Em is...(Part 2)

...actually happy! =D Nerve-wrecking match last night which ended well - I personally thought we were heads and shoulders above Arse - but as you know, I'm biased :P

Here's a few happy moments from over the weekend...

I think I can smile again =)

*Listening to Eden by Mayfield Four*

Em is...

..happy that

1) both Bayern and RM won their matches comfortably over the weekend - and the best is, Ozil AND Lahm scored! =D (Ok, admittedly Lahm's was a penalty :P)

2) she had an awesome time at BFMV

But she's also worried about

1) the MU vs Arsenal match tonight as she's rarely ever 3/3 lucky in footie

2) Barca's stellar form in La Liga

Anyway, here's a pic from last night..a befitting final concert for the year I must admit! =D

I'll summarise more on footie tomorrow or maybe even later as I haven't had a chance to watch the the Bayern vs St Pauli repeat yet and probably will need to rant out more if the results tonight is bad...

*Listening to 4 Words (To Choke Upon) by BFMV*

Countdown...

...to holidays! Can't believe it's almost time to go home again - to be precise, this Wednesday! =) But before that, the weekend's almost here and it's gonna be filled with 1) my final gig of the year 2) *obviously* some footie matches and 3) pow-wow-ing with some friends.

On Weds, there were good results from my teams with RM thumping Auxerre 4-0 and Bayern 3-0 vs Basel. Very relieved - but then I think it's mostly because they played without any stress/pressure AND the opposition was a bit weak. Didn't write about the RM match earlier because I only got to watch the replay last night. Overall, it was a good match but there were some bits of the match that was a bit *slow* (we were playing without Ozil and Di Maria) - but we looked much more steady in midfield but just lacking in the aesthetics department :P. With Ramos and Xabi "suspended" and Ozil/Di Maria rested in this match, we still managed to put out a very good team (CR7 played, obviously) and the team played very well, esp so for Benz! His 3rd goal for the night was sublime! Quick summary of what I thought about the players.

• GK (Dudek subbed by Adan): Both made some very good saves (Dudek got injured near halftime and had to be subbed)
• Back (Arbeloa, Carvalho, Albiol, Marcelo subbed by Garay): Not threatened much, think Carvalho was caught napping a few times. I don't like Albiol that much, he looked a bit rusty. The other 2 did fine. Marcelo, the dribbler as usual =). Garay came in for Marcelo with about 12 mins to go - this was my first time seeing him play (he was injured during preseason) but unfortunately, he didn't manage to show/do much in that short span of time.
• Mid (Lass, Granero, M. Diarra): L and D were really quite good at harassing/pressing - we need to do more of this! But their passes were a bit *off* at times. Granero (or Barn as I learnt from google translation - lol!) didn't impress me much last night - he was alright but maybe I expected a bit more from him (at least he didn't lose the ball much!!)
• Front (Leon, Benz, CR7 subbed by Sarabia): Leon was really quite good in the first half but got a bit quiet in second. He's really not bad at all but I can't quite seem to like him - maybe he was trying a wee bit too hard. Benz - defo MoTM - he actually tracked back quite a bit and looked quite sharp throughout the match. You know, he reminded me a lot of Berbatov - but younger, more talented and possibly with a much better finishing touch (read: See his 3rd goal!)!! I can understand why everyone goes on and on about how incredible he was at Lyon - and he definitely showed signs of some of his *old* brilliance during last night's game. However, it's still too soon to judge, esp against this relatively "weak" team: he needs to repeat this form in the next couple of games before I'm entirely convinced ;o). CR7 was his usual self - he didn't play that hard (quite obvious) but provided the first assist for Benz's header and then scored one for himself (brilliant goal again!). He was subbed off for Sarabia, an 18 year old Canterano, who definitely showed some good footwork and talent. I actually think this boy shows more promise than Canales - but then, whenever I've seen Canales come on the pitch, he either gets a yellow card or goes MIA. Not to mention that he's injured at the moment....

Verdict: Solid game against a team that is clearly not at the same level. There were areas that could be improved but good result at the end =)

So, looking at our squad and after seeing most of our fringe players playing, I'm still not sure how we can win the next Clasico (Warning: I think I'll keep going back to this issue until the day we beat 'em - so it might be years....). The players on the pitch on Weds were definitely better at pressing and I think that will be the key to win the match - basically we need destroyers in midfield. Unfortunately, our destroyers (Lass, M. Diarra) aren't quite the masters of attacking ala Ozil/CR7/Di Maria, and vice versa. So between now and April we'll need to do a LOT more pressing if we were to stand a chance. I'm also quite worried about the defence - we looked a bit leaky at the back...but I have much more faith in Arbeloa than Ramos. I've not seen Ramos play CB before, which he apparently does quite well - so maybe that may work better than the Carvalho/Pepe combo? To be honest, I'm really not too sure if our current line up will be sufficient to contain Barca's attack even in 5 month's time...ARGH. OK, it's Mou's problem, not mine (although we'll both be sharing the same misery...sheesh). So on to our next opponent - an away game to Zaragoza away this Sunday. On paper, this should be a walk in the park but I don't think we can afford to take any match for granted if we don't want to widen the gap with Barca (I'm assuming that Barca wins all their matches - which is not entirely impossible in my opinion!). But it should be a good match that I'm hoping to catch before rushing off to watch BFMV on Sunday night!

I'm gonna quickly comment on Bayern's game this week - man, they've disappointed me too much lately - and we're playing St Pauli tomorrow so if we don't win, I really have nothing left to say. Oh and Gomez (ugh how I dislike him) is injured - so we have NO STRIKERS!!!! Great, isn't it? Luckily we are through to the KO round for UCL.... the word around is we're gonna bin the Bundesliga and concentrate on winning the UCL. LvG better think of ways to stop Barca NOW if he's serious about it... Anyway back to the match, a repeat is gonna be televised at 615am on Sunday so I'd better make sure I record it so that I can watch the repeat later... Its also rumoured that Muller is gonna be positioned up front - I'm sure he won't do ANY worse than Gomez, trust me =.="

AND the final and probably most potentially excruciatingly painful match is on Monday (I HATE Monday matches, I really really do!): MU vs Arse. I hate Arsene Wenger - always have and I guess, always will. BUT saying that, I think they have a very good team and that he is a very, very good manager. I still hate him though and I really can't bear to lose to them. Esp at home. Maybe it's their whole "we're so good that we can step up a gear as and when we want and we nearly beat Barcelona last year without our key players" mentality that REALLY irritates me, esp after qualifying SECOND in their group in the UCL. Nonetheless, the game will be a very good watch - they're no where as good as Barca so I don't think MU is gonna be whitewashed 5-0 (man, it STILL hurts) - or at least, I think I will be more prepared to accept that result if it actually happens. Nothing in the world (only in footie land terms, obviously) stung as badly as that. So, bring it on!!

*Listening to Look Away by Thousand Foot Krutch*

another concert, another 2 missed matches...

Am off for a concert soon - really looking forward to finally seeing DISTURBED live! I've been waiting for so long and I really hope they don't disappoint - although I've heard that they can be a bit of a let down though. :S It's gonna be a long affair as I'm planning to watch all 4 bands - and have to admit that it's pretty rare to find a line up of bands that you actually want to watch on the same night!

So in return for going for this metal-fest, I'm missing two dead rubber matches - RM vs. Auxerre and Bayern vs. Basel. I've already programmed to record the former - which I think I will likely want to watch after I get back (so this means a sleepy day for me tomorrow!) and as for the 2nd match, I'll probably catch the highlights later. No stress going into these matches but for the sake of momentum, morale and confidence, a win for both teams would be the best. RM is still lacking in the confidence department after the mauling, while Bayern...ermm, I actually don't know where to start. I think they are sadly beyond help at this point and only with the return of Robben will things start looking up again. It's amazing how ONE player can change an entire team...but that's how it is unfortunately.

I actually think the Auxerre match would be pretty interesting as plenty of first team players were not included for injury or suspension reasons (including Mou) and the predicted starting line up will be a bit unfamiliar. Saying that, I really hope we go all out to prove that we can still win the game despite the MIA players. Am still hoping for a few minutes of play from Ozil although highly unlikely. CR7 will be playing (despite his yellow card. sheesh) - a funny quote from Aitor Karanka (Head Coach for this match aka Mou's assistant) is that CR7 will want to play EVERY game unless he is half dead. Lol!! That really got me laughing my heads off!

Okie dokes, more ranting from me will come tomorrow. Oh yes, almost forgot to say that MU drew 1-1 yesterday and as you can tell, I wasn't that disappointed because we were actually playing REALLY well but were just a bit unlucky not to win. We created plenty of chances but Guaita was in stellar form. I think Valencia were a bit "cautious" as well and played a tad bit defensively for my liking - but I guess I would do that too considering how fast we were playing counter attacking football. And yes, I am gonna admit that Roo does add a really important dimension to our game - so hopefully things start looking up for MU from now on! We have a tough nut to crack when we meet Arsenal on Monday..... *jitters*

*Listening to The Game by Disturbed*

awesome concert and then some...

Interpol were utterly amazing last night! I have to confess that Interpol is not a typical *em band* - in fact, most of their songs aren't exactly punchy or energetic. I *obviously* started liking the band after falling in love with their most punchy tune "The Heinrich Maneuver"! But boy,were they great live, plus Paul Banks is soooooooooooooooo coool! ^_^ Would definitely recommend seeing them live 'cause they sound 100x better than on record - and am glad they played my fav song too! =D

My next two concerts will be closer to the typical bands that I like - Weds will be a galore of metal + rock feast (feat Halestorm, Buckcherry, Papa Roach and DISTURBED!!); and Sunday will be BFMV! I've been looking forward to seeing these two bands for years - only nugget is that BFMV will not be playing my fav song. Boooo. =( Both will be at Wembley Arena so I sure hope the trainlines will be working fine on both days =S.

Nothing much on footie radar that I've not blurted out previously. Tonight's match will be interesting as SAF has said he will put out a "strong" team - which nowadays kinda makes me wonder what that means. Being the pessimist and the cynic that I am, I have seriously struggled to accept/perceive MU as *champion* material watching them this season. And I have definitely been watching them a lot this season - yes, even regardless of how awful/woeful/boring they were playing and even when I felt like pulling my hair out, I still stuck by to watch them! To say that they have failed to impress me at all is a fair view of how I feel about the team, in spite of how much I love them. But, to be fair, I missed the 7-1 thrashing of Blackburn so hopefully things have changed since then....we shall see. Rest assured, you'll either hear me ranting on about how awful they were OR how much they have improved since the return of Roo. I sure hope it's the former.

ANYWAYZ, here's a pic that will put a smile back to my face =)

*Listening to Evil by Interpol*

Barca-d'or?

So the nominees came out this morning with THREE Barca players voted as finalists. I probably don't need to spell out who the 3 (Just FYI - Messi-ah, Robert Downey Jr. Lookalike and Paleface) are, but feel that it's rather unfortunate for Sneijder to miss out on this. =( I did, however, just realised that it's based on CALENDAR year performance...which probably explains why it turned out to be these 3 since Inter has been a shadow of its former team since the arrival of Benitez and Barca, well, has been on fire.

Oh well - I don't mind either one of the Spaniards to win this title - probably prefer Xavi. Leo can collect the award next year :P

On the coaches - the 3 finalists are Mou, Pep and VdB - I'm really not sure who'll win this though...

Bouncing back?

After a trouncing by the hands of Barca last Monday (man, it still hurts....), RM bounced back to a 2-0 victory against Valencia on Saturday - and for that, I'm very relieved. Unfortunately, I had to miss the match but got quite worried reading the minute-by-minute commentary and post match response online. But after watching the game yesterday, I have to say it was a job well done (and no, as much as I love the team, I'm not being biased here!). Lots of complaints about the match being boring, etc, etc - but I thought it was a good match. Valencia is a very good team (Soldado's shooting was surprisingly off though, but their younger players Juan Mata and Jordi Alba were pretty sharp!) - and I'm more worried about MU tomorrow, in fact. Anywayz, I quite enjoyed watching it -and most importantly, we won. =)

We started out a bit "unconfidently" (I'm sure the horrors of Monday was still haunting the players at the back of their minds), but we became better as we played on. In terms of formation, we switched to a 4-3-3 at the beginning of the match. The formation was close to what I predicted in my previous post except that Ozil was "centre" instead of left. Pipita was sorely missed though =(. Overall, I thought this new look worked pretty well. My one line review of each player..

• Khedira had a more forward role (prob Mou has asked him to become more box-to-box since there isn't a front man) BUT he missed a few chances (sheesh...). I also don't know why I've never been impressed with this guy (even during WC10), but I sure hope he is more useful than what I perceive him to be!
• I thought Xabi was quite invisible throughout the game though and by now, I think most teams have figured out how to stop us in our attack (i.e., suffocate Xabi). We probably need to think of solutions to this problem.
• I guess that's why Lass was called into the game - he is one hell of a destroyer - he can't pass, can't shoot, can't dribble - but boy, he is damn good at harassing the opposition and winning the ball back!
• Marcelo was back to his normal self - very quick, fantastic dribbler and his passing was not bad too! Unfortunately he's not good in front of the goal, he always tends to lose the ball the moment he arrives in the penalty box.
• Pepe/Albiol - this was an OK combo but Albiol could have been a bit quicker though.
• Arbeloa - this dude is definitely better than Ramos when it comes to defending, and he showed that he was quite decent coming forward as well (albeit not as daring as Ramos but yeah, we all know Ramos can't defend. Lol!)
• Di Maria - the more I see him play, the more I like him (I didn't like him at the beginning of the season). He's lightning quick and his passes are pretty damn accurate. The only problem with this guy is that whenever he gets into the penalty box, he gets into this "tunnel vision" mode and doesn't seem to see any other player IN the box! But I'm sure he'll only get better - he's also much less selfish now =). I thought he had a decent game despite reading lots of flak (?) about him in this game - I didn't think he was bad at all!
• O.Ozil - a good game from him despite being tightly marked. He could have provided a few more assists on Saturday if only the goals had gone in! His one touch passes are amazing to watch.... :D Anyway, he provided the first assist to our first goal via a brilliant pass to CR7, who nailed the ball in from the left.
• CR7 - brilliant as always - the main threat throughout the whole game. His second was really funny - basically Lass won the ball back and passed to him, then CR7 made the run towards the penalty box, expecting to pass it back to Lass (or something) but Lass didn't seem to want to touch the ball (strange bloke?!?) so he went solo (faking, driblling, bla bla) past 2 defenders and the goalie! I don't think he even expected to "beat" these 3 defenders that easily! Maybe the Valencia defence were already tired out by then, especially given that they had 10 men only.
• Benz - not very useful, and missed a sitter towards the end of the match
• Granero - not very useful - he's usually much better when he plays from the beginning. But then, what could he have done in the 14 mins that he had? (He came in for Ozil). He did, however, pick up a yellow card around 10 seconds after he got on the pitch. Bad Pirata!
• M. Diarra - came in for Di Maria in the last 8 mins. No comment really...

Valencia had many chances to equalise, but thankfully didn't manage to convert their chances well enough. Even after they went down to 10 men, they were still looking for the winning goal (salute!). The game became much more open after Mou subbed off Khedira for Benzema and we reverted back to 4-2-3-1. As I've said, I'm a bit worried about MU tomorrow....

So that's my 2 cents worth of the match. Next up is Auxerre so we'll probably field a very unfamiliar starting line up (or experiment some new formations?). Not sure if the Valencia match was enough to make us "regain" some confidence but I don't think we would have managed to get out of this mess if we had lost the match. The loss of Pipita will hurt us eventually...Sigh.

The other match that happened over the weekend was the Bayern one. Gosh, I really want to punch Mario Gomez. He is one of the worst forwards I've ever seen (i.e., he needs 50 chances to convert 1 =.="). Bayern started brilliantly in the first half, but ended in a disaster in the 2nd when our defence was completely exposed. I blame our lack of urgency in the first half and our failure to convert our chances - but Neuer was amazing though. He saved quite a few shots and I would have voted him MoTM. I wish he was in Bayern. Anyway, with this loss, I can safely say that all we should aim for is top 3 so that we can have a shot at qualifying for UCL next year. It's so sad to see them play like this given that they have brilliant players. But kudos to Schalke - the boy that was marking Ribery - Uchida did a great job at stopping him from doing his thing.

Other footie action happening this week. 2 dead rubber games by Bayern and RM (I think on Weds - I'll need to catch it after the game since I'll be at a concert) and MU tomorrow!!!!!

In the mean time, I think I'll need to "revise" the Interpol setlist before I see them tonight - can't wait!

*Listening to Rest My Chemistry by Interpol*

can you believe....

...that the MU match has been called off due to frozen pitch??????? =.="""""

This also means I get to watch bayern with full concentration when they play tomorrow! =)

cheering up...

As difficult as it has been for the past week (just to be precise: from Monday, 8.15pm onwards), I'm glad the week's over and I can look forward to a few things over the weekend. Obviously footie will be a big part of it EXCEPT that I'll be missing all three matches!!! =( Boo hiss. I really wish I could just stay in on Saturday evening to watch all three matches. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. I wonder if I'm just being anti-social or what?

Oh scrap that, I won't be missing two of the matches - I'll only be missing RM (Sigh again) 'cause I just realised that Bayern and MU play at 530pm. So the matches finish at 715pm, then I can leave for dinner straightaway! Woohoo - I'm happy now! :D

Another reason to cheer up is that I've just managed to get tickets to see MCR in February! =D

*Listening to Shout by Disturbed*

Strange...

...that the WC18 and 22 was awarded to Russia and Qatar, respectively. I bet everyone was going wtf!?!? Well, I guess it's better to award it to countries that have the $$$. For WC18, the other bidders were England, N'lands/Belgium and Portugal/Spain. I was obviously hoping for Portugal/Spain but now that I think about it, it probably makes sense NOT to award it to them since...

1) these 2 countries are nearly broke

2) Spain is so good anyway, they probably don't need the home advantage :P

Hey ho - I probably need to plan my WC14 trip to Brazil then =)

Nothing much on the radar. Just that it's been snowing for the past couple of days and I've also been coughing like mad and it's really irritating me.

*Listening to Unforgetful You by Jars of Clay*

If things can't get any worse...

...Higuain is potentially out for 1-2 months with a lumbar herniated disc =(

It is, however, a good (but cruel) test of how the club will pull through this. It'll all be a learning experience, especially for the younger players. Each will have to step up with additional responsibilities to make sure we pull through this testy period. Who knows, maybe we can discover something that we've never known before? I'm saying this in hindsight of how Bayern pulled through lately. OK, I know they BARELY made it out alive - but it did show us how great Tymo and Gomez (I'm not entirely convinced by him yet though) are -and how important their contributions were in the past few months.

There'll be lots of debate on how the new formation will be like. Benz, erm, I'm not too sure that he will be the shoo in for Pipita's role - esp for important matches. I'd be more tempted to move Ronaldo up front, push Ozil to the left, Di Maria on the right. Maybe have Granero in Ozil's current role, 2 DMs as per usual and 4 at the back? Or 4-3-3 with the 3 I mentioned up front, Lass-Xabi-Khedira + 4 at the back? Or maybe, replace Pipita with CR7, Leon on the left? It'll be interesting to see what Mou gets up to... I also think it's about time to start rotating the squad a bit. Kaka's recovery come January will be so so important to us...

Ok, enough dwelling. In fact, I'm feeling better already. After all, shit happens and we all need to deal with it whether we like it or not...

P/S: I've also just placed my order for the RM jersey - they finally have my size! No prizes for guessing which number and name is printed on the back of it! =)

*Listening to 23 by JEW*

Wonders if the week can get any worse?

OK so we lost 4-0 in the Carling Cup - big deal, right? Not really. It's demoralising and slightly pathetic. Games like these will give very good exposure to our young players, but I guess there's still lots of work to be done. With expectations on MU always sky high, a smashing from WEST HAM is pretty bad. I'll need to watch the highlights later as was out for Doug's farewell dinner, but I'm guessing it can't be as bad as the murder of RM last night (Ah, I promised not to talk about it anymore but it still pops into my head every now and then...and it hurts like hell). Anyway, back to MU. We'll be facing Blackpool this Saturday - I think it'll be a tricky one as it's an away game and they have the capability of causing an upset. We'll definitely need to be on our toes to defend our position at the top of the table since Chelski will defo be bouncing back by now. It's also about time we improve our horrible away form - 1 win and 6 draws is really quite poor by our standards. Bayern will play Schalke at the same time - tricky opponents - they've not been doing well in the Bundesliga but rock in the UCL qualifications so I'll be expecting quite a lot of goals for that match - hopefully we'll be able to slowly crawl up the table from our 5th position....

Alright I'm not gonna talk about RM - the painful memories from the El Clasico hurt too much still. And we'll face Valencia next. Man, this is gonna be one hell of a long and painful week....

*Listening to Shoud've When You Could've by Skillet*