Torres' Blues

Torres is given his marching orders (Courtesy ESPN)

There was only one Fernando Torres in world football. But as of recently, we've all been, no doubt, witness to a strange phenomenon of Torres' doppelgänger disreputably bumbling on every turf he's been on since donning the blue shirt.  This is by far my most logical attempt of an explanation for the fluctuating performances of the once lethal El Niño.



Oh, how unfortunate Torres has been. Having endured what can be safely presumed as thee most frustrating  World Cup as a player, his disastrous form and bad luck had then trailed him back to the red sector of Merseyside for the first half of the 2010/2011 season.

One Christmas and a collosal £50 Million move to Stamford Bridge later, what was meant to be the revival of the real Torres was all but a false desire shared by us all.  Since then, Torres has put a new twist to the meaning of being a blue.  Once a triumphant team as solid as their owner's personal private army (yes, Abramovich even has one of those), the introduction of their new number nine has brought nothing to them but instability and mixed fortunes.

Having only scored 3 goals in his first 24 games thus far for Chelsea, the former red-hot Red's hero, who had already hit the back of the net on no fewer than 20 occasions at this point in his budding Liverpool career, has looked more glum and blue than anything else since his mega money transfer to Chelsea.

With fans and pundits alike gifting him a clean slate to rebuild his reputation for the new start of the 2011/2012 season with the blues, we're still seeing the clumsy twin of Torres.

Looking back at the defeat to Manchester United, since then more has been mentioned on El Niño's performance than the result of the battle between the top two Premier League teams.  We certainly saw glimpses of the red-hot Torres, only to be instantly cooled by his gawky, careless finishing.  It makes it all the more difficult to gauge how well he actually did as an individual; he did display some talented touches on the ball; he did score a delightful chip; and he was getting himself into dangerous positions, making it tough for the opposition to track his movements - that's how he was played in on goal to go on to score.  But contrasting this with his scuffed shots, lack of confidence and what I will dub as "the miss of all misses" which left the world scratching their heads and rubbing their eyes in utter disbelief, it leaves us the spectators wondering when he will be back to his best.  I'm most confident he will be as lethal as he was, but it's a question of when.

Woeful Torres

One week on and the turmoil continues. It started positively for the Spanish striker who bagged his second goal in as many games to open the scoring on the half-hour mark; chesting down a deft chip from Spain international Juan mata, before drilling home, past the beleaguered Swansea 'keeper Michael Vorm.

Unfolding before us is a script that couldn't have been written better by the most loathing of Fernando Torres hater.  Once again, he stole the headlines from his team's overall performance, and once again, his what would have been satisfactory performance was marred by another poor display of judgement, in this case a red card.

It is unfortunate as a general football fan to witness one of the world's most talented strikers be entangled in the thorny vines of tribulation for such a lengthy period.  It seems as though every time Torres zigs, lady luck zags, and we all know that every player, team, or coach needs just a bit of luck to reach top form, and that is what is so vehemently eluding the blue Torres.  Let's hope the real Torres will show up in the near future.



                                                                                                                                       Charlie Marsh








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Two Brothers and Island Football

  

It's good to finally start our first official post and even better to do it with this video and the story behind it. As promised, theRYGOchannel will try to showcase as much football related videos and news both internationally and local to Barbados, and this video vividly depicts some of the bountiful talent in Barbadian football.  The story behind this video is phenomenal, and it lucidly illustrates what RYGO is all about. 

It started with a couple of brothers who were keen to play the sport we all love.  With not many areas in the island that cater solely to football, they managed to arrange games on certain days at the hockey turf with the turf officials.  I have enjoyed many days playing my football in such an environment; a decent quality turf field; sturdy goal bars; timed games and most importantly a very vibrant and friendly atmosphere among all who played.

As word began to spread, the amount of footballers seeking a good run out rapidly increased, thus, more teams were then able to be formed, allowing "beat offs", where the winning team stays on the turf, while the losing team is replaced by another. After a couple of months, playing footy at the "turf" was official, dragging people from all over the island to meet at a set time, just to play some football.  

It's more than worthy to note that the quality of football on the turf had increased over the months, as the players were able to have a decent place to hone their skills.  This by no means is shocking, as a prerequisite to become good at anything one may do, is, of course, relishing competition, and that was becoming quite intensified.

Now that the two brothers had a loyal bunch of avid guys (and girl) who would come on particular days to have a sweat, a tournament was subsequently coordinated and executed to perfection.  The effort these two brothers put into planning and structuring the tournament is very impressive, kudos to them. 

When we talk about football, we talk about passion. I believe that the passion a true lover of the game may have for this sport is unparallelled to anything.  I've woken up many early mornings after late, late, late nights just to watch my favoured team play, I've even been "excused" from school with a "doctors/dentist appointment" just so I can watch the game live on television.  This passion has driven the two brothers, Justin and Tyler Browne to plan and execute such a tedious and time consuming tournament, which is now a regular event when they are on vacation from their studies.

We would like to thank both Justin and Tyler for allowing us to display this video on theRYGOchannel and we encourage you two to keep it going!

The footage displayed is some of the highlights from the tournament. Leave a comment, let us know what you think about it.

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