The end of April is always the hub of sporting drama. We have a huge match, followed by a gargantuan matchup and then another massive moment… and so on, and so forth. It’s because European leagues are reaching their climax, the UEFA Champions League is looking for its finalists, F1 is up and running, the playoff dogfight is boiling up in the NBA, tennis players are playing dirty little games with an eye on Roland Garros and Wimbledon and then there’s the IPL as well (for those who care; although considering that our players don’t get to be a part of it, none of us should care). And so, in complete synchrony with the April pigeonhole some of the leading sportsmen and teams pulled out season defining – and for some epoch defining – triumphs.
Of all the ‘massive’ moments over the week, it would be hard to earmark the one that should sit at the top of the pile. In the end we might have to narrow it down to Rafael Nadal’s triumph at Monte Carlo and Chelsea’s win over Barcelona in the Champions League.
Nadal conjured up his eighth – yes eighth – title on the bounce at Monte Carlo, which should’ve been THE tennis highlight in most other cases. However, as things turned out the fact that he stopped Novak Djokovic from doing one over him for the eighth – yes eighth – consecutive time, eventually became the talking point – and rightly so. Although Djokovic was miles away from what he normally is nowadays, owing to his grandfather’s death a week back, one can’t stress how much Nadal needed that win. No-Djo had completely blanked Rafa over the past 18-months – which included two final wins on clay (Rafa’s realm) last year as well – and now after the triumph on Sunday the Spaniard would be assured that he’s the man to beat on clay. And in my humble opinion had he had even half of that assurance in Melbourne this year, he would not have missed THAT backhand pass at 4-2, 30-15 in the fifth in the final.
While Rafa’s victory last Sunday had more to do with psychological barrier removal, and stopping a monotonous landslide, Chelsea Football Club, pulled off one of the most astounding away performances against what is touted as the ‘greatest team of all time’, at one of the most intimidating arenas and the most crucial of times possible. 2-0 down (2-1 on aggregate) and a man down – thanks to John ‘Ironman’ Terry’s brain going on a walk-around – it would have taken the performance of a lifetime to find a way out of that labyrinth. And in my opinion Chelsea conjured up exactly that. It was the quintessential team performance, capped off by a Fernando Torres goal; I mean you can’t possibly write such scripts – Gary Neville’s ‘ecstasy moment’ would bear testament to that. And now the Blues have to outdo Bayern Munich on the German side’s home turf to culminate their long yearn for the Holy Grail of European football and in turn guarantee that they’d be a part of the competition next year. For, let’s be honest, their league exploits aren’t exactly helping that particular cause.
(Understatement alert) Bayern Munich wouldn’t be easy to beat at the Allianz Arena. In fact this current Munich side would be hard to beat at any given arena. Why they’d be harder to beat for Roberto Martinez’s men than the mighty Catalonians is because they don’t have a monotonous game plan – unlike the Spanish champions. Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben on the wings, with one of the best strikers in Europe – Mario Gomez – leading the line, the German side would have much more versatility in attack than the tried and tested – albeit unbelievably effective over the recent past – monotonous Barca play. Munich are in the final, after pulling off an amazing away performance of their own in Madrid, and are favourites to lift the trophy at home. A detailed preview of the final would be there on the eve of the match in Saturday’s football column.
Real Madrid, after losing out on a dramatic penalty shootout, ended up being on both ends of the ‘massive result’ scale this week. Their win at the Nou Camp on Saturday, which has surely sealed the La Liga title, has signaled the change of guard in Spain – and Pep Guardiola’s departure from Barcelona has possibly rubberstamped that. However, for Madrid, the high of Saturday was coupled with the low of Wednesday, where going into a shell cost them a place in the final. Amidst all the U-turns in football and tennis, Sebastian Vettel Bahrain expedition has somewhat taken backstage. With his first victory of 2012, the two-time F1 Champion has shushed the noise of him feeling the pressure and of falling short of his own pretty high standards. The German built on an early lead from the pole and had an intriguing dual with Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn started 11th, and eventually caught Vettel after half distance before the latter pulled away after the final pit stops. Vettel and Red Bull now have their respective title defences back on track, Nadal looks good to dominate the clay season like he is accustomed to, Chelsea are one step away from winning the Champions League after enduring possibly their worst season in recent memory and Barcelona would neither win the La Liga, nor the Champions League this year – what an absolute monster of a week it was…
