Fans!
Have never had so much fun with toilet papers! :D
Equipo Argentino
A neat job at the back from Burdisso, hope he stays if samuel comes in!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Arg vs Mexico Pics
Fans!
Have never had so much fun with toilet papers! :D
Equipo Argentino
A neat job at the back from Burdisso, hope he stays if samuel comes in!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Argentina vs Greece Pics
The resizing by website and further adjustment from my part has the previews in a bad shape. but open the images and they are a bit better! :P and sorry for the delay. Was in an area where there were lots of internet issues for last 4-5 days.
Messi leading the team for the first time
A bit of warmup to run around in circles ;)
Could be the next god!
Albiceleste fans..
Palermo celebrating the goal with Diego and the bench :)
Messi leading the team for the first time
A bit of warmup to run around in circles ;)
Could be the next god!
Albiceleste fans..
Palermo celebrating the goal with Diego and the bench :)
Friday, June 18, 2010
Pics - Argentina vs South Korea
Za-kumi!
With Korean "Red Devils"
A jig...
which ended in this :P
With "The Argentine Appoppan"! :D
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
First taste of a live WC match!
Although i had seen umpteen matches in TV and a few from stadium i didn't know what to expect from my first experience with a WC match. To be honest, the quality of football in an average during World Cup has been lower than that of club matches from Europe one is used to and it has taken the festivity surrounding the event to make it up for that lack of quality.
But quality of match was the last thing in my tensed mind and of course, a match involving Argentina never lacks quality (at least for me :P). As we reached the stadium premises the atmosphere became really lively with a sea of blue and white all around. Fans groups, most of them with huge Argentine flags were busy singing the popular songs about the Albiceleste. Some of them took the opportunity to get a click with people from other countries. Some were still busy with last bit of shopping for the match in the FIFA shops and a few were busy following the South Korea Greece match in big screen. We roamed around a bit as there was still more than couple of hours for the match to start and got into action soon , going around and getting clicked with diff people and banners :D
My ticket was in the upper tier and on our way up, we met an appoppan ( read 'old man' ) from Argentina who was so happy to see ppl from India following his national team. He did his bit introducing us to all his friends there and sharing his excitement about fans from India. And yes, the question came, What about the Indian national team :P There is an interesting article about this question which you should go through.
The first glimpse of pitch gave a very different look from the modest pictures i had seen of Ellis park and it was a brilliant view even though from up top. Some of the fan groups were distributing plastic covers to be blown in the blue and white tubes and the whole hour before the match was spent cheering players during warm up and clicking pics.The passion for game was at a different level, a lady with an infant who travelled from Argentina, a man on crutches with a broken leg from Argentina, climbing all the way up the stadium. Seeing all these, i know this is not going to be my last World Cup :)
The match started and it was non-stop action as Argentina created chances at will. The goal from corner was a bit of dejavu from the 2002 WC opener of Argentina vs Nigeria when batistuta scored from corner. Abusing refrees for 'wrong' calls has never been this fun as hundreds of fans near you join you in doing so :) Messi, man i can never do justice to what i saw from him that day with my writing skills :P He seemed to run at the Nigerian defense at will with success except for once or twice through out the whole match.And it was a treat to watch :) Everyone would stand up the moment messi touched the ball with a sense of expectation which was palpable
As we kept missing chances, the crowd grew impatient and the free-kicks/corners for Nigeria in second half were greeted with loud roars from vuvuzela (believe me, it doesn't sound like the buzz of a bee when you hear it in person. in fact it took me a mail from a friend to realize it sounded like a bee in TV :P ) Most of the Argentinean crowd was relaxed, but me and my brother were sitting on edge of our seats as the score remained 1-0. As the final whistle blew, it was an end to the tense few finals minutes and the joy of a first world cup experience was manifolded with the taste of Argentine victory.
On our way back, we met our Argentinean appoppan again and through our continued 'spanglish' dumb charades we shared our joy and promised to meet during Argentina's next match. We met another Argentine who translated some other songs for us and as we walked outside the stadium it was a mini-pooram outside with almost a kerala style chenda vadyam and songs to accompany them. That most of the fans were drunk ( i didn't know beer could have so much of effect on ppl! ) made it even more fun as we savoured this last bit of the proceedings of one of the most enthralling days in our life.
On the sad side-effects of this match, watching a high intensity match from stadium makes watching them in TV very very boring. No, this is not cheap jaada :P, it's something that makes the wait for the next match in stadium even better :)
But quality of match was the last thing in my tensed mind and of course, a match involving Argentina never lacks quality (at least for me :P). As we reached the stadium premises the atmosphere became really lively with a sea of blue and white all around. Fans groups, most of them with huge Argentine flags were busy singing the popular songs about the Albiceleste. Some of them took the opportunity to get a click with people from other countries. Some were still busy with last bit of shopping for the match in the FIFA shops and a few were busy following the South Korea Greece match in big screen. We roamed around a bit as there was still more than couple of hours for the match to start and got into action soon , going around and getting clicked with diff people and banners :D
My ticket was in the upper tier and on our way up, we met an appoppan ( read 'old man' ) from Argentina who was so happy to see ppl from India following his national team. He did his bit introducing us to all his friends there and sharing his excitement about fans from India. And yes, the question came, What about the Indian national team :P There is an interesting article about this question which you should go through.
The first glimpse of pitch gave a very different look from the modest pictures i had seen of Ellis park and it was a brilliant view even though from up top. Some of the fan groups were distributing plastic covers to be blown in the blue and white tubes and the whole hour before the match was spent cheering players during warm up and clicking pics.The passion for game was at a different level, a lady with an infant who travelled from Argentina, a man on crutches with a broken leg from Argentina, climbing all the way up the stadium. Seeing all these, i know this is not going to be my last World Cup :)
The match started and it was non-stop action as Argentina created chances at will. The goal from corner was a bit of dejavu from the 2002 WC opener of Argentina vs Nigeria when batistuta scored from corner. Abusing refrees for 'wrong' calls has never been this fun as hundreds of fans near you join you in doing so :) Messi, man i can never do justice to what i saw from him that day with my writing skills :P He seemed to run at the Nigerian defense at will with success except for once or twice through out the whole match.And it was a treat to watch :) Everyone would stand up the moment messi touched the ball with a sense of expectation which was palpable
As we kept missing chances, the crowd grew impatient and the free-kicks/corners for Nigeria in second half were greeted with loud roars from vuvuzela (believe me, it doesn't sound like the buzz of a bee when you hear it in person. in fact it took me a mail from a friend to realize it sounded like a bee in TV :P ) Most of the Argentinean crowd was relaxed, but me and my brother were sitting on edge of our seats as the score remained 1-0. As the final whistle blew, it was an end to the tense few finals minutes and the joy of a first world cup experience was manifolded with the taste of Argentine victory.
On our way back, we met our Argentinean appoppan again and through our continued 'spanglish' dumb charades we shared our joy and promised to meet during Argentina's next match. We met another Argentine who translated some other songs for us and as we walked outside the stadium it was a mini-pooram outside with almost a kerala style chenda vadyam and songs to accompany them. That most of the fans were drunk ( i didn't know beer could have so much of effect on ppl! ) made it even more fun as we savoured this last bit of the proceedings of one of the most enthralling days in our life.
On the sad side-effects of this match, watching a high intensity match from stadium makes watching them in TV very very boring. No, this is not cheap jaada :P, it's something that makes the wait for the next match in stadium even better :)
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Argentina vs Nigeria
Match tickets - cheap jaada only :P
With fellow fans :)
A wave from Diego :D
Messi-boy as locals call him here :)
Golaasssoooo.........
With fellow fans :)
A wave from Diego :D
Messi-boy as locals call him here :)
Golaasssoooo.........
Friday, June 11, 2010
Bafana Bafana
Turn on any TV or radio channel, its all i've been hearing for the past 4 days - Bafana Bafana ( which means something like "bhai-bhai" according to our host and not exactly "the boys" as wiki puts it), perhaps the sound of vuvuzela ( which you develop a liking inspite of the awful first impression it makes with the screeching noise ) is the only thing i have heard more after landing here!
A stroll in the neighborhood earlier in the day gave me a taste of what was to come. Every one in Yellow of bafana bafana. The color is so similar to the yellow of brazil that it took sometime for me to stop hating it :P As the day went by you could feel the excitement and the sound of vuvuzela grew louder. One starts to feel just for the sake of this atmosphere bafana bafana has to win. I never imagined i would sit in a hotel cheering for them, but there i was sitting there with a bunch of natives, many who were watching football for first time.
Not having much to cheer about bafana's play in the first half, the loudest cheer came for a mecixan yellow card and for bafana's goal keeper Khune. Chants of "Khune, khune" sounded more like a cussword we keralites are used to and i could hardly contain my smile :P Second half brought about much better from both sides and it was a awesome experience to be in middle of the crowd when bafana score the opening goal. Almost everyone ( including a guy heavier than tony :D ) dancing and cheering, its something i had never seen before even when Sachin scored the double hundered! Missing several more chances it was sad indeed to watch them walk off with a draw, but the crowd was still happy. You get the feeling that they didnt expect such a good perofrmance from them given their poor performances in recent past.
Although it would be nice for bafana to stay past the group stages, i hope the atmosphere here remains as vibrant come what may happen and this would be a world cup to remember :)
As i wait for the cab to take me to my first World Cup match, my favourites the albiceleste's taking on the super eagles i am feeling the goosebumps.
Couldnt take pics yesterday as the place hardly had proper lighting. Will try to post some pics after today's match
Vamos Argentina!!
A stroll in the neighborhood earlier in the day gave me a taste of what was to come. Every one in Yellow of bafana bafana. The color is so similar to the yellow of brazil that it took sometime for me to stop hating it :P As the day went by you could feel the excitement and the sound of vuvuzela grew louder. One starts to feel just for the sake of this atmosphere bafana bafana has to win. I never imagined i would sit in a hotel cheering for them, but there i was sitting there with a bunch of natives, many who were watching football for first time.
Not having much to cheer about bafana's play in the first half, the loudest cheer came for a mecixan yellow card and for bafana's goal keeper Khune. Chants of "Khune, khune" sounded more like a cussword we keralites are used to and i could hardly contain my smile :P Second half brought about much better from both sides and it was a awesome experience to be in middle of the crowd when bafana score the opening goal. Almost everyone ( including a guy heavier than tony :D ) dancing and cheering, its something i had never seen before even when Sachin scored the double hundered! Missing several more chances it was sad indeed to watch them walk off with a draw, but the crowd was still happy. You get the feeling that they didnt expect such a good perofrmance from them given their poor performances in recent past.
Although it would be nice for bafana to stay past the group stages, i hope the atmosphere here remains as vibrant come what may happen and this would be a world cup to remember :)
As i wait for the cab to take me to my first World Cup match, my favourites the albiceleste's taking on the super eagles i am feeling the goosebumps.
Couldnt take pics yesterday as the place hardly had proper lighting. Will try to post some pics after today's match
Vamos Argentina!!
Monday, June 7, 2010
20 years of pain..
I sit here in aiport with a long wait of 5 hours before me. I want to start somewhere, let it be with what i have gone through every other 4th year.
1990..
It all started 20 years back, when i saw a little man walk shaking his head in disbelief with tears in his eyes. Eventhough i knew little about football or who that man was, i felt sad, atleast a bit, or so i remember :P Little did i know that that the feeling would be a fixture every 4 year when World Cup comes and sooner or later Argentina exits from it.
1994..
After an impressive performance against Greece in the first match, Maradona turned villian for the first time with his failed drug tests. Although Argentina limped into the quarters, they fell to Hagi and his Romanian team. Thus the team which was better than the cup winning team of 1986 and finalists of 1990, which promised so much ended up delivering nothing different
1998..
Yet another world cup and another year of being one among favourites. An easy group which included eventual dark horse croatia was tamed quite easily and things looked good. Argentina vs england, one of the most exciting matches in world cup which i had seen, ( if i include the last half hour of commentary over phone from my friend as lightning and rain threw my place into darkness ) it certainly looked like our year, only for berkamp to break my heart with a gem of a goal. Now that i think of it, for some time, for years actually, i never appreciated how good the goal was , given it only brought worst of the memories, a bloody blow with just few minutes left in the match. Crossbar trembling from batistuta's shot, ortega getting sent off as he lost his control taking all those kicks, berkamp scoring from that same freekick, i felt nothing could be worse.
As i write about the 98' cup it occured to me, the memories are not vague anymore, they are clear and more painful too
I had a wierd superstition this time. I should remain silent for the whole match or argentina would loose :P The silent me, asking my brother to do so and my parents wondering what's happening with me. Atleast some memory which bring smile! :D
2002..
I waited in anticipation for this one as argentina landed in the group of death. Winning the first match 1-0 against nigeria was nothing more than a relief. And things got worse from there on as argentina failed to convert the domination in possesion to loose narrowly against england and drew against sweden to crash out. I was travelling back from home to college as the argentina crashed out against sweden and may be, not having to watch it reduced the agony.
2006..
Argentina landed as the favourites for 2006 and the win against serbia & montengro especially the cambiasso goal will remain etched in my memory. hopes were at an all time high after that match. Cursing Pekerman when he didnt bring on messi with his last substitution and Heinze for germanys goal, i couldnt bear to watch the shootout. As i sat in my room, away from my friends my week old mobile just about escaped my wrath as just that moment i realized that i was being stupid :P
It will certrainly be a different experience this time with a chance to see things from so close. And even though logic tells me the little man in tears who made me feel sad all those years back will bring tears this time with his madness, i hope that things would end differently this time
1990..
It all started 20 years back, when i saw a little man walk shaking his head in disbelief with tears in his eyes. Eventhough i knew little about football or who that man was, i felt sad, atleast a bit, or so i remember :P Little did i know that that the feeling would be a fixture every 4 year when World Cup comes and sooner or later Argentina exits from it.
1994..
After an impressive performance against Greece in the first match, Maradona turned villian for the first time with his failed drug tests. Although Argentina limped into the quarters, they fell to Hagi and his Romanian team. Thus the team which was better than the cup winning team of 1986 and finalists of 1990, which promised so much ended up delivering nothing different
1998..
Yet another world cup and another year of being one among favourites. An easy group which included eventual dark horse croatia was tamed quite easily and things looked good. Argentina vs england, one of the most exciting matches in world cup which i had seen, ( if i include the last half hour of commentary over phone from my friend as lightning and rain threw my place into darkness ) it certainly looked like our year, only for berkamp to break my heart with a gem of a goal. Now that i think of it, for some time, for years actually, i never appreciated how good the goal was , given it only brought worst of the memories, a bloody blow with just few minutes left in the match. Crossbar trembling from batistuta's shot, ortega getting sent off as he lost his control taking all those kicks, berkamp scoring from that same freekick, i felt nothing could be worse.
As i write about the 98' cup it occured to me, the memories are not vague anymore, they are clear and more painful too
I had a wierd superstition this time. I should remain silent for the whole match or argentina would loose :P The silent me, asking my brother to do so and my parents wondering what's happening with me. Atleast some memory which bring smile! :D
2002..
I waited in anticipation for this one as argentina landed in the group of death. Winning the first match 1-0 against nigeria was nothing more than a relief. And things got worse from there on as argentina failed to convert the domination in possesion to loose narrowly against england and drew against sweden to crash out. I was travelling back from home to college as the argentina crashed out against sweden and may be, not having to watch it reduced the agony.
2006..
Argentina landed as the favourites for 2006 and the win against serbia & montengro especially the cambiasso goal will remain etched in my memory. hopes were at an all time high after that match. Cursing Pekerman when he didnt bring on messi with his last substitution and Heinze for germanys goal, i couldnt bear to watch the shootout. As i sat in my room, away from my friends my week old mobile just about escaped my wrath as just that moment i realized that i was being stupid :P
It will certrainly be a different experience this time with a chance to see things from so close. And even though logic tells me the little man in tears who made me feel sad all those years back will bring tears this time with his madness, i hope that things would end differently this time
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