Liverpool on recovery path

Liverpool vs Bolton Wanderers (30 Jan 2010)

Liverpool faced Bolton Wanderers at Anfield in their weekend fixture. Liverpool's season has been jittery with too many ups and downs, the latest being FA cup exit in which they lost to second division club Reading. Rafa Benitez had put up a side which has the skill and the ability but completely lacking in confidence. David Nogog replaced Fernando Torres upfront as the striker, partnering with Dirk Kuyt.

Liverpool began the first half, shooting at the KOP end. Bolton Wanderers' strategy was to pin down to Gerrard and Muamba was doing a pretty good job at it,shadowing Steve Gee wherever he went. Bolton got two excellent chances in the first half,one coming from Cohen who couldn't put the ball past Reina. Thanks to ever-dependable Carragher who didn't give Cohen enough room to take the shot properly. The next brilliant chance came from Chung Yung Lee who did a neat work of getting past the Liverpool centre backs and also around the Liverpool Goalie but last minute brilliant work by Krygiakos saved Liverpool from the agony of trailing Bolton at Anfield.

Liverpool was fierce in their approach whenever they came cloe to scoring but lacked the killer touch. Some brilliant moves by Gerrard were blocked off by Zat Knight, Kuyt was just a yard away from converting Insua's cross into a goal. Liverpool found themselves ahead just minutes before the first half ended- Courtesy The Dutchman: Kuyt. Even though the goal was scrappy it was enough to bolster Liverpool's confidence. Bolton's defender Steinsson could have cleared the ball off the goal line but the ball some how found its way back into the net.

A one goal lead always causes anxiety for the team who scored it. Liverpool could have sealed the game early in the second half when Ngog missed a lollypop chance from six yards, the ball bouncing off the goal post. Bolton didn't threaten Liverpool much in the second half. This forced the Bolton manager to bring in Ricardo Gardner, Weiss and Elmandor to step up the Bolton attack.

Insua's shot was deflected off Kevin Davies before rolling past Jaskeleinen for a second Liverpool goal. Rafa could now breathe easily given that Liverpool will not commit silly mistakes to refrain them from claiming all three points.

Even though Liverpool came out victorious they lacked the ability to finish Bolton off. Liverpool could easily have scored four to five goals, given the amount of chances they had in the match. Liverpool now sits fifth in the table with 41 points just one point behind Tottenham Hotspurs. Aston Villa is on 40 with a game in hand and Man City are with 38 points with three games in hand.

If Liverpool fail to qualify for Europe next year the club's financial situation may be in jeopardy and this could mean many of the top players might leave Anfield. Now that Liverpool has won three of their home games in a row their confidence is high and hope that they take their good form in the remaining games.

Mumbai Half Marathon- My 6th half marathon

The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon was conducted on 17 Jan 2010 and this was the 7th edition of the premier event. Let me tell you why running in Mumbai is special. First of all you need to register way back in July of the previous year because the competition is tough and number of participants overwhelming. Secondly the Mumbai Marathon is given Gold status by AIMS.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23092968

This was my first Mumbai Half marathon and #6 overall. I had booked my tickets in advance with Jet Airways and was all set for Mumbai 2010. I took the 7:15 flight on 16 Jan 2010 from Chennai and reached Mumbai at around 9:00 hrs. There were two surprises instore for me. First I met my colleague from Strategic Sourcing on the same flight. He was going to Mumbai for an official trip. Secondly I met a girl ( Archana ) from computer science dept from my college,my batch. I was 100% sure it was her but I didn't have the guts to talk to her because even though I was staring at her for quite some time, waiting for some reaction she didn't seem to recognize me.

I had a quick breakfast with my colleague at the airport premises and left for my uncle's house in Matunga. Now Matunga comes under greater Bombay and autos are banned inside Greater Bombay. My colleague dropped me till Kurla Gardens, from there I took an auto till Scion and hired a cab from there to Matunga Central. My aunt and uncle gave me a warm welcome and made me quite comfortable, making me feel at home. They after making sure that I was comfortable went off to office and I spent the rest of the time till lunch with their younger 8 year old daughter Aayushi.

We had excellent lunch, rotis and undiyo, dal and a sweetdish whose name I do not remember. I really liked the undiyo as it was very very tasty and makes for an excellent side-dish with rotis. After lunch my uncle took me to Cuffe Parade, where I collected my BIB no. 11182 and the goodie bag. My uncle wanted to make sure that I had the best time in Bombay and went of the way in ensuring that. He took me to Leopold's cafe. Does this cafe sound familiar? This was one of the places where the terrorists open fired on 26 Nov 2008, killing many innocent lives. I saw the bullet marks on the granite wall as well as on the glass windows. After having a drink at Leopold's cafe we went for '3 idiots' the most successful film in the history of Bollywood cinema so far. We returned home by 22:30 hrs, had dinner and went off to sleep.

It was the D day. I woke up at 5:00 and geared myself for the run. I had set a target of 2:11 hrs to crack the 21.09Km distance. My uncle made sure that Raju stayed overnight just for my sake and drop me in the morning till the starting point. I warmed up,doing my usual stretching exercises and waited patiently for the flag off. The route was amazing; part of it was on the newly built Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link. The sad part was there was no water points on the sea link and many of the runners were struggling because of that.

I did a nonstop run till 8km after which I coupled walking and running till the finish. I was motivated by the enthusiasm and excitement of the Mumbai crowd. The toughest part of the route was the Peddar Road stretch where the road is narrow and quite steep. But the cheering crowd kept the runners going. People went the extra step of providing refreshments for runners and this is something unique you can find only in Mumbai. Cheers to Mumbai on this aspect.

I completed my run in 2:24:39, this was my official timing. I was quite pleased with my performance and thanked God for giving me both the mental as well as the physical strength to complete the run.

After the run I took a train from Marine Lines uptil Matunga Road and from there a taxi till Matunga Central. As I didn't carry my cellphone with me my aunt and uncle were worried when I took a long time to return home. It was my mistake; I should have called them from some other mobile. But anyways I was treated by my aunt's garam parathas with an extra dash of butter. I enjoyed my meal and went off to sleep. After that I went on see my friends at SP Jain. I met Anoop, my high school classmate and spent about one and half hours with him before departing for Chennai. On the whole I had a great run.