Smiley’s World

Woods closed the PGATour’s major championship season with a five-stroke victory on Sunday over Shaun Micheel, earning the 12th major title of his career and drawing ever closer to Jack Nicklaus’s record 18. Woods won his second major of 2006 and his third consecutive victory after wins at British Open and the Buick Open.

Woods became the first player to win the PGA Championship on the same course twice, adding to his victory here in 1999. Back then, he was still a skinny golfer not far from his days at Stanford University. Against Woods, it seems, the other guys always run out of holes. On Sunday, Woods showed just how versatile his game is, bringing it from a hard and fast links in England to a tree-lined, parkland course at Medinah, and outplaying opponents who have spent a decade running treadmills and beating balls on the range to match him.

Woods has won four of the last eight majors and will arrive at August National next April with a chance to win his third consecutive major title on a course that has given him four green jackets. Nicklaus’ mark is growing closer. 

No matter what I think Tiger Woods is a master in the true sense. I am sure he is very soon beat the record of Jack Nicklaus’s 18 wins. He is only 30 now and he still has lots of time in him and guys i am sure he may rewrite many more records.

Schumacher wins his second win in succession and his eighth French Grand Prix yesterday. It was perfect race for 37 year-old seven time drivers champion from the start to finish.

Defending champion Fernando Alonso of spain finished second and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was the third.

With this win Schumacher narrowed his gap with Alonso from 19 points to 17 points.

Amelie Mauresmo finally held back her nerves and added greatest of the Slams(Wimbledon) to the Australian Open she lifted in January. Mauresmo beat French open champion Justine Henin-Hardene and also confirming her status as world number one. Mauresmo came back after losing the first set and winning other two lifting her first wimbledon trophy. The score line read 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 after the end of the match.

Men’s final was a clash between two big guns of men tennis, Roger Federer the three time wimbledon champion and Rafael Nadal the french open champion. Well Roger Federer rules on Grass surface as Nadal rules on Clay. Federer was looking for a french open final revenge with Nadal where he was defeated. Also Nadal knows that he is the only player who can be a threat to the champion. Federer was looking for a fourth straight win at wimbledon and enter into record books along side of Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras. Federer won the first set and second set went to the tie break which Nadal lost inspite of taking a lead in it. The third set was agian decided on a Tie Breaker but this time Nadal won it. But in the fourth set Roger Federer proved why he is the king of grass by taking the fourth set and thus the fourth wimbledon title. Federer’s 6-0, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 victory lasted for two hours and five minutes.

The 120th wimbledon championship was a success with both number one seeds lifting the trophy. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will hopefully be playing each other again in the US Open at Flushing meadows. What a match that is gonna be with both champs playing on the surface that is not their favourite. I am definately looking forward to that match.

Italy won the World Cup 5-3 in the penalty shoot out beating Frnace having defeated by them in their earlier two meetings. The final played in Berlin ended at 1-1 by the end of full ninety minutes. Thus, the game moved into penalty kicks with no goals being scored in extra time. The Italians eventually won the cup by 6-4 after the penalty shoot out.

One of the high light of the match was French captain, Zinedine Zidane’s red card in the second half of the extra time which is a black mark on his illustrious football career. Zidane who scored many brilliant goals in penalty shootouts every time for France could not take a penalty kick in the 2006 finals though he played well last night. Zidane was given red card for his head-butting of Italian player Marco Materazzi that might be a nightmarish end for him.

Zidane had scored a goal in seventh minute penalty to put France ahead and Materazzi equalized 12 minutes later. The game was very exciting to watch with Italians dominating the first half and french dominating the second.

Germany beat Portugal 3-1 to take third place in the world cup finals. German fans paid tribute to their players for the marvellous performance they displayed during this world cup. It was a very young team and no one expected the germans to come this far.

No matter what at last the team that I wanted to win the final won. Even though I wanted Italy to win I was sad for the red card incident. I think this is really all about spirit of the world cup you want a team to win but you also feel bad about the other team that looses. This is probably because of the sad and dejected faces of the players who lose the match. I think it is really hard for them understand the fact that they will have to wait another 4 years for the coveted trophy.

Zinedine Zidane’s penalty in the first half agianst portugal take France into the Final of the Football World Cup 2006. Eight years after Zidane inspired the French to their first worl cup victory, he did it again in Germany and put France in finals where they are going to meet Italy the three time champions.

The 34 year Zidane converted penalty kick inot a goal that was given when Thiery Henry’s ankle was caught by an Italian player. Portugal, playing their second semifinal after reaching the last four in 1966 will have to be content to play for third place with host Germany.

It was the first loss in 13 World Cup matches for Luiz Felipe Scolari Portugal’s coach after 11 wins and the draw against England that his team won on penalties.

Portugal have history of losing ill-tempered matches with France. But this match was not ugly as I expected.

So France is in the Finals and it will be against three time champion Italy. Italians surely came as under dogs in this world cup. No one ever expected, even thought or talked about Italy coming so far in this world cup. GO ITALY!!!!!

Two late goals from Italians Fabio Grosso and Alessandro del Piero(substitute) put end to the world cup dream of Germany. The statistics before the match were evenly balanced, Germany didnot beat Italy in their last four clashes, also Germany had never lost at Dortmond in total 14 encounters. Germany had been seeking their eighth appearance in the final where Italy were hoping for a sixth — both countries having won the trophy three times.

The match was exciting from the beginning with both teams hunting for the oppurtunities of goal trying to capitalize on every possibility with sharp passes and probing forward.

However, the defenders were able to resist most chances,captain Fabio Cannavaro and Italy’s Simone Perrotta and Germany’s Bernd Schneider missing the best first-half chances.

The battle for goal continued into the second half and no team were able to score by the end of full time.

The match entered into extra time and Italians were facing not only German team but also 50,000 packed German fans. But they kept their nerves and played a great game during the ending minutes of the extra time and scored two excellent goals packing Germans and securing place in the Worldcup Finals.

As far I am concerned the game was exciting to watch but I am dissappointed that Germans have lost. I wanted Germany to win. All the teams which are my favourites are loosing. Brazil, England, Czech and now Germany all have lost …

Michael Schumacher won the US F1 Grand Prix at Indianapolis becoming the first driver in any series to win five races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was wild start for the race with an accident in the beginning and most of the cars getting out of the race. Only 9 cars out of 22 cars participated could finish the race. But it was not as bad as last years race where 14 cars pulled out with unsafe tyres before the start to leave only six cars in the race. Though Ferrari were 1 and 2 last year it did not look as a convincing victory because of all that controversy. But this time it was jubilation for Schumacher and his new teammate, Felipe Massa, who again finished first and second.

Schumacher won for the third time this season, and 87th in his career. What’s more, he cut Alonso’s championship lead from 25 points to 19 with eight of 18 races left.

Massa started alongside pole-winner Schumacher finished second in the race his best of this season. Giancarlo Fisichella, Alonso’s Renault teammate, finished third.

Ferrari’s 1-2 finish was crucial and gets them closer to the reduce the gap with Renault for the championship. I hope Ferrari keeps up this edge for the later races of the season in order to gain the championship.

First Quarter Final: Germany vs Argentina

This I think was one big quarter final match between two giants one from south america and other from europe. The match was a delight to watch as 3 time champion Germany and 2 time champion Argentina were playing their best game. The atmosphere was electrifying and the fans in the stadium were having ball of their time cheering their team. None of the teams scored in the first half. The second started as the first with both the teams trying hard for a goal and finally argentina opened the account by a corner hit by Maxi Rodriguez and Ayala heading it into the net in 494th minute.

The game turned more interesting after this goal as Germans were hitting hard and Argentina was defending hard. The germans finally equalised in the 80th minute when the leading scorer of the World Cup Klose headed one into the goal. It was well planned goal with two heads and a Ballacks paas in it. The game went into extra time and the score was still 1-1 after that as well. So now it was time for Penalty Shoot out.

The tension and nerves were high both on players and fans as well. But Germans overcame this and finally moved to the semi finals. I personally wanted Germans to win and they did win but at the same time I was sorry for Argentina as well. This is all world cup is all about you want everyone to Win.

Second Quarter Final: Italy vs Ukraine

The second match was kind of one sided with Italy beating Ukraine comprehensively by 3-0 and setting up semi-final clash with host Germany. Zambrotta opened the scoring for Italy.

So the first semi-final is fixed now between Germany and Italy. This I hope is gonna be a cracker of a match.

Third Quarter Final: England vs Portugal

Well History repeated again for English fans and England soccer team when they lost again on a penalty shoot out to portugal. England have never won penalty shoot out and they didn’t break the jinx. It was a action packed match with Beckham going out injured after some time in the second half with tears in his eyes. Wayne Rooney the English super hero being shown red card and sent out for pushing his fellow clubmate Christiano Ronaldo. The England really defended well with only ten men in the field and score was 0-0 till the penalty shoot out.

But English players made a mess of Penalty shoot out with all big guns like Lampard, Gerrard and others missing their hits. Portugal won the match on penalty shoot out and enter to the fifa 2006 world cup semi final. Hero for the portugese was the young Christiano Ronaldo who not ony played some amazing soccer but also hit the winning goal for his team. I am sure England might have missed Beckham and Rooney for the Shoot out afterall they are the star players.

Fourth Quarter Final: Brazil vs France

Another big match between France and Brazil. Brazil the defencing champion and France who beat brazil in 1998 cup final. People were expecting that the champions will take revenge of 1998 finals but the French team with most of veteran players and lead by Zinadine Zidane had other ideas. The score was 0-0 till the second half. But french hit a goal in the early second half and stunned the brazilian fans. The game turned to be very exciting. The french team looked really changed in the second half and they raised their game to a different level. Their defending was awesome and they didnot allow brazilians to break thier defence. The only time brazil had very close chance was a free kick from Ronaldinho which he couldnt convert.

Finally time for biggest upset of the tournament came in at the full time of the match when French won the match 1-0 defeating the former champions. Paris was all ignited after the victory and Rio was all deserted. I personally was very sad as I wanted Brazil to win.

So Frnace will put up a semi-final clash with Portugal. It is the first world cup semi final for portugal. Lets wait and see whether they can make to finals or France will play another world cup final.

Tennis Sensation from India Sania Mirza was crashed out from the 120th Wimbledon 2006 yesterday on Day 3 of the championship. Sania played with 7th seed Elena Dementiava of Russia and lost in straight sets 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 after a keenly fought contest on Court 13. The 19-year-old from Hyderabad, playing at only her second Championships at the All England Club, lost the first set on a tight tie-break after leading in it 4-1 before her Russian opponent closed out the second set 7-5.

The Indian was beaten in the second round at wimbledon last year by fifth seed and eventual quarterfinalist Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Her best performance in a Grand Slam to date came last year when she reached the fourth round of the US Open at Flushing Meadow.

I think that she has to focus hard on her fitness and game now in order to fulfill her dream of winning a Grandslam. I felt she has put on lots of weight lately and she must shed the excess pounds she has put on and become more agile on the court. Her attitude and aggression is no doubt amazing.

First Match: Brazil vs Ghana

As I expected the Brazil won the match 3-0 agianst and secured the birth in Quarter Finals. More than the win I think World Champions will be celebrating other records that were broken yesterday.

1. Foremost was Ronaldo getting his 15th World Cup goal, becoming the all-time leading scorer in the tournament. He netted the milestone in the fifth minute after a brilliant step-over that beat goalkeeper of Ghana.

2. Cafu became the Brazilian player with the most World Cup appearances, 19, and Carlos Alberto Parreira moved up to fourth on the list of most matches as a coach at the World Cup, also with 19.

3. In addition, Brazil scored its 200th and 201st goals, and increased its winning streak in the tournament to 11 matches: seven in 2002 and four at this event.

Though Ghana lost the match I think they had really played well in this world cup and reached to knock out round and were beaten by world champions. They would have gained confidence and learnt a lot from this game.

Second Match: France vs Spain

Two late goals from Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane gave France a 3-1 win over Spain and a place in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Hanover on Tuesday. Spain had opened the scoring on 28 minutes, striker David Villa firing home from a penalty. Everything was a place for a dramatic second-half fight after France levelled shortly before the break. Vieira who headed in at the far post in the 83rd minute after a free kick had been deflected towards his own goal by Spain’s Xabi Alonso. Finally Zinedine Zidane sealed the french victory in the stoppage time beating spanish goal keeper.

French clash with cup holders Brazil — is it going to be a repeat of the 1998 final won by France??? or Brazil are going to prove why they are champions??? Well we have to wait and watch. But no matter what I am sure this is going to be an exciting encounter .