Kaki Bangku

shall. will. must

2009-12-29T11:05:00.001+08:00

I shall, will, must blog again

10 out of 12

2006-01-03T19:46:00.000+08:00

Thats the point count over the festive season. Not an actually bad return isn't it? Altho others might disagree, I think that those are really 10 good points. Nevermind the 10-match winning streak, we are now unbeaten in the last 11 league games. Nevermind Chelsea getting away with the title, we are now laying the foundations for next season (how badly I want the league, even in my most optimistic mind I don't see that happening this season). But what impressed me more was the the way the team played, like last night. How ironic it was to see Fat Sam substituted an attacking player with a defensive one, while Rafa did the opposite. Fat Sam settling for a draw while Rafa going for all 3. And this happened at the reebok, where Bolton are known to bully teams out of the park. To be frank, previously, if the team conceded early silly sloppy goals like last night, I would normally think that we can normally kiss any chance of getting anything out of the game goodbye. Instead, the team came back, twice, and even nearly managed to find the winner. It seems that nowadays, the team (read : Rafa) always sets out for a win, even while playing away, and for me, so far, that's good enough. If it was GH last night, I imagine that, instead of putting in Cisse and Luis Garcia, he would have put in Dudek as 2nd goalie.

Next, Luton away. I think that Rafa will put in the strongest team possible because he would not want the likes of Gerrard, Alonso or Carra to not play in competitive matches for the whole of two weeks. Or maybe he will play them and subs them after 60 minutes. If this is the case, I don't think that Luton will pose any problem. If not, expect Burnley and Palace again.

Oh, and happy belated new year + christmas to anybody ever bother to read my postings.

Oh oh, I stole the christmas tree pic from Mary's website (sorrrrry mary :))

Derby Aftermath

2005-12-29T19:48:00.000+08:00

Woke up at around 340am, turned on the telly (81) and saw WHU vs Wigan..WTF...has astro fucked up again? After koreking taik mata a bit and channel-surfed further more baru la nampak the info at 82 - 3:55am (L) Liverpool vs Everton from Goodison Park, Liverpool (or something like that). Fuh..lega...tak sia2 'terjaga'...after all, during that short nap (started from the end of CSI:Miami) I actually dreamt of oversleeping, and woke up 5 minutes to the end to the score of Liv 7 - Everton 1!..punya la gelabah! I cannot possibly imagine missing THAT kind of game!!!

Then proceeded to the usual charity work, did some wake-up calls to a few usual suspects. So if anybody wants to be in my wake-up call list, kena inform awal2 lah..and this is applicable to midweek, early morning games only.

How did I approach this match? As always, with caution. Although I am a big fan, I am not a very optimistic one. Eventhough the team nowadays seems to have a bit more 'oomph' to it, it is still too early, in my opinion, to say that the team won't drop points in 'easy' games, like how Manyoo will always overrun 'lesser teams' during their reign. And I can still remember clearly the sakit hati of lompat pagar malam2 & tebalkan muka menyebok kat Cybereena to watch live matches with the help of Eddie and Sam, only to see them lose at home to WATFORD!! And Everton definitly cannot be considered as a 'lesser team', eventhough they seems to be having a bad crisis right now. As they always say, in derby matches, 'form book is thrown out of the window' (how cliche). Having said that, I believe that Benitez has had more preparation for this game as compared to last year. In came Warnock, Sissoko and Cisse for extra 'steel' to the team. I don't think the lighweight Luis Garcia and Morientes has what it takes for this match, particularly at goodison. And I guess, based on the result, Benitez's decision was spot on.

Whats next? What I don't like with this kind of run is, it builds up hope. And optimistism. And confidence. Only to be brought down to earth, sooner or later. The only thing of concern is whether it is a slow bump, or a 25,000 ft free-fall like those aircrafts in 'Air Crash Investigations'. And I definitely don't like it when people start to talk of Liverpool as 'title contenders', or 'champions in the making' or things like that. This things seems to be killing us. I prefer us to be the underdogs, just like the run to the CL last year, when people only talk of us as champions only AFTER we have actually won it. Look at what happened in Yokohama. From what I read and understood, prior to the final, or in fact even prior to the competition itself, people have been talking about how Liverpool is the favourite, how Liverpool will finally win it at 3rd attempt, blah blah...only to lose it at the end.

Maybe we need Crouch to stop scoring again. At the start of the run, the only thing that ppl talk about is how long will it takes before Crouch finally score. And that actually 'hides' our good run; and gave the team a bit freedom from the media, away from the spotlight. There were none of this '9-game cleansheet record', or 'the best run since king kenny's reign', or 'performances worthy of champions'. All they talk about is 'Crouch could not score', 'Bad in the air for a big man', etc. etc. This sorts of give the other member of the team to concentrate and focus more on the job on hand. Hence the good run. (now I am thinking like Mourinho).

If they can keep up this form, I would be very happy enough. I guess its all down to Benitez. He seems to be able to grasp what does it take to succeed domestically, after european success last term. Let's hope he can carry on doing what he is doing now, and the team can react accordingly to him. And not to lose the plot like GH.

2005 player of the year

2005-12-22T20:17:00.000+08:00

I know this is a bit late, but let's just pay tribute the current best player in the world. I definitely have no doubt about it. I am even surprised that there are even coaches that voted for frank lampard, stevie g, or henry. I guess they must be coaches for countries that showed only EPL live matches during weekends and no coverage for La Liga. Otherwise, if they have watched Ronaldinho played time-and-again, he would have simply won it 300-vote to nil. No disrespect to stevie g, lampard or henry; they are great players in their own right, but Ronaldinho is just simply a joy to watch (i mean, his on-the-pitch performance, not anything else). He plays football like he really enjoys it. I remember earlier in this season when they played some team when the team actually performs team fouls on him. They sent one player to kick, tag, pull or anything possible to distract him from his play until that player was booked before replacing with another player to do the same. And he would just just simply breezed past them, again and again, with a smile on his face. End result? If i am not mistaken, 5 players was booked for fouling him alone, 1 red-carded for 2 bookings and he made 3 goals. If he wants to play, then there's no stopping him. And what about at bernabeu the other day? Even the bernabeu faithfuls were giving him a standing ovation. To put it simply, he is already a legend in my book.

Luckily, malaysia, represented by our captain, also voted him. Btw, anybody has ever heard of a captain named Paozh Saari?

Wakakakakakakkakakakaka

2005-12-20T19:51:00.000+08:00

One of the best posts! Thanks to eddie!

(padanla nampak saspek je url tu.....takkan letak kat geocities je?)

Kantoi on the last hurdle

2005-12-19T19:11:00.000+08:00

Sao Paolo 1 Liverpool 0.

That was the final scoreline yesterday. To make the matter worse, we definitely played well and dominated throughout. Only a defensive lapse and a rabun linesman decides the outcome of the match. Well, what can you say, this is football. Just like when AC totally outclassed us (except during the 6-minute spell and the shootout) in the final last May, we absolutely battered them, except on that 1-minute spell.

Why do we lose? I think that the main reason was that, Liverpool really cannot break teams down (OK, we did put the ball in the back of the net 3 times, but those don't count). When SP plays with 9 ppl at the back, we just could not break them. I address this to the inability of Xabi Alonso to perform. I don't know whether ppl notice or not, I think that Xabi is still not at his best, after his injury. Maybe this is the case of not match-fit? I dunno. To be fair to him, his performance last season was definitely outstanding and it would be such an acheivement even to match that again this season. Frankly I have not seen any of his defence-splitting pass this season. Erm let me rephrase that. He can still produce his trademark passes (like the one for Garcia against Anderlecht) maybe once or twice in a whole game, but he hasn't done it CONSISTENTLY. Like how he tear Norwich apart at anfield, and how he bossed the mid at Turin. There are nobody to unlock defences, like Deco at Barca, Ballack at Bayern or Ahmad Shahrul Azhar at Perak. Gerrard used to be able to do that, but he now seems to be more of the 'runner', the one that gets the whole team going.

OK lets put that match behind. What's next? A fixture-pileup looms. Newcastle home on boxing day and Everton away 2 days later. Followed by West Brom home 3 days after that and Bolton away 2 days later. Pergh. 5 matches in 13 days? Malaysian players would have simply revolted after the 2nd game. Can we cope with that? I can easily see us drop points at goodison (although they are not in good form nowadays, nothing can be an indicator for a derby) and at reebok (even 1 point would be great). Lets hope that Rafa can re-conjure his magic after losing them at Yokohama.

Lets just hope that Santa drops by at Anfield this year (not that I believe in santa claus or anything)

Oh, I am joking about the Ahmad Shahrul Azhar piece

How long has it been? 1++ month?

2005-12-14T18:17:00.000+08:00

Yeah..how fast does time flies..before you know it, it is nearly 2 months since my last post. Not that I don't wanna do it, but, well, with the career-moving decision and all (alasaan)......

But the most surprising thing is that I RECEIVED A FEW NOTES (ok, only 2) asking me to update this. Wah, I am totally overwhelmed. Dunno that I even got audience. Hahaha..

Oklah...what happened for these last few months?

1. As of today, Liverpool is on a 10-match unbeaten run with clean sheets in all competition. Well, that's quite impressive I would say, and from what I remember, the last time we went through this kinda spell is during the second-last season of GH's tenure when they went into 11-unbeaten spell or something before collapsing after christmas..so, how do I look into this current form? With caution I would say. However, it is definitely an improvement, and while the teams that we face during this spell is not really the heavyweights, we have also won games that we 'normally' lose, like ManC away, Sunderland away and Boro home.

2. Nicol David has done it again. Currently she is the BEST WOMEN SQUASH PLAYER IN THE WORLD. How often can we say that for a malaysian? Well done Nicol. No matter what ppl say, I believe she deserves all the apartments and all the moneys. Hopefully, just hopefully, she will not follow the path of Hafiz Hashim. Will she? Honestly I don't know. Just lets hope and pray that she won't.

3. The world cup draw. THE group of death, in my opinion would definitely be group C, with the Argies, S&M, Dutch and Didier Drogba. A tricky group this one, and must be between the Argies, S&M and the Dutch. I don't see Didier Drogba getting past this group. My choice of the grouping stage (in 1st & 2nd order), A: Germany & Poland, B: England & Sweden, C: Dutch & Argies, D: Mexico & Portugal, E: Italy &amp; Czech, F: Brazil & Ozzy, G: France & Swiss, H: Spain & Ukraine. Remember that this is only an armchair-supporter's opinion. I cannot be held responsible if you bet on this opinion and lose bigtime.

4. Pool versus Deportive Saprissa tomorrow. This would be a very interesting game. Deportivo Saprissa, a Costa Rican team, is the current holder of the CONCACAF (Northern American) Champs League. Their win was also a bit surprising since normally it is the Mexican clubs that dominated the CONCACAF cup. There's not much also that I know about them except that I should say that they were quite lucky to win their game against Sydney FC coz they were really battered during the 1st half. And they are also quite good in playing counter-attacking football. Which is a bit worrying, since we seems to be not doing so good against counter-attacking teams.

5. M-League has started

6. M'sian fans clashed with Myanmar fans at Stadium Cheras

What else..hmm I dunno...

7. Oh, I am now a father :).

Malaysian Football : Fit players wanted

2005-10-28T16:30:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-25T18:02:00.000+08:00

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 :

German national team players will also be greyed (fictitious).
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).
The name of the Japanese J-League was changed to the N-League or Nihon League.
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!).
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

2005-10-24T13:28:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-20T16:15:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-19T14:05:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-18T18:00:00.000+08:00

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

2005-10-17T12:13:00.000+08:00

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.

often Utopia An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects.
A work of fiction describing a utopia.
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

2005-10-14T13:04:00.000+08:00

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.

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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

2005-10-13T01:42:00.000+08:00

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?

2005-10-03T18:56:00.000+08:00

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.

Live Thuggery

2005-09-30T16:21:00.000+08:00

Watched Everton vs Dinamo Bucharest EURO cup live at 80 last night. With Everton being down 1-5 from the 1st leg, and playing home, I reckoned it would be a good match to watch. And indeed it was. Everton threw everything forward from the word go, which opened up for exciting counter-attacking moves from the Romanians.

And then there was probably one of the most blatant, uncivilised, barbaric, savage foul on the pitch that I have ever remember witnessed during live matches.

On the dot of full-time, when the romanians were all home and dry, Everton launched another one of their hopeful long-balls in the middle of the park. Arteta went up to head the ball, got it, when suddenly, out-of-nowhere, this guy Plesan came charging from the back, full-pelted with his shoulder (and maybe elbow too) and knocked poor Arteta mid-air and left him in a heap. It was late, and there was no way that Plesan could have gotten the ball. I mean, come-on, it was absolutely unnecessary for a foul like that and also, given that the Romanians were already 5-2 up with literally seconds to go. It was not a 50-50 challenge (more like 90-10) and if it was not on a pitch, it would have been considered a pre-meditated assault with intent. It was also right smack in the middle of the field and even if Arteta have won the header, there was never any chance that it can cause any sort of trouble to the Romanian goal.

The next 10 minutes-or-so was quite hard to stomach. Especially watching the poor guys leg shaking in a violent fit while surrounded by 5-6 medics. And to more rub salt on the wound, the attacker was only yellow-carded! To make it even worse, as in to put fire on the salted wound, they have already used-up all their substitues!!

However, to be fair to the Romanians, they have also been on the receiving end on some of the fouls. Or to be exact, Duncan Ferguson's elbow. This guy is a cheat. I watched 2 clear elbows on the Romanians that went unpunished from Ferguson, which, at more correct angles, might cause someone's eyeballs to pop-out of their sockets. That did not justify what Plesan did to Arteta though.

Fortunately, based on the news from everton website, Mikael Arteta is now doing OK, and the Blues 'medical team are confident that there is nothing serious to report'

(I know I am a Reds but in football, things like this are not supposed to happen)

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

Heh heh..I guess that I have got a lot of things wrong based on my previous entry regarding the Champs League Matchday 2 matches.

AC and Real Madrid would probably trample all over their opponents. -- Not happening.
And also PSV, Lyon and Porto. -- Only Lyon won unconvincingly
Maybe Inter vs Rangers would provide some excitement. -- Maybe this is the one that contain a bit of truth in it.
Anyway, 81 will be showing Real Madrid vs Olympiakos at 2:45am -- Even the screening time was incorrect! he he

I guess, thats what I like about football. Nothing is going to be absolute certain.

Reds vs Blues

2005-09-28T15:41:00.000+08:00

Damn..i missed ALL the matches from last night..guess that I have to watch the replays tonight then. However the most surprising result from last night is definitely Thun 1 Sparta 0. So their previous superb performance at Highbury is not a fluke then.

After that, i would not miss the 2:45am kickoff from Anfield. Must go back early and sleep first..kalau tak, mmg kong la tomorrow.

So, what the chances are for the reds to inflict chelsea's 1st defeat of the season? None, I believe. Chelsea are looking quite strong at this moment and i think this season they will only lose to one of the european big guns..Juve, AC, Barca, R Madrid...maybe not to anybody on English ground. However, knowing the Reds, and how unpredictable they are, it would not surprise me at all for them to win 1-0 tonite and on Sunday, only to poorly draw or lose to Blackburn on the 15th. After all, when going down 1-0 at half time against olympiakos at anfield last season, who in their right frame of mind would have thought of this?

(pix taken from www.liverpoolfc.tv)

And frankly, if I were to choose one win between tonite's and Sunday's game, I would definitely choose 3 league points.

Other possibly entertaining matches tonight, err...i guess none. AC and Real Madrid would probably trample all over their opponents. And also PSV, Lyon and Porto. Maybe Inter vs Rangers would provide some excitement. Anyway, 81 will be showing Real Madrid vs Olympiakos at 2:45am and 82 will be showing reds vs blues at the same time. And there's another unlisted delayed telecast at 5:00am.

Champs League Matchday 2

2005-09-27T21:53:00.000+08:00

About to go back..makan2, layan House...memula rasa mcm hampeh..dah tengok sekali mcm best pulak..

Anyway mlm ni is another round of the champs league...they called it Matchday 2 over at the UEFA site. Another 8 matches, and the interesting ones would be ManYoo vs Benfica (ch 81 2:30am), Ajax vs Arsenal (ch 82 2:00am) and Barca vs Udinese delayed telecast at 5:00am...i think Ajax Arsenal will be one heck of a match...and I do rate steven pienaar highly (he of the chicken dance celebration vs Milan semi 2003)..and arsenal, well the most exciting team to watch in EPL i believe...with liverpool not playing today, i will be watching ch 82 then....

Barca vs Udinese is another exciting one to watch, but thinking of the telecast time, plus considering the 9am meeting tomorrow, I think i better avoid that then...

(How i miss those days when I can watch footie all night and still be able to go to work in the morning...sigh..I guess I am getting old now)