Football Series Special Part 3: Top 10 World Cup Saves

Now after getting your interest up after those two installments on blasters and headers, I'm going to introduce you to the top 10 saves of the Fifa World Cup.

Most of the time in football, strikers can miss 6 shots and score only 1 goal, but often they'll be viewed as heroes if their team wins. As for the goalkeepers it's a different story. Even if the goalkeeper made a string of stupendous saves, yet concedes a goal which condemns the team to a loss, the critics will be clamming down hard on him. That's how important a goalkeeper is to a team and how unstatisfying his job can be.

A great goalkeeper has to have great presence, leading and shouting by example at his defenders. He also has to have great reflexes, superb ball handling and extreme bravery. They usually have a longer career than players in other positions. Dino Zoff is one example. He captained Italy to the World Cup trophy in 1990 at the age of 40. Examples of great goalkeepers past and present include Lev Yashin, Gordon Banks, Dino Zoff, Gianlugi Buffon and Peter Schmeichel.

Fifa World Cup Top 10 Saves

Football Series Special Part 2: Top 10 World Cup Headers

I'm sure you stared in amazement at that wonder strike by Arie Haan and that superb curling shot by Nelinho(which suspiciously have the word Roberto Carlos written all over it). It definitely would be a long time before we would witness shots that would rival them.

Today on the 2nd part of the series, I'm going to introduce you to the top 10 headers. Good headlers of the ball include Pele, Alan Shearer and modern footballers like Luca Toni and Fernando Morientes. So who do you think made the mark? Watch and find out.

Fifa World Cup Top 10 Headers

Football Series Special Part 1: Top 10 World Cup Blasters

Football is a global attraction that hooks billions of people around the world to its seductive lure. I'm sure many guys out there know what I mean. As for the girls, especially non-football fans, I'll introduce you to the phenomenon called football and it's alluring power.

At the pinnacle of football stands the world cup, an event that is held once every 4 years. It causes the whole world to come to a standstill as people around the world are glued to the televisions and stadiums are filled to the brim. I'm sure many of us are familiar with modern players such as ronaldo(both), ronaldinho, messi, henry, kaka etc. as they entertain us with their footballing skills out of the TV box. There are also times, when our fathers/uncles would regale us of tales and stuff made of legends, and their face would lit up with ecstasy as the names of maradona, pele, best, cruyff, platini etc. are mentioned under their breath. All this while, our child-like minds would lap it all up eagerly as they try to reanimate the skills and brilliance of those players(albeit clumsily).

The dream of every aspiring legend would be to perform at the biggest theatre of football kingdom, the world cup. It's the event that turn wonderkids and great players into footballing gods. As we are seated glued to the action, 22 men chase a ball and entrall us with their sublime skills, superb teamwork, wonderful vision, individual brilliances and plain old genius.

Today will be the start of a V part series as I introduce you to the top 10 blasters, headers, saves, solos and freekicks of the world cup series(excluding last year's). Without further ado, I'll introduce you to the World Cup Top 10 Blasters. Guess who's No. 1? I'm sure I mentioned him before to some people.
Enjoy!!!

Fifa World Cup Top 10 Blasters

Misguided Dreams?

I'm sure many of us have dreams and ambitions to be rich, successful, famous and/or powerful. Or a simpler way for some, find a rich, famous or powerful partner to marry. This caused me to ponder. Are these ambitions of us due to experience inadequacies, past generations unfulfilled desires or just plain ambition?

In simple terms, do those people who crave for wealth, come from poor families? Or is the drive to succeed and gain that elusive goal due to your parents failed ambitions? Or in the last case, is it due to prolonged exposure to power, fame etc. that causes us to lust after them?

I'm sure the last two paragraphs got you thinking about your goals and dreams in life. What do we really want? And what are we chasing for? In the end, will life just come full circle again, and unfulfilled dreams of yesterday become dreams of tomorrow?

Most of us by now will be staring at this post and wondering what our goals, aspirations and ambitions are, and do we need to change or set new ones again. (As for those with no proper ambitions, I suggest that you start thinking and carry them out now.) The point is are our ambitions what we really need and not what we really want?

Most of us harp and crave after money and power, but what happens after we attain them? Do you really think you'll be happy? We strive to fulfil our lustful desires for them, but many a times people come out unfulfilled and dissatisfied. At the end of our lives, are we going to attain all the wealth, power and fame, and realise that life was just a misguided adventure?

My friends, I believe that finding out what we really need, is the key to attaining our true goals in life - fulfilment and happiness. We may obtain all the wealth, power and fame in this world, but trust me it's temporary and never enough, because man by nature have this unending thirst for them.

Despite all this negativity that I brought about regarding wealth, power, fame etc., I would like to emphasize that with them, we could do a lot to help others and improve their lives. So to end off, we should make do with our lives, do our best, achieve the impossible, break all boundaries, yet be prepared to leave without a trace.

"The Best is Yet to Be."

FATE - A burning desire

Some weeks ago, GOC posted a post on fate. That got my mind ticking. What is fate? How does it affect our lives? Was the incident that your mom caught you with your pants down part of the mechanism of fate or was it just plain unlucky?

I believe that fate is closely related to destiny and it is an inevitable course of event that happens in our lives. How many times do things and incidents seem suspiciously pre-ordined and we can't seem to put a finger as to a reason why? My friend, I believe that to be the nature of a certain highly-intelligent creature called fate.

How is fate affecting our lives, you might wonder. Certain events and certain people that we meet might just be fate running it's course. How often do we turn to our partners and say "It's fate that we met" or that things seem to happen at the right place and the right time and we give that "it's fate" kind of look to the bewildered onlooker.

A good example is a friend of mine who seems to always make it to the next idea level of life despite the odds. He's now in the university and "struggling to the brim" as I would describe, but you would be amazed that some time back even the ITE would have a problem trying to accept him. He's the kind that out of a million people, you would least expect him to make it through. Heck, he even have problems coming for school, let alone his tests. Yet, he's always the one to succeed. I'm sure all of you would wish that life was as simple as that. You try to fail, yet you still succeed. My friend, that's called fate.

I'm sure that most of your by now, if you bought my story on fate so far, would have resigned yourself to that kind of life and say " Well, that's it. I guess life's cruel, I'm just a victim of this monstrosity called fate, and I'll just sail through it." Let me tell you this, you're not alone! Many a person had experienced untold misfortures and gave up trying in life. Let me say this, although fate guide and chart our lives, it does not decide our lives!

We still decide on what we eat, what we wear and who we marry. Fate might bring two persons together, but it does not mean that they'll end up together! We have choices and decisions to make. So what if the palmist and fortune teller comes and tell you that you're going to be rich one day? Don't tell me we can just squander away our money and hope that tons more just appear on our doorstep. We still have to work and put in the effort to create opportunities for fate to do it's job.

So guys and gals, let's not just sail along and hope for the best. Instead let's all do our best in whatever we do, no matter the difficulty and obstacles. After all if Thomas Edison did'nt try over 2000 different ways to invent the light bulb and Abraham Lincoln didn't give up despite failure after failure, they would not had succeeded and our world would still be in darkness today. "Fate may guide and chart our lives, but it is us who makes decisions and live it."