BARCELONA LET DOWN

Hello,

Yesterday, 21/12, was a day I was badly let down by FC Barcelona.

I had waited for this match between FC Barcelona and Kazama of Kuwait for almost a week and arranged for two tickets for my son and myself. The excitement at the ground before the start of the game was extraordinary and it was hard to believe that a crowd of a mere 20,000 could create such a ruckus. We made mexican waves and shouted and clapped to the rythm of the music playing and everyone had their cameras out for the wonderful fireworks. The noise was at its best when the FC Barcelona team with Puyol, Henry, Jeffrey and others made their appearance for the photo shoot.

I was disappointed at not seeing Messi, the magician, but the disappointment was magnified when only Bojan, Milito and Jeffren of the main team made an appearance in the playing eleven.

The pace was slow and during part of the game Kazma managed to keep possession and dominate proceedings. It was infact in line with the proceedings that the game ended in a 1-1 draw with Abdullah of Kazma scoring a wonderful flick goal in the dying minutes of the game.

Abdullah earns himself a place in Kuwaiti folklore.

Thank God I did not pay for the tickets. When I think of the entertainment and fun my son and I had at the stadium I am satisfied that I had the KD 35/= tickets at KD 150/= each it would have really hurt.

Best regards,

Manoj

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