Today though I have to make an exception. Make and exception and have a look at the England Manager, Fabio Capello. First of all though I must say that I am not English but have spent the last five years of my life in England until I recently moved to a sunny Southern-European isle. Of course I did support the English national eleven during my time there and as every fan of a nice game my heart always suffered watching this thing dished to us fans, this almost catanaccio alike game brought to us by Capello. But while I may at times admire the Italian style of the game, mainly for the strategical zonal game which is played in the Serie A, as a true ManUtd fan I would rather lose 5-4 than go home with 0-0. I will take a 0-1 win though, especially if fought out in true ManUtd style and we have more than 20 shots on goal as usually, playing defences of 6-9 players is not that easy. But I digress.

Fabio Capello.

Whatever his faults, the fiercely patriotic Beckham deserved better than to find out second hand that his international career was over – Paul Fletcher for BBC

While the Paul Scholes case before the World Cup embarrassing was, giving the Ginger Prince less than 48 hours to make a decision whether to come out of international retirement and save Capello’s midfield, the Wes Brown case was not less of a shame to England but the way Capello dropped David Beckham was one of the most disrespectful actions I have seen in years.

Many words have already been written over how the England Manager dropped the ManUTd Legend and used his assistant, General Manager Fabio Baldini, to give Becks a heads up about his international career end. In all honesty, while noble, I do not believe that the offer to allow Becks one more game at Wembley, a game to say farewell to the supporters was an honest and meant offer. That was just to make sure the pressure on himself, after the Capello Index, the Brown/Robinson debacle, would not rise even more because in all honesty… he’s a shame for the once proud football nation England.

If only England would play well but saying that the performance against Hungary was anything to write home about would be nothing else than lying. England sucked and a future with Capello certainly does not look like a future with international silverware, full stop.

With an epic match on saturday,United are going to enter the grounds with different men.Carling matches are no United area but we can play today with new faces.Big changes ahead will be seen for today’s game.Owen can be the possible starter along side a Berba or with in form Rooney.
No real threat-no real sweat play that we are going to see from this match.Only if Fergie doesnt take the fixture lightly,the match is a good morale booster.Foster can be taken out,so can be our long running defence.Wes Brown is expected to return so we can rest Vida or Evra along side.As such there has never been any problem with United’s defence,however Brown is a valuable addition for this year’s campagin.A
Nani should start long side with Carrick.Hargo’s presence can be delight me.It has been hell lot time since we last saw him on grounds.More from Berbatov can be atleast for this game.Owen today will be sure starter.His remarkable goal has shown Fergie more confidence in him.When he was bought i had a feeling that he can return back what he did best.Few goals from him can be expected.
All in all its an easy fixture if SAF doesn’t fail to look for right men.
Chelsea has been going lucky for long time,so we dare no lose this one.

Enjoy the game at 2000 BST!!

PS:- Oshea will make his 350th appearance and Giggs will score his 150th goal.

I will never stay to live in England, that’s for sure.You get only a brief glimpse of sunlight before it’s all cloudy again. The winters are mild, but in summer the temperatures seldom go higher than 20C. And it rains, rains, rains.
In future, I would like to test myself in another top league. I’m thinking of Spain. At least there will be no reason to complain about the weather. In England, they say that Manchester is the city of rain. Its main attraction is considered to be the timetable at the railway station, where trains leave for other, less rainy cities.Throughout the week they all work so hard. They only talk to people at lunch break. Then in the evening they come home and watch the telly, so they can get up early for work the next day.
The only time to meet friends is at weekends, but for football players it’s the busiest time of all. It was much easier for me to adapt to Russia than England. In England I had no one to talk to. The first month was especially hard. I lived alone in a hotel, which I left only for training. I thought I would go crazy inside those four walls”.

After like United went serious with the article it was changed into different manner saying

I’d like to clarify that I did not make these particular remarks. I spoke about the difficulty I had settling in to life in Manchester, but that does not reflect how I feel now.

“I enjoy my life very much as a footballer at Manchester United and I’m very happy to be a part of this great club. I think I show that in the way I play every week. I also have far too much respect for the people of Manchester, and England, to criticize them in this way

Well whatever he blurted out first may be correct to some extend for him.To be honest England does have a bad weather but that don’t mean it sucks.Actually he needs a walk around The Lake District and a small party at Knutsford.It’s more than heaven for me. :P
This are still not cleared with his words cause somewhere Vidic is denying such talks.

Mean while, Fergie is confirming that he won’t be playing easy against Zenith FC.The team will be strong and Fergie’s men will enter the game with intentions to win.This will be one of a kind experience to all of them while majority will be playing this for first time.Match is on 29 August which kinda ruins my Friday night. :P

Also,with Super Cup Hargo will try to bring his form back.There’s enough break for him now and he needs to get back regular with United.We all now his injury problems since his days with Munich but his commitment and sincerity over shadows his flaws.

Spain takes the Euro 2008 cup after beating Germans in finals.

The match atleast could have lasted 120 minutes or so.Watching those Semi’s and Quarters a match without penalty kicks would have been as boring as watch Arsenal’s game.Anyways with the match i was impressed how Spain took the charge from first minute.

Torres is the man that i fearing at EPL.The goal which is scored was completely from no where.Lahm was the one ahead of him and still he scored the goal chipping it over the bullie.The defense with German’s was a bad sight to watch.The pace of Torres hardly got them going and were taken down time by time by the Spanish mid.

Besides that i kept looking at David Villa and Seina’s game.They both can be a better high-light than what they have right now.All they need is to enter EPL and select a team better team.

Winning after 44 years is quite long time.Go work Spain.

For today’s match Italy’s mid-field maestro Pirlo and Gattuso are both going to watch their match from stands.Getting suspended both might witness their last match through stands at Euros.So its all up to De Rossi to get the midfield work done right.Not to mention the defender Pannuci who has been the key man in Italy’s wall.Its also high time for Toni to stop being lazy and make some goals.A lot is on Buffon too.Even though he has conceded 4 goals already he still has karizma left in him to turn match upside down.For sure this match Italians are looking a weaker opponent to play against Spain.
With Spaniards,they are looking better team for now.Fabregas and Iniesta are doing great at mid-field.So thats no worry for them.They can capitalize here better compared to the Italy.Also their players upfront at better ones.David Villa and Torres both have been quite a sensation this time for Spain and i am sure they are pulling one goal from this pair.

Its youth versus Experience.Lets see how makes out between the Armadas and mafias.My bet is Spain and they are beating them with 2 goals and conceading none.

While German banged the Scolari’s ass,loser captain Mr Ronaldo still talked much than the German coach.His pathetic talk indicated that he will soon settle at Madrid which is his childhood dream.But hey there,i tell u something.Its nothing to do with your dream.Two years it was same.Real did wanted him that time then why didnt he move or showed signs of his dream.Right now its his image and his character that are speaking which is no wonder why great people leave United.Lets stop it here and move on to the Euros.

Was Turkey’s game enough to push my adrenaline ? Hell no.Thats what i felt after watching 116(yea the last 4 minutes seemed worthless to me) minutes of nerve wrecking game tiring and breaking ever Dutch men present at Basel.Except for one.The magician and the sole architect of Russians this year’s triumph.Hiddick’s sense and the old Dutch tactic pained in Holland’s soul after they astonishingly stroke first goal to this year’s highest goal scoring team.Its no surprise that he takes teams so long and so well.Last year it was Aussies and this time its Russians.

Not like all other coaches who have big mouths to talk,Hiddick said “After the game I don’t want to talk in big words but it’s a miracle. It’s super what the guys did, super”
Proving why Russia won, he continued saying “I said ‘Hey, we can do it’ because tactically, physically, technically this Russian team is a better team than the Dutch team. You see the passing and the controlling. So we were dominant and I am very happy and very proud of this team.”

Beside all of these stuff with off-pitch topics there was something very noticeable and attractive.Russia’s win was indeed a team effort but their main highlight for me remained Andrei Arshavin .It wasn’t only the goal that made the complete difference but his will to pull out something out of nothing.His performance for tonight’s game can be surely ranked into Euro’s best games.

Tonight’s the last quarter final match paired between Italy and Spain.I will be speaking about them a lot in my next post.Till the time i prepare my little post u can start wondering whether Arshavin can beat Ronaldo ? :)

Croatia taking Germany was a feast.And to add more Holland’s 3-0 victory did all fun for me.My team Portugal also did really good.This time i am supporting Porto thanks to Steve Mclaren that i had to pick one between Holland and Portugal.They are doing great this season.And also that Boy RONALDO.More or less Porto is depending on him heavily.As they have their next match against Switzerland i would love to see him on bench and stay fit for the quarters.Besides that,France was a real surprise.They were lame in their both games and hardly managed to register their first win.If they want to win expose Benzema and leave O’Herny on Bench thats the only way.

Thats all for now, i will catch u guys with another post after quarters .

Off i go.

The second one was Portugal v/s Turkey.

This performance by Scolari’s team made a clear statement that this time its even better stuff from them.All time they counter attacked it was ending with keeper or post.Had that pole moved 2 inches wider the tally would have been in double figures.Ronaldo was a the highlight of the game.This game is now going lure Real even more and. Never seen a player so focused on the pitch even after being surrounded by media all time.His free-kick in first half, could have done it all for Porto had the ball flied a little faster.I hope he stays with United for long time.Finally managed to drag a goal in 60th minute.Fine play by Nuno Gomes opened the Turk defense and pepe salvaged the chance.Second was then added late in 90 minutes by substitute Raul Meireless ending the game with a clean sheet.

Going kick to the tournament.Looking from from the matches at Euro.

Euro will be kicked off with match between Czech and home team Switzerland.Venue is their home ground Basel and the time is 1800 GMT.My bets are going to be on Czech for sure.Their last year was a good one.And this year too they managed wins against massive teams.Its sure win.May be 2-0 or 3-0.

Second one will be Porto and Turkey.Quite competitive and unusual fixture.Havent seen much of Turkish players and also their games.So it will be surprising package for me.Also looking forward for Ronaldo after his had minor injury with his ankle.

This time teams have been careless with their players. A lot of main team players are down including my favorite Cannavaro.

Also United’s 5 players are in this tournament,so will follow Serb’s and Porto’s fixture.

The remaining fixture for Euro 2008 can be found here

I dont now how long but yeah England finally wins .NO BECKS and NO TERRY nor LAMPARD and still we manage a comfortable win.It was also a day which celebrated 50th anniversary of Munich Crash.The players did honor the Munich victims with their one minute silence.It wasn’t whole one minute though and that was something bothered me.

The game was eagerly waited as we all know the strength of Capello and how successful he has been these years around.The goals came from Jenas(Joe Cole can also be given credit to this one) and S.W.Phillips.Both efforts coming from Chelsea Dolls(sort of a rare sight).

Anyways we had Rooney,Hargreaves,Ferdinand, and Brown playing for the team.Carrick might have missed this one after showing consistently poor performance with United’s recent game and the reason for J.O Shea’s absence…. well i dont know.The mid-field is the strongest part of English team and will enjoy this even more when Carrick returns back.

With all it was a good performance with English lads.We all were awaiting some coach who has authority rather than supremacy.Euro’s wont be England’s way but we all know can pray for WC.

PS:Some bad news and good one too.The bad one first.Ronaldo’s side losses against Italy and the good one is that our scouser Friend MR F.Torres has injured himself with a Hamstring injury :) (Dont bother as this wont affect us either way.)