May 19, 2006

When the Steves come

3 comments:

Abhishek said...

Remember that while discussing captaincy in football, one ust chuck out the notions of captainsin cricket. Captains are far less influential in Football than in cricket. It simply does not make sense to change an established captain just because there is another better. The 'best player should be captain' argument is a non sequito, even in cricket.

Thirdly, pliss not to underestimate Señor Beckham's abilities - please to go beyond big-match syndrome and watch Real Madrid's last match in the Spanish league. Gerrard is the in-form player (won the player of the year) - so comparing an iniform player to one that has played well over years is very unfair.

(I stop here - I can go on rambling about this for ages...)

Abhishek said...

voila, the return of the typo-master !!

Harish Kumar said...

It is very rare to find a captain like Cantona/Keane.
Beckham might be the captain because of the sponsors involved but he is a great player.You might have some 'experts' criticising his lack of dribbling skills etc. but IMO, the opinion is more of a judgement on his off-field antics than his on-field utility.I am not sure if he is captaincy material but then it is definitely difficult to find a captain of a national team who can be as influencial as a club captain because the captain in a football team has to exhort players to come up with a killer performance - this is more of a personal appeal/threat/plea than the kind of tactical play it is in cricket.This happens because of personal equations and the national team members don't play together long enough to develop that spirit which all the successful clubs do.
Of course all these rules go for a toss if your name is spelled as Zinedine Zidane.(Refer to re-ignited qualification campaign of France, Henry's goal against Ireland)