"HEEL" THE WORLD

Quick question – who is a better player, Essien or Xavi? Now I know some of you might be wondering and may even be surprised I am asking this question but you will find out pretty soon why. Another eventful weekend I tell you. This past week we’ve witnessed quite some bizarre happenings, nothing strange though about Barca landing another major signing in this transfer window-Udinese’s Sanchez.

When I blabber about this magnificent sport people do not understand. Football gives you everything, from anger to joy to surprise, or even sheer stupidity. Football makes you and the world go round indeed. Bringing you not exactly the news, I was asked by one of my faithful readers to give a shout out to one Manchester United fan who sat in the midst of Liverpool supporters to watch a game spotting a United jersey, one that bore Wayne Rooney’s name too for that matter. I said why not, that guy represents everything I stand for-Crazy about football, even if it kills you.

One UAE player also delighted the rest of the world with a cheeky back heeled penalty in a friendly recently. Mind you, I thought he was a Brazilian or something, just with a bad Arab disguise. I mean, whiles we drooled over his brilliance and downright audacity, his own manager and football federation were not the least impressed. Ironic, huh? Honestly, I don’t know what they were complaining about. It was beautiful! But I can see why Mancini was left fuming when Mario Balotelli tried a similar thing in a friendly against LA Galaxy on Sunday.

Don’t get me wrong, am all for the fancy flicks and tricks in football, especially during friendlies because even though football is a sport, its entertainment too. But Balotelli goofs for various reasons. The obvious being that one, he is a lousy copy cat and two, the other guy scored, he missed. With only the goalkeeper to beat and in a two on one situation, Balotelli decided to ignore his teammate and the conventional way of scoring by going for the reverse back heel. He took the walk of shame too as he was “back heeled” onto the bench immediately. ANAMU GUY! LOL. Well he got us talking again, so it wasn’t all about him seating in the corner alone at the back of the class with his “I ate sh** face”. But honestly, regular couch loungers are not the least surprised. If you consulted the couch definition for Balotelli, you would realise that in fact, your money should have been on this guy replicating that insane (good insane though) move. We’ve come to accept crazy as part of his name. Balocrazy or Crazy Balotelli, that’s a good one too, isn’t it? But hey, we in Ghana too were not left out of the “week for the fancy”. The MTN FA cup final served up a real taste of Ghanaian football. Nania and Kotoko did well to make a case for our local football, that all is not lost. That if we could get the pitches right (world class pitches that is) and do get the needed sponsorship, we could actually start following our local football. From the evidence on Sunday, I believe there is a direct and positive relationship between the state of the pitches in our stadia and the quality of football we get. War-like/ mine field pitches produce karate and haphazard football. The reverse is also true. Sunday’s game was not an irritation to the eye, to say the least. A delicious back heel, yes, I know, a back heel from one Omani was enough to separate the two sides in a pulsating affair. It was a family affair in the final game of the weekend as Forlan joined daddy and granddad in winning the Copa America for a record 15th time. Now don’t you just hate that team, Uruguay? Onto my earlier question, I was about to retire to bed after that game when I got a call from one “drunk” guy.Yep,I was as surprised as you are,so I put it to you again Essien vs Xavi. Let me know what you think.