Inspirated

Ever since I began writing this blog, my posts have been targeting two prime areas of interest: Open Source and Soccer. Even to the most unobservant of readers, this isn’t a particularly analogous choice of topics. Now, after 21 months of Technology & Sports mishmash writing, I have been given a chance to author a blog totally focused on Football. Melius tarde, quam nunquam.

And this is where The Offside comes into the picture. It is a portal containing blogs about certain clubs, players, leagues and national teams. For anyone who has ever known me, it wouldn’t take him more than 0.001 seconds to guess which blog I was given the responsibility to write for. Welcome to totti.theoffside.com :-) . Of freaking course, what else would I prefer having to write about than the person who has been the sole reason for my continued interest in Football over the past decade. For the neophytes on my blog, here’s what I wrote in my Orkut profile’s sports section:

Over the course of years, I’ve realized that nothing can invoke emotions as powerfully and beautifully as Football does. There’s nothing more passionate than seeing Totti’s name on that red and yellow #10 shirt. Nothing is more breathtaking than the impeccable moments such as Amantino’s back-heel of God against Lazio and Er Pupone’s spoon against Inter Milan. There is nothing more sensational than the moment when fate of a nation’s dreams was lying in the right boot of Francseco; and nothing more glorious than the way he slotted it to perfection. No feeling of betrayal is as intense as Cassano back-stabbing Roma, and no feeling of admiration is as vehement as seeing De Rossi & Aquilani decline interests of bigger clubs and commit their careers to La Magica. There’s no courtship as invoking as Totti running over to the camera and turning it around to film the crowd after scoring in Derby della Capitale.

He isn’t only a player. Roma isn’t only a club. Football … isn’t only a sport.

The very least I could do to express the euphoria.

A couple of people have asked me why I didn’t post about this on my blog:

The answer is simple. The win was expected anyway after the 6-2 drubbing of Inter in Stadio Olimpico. Inter gave us a tough fight though, but it’s a rare event in Football for a team to overcome 4 goals aggregate deficit in the 2nd leg.

Anyhow, Roma deserved the win. Overall, the season has been pretty good for us — 2nd spot in the league, Champions League quarter-finals, Capitano as the Capocannoniere (Serie A top scorer) with 22+ goals and winners of the domestic cup (not to forget that Juve also played in this particular competition). The Old Trafford loss was definitely disappointing, but it would be unfair to label all the hard-work and efforts from the players as futile because of a single night’s below-par performance.

Hopefully, this will be the first trophy of many more to come. Spalletti has a bright future ahead of him if he can only get some fresh blood in summer for leading our attack. The 4-2-3-1 formation really works wonders when used effectively with everyone in good form, but it also has the ability to crumble under pressure if the attacking half isn’t doing its job properly.

Grazie Roma!

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.†— Michael Jordan

I didn’t see the match myself as no TV channel in my region was broadcasting it. Yet, this was the most pleasing news that I’ve heard in a while. It also marks the 2nd time we’ve beaten Nerrazurri in three weeks. All I can say now is that Spalleti and his players have learned their lesson from the Old Trafford game, and they definitely had the character and the heart to strike back immediately after such a huge disappointment.

P.S. Inactivity period on my blog again. This time it’s because of the my attempts to compile GNU Octave and OpenOffice.org on my PC from scratch. Expect to see posts regarding them within the coming week.

Highlights recording (includes goals from Totti and Mancini):

Top ten goals from Calcio, as chosen by the highlights show that aired on 26th February:

Italian Serie A club AS Roma secured its place in the Coppa Italia final as they blew AC Milan out of the competition after a 5-3 aggregate victory in yesterday’s match. Roma will now face the winner of the second-leg match between Inter Milan and Sampdoria on Thursday. Inter is already leading the aggregate score with 3-0.

Roma’s form has been consistently improving over the past few months, and although they’re currently playing without proper strikers, their midfield has proven itself to be one of the strongest in Serie A because of the presence of Perrotta, Mancini, Pizzarro and Totti. The club has got big games coming up now such as the fixtures against Inter and Lyon in February. Roma has also loaned Francesco Tavano and Christian Wilhelmsson from Valencia and Nantes respectively, so Spalletti just has to keep his players focused and they might even break the Inter curse that has been following them for the past two years.

An AMV of various goals from Capitano with Manson’s song in the background: