NEC Nijmegen 0-3 Hamburger SV

Game : NEC Nijmegen (NED) vs Hamburger SV ( Ger)

UEFA Cup Round of 32, First Leg

Final score:- NEC 0-3 Hamburg ( Piotr Trochowski 41′, Alex Silva 45′, Ivica Olic 75′)

NEC Nijmegen’s UEFA Cup dreams were effectively left hanging by a thread after Martin Jol’s Hamburg handed them a 3-0 thrashing at De Goffert last night. First half goals from Piotr Trochowski and Alex Silva, and a late third from Ivica Olic sees Hamburg take a 3-0 lead into the second leg.

NEC were on the backfoot for most of the game, and Hamburg deserved every bit of their victory. Martin Jol’s side were the only German club to claim victory last night. Stuttgart and Wolfsburg lost to Zenit St.Petersburg and Paris St.Germain respectively, while Werder Bremen drew with AC Milan at home.

Hamburg had the early opportunities, with David Jarolim heading over the bar and Joris Mathijsen going close with his header.

Hamburg took the lead in the 41st minute, with Trochowski scoring from a free kick just outside the box after Milano Koenders had handled the ball.

To make matters worse for NEC, Hamburg doubled their lead just before half time. Another free kick caused confusion in the NEC box and the ball fell to Mladen Petric, who crossed from the right byline for Alex Silva to tap in from close range.

Olic added the third in the 75th minute, latching on to a Mladen Petric pass from the right. As the NEC defenders appealed for offside in vain, Olic cooly slotted past the advancing Gabor Babos to score Hamburg’s third and put the result of the tie beyond doubt.

Bend it Like Beckham

Here’s a great one in the database of good football movies. Bend It Like Beckham, which refers to David Beckham’s trademark kick that “bends” the ball past the goalie and into the goal, is a rather recent release: The release date was August 1, 2007 in the United States.

It is a good British comedy, also, which stars Parminder Nagra (who plays Dr. Neela Rasgotra in the hit TV show “ER”), Keira Knightley (known for numerous roles, including Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean, Guinevere in King Arthur, and Lizzie Bennett in Pride and Prejudice), and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who plays King Henry VIII in the Showtime original series “The Tudors” and Louis Connelly in August Rush, among other characters in other movies).

The story is simple: “Jess” (Nagra) is a girl in a Sikh family in England who loves football (soccer in America), but she feels tied down by her ultra-traditionalist family. She finds a friend, “Jules” (Knightley), who invites her onto a girls’ football team. So, she tries to go around her parents to play the sport she loves. Full of drama, humor, and a simple passion for the game, Bend It Like Beckham gives a powerful lesson: if you just have passion and willpower, you can succeed at just about anything…even a seemingly insignificant football match!

A couple of warnings: The rating is PG-13, for sex and nudity (there are a couple of sexual innuendos, as well as quite a bit of kissing, and a mistaken homosexual encounter), violence and gore (mostly confined to the football field, but some slight in-home violence), profanity (some derogatory terms towards certain groups of people – specifically, Indians and homosexuals, as well as quite a few cuss words), people drinking and smoking cigarettes, and quite a few issues that should probably be reserved for teens 13 and over.

Overall, I think this was a great football movie, and any teenager would love it, football fan or not.

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