Thursday, July 17, 2014

FIFA World Cup 2014- The Extravaganza!



FIFA World Cup was here again :)


I remember last time, ( i. e.  - 2010),  I also posted about the same :) in this blog.

This year, for me the  excitement started  as FIFA Official Films of each World Cup were being shown everyday on Sony Six Channel from 1 week prior to the World Cup. I came to know about this programme from my brother :). I watched the films of '86, '90, '94, '98, 2002 and 2006 World Cup. For me, these films were like revisions about the Players, Matches, the Moments we Enjoyed in the past :).


Sports has so many unique qualities which contribute to develop a personality. Game planning, Team spirit, Sportsmanship, Presence of mind, Agility- all these elements Enrich the person who practices sports and makes him/ her a better person, excelling in his/ her skill.


Had a great time from 12 June to 14 July!!


Here is the link of one of the official films by FIFA-





And here is the information about all the World Cups so far from Wikipedia- 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup




Now I am mentioning some of the medium, which have helped me to enjoy this competition in many ways.


# Cup Of Joy- A daily programame on DD News as 7 :30 am daily. Anchor- Anil Thomas. Some of the guests were - Melvin D' Souza, S S Hakeem, Tarun Roy. Everyday I used to watch this programme to understand about the matches of the previous night as well as to get an idea about the matches coming ahead. From Semi final onwards they introduced Touch screen LCD to make the explanations better, which I also enjoyed!!! Really liked all the analysis made by Mr Melvin D' Souza.


# Times of India- Which made a special section for 'World Cup Carniball' and everyday the front page would have an extra half sheet telling all the updates about the WC to the readers. So helpful were those articles, diagrams, statistics, picture, all the charts and references. I eagerly waited for the newspaper everyday morning to get started :)

Like the one below- 






# Google, FIFA and Wikipedia-  The way Searching about any match on Google gave us the three categories- Timeline of the match, Match Statistics and Line Up of both the teams- I was very very happy with it. In any confusion or query it was so easy to find the answer from Google

And FIFA website- had Everything about the World Cup, every stats, info and all in the specific pages.

Same can be said for Wikipedia. Any info regarding every match was there in Wiki., on its particular page. I used to refer to it while watching the match to get many info and always succeeded in doing so.

All these three sites were of great help to all the football lovers!!


# Cafe Rio- Sony Six Programame, which had eminent football personalities like Mikael Silvestre, Peter Shilton, Peter Crouch, Sunil Chhetri, to name some of them. anchor- Joe Morrison.



# Football Extraa- A Live Call In programme in Sony Six, everyday at 8 am. Anchor- Keith Sequera, I really liked his anchoring!!!!  Some of the guests were - Sunil Chhetri, Abhishek Yadav, Peter Shilton, Mikael Sivestre. 


# Now coming to the very special step taken by Sony tv. Really really want to appreciate them for it!!  It is the Bengali Commentary of all the World Cup matches on the channel- Sony Aat. It was great to listen to them, while living in a distant place from Kolkata. Moreover, the standard of World Cup matches with the typical adda/ commenrary of Bengali culture was very very unique combination! I cherished it so much!!!  The commentarors were- Pallab Basu Mallick, Kalyan Chaubey, Debayan Sen and Debabrata Mukherjee. Their commetary made it so so enjoyable! All the trivia they shared as well as the emotions, analysis, explanations- will remember those moments :)


# Also Doordarshan aired the Semi final and final matches as well as the opening ceremony I think. Anchor was Anupam Gulati. I have seen Novi Kapadia as a guest one day. And FM Gold also aired commentary on the Semi final and Final matches, I haven't listend to them, just heard the announcement of the same once or twice.

Here I have tried to mention all the names, but please forgive me if any name gets omitted due to my lack of memory.


For me, all these have contributed in enjoying the World Cup. Had a great time! Thanks to all of them for their effort!!! Great work!! You all deserve applause for your hard work!!!


In 2018, the enjoyment  will be in Russia :) :)