Author: WebDesk

Reality Bites for CR7 as Ramos Runs Riot   There were shades of peak Ronaldo in the manner in which the brilliant young Benfica star took his hat-trick, and his partnership with Joao Felix could well decide whether Ronaldo – in a new avatar as super sub – leaves the World Cup stage a winner. If, at the age of 37, Cristiano Ronaldo does get his hands on the World Cup trophy, it will almost certainly be in his new role as Portugal’s super sub. Unless Goncalo Ramos, the youngest scorer of a World Cup hat-trick since Hungary’s Florian…

Old Guard Snuff Out Asian Challenge   Asia’s World Cup hopes are over, after two contrasting defeats. Japan, not for the first time, lost their nerve at the most crucial time, while South Korea simply couldn’t overcome the gulf in class. After the optimism and euphoria created by performances in the last round of group matches, it took a little under six hours for the Asian challenge at the 2022 World Cup to fizzle out. Japan and South Korea, who have been Asian football’s standard-bearers for a generation, went out in contrasting fashion. The Japanese suffered the heartache of…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay “Mbapre”. Saw a tweet saying this a few days back during the course of the ongoing World Cup. This was actually the headline on the sports pages of a Chennai-based daily I used to work for. This was in 2018, after the France-Argentina last 16 match. Can’t stick my neck out and say that I liked it, because I am not in favour of mixing English with Hindi. But let me admit, it has some meaning. The phenomenon born in Bondi in France to parents of Cameroonian and Algerian lineage is becoming a terror for the oppositions, more…

Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 World Cup goals is just one of many under threat from Kylian Mbappe. Not even 24, there are few limits to what he can go on to achieve. Just where does Kylian Mbappe sit in the pantheon of French goal-scorers? First, the disclaimer. Neither he nor anyone else will ever come close to matching Just Fontaine’s record of 13 goals from six matches at the 1958 World Cup. But that unreal strike-rate needs to be viewed in context, with 1958 being the last of the ‘open’ World Cups, before strategies based on sound defence…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay The highlight of Bangladesh’s ‘Mirpur Miracle’ was the 51-run last-wicket stand which carried them to an unlikely win. From the Indian point of view, the natural tendency would be to blame the bowlers. Nine wickets down, 50 more runs in the bank — nine out of 10 times bowling sides win such matches. India bowlers were on top, before they suddenly started appearing clueless. Once the dust settles, a few more factors should also come to the fore. This is a second-string Indian attack not high on experience. A few of them will be out once those recovering…

Has African football finally come of age?   More than four decades after Pele’s bold prediction, African teams have excelled at the 2022 World Cup. Though one of them may not win, big strides have been made under homegrown coaches. Pele may have been the greatest footballer that the World Cup has seen, but he was never a soothsayer. When it came to predictions, Paul the Octopus had considerably greater success. It was sometime in the late 1970s, not long after a Zaire team had been annihilated 9-0 by Yugoslavia at the 1974 World Cup, that he said an…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay Three Asian teams in the World Cup pre-quarters and two from South America? Four Asian teams putting it across three World Cup winning nations and two Euro champions? Culmination of these scarcely believable eventualities is the maximum number of Asian teams in the knockouts of the FIFA World Cup ever. Japan, South Korea and Australia all had been there before. Australia made it to the round of 16 in 2006, Japan reached the same stage in 2002, 2010 and 2018, South Korea stunned the world by finishing fourth in 2002 when they were the co-hosts with Japan and…

 A stunning win for #KOR against #POR as they edged #URU on goals scored to seal their last 16 spot. Here’s our pick for the fittest athlete of the day

 Our special fan today might not be able to speak right now, but the million dollar smile and the energy makes our WoW Moment of the day!

 Dr. BenjaminLaker , Prof. Vijay Pareira and Boria Majumdar in the all important discussion of racial discrimination in big sporting events! The topic that needs to be addressed in today’s world! Share your thoughts