[hockey] India Defeats Canada 2-0 In The First Match Of 7-Test Super Series

India defeated Canada 2-0 by the goals of Tushar Khandekar and Sandeep Singh on both the halves in the first match of the 7-Test Super Series. Indian played with confidence and dominated the game throughout. They were rewarded with the first goal at the 27th minute when Tushar Khandekar scored. India doubled the lead 4 minutes from the full time when Sandeep Singh converted a penalty corner.
The teams will play the next match on 11th October at the same venue of Victoria in British Columbia.

[football] I-League: Kolkata Biggies Lose, Chirag United, Churchil Brithers Among Winners

Both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan lost their sceond round match of the ONGC I-League. East Bengal lost their away match to Mahindra United 2-3 after drawing against Pune FC last week. While Mohun Bagan faced second straight defeat after they lost to JCT 1-2 at the home ground. The match saw a penalty claim from Mohun Bagan goal scorer Branco Cardozo being turned down by the referee and then the Mohun Bagan players almost attacked the official which saw their captain Deepak Mondal getting a yellow card. Within five minutes Deepak got another yellow for a reckless tackle and was sent off. The team had to play the 10 minute of injury time with ten men.
Chirag United defeated Mumbai FC 2-1 with their new signing Edmilson shining in the match. Churchil Brothers shrugged off their disappointing start in Mumbai with a home win over Viva Kerala 2-0 but the match saw two of their players being sent off.

Matchweek 2: Results:


Churchil Brothers 2-0 Viva Kerala
goals: (R Vashum 5', Odafa okolie 28')
RC: Odafa Okolie


Mahindra United 3-2 East Bengal
goals: (Muritala 30', 42', NP Pradeep 78') (Alvito 24', Yakubu 64')


Dempo 1-1 Salgaocar
goals: (Roberto Mendes Silva 48') ( Eneke Ikenwa 7')


Pune FC 0-1 Air India
goals: (Ravinder Singh 19')


Sporting Club de Goa 0-1 Shillong Lajong FC
goals:(Boithang Haokip 16')


Mohun Bagan 1-2 JCT
goals: (Branco Cardozo 82) (Penn Orji 47', Baljeet Singh Saini 56')
RC: Deepak Mondal


Chirag United 2-1 Mumbai FC
goals: (Edmilson 7', 14') (Vincent 65' P)

[hockey] Canada-India 7-test Series Starts Today

Indian hockey team will play a 7-test series against Canada starting from today. The series, being held in Canada, is seen as the preparation for the Champions Challenge Trophy to be held in December and then the World Cup in 2010. The teams will play 7 matches to be held on 9th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 22nd and 24th of October. The first two matches will be played in Victoria and then the teams will shift to Surrey.
India and Canada have played 26 matches till date in which India has won 16, Canada 8 and 2 matches ended as draw. The biggest margin for the teams is 4-1 for Canada (world cup 1998) and for India it is 5-1(in 1988 olympic games) and 7-3( in 10-nations meet in Australia in 1979). However, India have won all of the last 6 matches between them with the last loss coming in 1999. Canda have scored 44 goals while India 63.

[hockey] Baljit Singh Returning Back to India

Indian hockey goalkeeper Baljit Singh will be on his way back to homeland after having three surgeries in his damaged right eye. Now the cosmetic surgeries are to be done and the sports ministry thinks that can be done with same efficiency and at a low cost in India in  some reputed institute like AIIMS.
Baljit Singh was seriously injured during a golf ball practice before the Europe tour of the hockey team. It was feared he might never regain his vision in that eye. But the ministry of sports took the initiative to take him to the US and get the required surgery done. It is believed that a total expenditure of rs 5 lakh has been made yet and the sports ministry ensures that they will put their best effort to help the player to regain the full vision in his eye.

[football] Italy Captain Cannavaro Failed Dope Test

Italy captain and Juventus player Fabio Cannavaro failed in a dope test before the team's world cup qualifying match against Ireland. However, Cannavaro is already banned from this match for yellow cards. Though he is likely to play in the next match against Cyprus on 14th.
His club Juventus claims it was due to a cortisone injection used due to a bee sting the player suffered recently. However, the Italian Olympic Council will start an investigation on the case and try to find out whether he had a prescription for the same.
Cannavaro was shown to be taking a performance enhancing drug before the 1999 UEFA Cup final which his club Parma won 3-0. The video was shown in an Italian tv channel in 2005. However, the substance he took was not banned by Italian laws at that time.
Now it remains to be seen whether the club can convince the investigators of their claim or the player has to face some punishment.

[tennis] Serena Poses Nude For Sports Magazine

Suddenly this blog seems to have got a lot of glamour content. A look at the blog currently may make people think this is a fashion blog or something like that. But if so much glamour comes to the sports all of a sudden nothing can be done. Now the thing is about world no 1 Serena Williams, who posed nude for a sports magazine recently. Now the word 'controversy' seems to have become the best friend of the American babe. After the much publicised abuse of the line umpire that saw her paying a hefty fine, her unsportsmanlike conduct seems to have invited the ire of people up in the order who claim they may ban the best player in the world now from playing in the Australian Open due to the controversies surrounding her.
However, this stand seems dubious as nowhere they did mention that a tennis player cannot pose nude. Tennis can not be separated from fashion at the current situation and posing nude for a certain magazine does not mean such a big thing.

[football] Bollywood Hottie Shilpa Shetty Interested In Buying An Indian Football Club

In an unexpected news that would cheer the football fans in India, bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty is reported to be interested in buying an Indian football club. Shilpa and her boyfriend Raj Kundra own the IPL team Rajsthan Royals.
Shilpa and Kundra have met AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco to get some informations about the projects that are going on in football and the general football structure.
Even if it is a publicity gesture, as many purists may fear, this development is really a boon for Indian football. More input of glamour and money will attract Indians more towards the Indian football again and if Shilpa takes the project and becomes successful, that will attract other big names towards this game. We, the football fans, have nothing to lose from here. We get to see the glamour queen in our own field and if something better develops that is more than we expected.

The Blog Is Back

After a certain 15 days of no activity here finally the blog is back for the regular coverage everything that happens in the world in football, tennis and hockey. Before going to the latest news, let us just look at what we missed in these days.
Football:  As usual the news about this beautiful game is more than anything else in the thing that matters for us and we really missed a lot of action in these days.
La liga is going with Barcelona and Real Madrid looking red hot in the first 5 rounds when Sevilla came to show their stand here by defeating Real Madrid in the sixth game. Barcelona is still on a rampaging run and Real and Sevilla follow closely with a defeat each. Valencia has a decent run till now and are now in the top 5. Atletico Madrid showed they may come back to form with a win that puts them at 14th. However Villareal is still at the 19th position with 3 draw and 3 losses in 6 games. Xerez is closely following them at 2 points.
English Premier League is showing more competition with Manchester United drawing against Sunderland, Liverpool losing to Chelsea and Chelsea losing to Bolton a week before. Chelsea leads the pack being closely followed by Manchester United but Manchester City can knock their city rivals a close knock if they win tonight. Tottenham Hotspurs are showing they really plan to stay in the top with their good performance except two big matches against Chelsea and Man U. However they are the only club in the top six two have played 3 top teams with their first day win over Liverpool. If you look at the competence EPL is best placed currently but the performance of the top teams are really not convincing enough to think of repeating their results in last two years in the Champions League. However the English teams seem to have been lucky in the UCL and it is to be seen how much they can do this time.
Serie A is also at an interesting stage with leaders Sampdoria giving way to Inter Milan to reclaim their lead and Juventus closely following the two. AC Milan's woes are not showing any sign of withering away and it is to be seen when they can make their way back to the top half of the league.

Tennis:  The US Open final started with a dominance of Roger Federer but at the end Juan Martin Del Potro shined with a win. Kim Clijsters made a great comeback winning the women's championship defeating Serena Williams that ended in a controversial foot foul call and Serena's angry response. Leander Paes defeated Mahesh Bhupathy in the final of the men's doubles partnering Lucas Dlouhy. However, Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrot broke Indian hearts twice defeating Mahesh Bhupathy and Liezel Hueber in semifinal and then Leander Paes and Cara Black in the final. Some of the Indians must have been disappointed after the women's doubles final also as the partners of the Indian legends Cara Black and Liezel Hueber teamed up just to lose to Serena and Venus Williams.

Hockey: Indian team is going to Canada on a 23 day long tour where they will play a seven match series against the hosts. The coach Jose Brasa is now giving more stress on the basics as he feels Indian players are great in tougher things but not very good in the basics.