Posts Tagged ‘excitement’

Asian football’s top ten stories of 2011

It was another year full of drama, excitement and controversy in Asian football and here are the top ten stories of 2011.

10. Afghanistan reach the final of the South Asian Cup

GettyImagesJapan’s women trumped the men in following on from their Asian Cup to win the Women’s World Cup by defeating the USA on penalties

When you are ranked 178 in the world, your historical number of wins is in single figures and the adjective ‘war-torn’ is a semi-permanent companion every time your country’s name is mentioned in the international media, you take any success you can get. Afghanistan had the best year in their football history and if things had gone a little differently, could have ended it as South Asian champions.

The Lions had never made it past the first round of the biennial meet before but stormed into the last four with comprehensive wins over Sri Lanka and Bhutan following an opening game draw against India in Delhi. then came a semi-final win over a Nepal team coached by former England international Graham Roberts to earn a final date with the hosts and favourties India. that ended in a 4-0 defeat after the sending off of the Afghan goalkeeper. It was still a great time for fans in the country.

Chinese fans are accustomed to national team heartbreak but it doesn’t get any easier. the year started with a first round elimination from the Asian Cup but what really hurt was a third successive failure to reach the final stage of qualification for the World Cup. the whys and wherefores have long been debated without offering much in the way of comfort. There is solace these days in the rise of the Chinese Super League and the money flowing into the domestic game. that may eventually help the national team add to a solitary World Cup appearance but fans will not be holding their collective breath.

8. Growing power of Asian teams in international transfer market

Teams from the western reaches of the continent have been buying big-name stars for years though these players were usually close to retirement and happy to wind down for a couple of years.

The signing of Asamoah Gyan by Al Ain was significant. It was a case of a West Asian club’s financial power tempting a player still yet to hit his peak away from an established English Premier League club that wanted to keep him. then you have the capture of Nicolas Anelka by Shanghai Shenhua in December and the promise of similar signings to come. Asian clubs flexed their financial muscles in 2011 and an increasing amount of famous European teams can’t match such power.

7. Indonesia shenanigans

While the Arab Spring was sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East, Indonesian football got rid of its own corrupt dictator in the shape of Nurdin Halid. the convicted criminal wanted a third term as president of the country’s FA. Even apart from the fact that he had been imprisoned while in office, the chaotic state of the domestic football scene should have been damning enough. It took a long time but eventually FIFA ruled that Nurdin could not stand again and from the chaos, a pro-reform candidate eventually took his place. While the jury is still out on whether things will be much better in Indonesian football, the recent political upheavals around the world taught that removal of a rotten leader is a vital first step.

6. the Bahrain situation

What do you do when you get within minutes of the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and you are desperate for a debut appearance on the global stage? In their bid to qualify for 2014, Bahrain arrested some of their best players. Established internationals such as Mohamed Hubail, his brother Alaa as well as Mohamed Adnan were arrested by security forces, imprisoned and, they claim, tortured for taking part in protests at the height of the Arab Spring. They may have been released but are not yet close to a recall to the national team. Even if that happened, it is probably too late as far as 2014 is concerned. Bahrain are almost out of the running.

5. Good news from Palestine and Lebanon

It may be cheating to have two nations occupying one slot but this is a pair that tends to make headlines for reasons other than football. In 2011 it was different. Palestine played a first ever World Cup qualifier on home soil, progressing past Afghanistan before narrowly being beaten by Thailand. Lebanon are in with a shout of the final round of the 2014 World Cup qualification thanks partly to an impressive 2-1 win over South Korea in November.

4. Al Sadd end East Asian dominance and more besides

Al Sadd were not bad at all. They may be the most unpopular team in Asia but were also the best thing to happen to the Asian Champions League for years, upsetting entire nations on their way to the title. first came Iran. Al Sadd lost both quarter-finals against Sepahan but progressed to the last four because of an ineligible player fielded.

A controversial goal in the semi-final against Suwon Bluewings almost caused a riot but shot the tournament into headlines around the world. a penalty shootout win against Jeonbuk Motors in the final after being second best for much of the match took the trophy back to West Asia for the first time since 2005. Al Sadd then finished third at the FIFA Club World Cup ending an amazing year for a team that didn’t even qualify for the Asian Champions League in the first place and were admitted due to the expulsion of a club from Vietnam.

3. South Korea match-fixing

Asia’s oldest professional league took a major hit in 2011 with a string of match-fixing cases that shocked a nation. over 60 players, past and present, were prosecuted for the crime, often accepting amounts that were depressingly low. for a while in spring, fresh allegations and accusations became a part of the national television news and caused at least two involved to take their own life. the KFA and the K-League reacted quickly and strictly but how effective the counter-measures were remain to be seen.

2. Suspension of Mohamed Bin Hammam

GettyImagesMohammed Bin Hammam: a year that began with the highest of hopes ends in ignominy

This is the first half of a story that is going to dominate Asian football off the pitch for much of 2012. after nine years in the continental top job, Bin Hammam decided to shoot for the biggest post of all and in March announced that he was going to challenge FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the election due to be held in may. just before the vote, the Qatari withdrew after accusations of vote-buying. he was later banned from football by FIFA’s Ethics Committee.

Bin Hammam claims that the committee is far from impartial- a view shared by many in the game – and is determined to clear his name. Whether he succeeds or not, 2011 marked the end of Bin Hammam at the AFC.

It is good to end with football matters and it was a great year for Japan. It started with a fourth Asian Cup triumph. after a slow start the Samurai Blue came to the boil nicely and downed South Korea and Australia in the semi-final and final respectively.

In July, the women went one better and lifted the World Cup in Germany, a huge deal for Asian football. And with qualification for 2014 progressing very well, fans in Japan can look back on 2011 with considerable satisfaction.

Asian football’s top ten stories of 2011

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Watch Minnesota Twins vs NY Yankees Live Stream April 05 2011

Minnesota Twins vs NY Yankees Live Stream7:05 PM ETApril 05, 2011

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Watch Minnesota Twins vs NY Yankees Live Stream April 05 2011

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15 Years Of Winter X Sports That Should Be In The Olympics

Olympic Sports can be, let’s be honest, a little on the lethargic side. with the London Olympics creeping up on us next year, the most exciting thing going on is the game’s logo. And the logo isn’t making me wake up because it’s the youth-friendly approach to design they dearly want it to be. because frankly, it doesn’t. The excitement surrounding the logo is purely in whether we’ll get any exciting new interpretations of what it depicts: can the ‘Simpsons Character in unbroadcastable act’ angle possible be bettered? Doubtful.

So if we don’t want to fall asleep, we can wear our Roxy hoodies and sit down to watch spectacular sports like the Winter X Games. The fact the X Games series exists is undoubtedly a good thing, but you can’t help but feel that some of these sports should be integrated into mainstream sports programming. How does BMX riding have any less to do with skill than Gymnastics? {Are the more dangerous forms of Skiing and Snowboarding in the Winter program any less valid than the standard stuff in the Winter Olympics}And is anything in the Winter Olmpics any less ‘extreme’ than the stuff we see on the boards of the Winter X Games?

The slopestyle events are easily the best part about the Winter X Games, which have just finished up their Fifteenth installment. no folks, Slopestyle isn’t some kind of catwalk for the Animal Clothing brand (though the coolness of the threads of show is kind of indisputable). Performed on skis and snowboards, slopestyle sees competitors spinning, grabbing, grinding and flipping down a course that features multiple ramps and rails. Competitors are scored on the difficulty of the tricks performed, and obviously, their ability to make it to the bottom without crashing into Fox Clothing advertising boards. At the latest Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, World Champion Enni Rukajarvi came out on top in the women’s event. Meanwhile, there were massive upsets in the men’s event: a collection of 17 and 18 year olds took the podium places, with Sebastian Toutant the Gold medal winner.

15 Years Of Winter X Sports That Should Be In The Olympics

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Lance Armstrong: Cycling to take cancer message worldwide

(CNN) — Cycling superstar Lance Armstrong stunned the sports world September 9 when he announced that he would come out of a three-year retirement to attempt to win the Tour de France for a record eighth time.

Lance Armstrong said taking the message about cancer worldwide means erasing the stigma behind it.

the 37-year-old Texan said he was returning to raise awareness of cancer, having survived testicular cancer to triumph in cycling’s most famous race.

Armstrong spoke Wednesday with “American Morning’s” Kiran Chetry about what lies ahead in his return from retirement and the message he hopes the world will embrace.

Kiran Chetry: a lot of excitement around the fact you that are returning to cycling. Are you going to race in the Tour de France?

Lance Armstrong: That’s the plan. Certainly that’s the marquee event in cycling, the one that draws the most attention and eyeballs. and with the campaign to take Livestrong global, you want to do the most high-profile event and reach out to the places that need the message the most — France being one, Australia another, South America, South Africa, Asia — a lot of places where the global epidemic for cancer is still prevalent.

Chetry: You were diagnosed and given a 40 percent chance of survival when you were in your mid-20s, and for you, this has become a passion perhaps even greater than cycling. is that the reason you are returning to the sport?

Armstrong: It’s the first reason. I guess if I looked at it from an athletic standpoint, I don’t really need to win another Tour. seven Tours for me was a dream, six broke the record, so that eight doesn’t really mean much. Watch Armstrong talk about his decision to return to cycling »

but we had some success in the state of Texas with Livestrong; we had success in the United States, making it part of the national dialogue. now it’s time to take the message around the world and erase some of the stigma that exists with cancer and increase funding not just in the United States, but all over the world.

Chetry: You can’t go anywhere without seeing someone wearing your bracelet. That’s led to $70 million from the bracelets alone. why did that message seem to resonate with so many people?

Armstrong: It’s very simple. it resonates because the disease affects everybody. Not that everybody has been diagnosed themselves, but everybody has a family member or a neighbor or a classmate that dealt with this disease. so it is literally 100 percent the basis. everybody understands that everybody wants to ultimately see this disease go away in our lifetime.

Chetry: getting back to cycling, one of your former teammates, Robbie Ventura, was talking about how difficult it is. He said the hardest part will be going back to the mental discipline of training — eating, sleeping with 110 percent commitment and snapping your brain back to the being perfect all the time. is it the mental part that is harder than the physical part?

Armstrong: the mind has snapped back. Mentally, I feel 25 again. I feel motivated and more inspired than I’ve ever been to get back to the bike and work hard to make all the sacrifice it required to be competitive.

Physically, at 37, I’ll be almost 38 when I start the tour next summer. That’s slightly different, but ultimately, I believe that the mind powers the body, and once the mind says we want to do it, then the body will follow.

Chetry: on a practical level, what is that type of training like? what do you do every day?

Armstrong: it goes in phases. Right now, I’m spending half my time in the gym and half my time on the bike. Come January, all of the gym work will go away, and really for the rest of the season, all you do is train on the bike and obviously focus on other things. Focus on stretching. Focus on the technology of cycling. Focus on diet. Focus on the team and strategy and all the other elements.

Chetry: I want to ask you about presidential politics right now. I know you met with and talked and I saw you touring with John McCain, and he’s a cancer survivor himself. what does the president need to be aware of? what type of action would you like to see happen when either one of these men makes it to the White House as it relates to cancer research?

Armstrong: Well, there are a lot of things that the future president needs to do. I think the president needs to focus on the continuum of the disease all the way from prevention to end of life.

We need more funding at the federal level both at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health. both candidates have pledged to increase funding. Barack Obama has pledged to double funding at the NCI. I think we should do more about regulating and controlling tobacco abuse in this country, especially when it comes to the youth of America. There are a lot of steps here

but I think you have both candidates that are engaged. one is a survivor himself; the other, Barack Obama, having lost his mother to this disease. they will enter the White House with this as a priority, I think.

All About Lance Armstrong • Cancer • Cycling

Lance Armstrong: Cycling to take cancer message worldwide

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