Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong !

"The ball is round, the game lasts ninety minutes and everything else is just theory"

 - Sepp Herberger

Every sports has its spiritual home and England should be the spiritual home for Football. The Premier League(EPL/BPL) has to be the showcase tournament which is unique by its history, quality and colorfulness.

Even glorious things sometimes gets rusted.  The beautiful game in this beautiful league got faded by the big money & machinery. The league became a platform where teams with huge cash brought expensive players and coaches. Those teams maintained the monopoly on the league by same teams winning the league again. Since inception of premier league in 1992, the title has been shared by only 4 teams (Manchester United - 13 times, Chelsea - 4 times, Arsenal - 3 times, Manchester City - 2 titles). Only aberration to this pattern was Blackburn team which joined this elite winners list once.

The premier league got into a vicious cycle of these 4 big teams spending loads of money buying players from around the world. It became a competition where teams with big pockets ended up choosing bigger & better teams. Naturally the advertising, television rights, merchandise etc followed the top teams.

In all this money slugfest, the teams at the bottom of the league barely managed to survive in the league. Without the economic support and without being in major competitions, it became difficult for these teams at the bottom to attract the talent. 

From football fans perspective, the league which was supposed to be an open forum for best football teams got reduced to the half a dozen best rich football teams.

This year's league was almost set in the same mould until Leicester City happened ...

*****

"It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end " - Leonardo Da Vinci

When Leicester City started winning in the initial phase of the league, it was considered a brave act by a team which barely managed to stay away from relegation in last year's league.  If it was up to the media, pundits & the bookies, any expectation from Leicester was impossible. Cue to the 5000:1 odds of them winning the league.

Then something happened..

The Leicester City victories didn't appear to be a fluke. There was a method to these madness. Slowly everybody started sitting up & noticing.

But a shot at winning the league was still a far stretched fantasy.

*****

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get " - Forrest Gump

Like in any sports, there are multiple tiers or levels in Football where players reach the top tier. With 20+ levels and complex hierarchy of leagues, English football can be a maze to navigate for aspiring players. Considering all these, Leicester picking Jamie Vardy is a stunning tale of an aspiring player getting into the top league. Similarly picking of Riyad Mahrez & Konte was a calculated bet. Old war horses like DrinkWater, Huth & Fuchs were picked as well.

But picking of Claudio Ranieri as the coach of the team made lots of eyebrows raise.  It was a second chance for Ranieri in Premier League before being sacked by Chelsea in earlier stint. He was a likable gentle person mostly ending up second but pandits believed it was a disastrous choice for a team which was fighting delegation.

*****

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago " - Warren Buffet

As the winning streak continued in the league, it was getting cleared to everybody that the team is special and they are upto something special. That win over Manchester city & close defeat against Arsenal made it very clear that they are serious contenders. 

With only Tottenham Spurs on their heals, Leicester managed to navigate the final few matches before Spurs drawing Chelsea to make Leicester unreachable on points tally. Thus the inevitable was achieved.

Imagine the plight of fans whose team hardly made it to premium league and was fighting to avoid relegation last season. Imagine what they should be going through now after seeing their team achieve the pinnacle award. Its a dream come true for any fan in any sports !

Understandably the whole Leicester went ecstatic. Everybody has ran out of superlatives to define the wonder run of Leicester.

*****

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness" - John Keats

Why everybody loved this Leicester run ?

To start with, this team brought back the romanticism into football.

Here was a team of players & coach whom everybody had written off and were assembled from obscurity. Here was a team which was going against the establishment and conventional wisdom.Add to that, the tag of 'underdogs' and there was no reason not to like this bunch of Ranieri's caesars.

But lets be honest..if they hadn't played the fearless way they have been doing the whole season, this entire adulation would have sounded hollow. What a glorious display of beautiful game they displayed.

In the era of larger-than-life and megalomanic coaches, here was Claudio Ranieri who always sounded humble and grounded. The Pizza parties, the Turtle-Ninja outings and that lunch with mom..this coach was adorable.

Then who would forgot the now famous "Dilly Ding, Dilly Dong"

*****

"Glory is a heavy burden, a murdering poison, and to bear it is an art. And to have that art is rare " - Oriana Fallaci

Undoubtedly the Leicester win is going to provide hope to every single team in England and all across the world of Football. It would provide new ways for the teams to think and manage their teams. Biggest thing is reinstate the concept that money can't buy the championships.

Some teenager in a remote place and with an unknown club can dream of one day playing for the premier league and probably for his country.

But don't underestimate the empire...

The big rich empire is bound to strike back in next season with more money power !

For Leicester, its a dream and as Ranieri said "Keep dreaming, why wake up".

It will be an interesting Champions league and next season of Premier League.

For now..Leicester is #havingaparty  !!

7 Stages of Hell

There are 7 stages of emotions when handling a disaster

1. Anxious
2. Angry
3. Confused
4. Shocked
5. humiliated
6. Numbed
7. Buried & withdrawn

Stage 1 to 3 is where there is still hope and the fighting instincts are still kicking in.
After Stage 4, its all about the feeling of living dead.

There is a fog covering the thought process & in Stage 7. How & what in the hell happened here?

Did we not read it correctly ? Was it a trust mis-placed ?

7-1

Still searching for words and superlatives. Nearest sporting event on similar proportions was when India did similar suicide by choking in 1996 Cricket world Cup at Kolkata

How in the holy world can a team in the World Cup Semi final gets so horrendous ?
That too it was Brazil.

South American country has its own charm - the land, the people, the beauties and then there is Jogo Bonito (or rather 'was'). What a glorious generation of football magicians they had - Pele, Zico,Ronaldo..Growing up in football fields, its very easy to fall in love with the kind of football played by Brazil.

This time it was Seleçao playing in their own backyard. Oh! And then there was a star stud with innovative hair styles and even better skills on ground.What better setup than hosting & winning the world cup.

Early signs of laboring through the group & knockout stages was waived off assuming team will pick steam for the final two games. Wasn't the Seleçao playing to bury the 1950 ghosts of Maracana ?

Then things started falling in wrong places..the lone warrior Neymar went out with broken vertebra, the captain commited harakiri in most stupid reasons and they were suddenly in front of a well-oiled machinery called Germany.

Those 29 minutes in first half..that killing scoreline
These will haunt forever the team, fans in the stadium and fans watching elsewhere.

It was not about getting defeated. Winning & losing is part of every game. Least expected from such a team on this level of game is a contest - a fighting spirit. A well fought defeat doesn't induce so much pain.

Is it a case of team deflated-crushed under-expectations ? Is that team didn't have any backbone after their man with backbone was out? Or was it simply that Germany were ruthless-professional, grabbing & hobbling like a hungry man on a buffet ?

Don't know..and the analysis and explanations will run for years to come.

But the pain and stages of emotions the fans went through is beyond comprehension.

What better way to erase an bad dream then by creating a brand new disastrous nightmare..

It will take lots of time and faith to come out of this..

And to the people of Brazil...Tears 

To the football player...

When rest of the world is still sleeping & having sweet dreams, you will be already warming up in the ground.

When your friends are busy planning out some fun things to do, you will be busy kicking the ball in between the posts.

Your life is between the two goal posts.

Corners, free-kicks, penalty & injuries are not just words for you. These are living-breathing friends that run with you always.Some of them excite you & some of them you don't want to meet again.

Its just not a ball for you..
Its your canvas to create something magical..

It takes 11 souls like you to stir a nation.

Because of you, finally 32 valiant countries stand apart. Reaching this stage is an accomplishment by itself.

You have brought your country to the greatest sporting event. Sometimes a simple joy is when rest of the world comes to know that there is a country by that name on the globe.

You not only represent yourself but the millions of people from your country. You are the symbol of their aspirations, struggles & opportunities.

Each time you send the ball soaring through the posts, you just assure everything is going to be all right.

Each time you make some magical moves on the field, you inject small dose of belief to the otherwise cynical world.

As it progresses, you see some of the teams start packing up to go back home. It comes to do or die..

It is a test of skills, nerves & more than anything, its a test of beliefs..

And then there will be 'the' team..reaching the pinnacle of the game.
You may be part of it...

Or you may have agonizingly came close to it.
You had battled temptations, hardships & those dreaded injuries..
But this one..it was so near yet so far..that sure will haunt for a while.

But you won't be judged for that.

You will be remembered for all those enthralling minutes you gave yourself on the ground, for all those passes you made, for all those shots, for all those saves you made..

You will be remembered as epitome of skills & powers who gave everything..

Thanks for giving something to cheer about.

This beautiful game is beautiful because of you !

- A Football Fan Forever