stunningly bad tempered

Portugal holding on to their 1:0 lead; beats Netherlands in an extremely bad tempered game from both sides.

It all started with the veteran Figo's slight tussel with Van Bommel and it kept on going & going, leading to some interesting ;) moments for first time in this world cup, which was quite an embarrasment for both teams and to FIFA. But i suppose, it was an extremely awful and entertaining game for the fans.

And the referee went ballastic giving -
16 yellow cards
4 red cards

Portugal			Netherlands
	Deco 77 min		van Bronckhorst 94 min
	Ricardo 75 min		Sneijder 73 min
	Valente 75 min		Van der Vaart 73 min
	Deco 72 min		Boulahrouz 62 min
	Figo 59 min		van Bronckhorst 58 min
	Petit 49 min		Boulahrouz 06 min
	Costinha 45 min		van Bommel 01 min
	Costinha 30 min
	Maniche 22 min (Pauleta)
	Maniche 19 min

On ESPN, the commentator was all like against the referee but the players were equally not in control and i think, in most cases deserved to get the cards. In some cases, one can give the benefit of doubt to the player but when they behave like they did in this game, they deserve to get yellows and offcourse yellows lead to read. But it was a high heat & tense'd game, so I wouldn't comment on whether it was referee or players fault. But def. not in the game's spirit.

In the end, portugal hold'd on to their lead to win the game. Even thou', the dutch had a lot of chances and a one man lead (first 11-10 and then 10-9) all thru' second half but couldn't make any goals.

So Portugal advances to round of 8 to take on England, but there is no Constinha and Deco (red card holders) and Cristiano Ronaldo being injured (hope he gets recovered). Game to watch!!

Impressive performance by Germany - WM 2006

Germany went into field with the attitude to be the first in their group and it showed in their game play since the first minute, totally over-powering Ecuador and winning with 3-0 difference. And not only that, they played a very organized and controlling game with flexibility, which they lack sometimes. Germany is very well in shape (& home advantage) to go till the finals, if they keep playing like this :), and must have changed a lot of hearts with their game today and as the germans say "berlin berlin, wir fahren nach berlin" :))

Ecuador lacked in all fields of the game - no defence, no attacks, no passing, no control of ball, no communication, no feeling, no attitude.... this is not how a team should come onto the field in a world sport (goes for any sports). And as i said (on flickr), they still have to prove themselves against world-class teams (esp. european football nations), which they failed to do today.

Evolution of Dance

If you haven't seen this video yet, here it is (saw it yesterday only). One of most viewed videos on youTube (25 million times). All the dance moves you ever want to know, this guys shows them all. And probably you must have tried some of those yourselves too.

Keep Dancing :)

Am I in Munich?

During the day, I went to the city center to get some groceries done and all of a sudden drums beats broke my dream world, which I'm usually in while sitting in the tram. And I looked around, to realize - Am I in Munich?

Brazilian fans (n some ausi's n dutch's) have taken over the city and it looked like a brazilian carnival. Drums beats, people dancing, brazilian colors all over, fans n more fans, amazing atmosphere. Its even more entertaining in Munich, which otherwise is quite a calm city :) After seeing the initial euphoria, I decided to bike a bit to catch the glimpse of Samba Munich. I can't describe it by words, it was great to see such a great atmosphere of fans.

I'm loving IT (..its football, not soccer mate..:).
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Enjoy the pics HERE
Enjoy the videos HERE (or directly HERE)

And if you don't have a TV (like me), Enjoy the LIVE game on internet, Follow the instructions given HERE

The African Brazil, Go Ghana

Today's game of Ghana Vs Czech Republic showed why football is the World Sport. Ghana defeated one of the best teams of the game by shear brilliance and a very entertaining and balanced game by both sides. Czech's made a precipitous start to the second half but it was not enough as Ghana sealed the game with a second goal in second half, even thou' they missed on a penalty kick.

And a well deserved win for them and the African continent. And probably this is one of the reasons, why I am so hooked up to world cup, you can expect anything from the teams playing on the world stage and the one with excellent end-to-end energy wins, no matter who they are playing aganist. Its entertaining, people enjoying, chearing for their teams, waving the flags, honking, dancing, ....

And the ghana fans poured on the munich streets :-)) too, enjoying the great win



On a short note - US did a great fight (after their poor show in first game) with only 9 men against Italy and keeping their hopes alive for the world cup.

Ecuador goes for KILL

The nation which plays at 9200 feet above sea level goes into the knockout stages while playing at 72 feet above sea level. Germany plays Ecuador in the next game to decide group A winner, which most probably will avoid playing England in the next stage. But what a game by Ecuador today aganist Costa Rica, winning by 3 amazingly executed goals by all 3 strikers (Kaviedes, Delgado, Tenorio).

What is even more interesting is that Costa Rica made 2 goals against Germany and yesterday Germany had a hard time getting thru' the Poland defense. While Ecuador easily defeated Poland 2-0 and now thrashed Costa Rica 3-0, very impressive performance. Not even England against their game today with Trinidad-Tobago managed any goal until 80 min. and by all standards a poor performance from them when they are one of the main contenders for the cup.

Looking forward to Germany vs. Ecuador; Germany watch out!!

My bet is on Eucador, I'm not a expert on the game but by seeing their performace today and seeing Germany struggle yesterday; its gonna be the match to WATCH OUT!!

Football Fever

Football Fever is all over in Germany and Rest of the world, and being in the host country to exprience the action live has been great till now. I am myself not a CRAZY fan, but I like the game and enjoy watching the action. And offcourse, I am a "Brasil" supporter, until India starts playing some "out-of-india" league games. But I also want Germany to go all the way till the finals, looks like too much to ask from them right now, after seeing the opening game of Germany vs. Costa Rica and the awesome atmosphere of german fans, the home advantage is on their side. Some pics from the game at Fan Fest München, Olympiazentrum; and fan video of after "Philipp Lahm opening the scoring with a sixth-minute rocket".. the whole place rock'd in

Or Click Here to see the Video

And don't miss my face paint art :-) ..

Enjoy the game!!

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Germany vs. Poland - Tonight - Go Deutschland!!

06.06.06

Guess What?? What a perfect combination of date.

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Update: 7 PM - More on 06.06.06 by Grace - No More guesses

Munich Weather

What a summer, we are having!! Its been raining, cloudy, cold like winter (still wearing winter jacket) in Munich. Last week, I was in Bonn, equally bad weather. And as the weather, life is kinda cold too.