Wonderful days of soccer it was

DPR Korea were tipped to emerge champions in the AFC Challenge Cup competition, and they did so, but not before Turkmenistan took the game to the wire and conceded defeat in tie breaker shootout after the game ended in a 1-all draw after full time and extra time.

Turkmenistan drew first blood and DPR Korea equalized. Then the game wa forced into the dreaded penalty shoot out and Korea scored from the spot better than their opponents and won 6-5 and did not he Koreans jubilate.

They will now figure in the Asia Cup final to be kicked off in Qatar the home country of Asian Football Confederation big chief Bin Mohammed Hammam, who was the chief guest at this final.

First round

These two teams when they met in the first round played out a 1-all draw, and indications were that a rousing game would be witnessed. But this being some what of a sudden death final, because the winners will go through to the Asia Cup finals while it will be the death knell for the loser, the game did not provide anything special.

Both teams were apprehensive and were reluctant to go on an all out attack, and as such the game did not at any stage reach dizzy heights. The strikers of both teams waited for the opportunity to kick at goal and did not probe for opportunities.

The halves served judicious passes and the defenders were more prominent. On the run of play in both instances goals were netted, first by Berdy Shamuradov for Turkmenistan and then the equalizer for DPR Korea by Ryang Yong

The game ended in a draw and it was sad to watch it being decided by a penalty shoot out. It cannot be helped, because that is how the rules have been framed for games ending in a stalemate after even extra time.

DPR Korea who have qualified to play in the FIFA World tournament in South Africa in June/July will now have the opportunity of playing their world cup team in the AFC final round in Qatar.

They brought with them a world cup player and a few reserves and accustomed themselves well and when World Cup and Asia Cup tournament time comes round should be in fine fettle to make their presence felt.

Hawk eye

In conducting this tournament very successfully, the Football Federation, steered by Senior Vice President AFC Manilal Fernando proved their ability. Fernando kept a hawk-eye on every aspect and saw to it that the various committees entrusted with jobs delivered without having to be told a second time.

Fernando has enough experience serving in responsible committees in the AFC and FIFA and his job becomes all the more easy because he has a hard working set of officials who are dedicated and devoted to not only conducting tournaments but also seeing to the uplift of the player and the game.

Officials of the South Asian Football Federation who were here for a meeting along with AFC big boss saw for themselves the tremendous organization that went into successfully conducting this tournament and the excellent execution and took back with them happy memories.

While every thing was tickety boo, from the organization to the Sugathadasa Stadium looking picturesque, the eyesore and the most disgraceful was the scoreboard. It is time that the authorities installed a scoreboard that will befit the stadium, that V.A.Sugathadasa built and Ranasinghe Premadada renovated.

I watched the final in the company of former secretary of the Sri Jayawardenepura/Kotte Football league Telesphor Dias who did wonders for the game there along with the President K.P.C. Pathirane who is also DIG Western Range and President Cycling Federation, and gave it a never before enjoyed status and it was the consensus of Dias and all others that it is time a new scoreboard is installed.

Brett Lee will be missed

Another light goes out of the fast bowling company with the retirement of Australia’s pace merchant the blond haired Brett Lee. Unable to cope and recover from the injuries plaguing him, the likeable, yet fearsome fast bowler had to call it quits.

Batsmen no doubt will heave a sigh of relief now that they will not have to negotiate Lee’s life threatening deliveries, aimed at the toes, the rib cage or the head at express pace of near 150 kph.

Lee will quit the longer version of the game or what is called Test cricket. But he will be around and fire all cylinders at opposing batsmen in limited over 50-over cricket and the Twenty20. He is hoping to recover in time and fire his thunderbolts in the upcoming IPL in India.

There is no better sight in the game than watching a fast bowler steaming in, leaping cheetah like at the moment of delivery and letting fly deliveries that see batsmen taking cover, and getting away which is the better part of valor, than attempt strokes and being in danger of being decapitated.

Although breathing fire in his approach determined to devour batsmen, off the field he is one of the most nicest of guys you could meet. To Lee on the field it is all blood and thunder, but once the day’s play ends, all feuds on the field are forgotten.

Lee has over the years served Australian cricket like a true warrior. To him giving of his best to game and country was his priority. Every time he is called on to bowl, he would bowl his heart out in his endeavour to see that his team wins.

Weaving and ducking

When he is bowling at his fastest, he was like two of their former champion fast bowlers who had batsmen weaving and ducking for cover Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller. Sri Lankan batsmen whom I have watched standing up to Lee blasting his deliveries for runs were Sanath Jayasuriya in Sydney, Chamara Kapugedera in Adelaide and Kumar Sangakkara in Hobart.

These three batsmen, the faster he bowled, the harder they hit him and made his bowling look pedestrian. That was because the three batsmen were quick of eye and positioned cleverly to nullify his pace and bounce and thrash him. Lee quits Test cricket with 310 wickets in 70 Tests.

Skipper Ricky Ponting said Lee is fourth-highest wicket taker for Australia, should be remembered as one of the game’s greats’; ‘If we all just take a minute and think about what he’s put himself through in that 10 or 12 years, running 35 metres to bowl every ball, bowling every ball at close to 150kph, and putting his heart on the line every ball he bowls, this bloke deserves a massive pat on the back’.