Right from the kickoff the European Club dominated the match. They made Mohun Bagan look like kids. Such a matchup, between a powerful international club and the best Indian club, puts things into perspective, which is that Indian football has a long long way to go before it reaches any level of international standards. 

Munich took the lead from the very beginning. The first half saw Ze Roberto score a free kick and as well as a goal by Jan Schlaudraff. Bagan didn’t even manage to make Kahn break a sweat. 

This match was also a farewell for Oliver Kahn’s football career. Oliver Kahn is said to be one of the greatest goalkeepers ever. His achievement can be seen as he captained his team to the FIFA 2006 finals. During the halftime there was a small presentation with lots of mementos. Although Kahn did appear to be a little claustrophobic from the large crowd that had gathered on the stage. I guess everyone was looking for their 2 seconds of fame. 

Soon after the second half began Schlaudraff scored again! This time there were four defenders in his path yet he managed to slip it through. Bagan’s amateur defence could not hold back the german striker. Bagan did manage to get some close shots, but couldn’t quite manage to convert those. 

Then around the last 10 minutes of the game, the german team showed their ugly side with Defender Breno actually kicking Bagan’s Cardozo! After a tackle from the behind by Cardozo, the bayern player got up and kicked his opponent in the chin. And a very visible one at that. This was of course followed by a lot of aggression from both teams. Ultimately, the referee showed the red card to both the players. A sad moment in this otherwise peaceful match. 

The match ended with Bayern Munich trashing the Mohun Bagan 3-0.

Argentina are the winners of the Samsung Champions Trophy Women 2008, after defeating Germany 6-2 in the final held in Mönchengladbach, Germany. If you didn’t read that correctly, Argentina defeated Germany 6-2!

While Germany almost took the lead with a goal from Claudia Burkart in just two minutes of the game, Argentina’s Luciana Aymar wasn’t going to let the game slip from their hands. Germany managed a goal from Janine Beerman, but after that it was just dominated by Argentina. Alejandra Gulla, the all time top goal scorer in Champions Trophy hockey, then scored to make it 2-1 making it 17 strikes to her name. Aymar then created the third goal, after which Gulla scored again. 

Burkart did manage another goal after the halftime, but it wasn’t enough cause Alejandra Gulla managed to complete her hat trick and ultimately, Argentina winning the Champions Trophy 2008.

Netherlands however, made it to Bronze Medal (3rd place) defeating China. Australia got the 5th place leaving Japan with the 6th place. Here is a complete scorecard of the event should you want to check out what happened during the rest of the tournament. 

In the end, tt was Argentina’s day, and they will hope that can take the confidence of winning this event into the Beijing Olympic Games. Argentina have sealed their place in the 2009 Samsung Champions Trophy, and will be joined by World Champions Netherlands and host nation Australia. The winning team at the 2008 Olympic Games plus the two highest finishers in Beijing will complete the line-up.

Need to get your football trivia sharpened up before the matches? The official website of Euro 2008 has put up a nice timeline of the Euro Football tournament. 

They’ve got past players, short summaries of the past tournaments, and a small little photo gallery in a well organised manner. Check it out when you have some free time. 

With less than 11 days to go for the tournament, the buzz is finally starting to get around. Bookmark the Euro 2008 page for updates on the event. 

The world-famous Bayern Munich football team is set to take on Indian club Mohun Bagan in an exhibition tie. Bayern’s visit to the metropolis willpart of a ten-day post-season tour of Asia, according to information posted in the German soccer giants’ website.

“Bayern’s Asian promotional drive has already featured visits to Japan and China, and is now set to incorporate Indonesia and India on a ten-day post-season tour of the region,” the club said. Bengal Peerless is organising the match to be staged at the world’s second largest stadium Yuba Bharati Krirangan with a sitting capacity of 1,20,000. Yes! There’s a lot of football fans in West Bengal and even the IPL is not going to stop this monster.

The Bayern chairman and famed ex-world cupper Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said the club will field a high-quality team, featuring the likes of Mark van Bommel, Martin Demichelis, Lucio, Z Roberto, Daniel van Buyten and Andreas Ottl, together with captain Oliver Kahn. It would be a momentous occasion for the city, the club as also Kahn, as it would be his final match as a professional.

So should every Indian football fan catch this match? Trust me and do not miss this one. 

The match between Bayern Munich and Mohun Bagan airs Live on Zee Sports India on the 27th of May, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. IST. 

The French Open 2008, which began on the 26th of May has so far gone through the phase 1 of the first round and the results are in. Here is the complete schedule of the Roland Garros French Open 2008 for Indian Television.

The matches will be aired Live by Star Sports India with a duration of 8 hours each.
read all »

The 2008 French Open started on a sombre note yesterday as the tournament bade farewell to one of its favourite sons. Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten exited the 2008 French Open in first round, bringing down the curtain on a singles career which saw him claim the French Open title three times.

Kuerten went down in straight sets to Frenchman Paul Henri-Mathieu, losing 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. The Brazillian player’s 2001 victory at the French Open marked the last occasion that the 1st seed won the tournament. Kuerten will now participate in the doubles tournament at Rolland Garros before bowing out of tennis altogether.

Other first round matches at the 2008 French Open saw several top seeds advance, with Novak Djokovic, James Blake, Andy Murray and David Nalbandian all progressing to the second round of the tournament.

Carlos Moya was the only big-name casualty on the first day of the 2008 French Open. The 1998 French Open champion lost a tough five set encounter to Eduardo Schwank 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-7 (1), 4-6, 6-3.

The women’s draw saw two of the favourites for the title progress to the second round, as Serena Williams trounced Ashley Harkleroad 6-2, 6-1 and Ana Ivanovic defeated Sofia Arvidsson 6-2, 7-5.

Result: India won the game 2-1. Full scoreboard and final schedule put up on the SAFF post

This is a big one people. India will be playing Pakisthan. Although the tension between the two nations has eased quite a bit, there is still a thrill in watching a match between these two nations.

Pakistan hasn’t had a strong football team. They haven’t been selected for either the FIFA or the AFC cup, and at the last SAFF cup, they only reached the semi-finals. Star player Zeeshan Rehman is mostly likely not going to play at the game due to an injury so that will surely be a negative. However, they do have Tanveer Ahmed, Adnan Ahmed and let’s not forget, the top goal scorer and captain, Muhammed Essa.

India on the other hand looks very good. They are four time winners of the SAFF cup, been ‘quite there’ at other asian tournaments, and recently, winners of the Nehru Cup 2007. We do still have captain Baichung Bhutia, N.P. Pradeep and others. Although at FIFA ranking 151, it looks only so much better than Pakistan’s FIFA ranking of 161.

Excited? We sure are!

The match airs Live on ESPN India at 4:30 p.m. on the 5th of June 2008.

ESPN has now posted the complete schedule for the Euro 2008 matches. We have taken the trouble to convert those timings for Indian Television so you don’t have to do all the dirty work.

The Euro 2008 tournament will begin with a lot of merryment. The Pre show will begin on 7th June 2008, at 8:30 p.m. IST and will go on for 50 minutes.

This will be followed by a Group A match between Switzerland and Czech Republic at 9:20 p.m. And then a match between Switzerland and Turkey at Geneva, Switzerland at 11:45 p.m.

From hereon the timings of the matches are pretty much fixed. There will be a 20 minute Pre-show at 9:00 p.m. before the game and a 15 minute Post-show after the game. Below is the complete schedule of the Euro 2008 event. 

Update: Star Sports will be broadcasting the clashing matches. read all »

Our buddies over at Go Force India have written a tasty article on Adrian Sutil’s bad luck at the Grand Prix.  

Well, the qualifiers at Monaco didn’t throw anything new at us as far as Force India is concerned, Fisichella & Sutil qualified 19th & 20th respectively or was it the other way around with Sutil 19th? Can’t remember for sure. But raceday sure had something special for Adrian Sutil, the German after 66 laps in the Monaco race was running at 4th with some 7 minutes left in the race, the Force India pit garage was pretty gay, Sutil was driving contentedly for a finish and probably planning how he’ll throw his fist in the air and the celebrations back in the team garage. And well, it just was not to be, the car behind him; the finish Sutil oh so wanted was ruined by the Finnish driver behind him. The Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen lost control at the exit of the tunnel and crashed with Sutil’s Force India car. There was news that Raikkonen did go and apologize to Sutil for spoiling his race but that did not console the German Force India driver. 

What did Sutil have to say about this? Read the rest of the article at Go Force India

So the UEFA Champions League 2008 is over and Manchester United emerged winners. What now? Euro 2008 is still a fortnight away and you have time to kill. 

Lucky for you, some good souls have capped the matches and are sharing them via Torrents. We thought this being an important match we might as well provide a link to download this match. 

Head over to through this link. Hit download Torrent and use a torrent client like uTorrent to get download the match. 

UEFA.Champions.League.2008.Final.Manchester.United.vs.Chelsea.WS

If you are unfamiliar with downloading from torrents, here is a guide that might help you out.

For those who might have missed our post on the Women’s Hockey Champions Trophy, here’s a little update. The matches are nearing the end, which will bring us to the Finals on Tuesday, the 26th of May. 

Currently, the Netherlands, Argentina and Germany having won 2 out of 3 games played, stand high with 6 points each. Australia and China on the other hand sit at the lower end of the table with 4 points each. And lastly, Japan sits at the bottom with 3 points to its name. 

Here’s a semi-detailed score card of what happened these past few days at the Women’s Champions Trophy read all »

Is India going to get any olympic medals this year? First we have the hockey team scandal. Now these two are acting up. The 10 Grand Slam doubles winner pair - Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi - are having communication issues.

Bhupathi says that he is uncomfortable playing with Paes at the Olympics due to the communication gap that has come about between them. They have not been on talking terms for the past few months, and a cold war has erupted between them.

Bhupathi said that this lack of friendship might hinder their ability to get any medals at the Olympics. “It’s too late for Leander and me to play together” said Bhupathi. “Leander and I are the best option for India but we need to go with some kind of preparation. We need to build a team. However, Rohan Bopanna and I are better prepared as a team,” Bhupathi said.

However, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) has ruled out any changes in the team for the Beijing Olympics and said that it’s not up to Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi to decide who goes to the Olympics. Reacting to Bhupati’s letter, AITA said that the two players cannot allow their differences to come in between.

“AITA’s position is extremely clear. We have already nominated their names as a team on February 28,” Khanna said.

Indian Olympic Association General Secretary Randhir Singh said that Khanna spoke to him for a fortnight-long camp before the Olympics. “Anil Khanna spoke to me about a 15-day camp before the Olympics. There is nothing to be reinvented between them. They just need some practice together before the Games,” he said. “They are the best players. They have been the world number one. I request them to play their best for the country. I firmly believe they have a great chance to win a medal in Beijing,” he added.

Bhupathi may have closed the door on their partnership but Leander Paes hasn’t given up hope. Speaking exclusively to CNN-IBN, Leander urged Bhupathi to reconsider his decision not to pair up for the Beijing Olympics.

“I find that Mahesh and myself have lot of differences of opinions off the court but when it comes to on court there is no hiding the fact that we are the best team. I urge Mahesh to reconsider his decision that he has made and to put our differences aside,” he said.

“While people who don’t really understand tennis are willing to force us to play together to win a medal, you will agree that we are not magicians and a medal will not happen just because we step on court. I would prefer to play with Rohan Bopanna in Beijing, we do have a good relationship and we are planning to play a couple of events over the next few months.”

“Lot of this comes as real surprise be it the Olympics comes as a surprise, be it the Davis Cup comes as a surprise - I feel that eight years that we have put together won so many grand slams together, being number one together, its really sad that this is going on and its unfortunate,” Leander said.

Bopanna seems to be quite in demand for the Olympics. Let’s see how this materializes in the coming two months left for the Olympics. We sure hope Bhupathi can get some perspective and patch things up with Paes. The two of them are a terrific duo.