Chelsea Kit for Season 2010/11

The next season's kit designs of Chelsea FC had been released by the official site a few days ago.The 2010-2011 season Chelsea FC adidas home kit pays tribute to their veteran supporters - the Chelsea pensioners, who are famed for their red coats, with the inclusion of a red trim on their traditional blue strip.

Here's the launch video. You can also watch it here.

April 2009: Why I Missed my Farewell...

Aaah, a post that has been a long time coming. As mentioned in the title, it's been almost a year! For an entire year, I have repented, cried, regretted that day, and blamed everyone i possibly could for what happened. Hopefully writing about it will put my mind at peace...

I don't remember the exact dates, except that SPREE, the college's intra-college sports fest, had been held a few days earlier(10th to 13th). The football team had lost in the semis, and everything was behind us. The next big event was the Farewell, one of the last opportunities to save a few memories with not only friends and buddies, but the entire batch.

A couple of days after the semi finals, I noticed a weird stiffness in my right leg. I tried to shake it off and put my mind to more important affairs, such as selecting a suit for the big occasion. My dad had presented me a beautiful Park Avenue double-breasted blazer, and I was looking forward to don it over a deep blue shirt and tie. (Those among you who scoff at the idea of a guy thinking about such matters, I can only turn my nose up to you, huff, puff, and say, go get a metropolitan life.)

Two more days later, my right leg began hurting, rather, my socks seemed too tight all of a sudden. It turned out that my calf had swollen quite a lot. It wasn't pleasant, I tell you. Soon, I was limping, and I had my mom put a bowl of hot soup on my leg to soothen the muscles underneath and reduce the pain. Next morning, under the insistence of my mom, I took a trip to the dreaded Medical Center in the campus.

Now I don't want to trash the medical center here, however, the doctor examined my leg, and told me that due to my injury (which I had incurred during the semis), an infection had taken over my legm and the only way to remove it was via surgery.

I was shifted to the SMRC, where they placed me under anesthesia, and finally cleared the infection. i will not make a big deal about the actual surgery, but it was the first time I had ever been drugged, and for a while, apparently I jerked about, unable to come out of it's influence, quite scaring my poor mum.

When I woke up, I had a crater in my right leg, around two inches long and an inch wide, and an inch deep. Now I'm sure many people have suffered much worse than me, but the ability to see bone through my wound quite shocked me.

Long story short, I was transferred back to the campus medical center in a couple of days, and was asked to take complete rest (with the medicines, of course) for a few days. And guess what - I missed my farewell.

I still remember that day - me fighting with the doctor that I didn't feel much pain, that I would be fine, and that I would head right back if I felt any discomfort at all. But he was adamant - the nincompoop was probably under the assumption that I would be posing for photographs with the hole in my leg as the centerpiece. I was already a day scholar, and missed my friends a lot - and then this fool would not let me get the one chance to meet all my batchmates at once for one last time.

To this day, I still cringe when I think about the hole - and the next one month, when i had to get the thing cleaned every single morning, the searing white pain, and the hobbling around after that. I even had to give an exam in the condition. When I confide in someone about this, they give me a sympathetic look, and assure me that I'll grow out of it. To which I always reply, When your life is as screwed up as mine, when you'd give anything to be normal and not considered a member of an alien species (I am the only non-hosteler in campus),when you miss the hostel life as much as I do, only then will you understand the ordeal that I am going through.

Well, maybe compared to a lot of other people, maybe my life isn't THAT screwed up, but to me, it seems so, and anyone who wishes to know the whole story, will have to wait - I only have the courage to talk about ONE bad experience at a time.

The Goalkeeper

Ever stood on a freshly watered football ground? The grass smells the best from there, after all. You get down on a knee, and feel the dew in your fingers. Your studs leave skid marks along the greens as you run. You stand up, put on your gloves, and get ready to man the goalposts in the crisp summer morning air. Your sweat smells sweet to you. The shouts of players makes perfect sense to you, as you have the widest perspective of the game on the field from your vantage point. You can make out the other team's strategy, their danger men, and instruct your teammates thus. The swoosh of the ball sounds like a melody which famous musicians long gone used to describe. The smoothness of it all, the beauty of it all, hits you when you suddenly spring to your toes to make a comfortable snatch out of mid air. That's the best part about goalkeeping - the surprised and shocked looks that I get to see on the faces of the strikers - how for a whole glorious moment, he had almost imagined himself whipping off his shirt in celebration - only to see me block his precious effort with a gem of an interception. I never knew you could have so much satisfaction in stealing that glory. In the entire 90 minutes, you have made contact with the ball only maybe a dozen times - but you are still wiping your brows at the end of the psychological strain you have gone through. Among the stifled murmurs and loud breathing, you understand the significance of being the last line of defence - and the first line of offence.

Barca-Arsenal 2010: An Analysis

Anyone who argues that Arsenal were not outclassed by against Barcelona should take a look at the passing statistics over the two legs.

If you can appreciate this, EIGHT Barca players passed the ball more than the first Arsenal players, and the list includes Puyol, a defender.

In both the legs, Xavi proves his masterclass. All hail!!

Football Ups and Downs this Season

Ok, firstly, though I have named this post "UPS and Downs, I am not going to be talking about the ups so much. Secondly, this is just a reply I gave on our daily public chatroom (Outlook ,actually), proving I have way too much time on my hands. Thirdly, I have written only about a few teams, there's a lot more that happened during this season that I couldn't fill in. Fourthly, this post comes as a dirct request by Jazzz, a die-hard ManU fan. And lastly, I don't mind discussions and arguments about my statements here, though I concede I am not at all a trained manager, nor am I an experienced veteran of the game. I shall not pretend to be a guru or a pundit.

The next few lines have been directly pasted verbatim (expletives deleted :) )from my mail, so if you are one of those who scorns at absence of formal introductions to a post, you can scoff all you want.)

Ob.

1. Real Madrid makes the first mistake by buying both Kaka and Ronaldo. You only need one string puller in each team, not two. Ronaldo supported the entire ManU framework himself, and Kaka did the same for AC Milan. Plus, Real didn’t shore up their defences.
2. ManC did the mistake of buying all strikers/offensive midfielders, while their only notable signing in defence has been Lescott from Everton. However, while the team’s attack looks magnificent on paper, the defence is average at best. Indeed, if not for the heroics of Shay Given, ManC would have been in a much tougher position.
3. Liverpool’s biggest mistake was letting Alonso go. Alonso was the only player in the team (apart from Gerrard) who, arguably, had an amazing positional sense of play. His long range passes were as good as Gerrard’s if not better. He was also a workhorse to the core. Benitez has made the mistake of playing Lucas time and again, coz, Lucas is after all the King of the Side Pass. Babel has been an overrated disaster, N’gog is just as bad (and he cheats), once Torres and Gerrard out of the equation then Liverpool looks like a team worth fourteenth/fifteenth place. Liverpool’s other weakness is their medical team. Torres’ injury is getting bad, he has to consult a specialist now. Remember what happened to Harry Kewell(or the other Australian guy – I forget his name)?
4. ManU is ob too dependant on Rooney, and I don’t care how many hardened critics are against me. 34 goals in the season (compared to Tevez’s 28, Drogba’s 32, and Messi’s 40 ), with the second highest scorer for the ManU team being own goals (13), with Berbatov and Owen again looking ordinary. I feel Macheda should have been given more time on the field. Capeelo will nt be too happy to see a half-fit Rooney turning out on the pitch for ManU.
5. Chelsea, when it bought players in 2004 at the beginning of the Russian regime, made sure it had a balanced team. Not only did Mourinho pick out African players, who till then had been overlooked, but he gelled it into an efficient unit which neither ManC nor Real have managed to do. But Chelsea’s weakness lies in age. Most of the senior players are still from the Mourinho administration, and awere comprehensively outwitted against inter Milan in the UCL. Ancelotti, at best, has had to carry a good team forward. Even while in Italy, Ancelotti (though well regarded for his European antics), was less aggressive than Mourinho. What with Terry’s and Cole’s antics off the field as well, Chelsea needs to not only buck up it’s youth ranks, but also get their focus right (which they are hopefully doing now).
6. Arsenal, is probably the most kicked about team in the League right now. With horrific injuries to Ramsey and co., no doubt Arsene feels victimized. Also, Rosicky and Eduardo came in with a bang, but have not been the same since their respective injuries. Arsenal lost 3 players in the Barca 1st leg, all 3 out till end of season. Now Gallas out for season too I think. Vermaelen created a buzz initially, but his defensive positioning is up for interrogation. Even in the box, Arsenal lack height to make their wingers any effective. Although Walcott has been quite good as a sub (he runs 100m in just over 10sec), he is just that – an impact sub. Nasri and Fabregas are extremely good, though. Arsenal also has had some difficult scheduling, playing 15 matches in 2 months over the winter.
7. Portsmouth? Well, with it’s problems with administration, not paying players’ wages on time, changing managers, they got relegated earlier this week…but then won against Tottenham yesterday to set up a FA Final date with Chelsea on May 15th! A fairytale indeed.


Chelsea is on 74 points facing Bolton on Tuesday, ManU on 72 having played a game more, Arsenal has Tottenham midweek. ManC is 4th comfortably, though Tottenham still have a chance. But Tottenham has games against ManU, ManC, Arsenal and Chelsea left. Tricky fixtures for ManU and Chelsea include Stoke, Liverpool and Tottenham. An intense 4-5 weeks coming up, gentlemen. Buckle up.

(As written on April 12th, Monday)