Monday, July 16, 2007

HAPPY TO BE PROVED WRONG

It is not a pleasant experience to be proved wrong. I take all the blame and happily too.

In the 42nd edition of the Copa America, Argentina looked the firm favourite, going into the finals against Brazil. The Argentines were unbeaten and all of their top stars were firing. On the other hand, Brazil was defeated in the first match itself. Besides, they did not have any marquee players in their ranks, except for the precocious Robinho. The absence of Kaka and Ronaldinho was expected to hurt the Samba Boys.

But the team coached by the ‘hard tackling’ midfielder Dunga delivered when it mattered most. Dunga was the captain when Brazil won the World Cup in 1994 after a gap of 24 years.

The football displayed by the Brazilians was not something that was pleasing to the eye, but it was effective. The change in the style and approach of Dunga was reflected in a statistic that is highly unlike of the past superteams of Brazil. In contrast to two yellow cards for the Argentines, the Brazilians got five.

The playmakers from Argentina hardly got the space and that ball to make the mark. To make things worse, Ayala pushed the ball into his own net.

Sport is a great leveler and many a prediction has been proved wrong.

I would be very happy if my predictions on the Indian cricket team are also proved wrong!

No comments: