World Cup Soccer 2006 : Did it live up to our expectations?

It's Written in the SandIndian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik adds the finishing touches to his sand sculptures of Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro (R) and French captain, Zinedine Zidane at the Golden beach in Puri, east of the Indian city of Orissa, July 8, 2006.

World Cup will finish tonight. There were some spectacular goals scored in the tournament. But all in all this World Cup will have fewer memorable moments than its previous editions. Records were created, though mostly on negative note. Apart from goals scored from maximum no. of passes (Argentina did it first & then it was improved upon by Brazil) the other things which I can remember about this cup are...

• A player hyped as best in the game miserably fails to stamp his authority on the World Cup.
• A team crashed out in last 16 stage without conceding a goal in the tournament.
• A match in which record nos. of red & yellow cards were showered by the referee.
• A team now on verge of winning the World Cup got a controversial penalty in its favour against Aussies in dying seconds of the match.

If that was not enough, Asian teams especially Korea & Japan performed below par. With their elimination in earlier rounds thise time, one can conclude that home advantage in World Cup means assistance from referee. With so many controversies happening in every world cup why can't FIFA use Ultra slow motions to decide off-sides & infringement inside the penalty area to start with?

The only bright side was good showing by African countries such as Ghana & Ivory Coast. Hope with experience they can challenge hegemony of European & Latin American countries in years to come.

As for the question where our own country stands viz to viz qualification for the World Cup, I have this post लो जी मन्ने कर दिया गोल ! to offer which I wrote on my Hindi Blog.

Quotes about Marriage !

Another forward which i thought will be interesting to share.. (I know ise post karne ke baad gaali bhi milegi kuch logon se :))

I recently read that love is entirely a matter of
chemistry.That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.
David Bissonette

When a man steals your wife, there is no better
revenge than to let him keep her.
Sacha Guitry

After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a
coin; they just can't face each other, but still they
stay together.
Hemant Joshi

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be
happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates

Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us
from achieving them.
Dumas

The great question... which I have not been able to
answer... is, "What does a woman want?
Sigmund Freud

I had some words with my wife, and she had some
paragraphs with me.
Anonymous

"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We
take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A
little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing.
She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."
Henry Youngman

"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two
years."
Sam Kinison

"There's a way of transferring funds that is even
faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage."
James Holt McGavran

"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one
left me and the second one didn't."
Patrick Murray

Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.
Nash
The most effective way to remember your wife's
birthday is to forget it once...
Anonymous

You know what I did before I married? Anything I
wanted to.
Henny Youngman

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we
met.
Rodney Dangerfield

A good wife always forgives her husband when she's
wrong.
Milton Berle

Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the
enemy.
Anonymous

A man inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: "Wife
wanted". Next day he received a hundred letters. They
all said the same thing: "You can have mine."
Anonymous

First Guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!" Second Guy
"You're lucky, mine's still alive."