Posts Tagged ‘British’
Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo has the potential to become as great a player as Pele or Diego Maradona, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said on Saturday.
“The expectations are always so high with Cristiano because of his rise in the last two or three years since we got him as a young kid,” Ferguson told a news conference on the eve of his side’s Club World Cup final against Ecuador’s LDU.
“He scored 42 goals last season — his goal-scoring is the one area which for a wide player Cristiano is absolutely superb. “Pele scored in a World Cup final as a 17-year-old and Maradona played for his country at 17. Cristiano was 18 so the signs are the same.”
Ferguson’s lavish praise comes during the latest war of words between United and Spanish giants Real Madrid over the future of the Ballon d’Or winner. “His ability with two feet is tremendous,” purred Ferguson. “You would never associate it with a Portuguese winger but he is absolutely magnificent in the air. “He’s 23 now and still a very young lad but there’s a lot of things in his favour to go on and prove himself as a legend.”
Ronaldo was among the scorers in United’s 5-3 win over Japan’s Gamba Osaka in Thursday’s Club World Cup semi-final but was overshadowed by two goals from substitute Wayne Rooney.
Same desire:
“Cristiano still has to recapture his goal-scoring form of last season but he still has the same desire to have the ball all the time,” said Ferguson. “Very few wingers can have such an influence on a game as Cristiano.” Ferguson has warned his players against complacency in Sunday’s final against LDU in Yokohama, when United will bid to become the tournament’s first British winners.
“They’re not short of good players,” he said. “They’re resilient and powerful. But we have players who can express themselves and paint their own picture on the field.” Despite the punishing effects of jet leg on his players, Ferguson dismissed concerns his side could struggle when they return to England to play Stoke City away on Dec. 26.
“At the end of Thursday’s game there were signs of tiredness,” he said. “We let the game get very loose. The players will be physically better tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll recover in time to get a result at Stoke. When we came here in 1999 (and won the old Intercontinental Cup), three days later we beat Everton 5-1 so who’s to say?”
Sachin’s special innings
Posted on: December 16, 2008
England lost the 1st test against India at Chennai yesterday, however the British have been gracious in defeat. The British media and the local public lauded Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s unbeaten century, saying it was fitting that after the terror attacks in Mumbai it was fitting the city’s greatest icon scripted a famous win.
On Monday, India scripted an improbable win in the shadow of the Mumbai terror attacks when a gritty Mumbaikar, Sachin Tendulkar, led the way to humble England by six wickets in the first cricket Test in Chennai today.
Shortly after 4 pm, Tendulkar, called a magician by rival skipper Kevin Pietersen, glanced the ball to the fine leg boundary to achieve a truly momentous win on the final day for his team and his 41st Test century, an unbeaten 103.
India won in the highest successful fourth innings chase in the sub-continent by making 387 for four, a target the England team, which resumed its India tour after returning home in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks, thought was unachievable.
Virender Sehwag’s blistering knock swung the match but it was Sachin Tendulkar’s sedate century
which took it away from England, rued visiting captain Kevin Pietersen.
Effusive in his praise for Tendulkar, who struck his 41st Test century and remained unbeaten on 103, Pietersen said every English ploy to get the better of the Indian fell flat on its face.
“You cannot write Sachin Tendulkar’s script any better. The man from Mumbai came and scored a sensational century today. He batted like a super-star,” said Pietersen, who had earlier dubbed the Mumbaikar a “magician”.
“We tried everything in our means but unfortunately we got stuck and he played well,” Pietersen said.
Even the English media could not stop but praise the masterblaster. The Guardian said: ” It was Karma that after the terror attacks in Mumbai, it was the city’s most celebrated figure, who secured a famous win for the nation in the first Test.”
The Telegraph called it ‘an epic Test match’ and said that the right team won for ‘reasons of compassion.’
Tendulkar dedicated his 41st century the to Mumbaikars recovering after the terror attacks and provided the balm hoping his ton will give “some happiness to them.”
“I dedicate this century to the people of Mumbai,” the batting maestro said, adding “cricket cannot lessen whatever happened… I hope this 100 will give some amount of happiness to the people.”
“What happened in Mumbai was extremely extremely unfortunate and it will be hard to recover,” Tendulkar said, adding, “we are right with the people who lost their near and dear ones.”
Dead marines
Posted on: December 13, 2008
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Gordon Brown has paid tribute to the four Royal Marines who were killed in separate explosions in Afghanistan while on a visit to the country.
He said the men “died in the front line of terror” and “would never be forgotten” for what they had achieved on behalf of Britain.
He told troops based in Helmand province that “we are safer in Britain” because of the work they do there.
After his visit, he travelled to Kabul for talks with President Hamid Karzai.
On Friday, a Royal Marine from Arbroath-based 45 Commando was injured in an explosion in the Sangin area of Helmand province and died on the way to hospital at Camp Bastion.
In a separate incident, two marines from 45 Commando and one from Commando Logistics Regiment died in a second blast south of Sangin.
This brings the total number of British military personnel who have lost their lives in Afghanistan since the start of the operations in 2001 to 132.
Speaking to forces at Camp Bastion, the main British military base in Afghanistan, the prime minister said: “We are safer in Britain, the people of Britain are safer, because of what you do here.
“Checking the Taliban, operating as the front line against them, making sure that they cannot make advances, holding them in, and holding al-Qaeda in as well.”
First Minister Alex Salmond said the deaths of the Royal Marines will be keenly felt in Arbroath, with 45 Commando suffering their biggest single loss in recent years.
He said: “This is a dreadful tragedy, and our heartfelt condolences go to the families and friends of the men who have lost their lives.
women’s are killed in Afghanistan
Posted on: August 13, 2008
Taleban gunmen have shot dead three female international aid workers and their local driver near the Afghan capital Kabul.
The three International Rescue Committee (IRC) workers were a Canadian, a British-Canadian and a Trinidadian-American.
Five gunmen carried out an ambush in Logar province and opened fire with Kalashnikovs, a wounded survivor said.
A Taleban spokesman described the aid workers as foreign spies.
Aid agencies are frequently targeted in the Afghan conflict, with convoys attacked and staff abducted or killed.
International aid groups have been unable to operate in many southern provinces for some time because of insecurity.
More recently, violence has been spreading to other areas.
Logar – which lies just to the south of the capital – had been relatively stable but has become increasingly violent in recent months.
The British-Canadian woman killed has been named as Dr Jacqueline Kirk, 40, a research fellow of the University of Ulster.
Dr Kirk, who had dual British and Canadian citizenship, was affiliated to the university’s International Conflict Research centre, based at its Coleraine campus.
The three women and their two Afghan colleagues were travelling from Gardez in the south-east to Kabul in two clearly marked IRC vehicles when they were attacked.
Five men armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles stepped out of a village area and fired at the two vehicles, the surviving Afghan IRC employee was quoted as saying by Abdullah Khan, deputy counter-terrorism director in Logar.
Earlier, another security official reported that gunmen had opened fire on the aid workers from a vehicle.
The bodies were taken to the governor’s compound in the provincial capital, Puli Alam.
The IRC said it was “stunned and profoundly saddened”.
“Words are inadequate to express our sympathy for the families and loved ones of the victims and our devoted team of humanitarian aid workers in Afghanistan,” said IRC president George Rupp.
The organisation announced it had suspended all of its humanitarian aid programmes in the country – after 20 years of operating in Afghanistan.
Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said fighters had attacked two vehicles of “the foreign invader forces”.
“They were not working for the interests of Afghanistan and they belonged to those countries whose forces… took Afghanistan’s freedom,”.
The aid workers had apparently changed cars for security reasons, and the details of their vehicles may have been passed on to their attackers.
UN special representative to Afghanistan Kai Ede said he was shocked by the attack.
Earlier this month aid agencies warned they may become unable to operate in parts of Afghanistan once seen as safe, because of the intensifying conflict.
The Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (Acbar), an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), pointed to a 50% increase in insurgent attacks compared to last year.
It expressed its “grave concern about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and the serious impact on civilians”.
June saw more attacks on NGOs than in any month since the Taleban’s overthrow in 2001 and some agencies had been forced to scale back operations, the statement said.
Nineteen aid workers had been killed so far this year – more than during the whole of 2007, said Acbar.
Some 2,500 people had been killed this year, up to 1,000 of them civilians, Acbar said.
Kabul blamed the rise in insurgent attacks on the Pakistani government’s attempts to negotiate peace deals with militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
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