Eventful day at the World Cup

Czech & Croatia out of the world cup. Boo hoo:( I was really impressed by Croatia. Its a pity that they couldn't get the better of the 'Soccaroos' (Aussies, for the uninformed). So now, we have 2 teams who have qualified for the knockouts for the very first time - the other being Ghana. I am glad that Ghana defeated the US. Now they will realize what 'World Championship' is. Actually, it won't make any difference to most of the ignorant Americans.

Ronaldo at last came good and scored 2 goals in Brazil's 4-1 win over minnows Japan. His world cup goal tally is now 14, equalling that of Gerd Muller of Germany. One more and football fans will remember him for a long time to come. Not too long though since I predict that another German sensation Miroslav Close will overtake his tally in the next world cup, if not this one.

In other news, Iran sacked their football coach. Good thing, they didn't execute him for his 'incompetence'; hee hee.

Yellow Yellow, dirty fellow

This used to be a prank we used to play when we were kids. One of the kids would ask an unsuspecting kid to say 'Yellow Yellow' and when the latter said that, the former would reply 'You're a dirty fellow, sitting on a buffalo'. See how that rhymes!!!

That hardly seems to be the case in sports though. Right now, yellow is on top; literally. I mean the team wearing yellow jerseys are proving to be winners. Take cricket, for instance. The current Limited Overs International champions Australia wear yellow. The Winter Olympics ice-hockey champions Sweden wear yellow. The Superbowl champions (American football) Pittsburgh Steelers wear predominantly yellow (some would argue its gold & black but heck, gold is a yellow metal & while we are on yellow why should we even bother about black!!!) . Even Alonso's team Renault in Formula 1 Grand Prix have a conspicuous yellow streak on them. Now the father of them all; (in keeping with the 'Father's day' spirit here in the US) the football (soccer for the Americans) world champions Brazil wear a yellow jersey.

So my prediction for the football worldcup: The team wearing yellow will win (not counting Sweden, Australia, Ukraine & Ecuador). My heart wants England to win but they don't have yellow unless Beckham & co. decide to dye their hair yellow. Yikes!!!

Sports overload

Most of us are familiar with the term 'information overload'. It is the availability of excessive information and the helplessness of not knowing how to deal with it. This season, most of the sports-loving males of the species Homo sapiens seem to be suffering from the problem of 'sports overload'. For starters, there was the French Open which will soon be followed by Wimbledon. Then every Sunday, there is the familiar sight of Alonso taking the podium (the way Schumacher used to do last year) in the Formula 1 Grand Prix. The gaze of three-fourths of all the Indians is fixed on the heroics (and sometimes the lack of it) of Rahul Dravid & Company in the ongoing cricket tour of the Carribean Islands. To top it all, we have the 'baap' of all sporting events - the football world cup - which will last a month. The whole world will watch the magic of Ronaldinho, Beckham, 'Zizou' etc with bated breath.

Then for all us 'brown asses' here in the US who are also interested in American sports, there are the NBA (Basketball) and Stanley Cup (Ice hockey) finals while the baseball season is in full swing.

What do you do with this overload? Simple. Switch on the TV, invite your friends over, watch the games, have petty arguments and discussions and in general, have fun!!!