Yesterday, the final day of Bay Hill 2009 tournament, Sean O'Hair had a 5-shot lead over Tiger Woods. Tiger made remarkable strides forward while Sean O'Hair was plagued by mounting pressure from Tiger, falling self-confidence and weak shots. It was still very close, going into the 18th hole (last hole), both were equal. Tiger needed a birdie putt to win the tournament and what a way to win it - a birdie putt from almost 16 feet away. Just stunning..
Take a look at this video below - you will find more videos on youtube.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Tesla Motors - Prescience or Indulgence?
Tesla Motors is a Silicon Valley automobile start up, who have been innovating the art of making high performance, practical electric cars for about 5 years now. They were first founded by a couple of engineers and their initial venture funding came from PayPal founder Elon Musk. It has since received investments from firms like JP Morgan and from well-known entrepreneurs such as Sergey Brin and Larry Page (of Google).
Tesla Roadster
Their first production vehicle was the Tesla Roadster. It is a stunning sports coupe, just take a look at a couple of photos below.
Tesla Roadster
Their first production vehicle was the Tesla Roadster. It is a stunning sports coupe, just take a look at a couple of photos below.
This is a completely electric car, hardly looks like the Priuses (which aren't even completely electric) on the road these days! It has the following vital stats:
- Purely electric
- 0 to 60 mph (100 kmph) in 3.9 seconds
- 220 + miles per charge
- Full torque, all the time, thanks to the electric motors.
- Can be recharged at ANY regular electric outlet.
- $109,000 price tag isn't shocking :)
3.9 seconds is just remarkable, especially at this price. Take a look at the list of top 10 fastest cars of 2009, it gives you an idea of what kind of cars this keeps company with.
According to wikipedia, within 2 months of the first sale in March 08, more than 600 Roadsters were reserved and 400 more were in waiting list. For more details and photos, click on the links.
Tesla Model S
This is the new model that has been announced recently by Tesla motors. It is a big jump from a high-performance coupe to a family sedan (almost a 7 seater - capacity of 5 adults and 2 children). It looks awesome though, its front grille very much like the Maserati GranTourismo. Check out a few pics below:
You can find more details and pics here.
Salient features:
- Upto 300 mile range (they are planning to offer options of 160 mile, 230 mile or 300 mile range options per charge)
- 0 - 60 mph (100 kmph) in 5.6 seconds
- Seats 7 people
It can be charged at any power outlet, as the previous car. It uses Lithium Ion rechargeable battery technology, which doesn't have the memory problems like other battery technologies. They claim it will cost only $4 per complete recharge, which is peanuts compared to what we pay for regular gas fuel. They are estimating the price would be around $57,000 for this sedan. It however qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax refund.
Tesla Motors CEO, Mr. Musk, claims that offsetting these rebates and assuming that gas per gallon is around $4 (which is nearly true for California atleast), would result in the car's actual price being similar to a $35,000 gasoline car. Furthermore, President Obama has been hinting at levying extra taxes / surcharges on fossil fuel usage in the near future, which would only make this a better deal.
GM is also releasing its gas-electric car called Volt in 2010. It has a 40 mile range on a full recharge, however, has a small 4-cylinder gas engine which can generate electricity beyond this and can either charge the battery or provide electric power directly to the drivetrain. This, they claim can increase the range to almost 640 miles (on a full charge and full tank). It is expected to be priced around $40,000. With the $7,500 federal refund, it will bring it closer to $30,000 range. This does seem to be a more practical solution, especially for weekend trip situations and when you just forget to charge the battery.. But is this good enough?
Model S, on the other hand has a very handsome base range of at least 160 miles per charge. But its solely dependent on electric power, no backup gasoline engine. I wonder if you get stranded, if you could call AAA and say "Hi, I need a battery charge" :D.. I'm sure that Tesla will provide backup batteries etc etc.. but it won't happen automatically like Volt, at least from the way I understand the design.
So, is this prescience or indulgence? Only time will say I guess..
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
13 B - Hindi Movie - hindi version of Tamil Movie Yaavarum Nalam
I recently heard from a couple of my friends about this tamil movie "Yaavarum Nalam" - a new horror/thriller movie. This genre hasn't been exploited of late, atleast not in tamil. I read a few reviews, they were all pretty good, saying that this movie was a good watch.
Personally, I am scared of these kind of movies but somehow can't resist watching them. Just for the heck of it.. It wasn't playing in any good theaters nearby (the one I heard about is a horrible theater, I'll never go there even if I'm given money to sit and watch there). I tried to see if there are any "online" copies of Yaavarum Nalam available for watching, found only one version available. It was pretty poor quality and audio was pretty bad. I mean, the spine of any horror movie is the sound effects.
I then read in wikipedia that the same movie was shot in Hindi, with similar cast (Madhavan and Neetu Chandra still play the main roles), called as 13 B. I then searched for this movie and found this link containing AMAZING print of the movie. I am half-way through the third part, it has been kind of "predictably scary" so far. Let me see if it can shake me up before it ends.
Scroll down on THIS LINK for this movie. Have a good watch and share your comments!
Personally, I am scared of these kind of movies but somehow can't resist watching them. Just for the heck of it.. It wasn't playing in any good theaters nearby (the one I heard about is a horrible theater, I'll never go there even if I'm given money to sit and watch there). I tried to see if there are any "online" copies of Yaavarum Nalam available for watching, found only one version available. It was pretty poor quality and audio was pretty bad. I mean, the spine of any horror movie is the sound effects.
I then read in wikipedia that the same movie was shot in Hindi, with similar cast (Madhavan and Neetu Chandra still play the main roles), called as 13 B. I then searched for this movie and found this link containing AMAZING print of the movie. I am half-way through the third part, it has been kind of "predictably scary" so far. Let me see if it can shake me up before it ends.
Scroll down on THIS LINK for this movie. Have a good watch and share your comments!
Friday, March 20, 2009
TED.com videos
Demo videos on TED have been mind-blowing. Researchers from almost every domain you can think of present their research - in infant stage or in production stage on TED. The tag line for TED is "Ideas worth spreading" and how true is that!
For example, take a look at this video: This researcher Johnny Lee demonstrates how he has utilized the ultra-powerful IR camera sensor in the tip of a Wii remote to do some wacky stuff like create an "e-whiteboard". This video is actually quite old - It was filmed in Feb 2008. I saw this for the first time now - will be really interesting to see what all has been done in the year after this.
I will keep posting more such interesting videos from TED on the blog.
For example, take a look at this video: This researcher Johnny Lee demonstrates how he has utilized the ultra-powerful IR camera sensor in the tip of a Wii remote to do some wacky stuff like create an "e-whiteboard". This video is actually quite old - It was filmed in Feb 2008. I saw this for the first time now - will be really interesting to see what all has been done in the year after this.
I will keep posting more such interesting videos from TED on the blog.
New useful feature on Gmail
Google labs has SO many pet projects, a few are very useful, a few very whimsical.
How often do you regret after hitting the Send button in Gmail? You either hit reply-all when you didn't really want or sent a mail to the wrong person etc etc..
Recently they have introduced an "Undo Send" option in Gmail. When you enable this option, it will let you prevent the delivery of the message, if you undo it within 5 seconds I guess. Remember the top of the browser where Gmail says "Sending message..." or "Loading.." in an yellow background? It shows the "undo send" option here. It can surely save a few blushes! To enable this, in Gmail, click on "Settings" and go to "Labs" tab. Scroll down and you will see this option, just enable it.
They might be allowing for a larger window for undoing, but naturally that means there will be a lag in delivering and receiving a message. For more information on this read http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10200370-2.html
While I was scrolling down the Labs tab in Gmail, I found so many other little tools, worth spending a bit of time over them too, just to spice things up :)
How often do you regret after hitting the Send button in Gmail? You either hit reply-all when you didn't really want or sent a mail to the wrong person etc etc..
Recently they have introduced an "Undo Send" option in Gmail. When you enable this option, it will let you prevent the delivery of the message, if you undo it within 5 seconds I guess. Remember the top of the browser where Gmail says "Sending message..." or "Loading.." in an yellow background? It shows the "undo send" option here. It can surely save a few blushes! To enable this, in Gmail, click on "Settings" and go to "Labs" tab. Scroll down and you will see this option, just enable it.
They might be allowing for a larger window for undoing, but naturally that means there will be a lag in delivering and receiving a message. For more information on this read http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10200370-2.html
While I was scrolling down the Labs tab in Gmail, I found so many other little tools, worth spending a bit of time over them too, just to spice things up :)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Useful Financial Tools online
There have been a couple of pretty good websites which have helped me clean up my finances. Just wanted to share it with others, incase they aren't aware of them already.
1) Mint.com (http://www.mint.com/)
It is free, of course.
This website is an excellent example of clean usage of Web 2.0 technologies. It is primarily designed as a one-stop-shop for all your bank accounts, loan accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, 401(K) etc. It requires a one-time setup and after that, it refreshes the data automatically from all of them everytime you login.
The beauty of this website is its simplicity and self-explanatory menu options. It gives me a holistic view of my finances. The first time you set it up, it downloads a certain amount of existing financial data (depending on how much the respective institution allows it to) and as you go forward, it keeps tabs on them. It gives you the ability to categorize them easily and once you name say "Shoprite" as "Grocery", it does the labeling automatically from that point onwards - no need to "create" a filter or any circus like that. It has its own dictionary too, so it does a decent job of labeling by itself.
These labels are central to the usability of this website. It provides nice pie-charts to show your spending trends. It compares your category-wise expenses to US Average and so on. You can create your own budget and monitor how you are sticking to it. I used to visit multiple websites - american express, chase, bank of america, etrade and so on, this saves a bunch of time on all that. It could also sync up with my car-loan account, which was pretty cool.
Another useful aspect is the alerts part. It will alert you if any payment is coming up - you can set your alerts as you wish. It helps prevent missed payments. It shows up all hidden fees charged by your bank that might escape your attention. If there has been any anomalous charge or spending trend, it shows that up too - but more often than not, I find this type of alert a bit too silly (it is comparing it to my limited history, so it gives false alarms at times).
It shows up the "Net worth" which is a useful feature - showing us where we really stand on the balance sheet. Its fun to explore this website. It can provide you with saving techniques by suggesting some credit cards with good points / cash-back feature, savings accounts with better interest rates etc. - but I guess this is the part where they make their money through "suggestions", so I'll read it with a grain of salt.
2) Buxfer (http://www.buxfer.com/)
Another great website, helps me track shared expenses. This used to be a big pain, if you frequently share expenditure with say your room-mate, colleagues at work etc. This website lets you stream-line them and you can easily add/delete/modify/settle expenses.
The person you are sharing expenses with needs to create an account too, but its hardly a stumbling block. When I was in Minneapolis, we used this website called "Buddy Bills" (http://www.buddybills.com/), but it wasn't as user friendly as this. Balances carried across months used to be a bit problematic to resolve etc etc. I'm not sure if they fixed that. But buxfer has proved to be a great solution. My colleagues at work use it. They used to manage expenses with an excel sheet. Luckily for me, my friend Neela suggested this website as a replacement to buddy bills and we haven't looked back since.
Try it out! And yes, its free too :)
1) Mint.com (http://www.mint.com/)
It is free, of course.
This website is an excellent example of clean usage of Web 2.0 technologies. It is primarily designed as a one-stop-shop for all your bank accounts, loan accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, 401(K) etc. It requires a one-time setup and after that, it refreshes the data automatically from all of them everytime you login.
The beauty of this website is its simplicity and self-explanatory menu options. It gives me a holistic view of my finances. The first time you set it up, it downloads a certain amount of existing financial data (depending on how much the respective institution allows it to) and as you go forward, it keeps tabs on them. It gives you the ability to categorize them easily and once you name say "Shoprite" as "Grocery", it does the labeling automatically from that point onwards - no need to "create" a filter or any circus like that. It has its own dictionary too, so it does a decent job of labeling by itself.
These labels are central to the usability of this website. It provides nice pie-charts to show your spending trends. It compares your category-wise expenses to US Average and so on. You can create your own budget and monitor how you are sticking to it. I used to visit multiple websites - american express, chase, bank of america, etrade and so on, this saves a bunch of time on all that. It could also sync up with my car-loan account, which was pretty cool.
Another useful aspect is the alerts part. It will alert you if any payment is coming up - you can set your alerts as you wish. It helps prevent missed payments. It shows up all hidden fees charged by your bank that might escape your attention. If there has been any anomalous charge or spending trend, it shows that up too - but more often than not, I find this type of alert a bit too silly (it is comparing it to my limited history, so it gives false alarms at times).
It shows up the "Net worth" which is a useful feature - showing us where we really stand on the balance sheet. Its fun to explore this website. It can provide you with saving techniques by suggesting some credit cards with good points / cash-back feature, savings accounts with better interest rates etc. - but I guess this is the part where they make their money through "suggestions", so I'll read it with a grain of salt.
2) Buxfer (http://www.buxfer.com/)
Another great website, helps me track shared expenses. This used to be a big pain, if you frequently share expenditure with say your room-mate, colleagues at work etc. This website lets you stream-line them and you can easily add/delete/modify/settle expenses.
The person you are sharing expenses with needs to create an account too, but its hardly a stumbling block. When I was in Minneapolis, we used this website called "Buddy Bills" (http://www.buddybills.com/), but it wasn't as user friendly as this. Balances carried across months used to be a bit problematic to resolve etc etc. I'm not sure if they fixed that. But buxfer has proved to be a great solution. My colleagues at work use it. They used to manage expenses with an excel sheet. Luckily for me, my friend Neela suggested this website as a replacement to buddy bills and we haven't looked back since.
Try it out! And yes, its free too :)
Monday, March 16, 2009
Weird - Dark humor you could say!
I wasn't sure I would write anything in my blog today.. My team-mate at work saved my day :D
He sent me a news link. The article claims that an Iraqi soccer player was shot dead while attempting a goal! He was a striker, one-on-one with the goalie, his goal would have brought the game level between two rival clubs Buhairat and Sinjar! Phew!!
http://www.dcexaminer.com/breaking/Iraqi-soccer-player-shot-dead-attempting-goal-41320572.html
I mean, the guy who shot him must have been a real good shooter! To pick out the striker when the defenders couldn't catch up with him and shoot him dead, man reminds me of that scene in Saving Private Ryan when the American sniper shoots the german sniper through his lens!
Sadly funny!
He sent me a news link. The article claims that an Iraqi soccer player was shot dead while attempting a goal! He was a striker, one-on-one with the goalie, his goal would have brought the game level between two rival clubs Buhairat and Sinjar! Phew!!
http://www.dcexaminer.com/breaking/Iraqi-soccer-player-shot-dead-attempting-goal-41320572.html
I mean, the guy who shot him must have been a real good shooter! To pick out the striker when the defenders couldn't catch up with him and shoot him dead, man reminds me of that scene in Saving Private Ryan when the American sniper shoots the german sniper through his lens!
Sadly funny!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Take THAT Man U !!!!
Wow! I rubbed my eyes a few times, it was early in the morning.. it however wasn't because I was sleepy.. It was freakin because I couldn't believe the way the match was going!! What a dominant performance by Liverpool! Defeating Man U 4-1 in Old Trafford happens not too often, not when they are fielding their best team, not even the bookies would have predicted such a score-line.
Alright alright, it wasn't as good a performance as against Real Madrid - there they were really turning the screws on RM. Here at least 2 goals for Liverpool were because of poor defending by an uncharacteristically unaware backline of the Devils. Vidic couldn't keep up with Torres, it was an absolute gift. Vidic has been one of the best defenders all season, you don't expect that from him. He has been the first player on my fantasy team weeks in and out. He isn't any frail guy either.. But fate it seems and some intense pressure from El Niño, he gave it away.. Second goal - Evra didn't notice Stevie G ghosting from his blind spot I bet. The through ball from Torres was great and Gerrard pounced on it, it was make or break for Evra and he broke it. The all crucial penalty was taken with aplomb.
It was still jittery, just a 1 goal lead at OT is never enough. Man U came forward wave after wave - Rooney and Park Ji Sung were absolutely brilliant. But they never manufactured anything to cross the goal-line. A few lucky breaks for Reina and he kept the lead intact. The red-card for Vidic was the real turning point for me. Not only did it give the chance to score the 3rd goal, it sent out their best defender (probably for 3 games, unless Man U win the appeal). The red card was a bit harsh, but a sublime free-kick from Aurelio all but sealed the win. Rooney still didn't give up, he was by far the best Man U player on the pitch today. And finally some rather innocuous defending from part-time defender OShea meant Dossena could also join the party, but what a finish, would have made Torres proud. He just lobbed over Van der Sar, who has the record for longest clean-sheet run. If only he started more regularly, I would probably add him now to my fantasy team :)
All in all, it was a remarkable win, a double against Man U for the season. Liverpool already have the double against Chelsea. Hmm., then one might wonder why the hell aren't they leading the table!!! Wonder what goes wrong when some of the tail-end teams step up in front of Liverpool, loads of bad luck and poor finishing never gets them the points they deserve.
This win might not change the title race. Man U still have a 4 point lead over Liverpool, with one game in hand. Unless Man U melt down from this point on, its unlikely anyone else will get a sniff at the League title.
Alright alright, it wasn't as good a performance as against Real Madrid - there they were really turning the screws on RM. Here at least 2 goals for Liverpool were because of poor defending by an uncharacteristically unaware backline of the Devils. Vidic couldn't keep up with Torres, it was an absolute gift. Vidic has been one of the best defenders all season, you don't expect that from him. He has been the first player on my fantasy team weeks in and out. He isn't any frail guy either.. But fate it seems and some intense pressure from El Niño, he gave it away.. Second goal - Evra didn't notice Stevie G ghosting from his blind spot I bet. The through ball from Torres was great and Gerrard pounced on it, it was make or break for Evra and he broke it. The all crucial penalty was taken with aplomb.
It was still jittery, just a 1 goal lead at OT is never enough. Man U came forward wave after wave - Rooney and Park Ji Sung were absolutely brilliant. But they never manufactured anything to cross the goal-line. A few lucky breaks for Reina and he kept the lead intact. The red-card for Vidic was the real turning point for me. Not only did it give the chance to score the 3rd goal, it sent out their best defender (probably for 3 games, unless Man U win the appeal). The red card was a bit harsh, but a sublime free-kick from Aurelio all but sealed the win. Rooney still didn't give up, he was by far the best Man U player on the pitch today. And finally some rather innocuous defending from part-time defender OShea meant Dossena could also join the party, but what a finish, would have made Torres proud. He just lobbed over Van der Sar, who has the record for longest clean-sheet run. If only he started more regularly, I would probably add him now to my fantasy team :)
All in all, it was a remarkable win, a double against Man U for the season. Liverpool already have the double against Chelsea. Hmm., then one might wonder why the hell aren't they leading the table!!! Wonder what goes wrong when some of the tail-end teams step up in front of Liverpool, loads of bad luck and poor finishing never gets them the points they deserve.
This win might not change the title race. Man U still have a 4 point lead over Liverpool, with one game in hand. Unless Man U melt down from this point on, its unlikely anyone else will get a sniff at the League title.
Friday, March 13, 2009
e-cigarette - Interesting..
I recently read about this device called an e-cigarette. It claims that it is completely harmless to the individual smoking it or the persons around him/her. No second-hand smoke. Some of the benefits over traditional cigarettes claimed by this e-cigarette:
- No tar and other carcinogenic substance or harmful ingredients to human body .
- No ignition required , without the danger hence will not lead to the of over 4000 chemical substance produced by the ordinary cigarettes .
- It is harmless to other people and the environment , without the danger of second - hand smoking .
- No possibility to cause fire . It can be used safely in most NO-smoking places .
Cigarettes are such a bane and the worst part is, its addictive part - Nicotine isn't really the killer. Its the carcinogenic substances present in traditional tobacco cigarettes which causes health issues like cancer and respiratory issues. Nicotine is about as addictive as caffeine is. It is however absorbed much much faster by the body than caffeine, causing almost instant increase in blood pressure. Nicotine also has the effect of increasing alertness and enhancing mental performance. In the cardiovascular system, nicotine increases heart rate and blood pressure and restricts blood flow to the heart muscle. The drug stimulates the release of the hormone epinephrine, which further stimulates the nervous system and is responsible for part of the "kick" from nicotine. It also promotes the release of the hormone beta-endorphin, which inhibits pain.
Quite a few quit-smoking aids are available these days - nicotine patches, pills etc. This e-cigarette is a newer smoking-replacement aid. See this video for more information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U81x8t2iMhw
I wonder how effective this is going to be. FDA still hasn't approved it by any way. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/13/ecigarettes.smoking/index.html
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Champions League Highlights
Barca vs Lyon - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53941097
Roma vs Arsenal - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53942677
Man Utd vs Inter - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53943464
Watch them quickly before they are removed.
Roma vs Arsenal - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53942677
Man Utd vs Inter - http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53943464
Watch them quickly before they are removed.
Champions League - Round of 16
I personally favor Liverpool. I am certainly a late bloomer in terms of following soccer, pushed into it by a few of my friends in Minneapolis. Funny part is, while I spent nearly 20 years in India, where its much easier to follow soccer than in US, it was here that I started taking interest.
Well, we did have a wonderful set of matches in the Round of 16. Not surprisingly, 4 of the 8 teams qualifying for quarter-finals are from English Premier League. I don't know where to exactly point the finger at for this of-late-all-too-common phenomenon, but probably thats the reason why it is becoming an expected event. People say its the strength, slick passing and now an increased tactical awareness. Whatever it is, its proving to be the Molotov cocktail for the rest of Europe.
Its quite obvious that I'm so totally buoyed by the Kop's performance at Anfield. Real Madrid are legendary in terms of European successes, but over the last 3 (or 4) years, they haven't been able to progress past this stage. Nevertheless, inflicting such a demoralizing loss on RM was no ordinary feat. I was screaming out loud seeing the way the reds pushed RM in the first half hour. I think the last time Liverpool started this well AND finished the task was a few weeks back when they defeated Chelsea 2-0. It was delightful to see Torres and Gerrard tear up the RM's touted defensive line-up. Torres had a score to settle with RM from his Atlético Madrid days and what an occasion he chose! One of my fav moments of the match was early on when he so non-chalantly turned around Cannavaro leaving him all but dead. But the only hero RM had came to its rescue and Casillas turned it over for a corner.
My other favorite has been Barcelona FC. If any non-EPL team has the ability to defeat one of these 4 premier league giants, it is the Catalans. With Eto'o, Henry and Messi going great guns for nearly the entire season so far, they are big favorites to progress to the finals. However they will have to lay down the ghosts they face from time to time, looking like a shadow of their own very best. Messi has proved to be such a catalyst, I hope he can push Barca as far as expected. I really really want Messi to take away the crown from the not-so-deserving C.Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a great talent, no questions about that. But its the arrogance he carries off and on the field hasn't won him as many fans as talent demands. I am hoping for a Man U and Barca show-down and want to see the Catalans tear apart the defending champions. Remember how Ronaldo was crying after missing the penalty in the last year's finals against Chelsea?? I hope it happens again and the world sees how he pales in comparison to Messi.
Bayern München have been blowing away their opponents. What a dominant performance over Sporting Lisbon. Granted, Lisbon aren't the toughest opponent they'll ever face, but to demolish a team like this requires a hunger for more. 12-1. Phew.
Inter Milan disappointed tremendously. They came so close to scoring so many times. A single away goal would have changed things quite a bit, but it turned out to be a reasonably comfortable victory for the holders.
Chelsea have been catalyzed by the return of Didier Drogba to his terrorizing presence up front. Although they had to scrape past Juventus, improving form in the EPL will certainly inspire them to achieve something this year. I just hope that they don't sack their manager again!
Arsenal held their nerve in a rather boring encounter. Lets hope we get to see more of their slick passing game.
It is going to be an interesting Quarter Finals matchup. Lets see who stays and who goes. I wish Liverpool go all the way :)
Well, we did have a wonderful set of matches in the Round of 16. Not surprisingly, 4 of the 8 teams qualifying for quarter-finals are from English Premier League. I don't know where to exactly point the finger at for this of-late-all-too-common phenomenon, but probably thats the reason why it is becoming an expected event. People say its the strength, slick passing and now an increased tactical awareness. Whatever it is, its proving to be the Molotov cocktail for the rest of Europe.
Its quite obvious that I'm so totally buoyed by the Kop's performance at Anfield. Real Madrid are legendary in terms of European successes, but over the last 3 (or 4) years, they haven't been able to progress past this stage. Nevertheless, inflicting such a demoralizing loss on RM was no ordinary feat. I was screaming out loud seeing the way the reds pushed RM in the first half hour. I think the last time Liverpool started this well AND finished the task was a few weeks back when they defeated Chelsea 2-0. It was delightful to see Torres and Gerrard tear up the RM's touted defensive line-up. Torres had a score to settle with RM from his Atlético Madrid days and what an occasion he chose! One of my fav moments of the match was early on when he so non-chalantly turned around Cannavaro leaving him all but dead. But the only hero RM had came to its rescue and Casillas turned it over for a corner.
My other favorite has been Barcelona FC. If any non-EPL team has the ability to defeat one of these 4 premier league giants, it is the Catalans. With Eto'o, Henry and Messi going great guns for nearly the entire season so far, they are big favorites to progress to the finals. However they will have to lay down the ghosts they face from time to time, looking like a shadow of their own very best. Messi has proved to be such a catalyst, I hope he can push Barca as far as expected. I really really want Messi to take away the crown from the not-so-deserving C.Ronaldo. Ronaldo is a great talent, no questions about that. But its the arrogance he carries off and on the field hasn't won him as many fans as talent demands. I am hoping for a Man U and Barca show-down and want to see the Catalans tear apart the defending champions. Remember how Ronaldo was crying after missing the penalty in the last year's finals against Chelsea?? I hope it happens again and the world sees how he pales in comparison to Messi.
Bayern München have been blowing away their opponents. What a dominant performance over Sporting Lisbon. Granted, Lisbon aren't the toughest opponent they'll ever face, but to demolish a team like this requires a hunger for more. 12-1. Phew.
Inter Milan disappointed tremendously. They came so close to scoring so many times. A single away goal would have changed things quite a bit, but it turned out to be a reasonably comfortable victory for the holders.
Chelsea have been catalyzed by the return of Didier Drogba to his terrorizing presence up front. Although they had to scrape past Juventus, improving form in the EPL will certainly inspire them to achieve something this year. I just hope that they don't sack their manager again!
Arsenal held their nerve in a rather boring encounter. Lets hope we get to see more of their slick passing game.
It is going to be an interesting Quarter Finals matchup. Lets see who stays and who goes. I wish Liverpool go all the way :)
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