a theory on spain's downfall

by now the shock of spain's exit from the world cup has calmed down, and people are looking at what happened and what's going on. I believe the reason why spain bowed out so quickly is because of physical and mental tiredness and fatigue. most of the players have been playing essentially non-stop for almost six years without a proper break, and that takes its toll. here are some stats:

- euro 2008, spain: winner. final played 29 june. first game of la liga 2008: 30 august.
- season 2008-09, champions league final: barcelona winner. final played 27 may. first game of la liga 2009: 29 august
- world cup 2010, spain: winner. final played 11 july. first game of la liga 2010: 28 august
- season 2010-11, champions league final: barcelona winner. final played 28 may. first game of la liga 2011: 27 august
- euro 2012, spain: winner. final played 1 july. first game of la liga 2012: 18 august
- confederations cup, spain: runner-up. final played 30 june. first game of la liga 2013: 17 august

most often the pre-season training and friendlies start about a month before the first game of the season. many times there's also champions league qualification games.

looking at these numbers, there's only been two years (2009 and 2011) where there's actually been a proper off season. most of the players are also key players in their teams, meaning they usually play more or less every game, and 90 minutes plus extra time. keep in mind also that real madrid won the champions league this year.

a lot of people say that the players don't have the same hunger anymore, but I don't really believe that's true. which player that has won one trophy would not want to win it again? it's like having a delicious piece of chocolate and think "nah, I've already had it once, I'm done" - who would do that?

obviously there's the fact that their strategy and tactics have been analyzed and counter-plays developed, but the fact that they are physically exhausted probably also played a big role.

what do you think? could this be a reason?

brazil - croatia, quick analysis first half

brazil is doing really well on the right wing

oscar's crosses from the right wing have been really dangerous

brazil is too open on the wings defensively, where croatia has been able to push

with the wing backs (dani alves and marcelo) pushing up, they're not sufficiently protected

the defensive midfield needs to cover up when brazil go on the offensive

haven't been this excited in a long time

WORLD CUP!!!

I'm going into a one-month hibernation.

always ze germans

it seems my last week has been full of activities related to germany and the germans. first of all, a very close friend left last thursday:


so I tried to spend as much time as possible with and for her - arranging for her farewell, going to the airport, etc. we prepared a nice slideshow, watched the euro semifinals (so close turkey!) together, and had quite a fair amount of fun. I was obviously (?) rooting for turkey, which didn't make her all too happy, but germany won in the end, so it was good. me and another friend also resorted to calling each other up screaming "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" and then instantly hanging up when turkey (me) or germany (him) scored. good fun. finally on thursday a bunch of us went to the airport with her to say good bye. she will definitely be missed.

and then there was obviously the finals last night, and once again I was on the other side of the german fence. we were quite a group of people, and there were some cheering for spain, others for germany, and it was quite a nice atmosphere. and I must say it got all the better thanks to spain winning. although a word of thought must go out to michael ballack, whom I can't feel more than sorry for. he if anyone understands what it means to be close, but not really there. just look at his 2002 and 2006:
2002: runner up in the world cup (suspended in the final due to getting his second yellow card in the semifinal), champions league, bundesliga (on the very last day), german cup.
2008: runner up in the european championships (played the final half-injured), champions league (on penalties - the last one hit the inside of the post), premier league (again, on the last day), league cup.
on top of that, he finished 3rd in the world cup 2006 (lost the semifinal in extra time) and runner up in the premier league 2007. ouch.

when football goes a bit too far

I'm a die-hard football fan, but even I think this is a bit too much... even though it's really, really funny. the miracle of cordoba happened in 1978, when austria beat germany 3-2 in the world cup, much to the surprise of pretty much everyone. a couple of weeks ago, artist massimo furlan reenacted that game, by himself. without a ball. just imitating the movements of one player, goalscoring hero hans krankl. read more about the performance here.

the most scary part? more than 3000 people came to see it.

my brother's gone...

my brother's gone. he left early yesterday morning (ie monday night), and arrived home quickly, and I suppose rather safely. unfortunately I wasn't able to spend as much time with him as I would've liked to, which is my own fault, but I think and hope that he enjoyed his time here. it was two weeks that went by rather quickly, and I'm already looking forward to having him here again.

euro 2008 has started, and I've actually been more excited than I thought. and obviously, with a goal like this, how can I not be?



excitedly looking forward to seeing what else we'll see these upcoming 2-3 weeks...

time for a new e-mail! :(

it came as a heavy blow, the e-mail. my e-mail account with my uni will be closed down in three weeks. it makes sense, as I haven't been studying anything for more than a year, but still unpleasant news. so now I have to start looking for somewhere else to make my default e-mail account. I currently have a hotmail (only used for msn and diverse spam), and two gmails (one for blogging with a half-unserious address, and a proper one). the way things are looking now, I'll probably go over to my gmail, but I'm just looking to see if anyone else has any other suggestions. then I'd probably also have to look into exporting everything over...

in completely unrelated matters, here's a video of some really nice freekicks. maybe something to work on:

it's been a while

things have been a bit busy here as of lately... with my brother and other visitors being here, pilgrims, and a lot of work to take care of there's been little time for much else. right now I tried to plan a few things wih another friend, and it turned out that basically the upcoming two weeks it won't be possible to meet up, which seems kind of weird. whenever one of us is available, the other one is not. and then there of course are a lot of people leaving, all the time...

last week we commemorated the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, and it was a very special feeling of being out there at 3 am at night, as that was when He passed away. we got the opportunity of going into the room where He passed away, and offer our prayers and supplications there. it was a very nice atmosphere and a spiritual feeling.

between the visit to His room and the commemoration, we went into town to have some food, and also took a few pictures. I think this is the one that turned out best:



in other news, euro 2008 is coming up. it's going to be slightly exciting (not exactly sure which games I'm looking forward to), and a bit of a test of my detachment. in usual cases, I'd pretty much be glued to the tv for every single game, but now I have to decide which ones are important to me, and obviously there'll be classes and other talks as well to think about and prioritize. we'll see how it turns out, but there'll obviously be some games that I will try my very best not to miss - sweden for sure, hopefully I'll be able to see spain, italy and portugal play (they usually play fun and good football), and obviously as we'll get further on in the tournament I'll see more of the games. other than that, we'll see how it goes...

we are the champions

I'd love this!

okay, golf is not a sport... but this is:


football golf! that's like the most awesome thing ever! read here in swedish, but still, so cool. wish I could go and play!

obviously there should be a time limit in how long you can take to play a whole/the course, because otherwise it'll just be too lazy. add some requirements to that and I might even consider golf to be a sport. but for now? nah...

ronaldo, r9, el fenómeno...

I don't blog much about football anymore, much because I don't really watch anymore. but today, I must...

this morning, I thought of a few players that I haven't seen live yet, and which I'd like to before their careers end. riquelme, carlos tevez, cristiano ronaldo were on that list, but first and foremost - ronaldo. he has always been one of my absolute favorite players, especially since he signed for inter back in 1997. regardless of where he's played, I've always enjoyed watching him.

and what do I read today? his carrier is probably over, after severing the tendon in his left knee last night. this is the third time it happens (1998 and 2000, although that was the other knee), and the chances of him making another comeback are slim to say the least. unfortunately :(

three videos:







he scored an amazing 240 goals in 392 games, which gives him a striking average of 0.61. any striker over 0.5 should be happy. considering that he was mostly injured during the latter years of his career, skipping his last two years would bring him closer to a scoring average of 0.7.

ronaldo combined speed, technique and control, to an extreme degree. he could take on entire defenses on his own, and could almost score at will. left or right foot, it didn't matter. dribble the defense (and the keeper!), shoot from distance, headers, free-kicks, he absolutely had it all. 3-time world player of the year, all-time world cup top scorer, 3-time world cup winner, a few top scorer awards, etc etc... he will definitely be missed.

read more about him on wikipedia.

diversity

a quick reflection on the diversity of the Baha'i Faith: serving here in the Baha'i World Centre means daily getting exposed to and interacting with people from a countless of countries, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. just the other day, sitting in a taxi on our way to football, the four of us were from canada, singapore, vanuatu and sweden - the driver obviously a local israeli. in just about 160 years, the Faith has spread literally all over the world:

The Bahá'í Faith is an independent monotheistic religion with a worldwide population of some 5 million people. They come from more than 2,000 different tribal, racial, and ethnic groups and live in 235 countries and dependent territories. The Britannica Book of the Year (1992) referred to the Bahá'í Faith as the second-most geographically widespread religion in the world, after Christianity. (source)

if you remember this post, about the 16 countries in our 29-person big group (this time they are 23 from 12 countries), you'll realize that almost every country you can think of is represented here. I wish I knew exactly how many countries we had represented here, but I'd say we're easily from at least 70-80 different countries here. I think it's an amazing feat, and to also see everyone so united and full of love, despite the differences among us. it really gives hope for the future.


in other, quite unrelated, news, I had to suffer from some food experimenting the other day. pouring up cereal and only afterwards noticing that we were out of milk, I was left wondering what to do. after some dividing, I decided to try orange juice instead.
I won't do it again. it wasn't absolutely horrible, but it sorta left a kind of taste that you didn't expect. asked a couple of people here in the office, and they said they'd go for water. maybe I'll do that next time, but it feels kinda boring. hopefully there won't be a next time though.


I got challenged to list my seven wishes and challenge seven other bloggers to do it as well. I don't know what to think of it... I can only be content with what I have here, my experiences and challenges. as Bahá'u'lláh says: "Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity" I think I will just try to live by that. I'm going to do my best in all I do, and hope for the best. whatever happens to me is in God's hands:

O thou who art turning thy face towards God! Close thine eyes to all things else, and open them to the realm of the All-Glorious. Ask whatsoever thou wishest of Him alone; seek whatsoever thou seekest from Him alone. With a look He granteth a hundred thousand hopes, with a glance He healeth a hundred thousand incurable ills, with a nod He layeth balm on every wound, with a glimpse He freeth the hearts from the shackles of grief. He doeth as He doeth, and what recourse have we? He carrieth out His Will, He ordaineth what He pleaseth. Then better for thee to bow down thy head in submission, and put thy trust in the All-Merciful Lord.

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá -

*looks to the right*

Days left in Sweden: 7

that feels quite amazing. I told the football people today that I'm leaving, and they were quite surprised to say the least, hehe...

my days are currently spent with sports, meeting ppl, and some other stuff. I think I need to start packing soon, but that'll probably take until weekend or so. not a day too late...

and yes, I became top scorer. my competitor "only" scored three goals today, so he ended two behind me. here are the final results. yay!

capocannoniere?

yesterday was our last game of the season, and we needed a win to make it through to the playoffs. it didn't start well at all, with a 0-2 deficit in halftime, despite having about 5-10 clear goalscoring opportunities (I missed about 3-4).

the second half turned out to be pretty much the same. an abundance of missed opportunities, and spirits were sinking. however, two quick goals, one of them by me, meant that we needed only one more goal to go through. and with 5 minutes left it came, and it felt gooooood. the last few minutes we were just playing possession game, even though we did have a few more chances to score. (and yes, I missed some there too.)

my one goal of the game meant that my total tally came to 23 goals in 18 games, of which I think I missed four or so. 23/14 = 1.64, which is quite a good average. the remaining games are played today, and there's one person with 18 goals scored, which can equal me. they're playing against quite an easy team, but the rules only allow you to score 5 goals per game. which means I'll at least be shared top scorer, if not alone. the award ceremony is the 30th of october, which means I'll miss it...

I need to shave

check out my picture from the site of our football series:


scored three goals yesterday, and barring a miracle, I'll hopefully be the top scorer. one game to go...

good bye party!

had my little good bye party on saturday evening, and it turned out really well. there were about 40 people there, of varying ages and that I knew from different places. we had some lovely food and cakes and sweets (thank you mom!), and no planned program at all. there simply wasn't room for it, the best thing was to just let people talk and mingle. and I would say it turned out quite well...

here's a picture of how we had set the table:


as you can see there wasn't space for more than about 20 people to sit at a time, so some people were standing and talking/eating, and some even went outside (mainly the kids to play football... ;))

the evening went on well, some people brought me gifts (thank you!), and some didn't (thank you!). those who had asked, I had told I didn't want anything, mainly because there's so little space to bring extra stuff with me, so those who brought me presents were all very thoughtful. small things, a few books, some chocolate (yummy!) and then the best gift I could ever wish for:


an argentinean football shirt with the signature of the love of my life, lionel messi, on the back, and javier saviola on the front. I was unbelievably happy when I got it, never thought my friend would give this one away...

too bad for everyone else, this was pretty much the first gift I got, so they didn't really have too much of a chance in the competition for best present ;)

to everyone that came: thank you very much for your presence! I really appreciated it a lot, and I hope you had a good time too!

click for the gallery

quite good turnout...

this doesn't happen quite often... highest league in holland, and afonso alves scores 7 goals!

is it possible to be in love with a sport?

I'm sitting here in my couch, watching barcelona hand zaragoza a lesson in how to play football, and I'm just sitting being amazed at how beautiful it is. it's fast-flowing, technical football, the kind that you dream you'd play. this is something I wish every person who's the slightest interested in football would just sit down and watch. absolutely amazing.

the last week

today starts the last week of many things... I have only 5 days left of work, and so have to wrap up things here so that no loose threads hanging when I'm gone. friday will probably be quite a long day as I have to go through everything to make sure it's all checked in, uploaded, and all that. and then in the end hand in my computer and my access card.

and then I'm also moving out in the weekend, so my last days of living on my own. my place is already more than half-empty, so it's already a bit weird being here. but as I said before, it's pretty much just tv and computer that needs to go out, and then a proper cleaning. I'll get help from my parents, so I hope to be able to finish it off without stressing too much in the end.

and I'm limping since yesterday's game. got a knee right on my thigh, so it hurts. even sleeping is kinda painful, and let's not even talk about shoes, socks and trousers. yikes. I hope it goes over soon, but it'll probably take a couple of more days. means no sports for me, just gym. boring :(