having earlier made similar remarks regardless of sex or race.And in Grays’s own words “You can’t do that”,”I know what you’re thinking”(Growling like a monster)

3.Mario’s Fireworks

Balotelli has earned a reputation that has gelled well with his image and personality. Depsite having set his house on fire and teasing his critics with “WHY ALWAYS ME” shirts, his fan following has increased rapidly and has thus helped him grown in his own bossy yet enigmatic character. He is just 21 and in future he is bound to scale great heights(if he continues burning down homes and carrying an emotionless face). Hardly anything has changed since his days at Inter and perhaps this has helped him remain unique and thus garner special attention.