Euro 2024: 'I'll always give my best for this shirt...', says Ronaldo after penalty miss against Slovenia

Frankfurt, (IANS) Portugal pulled through in their Round of 1 matchup vs Slovenia. The game remained goalless after 120 minutes and it was Diogo Costa who proved to be the hero as the goalkeeper saved three penalties in the shootouts.

Despite the win, a lot of the focus was on Cristiano Ronaldo as the Euros top goalscorer of all-time failed to convert a penalty in the 105th minute of the game and missed the chance to give his side the victory.

"This will be my last Euro, of course. But I’m not moved by this, I’m moved by enthusiasm. I was sorry for the fans. I'll always give my best for this shirt, whether I miss it or not. And I'll do this my whole life. You have to take responsibility," said Ronaldo in the post-game conference.

Following the penalty miss, Ronaldo was seen crying, breaking the hearts of many football fans around the world. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner later went on to turn his disappointment into a smile as he scored a penalty during the shootouts.

"I could have given the national team the advantage, but I didn’t manage it, Oblak saved. I didn’t miss once during the year, when I needed it most Oblak saved.It’s a feeling of sadness and joy at the same time, but the most important thing is the progress, the team deserved it," added the all-time top scorer of the Euros.

Portugal’s win has set up a firecracker bracket in the European Championship. The 2016 winners will take on France in the quarterfinals of the tournament and the winner of the match-up will be facing the winner of the match between Spain and Germany."Slovenia spent almost the entire time defending, the team deserves congratulations, especially our goalkeeper who made three good saves. Even the strongest people have their days, I was down and I was sad because the team needed me," Ronaldo concluded. Euro 2024: 'I'll always give my best for this shirt...', says Ronaldo after penalty miss against Slovenia | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........ → July 11, 2024

Cricket-T20 World Cup a boost to sport’s American Dream

Cricket competes for the hearts and wallets of America. PHOTO: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cricket begins a campaign for the hearts and wallets of American fans this week, as the T20 World Cup kicks off on Saturday in Dallas, bringing the best of the sport to less familiar territory.

The United States play Canada in the first match of the tournament co-hosted by the West Indies, while a temporary stadium in Nassau County, New York, hosts its first of eight fixtures on Monday. Lauderhill, Florida, will host four matches.

Cricket boasts billion fans around the globe but few adherents in the lucrative North American market, where fans are more accustomed to watching New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge picking up a bat than Rohit Sharma or Jos Buttler.

“This is the start of a journey,” International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Geoff Allardice told Reuters. “The awareness that we’re bringing in more elite cricket to the USA is something that’s been a strategic priority for us.”

The journey started with Major League Cricket, which began play in the United States last year, and culminates with the 2028 Los Angeles Games, where cricket will be reintroduced to the Olympic programme for the first time since 1900.

“In the lead up to the Los Angeles Olympics, I think we’ll be continuing to try and raise the profile of cricket, not just for the established cricket fans in the USA but for new fans,” said Allardice.

The tournament, which counts Jamaican track hero Usain Bolt as an ambassador, is a dream come true for U.S. immigrants, who comprise much of the sport’s U.S. fan base and are more used to watching the action on television than in their own backyard.

“I mean, (India have) got some of the biggest names in world sport as part of their team,” said Allardice. “And to be able to get close to them and see them in action, I think it’s an opportunity that’s something that comes along (not) very often for cricket fans in the USA.”The ICC T20 World Cup runs from June 1-29. Cricket-T20 World Cup a boost to sport’s American Dream

Read More........ → June 03, 2024

Cricket transition captured

A young writer with an abiding interest in cricket has come out with a very readable book on the new stars of Indian cricket. Soumya Bhattacharya, a well-known author, has paid minute attention to the emerging talents of Indian cricket, bestowing on them some fine prose even as some of them struggle to attain the kind of consistency at international level that the preceding generation did at that level to become absolute legends of the game. What I found most intriguing in the book is an analysis of the psyche and persona of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. While the legendary members of the famous quartet or quintet were known to me right from the days of their international debut, India’s greatest sensation of the new millennium is an enigma because of the lack of opportunity to study him at close quarters, apart of course from shooting the odd question at a media conference to get a glib enough answer suiting the mood of the time and the preceding events on the field. The author’s way of placing Dhoni among the greats of Indian cricket seemed to open up a nice and trendy characterisation. Now Dhoni is an original, so much so, a more difficult man to capture within the framework of any known Indian stereotype. As Mukul Kesavan wrote, “Dhoni, though, turned up on our television screens fully formed, untouched by influence, wholly, weirdly, wonderfully himself.” How do you get down to capturing the essence of such a man who is the first small town boy to go on to rule Indian cricket and do so like none ever before him. Bhattacharya has done a wonderful job of describing Dhoni, his background, his beliefs, his cricket, his style. Today, Dhoni may be struggling to live up to the image of the instinctive, nearly infallible personality who captained as he pleased in his own distinctive style and still won everything worth winning. Where we have to measure Dhoni is how he came to be where he is considering where he came from from the back of the boondocks of Jharkhand. It was almost providential that he should lead a bunch of young and inexperienced cricketers in that mad and merry world of the first ever T20 world championship and come out triumphant. That is a surprise Indian cricket is still coming to terms with it, even as it made Dhoni what he is today. The background of some of the other cricketers who came through from small towns also makes fascinating reading. What we see in Cheteshwar Pujara today is a far more rounded cricketer than what he was at the start of his career. His trials and tribulations help put light on what it takes to be one of the very few who break through into the top rungs of Indian cricket and stay there unlike the many one-day wonders who come and go, right back to the wilderness they came from, although immeasurably richer than players of preceding generations would ever have been in such short international careers. We must thank the IPL-loaded system for this. The slotting of Tendulkar’s career into three phases has also been tackled with figures to go with it. This would make good reading for those who wish to understand a man whose life may seem like an open book but who still kept most things to himself even in writing his ghosted autobiography. The author tackles the task without creating any acrimony in describing how the greatest of them all may also have tarried a bit after declining to take the finest exit route at the end of the 2011 World Cup, in which everyone in the nation was praying for a win even as 10 others played specifically to win it for the man who played Atlas to Indian cricket for so long. By his own admission, 2010 was his sweetest year and 2011 immediately brought him the greatest moment of his career in the World Cup triumph. There is a lot to read about the new stars of Indian cricket Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli. The generation shift came quite some time ago, certainly long before Sachin decided to say goodbye. It is a reference book to the future as it also contains some text from the on-going Supreme Court case into the murky affairs of the IPL. The reality of the conclusion that the promising youngsters will form a team that will be formidable at home, but remain unpredictable travellers lends a touch of percipience, but then history told us long ago that Team India would, like wine, not travel well. Source: The Asian Age

Read More........ → February 26, 2015