October 2, 2008

CFR Cluj Held Chelsea 0-0, while Didier Drogba Sustained a Serious Injury

Romanian Champions CFR Cluj continues their dream run in their debut Champions League season. The Romanian giants may not be in good shape in domestic league, but they are showing their talent and skill in Europe. After creating one of the biggest ever upsets in Europe thanks to their 2-1 away victory over Italian club AS Roma in the first match, CFR Cluj held high-flying Chelsea to a goalless draw last night at home and currently secures the second place in the league table with 4 points. Chelsea also has 4 points to their credit, but leads the table only on goal difference.

Chelsea came into the match full of confidence as all of their players were in good shape. In fact, the Blues has been in excellent goal scoring form under their new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. Chelsea scored 2 and 2/1 goals on an average in their first eight games this season. So, it was not easy task for a newcomer to win a point against Chelsea. However, manager Scolari said that it was impossible to do more to clinch a victory, but he admitted that the players were tired and they should be blamed for that.


However, the most sustainable wound Chelsea suffered in the match against CFR Cluj was not losing two points. Rather, the Blues lost their important striker Didier Drogba as he was stretchered off the field following a collision with an opposition defender in the second half. With Drogba entering into the treatment room, Chelsea’s injury list is only getting larger.


Related article:

Bloomberg

Liverpool Pulled off 3-1 Home Victory over PSV Eindhoven in Champions League 08-09

Liverpool continued their winning run in Champions League as the All Reds defeated PSV Eindhoven 3-1 at home. However, still they are not leading the point table of Group D as Atletico Madrid with equal six points are leading the tabel on goal difference. PSV Eindhoven, on the other hand, has lost both the matches they played so far in Champions League this season.

Captain Steven Gerrard got his 100th goal for the Merseyside club. Moreover, summer signing Robbie Keane scored the first goal for Liverpool. However, Liverpool was put ahead in the match by a Dirk Kuyt goal. In the other match of Group D Atletico Madrid defeated Marseille 2-1 at home.

Related article:

Reuters

Shakhtar Donetsk 1- 2 Barcelona: Lionel Messi Saves the Catalans

Barcelona was down 1-0 with three minutes off the time and it looked that Barcelona was going to slip at Ukraine once again. However, the Catalans ended up winning three points from the match thanks to two late goals from Argentina star Lionel Messi who came on as a substitute.


Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk, who defeated FC Basel 2-1 away in the opening match of the Champions league, went ahead in the match as Brazilian Ilsinho scored in the first half. Howver, Messi turned into rescuer and scored the equalizer in the 87th minute of the match, and then scored the winner in the fourth minute of the stoppage time.


With this victory Barcelona leads the Group C point table with 6 points from 2 outings, while Shakhtar Donetsk, who earned three points away at Basel in the first match, is now left in the third place with the same three points from 2 matches. There is no doubt, Barcelona is now in a good position in the group after winning an important away match.


Related article:

xinhuanet

Sourav, Rahul, Laxman, Sachin and Anil should go to retirement

Once up on a time, in Indian cricket there was a golden time that has been passed when Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tecdulkar dominated the oppositions during the firs 15 overs. India was the top most team that will more runs during the restricted fielding time. By the time being it Sourv and Sachin is in aged and the in the last 10 matches they did not do well in ODI a Test.

Recently, there was news in Indian media that Sourav Ganguly has planned to take retirement for the international cricket when he has been kept his name from the next Home Test series alongside Australia. After getting some change in the selection board of Indian Cricket board, some of older players get opportunities to play the home Test series including Sourav. Beside, they all have got notice to go to retirement form the International cricket.

Cricket-mad India is fiercely debating whether it is time for their record-breaking batsmen Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Vangipurappu Laxman as well as spinner Anil Kumble, the test captain, all well into their 30s, to quit.

I think, India needs to take some change for future and should get opportunity for the young players.

20 Things About ‘Drona’ Bollywood Movie

After Imran Khan starrer Kidnap got released on 1 October, Abhishek Bachchan’s Drona comes on the big screen on 2 October. Goldie Behl directed, Drona stars Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles, alongside Kay Kay Menon in villanious role, and Jaya Bachchan in a small but significant role. The Bollywood movie Drona is a tale of a young man who meets his destiny and saves the world from evil power, turning from an ordinary young man to super natural hero.


The movie Drona is set on a fantasy world where evil magical power loses to heavenly power and the world is saved by a great hero who possesses royal power by inheritance. The story seems to be a fable churning out by a grandmother to her grandchildren. However, the fact is that Drona is said to be a coming-of-age fantasy film- meaning the fantasy fable it tells would attract audience of all age.


Abhishek Bachchan plays the super-hero protagonist Aditya/Drona in the movie Drona. Priyanka Chopra portrays the role of Sonia, a descendant of a royal warrior family and the bodyguard of Aditya/Drona, while versatile actor Kay Kay Menon is seen in a villainous role of an evil magician, Riz Raizada, who wants to capture the world and achieve immortality by gaining a precious thing that belongs to the royal family of the Kingdom of Pratapgarh. Only Aditya/Drona comes in his way to become immortal and destroys the world. In the end, Drona and the evil magician, Riz Raizada, confront each other and the fight between evil and good begins. The winner will be known once the movie gets released.


Well, here I am giving some important information about the movie Drona, which you may find useful:


· The movie Drona involves a number of fighting sequesces and it features different kinds of Indian martial arts including Kalaripayat, Chhau, Gatka, and sword fighting.

· Drona was shot in a number of locations including Prague, Bikaner, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Namibia.

· Lots of special effects are used in the movie Drona. Though the shooting of the movie was completed last year, special effects and post production works needed nine months to complete the whole project. A big part of the film’s budget was spent on special effects.

· Special effects were designed by David Bush, a special effect specialist who works in European movies. Director Goldie Behl along with the producers hired a number of Indian studios for the special effects used in the movie. The six Indian studios were involved in the making of special effects for the movie Drona. The studios are: Eros’s EyeQube, Prana, Future Works, Red Chillies, Tata Elxsi and Prime Focus Plus.

· The movie is produced by Shrishti Arya and Sunil Lulla, and Eros International will distribute the movie Drona.

· Recently, Abhishek Bachchan has said that Drona is his biggest and best film so far.

· Drona is director Goldie Behl’s second directorial project after his debut movie as a director, Baas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai. Interestingly, Abhishek Bachchan also played the lead role in Goldie Behl’s first movie.

· Abhishek Bachchan and Kay Kay Menon had to learn sword fighting for the movie Drona.

· The two actors learned sword fighting to Richard Ryan, a famous sword master, to whom Aishwarya Rai Bachchan had also learnt sowrd fighting for her English movie Last Legion.

· Abhishek Bachchan and Goldie Behl are the childhood friends and making a film involving sword fighting like Drona was their childhood dream. That means that the movie was planned about two decades ago!

· The movie Drona is inspired by the character of the same name in the epic Mahabharata, and graphic arts and comic books.

· For sporting the flowing air, as it was demanded by the director Goldie Behl, Abhishek Bachchan had to grow his hair and beard.

· Drona features perhaps the most expensive villain of Bollywood. For the Kay Kay Menon’s villanious role of the evil magician, Riz Rizawan, director Goldie Behl said, 22 crore rupees were spent for designing an entire palace to feature as the evil kingdom of Riz Rizawan.

· Director Goldie Behl has already started planning to make a sequel of the movie Drona.

· If Goldie Behl makes a sequel of the movie Drona and ropes in Abhishek Bachchan for the sequel, then Abhishek Bachchan will be one of the very few Bollywood actors to have the experience of working in three sequel movies after Dhoom, Dhoom 2 and Sarkar, Sarkar Raj.

· Priyanka Chopra rescues Abhishek Bachchan from Riz Rizawan in one scene of the movie Drona and this reminds me of a scene from the comedy film Welcome, where actress Katrina Kaif turns rescuer and saves Akshay Kumar from fire.

· Anaita Shroff Adajania designed the costumes of the movie Drona. Anaita Shroff Adajania earlier worked as a costume designer in the movies like Dhoom 2, Being Cyrus.

· Costume of Abhishek Bachchan was inspired by the dresses of typical Indian groom and the costume designer also gave a look of a warrior to Abhishek Bachchan’s outfit.

· Bollywood movie Drona could be Abhishek Bachchan’s first solo hit after the actor’s 2007 hit film Guru.

· For Goldie Behl too, it is an important movie. His debut film did average in the box office, and now his progress as a film director largely depends on the success of the big budget movie Drona. So, the movie is crucial for his career as well.


Related articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drona_(film)

http://www.masala.com/7053-goldie-and-i-planned-drona-when-we-were-kids

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/drona-is-a-comingofage-fantasy-film/366759/

http://www.nowrunning.com/movie/Previews/MoviePreview.aspx?movie=3842

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/How_Abhi_and_Ash_learned_to_fight/articleshow/3537050.cms

http://www.masala.com/6783-how-the-drona-stars-were-dressed

http://www.apunkachoice.com/dyn/movies/hindi/drona/drona-preview.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Priyanka_protects/articleshow/3526742.cms

October 1, 2008

Bordeaux vs Roma Champions League 08-09 Preview

Bordeaux is going to entertain Roma on 1 October 2008. It is going to be Group A match of Champions League2008-09. This is a match in which I think no one is favorite. Roma has a strong side and it is gradually improving in Italian Serie A. This Sunday, Roma defeated Atlanta 2-0. The only bad news is that Roma will be without their ace striker Francesco Totti who is still injured. So, I think that without Totti Roma attack will become weaken. Some other players are also injured too. However, there is some good news for them Julio Baptista and Daniel De Rossi will come back to the line up after injury and one match ban respectively. So, the midfied of Roma will look strong. This season has not been so good for Roma so far for Roma.

On the other hand, Bordeaux has the same problem. In the first match of the group, Bordeaux suffered 4-0 humiliation to Chelsea. Of course, Chelsea has been in good form and last season Chelsea reached the Champions league final and got out only in penalty shoot out. So, this defeat should be counted that heavily. I think that there can be a draw tonight. I do not see too much goals to be scored in the match between Bordeaux and Roma.

Related article:

Sky Sports

Inter Milan vs Werder Bremen Champions League 08-09 Perview

Later tonight, Inter Milan is going to face German side Werder Bremen in a Group B match of UEFA Champions League 2008-09. At this moment, in group B, Inter Milan is leading the table with one win. Inter Milan defeated Panathinaikos in the first match. On the other hand, Werder Bremen only got only one point as they drew their opening match. It is very early still in Champions league as you can see that only one match has been played for each team in group B.


However, this match and every match of Inter Milan in Europe will be important for their coach Mourinho. Untill now, Inter Milan is often criticized and ridiculed that they are a big giant in Italian football, but they are very weak in Europe. This is at to some point true. In fact, Inter Milan has not won the trophy of Champions league since 1965. So, it is more than 42 years that Inter Milan is without a trophy in Europe. So, this is a top priority for coach Mourinho. The fans do not care if Inter Milan play badly in Italy, but they want their club to do very well in Europe and get a reputation and prestige in European level.


Of course, it will be very difficult for Inter to win the match convincingly tonight. You have to remember that Werder Bremen is not a team to neglect. In fact, in the last two matches in German Bundesliga, Werder Bremen has scored 10 goals. It shows that it has a very strong team who are capable of picking up big margin victory. However, I am not so sure if Werder Bremen can do something outstanding at Italy tonight. Let us see what happens in tonight’s match.


Related article:

Sky Sports