Saturday, June 11, 2005
Deigo Maradona sets foot in Naples after 15 years!!
The only 2 Serie A titles won by southern Italian teams was achieved during Maradona's era in Naples with Napoli. Th acrimonious split came about when Maradona's Argentina defeated Italy in Italia 90 in of all place, San Paulo Naples. Where ater the world cup, amid allegations of drug abuse, Maradona fled the country to Spain. Diego's return to Naples was in tune with Cirro Ferrara's testimonial match comprising of past Napoli legends and Juventus's where he spent the later part of his career chalking up more Scudettos. Ferrara and Maradona was part of the great Napoli team in the 80s which included other great players like Careca, Alemoa, Fernando De Napoli, Andrea Carnevale, Bruno Giordana and Salvatore Bagni. Just like the Scudetto will never be won again by a Southern Italian team, we'll prolly never see a player as skillful and magnificent as Maradona.
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The only 2 Serie A titles won by southern Italian teams was achieved during Maradona's era in Naples with Napoli. Th acrimonious split came about when Maradona's Argentina defeated Italy in Italia 90 in of all place, San Paulo Naples. Where ater the world cup, amid allegations of drug abuse, Maradona fled the country to Spain. Diego's return to Naples was in tune with Cirro Ferrara's testimonial match comprising of past Napoli legends and Juventus's where he spent the later part of his career chalking up more Scudettos. Ferrara and Maradona was part of the great Napoli team in the 80s which included other great players like Careca, Alemoa, Fernando De Napoli, Andrea Carnevale, Bruno Giordana and Salvatore Bagni. Just like the Scudetto will never be won again by a Southern Italian team, we'll prolly never see a player as skillful and magnificent as Maradona.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Just the other day, one of my fren asked me this," How many goals have you scored so far?"
I've never really thought about this before and after nearly 20 years of playing football, I had lost count, but it would not have been an exaggeration to say I have scored at least 2000 goals, competitive and non-competitive. Well, I take my soccer very seriously and maybe there's no such thing as a non-competitive game for me, I'll put life, body and limbs on the line everytime I play. Then he asked me which of the goals was the most memorable and gave me most pleasure. That sets me thinking again, there were certainly memorables one, 30m blast, slalom runs thru entire defences from midfield, free kicks, corner flags, tap ins, 20m lobs over keepers, last min winners, I've scored the lot. The one that really brings a smile to me everytime I think of was my only headed goal. I was in the naval officers academy then and we traditionally have a game against another group that was also on course at the same time, called the NJ-NW games. The funny thing was that except for a few additions, the game was actually an inter-39th midshipman batch, where those returning from studies form my group and those that had continued to serve the NW group. We lost the game 4-0, and felt really hard done by, for we had 20 over shots on goal and I myself had 7 shots, which were all off target after I ran the guantlet of sliding tackles. The opposition had 4 chances and converted all of there. There could not possibly been a more lopsided scoring line that totally do not reflect the game. Being the bad loser that I am and the captain of the team, I challenged them to a rematch to right the injustice. The resulting game ended 4-1 in our favour and I scored my only headed goal to date. Those that know me from playing football will know that I am absolutely horrible with headers, perhaps one of my weakest techniques in the game. The goal came about when Jason, who was my batch boy sent in a wonderful cross from the right and I was totally unmarked, I can still remember the way I rose and planted the header beyond the keeper. I believe it would have been picture perfect. It wasn't the greatest goal nor the most skillful nor the most important I've scored, but it certainly was my favourite. Perhaps when I die, and hopefully at either the pearly gates, I can ask St Peters how many goals I've scored this lifetime, and in exchange I'll go burn in hell, I'll still wanto know. :P
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I've never really thought about this before and after nearly 20 years of playing football, I had lost count, but it would not have been an exaggeration to say I have scored at least 2000 goals, competitive and non-competitive. Well, I take my soccer very seriously and maybe there's no such thing as a non-competitive game for me, I'll put life, body and limbs on the line everytime I play. Then he asked me which of the goals was the most memorable and gave me most pleasure. That sets me thinking again, there were certainly memorables one, 30m blast, slalom runs thru entire defences from midfield, free kicks, corner flags, tap ins, 20m lobs over keepers, last min winners, I've scored the lot. The one that really brings a smile to me everytime I think of was my only headed goal. I was in the naval officers academy then and we traditionally have a game against another group that was also on course at the same time, called the NJ-NW games. The funny thing was that except for a few additions, the game was actually an inter-39th midshipman batch, where those returning from studies form my group and those that had continued to serve the NW group. We lost the game 4-0, and felt really hard done by, for we had 20 over shots on goal and I myself had 7 shots, which were all off target after I ran the guantlet of sliding tackles. The opposition had 4 chances and converted all of there. There could not possibly been a more lopsided scoring line that totally do not reflect the game. Being the bad loser that I am and the captain of the team, I challenged them to a rematch to right the injustice. The resulting game ended 4-1 in our favour and I scored my only headed goal to date. Those that know me from playing football will know that I am absolutely horrible with headers, perhaps one of my weakest techniques in the game. The goal came about when Jason, who was my batch boy sent in a wonderful cross from the right and I was totally unmarked, I can still remember the way I rose and planted the header beyond the keeper. I believe it would have been picture perfect. It wasn't the greatest goal nor the most skillful nor the most important I've scored, but it certainly was my favourite. Perhaps when I die, and hopefully at either the pearly gates, I can ask St Peters how many goals I've scored this lifetime, and in exchange I'll go burn in hell, I'll still wanto know. :P
