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by Philipina A. Marcelo
Footie-yay!
Have I become such a "terrible" footie junkie or this article on Andrés Iniesta is really just a tear-jerker that it left me teary-eyed? While I don't mind the former,
Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta - the
incredible "midget duo" of Camp Nou,
La Masia boys both.please tell me it's the latter! :)
And, yeah... just marvelling about how these great footballers are so attached to their mothers. A story on Lionel Messi's early days in La Masia as a tiny 13-year old related that his first few months away from home were hard - he was missing his Mum that he used to cry himself to sleep sometimes. A story about Gerard Piqué's move to England as a 16-year old related that he used to get saddened by his situation at Old Trafford and he would usually call his Mum for comfort but held back tears when he spoke to her so she wouldn't worry about him. And now, this article about Andrés Iniesta about an emotional Mum who brought him to Barcelona with his Dad and and his Grandfather... too heartwarming. I also found this wonderful article about the Barca boys' La Masia days... such a wonderful read, and I'm falling deeper, and deeper... and deeper still!
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Ouch, Carlo Ancelotti had been sacked... and in an ugly way,
Richer, but with bruised ego.too! Well, it's not like we didn't see this coming, right? We knew it will come to this after that Chelsea quarter-final loss to Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League. No, I wasn't about to cry for Ancelotti... he parted ways with Roman Abramovich's Club £6.5M richer. OK, with a bruised ego, too... but, c'mon, José Mourinho watched Lionel Messi singlehandedly demolish his 500M++ euro squad from the stands, and in his home stadium, too! In that respect, life is kinder to Ancelotti... then again, he's way nicer, too, than the One who is Special! :)
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It's game on in Paris!
Long wait 'til the European showdown in the New Wembley - one week... aaargh! In the meantime, French Open kicks off... and life makes sense again! Aaaaaw!! :)
Saw some of the first-round matches...
Italy's Francesca Schiavone showed no mercy as she thrashed Melanie
Francesca Schiavone, hitting hard.Oudin of the US, 6-2, 6-0. As usual, the defending champion, Schiavone, played with so much passion that she was like playing in the final already rather than just sending the stunned Oudin packing so she, Schiavone, could get on with her title defense into the second round.
The man to watch, Novak Djokovic, continued his 2011 unbeaten run at the expense of Thiemo de Bakker, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3. While the Djokovic fiery shots were exhibited only sparingly in his opening round, it took care of business... he's through to the second round with a 40-0 win-
The man to watch, Nole Djokovic.lose tally, which is only two wins below John McEnroe's record of 42-0. And so, here we are talking about Djokovic breaking records in the second Grand Slam tournament of the season rather than talking about whether or not the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, would equal Bjorn Borg's six-title record in Roland Garros. Therefore, I insist on the Nadal-related discussion!! So, would he or would he not? I'll have to see how his first-round match with John Isner of the US look like, and then decide.
Argentina's comebacking injury-troubled 2009 US Open Champion, Juan Martin del Potro, on the other hand, was pushed to his limits by Croatian Ivo Karlovic, 6-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 before getting the pass to the second round. It was a hard-to-watch match for me... it looked like it could go either way. And it made me wonder how such match was in the first round!
Speaking of first-round big matches, Roger Federer had to braid together genius and magic to weave enough spell to put away one of the
Roger Federer. Red dirt, red shirt - game on!Spanish clay specialists in the men's draw, Feliciano Lopez. While the score, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6, looked like a straightforward win, it wasn't the usual "first-round warm-up" for RF... or, maybe it's just me, I've been "worrying" about his will to win these days that every match is a "labor" to watch for me (yeah, some fanatic I am!). :) I go back and forth between, "whoa, awesome shot!" and "gosh, how could he have missed that? What's going on?" Anyway, as usual, many shots from the RF racquet induced loud whoa's and appreciative claps from the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd... and from me, too... from thousands of miles away!
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Photo credit: All photos were grabbed from Zimbio - thanks.
