Vijay Narayanan on May 10th, 2008

In trying to suggest stupid things with a view to change the rules after the game has been played, Avram Grant seems no different from Hillary Clinton.
Chelsea, the football club that is, are so boring this season, in that both their football and their manager are boring. At least when Jose Mourinho was around, folks [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on May 4th, 2008

As feared earlier, the Chennai Super Kings are faring poorly without the Aussies in the line-up. Two successive defeats, stemming from paltry totals, have temporarily derailed the Kings. Come on Chennai! Bring home the pride!

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Vijay Narayanan on May 3rd, 2008

While the 2007-08 season has been one of the closest fought in recent years in the Premier League with regard to the top three, the relegation battle has been terribly interesting as well.
This isn’t new. A couple of seasons ago, we witnessed Bryan Robson’s West Brom miraculously survive the relegation dog-fight by jumping from 20th [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 30th, 2008

Thinking about yesterday’s game, it is tough not to make a particular comparison. I have already alluded to how Park Ji-Sung, the Korean midfielder was a lion on the pitch against Barcelona. The following video, a compilation of some of Park’s contributions last night, reiterates that view.
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 29th, 2008

In 1999, when Manchester United were playing the second leg of their semi-final tie versus Juventus away at the Stadio Delle Alpi, it required their captain Roy Keane to produce arguably the best performance ever by a player wearing United’s colours to propel them into the final at the Nou Camp. Keane has moved on. [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 29th, 2008

The Super Kings beat the Deccan Chargers to extend their run to 4 games! Rock on, Chennai!
Lefties & T20
Selva has an interesting observation about whether left-handed batsmen have an advantage in Twenty20 cricket. One possible explanation, if this hypothesis were found true, is that most bowlers are naturally suited to bowl to right handers. In [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 27th, 2008

One of the nicest things about the Indian Premier League is that the Chennai team lead the pack now. Still the only unbeaten team in the league, the Kings of Chennai rock!
Incidentally, I thought the Mumbai Indians would do better than lose four in a row.

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Vijay Narayanan on April 18th, 2008

After months of anticipation, the Indian Premier League kicked off today with a meek surrender by the Bangalore Royal Challengers, whose batting was neither royal, nor seemed like posing any challenge to the others teams in the league. Kolkata, in contrast, turned out to be awesome (though I am not impressed by their team name).
It [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on April 14th, 2008

While United are still rejoicing over Owen Hargreaves’ free kick, Emile Heskey turns home a cross to hand Chelsea a draw that is just as good as a defeat! Four games to go; five points ahead; the title seems to fit ever so snugly into United’s bag.

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Vijay Narayanan on April 13th, 2008

In cricket, so often we see a shot played when the ball races to the fence, and no one needs to move - not the batsmen, nor the fielders. Often we hear commentators say, “Ah, a stand and deliver shot! No one moved.”
In football, one hardly comes across such moments. The game is always in [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on March 23rd, 2008

Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, said earlier this week that Javier Mascherano was the new Roy Keane. In attempting to live up to his manager’s expectations, the Argentinian failed rather badly, by evoking only the bad side of the former United captain. Mascherano got himself sent off in the first half.
Liverpool fans would have you [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on March 14th, 2008

Last week, I had ended a post looking forward to the Champions League draws by predicting that United could draw Roma again in the quarterfinals of the Champions League this year. And that this would settle all doubts about whether the draws are doctored. Surely now, this confirms everything.
The pick of the draw though is [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on March 9th, 2008

The pain of enduring Portsmouth knock United out of the FA Cup was allayed by watching Barnsley dump Chelsea out of the competition a few hours later. But it was joy unbounded today as Wigan held Arsenal to a draw, so United retake the League by battering the Rams next weekend!
Portsmouth can now be called [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on March 5th, 2008

For the second successive year, English teams are meeting with increased success in the UEFA Champions League. United, Arsenal and Chelsea are through already to the quarterfinals, and Liverpool look set to join them in a week’s time.
While English football, in general, is moving from one crisis to another (the national side’s poor form, a [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on February 19th, 2008

Avram Grant is one of the stories of the season in English football.
Most people expected Chelsea to implode after Jose Mourinho’s acrimonious departure from the club. On the contrary, Grant has been some kind of a calming influence at Stamford Bridge, with only two losses and five draws in the League since taking over from [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on February 16th, 2008

Manchester United’s ripping apart of Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup today is the kind of clinical performance that has been lacking from the Reds over the past fortnight. With Ronaldo and Giggs not even featuring on the teamsheet, and Scholes, Tevez and Saha on the bench, United’s task seemed tougher than [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on February 4th, 2008

Vendor on the train hawking cheap body odour remover, Monday after SuperBowl…
This is no New York Giants deal… it’s a body odour steal!

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Vijay Narayanan on January 25th, 2008

Gabby Logan eulogizes Sir Alex Ferguson in this article in The Times, drawing our attention to the fact that the Scot has, over the years, transformed himself into an elderly statesman of the English Premier League, a voice of reason that the footballing fraternity would miss once he eventually chooses to retire.
In his 22 [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 28th, 2007

India are chasing 499 for victory. We have two days to get there, to rewrite Test history. But one man can write a script totally unexpected - Rahul Dravid.
At stumps on day 3, Dravid was batting on 3 off 30 deliveries, a scoring rate well above that in the previous inning, where he managed to [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 16th, 2007

… look the best team currently, most likely to win the League this year. Of course, Manchester United will win it nevertheless.

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