SportsKenya: UEFA Champions League

Showing posts with label UEFA Champions League. Show all posts

Thursday, 26 August 2010

Dennis Oliech's Auxerre makes Champions League matches worth the watch for Kenyans

Thanks to 2-1 aggregate against Zenit St. Petersburg , Kenyan football fans will now have two players ( and teams) to root for during the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League games this season. Auxerre confirmed their qualification to the UEFA Champs League group stages which kick off on Tuesday September 14th,2010. After last year's debut by MacDonald Mariga who's Inter Milan went all the way to winning the treasured Cup, shall we have a second bite at the cherry? Far-fetched but worth the watch.
The draw for the group is on later today and we shall see who plays who with the pots drawing as follows;

Pots for UEFA Champions League draw:

Pot One: Inter Milan, Barcelona, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Lyon.

Pot Two: Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia, Marseille, Panathinaikos.

Pot Three: Tottenham, Rangers, Ajax, Schalke, Basle, Braga, FC Copenhagen, Spartak Moscow.

Pot Four: Hapoel Tel Aviv, FC Twente, Rubin Kazan, Auxerre, CFR Cluj, Partizan Belgrade, MSK Zilina, Bursaspor.

(Source ; www.bbc.co.uk)

Related News:

Macdonald Mariga is hoping to use his current placing at Inter Milan to land European football scouts to the local scene. After the country's past dismal performance and with the current resurgence in the local league, there is bound to be some talent budding which needs to land our young players to the lucrative leagues. With this it is hoped that we can challenge for continental honours and also be able to make a point if not qualify for the 2014 World Cup - I don't see why not !

Monday, 17 May 2010

UEFA Champions League 2010/2011 : Double Treat for Kenyan fans

Thanks to the exploits of their respective teams Inter Milan (Italy) and Auxerre (France), Kenyan football fans shall be treated and enjoy more UEFA Champions League 2010/2011 than has ever been. Seeing our very own is bound to change quite a number of dynamics especially TV rights and viewership.

This year the only local TV station screening the matches was K24 (which a little birdie tells me partners with KBC, but is trying to cut its own niche). In 2008/9 NTV, Nation Media Group's Kenyan TV station had that priviledge but has left it audience asking what happened to its sports offering.
To our two brothers, it is kudos and wish Mariga's Inter all the best against German's champions Bayern Munich on Saturday 22nd May. It would be a nice crowning moment for all football fans across the country this season, before we start the 2010 World Cup in June.

Thursday, 29 April 2010

Mariga makes cameo appearance as Inter shield Barcelona from UEFA Champions League Final

For what was billed as the battle between the 'Special One' on the pitch (Lionel Messi) and the 'Special One' off the pitch & on the touchline ( Jose Mourinho),

the latter endured to end the misery of losing at the semi-final stages (previously with Chelsea) and take I Nerazzurri into the Final of UEFA Champions League ( this year being played on May 22nd a Saturday due to the 2010 World Cup).
The Kenyan football fan had a unique opportunity to see one of their own playing at a UEFA Champs game and though it was a cameo appearance, it was enough to turn our patriotic selves into rapturous cheer...well forgive the Catalans and the beautiful game ( Arsenal - English club cited to play a similar game suffered at their hands - so fair game !)

Images courtesy of Inter Milan's website

Now isn't Mourinho just the hero for sneaking in and taking our classy midfielder and most likely turning him into a world-class act. We said so in a previous post here. The Nerazzurri gave Real Madrid players, Guti & Ronaldo something to smile about and save them the nightmare of seeing their arch-rivals play at their home pitch in the Final.
Read some real jewels from the post-match press conference by Jose Mourinho here.
Can't wait for the 22nd of May as we hope to see our own take on German Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich and seemingly start as favourites to win the trophy.

Profile of a Kenyan Sports Personality

This is a look at a Kenyan personality who may have influenced and continues to affect sports in Kenya and inspires all and sundry in sports. It is our hope that you shall reflect on this, take a moment to appreciate the sacrifices and efforts these heroes made. We do take a bow and wave our hats as we cheer true Kenyan patriots in sport!

This one takes a different twist. Having seen individuals grace this column, we have sought to recognize a team of individuals who did some exemplary work and set what has been an unbeatable national and indeed continental effort.

Kenya has never been a major power in shorter races 400m downwards. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this was a different script especially with the more exciting relay races. It is in 1968 when Kenya’s dominance came into play and with it a retinue of athletes who would become legends of their era.

The 4x400m races are usually the climax in the athletics calendar of events and in Mexico ’68, Kenya’s team including Charles Asati, Naftali Bon, Munyoro Nyamau and Daniel Rudisha ( the latter being the father to David Rudisha - current World and African champion in 800m) had other ideas coming 2^nd to USA.

In 1972, the 4 x 400m team was tweaked a bit and the final race was run by Charles Asati, Munyoro Nyamau, Robert Ouko and Julius Sang blazing the track to come up with the only other Gold medal from the Munich Games. But for this unprecedented move and none that has been done before by any other African nation, we salute our compatriots making them the Kenyan sprint legends!

Know your Sport

Swimming

Recently at some social setting we were engaged in a club quiz and one of the questions was about swimming. This sought to know which stroke was not among the competitive ones till 1956. One of our team-mates (we were 6 said that it was back-stroke while I argued it was butterfly, and the majority thought the former ….guess we should have stuck with my answer though!)

All the same, this sport has become one of the most competitive sports in any major sporting extravaganza in the form of the All-Africa Games, Commonwealth or indeed the Olympic Games. Kenya has lately featured in this very involving and energy-sapping sport. Thanks to the exploits of the Dunford brothers who have shone the spotlight on the country away from traditional sports in athletics, football, boxing and rugby. But what do you understand from the sport? Here’s a brief of it from different sources;

According to Wikipedia, swimming is based on the human act of swimming, that is, locomotion in water by self propulsion, with the goal of completing a given distance in the shortest amount of time. Swimming is distinguished from other aquatic sports (such as diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo) that involve swimming but the goal is neither speed nor endurance.

Competitive swimming consists of four strokes: butterfly, breaststroke, freestyle (or front crawl), and backstroke. When all four strokes are done during a race, it is called medley swimming (otherwise known as the individual medley, or I.M.). It is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA).

The goal of competitive swimming is usually to have the fastest time to complete a given distance. Competitive swimming became popular in the nineteenth century. Swimming is an event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and female athletes compete in 13 of the recognized events each. Olympic events are held in a 50 meter pool (long course).

There are 36 officially recognized individual swimming events – 18 male events and 18 female events; however the International Olympic Committee only recognizes 34 of them – 17 male and 17 female. Most swimming sport events are held in special competition swimming pools, which are either long course pools such as those used in the Olympic Games (50 m) or short course pools such as those used in the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) (25 yards or 25 m). Competition pools have starting blocks from which the competitor can dive in, and possibly also touch-sensitive pads to electronically record the swimming time of each competitor.

In most competitions, the competitors are required to wear swimwear/swimsuits to adequately cover their bodies for the dip. However some suits have created controversies which have seen FINA coming up with standards to adhere to ensure competitors do not have undue advantage over each other.

The sport can also be pursued for personal fitness and is considered by fitness enthusiasts as one of the few that does an all-round job body of keeping the body in shape. It also requires healthy diets and rehydration (yes even if your body’s dipped in water)! Famous names in the sport include Mark Spitz – 7-gold medals winner 1972 Olympics and Michael Phelps – 8 gold medals - Beijing 2008.
For more info, check www.fina.org

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