Euro 08 is starting soon and what a plight for the fans from GB and Ireland, not even a single team from the island...goodness me...is this the death of football in GB and Ireland, well Irish and Wales can take solace from playing Rugby better and so does Scotland from the sheer effort for trying to qualify, never mind they lost to Mighty Azzurri...and lets not talk about England here, as I don't like to talk on same things again and again, metatarsals, Big Egos, Bad football, Clubs over country, THE FA ...guess that was it..and now in the hands of a Italian manager who was once lamented by one very English captain as "not too keen on playing him" ...wow :)

Euro08 - big and very very tight competition indeed, where the difference in winning n losing is nothing but, sometimes, the card , the kick and the goal ..(same for WC or CL for that matter but EURO is indeed a different tournament) ..the way teams know each other in EURO is, for me, the one starking difference from other big football festivals...the kind of rivalries here are un-parallel and lovely to watch ....indeed if favorite team wins else....don't ask...

Who will win it, lets not talk "stuff" here, straight to the facts.....France, Italy, Portugal and Germany....who else :-) should make to the semi-finals at least...this is not going by the recent form but the fact that these teams DO focus more than anyone on big tournaments and they win most of those...unlucky Portugal though, for missing out to Greece last time around when the fest was in homeland (their). as for rest, Spain, Netherlands, Czech, should make the other lot else something really stupid happens...hang on ..what about Sweden, they have good players, for and also a great history of bugging big teams (like England...oh no not again)...so where would they end up...lets see..

Now, teams which will really pose a bother to all those above, Russia, Ukraine, Croatia Switzerland, mind you they are not at all easy to play and score goal against...Austria, Poland, Greece, Romania, Turkey should be alright I feel.....what a competition is on the cards..

As for players, I guess it would be a battle of all-young-to-less-old-guns on the field, there are some really nice prospects and players with exp of 1-3 big competitions, as it appears to me, the experience should or will [lets not get into this :-) ] win over the flair and charm of youth, as for tactical battles I rather think this would be a typical Euro, less than 3 goals per game (average)..also on tactical side, it would be interesting to see how coaches try their age old tactics against each other, substitutions would make a difference and as always there would be only ONE winner, all I am hoping for is - a battle of age against exp, tactics against raw talent, a opportunity for two nations to show their warm welcome and a experience of lifetime for the spectators...bring on the EURO......

IPL is in full fledge and I'm pleased to see how well the IPL has caught the eye of the nation(I am not in des at the moment but listening form fellas that is THE THING).....teams are faring well, the sheer quality of cricket is good and so is the melodrama (slappings, sledging) .game of cricket wont be anything if these things stop from happening or I am asking too much here !

Why am I happy watching a foreign game with foreign players and coaches (some), is this what they call globalisation-with-sports or convergence of two for that matter ? would the real game die a slow death with no focus on the game itself n all into sweet greasy money ? Would this be another example of a western game getting rejuvenated to a whole new level like football ? there are questions, i don't know the answers, all I am concerned at the moment is my team making the SF (at least!) ....IPL is certainly on my head ...for sure.... :-))

So..........here I am very happy with few things and so not with rest...INDIA HAVE WON THE COMMONWEALTH SERIES BEATING AUSTRALIA IN AUSTRALIA....(it cant get any bigger than this) ..it s one news that saw people from my country happy like they rarely become (we have become a sad nation off late or am I too pessimistic here...)! Its such a thing to happen that you actually feel proud on being supporter of a team which performs well (now!) makes u feel like they really worth the fanship they get and they will offer more n more in future. Such a nice feeling...beautiful
Also lets not forget about the young guns here...mind you we are the World Under-19 Champions beating RSA recently...all is coming full circle for Indian Cricket at the moment with IPL kicking off in a nice way [or thats what we all hope for :-) ]....actually for IPL I do have a lot to say ...its like a dream come true for a football-mad-head like me who, all his life lived to see something on those lines of club football happening in his own land but, one who grew up watching nothing like that happening .may be are unlucky in football but I like to hope (even if it is against the hope) that these IPL guys do think a lot and put up a good show for the betterment of cricket as a whole,players (who never get chance to come up on ODIs n Tests!) and for people like me who just love the sport too much.Look at players like Rohit Sharma .. a hard hitter but a real cool head on his shoulders ...no wonder he is doing great in ODIs after his exploits in 2020...so, yeah thats a good platform for SO MANY players to come forward and show us something...even for players like Gilchrist(who, we are not going to see in ODIs & Tests anymore) to come and show what tremendous talent they used to have and still have !
Adam Gilchrist retired from both forms of cricket...its a shame knowing we will not be seeing anymore of him in the best forms of cricket...what a player he was,more importantly what a man he was on field and off the field..a truly spirited cricketer who always valued Cricket and Team above anything else...he was accused of some bad things off late but I guess we all are entitled to do some silly things here and there...so Gilly it was a pleasure to have you on field mate and yes there are many people who are going to miss you.

Talked about cricket I guess...football is next for me...though it should come first but then I was too happy with the win today that I did it that way !
In Europe things are going the way as they always used to be...Top clubs on top...little clubs in bottom and everybody else in between.Inter, Roma, Milan, ManU, Arsenal, Chelsea, Madrid, Barca,Celtic,Rangers,Munich all on top of their leagues n mostly in Champions league knock out rounds....small clubs these days don't have anything in their kitty to get into the top ....well off course some real nice luck for real long time!! I often remember how great Leeds used to be in 70s and what happened to them now,then I think can this happen to someone like ManU ...No is what I know.Things are so tightly monitored that there is no room for slippage...if team is not playing good...get some new players...they don't perform Sack the manager....else sell the club ..get more money n get new players..someone out of all those men will perform else you are in real mess...see Newcastle...whats happening there is not good for them but I reckon it wont go for long..they are a big club and thus will bounce back soon.I really wish to see change in the power axis of World club football as I don't understand whats the point in making bigger clubs much bigger and for this long ??? they have all the best players,staff,managers,stadium
s... whats more to it now ??

Less has been said on the plight of football fans.Fans in England are worried on the declining quality of English game,lack of any good options for future and the ever increasing number of ex pats in the game ! those are real things to worry about...they are not even in EURO08 ...how bad it can get..okay theirs is the best league with most money but how good is it for someone from Luton, all who want to see is Luton playing good football!! Not very good indeed...Whats FA doing...hiring a Italian(I am a hard Italia Fan...still !) for coaching their team for World cup 2010 or Euro 2012 ?? what is going on...is making money is the only purpose that football needs to serve ? what about the sheer beauty of game for which people don't mind spending their entire savings ?? where has the game gone ? I don't know the ans but yes I want to know...I might know sooner or later... but yes its a shame for fans to see how dirty the game has become...

Login after so maneeeee dayssss...(yes after more than couple of months I guess) ..feeling good looking at this new avatar of mouthshut.com....nice work done by the people who were inolved ...still certain things are slow/weird but hey can you get everything perfect...I would like to say "NO" ...so nice start of this new inning of writing for me...gonna write about Movies first then some personal-not-so-good experiences and if (wow) I remain in touch with words and myself I would like to write about .....do I really have to tell this..:-(  I mean come on guys please....please..

On othere note I have seen this movie "Jab we Met" ...what a movie it was apart from typical-bollywood-bits-n-piece
s ...but I was amazed at myself on how well I took it..nice movie really and thus gonna write one about it...other one should be on my first love in life ..Sports-cricket-football-ICL-
IPL-Ind-Aussie-series etc...I am out of words "now" but gonna come back soon and strongly...

Thanks once again Mouthshut.com for being such a nice platform for writers like me who are treated just like "bathroom singers" but who cares till the time mouthshut.com is there ...to the writers...Ciao..Raj