The O'Shea Menace

March 3, 2007:
"It stayed low, bounces around and into the back of the net by John O'shea, Manchester United, what a massive goal that is. It's a smashing finish, but United have the points surely. What a massive goal!"

30 seconds earlier...
Manchester United had won a freekick just outside the box. Reina and Carragher were shoring up the defence. Liverpool had dominated the proceedings the entire afternoon. Scholes had been sent off in the 86th minute. Cristiano Ronaldo took the free kick.
And there it was, O'Shea, was running around, celebrating his 91st minute winner against Liverpool at Anfield. Giggs, Ronaldo, Carrick were all chasing the "Ireland's number 1". Alex Ferguson, in one of his unique act, was jumping on the touchline, celebrating this goal as 5 year-old kid. It was a massive goal, no doubt about that, completely against the run of play. Liverpool were unfortunate, and United ecstatic, as they looked happy to settle for a point, but O'Shea had snatched a victory for United. O'Shea, the hero of that day.

7 years later...
March 26,2014:
Liverpool were playing Sunderland at Anfield. The question on everyone's mind was not how Liverpool will defeat Sunderland, but how many are they going to score? For the first 38 minutes of the game, Sunderland had a very disciplined defence. 5 defenders and 2 defensive midfielders shielded Vito Mannone successfully preventing a presumed Liverpool onslaught. Steven Gerrard made it 1-0 with a perfect freekick after Luis Suarez was fouled by Vergini just outside the box. Daniel Sturridge completed his 20 goal haul in the 48th minute, making it 2-0. The Anfield faithful were expecting the beginning of another goal feast, but Sung-Yong Ki grabbed one back in the 76th minute.

89th minute...
Sunderland won a freekick just outside the right hand side of the box, the exact location Manchester United had won it, 7 years back at Anfield. Adam Johnson measured up the wall. Sunderland had finally begun to believe they can take away a vital point from the title chasers. Among the Sunderland players who had come up for the freekick, was John O'Shea. Johnson delivered the cross. Time had stopped for the Anfield faithful, as they held their breath and watched the ball fly agonisingly past Liverpool's defenders. Unmarked, O'Shea rose the highest. He connected, the ball flicked off his head and flew across the Liverpool goal, away from Jozy Altidore at the far post. O'Shea had missed a clear header. John O'Shea, had missed it as Anfield heaved a sigh of relief.
Liverpool have won the match against Sunderland, 2 goals to 1, and take another step towards the title.

Phew
Wandered-Lost_Crazy

Predicting the Premier League table

With the title race tightening, I decided to do some simple Maths to give myself an idea of how the Premier League table is going to look on May 11th.

I have two sets of results based on, firstly, the current form; i.e. the last 6 games of home and away record each; of the top seven teams and here are the standings.

Current Form
Manchester City................................. 89
Liverpool............................................ 87
Chelsea............................................... 86
Arsena................................................ 77
Everton............................................... 70
Tottenham.......................................... 69
Manchester United............................ 65

And secondly, the league form i.e. the points taken per game in both home and away fixtures over this entire season and predicting the points taken by all the top seven sides over their next home/away fixtures.

League Form
Manchester City................................. 86
Liverpool............................................ 84
Chelsea............................................... 83
Arsenal................................................79
Everton............................................... 71
Tottenham.......................................... 69
Manchester United............................ 64

Well, the only difference between the positions occured between Chelsea and Liverpool while Manchester City look on course to take the premier league title.

BUT...
Here are some "buts" to consider:
(numbered on the basis of the easiest to the toughest fixture the clubs have)

1) Chelsea have 7 games to go out of which the highest ranking team which they have to play, apart from only Liverpool (ranked 2), is Stoke City which are currenlty 10th. Certainly seems the easiest run of games if you don't think about home and away situations playing their part.
2) Spurs have 7 games to go, and like Chelsea, they are again facing Liverpool away, with the next team ranked highest is again, Stoke.
3) Arsenal have Manchester City(3) coming to Emirates and Everton(6) to play at Goodison Park.
4) Manchester United will be done playing Manchester City as I get done with this article and after this fixture, they only have Everton to deal with. Southampton and Newcastle are away games for United and can steal a few points from the reigning champions unless.
5) Liverpool have 5 home games and 3 away. That certainly looks great, but to remind you, in the 3 home games, they have to face Spurs, City and Chelsea; which if Liverpool win will make them virtual champions of the Premier League. But its not a cup of English Tea they are sipping.
6) Everton enjoy the same fate as the Merseysiders will be facing Arsenal, City and United at home. But the have dangerous away games against Newcastle and Southampton
7) Manchester City have the toughest of fixtures coming up. They have United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton to deal with in away fixtures. That's a tough run in but they have got GAMES in hand.

How the Premier League Table stands now?
If Maths could predict the Premier League Table, we wouldn't be watching it anymore. So put your Algorithms at rest, the Maths handbook inside the drawyer, and enjoy the beautiful game of Football.

Anything-Can-Happen
Wandered-Lost-Crazy

Why I might die of a Cardiac Arrest

(This isn't an anti-smoking campaign blog)

December 8th, 2004
Anfield: Liverpool needed to win by 2 clear goals to qualify into the knockout stages. Olympiakos via Rivaldo made it worse after they went 0-1 into the lead. Now Liverpool had to score 3 goals, under new boss Rafa Benitez, and make it through. Neil Mellor and Florent Sinama-Pognolle, made it 2-1, while the third was from captain fantastic with a thunderous 20 yarder (FYI "you beauty", started trending since then), making it one of the most amazing Champions League nights at Anfield. The underdogs, beat Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, Chelsea and AC Milan to win the Champions League. Every match, from the one against Olympiakos, was a show of tremendous character that saw Liverpool achieve something as incredible as that (5th time champion; trophy was ours permanently; UEFA had to make another one for the 2005-06 edition).

9 years, 3 months and 12 days later...
Old Trafford: The first season of David Moyes was a season many Manchester United fans would love to forget. A 3-0 loss to Liverpool the previous game, a 2-0 loss to Olympiakos, 3 weeks ago; life was not certainly a bed of roses. To qualify for the quarterfinals, Manchester United had to beat Olympiakos by 3 goals. Robin Van Persie, scored a hattrick, with lovely play from team mates Rooney, Welbeck and Giggs (the man behind so many turn arounds). On a normal day, the team comprising of Rooney, Van Persie, Giggs ... would have no problems swatting a team 3-0, but given the circumstances (a knife hanging on your head), i must say it was incredible.

Why I might die of a Cardiac Arrest
There are 2 things i want to tell you about myself. First, I am a Liverpool fan (a big one in my own regards). Second, I like preparing myself for the worst, still hoping for the best. I might invite the wrath of fellow Kopites, or I might also be called a pessimist but i couldn't ignore the
What-Ifs:
1) Liverpool FC play the best football but instead of the title, end up in 4th place.
2) Manchester United go on to beat everyone they get drawn against in Champions League and win it (you know what happens to the team finishing in 4th place if this happens. If not, ask an Evertonian, and/or David Moyes himself).
Had it been any other team Manchester United would have beaten, i would not even bothered to wake up early and write a blog. But it's Olympiakos, the same team Liverpool beat to start their amazing Champions League turn-around 9 years ago.

A message to BR:
Forget 4th place and go for the title, cause what seems a bonus to us right  now can come back to bite us in the butt. Or else I MIGHT DIE OF A FUCKING HEART ATTACK.


fingers-crossed
Wandered-Lost-Crazy

The Summer of TwentyFourteen

11th March, 2014
The day we decided to buy a new Bravia. What was special? the Summer of 2014

Liverpool FC season finale
Ranked 2, having plundered 76 goal, being unbeaten in 2014... nothing could have been going better for Liverpool FC at the moment. The job's not done yet, Champions League nights are potentially 10 games away. Suarez and Sturridge, forming the most devastating attack; Coutinho, Gerrard, Henderson and Sterling forming the high-pressing-dynamic-creative-and-whatnot midfield, and our a-bit-leaky defence; is the best Liverpool FC season so far since 2008-09. Records, glory, rewards and adulation await for the end of the season. Can we cross the finish line? #YNWA

FIFA World Cup - 2014
93 days to go for the biggest event in sports, the thought of which makes all the sports fans gaga. To back it up with stats, 203 countries participated in the qualification( just to remind you, even UN has 193 members) for the final 31 with the host country being automatically qualified, this time being the land of  Samba, Brazil.
For about one month every four years, most of the world's inhabitants stop everything they're doing to watch 32 qualifying countries battle it out for supremacy. The flag-thrusting, fire-starting passion of the fans and the breathtaking foot skills shown on the pitch mesh to create the most beloved tournament in the world.

Game of Thrones - Season 04
Targaryens: 8000 Unsullied, 2000 Second Sons, 20000 Free Men and 3 Dragons; Daenerys Targaryen, and her army... phew.
Starks: Robb and Catelyn mudered, Jon Snow half dead at Castle Black, Arya in pursuit of vengeance, Bran worging through the North of the Wall and Sansa, married to Lord Tyrion
Lannisters: The 2 heir of the Tyrells wedding Joffrey and Cersei, i wonder whether Tywin marries Lady Olenna and Jaime, the Brienne of Tarth, as he returns to King's landing.
The Whitewalkers, the Ironborns, the Freys, the Boltons, the Wildlings, Gendry and the Baratheons...
"All Men Must Die"


Couched
Wandered-Lost-Crazy

Why can't this be that

This might sound like a romantic comedy movie title but it certainly defines my romance with physics and the comedy of working in IT and not pursuing it. Anyway after stellar performances from stardust species in our life we have experienced if not supernatural but coincidences of very low probability (flickering lights preceding a visit from a higher dimension being and watching a Tamil rap)

There are few defining moments in life that people deal with. You feel hungry you go for the kitchen; check refrigerator for a cold meal or you go out; if you go out you check your purse and shortlist places and suddenly get reminded of paying an outstanding bill. One action results in another and finally before sleeping we end up sending a text "hi, whatsapp", just to catch up with someone who followed another action-reaction sequence of a different task (travel, emotions, etc). What differences do we see in those sequences of everyone's everday life? Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs change. In short and Sherlock's words; Boring, Predictable and Monotonous. Follow Quantum Mechanics if you want to spice up your life by being less predictable.

(This will get out of Context)
Doppler's effect has proved that the universe is expanding with speed increasing at the rate of the square of the distance between them. Well as per science books, the universe is expanding and quite believable too. Is there any chance that the universe, the stars and clouds and star dust start collapsing into black holes? Quantum Mechanics (i am a popular science novice; correct me if you know better) says that there is never a perfect answer and all are instances of probablity. So someday things might fall back, black holes  might eat blak holes and everything converges into singularity starting a big bang again (since space time is warped, and energy-mass interconvertible, we don't have any absolute reference on how, when and what will happen; to measure). It all looks very elusive from just the 3 dimensions.

How can we say that the big bang happened 13.798 billion years ago when we don't have a fixed time reference at all which is again warped and twisted with space? Just by calculating and doing a simple maths of all galaxies tracing back to one point i.e. the big bang? Does that mean our universe's largest beacon of em waves has travelled just 13.798 billion light years only? And who defined "years" of the light year in the first place? Just because in one specific place called Earth we started understanding a few forces, dug deeper into relativity, started thinking of conquering the world of physics by the "The quantum theory of  Gravity"? How can we define work, energy, power in terms of distance if there are wormholes to defy distance?Why can't we have another universe where 1 e has a different value of charge, light has a diffferent speed; for this might be just specific to our universe and the the pattern followed only after "OUR" Big Bang. There might be other big bangs and universes outside 13.798 billion light years distance. Are we actually in a flatland of the third dimension? Is there anything that is fundamental?

Are we looking for more facts when there are none? We need some out of the world perspectives here.

Naive-Loud
Wandered-Lost-Crazy