Euro 08 Dream Team

Finally, this year’s international football fiesta is over. Spain has taken the cup back to Madrid from Vienna. They won’t get it for keeps, but still they can claim that their Europe’s greatest football prowess, atleast for now.

Euro 2008 has seen the rise of many new teams, and the fall of the old powerhouses of Europe. The rise of Turkey and Russia has been the most noted of all these. Russia beat Sweden to enter the semi-finals after a staggering loss in the group stages to Spain. The games coming after that saw a new avatar saving Russia from the clutches of defeat, Andrei Arshavin. Together with Roman Pavlyuchenko, Russia looked promising until they had to face superiors Spain again in the semi-finals.

Turkey also, under the leadership of Fatih Terim, have showcased their talent again. After becoming third placed in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, Turkey again did not qualify for World Cup 2006 at Germany. Finally, under the leadership of Fatih Terim and captaincy of Nihat Kahveci, Turkey made it to the semis after a stunning comeback in extra-time, thanks to a goal by Semih Senturk. Turkey had to face Germany in the semis, and they did well over there too. Ugur Boral made no mistake and created ripples in the net in the 22nd minute itself, giving Turkey an edge over their rivals. But Turkey do not have the history of keeping their lead for long. Bastian Schweinsteiger, who became an international phenomenon after his stunning performance in the tourney, hit the net 4 minutes after Ugur’s goal. The match was back in a deadlock.  Miroslav Klose got a goal for himself in the second half, but Turkey hit back with Sabri crossing to Semih Senturk. Semih made no mistake. As the game looked poised for another extra-time or penalty shootout decider, Philipp Lahm broke through Turkey defensive wall to make it 3-2. Turkey, sadly, missed an opportunity to make it to the finals.

The Euro 2008 has created a niche for players to get signed by big clubs and get a name for themselves. Samir Nasri, Andrei Arshavin, Arda Turan, Jose Bosingwa and Nihat Kahveci will see themselves getting signed by some big club. Nasri seems to be going with Arsenal, and Bosingwa has already been signed up by English football major Chelsea. Arshavin has been approached by both Arsenal and Chelsea, and also by Newcastle United. Woah!!these players seem to becoming superstars in just a single day, and a single superb goal.

Well, I too enjoyed the Euro 08. Here’s my dream team:

GK : Buffon, Casillas and Van Der Sar

DEF : Bosingwa, Lahm, Marchena, Pepe, Puyol, Zhirkov, Sergio Ramos

MID : Altintop, Modric, Senna, Xavi, Zyryanov, Ballack, Fabregas, Iniesta. Ronaldo, Tuncay, Deco

ST: Podolski, Sneijder, Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko, Torres, Villa, Schweinsteiger, van Persie, Nihat

This turns out to be a fabulous team after recreating it in Fifa 07, although Bosingwa, Zhirkov, Modric, Zyryanov, Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko are missing. Create them in the creation central and the end-result will be a five star star-studded team winning all matches without any difficulties. Fatigue might be a problem, but when you’ve got so many stars in your team, substituting the fatigued player won’t make much difference to the team.

Bored…!!

These holidays must be enjoyable for someone out there in this magnificent huge world…but not for me. For a person like me who is totally unable to get out of the house and freak out on man’s creations on God’s creation, holidays are the most terrible part of life. There’s absolutely nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to tell and nothing to smell. My senses must be on a relaxation tour to some renowned spa. Lucky dudes. Wish I could do something like that…you know, get inside a Boeing and fly away to some exotic tourist destination or something of dat sort. But that may also be lonely. Finally, fun maybe not for everyone.

I feel like a prisoner inside this house, with only a PC and an idiot to look up to. Switch them on, and temporary happiness bounds you for a few minutes. But I think these people are too busy. They just get offline after sometime….and back you are to yourself.

Fond memories of school and the fun over there run back to me, and I wait for that moment of freedom to come soon. But once it’s open and running, terror strikes back. You want it to close. You’ve had enough of it. You can’t stand it anymore. You start praying to all those God’s you know…and finally you get it closed after it has injected a severe virus inside your brain.

Now I feel like to go back to the beginning, and make a happy ending. But you’ve already made a mistake. There are no corrections in this game. Once you’ve done it, you’re screwed. Betta learn from it, dude. That’s wat they call experience these days.

Must be because Muscat is such a lonely place. They’re such abundant natural beauty around, but once you’ve seen it in such a matter that you can imagine the place without a single mistake, everything turns grey again. The path is now getting old. Its beaten. Its not exotic anymore.

This thing must be applicable to me….

“Be content with what you have….or you gotta repent.”

Hell…back to grassroots again.