The costly miss against Spain in the WC 2010 final
For almost his entire career, Arjen Robben has been somewhat
of an enigma. Mesmerizing at times and ridiculously frustrating at others, the
Dutch winger had made a habit of choking in important games. In 2010, Bayern
came up short against Inter Milan in the Champions League Final.
The same
summer, Robben was put clear in on goal with just Iker Casillas to beat, in
the World Cup Final in South Africa. He again fluffed his lines and Spain went
on to clinch the title in extra-time. And perhaps the nadir came in the 2012
Champions League Final in Munich’s Allianz Arena. Bayern, much the dominant
side for 90 minutes, failed to break down a resolute Chelsea team, and Didier
Drogba’s header took the game to extra time. However, he turned from hero to villain
in a matter of minutes, conceding a penalty in extra time, and Robben was given
the chance to win club football’s biggest prize on his team’s home ground. It wasn’t
to be. Petr Cech saved his spot kick, and then two more in the penalty shootout,
and it was all over. There was no home triumph. The 11 heroes in blue had taken
the cup to Stamford Bridge, and Bayern, who also had finished runners up in the
league and domestic cup to Borussia Dortmund, were left with a ‘Treble Horror’
season. Arjen Robben lived through a footballer’s worst nightmare.
DROGBAAAAAA!!!
Petr Cech saves Robben's extra-time penalty
Its Chelsea, Not Bayern, who celebrate in Munich.
However,
this season everything changed. Bayern, obviously hurting because of their setbacks,
steamrolled everything that came in their path. The Bundesliga was wrapped up
in April, and they finished with 91 points, 25 clear of 2nd placed
defending champions-and fellow Champions League finalists, Dortmund. Nobody was
spared. Bar a minor scare against Arsenal in the last-16 return leg, the
Bavarians didn't concede a single goal in the next 4 knockout rounds,
dispatching the champions of Italy, Juventus 4-0 and the mighty Barcelona 7-0
on aggregate, with mind-numbing ease.
Barcelona Destroyed
Juve Dismantled
Gone was the complacency which had so often been their Achilles’ heel.
Gone were the games where Bayern didn't know how to react after falling behind.
The psychological issues were hammered out and Bayern became a full-fledged German
winning machine. This has to be, of
course, credited to the impeccable man-management and tactical acumen of Coach
Jupp Heynckes and general manager Mathais Sammer. Heynckes in particular, has
thrown down the gauntlet for Pep Guardiola. How can you possibly top This?
German Crown, but its Europe they want to conquer.
But Dortmund were no easy opponent.
However,
as they took stage at The Wembley on May 25th, 2013 for the
Champions League Final against arch-rivals Dortmund, there was still an air of apprehension.
Will the likes of Robben, Lahm and Schwiensteiger finally, finally clinch an
International crown? Or will they fall at the final hurdle again? And sure
enough, the first half was familiar, frustrating and ominous to say the least. Borussia
Dortmund, the team which has enchanted almost all of Europe with their
blistering brand of football- and whose journey to the final had been no less
than a fairy tale, beating Shaktar, then doing a ‘‘99’ on Malaga, and then embarrassing
the Spanish capital club Real Madrid 4-1 in Dortmund, and then holding on to
their nerve in an equally thrilling second leg in Madrid, which they lost 2-0,
going through 4-3 on aggregate-could have been 4-0 up by 25 minutes, but for
the heroics of a certain Manuel Neuer. Schwiensteiger
was taken completely out of the game by the vibrant BVB midfield and Arjen
Robben had squandered two golden chances when put through on goal. For Bayern
fans, it was sickeningly familiar.
A frustrating First Half.
Dortmund’s fairytale of a journey looked to have been destined for a Cinderella ending. But then Bayern upped the ante and Roman Weidenfeller made some truly exceptional saves, Game on. Bayern took the lead after some good work from their famed ‘Robbery’ duo. The Flying Dutchman first kept his cool to take a Ribery lay-off to the byline and calmly square it to Mario Mandzukic to tap into an empty net. BVB, though were no pushovers and they equalized through a İlkay Gündoğan penalty just 8 minutes later, to come right back into the tie. And then, with just 2 minutes of normal time left, he wrote his name in Bayern legend as he latched onto another -surprise surprise-Franck Ribery layoff, sidestepped a challenge with an exquisite piece of footwork and calmly roll the ball past Weidenfeller, for the title. Bayern were champions, rightfully and Arjen Robben was the man of the moment. Losers, Bottlers, Chokers no more, Bayern had made their mark on Europe,and they did that in some style.
Mario puts Bayern in front.
Pegged back to 1-1 by Ilkay
This is
not to take credit away from BVB’s incredible achievement. They won hearts, all
over the world, including the writer’s and many of his friends’, but it would’ve
been cruel had Robben been denied his chance of redemption. Fairytales can
wait, so can miracles. This year it was all about Die Roten. It was all about
their legendary coach and it was all about Robben’s redemption. The Cup’s finally
‘coming home’ to Munich, and Bayern have become well and truly the greatest
side witnessed in the modern footballing era, and Arjen Robben is finally in the headlines for all the right reasons. Mia San Mia.
Starting this week, I will bring
to you a handpicked choice of music albums, film scores, singles-pretty much
everything what a standard music aficionado may like and may not have heard.
So, let’s start off with the voyage with U2’s ‘The Joshua Tree’.
The album draws its influences
from American rock, Irish folk music, acoustic blues and gospel. Released in
1987, it broke the shackles and expanded the horizons of alternative rock with
its motley nature of themes ranging from love, spirituality to violence, war, politics
and social malaises like drug addiction, inequality and unemployment. This is
the record which catapulted U2 from heroes to legends and drew multitudes to
their fan base.
The album opens with ‘Where The
Streets Have No Name’, a stadium anthem which has become a permanent staple in
U2’s live concerts. Starting with a chiming guitar arpeggio and modulated
synthesisers the song eventually builds up to its climax guided by Bono’s
passionate vocals, Adam Clayton’s pulsating sound of the bass and sheer
wizardry with the guitar by The Edge to create a ‘wall’ of sound. The name of
the song may sound odd, but it stems from Bono’s belief that a person’s income
in Belfast can be estimated by knowing his address. The band dreams of a world
without inequality, social encumbrances; where the streets have no name.
‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m
Looking For’ deals with spiritual yearning, the void that is sometimes created
in spite of success. The chiming sound created by The Edge’s use of the delay
effect strongly reminds you of chrome bells ringing on Christmas Eve and Bono’s
choir-like singing accentuates the spiritual imagery brought to your mind by
the song. The chorus is breathtakingly beautiful. ‘With Or Without You’, a
troubled love song inspired by Bono’s conflicting lives he led as a musician and a family man
is notable for The Edge’s use of the delay effect and a prototype of the
Infinite Guitar enabling ‘infinite sustain’. The main guitar riff is
intoxicating and the song regularly features in ‘Greatest Hits of All Time’
lists.
If you care not to break the
chronology, you will be caught off guard by the abrupt conceptual shift of the
album with ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’. It is a rebel song with strong political
overtones as The Edge ‘puts the El Salvador Civil War through an amplifier’. It
successfully synthesises an image of war- Bono’s angry vocals and Adam
Clayton’s aggressive bassline are redolent of roaring cannonballs, screeching
fighter-planes and ricocheting bullets. ‘Running to Stand Still’, a slow piano
ballad describes the plight of a heroin-addicted couple. The subtle guitar
notes and the harmonica at the end are soothing and gradually grow on you. ‘Red
Hill Mining Town’ speaks about the relationships strained and lives torn apart
by unemployment.
‘In God’s Country’ ups the tempo
with racy guitar strumming and energetic vocals. The song dishes out innuendos
regarding the dearth of political ideas in the West. ‘Trip Through Your Wires’,
packed with harmonica, is an unconventional love ballad while ‘One Tree Hill’
is an epitaph, a tribute to the departed, a celebration of life.
As we approach the end, the album
skews again. ‘Exit’ is a song about a psychotic killer. Clayton’s bassline and The Edge’s riffs succeed to
create an eerie and surreal aura. The song’s up there with Metallica’s ‘Enter
Sandman’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. ‘Mothers of the Disappeared’ is the
concluding track of the album. It is a token of empathy to all the mothers
whose children have been taken by sporadic occurrences of violence like war and
riots. Bono’s choir-like vocals, the morose guitar notes and synthesisers bring
the album to a melancholy finale.
The Joshua Tree is notable for
utilising the complete range of Bono’s voice and tonal quality and The Edge’s
delay effect, creating chiming cadences which went on to become his trademark
sound. The album is implicitly critical of The USA’s foreign policy and
describes the band’s love-hate relationship with The United States. Overall,
the album takes you through various human emotions and packs a punch. Happy
listening!
MY PICKS: Where The Streets Have
No Name, With Or Without You, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
TRIVIA: Writer Derek
White conducted a mathematical study of The Edge’s rhythmic delay. He found
that by dividing the number of delay notes per minute by the songs tempo in
beats per minute, he arrived at ‘e’, an important fundamental mathematical
constant!
As the tenth wicket of a crumbling Australian batting line
up fell to the vicious spin of R. Ashwin, a smiling Dhoni pumped his fist and
uprooted a stump for his souvenir collection. The Indian skipper is usually
sang-froid, but on this particular afternoon his face did not betray his
emotions. After whitewashes in England and Australia, failure in qualifying for
the finals of the Commonwealth Bank series and the Asia Cup, a mediocre
performance in the T20 World Cup and defeats suffered at the hands of England
and Pakistan at home, the sky was falling. Dhoni was lucky to have kept his job
and he knew that the Border-Gavaskar series was probably his last chance to
prove his mettle as a captain. With a convincing 2-0 lead and the manner in
which Team India has dealt with the Aussies, we are seeing flashes of our glory
days, aren’t we?
After
the memorable 2011 World Cup final, this is the first time that our side has
looked exuberant and positive. The batting clicked, the tweakers exploited the
visitors’ Achilles heel- spin bowling, and the captain played a sensational
knock- a double hundred at a strike rate
north of 85 bears eloquent testimony to this. Field placing was positive and the
skipper looked to attack from the onset. At number three, India has found an
ideal replacement for Rahul Dravid. Cheteshwar Pujara’s gargantuan knock was a
touch of class and a stamp of authority. With a no-holds-barred display of
exquisite cover drives, crafty square cuts and sublime straight drives, the
spectator could just sit and admire. A solid defence, the correct technique to
negotiate hostile fast bowling, the ability to put the bad ball away every
time- Pujara bears all the hallmarks of a perfect Test batsman, even as he
needs to improve the hook shot which proved to be his undoing in an otherwise
unblemished innings. Murali Vijay justified his selection with a magnificent
century and steadied the ship with Pujara after the early departure of Sehwag.
For those castigating Sachin Tendulkar and saying that he is past his prime,
the Little Master played a knock of 81 in the first test which had the typical
Tendulkar finesse written all over it. It’s confounding- each time you write
him off and the guy hits right between the eyes. To say that he’s a legend
would be an understatement. R Ashwin has learnt his lessons after the drubbing
by the English. There was a marked difference in his deliveries in this series
and the one against England. He did not try to bowl too many fancy deliveries
but focused on his line and length instead, with a carom ball or two slipped in
between, so that most of his deliveries hit the wicket. No wonder he is the
leading wicket taker even as he continues to torment the Australian batting
line-up with his guile and impeccable length. Ravindra Jadeja has justified his
selection ahead of Pragyan Ojha by providing excellent support to Ashwin from
the other end. The spinners, operating in tandem, have wreaked havoc among the Australian ranks
and it will be interesting to see how the Aussie think-tank, crippled due to dearth of quality spin
options and experienced batsmen, copes
with the spin menace.
Though
things are looking hunky-dory at the moment, one swallow does not make a summer.
There are issues waiting to be addressed.
THE OPENING COMBINATION
The
openers have failed consistently, both home and abroad. The opening partnership
is crucial in putting up a huge score on the board and the early departure of
the openers puts pressure on the middle order. With Sehwag and Gambhir having
faced the axe, it will be important that the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Murali
Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan improve their game realise their potential in order to
build a strong and aggressive opening combination.
BACK THE SKIPPER, HE’S OUR BEST BET!
Two
consecutive whitewashes abroad and in 9 out of 10 cases, the captain is likely
to be sacked. However, MS Dhoni found an ally in BCCI President N. Srinivasan
who intervened and helped him keep his place. Looking at the stellar
performances in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy so far, it seems that the maverick
skipper is regaining his Midas touch. And let’s face it- do we have a better
leader? MS Dhoni should continue to lead the side. Apart from being a smart captain,
he is also a dangerous batsman and a reliable wicket-keeper.
VULNERABILITY TO FAST BOWLING
One
chink in the armour which was conspicuous after the shambolic displays in
England and Australia was our susceptibility to genuine and hostile fast bowling.
Our batsmen are peppered with short pitched stuff and the whole batting line-up
capitulates. Indian batsmen are in dire need of improving their technique
against bouncers. More warm-up games prior to away tours, more India ‘A’ tours
and hours of practice will go a long way in ensuring that we put up a good
fight and do not meekly surrender on green pitches.
THE INDIAN PACE BATTERY
Barring
a couple, India doesn't have fast bowlers who can hit the 145 kmph mark
consistently and make the best use of the new ball. In comparison to our foreign counterparts, Indian fast bowling looks pedestrian. This proves to be a
liability on foreign soil many a time.
MANAGING THE TRANSITION
With
the Holy Trinity of Indian cricket- Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly
having already walked into the sunset, Sachin Tendulkar remains the only one in
the pantheon to continue playing. Even he has retired from ODIs and the onus is
on the younger players to shoulder the responsibilities and carry the legacy
forward. Ours is a team in transition and the support staff must make sure that
the senior players are phased out smoothly and young blood is infused regularly
in the side. Creating a pool of 25 competitive players is essential so that
they are given ample opportunities abroad and a winning combination is
constituted which can not only thrash visiting sides at home but also bring
laurels to the country abroad.
The Oath of the Vayuputras, the third and final installation of bestselling author Amish’s Shiva Trilogy hit the stands last week. Having waited tolerantly for two whole months after pre-ordering it, I received my copy on the morning of its release date, and completed it in three days, given my demanding schedule. It would've taken just a couple of hours if I wasn’t a regular college-going kid. But alas! The hectic time-table at IIT Bombay lets me have just a handful of hours’ worth of time-out, most of which are required to catch sleep. It’s been a few days since I completed the book, and today I finally get the time to blog about it.
Why I like the Shiva Trilogy
It is not a period drama, it isn’t mythology either. Amish has shaped a different world altogether. He has fused them both to create a fascinating pastiche, which gets the reader to think. For example, I found myself asking, did the Yamuna actually flow into the Saraswati before? Or did the Hindi word ‘maayka’ originate from the name of the city where womenfolk delivered their babies?
The trilogy tells the story of Shiva, the Mahadev, who is depicted, not as an almighty deity but as a simple mortal, flesh and bone. In the prologue, Amish explains how it is one’s karma which makes him a God. And that is exactly what Shiva’s journey through the country embodies him into. There are no thunderbolt throwing or fire spewing super humans, but simple men (and women), firing arrows and swinging swords. It is that rawness of the action that appeals to me.
The trilogy is a grand journey, one that provokes some questions and answers some others. It makes one glad that he chose to be a part of the voyage.
A befitting finale, Vayuputras
Don't worry, no spoilers here! The third book in a trilogy would be prone to some pretty high expectations. Questions need to be answered; the buffs must be able to find some closure. And delivering amidst such hype is one hell of a task. But Vayuputras does not disappoint. Starting off just where the previous book The Secret of the Nagas ends, the reader comes across a startling revelation at the very beginning. Evil is at large, and according to the prophecy, the Neelkanth has to stop it. But when the great Evil is so deep rooted, so largely prevalent, how can one get rid of it without causing the outbreak of anarchy? And moreover, spearheading Evil's cause is someone highly powerful and highly influential. Against towering odds, Shiva undertakes the enormous task of wiping the said Evil from the face of the earth. And the great war has consequences even before the first arrow is fired. People face tough choices. Whether to choose between something one knows is right and something one is meant to do was never an easy decision.
New characters come in. The Vayuputras are a tribe settled in the West, who are obliged by oath, to help the Neelkanth but are not certain about the genuineness of Shiva. Vasudev Gopal, the chief of the Vasudevs stands by Shiva, providing unflinching support. All the characters, the new as well as the old, are written with impeccable understanding. Action sparks off from every page.
I found myself rooting for characters, flinching when they were stabbed, and shaking off tears when they died. The trivia about tribes like the Aten and the Lamas, the reverse definitions of good and evil in the west, etc. was stuff I particularly enjoyed reading about. Once through with the 570 pages, I was left with a melancholy feeling, overwhelmed by the turn of events nearing the climax.
The Oath of the Vayuputras was an epic in itself. Living up to the hype, it was one thrilling page-turner. There were times I read a hundred pages in one go, without stopping for pee-breaks.
With renowned writers like Deepak Chopra and Sandipan Deb praising the book, it won’t be long before Vayuputras too sells a million copies. The trilogy is more than worth a read.
