Champions only

With the UEFA Champions League beginning from September 16, top European clubs are set to fight it out for the most prestigious tournament of the season, writes Vaibhav Sharma

A million people held their breath as the man known as Mr. Chelsea, John Terry, came forward to take a penalty that could have sealed a first-ever Champions League title for his team. The drama that ensued after Terry missed, encapsulated the feel of the entire tournament and the difference between being there and just about there. The thrill is back once again as the UEFA Champions League 2008-09 gets rolling from 16^th September. Top European clubs will fight it out for the most coveted trophy in the world of club football and there will be more breathtaking moments to come.

Defending champions Manchester United will begin their defence with the lethal strike force of Dimitar Berbatov joining their ranks at a whooping `A332 million. Their manager Sir Alex Ferguson earlier persuaded PFA player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo to stay and that will definitely add to United’s game going forward.

Other English outfits like Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool will also go all out to put in an extremely strong English contingent’s challenge. Chelsea, with new manager Scolari, are looking a different side. Add Deco and Bosingwa to the equation and you have a world-beating side. Frank Lampard extended his contract and with Didier Drogba back from injury, the Blues will be desperate to go big game hunting.

Arsenal have stuck to their formula of the past seasons. Big names have gone out and new, younger and cheaper players have come in. They still have their talismanic mid-fielder Fabregas and the striking force of Adebayor. But in terms of experience, they look a little thin, especially in the middle of the park. But they defeated last year’s defending champions AC Milan and are more than capable of springing up a surprise or two this time around.

Liverpool have had a remarkable record in the tournament. They have always raised their game a few notches when it comes to the European stage and a European night at Anfield is testimony to what this tournament means to them. They are expected to continue in the same vein and with Torres looking in sublime form and Gerrard marshalling the midfield they are the dark horses to watch out for.

Away from England, Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona will begin their quest for dominance at the European stage. Real, who won the Premiera Liga last season by some distance will be hoping to be back on the European stage with a bang. Similarly, Barcelona will be looking ahead after a couple of trophy-less seasons and will hope to get some momentum going in the post-Rijkaard era.

Milan-based Italian giants AC and Inter will look to fight it out in their own ways as AC will look towards the Brazilian duo of Kaka and Pato to get over their under-achieving game last season and Inter will be seeking inspiration from their maverick manager, the ex-Chelsea man, Jose Mourinho.

Other potential suitors in the fray are French outfit Lyon, who have added Hatem Ben Arfa to an already attack-minded squad. They also have the extremely talented target man Karim Benzema at their disposal.

Also looking for some redemption after faltering from their high ranks two years ago will be German side Bayern Munich who have the likes of Lukas Podolski, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Miroslav Klose to light up the European stage.

Living the American dream
M. S. Unnikrishnan

ROGER Federer seemed to have exorcised the ghost of Rafel Nadal to regain his winning touch and salvaged his sagging spirits by winning the US Open tennis title for the fifth consecutive year at the cost of the Scottish-born Brit Andy Murray. Federer thus completed a Grand Slam ‘double’ of five titles in a row at two different surfaces. Last year, he had won his fifth straight Wimbledon trophy to equal Bjorn Borg’s record on grass.

Overall, it was 27-year-old Federer’s 13th Grand Slam title, off 38 Slam appearances. He is now a title away from Pete Sampras’ record of 14 crowns. Federer also stretched his unbeaten record at the Flushing Meadows to 34 wins since his defeat to David Nalbandian in the fourth round in 2003.

Federer’s career looked going off track when he lost the French Open and Wimbledon finals and the No 1 ranking to Nadal. He had also exited from the Australian Open in the semifinal and the Olympic Games in Beijing. Nadal had ended Federer’s record 237 consecutive weeks at the top of the ranking table following his Wimbledon victory. But the Swiss maestro erased all his bad memories with one fell swoop at the Flushing Meadows to end the Grand Slam season on a happy note.

His footwork was in place. So were his forehand and backhand shots, his confident serves and timely aces. On the distaff side, fourth-seeded Serena Williams also returned to the centre stage after being on the margins for quite some time. Her power-packed tennis met with only a patchy resistance from second-seeded Serb Jelena Jancovic.

The 26-year-old American swept to a 6-4, 7-5 win, without dropping a set in her seven matches in the tournament. It was Serena’s third US Open title—she won it in 1999 and 2002—and ninth overall Grand Slam crown, but the first Grand Slam title since her triumph in the Australian Open in 2007.

Serena’s game and self belief had taken a knocking when she was toppled from the No 1 perch in 2005 and a year later, she was ejected out of even the elite group of 125 women players. And the US Open triumph was a remarkable redemption, coming in the wake of her Olympic doubles gold. Now, she has also taken over the No 1 ranking from Ana Ivanovic, and shaken off the low feeling of losing to big sister Venus in the Wimbledon title clash. Both Murray and Jancovic were making their maiden Grand Slam challenge round, but found wanting when it mattered the most on the big stage.

More than the women’s contest, the men’s event attracted much attention as fans were pinning hopes of yet another Nadal-Federer face-off.

That did not happen, but Federer’s title win has reinforced the perception that he was still a major force to reckon with, considering the fact that Andy Murray had bested him in their two previous meetings. Federer was lucky that he didn’t have to cross swords with Nadal on way to the summit. That hatchet job was done by Andy Murray in the semifinal after a sapping contest which took 24 hours to finish. The match started at the Louis Armstrong Court and ended at the Arthur Ashe Stadium 24 hours later, follwing interruptions caused by rain and storm.

Out for the count
Abhijit Chatterjee

THE signal from the national selectors has been loud and clear. Even before the selection of the Rest of India team board secretary Niranjan Shah had gone on record to say that the team would be a near-Test one barring the players turning out for Ranji champions Delhi. Therefore, by not selecting Sourav Ganguly for the Irani Trophy game, which starts at Vadodara on September 24, it is apparent that the Bengal southpaw will not play for India in the upcoming home series against Australia.

And for a player nudging 37, missing a series is a clear signal that his time is up and the selectors would like to look around for younger blood and faster legs. And in any case Sourav has lost his place in the one-day squad late last year and this could well be curtains to his international career. It could be for anybody but it might be foolhardy to rule out Ganguly altogether specially since so much of cricket is coming up from next month right till April next and the way the selectors have flip-flopped in the past.

One does not know whether the national selectors, skipper Anil Kumble or national coach Gary Kirsten have spoken to Ganguly before not selecting him for the Irani Trophy game. But if media reports are to be believed one of the selectors had reportedly spoken to Ganguly before the meeting and Ganguly has "accepted" the decision. But then Ganguly probably had also read the writing on the wall, specially after his miserable Test series in Sri Lanka where he had scores of 23 and 4, 0 and 16 and 35 and 18 in the three games.

Even if it is goodbye for the legend, one cannot take away his huge contribution to Indian cricket. Sourav had a huge hand in India’s 17 Test victories abroad between November 2000, when he became captain, and 2008, compared to just 14 victories since India started playing Tests in 1932 to 2000. In fact, if one goes by pure statistics, Ganguly is still the most successful Indian captain with 21 wins in 49 Tests. Personally he has 6,888 runs from 109 Test appearances.

But realistically can Sourav make a comeback? For one, he might not have the intensity he had once the captaincy was taken away from him. He knew he had to prove a point to the then coach Greg Chappell and the national selectors.

But does Ganguly have it in him to go back to the basics all over again. Turning out for nets in the Bengal team (which has been relegated to the Plate Division), travel with the team to matches in places where probably nobody would turn up to see him bat.

The one question, which Sourav can legitimately ask is: Other stars in Sri Lanka also struggled. Then why was he singled out for the axe? Ganguly has gone on record to emphasize that he is in no mood to quit and would like to continue for a couple of years. The former captain might have come to terms with the exclusion from the ODI squad but he says he is no mood to hang up his boots in the longer version.