Brazil at the top of the world - once again, India collapse to quality short pitched bowling - once again, Lalgarh falls - once again

Yesterday was an eventful day.

Brazil were at it again:
The magicians worked their magic around the upstarts and got back from a 2-0 deficit to triumph in the confed cup finals.
I said once again the samba boys play their music. Besides the match what did I notice. The Brazilians (several of them) took off their yellow jerseys after the match and showed off their faith in Jesus. The vests they wore carried messages like "I love Jesus" and "I belong to Jesus".

India succumbed to genuine short stuff
Teams have been working on the drawing boards and in the nets. The Calypso kids make the Indian batters dance to their chin music and the much talked about replacements of Sehwag, Sachin, Dravid and Lakshman fall like nine pins.
Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall once again I say. Funny for an attack that did not even have a Fidel Edwards.
Do the Indians have a plan? Not that it is visible. The batters come and go as if it is normal to be out for a duck and bowlers have no set plan. The captain played a good knock with the bat (saving grace) for some insipid captaincy since the last few months. Time he took a break I feel.

Lalgarh has fallen - Naxals beware there is no future for your kind of politics
The days of glamour associated with organized crime is slowly getting over. Sri Lanka has shown us the way and it is really heartening to note that instead of playing politics over the issue the cetral government has really worked hand in hand with the state government. If dirty politics had dictated this was a good opportunity for them to add fuel to fire. The fact that they decided to use the fire brigade instead speaks volumes about the maturity of the present leadership. (handng over the ID card project to Nandan Nilekani is another sign of mature politics). Now that the maoist are on the run we can say that Naxals are on the backfoot.
Kanu Sanyal never again.

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END - SPAIN LOSE WHEN LEAST EXPECTED = CONFEDERATION CUP FOOTBALL

Hello,
Yesterday i saw a game that had Spain written all over it except for brief moments in between when USA squeezed some minutes for themselves and scored two fabulous goals.

Several things happened:

• Spain's unbeaten record of 35 games came to an end. Seems apt as they share this record with the best team in world football i.e.Brazil.

• Spain's record of consecutive wins was halted at 15.

• The last appearance by a USA team in a major final was the Regional CONCACAF cup in 2007 which they won. In international competitions they seems to do well in the confederation cup as they have third place finishes in 1992 and 1999. This is their first appearance in the finals.

All good things come to an end.

Spain played fabulous free flowing attacking football but failed to penetrate the strong and dogged defense put up by USA.

Bad luck Spain. Thank you for the entertainment.

Manoj