Malaysian Football : Fit players wanted

I was mightily surprised when I read on of the column in yesterday's The Star sport section. The column that says :

FAM: No place for unfit players

What? All this while, the clubs/states have been playing unfit players? No wonder we even lose to the Vietnamese! And what the hell is FAM doing checking the fitness of every players in every clubs/states? Don't they have anything better to do, like grassroots development? Football academy? Coaching coaches? National team development?

I do feel that something is seriously wrong with our football. With all the investments, sponsorships, well-structured league with lucrative prizes, oversea-stints, we are still struggling at SEA level, never mind Asian. I think that with our current condition, at least, we would be the top two team in SEA, everytime, every tournament. And this statement from FAM is definitely a proof that our football is really in trouble.

Since when is the fitness of the club/state players falls under the responsibility of the National FA? Isn't that what the clubs/states are supposed to take care off? Don't they have physios? Physical trainers? Club doctors? Or is the condition of our football is that the clubs/states do not care at all about the fitness of their players? Is this the mentality of "don't worry if our players are unfit, theirs' are worse"? What are the clubs/states doing on their daily training? Playing kippy-uppy for 2 hours then go home? Or is this becoz our players are so poor, lazy, got attitude problem somemore, there are not 11 fit players in a team that the clubs/states do not have a choice but to play them all? Is this it? I believe that for every sports team, they should do fitness tests every now and then to gauge the fitness level of their members. Like the Cooper test. I know. Coz I used to play rugby, and during the whole season, every fortnightly we will have to undergo this test to ensure our fitness level does not drop. And I am talking about school-level of rugby, not even state-level. Is the condition of our club/state-level football is really really that bad that they don't even bother to do this on their own, but have to depend on the national FA to do it for them? Gosh, if this is the case, then I believe we should just disband the FA altogether and give all the money allocated to them to Nicol David. She will be the undisputed World Champs, man!

Man, I pity Malaysian football!!

Jens Mustermann

I have been playing FM2005 for quite sometimes, and while looking for a new goalkeeper to replace the retiring Chris Kirkland, I stumbled upon this player

Jens Mustermann, 36 years of age.
Plays goalkeeper for Bayern Munich
Also plays for Germany, with 80 caps
Has played for Bayern since 1994, and former club was Karlsruhe

Sounds familiar? Indeed it is. The details are all pointed to one very popular, hulk look-a-like, competitive 'keeper. Yes, it sounds like Oliver Kahn, but its not Oliver Kahn. Initially, I think that they messed it up or something, or I have accidently uncovered some easter eggs that create fictitious players. And with that, I let that passed.

However, while playing the FM06 demo, again I stumbled upon the same guy. How can it be that the ppl at FM, boasting that they have database with "more than 270,000 players and staff, 5,000-plus playable teams and 50 countries' leagues", can messed up with somebody as globally known as Oli Kahn? That's when I went on a bit of a scouting mission (aided by Google). And this is what I have discovered.

Oliver Kahn has actually copyrighted his name and "He demands financial rights for whatever use of his image, therefore, he does not allow his name to be used in some football simulation games such as Football Manager, where he instead appears as Jens Mustermann (Mustermann being the fictitious name used in sample IDs and passports, Jens as provocation, because it is the first name of his biggest rival, Jens Lehmann)." Thats what wikipedia says. Clever guy. I remember reading somewhere sometimes the past few weeks that Mourinho also did the same thing. And also Sir Alex Ferguson, however he failed to do so since when he tried to do it, he was already famous. Hmmm....I might want to start copyrighting my name now before I become famous later (whenever later is).............

I also found out a few interesting things about the FM game from wikipedia. Here are a few :

1. German national team players will also be greyed (fictitious).
2. The names of all French league teams had to be changed from their full names to simply the name of the city they represent (for example,Paris Saint-Germain became Paris and Olympique Marseille became Marseille).
3. The name of the Japanese J-League was changed to the N-League or Nihon League.
4. The names of the major European trophies were changed to fictional names. The European Cup or UEFA Champs League became the Champions Cup, the UEFA Cup became the Euro Cup and the UEFA Intertoto Cup became the Euro Vase (no wonder la the names are all somewhat macam tak kena je!).
5. M-League is crap.
   

These are all mainly becoz of copyright issues (OK, I made up no 5). All these things aside, I think FootballManager is one hell of a footie management simulation games. Warning though : This game can cause serious damage to your life due to its high addictive level.

Neutral Fan

How good it is to watch a football game from a neutral point of view. There are no heartache in losing to a bottom-league teams, no anger in watching your striker hit the post from 2-yards and no frustration in watching the keeper-that-your-team-has-released-on-a-free-and-joined-lower-league-teams-before-performing superbly-to-earn-a-move-to-another-premiership-club performed a gravity-defying dive to save a 25-yard curler that is destined to end in the top corner. All you want to do is for both team to play splendid attacking football, while willing the defenders on both sides to commit schoolboy errors to be exploited by opposition attackers, which on-goal attempts excellently thwarted by the goalkeepers. Yes, the advantage of being a neutral fan.

So thats what I tried to be after the debacle at Craven Cottage. Yes, maybe the team was a bit unlucky for the 1st goal to be allowed with suspicion of offside, and i though boa morte was very fortunate to stay on the pitch after his lunge on sissoko, which later scored the winner, and maybe, just maybe, on another day, that luis garcia shot would not have been saved, however, the final verdict is simply not good enough. Fulham seems to be wanting more in the game, and the team seems still not in the same wavelength. The frustation of watching a game from a partisan point of view is just too much to bear.

Fortunately, there were a lot of games this weekend that allows me to enjoy as a 'neutral' fan. After the Cottage Heartache, off to Nou Camp I go. As expected, it was a very entertaining game. Ronaldinho was at his usual best, and Barca played superbly. However, the player that catches my attention most was Messi. I have read about all the good stuff about him, but I haven't actually managed to watch him play. And what a game this boy had. He was simply execellent. No wonder, even Maradona calls him 'the new Maradona'. Just only 18, this boy is definitely the one to watch.

Last night, it was the cracker match between Newcastle vs Sunderland at St James' (hehe I chose to ponteng terawikh berjemaah). Simply the game for neutrals. And I was flipping the channels between that game and Milan vs Palermo at 80. Also another one for the neutrals. The game was decided by a SuperPippo flying header 13 minutes from time, after Milan dominated the game but could not get the breakthrough that they needed. Yes, SuperPippo. Yes, he is still alive. He's been out for, what, nearly 2 years? And you should see the joy on his face after netting that goal. That was followed by West Ham vs Boro, not a great match, but a good one to watch nonetheless.

All-in-all, I believe this weekend was a good one for football, it could be perfect, if only I can be a totally neutral football fan. Next? Crystal Palace away. Argh.......

Champs League Matchday 3 - Summary

Another sleep-less night last night, becoz of bola la apa lagi...

Started with Lokomotiv Moscow vs Espanyol at 1130pm. A Very very very very mengantuk game...a good cure for insomniac..zzzzzzz....

While waiting for the awaited 0230am kickoff, I tried a few games of the FM2006 demo. Looks very interesting...a whole lot more new things to explore, and the players movement seems logical as opposed to FM2005. The website says that the pc version is going to be officially released on 21/10/2005. But considering how advance malaysian gamers community is (read : pirates), looks like this weekend I am going game-hunting. To know more, go to their official website lah...screenshots pon ada

Then off to the game. Before that, as a community service, gave a few ppl wake-up calls. Suma responded promptly except jon....hahahahha...ang bukak kedai dulu ka sampai tak larat bangun?

Rafa did spring a few surprises, one of it is playing Momo Sissoko wide-right, and towards the end, he brought in Kewell and also other substitutions. At this point, I am quite lost on how actually they play. Bolo Zenden played wide-right, Warnock wide-left, Kewell main lone striker supported by Garcia (or was it the other way round). Whatever lah Rafa, as long as we win.

The team actually played quite well, with patches of very fluent passing game that I have not seen from this team for quite sometimes. Tapi 2nd half tu menggelabah jugak bila anderlecht started to press forward. Biasala kan, Liverpool, kalau tak bagi supporter dia heart attack, tak sah.To be fair to the team, they played quite well, and they could have been 3-4 up during half time. Anyway, thanks to Cisse's superb strike, another 3 points safe in the bag.

One thing that I think I should comment is how poor the Ref was. And I felt that he was actually being biased towards Liverpool! There were quite a few incidents that I think he totally messed up, and one that I remember was when Josemi clearly 'set-up a roadblock' on Wilhelmson if I am not mistaken, yet the freekick was given to us! Imagine the frustation of the Anderlecht players. I mean, come on la, this is the Champs League. Although I don't expect every ref to be like Collina, or although I am happy to get a few decisions to come our way, don't la be to obvious like last night. Bukan apa, I always believe that those kind of things will even-out themselves during the course of the competition, and imagine if such cases happens on us during quater ke, semi ke...tak ke naya

Anyway, congrats to the team, looking forward to this weekends game against Fulham.

Champs League Matchday 3

So Liverpool is playing Anderlecht this morning at Brussels. What do I know about Anderlecht? Not much actually, except that they seems to be a well-organized and discipline team, based on their match against Chelsea. I did not watch their game against Betis therefore I cannot say much la about them. However, a quick look at their website reveals that they do have some known players. For example :

1. Bart Goor - a well-established and veteran Belgium international
2. Clayton Zane - Australian striker
3. Christian Wilhelmsson - a pacy swedish winger/forward. I get to know him when I bought him for my Celtic team in FM. Turns out to be power giler!!
4. Par Zetterberg - another well-established and veteran Belgium international midfielder
5. Vincent Kompany - a onetime GH target.
6. Hannu Tihinen - I remember him as a tough-tackling right back during West Ham's last relegation season.

Therefore don't expect this to be a stroll-in-a-park.

*************************

Rafa has confirmed that Kewell is travelling with the team, so does Morientes. Considering this to be an away tie, I think Rafa will stick to the formation he employed last time we played Betis. 4-2-3-1, with flat back four, 2 holding center mids, 3 rotating forwards and lone striker. Will Kewell start? Hamann/Xabi or Sissoko/Xabi as centermid? Aah, just leave it to Rafa. In Europe, he seems to know his stuff. 3 points are possible, but I'd be happy enough with 1 point.

Tribute to Nicol David

I just found out that she has captured the British Open title. For those who do not know, British Open for squash is like Wimbledon for tennis, or ol' big ears for football, or Tour de France for cycling, or the Bledisloe for rubgy. Congratulations. You have definitely proven that a Malaysian can be succesful in sport. You have made our country proud. Read more about her amazing achievement here

http://www.squashtalk.com/britishopen/2005BO/hh05-9.html
http://www.squashtalk.com/britishopen/2005BO/rb05-1.html
http://www.sitesquash.com/britishopen/today.html

Footballing Utopia

I called this place footballing utopia. Kalau ikut www.dictonary.com punya description, it means

u·to·pi·a ( P ) Pronunciation Key (y-tp-)
n.

1. 1. often Utopia An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects.
   2. A work of fiction describing a utopia.
2. An impractical, idealistic scheme for social and political reform.

Ideally perfect place? Seemingly impractical, illogical, impossible? Socially or politically, maybe, like the description means. But to me, in footballing world, such places do exist. Like on the 12th May 2001 at Cardiff, and 3 days later at Westfalonstadion, Dortmund. Or in Istanbul this May 25th. Or May 25th 1977 at Rome (OK, I am not that old, I just happened to own a CD on that game). Hm, not exactly hard to find such places eh? Of course, from a partisan point of view, it would be easier. Ask Manyoo fans. Or currently, Chel$ki fans. Or even Selangor fans.

However, it is also not impossible to find such places from a neutral point of view. Although you might argue that it is a lot harder. Possible, but a lot harder. One such place that I found almost close to the utopian state the previous weekend was at Riazor (15th Oct 2005). The event? La Liga. The match? Barca vs Depor. The actors? Munitiz, Valeron, Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto'o, Molina, among others. How good was the game? Well, it was one of the few matches that when the ref blew the halftime/fulltime whistle, we go, 'Eh, dah abis dah?' And with the scoreline 3-3, what more can I say? Don't get me wrong, I also managed to catch quite a few good games this weekend. Manc vs West Ham was quite good from an attacking play point of view. Chel$ki Bolton was a good example of 'a-game-of-two-halves'. Real vs Atletico in the Madrid derby was also good, but the sending-off spoiled it a bit. But none, I believe, can quite match the Barca vs Depor game. It's amazing how they can raise themselves to that level, considering that it was just a normal league game and it is still early in the season! OK, instead of reading me ranting about it, I suggest you catch the replay on ch80, 6:40pm, 18/10 (Tuesday) and judge it for yourself.

As a Liverpool fan, it's however sad to say that the only 'utopian' it can get is only when the team win something. You will never get the utopian state out-of-the-blue, i.e from a normal midweek league match against any of the mid-table team. The way they play, esp. circa GH, was sometimes so depressing we will never even get to the front gate of the utopia. Fortunately, Rafa seems to be doing something about it and now, the team plays much, much more entertaining than before.

Anyway, here are a few more games that I think qualified to be in my 'utopian list', from a neutral point of view.
1. Brazil (3) vs Netherland (2) - world cup 94 - it was the quaterfinal, i think. Pergh what a game. I remember clearly, watching the game at Overfloor common room at approx. 7am, praying, 'tolong la jangan extratime...kalau tak, tak dpt la tengok sampai abis' (becoz there was class that I have to attend). The game was settled by a sublime Branco freekick. Knee-high, the ball bounced once and crept into the far corner, out of de Goej's reach. Perghh.

2. Arsenal (2) vs Chel$ki (2) - last season at Stamford Bridge. Arsenal's flair versus Chel$ki's discipline. And it still ended at 2-2.

3. Spain (4) - Yugoslavia (3) - Euro 2000 group stage. Spain needed to win to ensure qualification and Yugoslavia only needed a draw. Spain went out attacking, leaving holes for the Yugoslavs to punch through. Hence the scoreline. Oh, 'and it falls onto the white boots of Alfonso', 2 minutes into injury time.

4. England (20) - Australia (17) - WC final 2003. OK, it wasn't football, but a great game nonetheless. Drop goal, 26 seconds from time, worthy of any world cup winner. And the game itself, worthy of any world cup final. Even the satisfied look on Gregan's face said it all. 'Losing to this dropkick, at this match, to this team, is really worthy'.

5. Brazil (4) - Germany (0) - Confederation Cup 1999. What a game. The Germans attack, attack, attack and the Brazilians score. The Germans attack, attack, attack and the Brazilians score. And it got repeated again twice.

I am sure there are a few more games, but I could not seem to get it out of my head at this moment. Maybe later.

South American Football Myth

The past few days was quite eventful for me...macam macaaaam ada...and this made me not able to enjoy the world cup qualification as much as I like. But still, I was able to watch a few matches, namely England vs Austria, Finland vs Romania, Uzbek vs Bahrain, Czech vs Holland, France vs Cyprus and a few others that I cannot remember. I would not comment on the results coz most probably you guys might have known about it in details from the papers/net anyway.

I also managed to catch a few South American grouping qualification matches (Equador vs Uruguay, Bolivia vs Brazil, Uruguay vs Argentina - thanks for them, I get to do very very late, 'berkat' sahur) , and I tell you, the statements saying that they play the beautiful, entertaining, sexy, skillful football are all myths. Maybe I was unlucky to pick the wrong matches, or maybe my eyes deceived me during the ungodly hours of the morning, but I think, the South Americans are just like the other teams on the globe. They even play in an unorganized, chaotic way that does not look that solid, and to me, sometimes even resembles M-League teams. And I am talking about Brazil with Alex, Adriano, Robinho, Juninho, Julio Baptista, Cicinho and Ronaldinho, and Argentina with Riquelme, Tevez, Crespo, Messi on board. And don't even talk about Equador, Bolivia or Uruguay that seems to be playing like Wimbledon/Liverpool circa GH.

Yes, they may have a group of players more than others that can do some silky tricks other normal beings will not be able (or imagine) to do (ronaldinho comes to mind immediately), but which other team does not? The Dutch got Robben, Cryuff, van Basten, the French got Platini, Zizou, Papin, the Ukrainians got Sheva, the Spanish got Butragueno, and now Joaquin, Italians got Paolo Rossi, Baggio and even the english got skillful players such as Hoddle, Keegan and Crouch (ok, maybe not him).

However, they do play it a bit differently, then others. The unorganized, chaotic style of their football does have a certain 'feel' to it. I am not sure how to put it in words, but it seems like they have this some sort of liberating way of playing football. It might not be beautiful, entertaining or sexy, but it would still be good to watch. And when you watch them play, you do feel that they really enjoy their football. They would also be among the first teams that I saw, that would still play the 'triangles' in their own penalty box as opposed to 'booting-it-anywhere-but-here'. Oh, and if you put them together on the world stage, they will perform like hell. It is like they really enjoy the limelight. That's why, I can't wait to watch them again in Germany next summer.

**********************************

Of all the matches this weekend, I did take a special note on Uzbek vs Bahrain. I do pity the Uzbeks this time. And what can I say, except maybe just to shoot the ref. Or maybe the Uzbeks can blame themselves for shooting their own foot. Or shoot Sepp Blatter for running such a stupid organization (any Uzbeks reading this - I doubt it though- please don't take my words literally).

Look What Happened

Music has always been one of my interests. Especially musics from Reel Big Fish, the early Pietasters, OPIV, Rancid, Less Than Jake and a few others. Then I found this one from Less Than Jake a few weeks back. And I am thinking of how appropriate this song is for me now.

*****
Song : Look What Happened
By : Less Than Jake

And I swear it's the last time
And I swear it's my last try
And we'll walk in circles around this whole block
Walk on the cracks on the same old sidewalks

Then we'll talk about leaving town
Yeah we'll talk about leaving, I swear
It's the last time
And I swear it's my last try

We rode across that bridge all night
We talked our way through city lights
Traced all the lines
We're killing time under those buzzing signs

From downtown to anywhere but here
Tonight yeah I swear
To these rooftops
And just hoped that car would never stop

And I swear it's the last time
And I swear it's my last try
And we'll walk in circles around this whole block
Walk on the cracks on the same old sidewalks

Then we'll talk about leaving town
Yeah we'll talk about leaving, I swear
It's the last time,
And I swear it's my last try

We drove around this place all night
Past closed signs and familiar sights
We're moving by passing time
Counting those center lines

With 20,000 lines left to go
That lead to somewhere I don't know
It might be the time
That we leave this all behind

And I swear it's the last time
And I swear it's my last try
And we'll walk in circles around this whole block
Walk on the cracks on the same old sidewalks

Then we'll talk about leaving town
Yeah we'll talk about leaving, I swear
It's the last time,
And I swear it's my last try

And there's been a few times
That we thought it felt right
To take all the westbound signs
And just leave town tonight

And I swear it's the last time
And I swear it's my last try
And we'll walk in circles around this whole block
Walk on the cracks on the same old sidewalks

And we'll talk about leaving town
Yeah we'll talk about leaving
I swear it's the last time
And I swear it's my last try

I swear it's my last try
And we'll talk about leaving town
Yeah we'll talk about leaving town

*****
I will remember the times when I always talk about leaving town and nothing actually happen, well, just like the song said, I swear it's my last time, and I swear it's my last try.

Why oh Why oh Why?

After almost a season of consistency, raising hopes, expectation and standard, why oh why you choose THAT moment for your 'past self' to resurface? WHY OH WHY, DJIMI???

Knowing that we would never got any chance to get past them unless we go out on attacking, why oh why we still playing with 1 upfront? WHY OH WHY, RAFA?

Of all games, why oh why you choose this game to not show up? WHY OH WHY, LUIS?

Knowing how hard it is going to hit us back on our face, why oh why did you not keep your mouth shut for the last one week? WHY OH WHY, CARRA?

Of all games, why oh why you choose this game to shine? WHY OH WHY, DROGBA?

*****************************

Quite simply, the reds were overrun all over the pitch. Luis Garcia was totally anonymous last night. With a capital A. As big as the London Eye. That really presses the need for a right winger. And why in the fucking hell are we playing with 6-foot over striker but no crossing? I believe there were 0 crosses made from the byline, left or right. How frustrating. We could have been playing with Karl the Giant from Bigfish up front for fuck's sake and never made any difference with that number of crossing. Look at Chelsea. Most of their moves consists of movement to the byline and cut-back crosses. Don't know why, but we seems to be killing these 'wide-type' players. Look at Kewell at Leeds. How he excelled playing wide. And look at him now. How about Zenden? Look at his delivery from wide at Boro. Now? Most probably still looking into what does 'width' means in Benitez's book of dictionary.

And back to the boss. It was widely acknowledged that last season would be some sort of an 'introductory' season for Benitez in the premier league. Based on our performance so far, most probably that introduction would drag into this year. Unless he can do a Rijkaard at Barca 2003-2004.

Now back to the drawing board. Hull City is due to play against Chelsea in 3 weeks time. With Hull City unbeaten so far in 10 matches into the new season, and Chelsea in relegation zone, this would be the best time to win against them. Let's try to avenge this defeat.