It’s good to dream

England kick off their Euro 2012 campaign surrounded by optimism (it might well be mis-placed, but thats a discussion for a different blogpost!)

None are more optimistic than the national TV channel ITV, who have gone back in time to correct all those misdemeanours that happened on the pitch, and give England reasons to be hopeful! Come on England!

MORATTI UNSURE ON MANAGER

Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti has said that there is a very good chance that he might appoint current interim manager Andrea Stramaccioni as the next full-time manager of the club. Massimo Moratti decided to sack manager Claudio Ranieri after a poor run of results, which left their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League in tatters. Even though it looks highly unlikely that Inter Milan will be able to make it into the top three with only one match remaining, Massimo Moratti is thought to be extremely happy with the performances under Andrea Stramaccioni. The 36-year-old has done a great job with the team so far.

He helped Inter Milan to a 4-2 win over arch rivals AC Milan during the weekend. However, results under Claudio Ranieri were so poor that even with such kind of performances, they are struggling to finish in the top three. Inter Milan would require Udinese to lose their final match of the campaign along with various other results to go their way in order to finish in the top three. However, Massimo Moratti is thought to be extremely impressed with the way the former youth team manager Stramaccioni has turned things around. As a result, Stramaccioni is very likely to get the job as the full-time manager of Inter Milan next season.

“Yes I believe so. In any case when we signed him in a gesture which he considered to be mad, in reality, in my opinion, it was an intelligent solution and hence, I believe we can continue like this. He is a young guy that nevertheless seems to have an experience that allows him to do things well,” said owner Moratti when asked about the future of Stramaccioni. Stramaccioni’s relationship with the players has been one of the key reasons for him to be getting the results according to Moratti.

TIME LAPSE

Ok, so this isn’t strictly World Cup related (though you could argue that it is given that about 10 of Barcelona’s first team are also in the first team of World Champions Spain!), but its a beautiful piece of video.

I could watch time-lapse video all day – watching plants grow and burst into flower, watch whole icy landscapes thaw out into summer oasises, etc, and this is no less awe-inspiring.

I’m now sure where the cameraman was filming from, but his time-lapse captures the essence of Barca’s 3-0 win against Osasuna.

BRAZIL SET FOR WORLD CUP

A lot has a spoken about the poor preparations in Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Brazil were awarded the right to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup without any competition after it was decided that it was South America’s turn to host the prestigious world tournament. It has seen rumoured that the lack of competition has meant that Brazil have been pretty lazy in getting things going for the biggest tournament in the world.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany has become the template and standard for the upcoming FIFA World Cup tournaments. Even though the 2010 FIFA World Cup was good, it was not good enough to match the standards set in Germany.

Just when it was looking that Brazil would also fail to meet these standards, or even have all the stadiums ready for a great World Cup, the local government has now sanctioned the funds to overhaul the three major airports within the country.

Transport infrastructure has been regarded as one of the keys areas for development with Brazil, as the present public transport infrastructure is simply not good enough to cope up with the local population itself. The Brazilian government has now sanctioned funds that will see work carried out in three major airports at total cost of around $ 15 billion.

São Paulo’s Guarulhos airport, Viracopos–Campinas airport, and Brasília airport are the three major airports that are set to get this huge funding. It was initially reported that around 10 airports out of the 13 would require major overhauling for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Since 2003, passenger their traffic in the airport has increased almost 120 percent, which has meant that the current infrastructure is not able to cope up with the Brazilian population itself. The local population is around 300 million, who are expected to be the major travellers.

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Roberto Baggio

Can you imagine there being a World Cup in England? No, it will probably never happen now, but just imagine! And now imagine you’re the one person in the national football team that everyone looks to to give the team their creative spark and score goals. Now pretend that you’re drawing 1-1 with the Czech Republic and you desperately need to win if you are going to qualify for the latter stages of the competition.

Ok, so you’ve done all that. Now how many of you think that you’d be able to do THIS under the circumstances. What a goal, and what a player!