Europe's 'rollercoaster' season of football

As we near the end of the EPL, Serie A, La liga and Bundesliga seasons, it seems fair to say that it has been by far the most entertaining year of competitive football in quite a while - not only in the respective domestic leagues but also in Europe.

With all due respect to the legions of die-hard fans, it has to be said that for the last three to four seasons in a row, seeing Manchester united win the EPL and Inter Milan top Serie A has become kind of boring. The German Bundesliga and the French ligue 1 as of last season have at least seen new champions in Wolfsburg and Bordeaux, in stark contrast to the regulars; Bayern Munich and Lyon. Such change and shift of power among Europe's top clubs makes the respective competitions more exciting to watch. I am well aware of the fact that all of Europe's leading clubs have worked very hard and have shown great character to remain at the top of their domestic leagues and win the champions league simultaneously. Everyone, from the players and the coach to the management and the fans have exhibited immense perseverance and support to achieve such remarkable feats, namely Manchester United winning the double (champions league and the EPL) in 2008 and Inter dominating Serie A over 4 seasons. However, I feel its safe to say that such domination by a handful of clubs is not all good for European football as it creates a sense of reinforcing monopoly which can kill the sport's competitive spirit, that we all relish. Also, rival fans get increasingly disappointed and lose faith in the clubs they love and support. Arsenal fans, for example seem quite frustrated now with their drought of titles thus piling the pressure on Arsene Wenger. Moreover the way Barcelona outclassed them in the quarters was yet another dagger in the gunner's hearts. As yet another barren season comes to an end, Arsenal fans might wonder when their patience and loyalty finally converts into titles. For those who are new to the game and derive pride from supporting teams they don't know much about, fruitless seasons may compel them to lose interest in the sport and this is definitely not good for football. Dwindling fan support is hence a major negative.

The point to be noticed here is that all said and done, a particular club cannot be blamed for achieving profound success if it has been achieved fairly and they truly deserved it. Manchester United in 2008, may have won the champions league final, but it was a slip from John Terry whilst taking the penalty, which if he had scored, would have granted Chelsea their first Champions league title that at the time they truly deserved based on their second half performance(Chelsea hit the post twice) and given that they had beaten United a week ago in the premier league. Being a Chelsea supporter myself, i know how the thousands of blues fans round the globe would have felt and that night I, and I'm sure many will agree that Chelsea were the true winners. However, that was hopelessly unfortunate and no one is to blame. But what happened to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in last year's semis was just not done. The tie should surely have been won by Chelsea- they played a rock solid defense with 8 backs set up intelligently by their then intellectual interim manager Guus Hiddink and they succeeded defying all odds defying all odds. This, for me is strategic excellence. No team, before this could stop Barca at the Nou camp, so they settled for a draw and they scored in London. This was simply brilliant and they should have gone through but alas, it was not to be. Poor refereeing and shocking decisions from Tom Henning Ovrebo including several dismissed penalty claims and failure to spot a clear hand ball in the box cost the blues dearly. Such terrible refereeing must never be tolerated as it can destroy the morale of a team and hamper the loyalty of the fans towards the governing authorities. After watching that match I felt cheated and angry unlike the feeling of sadness I experienced after the 2008 final.

This season has proved to be one with surprising results, entertaining performances and unlikely slip ups. In Europe, who would have expected big spending Real Madrid to be knocked out by a lowly Lyon side or Chelsea to lose ground against Inter? The same goes with mighty Juventus and Liverpool. The latter failing to even make the knockout stages. Only one club seems to be making consistent progress in all competitions for two years in a row- FC Barcelona. Their performances all season have been outstanding and with Argentine wizard Lionel Messi in their arsenal, they seem invincible, even more dangerous than last year. Scoring 40 goals this season in all competitions, Messi is undoubtedly the undisputed best in the world and I strongly feel Barca will become the first club to regain the champions league trophy and create history. 

Coming back to the core of the article, the reasons I said this season was different better than multiple others are as follows:

1. In Serie A, after 4 years of seeing Inter lift the trophy, the title race is split wide open and Roma or Milan could just as well win it since they are just 1 and 4 points behind the leaders respectively, each with a game in hand. In previous seasons, Inter used to lead with an 8 or 9 point gap at the top, months before the season closure and the Serie A title race used to end in an uncompetitive stalemate for the rest of the year. This season has been comparatively better for Italian football with Inter Milan carrying the Italian flag in the semis. Also, Fiorentina showcased a brave performance against Bayern, but were unlucky not to win courtesy of the away goal rule.

2. After 3 years of living in the shadow of Manchester United, Chelsea are finally playing to their optimum level. Abramovich's large investments seem to be returning dividends yet again as Chelsea find themselves top of the EPL with a 4 point lead over United with just less than a dozen games pending. Also, their recent victory against Aston Villa put them in position for completing an amazing double by winning the FA cup as well, thus rejuvenating English football.

3. In Spain, Barcelona looked unstoppable when they ripped Real apart at home and are on course to a second straight triple this season. The important point here is that Barca have made a mockery of Real's big summer expenditure on play makers Ronaldo and Kaka who were expected to lead the Madrid giants to European and Spanish glory- They have achieved neither. It will thus be interesting to see how Real react to this miserable year next season.

4. In the German Bundesliga, Bayern seem to be emerging yet again. But it has been no easy ride for the Bavarians over 2 seasons- They finished second to Wolfsburg last year and just managed to survive the quarter-finals of the champions league this year after almost losing out to Fiorentina and Manchester United respectively. However the fighting spirit of this Bayern side has to be recognized and I consider them genuine contenders for Europe's elite trophy this year. Back home in Germany, they have yet again bounced back to pole position in the domestic league after dropping multiple points and conceding ground to Leverkusen who led the table for long periods and are enjoying their best season in several years. Luis Van Gaal's job is surely no cakewalk as he looks to lead Bayern to European glory while they keep up in the Bundesliga.

5. Olympic Lyon provided the upset of the season when they eliminated mighty Real Madrid, following their victory against local Ligue 1 rivals and reigning champions Girondins Bordeaux not only in Europe but also in the French division. Lyon look strong and could give a resilient Bayern side a run for their money.

6. Coming back to the premier league, Manchester City look to be on their way to next seasons Champions league after claiming the crucial fourth place and final champions league birth which formerly belonged to Liverpool. The reds are nearing the end of a disastrous season with only the Europa League to look forward to. City's inclusion in next seasons champions league could see them investing in some big money transfers in the summer window to strengthen their squad, especially the defense but first they have to overthrow a decent and stubborn Spurs side who are desperate for some attention.

7. This year's champions league boasts of a good confluence of clubs representing different nations as opposed to English domination in the past few years which makes it all the more interesting due to the rare blend.

Although this season has had its share of controversy, the positives clearly cancel out the negatives and it has been very entertaining to watch. My predictions for the season:

1. Barca for the champions league and the La Liga.

2. Chelsea for the premiership and Manchester City for fourth place (Since I believe Spurs are inconsistent)

3. Roma could overrun Inter in the Italian Serie A which will go down to the wire with AC Milan joining the fray.

4. Bayern Munich for the Bundesliga and Lyon for the Ligue 1 championship.

The Story Of The Aino

Sony Ericsson recently presented the newest additions to their trendy range of cell phones - the Aino and Satio. While I haven't had the chance to try out either handset myself, I've done considerable research on both. One thing is for sure; Sony Ericsson is clearly out to make a statement and the Aino is very much part of the agenda. At first glance, it's a touchscreen PMP, but on a second look it's a regular slider phone with an extra large screen. It's not your ultimate PlayStation phone but it does have Remote Play, to wirelessly pair with Sony's PlayStation 3.

As far as feature phones go, the Aino has pretty much everything - full-featured navigation, a great camera, plenty of internal storage and a simple-but-snappy touch media menu.

By the way, don't let anyone tell you touchscreen functionality is limited to the proprietary Sony Ericsson multimedia menu. I was pleasantly surprised with Opera Mini, which seemed to quite agree with the Aino touch system. Touchscreen navigation is all there and it performed very smoothly. This means touch controlled Java games might work as well.

All right, this was just a single little secret revealed. Let's take a closer look at what else the Aino may be hiding there.

The features are as follows:

* 3" 16M-color capacitive touchscreen, 240 x 432 pixels

* Quad-band GSM support

* Tri-band 3G with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 2Mbps HSUPA

* 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash; geotagging, touch-focus, face detection, image stabilization; VGA video recording @ 30fps

* Some degree of touchscreen functionality - touch-enabled media and camera interface

* Touch works in Java apps as well, e.g. Opera Mini

* Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS; Trial version of Wisepilot navigation software

* Wi-Fi with DLNA

* FM radio with RDS

* Stereo Bluetooth 2.1

* microSD card slot

* Wireless Bluetooth headset with 3.5 mm audio jack and nice headphones, desktop docking station and 8GB microSD card in box

* Remote play for Playstation 3

Despite all this though, the phone suffers from the same marketing flaw that many a Sony Ericson handset has in the past- Unreasonably high pricing. The smartphone is pitched at a whopping 28,950 rupees! Although I think the Aino is one of Sony's good launches since the walkman series, I fear the possibility that it may succumb to other smartphones in the Indian market like the Samsung Omnia HD, which has but almost identical features and is far reasonably priced. When will Sony Ericson learn do their homework thoroughly and get their market research teams to price gadgets correctly? 

An Apple On The Pad

Apple’s much awaited iPad tablet has finally been launched. The iPad is a tablet computer developed by Apple Inc. It features multi-touch interaction with print, video, photo, and audio multimedia, internet browsing, and runs most current iPhone OS apps. It has got a 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy wide screen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology. It has got Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite Cable. The iPad comes with the following applications: Safari, Mail, Photos, Video, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, iBooks, Maps, Notes, Calendar and Contacts. The iPad is to be available for sale at the end of March (Wi-Fi version, worldwide) and end of April (Wi-Fi + 3G version, in the United States and selected countries) 2010.

It is priced as follows:

Model	16 GB	32 GB	64 GB
Wi-Fi	$499	$599	$699
Wi-Fi + 3G	$629	$729	$829

The launch of the iPad has been dubbed as one of the last major gadget releases by Apple inc. under their current CEO Steve Jobs following a deterioration in the latter's health owing to his prolonged fight with cancer. However, it must be said that this is only an assumption as no formal statement has been made by Jobs or Apple Computers. Nevertheless, I wish him all the best and hope that this time he surprises us yet again, not by launching the next big thing, but by simply soldiering on.

The Attack Of 'The Corbies'

Samsung is back in business with the launch of yet another edition of their captivating Corby series, in India. Following the initial success of the funky yet smart Samsung Corby, the electronics juggernaut has launched a new pair of Corby devices - CorbyPlus B3410 and CorbyPro B5310, known by their more colorful street names, the plus and the pro. Samsung's target market is quite clearly the young urban population owing to the stylish sleek looks of the handsets, to their very reasonable price ranges. This pair is also expected to be a big hit, following on the lines of the standard Corby which was previously launched. The common features in both the phones include full QWERTY keypads and QVGA touchscreen displays, providing access to social networking sites via Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. Lets study the gadgets in detail.

CorbyPro B5310:

Within the lifestyle-focused Corby series of phones from Samsung, the PRO is the one clad in the most serious-looking attire. Apparently aimed at the young professionals market, the PRO is a touchscreen device that also packs a slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

Of course, in doing this, the Corby PRO places itself in direct competition with a handful of pretty strong devices, like the HTC G1 and the new Motorola Dext. However, the PRO uses Samsung’s proprietary Touchwiz OS rather than Android, as used in those phones.

Although less flexible, the PRO still lets you customise your three home screens fairly comprehensively, giving you up to 100 different widgets to choose from including obvious choices like clocks and Twitter feeds.

Having tested the relatively low-end Corby, I was impressed with the responsiveness of the PRO’s navigation between these screens. There was no real lag, and unlike some other slide-out Qwerty phones, the PRO switched between landscape and portrait aspect ratios very quickly as the keyboard was slid in and out. Home screen layouts are automatically reconfigured too. The PRO gets an extra step up the feature list ladder from the Corby and TXT on the photographic, equipped with a 3.2-mega pixel camera instead of the mere 2-mega-pixel examples seen on those two.

This is the problem for the Corby PRO - while there’s nothing inherently wrong with the phone, it’s got stiff competition. The further you tread up the Corby range, the less influence its colorful backplate aesthetics will have. After all, how cheap can a touchscreen phone with a full Qwerty be?

This may well prove to be the sticking point for this top end Corby model. If it manages to undercut its rivals, the PRO may well be a smash. If its price is level-pegging with phones like the Motorola Dext, I can’t imagine the Corby’s colorful interchangeable back-plates will be enough to guarantee that many purchases.

Features:

* 4.13 x 2.24 x 0.62 inches dimensions

* 240 x 320 pixels resolution

* Weight : 135g

* 16M QVGA touchscreen display

* 3 MP camera with digital zoom

* 100MB ofextendable memory

* Li – Ion, 960 mAh battery with 8.33 hours (500 mins) of Talk time 

* 500 hours (21 days) of Stand-by time.

* FM Radio with RDS

* 3.5mm headset jack

* Music player

* Quad-band GSM

* 3.5G support data download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps

* GPS

* Bluetooth

* WiFi (802.11b/802.11g)

* USB

* Price : 13,900 INR ($299)

CorbyPlus B3410:

Hybrid Design and Easy UI:

The hybrid Touch & QWERTY form factor offers optimal versatility and ease of use. You can text friends and family with total ease and convenience using ergonomically designed slide out QWERTY keypad. With finger-friendly Touch Wiz users can effortlessly navigate through their favorite features. Online widgets give you instant access to all your favorite online contents with just a quick touch of the icon.

Perfect Texting and Email:

You will appreciate the ease with which you can do email, SMS and MMS. With B3410’s threaded message box, users’ messages are more organized and fun to read, an especially useful tool for socially active young people. The QWERTY keypad makes typing messages especially convenient, a must for high-volume texters.

Comprehensive SNS and IM Support:

With connection support for SNS, IM and Bluetooth, you can keep up to date with family and friends with maximum convenience. Whether sharing photos, sending a quick note, or just chatting about the day’s events, B3410 lets you do it all with speed and ease.

Versatile Music Player:

You will enjoy listening to your favorite songs on the go with built-in music player. You will be impressed with the ease with which you can record favorite songs from FM radio just by pressing the shortcut key.

Handy 2MP Camera:

You will delight in capturing life’s moments with the embedded 2MP camera and video recorder. You will particularly appreciate the creative options provided by the camera’s special modes and features. With direct saving to the micro SD Card, saving and sharing pictures is as convenient as ever.

Features:

* 2.6 inch (240×320 pixels)

* Weight : 113.7gm

* 262K QVGA TFT touchscreen display

* 2 MP Camera with 4x Digital Zoom

* FM Radio with recording capability

* 3.5mm headset jack

* 960 mAh battery, up to 12 hours of Talk time

* Music Player

* Bluetooth v2.1

* Quad Band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, GPRS/WAP

* DNSe

* 20MB internal memory, Micro SD card slot (up to 8GB) expandable memory

* Price :10,050 INR ($216)

Independent of the technical jargon and the critical analysis, I'd like to add that on a personal note I feel that the Samsung Corby is an excellent handset for its price. I can say this with surety given my incredible three month experience with the device. I was the first of many to purchase the handset and have no regrets so far. This mobile is sheer value for money and I'm sure its two younger cousins will be just as good. Cheers!

The Black & White Army Versus Milan

This weekend, all eyes will be on the Serie A as it hosts one of the most prestigious match-ups in the history of Italian football. Its the cross country derby as AC Milan take on the old lady of Turin, Juventus.

Juve, who hold a slight advantage playing on home turf at the Stadio Olympico and are currently nine points behind leaders Inter, will be looking to cut short their wide gap from the summit. As I have mentioned earlier, I am a Juventus fan and will be hoping for a home victory against our fierce rivals. It would surely be a boost to the confidence of the club, something which has been low in recent weeks following consecutive losses and draws.

Another event that will steal the spotlight is David Beckham's return to the Olympic Stadium. Becks starred in Milan's 5-2 win in their last game. The Englishman has received much praise for his performance from coach Leonardo and the latter looks at goldenball's experience as a means of improving the fortunes of the club on the pitch.

On the other hand, Juve will depend on the skill of Brazilian play maker Diego and the fitness of Italian veterans Del Piero and Mauro Camoranesi to land the Bianconeri their second big victory of the season, the first coming against Inter. Keeping aside my personal bias for Juve, I feel that both the squads are very evenly matched and have a somewhat equal chance to nick this one. Milan have looked good in recent weeks and are a point ahead of Juventus, who have looked a little shaky in defence. However, both sides have key players returning to the squad.

Who will triumph? Lets wait, watch and see. My predictions- 2-1 win in favor of Juventus or a 0-0 draw. Enjoy!