A Girl Named Goo...

a long sunday...

2011-10-23T22:19:00.003+01:00

I've not written in ages - and when I do out of the blue, it usually means something bad has happened. As it happened, United got their a** thoroughly kicked today - and there was no one to blame but themselves. The only consolation is..er... I can't find any, really. United started the season so well but have been a shadow of themselves in the past couple of weeks. To be honest, I kind of expected a defeat today - but not to the extent of 1-6! The surprising thing is I'm not anywhere as upset as how I was last year when Madrid got manita-ed by Barca - perhaps I knew that RM were an amazing bunch of players not playing up to potential while United today were just lacking in potential on almost all fronts (except the GK position). In fact, Citeh didn't even put out their best 11 - they left Tevez, Dzeko and Nasri on the bench. On paper, I think they probably have the 3rd strongest team in Europe after Barca and RM. Some might argue that they are probably better than RM - but we shall find out in the Champs League, I suppose.

Even as a United fan, I've quite enjoyed watching Citeh play as they have so many technically gifted players (i.e., players I wish United had more of!) such as Silva and Kun, making their play really fluid and attractive to watch. While Mancini applied more defensive tactics last season, he has found the right combination of offensive and defensive players this season -> Citeh's results so far has been nothing short of stellar.

So what are the implications for United after the thumping today?

1) We're 5 points behind Citeh - and it'll be quite hard to close the gap as I don't expect Citeh to drop many points for the rest of the season (think Barca of EPL). IMHO, the EPL has now become a one-horse race - and unless Citeh capitulates, they will surely be the runaway league title winner this season - deservedly so.

2) United desperately needs to bounce back - quickly! Since we've never been beaten so badly in such a LONG time (the last time I personally recall was the 5-0 trashing by Newcastle back in the late 90s!), I've no idea whether the boys have the mental toughness or ability to overcome this hurdle. Of course, I should place my full faith in SAF (err...) but something tells me we won't be able to climb out of this slump immediately. I really hope Rooney can be the talisman of United, dragging the team out of this pit, similar to how Cristiano single-handedly pulled RM out of depression after the Barca fiasco last season (2-0 v Valencia -> what a match!). However, Rooney is no Ronaldo and unfortunately, we can't afford to drop any more points if we want to push Citeh til the end.

3) In a more positive sense, I think the results today was a good wake up call for the Gaffer -> HE SHOULD HAVE FREAKING SIGNED SNEIJDER IN SUMMER! Realistically, I don't see us adding any new players come January so we'll (sadly) need to make do with the current squad and pray that Cleverley comes good and plays a bigger part in the coming weeks. In an ideal world, the CMs I would absolutely LOVE to have in United are Schweini, Sneijder or Yaya. All are impossible-to-get targets (plus they are cup-tied anyway). United fans will need to accept that the 2011/12 (or perhaps a couple more) season will likely be an empty-handed one and that it will be mostly used to nurture our younger players for the future. Reading Gary Neville's and Paul Scholes' autobiography recently reminded me that United DID go through a couple of bad patches in the 90s and 00s. I guess the same thing is happening as I type...

4) Citeh aren't the only team to look out for. In fact, I think Chelski presents a strong (and surprisingly underestimated) threat to United. They were a bit unlucky to lose to QPR today - but on paper (and in recent weeks!), they definitely look a stronger squad than us and are playing very well. The addition of Meireles and Mata (plus an on-form Torres) has changed Chelski within weeks. I'm pretty sure they will be pushing us to the end of the season.

5) Bin Champs League and concentrate on the domestic league instead. I seriously can't see United going further than QFs this year (I did say the same thing last year though!). We'll likely end up 2nd in our Group, making us quite likely to draw one of the following teams: Inter, Bayern, RM, Barca. Tough draws and with the current squad, exit seems inevitable. Getting UCL out of the way would give us plenty of rest between matches and the green-light to use our better players more consistently for all of our league matches, instead of rotating players all the time. Squad rotation is good - but as can be seen from our woeful defence of late, it really ain't helping the team at all!

As pessimistic (or perhaps realistic!) as I may sound, things aren't so bad. We're still in the running for 4 titles and if we can get out of the current dip, we shouldn't do that badly. The biggest hit is to the ego, nothing else. All the players need to do is to work with humility and harder in order to overcome this difficult moment.

Now that I've finished ranting, I'll go back to hibernate 'til the next surprise springs up - I sure hope it won't be anytime soon! :)

P/S: Stupid Bayern lost today as well - but it's not so bad as they're still top of the table. To cut a long story short, having two of your favourite teams lose one after another AND having your mom text you all the way from Spain just to laugh at the United defeat made this day pretty unbearable. Thank God, Madrid had a good outing last night...

sometimes you feel like digging a hole...

2011-04-27T22:53:00.003+01:00

Yeah I know I shouldn't feel so bad when I am quite likely catching MU for UCL finals. but to see RM losing like this pains me. It all kinda went awry from KO...and the final 2 goals at the end of the match was like a stab to the heart (after all the fake diving/red cards/etc etc). Ozil was poor - or maybe we just weren't playing like how we were meant to. Anyway, probably one of the rare entries for a while. It'll take a while for me to bounceback....

how is it possible...

2011-04-03T11:25:00.002+01:00

...to be so happy....

..and sad at the same time?

Sigh. Seems like after "giving up" on Bayern this season, the next to fail is RM. It's also probably time for me to stop worrying and start enjoying matches from now on. My guess would be RM faltering at the QFs, MU probably losing to Chelski but at least a good chance of finally overtaking LFC's haul of PL titles!

At least the sun is shining brightly today... :)

:D

2011-03-17T15:56:00.001Z

Enough said... :D

2 down...and barely surviving?

2011-03-15T22:49:00.004Z

I'm filled with mixed feelings at the mo. Was too happy with MU getting through to QFs, but thoroughly upset with Bayern. Sigh. Looks like it's the end of a short winning cycle for Bay while for MU, we have been given another lifeline. I'm glad MU scraped through (HERNANDEZ!!) even without ANY of our veteran CBs. We desperately need Vida back soon. Also, I'm really worried that we have to rely on Scholes and Giggs in midfield.... I can't imagine the outcome if we were to play against the likes of Barca :S *yikes* On a positive note, Valencia is back!!!! And he played well today :D

A part of me is still in depression mode - but I think I need to cheer up. I'm still terribly disappointed with Bayern (and its lack of a proper defence). Perhaps losing everything this season (inc. a UCL spot) might put the team back to rebuilding it the proper way. With LvG leaving, perhaps things might get better from next season when there is no expectations of the team. Sigh again. Anyhow, tomorrow is another tough match. Might need to find a hole to hide for good after that so I'm apologising in advance IF I do go MIA for a while.

The news of Abidal having to undergo surgery to remove a tumour from his liver really came as a shock to me - and I feel saddened by the news - along with the other sad/tragic news happening in other parts of the world recently. Let's hope that tomorrow may be a better day...and that we, as humans, learn to cherish and love those that mean a lot to us much more than we do today...

*Listening to Coming Home by Diddy & Dirty Money*

do or die?

2011-03-15T07:48:00.001Z

these 2 days would prove crucial for all 3 of my clubs. ARGH! anyway as a pre-warning, i may probably be too depressed for the coming months after tomorrow....

a consolation...

2011-03-06T23:15:00.003Z

madrid won away (without cr7) + MFP was AWESOME! :D

at least there's something to cheer me up for the next couple of days... and this pic posted by Sergio on twitter ;)

the most comprehensive defeats...

2011-03-06T15:17:00.002Z

one yesterday and another one in about 7 minutes from now. I have nothing to say except that the winners were a mile better than my teams.

i will definitely cry if madrid loses tonight...

uphill task...

2011-03-01T10:25:00.003Z

As much as I love MU, I'm actually writing off the match tonight. I doubt we can beat them at home..and we haven't for the past 9 years I think. Sigh. Plus our squad this year (with all the injuries and roo being roo) is probably one of the worst in terms of quality that we have had in recent memory. Oh well.

such a sh*tty day :(

2011-02-26T22:55:00.002Z

bayern lost and madrid drew. enough said.

i think i need a life.

cheated.

2011-02-22T22:51:00.002Z

that's how i feel now. robbed. betrayed. sigh.

i knew i hate french people. >.<

finding a hole to hide...

2011-02-22T12:15:00.004Z

Don't think I can bear to watch the match tonight. Can you believe that Madrid has not beaten lyon EVER (they've met each other SIX times)? Sigh. :(

Not only that, tomorrow might be quite bad as well. Giggs is out for the Marseilles away leg, and I am REALLY not sure what LvG is planning on his defence considering he substituted his CB for a CAM last week.

As much as I'm looking forward to the matches, I think I might end up in utter misery by the end of tomorrow...

*Listening to Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden*

hitting the panic button?

2011-02-18T08:21:00.002Z

So that's what has been happening in the Barca camp - EVERYONE is saying how tired out they are, that they are losing it, bla, bla, bla. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is THE greatest and best team in history (ok, barre Milan of the early 90s...) - they will come roaring back in Camp Nou, mark my words. Anyway, it's quite nice to ruffle those haughty feathers. But why am I writing about my mortal enemy? Well, it's because I don't understand how people can flip opinions of this team in the matter of minutes. I still think they're the only team I would NOT want to face and even if I'd be ecstatic if they get eliminated from UCL (not a chance though), I would still rather face them and prove to the world that the manita was a one-off, that those 11 players on the pitch in Camp Nou on 30th Nov wasn't us. That we can beat them. Hard, and perhaps even impossible this season. But hopefully eventually.

On to important stuff. It seems like I'll be having an overload of matches to watch tomorrow - MU, BM and RM are ALL playing tomorrow evening. I'm already in a dilemma on whether to watch the Crawley Town match or Mainz instead - because both of the matches will be on TV!!!! Sigh, I think I will be switching to and fro between channels from 5pm onwards. And after that is the Levante match. Talk about busy.

*Listening to Whirring by The Joy Formidable*

kudos to arsenal!

2011-02-17T06:21:00.002Z

Awesome match last night. Not sure why Barca didn't kill off the game in the first half and literally invited Arsenal back into the game. Nevertheless, I'm not gonna take away the plaudits due to Arsenal, they were working their hearts out and deserved the victory. Now, we're all set for a crackling match @ Camp Nou in two weeks -> I just can't wait! In the mean time, I see an uphill struggle for all 3 of my clubs next week. Oh well.

lesser of 2 evils?

2011-02-16T13:09:00.004Z

After yesterday's snooze-feast of a match (OK, admittedly Spurs were the better and more deserving team as Milan were downright pathetic!!), I hope tonight offers a bit more excitement. The only upside of the match is that the result would be good either way from my point of view. If Arsenal knocks out Barca, I think it'd make the journey to the finals a bit easier for all of my teams. On the other hand, I have absolutely no problems (and I'm sure Barca won't as well) with Barca smashing Arsenal to pieces because I HATE that club. So yeah, either way is fine by me - I just hope for a crackling encounter!

Now I'm actually hoping for Spurs to reach the finals so that I can get my ticket sponsored by my brother! Yeah, I manage to wiggle it out of him just now since he's in a bright and optimistic mode about Spurs' chances (he did say unless it's a Spurs v MU finals, in which case he won't -> BOO KOP!!!). They sure are a big surprise factor in this competition....

*Listening to Time to Wander by Gypsy & the Cat*

random..

2011-02-15T09:14:00.003Z

Not much to say - except that I've developed a strange fascination for David Luiz, who was by far the most offensive, defensive, creative, whatchamacalit player in the 0-0 draw last night (In case you were wondering, he is JT's new partner in crime now - yes, a CB!). I think it's the hair.

Oh yes, UCL KO rounds start today. I just can't wait!!!

*Listening to The Kids From Yesterday by My Chemical Romance*

happy v-day!

2011-02-14T08:47:00.003Z

Am so happy after all my 3 teams won over the weekend! Esp Madrid, who did it by fighting tooth and nail since we were down to 10 men after San Iker got sent off in the 2nd minute! Roo had a wonderful winning goal and Bayern were back to their best with ROBBERY!!! Love them all to bits!!

No UCL action for my teams - but really looking forward to Spurs v Milan and Barcenal (or Arselona if you prefer) on Weds! :D

*Listening to Anna Sun by Walk the Moon*

this is too cute...

2011-02-11T15:25:00.004Z

"Q: Does he resemble you?"

"A: Pfff. My mother and my sisters say no. Others who are close to me say yes but some also say no. But it’s alright, he’s 'guapo'."

Translation courtesy of Unamadridista (http://unamadridista.wordpress.com/)

This was what CR7 said in an interview when asked about his son - his reply was toooooooo cute! :D

Not going to write much today - I have a bad feeling about Real's away match this Sunday so I'll refrain from saying anything. Added to that is the Manc. derby tomorrow....sigh. Good thing is that I'm going to catch MCR in concert tomorrow night! It's my first concert of '11 - my last concert really does feel like a lifetime ago.....

Here's a pic to cheer ME up! :D

*Listening to Summertime by My Chemical Romance*

inconsolable.

2011-02-05T22:11:00.002Z

such a crappy day.

enough said.

weekend is nearly here again!

2011-02-04T16:21:00.002Z

Another weekend spent at home (obviously taking my usual seat in front of my fav TV). Bayern and MU play tomorrow (vs Koln and Wolves, respectively) and RM face Sociedad at home on Sunday. As always looking forward to all these matches - AND an extra Chelsea vs LFC showdown on Sunday! I've lost quite a lot of my energy describing matches nowadays - and am pretty much quietly enjoying watching them instead - esp O.Ozil (who was superb in our mid-week Sevilla clanger). Maybe I'll properly cheer up one day.

Next week is also international friendly week! Woohoo! Looking forward to seeing Germany playing Italy on Weds night (other relevant matches are Portugal vs Argentina, France vs Brazil and Spain vs Colombia) - it should be fairly interesting. It's been too long since Ozil wore his #8 jersey =)

To sign off this very short post, I couldn't stop laughing seeing this pic...

What's with the eyebrow, Carlo?!? (and Torres is adorable as usual :P)

*Listening to We've Got A Situation Here by The Damned Things*

The "little less" special one?

2011-02-02T16:40:00.003Z

Lol! I couldn't stop laughing when I read a writer of a blog calling Mou that! Ok, so we might have been not been playing very well lately - but it's really not completely his fault though. Well, I always think that at the end of the day, it's the combination of tactics + players that makes a team win or lose. It's still funny though! As much as one can fault Mou, you can't fault him for backing his players at all times and for diverting the attention to him rather than to his players. I guess that's why his players are absolutely in love with him!

Roo scored a brace last night while Vidic became our backup CF when we routed the Villans 3-1. I missed the match unfortunately, but managed to catch the highlights. But it's not quite enough to judge whether we actually played well throughout the match or we were just producing patches of brilliant football? In any case, we're still 5 points ahead of everyone, and for that I'm glad! :D

Finally, Happy Chinese New Year! May the year of the wabbit bring lots of happiness to all of y'all! And with that, I'm hoping we'll get through to the finals of the Copa Del Rey tonight...and for Kaka to be less fat and shlow from now on!! =)

*Listening to The Ballad of Mona Lisa by Panic! At the Disco*

rude awakening...

2011-02-01T17:02:00.004Z

Sometimes I really can't understand how the outcome of one match could affect my mood that much for a few days. 2 out of 3 good results over the weekend isn't that bad. But the one that mattered the most caused me another bout of numbness ala el clasico (but to a lesser extent). Now that I've written off La Decima, I think I can start to relax again and watch RM like how I watch Bayern play. Zero expectations. Zero hope. Sigh.

Unfortunately, I'm gonna be missing the MU match tonight as it's a friend's birthday dinner - just as well since it's not on TV although I'll probably download the match to watch later.

On a wee happier note, I passed my Life in the UK test! But this also means I'll probably have to start on CFA...ARGHGHGH!!

*Listening to Changing by The Airbourne Toxic Event*

couldn't resist putting this up...

2011-01-28T13:24:00.002Z

Credit goes to Unamadridista (http://unamadridista.wordpress.com/)

Jesus Navas is SOOO goodlooking! :D

Haven't written in a while...

2011-01-28T11:01:00.006Z

..as have been so busy sorting out stuff. Anyway to cut a LONG story short:

1) MU are still undefeated! We staged an amazing comeback during the Blackpool game, coming back from a deservedly 2-0 BP lead. I'm not even joking at how terrible MU were in the 1st half...I almost thought it was el clasico again (with MU = RM, of course). But MU are probably made of sterner stuff than Madrid (AND Blackpool aren't quite a Barca :P), and so managed to bounce back to win the game 3-2 in the last 25 mins (25 mins because we had 10mins added time) thanks to a brace from Berbatop sandwiching an equaliser from Hernandez. Next up, FA cup vs Southampton tomorrow at 5.15pm! Let's hope we get through this one.....

2) Adebayor has come to be our new #9! Obviously would have preferred RvN but Hamburg refused our offer. I'm frankly quite neutral to this...and actually look forward to seeing him play. On other news, Benz has scored our winners in the last 2 matches and I hope he improves further! There's a whiff of tiredness seeping through the team - and this has caused Mou to rotate his squad a bit more now. But the sad thing is, there are some players who are simply "unrest-able" or "untouchable" as Mou would put it. The match against Mallorca last weekend showed that a team without Xabi and Ozil were pretty toothless against a formidable opponent. We were so rubbish in the 1st half (yes, kaka IS still fat and shlow! =.=") but improved greatly in the 2nd when our 2 heroes came on. Their presence added to the fluidity and speed of the team - the passing improved greatly and Benz came up with the winner in the 60th minute! :D Anyway moving on, we faced Sevilla away on Weds in the 1st semifinal leg of the copa del rey - and we held on to win 1-0! If things can't get any tougher, we will face Osasuna away on Sunday - they are a tough team at home and are undergoing a rough patch now so I don't quite know how we'll do against a team fighting to survive the Liga. Furthermore, our core players have been playing on average 2 matches per week so I expect this to be very low scoring... (strange how pessimistic I am all of a sudden!). Even though CR7 hasn't scored in only 2-3 matches, it does feel like a lifetime indeed...

3) Bayern plays Werder tomorrow @ 2.30pm. MvB has left for Milan so Lahm is officially Bayern's captain! :D Anyway, the addition of Robben has indeed added a lot of to the table - and Muller is finding his form again! :D Ribery is still out til Feb.... It'll be a fun match - it always is vs Werder anyway :) We're still trying to get to the 2nd spot (considering Dortmund has virtually WON the league) so let's hope we plough on :D

Okie dokies, busy weekend for me - but hopefully fun as well!

*Listening to Help Is On The Way by Rise Against*

We're through to the semis!

2011-01-20T23:31:00.004Z

T'was a tame affair where Atletico came off even more toothless than last week. We didn't play particularly well - but managed to kill the game off via a single CR7 goal in the first half. So on aggregate, we went through with a 4-1 scoreline. Next up would be Sevilla - very tricky esp if they repeat their performance vs Villareal on Tuesday (3-0). Anyway I'll savour this small victory for now....

Here's something cute to laugh about! Can you identify all of them? Lol!

(Well in case you don't remember the La Roja members' numbers: Casillas, Torres, Puyol, Villa, Sergio Ramos, Piqué, Xavi Hernández, Iniesta, Silva, Xabi Alonso, Cesc)

*Listening to Welcome to the Breakdown by I Fight Dragons*

MIA...

2011-01-16T20:38:00.004Z

OK - I'll be going into hiding in the next couple of days. Drawing all three matches over the weekend has definitely made me more depressed than I thought and I can't bring myself to write anything positive or negative of the matches. Admittedly, the MU match was a relief for me.

Anyway, I will write again when I become happy again =)

*Listening to My Happy Ending by Avril Lavigne*

more worrying thoughts...

2011-01-15T20:01:00.003Z

I'm watching Inter vs Bologna right now - and Inter is looking really good. Leonardo seems to have positively affected the team, and they're playing to the usual standards again. With Bayern going backward, I think we won't be able to beat Inter if they continue to improve :S Gulp.

So much for my Bayern dreams for 10/11...

sheesh...

2011-01-15T17:21:00.002Z

Stupid away draw. We conceded in the last 5 minutes of the game AND Lahm missed his PK. I'm so annoyed now - the only positive is that Robben is back and already showing a difference to the team. Bad is, Ribery has been taken off injured - I think it's pretty bad. Man, when can I have both Robbery playing in the same team at the same time? Is that too much to ask? Booo. :(

Another piece of *bad* news is Ozil is slightly injured i.e., he may not play tomorrow.

Looks like I'll be heading for a depressing weekend.....

Intended short post...

2011-01-15T12:52:00.006Z

...that became pretty long before I knew it! So what has been going on:

Dortmund is STILL invincible. They beat Bayer 3-1 last night - yes, even without Shinji Kagawa. Damn. I 'm getting so annoyed with how good they are - and at this rate, we'll never catch up. We have massive CB problems - at least Badstuber is back but his partnership with Breno is worrying - would you trust 2 20 year olds at the back? Seriously? Also, on other news, Kraft has been promoted above Butt! YAY!! Finally!! I don't know how good/bad Kraft is but what I do know is Butt does not give me ANY confidence in him. He's just not a good GK...maybe past his prime is a more apt description. Anyway, at this rate I just hope we do well in the UCL and qualify for UCL spot next year...

RM's big rumour for today is that we are planning on getting RvN back on loan for 6 months! :D He's definitely a good choice. He's played for us before, is loved by us, experienced and I think he's more dangerous than Benz. Sorry, I know Benz has improved a lot over the past few games, but he's still so meek in front of the goal and his inability to convert SITTERS is REALLY annoying me. I've rewatched our past 2 games and I think what he is lacking is confidence. Some of his passes are sublime but it's as though he doesn't dare to take a shot when he's near the goal... :( The other rumoured strikers were Adebayor, Klose and Lukaku. Don't like any of them namely because the first is such a lazy a** (nothing wrong with his skills, but I just can't stand the sight of him in our jersey), the second although has very good telepathic-like linking with Ozil, is cup tied and never seems to perform as well for his clubs as opposed to di Mannschaft, and the third, a wee bit young (he's only 17!). Ruud would be great - and seems like he ain't too happy in Hamburg too! BUT he is 35.... :S. He was so amazing with MU, then continued his stellar form in RM (hmm very much like a certain cr7...). Anyway, I really like him so I hope we get him soon! =)

I'm really worried about the MU match tomorrow, mainly because I've not much faith in our players. Very strange, isn't it? Somehow when people tell me "xxxx's been playing well", I really struggle to appreciate it - perhaps I'm too spoilt watching the La Liga of late and expect a lot more? BUT when I see Spurs play, I can see some really good technical abilities in the players. Modric and VdV are the 2 stand out players for me. Bale/Lennon are v. good too but...maybe a bit too predictable! Lol! I guess I appreciate Ozil-like players better than Bastos-like ones! :) Nonetheless I think we need to crowd out their midfield. Not sure how SAF will set this one up - having Park missing is a BIG set back for us in this one. I think he will bench Berb and crowd the midfield...anyway that's just my guess. It'll be a tough one and I really don't have much confidence, unfortunately. Esp how terribly we played vs LFC last week. :( My guess of the line up would be

VdS

Rafael - Ferd+Vidic - Evra

Carrick-Fletcher

Nani-Anderson-Giggs?

Roo

The match against Almeria will be tricky - we somehow never manage to reproduce our stellar home form in away matches. Oh well - we just need to plough on as Barca will so whitewash Malaga (or more like Malaga lying down to be steam-rolled by Barca). It's slightly easier to guess RM's line up. Mou said in an interview the other day that there are some players that if benched, would decrease the quality of the team and these were: CR7 (duh), di Maria (my angelito :D) and O.Ozil (aka MFP)! But I think Mou will REALLY need to start rotating the squad soon esp if we intend to go far in all 3 competitions, otherwise we'll prob end up dead way before the end of the season. Kaka's experience will definitely help the young squad grow, but he IS really quite slow (I'm prob just SO used to our lightning pace counter-attacks lol!). We'll see - tomorrow could be either very fun or very frustrating. I hope it'll be the former. I am predicting the same line up as mid week - and subbing out Benz/Ozil/di Maria in the second half for Kaka/Leon/Granero if we're leading.

Okie dokies, don't have much to add. It'll be a fun weekend I'm sure - keeping my fingers and toes and whatever else crossed for all my 3 teams to win! :D Oohhh and another pic I that I like :D

*Listening to Dreaming People by Jay Smith*

My hero....

2011-01-14T13:25:00.010Z

MFP (aka my favourite player) was brilliant last night in the el derbi. Wow, I was actually shocked that he was...

1) backtracking/pressing/pressuring defenders

2) pushing people (yes, I'm NOT kidding)

3) lasting 90 minutes at the SAME high energy pace (i.e., able to burst into runs even at the end!)

4) brilliantly assisting the 2nd goal and...

5) scoring the final one!

Other than De Gea being spectacularly brilliant (which pretty much explains the narrow margin! Note to SAF to sign him up!!!) and the ref being as cool as a cucumber, there's not much else to add as the game has left me beaming up til now! :D OK, to comment on the shortcomings of our game, obviously the poor defense that enabled them to score first (AND at the 7th minute...grrrr...Iker....). However, we definitely played at the right level of intensity that has been missing from our previous games and were clearly the better team. It's as though we've shifted gears or something overnight?!? A tough return/away leg awaits us next week...VERY tricky. Gulp.

Will write more about what's to come over the weekend later - probably tonight or tomorrow. In summ, Bundesliga season starts again (yay!) with Bayern vs Wolfsburg tomorrow - I can't wait to see Robben back on the field again!!! And MU & RM play on Sunday, the former with a VERY tricky opponent ahead (I'm actually trying to come to terms with potentially facing our first defeat of the season :S) and the latter, hopefully not too tired out, as we play away to Almeria in the evening.

I'll leave my fav pic from last night here.... :D :D :D

*Listening to Fix Me by 10 Years*

another derby and other stuffs.

2011-01-13T15:49:00.005Z

So it's the 2nd time we're facing Atletico this season - so what do I think? Atletico was miserable against Hercules on Monday. I was really disappointed with De Gea as I expected him to save at least 2 out of the 4 goals that were scored by Hercules (yes, even given the crappy defence!). But I think that must have been a one-off bad performance (as I, of all people, would TOTALLY understand). Anyway, I expect them to go all out tonight so we'd better be alert! We have the home advantage for the first leg and hopefully we can take advantage of it (Please, no more Levante-esque performance....). At this point, I'm actually not sure who Mou will decide to put on. He has to rotate some members given we'll be facing Almeria on Sunday. I think Mou will play his usual front four and if we're winning, sub Ozil, Di Maria off in the 2nd half. He may also possibly pair Granero with Xabi? The back four should be Arbeloa - Ramos - Carvalho - Marcelo. Benz and CR7 are definite starters. Kaka should be playing in the 2nd half regardless of the score methinks. Exciting match for sure - and luckily it'll be on TV! :D Yay to no crappy streaming!!

On a separate game, I watched the Villareal vs Sevilla match yesterday..and boy, was it scrappy. Villareal was playing a lot better than Sevilla but somehow managed to let in 3 goals at the end for a draw. My recent crush (aka Jesus Navas) was not very effective in the game - standout player was Rossi. Damn, why did MU sell him....(and Pique, CR7, Forlan...) =(. Anyway this means it'll all boil down to the return leg with Sevilla having a huge away goal advantage. The Barca match was a waste of time - I can't believe how all the teams just lie down and die in front of them (OK, I know it's unfair given that they're such an amazing team but still!?!). I stopped watching after the first goal - and what did you know? Another manita for them >.<.

Arse*** were rubbish vs Ipswich - I hope they get knocked out in the return leg of the CC semis but I'm pretty sure they will come away with an easy win. And LFC - enough said.

Let's hope for an exciting derby duel tonight =D

*Listening to Issues by Escape the Fate*

happy sunday!

2011-01-10T17:10:00.004Z

Ok the first match might have been a tad undeserved - but a win is still a win. And we're through to the 4th round of the FA cup where we face Southampton away in about 3 weeks time. Can't really say I was impressed with our play - there were bits of good moments (the one that involved Reina saving LFC's a** for the xxx-th time!) but the rest was fairly mundane. We controlled the match yet didn't manage to kill it off - this has been my greatest concern about the team and somehow, we haven't seemed to be able to address this. We're lucky to be where we are right now although sometimes I wonder when we'll have to REALLY start playing properly before our luck runs out on us....

The OTHER match was the total opposite. "End to end excitement" is an understatement, really. Villareal plays really good football and are a joy to watch. Their tiki taka play (ala Barca) is a lot more direct and they totally ruled us over the first 45 minutes. In fact, we had to come back from behind TWICE in the first half. After we let in the first goal in the 8th minute, I thought we'd be facing our 2nd defeat... there were 1001 pictures of *El Clasico Murder Part II* in the works of my mind. But thankfully some good footwork by Ozil and Benz + CR7 levelled us. We were still really scrappy and losing the midfield battle (think El Clasico) and so ended up letting in another goal. But CR7 saved the day (again!) when he headed in a FK coming from the left by Xabi... he is absolutely amazing - if one observes his positioning throughout the whole FK + goal scene, you see him first, flaffing about near Xabi and as Xabi kicks the ball, he somehow whisks his way through to head the ball in. Absolutely fantastic! That was actually the turning point, and we just improved from then on. Mou brought in Khedira for Lass - and shifted Ramos to CB (Albiol was poor as CB and couldn't cope with the speed of Ruben or Rossi). We started taking charge and it was all Blancos there on! =D I can probably go on about how the 2nd half was soo amazing yada yada, but I would sound like a broken record - so please watch the 2nd half for the comeback. Mou's tactical changes were brilliant - and as much controversy as the 3rd goal caused, cr7 was NOT offside. It was really awesome watching us play 4-1-4-1 when we were chasing the game (Marcelo, Carvalho, Ramos, Khedira) + Xabi + (Cr7, Kaka, Ozil, Di Maria) + Benz. Admittedly, it could have been a suicidal move, but I think Mou wanted nothing more than to win the game and it paid off. The final goal came from Kaka (cr7 assisted). Anyway, in the last few minutes Benz came off for Gago to tighten the defence. Wonderful football - from both sides and we deserved the win IMHO. =)

OK enough for now as I need to rush off - I doubt anyone really understood my ranting above but please, just watch the match!! =)

*Listening to Poltava by Stroke 9*

Oops..

2011-01-08T21:33:00.003Z

Just realised Nilmar is out injured. Anyway, that doesn't make 'em any less dangerous!

By the way, I'm really liking this song by Atomic Tom - think it's gonna be an ear-worm for me for the next couple of weeks!!

If I was bold enough
I would follow you forever but
Darling please
Rescue me
Take me out

Some may say
It’s my fate
Am I just in time
Or am I late
If you can understand

Then take me out
I don’t start, I don’t end
I don’t change on my own
Take me out
I don’t lose, I don’t win
I don’t do well alone
Love is what we make it
Take my heart and break it
Take me out
I don’t want to stay home

You make me dread
You make me sweat
But can you make
Love mean something instead
Something real
Make me feel

Then take me out
I don’t start, I don’t end
I don’t change on my own
Take me out
I don’t lose, I don’t win
I don’t do well alone
Love is what we make it
Take my heart and break it
Take me out
I don’t want to stay home
I don’t want to stay here
I don’t wanna live half my life and disappear
So if you want to take chances
Take a chance on me
Then take me out
Take me out....

Second best?

2011-01-08T20:48:00.005Z

Tomorrow is a pretty big day in terms of footie matches for my teams. MU takes on L'pool in the 3rd round of the FA cup while RM faces the Yellow Submarines - gulp. Dangerous matches that could go either way...and I'm truly worried.

Facing L'pool is never easy - I guess Hodgson's sacking didn't come at a better time. After getting the boot today, I'm pretty sure the players will finally *show up* for the MU game if you know what I mean. It's been a pretty sad 6 months for Hodgson - he never commanded the respect of his players and his tactics were sometimes truly terrible - never buying/subbing the right players and somehow, his team was always playing with a sense of inferiority... as though they had a point to prove (when there obviously wasn't). Anyhow, LFC ALWAYS chooses to show up when facing MU so I'm predicting a very closely contested yet exciting match tomorrow. SAF says he will field a strong squad and I think so too - I'm guessing the strong line-up would include VdS, Vidic, Evra, Rafael, Evra, Nani, Anderson, Giggs, Fletcher, Berba, Hernandez/Roo (not sure if he's recovered completely from his ankle injury though). In the past 2/3 matches, I've already begun sensing that we're REALLY missing Park :( - I really wished he didn't have to play for the stupid Asian cup. Sigh. (The only good thing about this Asian cup is that Shinji Kagawa will be unavailable for Dortmund, which bodes well for Bayern - lol!!!). A Berba hat-trick repeat would be great but probably to much to ask for!

The other match is even more nerve wrecking. RM takes on Villareal, who has been superb the whole season except for very few hiccups - they even gave Barca a run of their money earlier on in the season! Nilmar and Rossi are fantastique - and I'm not sure whether our defence is fast enough to cope with these two tricksters. Esp when Pepe (the faster one :( ) is out. Albiol is alright but sometimes seems a bit shaky at the back. Mou got a big flacking for losing our Levante match the other day - I don't blame him - the play was so poor and the players played like some old grannies on the field. It's no wonder why most of them aren't starters.... Anyway, our starting 11 for tomorrow has been announced: Benz, CR7, Ozil, di Maria, Xabi, Lass, Marcelo, Carvalho, Albiol, Ramos and Iker. Kaka will come on as a sub - hopefully NOT for Ozil :( I'm increasingly worried that I won't get to see Ozil playing much once Kaka recovers fully -it's really not fair given that he's been playing so well! :( :( :( On the team, we really need to start playing well again - we weren't good vs Getafe and were pathetic vs Levante. I really hate our extended El Clasico hangover...and I really hope we get out of it soon. As much as I don't want to put the blame on Benz, I have to admit that I wouldn't be half as worried if Pipita was around. I really miss his runs, his almost telepathic linking/play with di Maria and his infinitely higher work rate. Benz is so unthreatening and toothless on the field that it really frustrates the hell out of me at times... (OK, I must be patient...breathe in, breathe out...). It's gonna be tough tomorrow but I'm seriously praying for a win, ugly or otherwise! In the case that we lose/draw, I need to warn my friends NOT to talk to me for the next 24 hours....

Earlier on, I was watching (intermittently, admittedly) the Sociedad vs Sevilla match which was pretty good - Sevilla edged Sociedad 3-2. The ultimate upside is the presence of Jesus Navas, who has come back from injury - he is SOO CUTEE! I could just stare into those eyes all day...... :D

Barca are playing Depor right now - it's so gonna be a white wash.... Sheesh. I really can't stand the fact that ALL teams roll over for Barca...

Anyway, let's keep our fingers, toes, hands, legs crossed for tomorrow! =)

*Listening to Firework by Katy Perry*

pathetic display...

2011-01-06T22:44:00.003Z

we're down 2-0, not that it matters but boy, are we playing sooooo badly....doubt we can find 2 equalisers in the next 6/7 minutes. Nevermind, we're already through to the next stage although this will be so bad for the team morale...

staring at the face of defeat no. 2?

2011-01-06T22:21:00.002Z

This is so utterly frustrating as Levante just scored a penalty. Geez....and we're still playing like old grannies. I REALLY miss our forwards... =(

this is clearly...

2011-01-06T21:16:00.004Z

...a second tier line up. It's the 2nd leg of Copa Del Rey (RM is up 8-0 vs Levante from the 1st leg) and a whole host of starters have been rested. This has left us with a rather subdued line up for today (Adan, Mateos, Garay, Carvalho, Arbeloa, Gago, Khedira, Granero, Canales, Leon, Benzema) - and I'm actually falling asleep watching them right now. We've created zero chances in the last 15 minutes and we're playing as slow as a snail - all those back passes are driving me nuts. Argh. Just bring in Kaka, please!?!?!!! I'm missing CR7, Ozil, Di Maria, Xabi, Marcelo already......

Anyway I hope we don't concede any goals today...this match seems to be heading for a snoozefest...

*Listening to Take Me Out by Atomic Tom*

I've concluded that...

2011-01-05T20:50:00.003Z

..the team I dislike the most (other than Barca, obviously) is Arsenal. As I am sitting in front of the TV watching Arsenal vs Citeh, I find myself unknowingly rooting for Citeh to score instead! Well, to be honest, Arsenal has been playing heads and shoulders above Citeh and it's only a matter of time before they start scoring....

At the end of the 1st half, Chelski and L'pool are behind while Spurs is level with Everton.

Back to the TV as the 2nd half gets on the way.....

Back from hols!

2011-01-05T12:15:00.002Z

It's been an awesome 2.5 weeks back home - I really wish it could have been longer! Not gonna write too much about it except that I've been happy (yes, a far cry from the situation last year!) and I'm hoping for a much better 2011 ahead! :D

In footie terms, my teams have been doing OK. RM's won all their matches since the disaster of El Clasico, MU's top of the table (yes, even with the rubbish football we've been playing courtesy of Chelski tripping over and some rather tricky competition in BPL this season!) and Bayern..ermm...well, they resume play on 15th Jan. As I don't have that much of hopes for them this season, I really look forward to the return of Robben and that things start looking brighter from here!

Will start writing more when I get back into the groove...only complaint from me so far is the unbearably cold weather! Oh, and that it's been pretty lonely without my housemates as they aren't back in London yet.... =(

*Listening to Make Your Move by The Product*

Em is...(Part 2)

2010-12-14T08:45:00.002Z

...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...

2010-12-13T12:45:00.006Z

..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...

2010-12-10T15:20:00.003Z

...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...

2010-12-08T17:02:00.002Z

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...

2010-12-07T13:14:00.004Z

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?

2010-12-06T16:34:00.002Z

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?

2010-12-06T09:21:00.004Z

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....

2010-12-03T16:34:00.003Z

...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...

2010-12-03T09:38:00.003Z

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...

2010-12-02T18:19:00.005Z

...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...

2010-12-01T15:49:00.008Z

...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?

2010-12-01T01:23:00.002Z

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*

So Tuesday came after all...

2010-11-30T10:40:00.005Z

After surprisingly being able to sleep quite well (before having some flashes of blaugrana images right before I fell asleep) last night, I woke up to a wintery Tuesday morning. It's snowing in London! My usual 15 minute walk to work took closer to 30mins since I'm v clumsy so I turtled to work for fear of slipping!

Anyway, time for the post-mortem (and my final whinging post!). So what went wrong? I re-read my post on my worries before el clasico and am totally amazed that all my predictions and fears came true. I must be either a genius or an obsessed gal - but how I wish I was wrong. I'm not gonna give any excuses/defend anybody for such a bad game - one thing that was clear last night was that Barca wanted to win more and were pushing for the win non-stop from kick off. Surely we could have done better in the midfield if we weren't so afraid of them? Where was the pace that we were so used to up til last night? How come we seemed so slow? So many questions and zero answers to them. Mou said he couldn't help the team in the 2nd half and I agree with him - by then, we had already given up.

We gave them too much space in the midfield and got killed, the zonal marking clearly didn't work and I still stand by my view that taking Ozil off was a mistake although it wouldn't have made any difference in the end. I also think Mou knew the outcome of this game even before it was played - it's just a really harsh lesson for the players, which hopefully will make them get up again. After getting up their high horses up until last night (I knew after watching Gijon that we were getting wee complacent), being dragged back to earth in such a fashion is not sooo bad. Yeah, it's humiliating, embarrassing, painful, horrible, xxxx , xxxx, etc. (fill in with own words) - but better lose to Barca than to any other team is my opinion. So what if the gulf between them and us is bigger than the Gulf of Mexico? We'll only get better - that I'm very sure of. Throughout the years, MU has lost by big margins before too (but nothing as bad as this that I've watched with my own eyes) - and they always seem to find their way back. All good football teams do.

Knowing the practical me, I don't care if we lose the next clasico as long as we win the La Liga at the end. So no more dropping points and hopefully *fingers crossed* we can bounce back in time to face Valencia this Saturday!

Alrighto - time to get back to being chirpy again! =D

*Listening to Live in a Hiding Place by Idlewild*

Very strange..

2010-11-29T22:04:00.002Z

...that I'm accepting the 5-0 drubbing just like that. I guess I could see this coming - what I hoped was that the margin wouldn't be so big! But oh well, I knew we wouldn't win the moment Ozil was subbed off in the 2nd half. There was no way we could get back into the game when he wasn't on the pitch. Well, it was an amazing game - Barca was amazing - ALL the players were to be honest! =)

As for RM, we were too rattled after we let in 2 goals - and we didn't get back in because we didn't see the ball at all. We respected them too much and paid for it. I'm sure we'll pick up from here. Tomorrow is still a new day - I'm sure we'll get better. It felt a bit like the big blow to my face last week - you expect something but you get none. Nevermind, we all recover - I'm sure they will as I have. It's not like I like them any less now anyway. But Mou shouldn't have subbed Ozil off, he really shouldn't...

*Listening to Imperfect by Stone Sour*

Must stop obsessing

2010-11-29T14:25:00.002Z

If only I was as calm as Mou...

"If we win on Monday, then it'll be Tuesday the next day. And if we lose on Monday, then it'll still be Tuesday the next day."

*Listening to Believe by Skillet*

too depressing...

2010-11-29T12:19:00.002Z

Higuain is not fit yet. ARGH!!!!!!!

This is bad. bad. bad. sigh.

Am totally...

2010-11-28T22:42:00.003Z

...el clasico'ed out. I can't think anymore. Just bring it on already - win or lose, I know I'll still love the team =)

P/S: MU finally found their shooting boots, firing 7-1 vs. Blackburn while Bayern panned Frankfurt 4-1 as well. In all, excellent results but I would have taken double-whammy loses here for a win on Monday. Oh man....

nothing else matters...

2010-11-26T16:39:00.002Z

..until Monday, that is. Argh. This is bad. It's only Friday and I'm already like this. Damn it.

Anyway I'm going to be watching As I Lay Dying tonight - really can't wait! :D

Oh and this week, it's not worth commenting on other matches this weekend - I won't have the concentration anyway (sorry MU, Bayern!). They play Blackburn and Frankfurt tomorrow afternoon - I'll be missing both games though as it's Doug's leaving activity/party/whatever-you-wanna-call-it weekend.

*Listening to An Ocean Between Us by AILD*

after finally hearing the bad news...

2010-11-25T17:57:00.002Z

....i'm strangely relieved! And am glad I didn't spend all that too long dwelling before as well! Let's hope that things improve here onwards... =)

the countdown (and other things) is surely killing me...

2010-11-25T16:03:00.004Z

So what did I say? We did win last night - by a penalty scored by none other than Shrek - actually, I dare not imagine what would have happened if he missed it. We would have still qualified but I don't think the fans would have forgiven him. Anyhow, the match ended up 1-0 - and I thought that we were quite lucky to run away with a not very deserving win. But then again, I think it made up for the foul on Berbaflop in the penalty box at the start of the match, where a penalty was not awarded. In all, a mediocre performance that we managed to scrap a win out of. Not complaining but a tad worried about the future =S

Other than me feeling down (yes, I've not cheered up yet), I'm getting so nervous about the El Clasico that it is literally killing me. I am so scared and I don't even know why. I've already written lengthily about my worries so I won't delve into the details. I just can't help it. Maybe because a defeat at the hands of Barca will kill my hopes for the La Liga title AND UCL simultaneously. I don't want this dream to end now - it'll result in such a bad effect on our confidence that it will either shatter us completely OR make us bounce back even more strongly. Mostly, I fear Barca because they are so good that it is almost impossible to match them one-for-one. The situation is so familiar as it's the Germany vs Spain WC semifinal scenario running in my head all over again - and it is so painful when I think about it. I still hope we'll win and that we can finally show the world that we are a great team - honestly, I've never been so affected by a match before. OK, enough whining from me for now. I will surely write posts like these in the next couple of days, so please bear with me!

*Listening to Awake and Alive by Skillet*

alrighto...

2010-11-24T21:14:00.003Z

...as I'm typing this MU is drawing 0-0 with rangers. Sigh. It's not a bad match to watch but oh so frustrating..... Nevermind. On the happy side, Real won 4-0 yesterday in a REALLY good match - I've only managed to catch half of it, and it was REALLY good. Whilst RM was playing, I was at Brixton watching JEW - they were AMAZING!

Then, today was a not so good day - am feeling a bit under the weather. Not sure why - I guess frustration is part of it, the other is cluelessness? Oh well, I'm sure this feeling will go and I can stop feeling so *numb* as I am right now. I'm glad I have wonderful friends, family, music and football to keep me going at times when I feel like falling over.

I think this pic will cheer me up greatly =)

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for MU to win this match...in the next 15 mins. Gulp.

*Listening to Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World*

i hate...

2010-11-24T16:33:00.002Z

...being scared. sigh.

fear is my weakness. nothing else matters, really.

will write more later though - just feeling the blues out of a sudden. =(

Rushed for time...and still rushing!

2010-11-23T16:09:00.004Z

Was a great weekend - lots of fun - but seems like it has been non-stop action for me. Not like this is gonna change as I have one more concert to go to tonight (Jimmy Eat World! :D). I'll try to summarise it in a later post but in short, had an awesome time in Bruxelles and Bruges, followed by a super amazing concert last night (I LURVE ANBERLIN!). Actually Hawthorne Heights was pretty cool too ..I love the song Saying Sorry - it's so sad and emo ^_^. Today has been a whirlwind and now I'll try to rearrange my life again. Lots of activities leading up to my trip back home...

Anyway, last weekend saw 2 good results and 1 pathetic one. OK OK, I know it's not fair on the Bayern boys but it's just so sad to see their hopes zeroed after last weekend. Dortmund are so gonna win the Bundesliga and I just hope we can qualify next season. Damn. I don't know what has happened to that team....I blame it on the defence, which has been so poor...and the coach, who has been so stubborn that I feel like kicking him (oops). Sigh. Forgive my frustration but I really feel sad when I think about them. Sadder than MU because I know that Bayern has better quality players than MU...

The surprise bit was MU winning ugly-ly (again!) last weekend and Chelski and Arse dropping their matches! We've been playing BAD footie. Like REAL bad. Like so boring I feel like screaming 80% of the time when I watch them. But I hope it gets better from now on. We've been handed the chance to "catch up" now so we better not waste it!

As for Real, 5-1 vs Athletic was pretty decent results. I've yet to rewatch the whole match but there were some sublime bits, and some not so great bits. I'm so worried about the El Classico....because I've admittedly no confidence...and I really can't bear to watch my boys getting smashed =( =( =(. God, how I HATE Barca. Argh. Not good. Oh, and we're playing Ajax tonight in UCL - we've qualified but I sure hope we still win this...it'll be a good boost for our confidence if we do! Oops, this also means I will probably stay up the whole night watching the 2 replays that I missed back to back. O.O

Alrighto back to do some stuff. Praying for a good result tonight, and of course, a great gig! =)

P/S: Forgot to add that Bayern are playing Roma tonight too - but we've already qualified top of table so I don't mind the results - a win would be great though!

*Listening to Work by Jimmy Eat World*

Looking ahead...

2010-11-19T08:34:00.004Z

...to what could be a terribly busy, exciting and potentially upsetting week. Starting tonight, where we'll be going for a black tie event courtesy of lovely Anita :D, followed by 3 days in Bruxelles + Bruges, immediately by Anberlin's concert (SOO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS!), black Tuesday and JEW on Tuesday night itself! Busy busy is what I would sum this up to be. Downside is I'll be missing almost all the matches that's coming up, plus some UCL ones. Boo hiss.

Bayern, MU and RM play tomorrow at different times but I'll be in Bruxelles. Could potentially catch the RM match at night but doubt I'll be that free to catch it tomorrow. We'll be heading to Bruges on Sunday for a day trip and spend half day of Monday back in Bruxelles. Not sure what's to do there - just chilling out I suppose? Just a pity that I'll miss Bayern vs Bayer Leverkusen - should be a good match and I really pray that we win. It's already nearly impossible to win the Bundesliga so I hope we end up top 3 to qualify for UCL next season. Sigh. MU faces Wigan, technically very straightforward match but as has become so routine lately, we struggle against ANY team so I better not write up our chances. Berbaflop hasn't regained his form so that could be a problem. On a side news, we've apparently agreed to sign Lindegaard? Not sure if he's really good or otherwise as I obviously prefer De Gea but knowing how we like not spending any £, I guess he's the best choice. As for RM, we will face Bilbao this weekend - not sure what's gonna happen there - I just know we have to try and win each and every match because Barca is not gonna drop any points. Ramos played a bad game the other day but CR7, Pepe and Carvalho were v good - t'was great to see Portugal smash Spain 4-0! But it was really sad to see Casillas suffer this crash landing - thanks to those Barca defenders - grrr - it's so annoying to seeing them put in such half-a**ed performance when you KNOW they play blood* damn well for their own club. Nonetheless, this build up to El Classico is really making me nervous.

Oh yeah, Gorillaz was pretty damn amazing - very impressed by them even though I've never truly been a hard core fan.

*Listening to Opposite of Adults by Chiddy Bang*

dislikes...

2010-11-16T11:34:00.002Z

...international breaks when your favourite player is not appearing. sigh. actually two of them aren't gonna appear for Die Mannschaft but will try to tune in to the match anyway. Lahm and Ozil are both not called for the friendly - not a bad thing considering they both need rest and it is, after all, a FRIENDLY. I don't want either of them to pick up injuries, esp not before the crucial matches in the coming weeks! Spain is playing Portugal so that will be REALLY good fun to watch! =D Not sure which side I'll be supporting, but at least it'll be like watching a La Liga match again. =)

Not much to say these couple of days methinks - I'm going to see Gorillaz tonight - it should be a fun affair - mainly because I have no idea what to expect. Lol!

*Listening to On Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz*

thoughts ahead of el classico...

2010-11-14T23:16:00.003Z

ok I know it's a bit too soon to blog after I wrote something an hour or two ago - but i just had to get all my concerns and worries out of my chest now before I get more worried as the days go by...

The date for El Classico is looming. 29th Nov, Monday. I don't quite know what to expect or make out of it. From today's game, my confidence in our abilities have fallen by a lurch. Sad, eh? To be honest, I've always feared that the only reason we've won most of our games was due to much weaker oppositions. Unfair? Perhaps so - but we've never really been tested. We have not faced numero 3 Villareal (whom Barca thumped 3-1 yesterday - gulp) and not many top 10 teams in the La Liga. Looking at the table now, we have not played Bilbao and Sevilla too - all of whom Barca whacked (if I'm not wrong). What does this say?

My personal feeling is that our players have not truly gelled up and in a very screwed up way, I think we're still a tad lightweight. We're still far and away from being a team that can understand each other so well that they can play with their eyes closed. The reason why this is important is because Barca can do it (this includes Villa). It's a bit of an unfair statement since majority of Barca's players have been playing together for a LONG time - and comparing them to this exceptionally young but talented 3-month old team that is still a WIP is harsh. Sadly and because we live in the REAL world, there's no escape as the el Classico results will probably be critical to determining the La Liga winner.

To me, RM plays wonderful football (except today where the passing was ALL OVER THE PLACE!!) - but I don't think we can do this when playing vs Barca as I think we'll be starved for the ball. I'm likening the styles to Germany (RM) vs Spain (Barca) - and from WC10 we know that Spain wins in the possession game. We have excellent forwards - but they have the Messi-ah. As much as I like CR7, he is not at Messi's level - when pressured, he loses the ball very quickly and he isn't the type of player that can create a goal from nothing. He has the knack to search for the goal in the penalty area or scoring from free kicks - but his one-on-one, which he used to execute so much when he was with MU (this kinda highlights the difference of quality of players between the 2 leagues!) has become non-existent now. Actually, I think the only person who can probably do this is Ozil - but from his current form, I find it hard to be convinced. I'm sure Ozil has already improved since the WC and I forgive his binary games (ie, one game excellent, one game MIA) due to his young age - but I don't know which form he would display whilst facing Barca?

Our other weakness is that we can't cope that well in high pressing game - just as illustrated today. When the opponent presses us, our passing goes all over the place. I know Barca plays that style - they constantly press the attackers when they defend due to their remarkable fitness levels - I don't know if we can cope with that. RM doesn't play pressing football so we never look aggressive when we face our opponents - from my very humble knowledge of football and from watching the past couple of RM's matches, we usually wait for our opponents to make mistakes and swipe for the kill after that. We don't force them to make mistakes like Barca.

Higuain fluffs too much - he should convert his chances a bit more. I know it's easier said than done, but if he could do that, I think we'll be in a much better position. It's strange that while I never expect CR7 to change a game (or to play well for that matter!), my expectations of Ozil is always unrealistically sky high. I'm always waiting for him to make a killer move or something that makes me go WOW. Obviously that's just silly of me (and I'm not afraid to admit it) but I guess I expect more from him because I know he can do it. I really like Di Maria now - I think he's fast, excellent with the ball, pretty good at defending and has become less of a ball-hog. Maybe he can be the weapon that makes the difference for that match? Benz is a good alternative - if he can win us a match, I don't even mind him replacing Ozil - but these two players are too different. I don't think Ozil is replaceable...and I've noticed that Mou never subs Ozil (no matter how crappy he looks/plays) until we have safely "won" the match.

Xabi and Khedira are solid - but as can be seen today - can be rattled. Xabi wasn't great today because he was pressed a lot and his passing became a bit un-Xabi-like. Both of them will have a tall order handling the Barca midfield and attackers. In the Xabi vs Xavi competition, sadly Xavi does win hands down though.

Our defence...Carvalho is the stable rock. Pepe is great when he's playing well but sometimes he fouls a bit too much or kicks the ball in the most awkward manner. Marcelo is great on his day (not today!) and so is Ramos (ditto!!). However, today's match kinda showed both left- and right-backs were constantly over-ran and were struggling to keep up with Gijon. Barca's back four somehow exude a more solid feel: Pique, Puyol, Alves and Maxwell.

I guess the main reason why I think we're lightweight (only relative to Barca as I'm sure we can take out almost any European champions today) is that if we compare our players with theirs on a like-for-like basis, we don't quite match up. Maybe match up is not the right term to use but I guess our players are more "unproven". I think we just "don't know how good we are" and today's match just points us to the "we have an excellent team but it may be too soon to beat Barca" direction - something I really worry about. We lost badly last year - and that team was supposedly solid. We can't and don't play like FC Copenhagen OR Inter Milan so we can't use those tactics against Barca.

As you know I've left out commenting on the goal keepers - both sides have excellent keepers so there's nothing to say about them. On coaches, I think Pep has an amazing team - probably the most amazing team in Spain (or for the world for that matter) for a long, long time. I've never even seen them playing "badly" if that makes sense (Ok I did miss the Hercules match - maybe I should watch that and see where their weaknesses are). They are a team where I really struggle to find a weakness - every player is excellent and most importantly, usually at least 80% of them are on form and are pretty consistent. On Mou, I like to trust him and I like to think that he knows exactly what he's doing - one thing that I'm almost certain is that his players practically worship him and he probably commands the highest respect from all of them. He is calculating all the time - and is probably scheming numerous plans to topple Barca. He has done it before with a 2-year veteran Inter team - can he repeat it with this 3-month bunch of kids? The idealistic me likes to believe so - to defeat them at Camp Nou would be amazing. But my logical brains are telling me that the best we should be aiming for is a draw but then to beat them at the Bernabeu next year.

I'm impatient. And I love Madrid. So there you go =).

*Listening to Hopeful Romantic by This Century*

frustrating...and lucky!

2010-11-14T21:05:00.004Z

T'was not a great weekend for my footie teams I must admit. MU drew yesterday (although they probably deserved to lose by the awful way they were playing) and RM won an almost undeserving victory. The only positive result was from Bayern, who managed to win convincingly 3-0 (with a penalty from Lahm!! =D). Thank goodness for that!

MU played a terrible game for around 80 minutes, during which we went down 2-0 BUT we were lucky to scrap a draw in the last 10 minutes! Very lacklustre and aimless match. Didn't enjoy watching it - thought Berbatov has reclaimed his Berbaflop namesake and Hernandez still looks way too green on the field. The only +ve thing is Chelski lost (surprise surprise!) to Sunderland today 3-0. That means we're 3rd (one behind Arse and three behind Chelski) - so it's not totally dire yet. But from the way the squad has been playing, I'm not sure I can be too optimistic about our chances.

As for RM. Oh man. They were so poor today. The passing of ALL our players were off - including Xabi! We gave away the ball so much. This surely can't be the team that was beating teams by 4-5 goals a few weeks ago, right? I don't know if this is a one-off bad match but I sure hope it is. Our form is strangely dipping and I don't understand why. Ozil was.....I don't know... I didn't think he was playing that badly in this game but I've read a lot of flaking on his game today so I guess I might be biased. There were probably too many RM players playing poorly today so it really showed in the game - usually if one or two players are off, the rest still play well enough to hold up the crew. Maybe it's Gijon being overly aggressive, fired up and gung-ho after Mou dissed their coach for putting a substandard team when they played against Barca a couple of weeks ago (which was true!)? The Gijon players CERTAINLY looked fired up - very aggressive and rough - but I guess that's always expected of every other team in the La Liga. Or perhaps it's because Mou is not at the touchline? His presence is very important methinks. Sigh. Oh, we did win 1-0 at the end thanks to an excellent effort from Benz and Pipito but it was hard-fought. I don't know how we'll play vs Bilbao next week. Sigh again.

Oh, GGD was good as always during their concert yesterday =). So glad they played all the songs I love!!

Now I need to cheer up....maybe this pic will help me =)

*Listening to Broadway by Goo Goo Dolls*

awesome possum!

2010-11-12T07:45:00.005Z

Linkin Park were AMAZING last night! Way beyond what I was expecting...perhaps I've been totally turned off by their new stuff? I have to admit that even their new stuff sounded quite good live. OK, I admit I'm biased :P

So what's new this weekend? There's a match tomorrow at 1245pm between MU and Villa...so that should be pretty interesting, and then I'm off to see GGD at night! I'm not too excited yet, probably because the LP bonanza hasn't faded off and I've been listening to one LP song in repeat mode for the whole night. Hopefully I get more psyched up by tomorrow. Bayern (vs Nurnberg) and RM (vs Gijon) are playing on Sunday - both late afternoon/evening matches - so it does seem that my weekend will be occupied in the most "constructive" way! =) I'm not sure what to expect though - my teams should be able to overcome their opponents..but there's ALWAYS one upset story. Sigh. *praying hard*

Here's a pic from last night...

*Listening to Waiting for the End by Linkin Park*

crossing the hurdle...

2010-11-11T07:59:00.002Z

...so RM finally managed to expunge themselves from the CDR nightmare. For the past 2 years, they have failed to get past the last 32 (with both times falling to clubs from lower divisions!!). With the 5-1 smashing of Murcia at the Bernabeu last night, we are through to the next round - very happy for that! As expected, my fav dude didn't play - but the players on the pitch last night were great. I managed to catch the bits of the game intermittently (trying to concentrate on 2 matches was not easy though!), and I have to admit that during the times when I was fixated on the laptop, RM were in cruise control. Even with 10-men on the field for the last 10 minutes, we added 2 goals - one from a penalty (from Benz!! Think CR7 gave him the chance to get his name on the scoresheet since he scored earlier on!) and the last one a really wonderful FK from Xabi XD! We did concede a penalty earlier on - otherwise I don't think Murcia would have had the chance to score from freeplay. In all, great game from ALL players...except Canales. Man, he was quite bad and I don't think it was meant to be the Ozil type of intentionally *bad* play (i.e., actually man-marking the opponent's playmaker) since there's no playmaker in Murcia anyway!!! He even got a b*llocking from Mou after the match! Hopefully he bucks up and proves himself on the pitch in future. Slight disappointment but he is only 19 so plenty of time... =)

The match that I was meant to concentrate on was MU vs Citeh. God, that was terrible. We were so toothless in front of the goal that I felt more and more frustrated as the match went by. In the last 20 mins, the play picked up as both sides were looking for the winning goal then. In all, a 0-0 draw left the game very stale, boring and me getting more and more worried about the outlook for the season. We need quicker players - players who can carry the ball QUICKLY from one end to the other - I thought we played at the speed of a turtle to be honest. In the midfield, we tried to play like Barca (have to applaud the passing which was quite good overall)...except we didn't quite have a Messi-ah or the vision of Xavi and Iniesta. I found it quite funny actually. Perhaps I am so used to watching RM, Barca and La Liga teams now that I'm treating that style as the *standard* bearer of footie? I don't know. Anyway, all I know is I don't like this "slow" style that MU is currently playing - we used to be superb at counter attacking (OK, maybe that was back in the days of CR7....)! Hernandez is quick but not as good at ball control yet, Nani is...ermm.. trying to hard to be CR7 when he's kinda miles behind and Berba had a good few touches but I think the link-in with the mid-field is not great, so he has to track back a lot. Park runs around a lot but loses the ball just as much though. I could go on forever but I think I should stop. Hopefully they will improve vs Villa on Saturday *keeping fingers crossed*.

Okie dokies, that's the wrap up of matches last night. I'm off to LP tonight....can't wait to let my hair down! =)

*Listening to Bet U Wish U Had Me Back by Halestorm*

numb...

2010-11-09T14:06:00.003Z

..that's the name of the LP song - and also how I'm feeling right now. I guess I can't handle defeat very well - yeah, even when I knew this was gonna happen! I am only human, afterall. One thing I'm glad about is that I do not need to put on a macho facade when I'm writing here =). Now it's time to pick myself up and move on to the next thing to do on my agenda...

*Listening to Iridescent by Linkin Park*

happy happy weekend!

2010-11-07T21:56:00.002Z

Just finished watching the RM vs Athletico derby match - and we won 2-0!!! It could have been a higher margin though - but I'm glad my favourite player scored ^_^. MU won by a last minute goal from Park (he scored a brace!) and Lahm finally scored one for Bayern, allowing them to draw 3-3. So overall, the results were satisfactory (although I would be infinitesimally happier if RM had put in more goals today....grrr...).

On my weekend: Caving is SOOO fun! We had a fantastic weekend in all and managed to do some sight-seeing around Peak District too ^_^. I'm quite tired and sleepy now but will be watching some BPL footie highlights now as Arsenal lost to Newcastle this weekend and Torres's brace smashed Chelski! Very good for MU I must say!

*Listening to Reborn by Stone Sour*

It's been a long, hard and tiring week...

2010-11-05T11:53:00.003Z

..for me and it's finally Friday. Strange how so much can happen when you wake up at 5-6am for a couple of mornings. But anyway, I'm glad it's the weekend and I'll be off with my best mates for a caving adventure. It starts in a couple of hours actually, as Car will be driving us up to Yorkshire for the weekend. The upside is it will hopefully be good fun (so long as I don't drown!) but downside is I'll be missing 2/3 matches this weekend. Boo. Bayern plays tonight vs M'gladbach while MU plays Wolves (again!) tomorrow. I'll have to remember to record these matches when I get home afterwards (please remind me!). BUT I'll be back in time for the Madrid derby this Sunday evening! I still can't get over how awesome the match was the other day (and also amazed at how much I love the team) - we still have plentiful of weakness and at the moment, there is no way we can beat Barca, but eventually we will. I think they need more experience, more ups and downs....

Anyway, this will be short and sweet. So ciao and will write more soon - could potentially be a terribly depressing or a very happy post the match on Sunday!

*Listening to Turn So Cold by Drowning Pool*

enlightened!

2010-11-04T13:47:00.001Z

This explains why Ozil doesn't seem influential...

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/11/04/milan-2-2-real-madrid-tactics/

=)=)=)

never have I...

2010-11-03T22:09:00.003Z

...been so happy with a draw. So we drew 2-2 in the FINAL minute of the game. It was so nerve-wrecking. I was seriously convinced we would lose and then Benzema + Leon combo gifted us saving grace! Mou is a freaking genius - he took off Pepe and Higuain for those two and they delivered. AmazingIt would be unjust to lose - yes, we fell asleep then slipped up a bit, but I didn't believe we deserved to lose...not with Milan playing so dirty and the ref somehow conveniently overlooking the fouls that Milan pulled. It was an amazing game - Milan played very well I have to admit - they actually had pace and looked like a total different team from 2 weeks ago. I love Ozil but he is definitely off-form, that much is clear, and both Pepe and Casillas had a poor game - they pretty much played a part in letting in the two totally avoidable goals (one was actually off-side mind you!). Re Ozil, I hope he finds his form back soon and for his own good, I think benching him for a few matches wouldn't hurt. He was quite invisible in the match - not finding the right space and position...which should be his forte? Anyway, the season is long and players' form go up and down so we shall see.

On the other match, Bayern whitewashed Cluj 4-0 with a hattrick from GOMEZ! :) Didn't pay attention to that match after we were up 2-0 to be honest. But will watch the goals later.

All I can say is I am SO happy and now I know I can safely say that I really love RM team *grin*.

Getting edgy again...

2010-11-03T08:55:00.003Z

..as the stress of the RM match looms. ARGH. Need to stop worrying. But I can't help it. We've never WON at San Siro - and that's what really worries the hell out of me. And they'll definitely come back wanting to kill us. ARGH (Again). Ok, enough complaining and let's get down to some thoughts about last night.

I was watching MU vs Bursasphor - and as I expected, it was a bit one-sided. First half was a snoozefeast, second half better and we scored 3! Very proud of the young players who scored i.e., Obertan and Bebe (yes, that dude that SAF bought without seeing his skills!). With the quality we have, I don't think we can get very far in the UCL TBH - a semifinal spot will be a bonus. Most likely, we'll get knocked out of the Q-finals...unless we can add some good players in the January window. The midfield is a real weak spot - I don't know how we will cope with playing with the likes of Barca... (saying that, they drew yesterday! So proud of FCK ;o) ).

The other match played, which was LOADS more exciting was Spurs vs Inter. Man: Spurs can REALLY kick a**. They seem to be able to elevate themselves to a different level when playing UCL matches - I think Euro opponents tend to underestimate Spurs and are not used to seeing them play in UCL, hence do not know their style of play. Spurs somehow manages to catch the big teams offguard - perhaps its opponents don't expect this sort of play/form coming from the 4th-ranked English team. Saying that, I think Benitez is a total idiot - how could he not know how to counter Spurs? As exciting as they are and having home advantage aside, Spurs is definitely counter-able as proven by their track record in BCL. Furthermore, Benitez was managing LFC for years - surely the experience MUST count? Anyhows, well done to Spurs for a brilliant match and too bad for Inter - seeing Maicon getting his a** kicked by Bale was an eye-opener I must say.

OK, enough on that. FCB are playing Cluj away tonight. And we have only 15 players available. Great. The more I see the season progress, the more depressed I get - esp with key players totally off-form or getting injured one by one (Olic the latest victim and he's out for 6 months). Really hope Muller finally gets his groove back and that Lahm is back to normal. Sigh. I'm also saying that because I have no faith in Gomez or Kroos. Don't ask me why but I can usually spot a good player when I see one - and I somehow can't see the aura/shiny cloud that usually surrounds special players in them. I really do hope I'll be proven wrong by the end of the season.

Done for now - I'll be nervous the whole day anyway. You'll probably hear how happy or depressed I am tonight in any case... =)

*Listening to 30/30 - 150 by Stone Sour*

It's kinda strange...

2010-11-02T14:58:00.002Z

...how passionately I feel when RM plays, and much less so when FCB or MU plays. I think I've kinda underpinned the reason. And it's very much like how I expected in the preview I wrote on the 3 teams I support for this season: RM actually has a shot at being the best team...although this is obviously still unproven since they have not won anything yet. But I do love the style of football they play: fast flowing, attacking footie - not the passing, and passing, and passing style which I absolutely abhor. Oh, and the cutesy-ness when they celebrate each goal is so adorable because they really look like young guys playing their heart out and having fun on the pitch as a team. (ANYWAY, please forgive my obvious obsession for the rest of the year)

Tonight, MU plays Bursasphor away - tough match and I just realised that history shows we're never very good away in Turkey. And the squad is depleted from the services of Ferdinand and Giggs. I'm only hoping for a MORE interesting match compared to the 1st leg. I really wouldn't be able to take another zzz-feast.

As for tomorrow, tough one at Milan is making me nervous. This will be the real test. Playing in San Siro will not be easy, and Milan is looking to torture RM at the back of the first leg defeat and the unjust defeat at the hands of Juve over the weekend. :S :S :S

FCB...well I don't know. I hope they will play well enough to grab the 3 points needed to qualify. I really wish Lahm and Muller improves from now on...they've been really disappointing in Bayern kits (but OK for Germany, very strange!) so far in the season. It's not early days anymore and we can't afford to drop points/form...seeing that we're 10 points behind the leaders.

Oh well, enough ranting. You'll hear some more rants from me tomorrow. Wish me luck!

*Listening to Hesitate by Stone Sour*

Slightly concerned...

2010-11-01T12:58:00.003Z

...with reports/rumours/conspiracies that nobody (actually it's Angel and Xabi) passes to Ozil during the game. Man, that's a bit upsetting =(

*Listening to Welcome to the Family by Avenged Sevenfold*

Ozil was rubbish today but at least we won!! :D

2010-10-30T21:42:00.005+01:00

Continuation of my one-line post yesterday night. Typed that while waiting for Stone Sour to come on at Hammersmith Apollo (which, by the way, was an awesome concert - and I personally felt SS edged A7X a little last night! ^_^). Anyway, I'm so glad we managed to come back from behind to beat Hercules 3-1! Ozil had a terrible match - apparently he was a ghost- not sure why he didn't play well GIVEN he was rested against Murcia. He has been awesome in the past 3 weeks...I hope he realises that his place in the squad isn't secure and that Benzema/Canales/Leon could easily take his spot if he fails to perform. =( Praying he will bounce back in mid-week for the Milan match!

On the other match, MU beat Spurs 2-0 (OK, technically 1-0). When I was watching the match in the first half, I thought they played pretty well - Park has stepped up in this match, which is great, given he has been rubbish for a while now. He seems to have perked up and looks to be taking the initiative to create chances since he scored in the league cup match on Tues. I can't stand Nani though - God, does he need to dive/pretend/act up EVERY time an opponent touches him? But in all, good results over the weekend.

Now to pray for the UCL clashes....and other things. Gulp.

*Listening to Digital (Did You Tell) by Stone Sour*

1/3 happy!

2010-10-30T13:57:00.002+01:00

Bayern won 4-2 yesterday - and I 'm relieved. They were TERRIBLE in the first half - god knows what was going on - they played without energy and pace. But the 2nd half was great - and I finally got a glimpse of the Bayern that I was waiting for all this while!!! Demichelis made a rare and also sudden start after Badstuber injured himself in warm-up - and he repaid LvG with the first goal of the game, few minutes before half time. He's not that bad to be honest, but then I think the CBs in Bayern suck in general. DvB sucks quite badly too so I don't know if choosing Demi instead will make much of a difference. Butt does not instill any confidence in me - man, I think he should retire.... Lahm had a bad game too - I really hope he finds his form back =(. But onto the positive bits, Tymo was very good again - and contributed to a goal too! The other 2 (or 3..GRRR I HATE BRAAFHEID - he put in an OG in the final few minutes of the match and I really felt like killing him!!!) came from Gomez and Kroos (with a 25 yard howler!). All in all, it was a good result even if only our 2nd half performance deserved to be commended upon. Kroos has never impressed me - he always seems to be a bit to slow and his passing isn't great - he also has a tendency to shoot from far (but usually it's way above the goal), I hope this is a turning point for him as well and he continues to improve for Bayern. Apparently in the past year or so, a lot of people have rated him much more highly than Ozil so I am left here wondering if they were all blind or something?!? Let's hope this revival continues on....next on, I think, is a match against Roma in mid week.

In a couple of hours, the MU match, and then the RM match will take place. I'm really nervous....

*Listening to Unfinished by Stone Sour*

Afraid of the mighty slayers?

2010-10-29T09:23:00.005+01:00

You bet I am! Both MU and RM face tough foes tomorrow night while FCB are looking at another "park-the-bus" team tonight at home with Freiburg. I'll be catching the game tonight though - hopefully we'll just about win? I don't know. Our attack has been futile lately - Klose is out again for another 3 weeks, Gomez seems to have lost his form again, Altintop is a disaster and Muller is..well, off-form. Our defence looked so bad against Werder that I'm not too sure what's happening. Lahm also seems to be underperforming lately - the early goal from Werder was partially his fault... I'm expecting a low scoring game...and I think we'll let in a goal. Nothing they've done lately has given me confidence on them playing as a team. We have been lucky...but it's only a matter of time before it runs out and you need to start relying on real skills to win, isn't it? BUT because I love the team, I hope our luck runs up 'til the point when Robbery comes back for good!!! =D

RM faces Hercules tomorrow night (which I will be missing AGAIN - sigh - but due to the A7X and Stone Sour concert! :D) - and I'm really scared that we'll drop points. My confidence of the team has been whacked after Tuesday. It sure does seem that RM hasn't found a way to beat park-the-bus teams. Barca probably learnt how to deal with that last season so they have handled it with amazing efficiency this season (Bar one: Hercules. Gulp. :S) by basically relying on one touch/genius moves from Messi. As much as I rate CR7 as the star of the team, he is still not at Messi's level. It was clear during Tuesday's match that he couldn't carry the team against defensive teams by himself. Definitely not like how Messi does it for Barca anyway. Yes, CR7 could sometimes pull one-man-tricks against more "open" opponents but even then, he does rely quite a lot on his team mates to deliver the ball to him. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad thing at all but I do sometimes feel that a successful team needs a single player that can make the difference/change the flow of a game that is not going well - and I frankly don't see him as that sort of player. Ozil may be more capable in this respect - but I probably need to see a lot more evidence to substantiate this point.

MU faces a TOUGH home game with Spurs. Ugh, Spurs is so dangerous. Won't be surprised if we lose considering how aggressive Spurs has been (albeit not consistent - but then again, so are we!). I just can't stand the potential gloating from my bro. Ugh x 1000. They scare me because Spurs has the tendency to score late goals and are good at catching up from behind, while we have been the total opposite - usually taking the lead, but throwing it away at the last minute! Bad combination. Hopefully Hernandez's good form continues and Berba starts scoring again as he hasn't scored since the L'pool match.....

That's all the matches for the w/e - I just have to pray for +ve results from all of them by keeping my fingers, toes, legs, etc., crossed!

Also hoping for an awesome concert tomorrow night - it'll be a double bill of A7X and Stone Sour! Woohooo!!!!!

*Listening to Mission Statement by Stone Sour*

I'm strangely...

2010-10-27T11:09:00.005+01:00

...still feeling gutted over yesterday's loss. Or perhaps I'm just being a bitter prat as Barca won their game easily 0-2? Not sure why I'm still this upset. I'm now having bigger and bigger doubts about how far RM can realistically get to this season. Our one weakness is the inability to penetrate parked buses - surely we'll only be facing more and more teams like this from now on? We have not even met the top 5 contenders in the La Liga yet and we're already stuttering like this? Would Ozil have made the difference yesterday? Or would he have been equally lost at how to handle this? I know these are unanswerable questions - ARGH - OK at least they are out of my system. Reading Hercules's credentials, they are apparently professional bus park-ers...so I'm very worried now. Another draw (or worse still, loss!) would be a big blow to our confidence ahead of the Milan match next week.

So what is the solution? You tell me. Sigh.

*Listening to The Never-ending Why by Placebo*

Two-thirds happy....

2010-10-26T21:30:00.007+01:00

I am SOO relieved that Man U got pass Wolves just in time! Hernandez scored the goal in the last couple of minutes of the game...a superb and important goal to put us in front 3-2. Boy, I love that guy!! :D Now I'm happy - when I began typing this post, we were ahead 2-1, then it became 2-2 and Hernandez was subbed in and scored the winner! :D I was happy before this, too, because Bayern manage to get out of the Werder jinx to win 2-1 thanks to 2 magnificent goals from Schweini (after a stupid defensive error in the 2nd minute!!!). I thought it was over when Pizarro scored. But Bayern was lucky (although IMHO, we wasted too many chances by Altinflop not being clinical enough throughout the match) as Werder was very dangerous and defending awfully well, too. Muller wasn't lucky (well, TBH he hasn't been lucky for a while now!) and got penalised a couple of times tonight. But never mind, the most important thing was to win and we did! :D

Next comes the not so good part. Murcia. ARGH. They parked the bus in front of their goal (I really mean it, RM had 89% possession!!!) and we couldn't score. At all. Yeah, not even with Ronaldo, Higuain, Di Maria (albeit they played partially in the game) - but it's sad. Watching the game was so frustrating. We tried so hard but couldn't put anything in. Throughout the game, I was being quite critical though - renouncing Benzema, Leon, Canales, Granero, plus everyone else who are non starters, basically, to the bench - IMVHO, they were clearly not good enough for the team (OK me being biased and angry right now so I might take this statement back later on...). Now I totally understand why Mou plays his starting XI. Without Ozil and Xabi to deliver the balls up front, RM looked like an ordinary team. And that's not a good sign. Most of the young players (excluding Benzema...grrrr) tried so hard - esp Canales, Granero, Leon - but it was clear that they still had a LONG way to go before being allowed to start a match. I wouldn't start them if I were Mou. Canales looked lost most of the time - and Leon was trying too hard and fluffing WAY too many chances. I know they were both trying hard to impress the boss but c'mon!!!! Anyway, at least we didn't lose and I think Murcia knew that this was the best they could do. Their keeper was awesome though - definitely my MoTM - he made excellent saves and denied us SOO many chances on goal. Oh well - now that we've tasted "defeat" and have been brought down to earth once again, we will have to start right from bottom (I'm sure Mou has given the guys a good b*llocking after the match and since RM didn't lose, they won't be dead to Mou. HAHAHA!!!). Oh, and methinks Benzema will be permanently benched until January when the transfer window opens again as he blew his chance to do something useful for the team today. I never truly appreciated the XI - now I do - and I think every other fan does as well. I sure hope we will bounce back for this weekend when we face Hercules! =)

That's all for me, folks. More laterz...

*Listening to Almost Easy by Avenged Sevenfold*

Totally forgot..

2010-10-26T08:38:00.002+01:00

...that there are 3 matches to watch tonight. Don't know how I'm gonna juggle these but I'll very likely rush home to watch FCB vs Werder on TV, while switching intermittently to see MU vs Wolves on another channel and keep the RM vs Murcia match going online!

Lol! Happy days indeed.

*Listening to Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold*

Good results over weekend!

2010-10-25T12:42:00.002+01:00

Short post from me today - but RM thumped Santander 6-1 on Sat night! :D Much to my delight - I was a bit worried before that but as I was nervously checking the results before dinner, it was 5-0! About 10 minutes later, Ozil scored the 6th! =D I was SOO happpy!! I watched the recording of the match yesterday - and man, were they on fire. A bit messy but very good - I'm hoping Ozil will get the rest he very much needs during these few days (he's not playing in the CDR match tomorrow) and play even better after that. Somehow, the moment he leaves the field, the attacking chances and prowess reduces noticeably (I don't think I'm biased when I'm saying this). I have noticed how Mou plays Ozil: he usually keeps Ozil on the field until RM are in a very comfortable position before taking him off. Canales, who came on for Ozil, was good - but it's hard to judge him unless I watch him play a full match (which would be the CDR I reckon!). As most people have said (and I have observed), he's still a bit green - give him time and I'm quite sure he will be a starter for RM in the near future. BUT, I am admittedly a tad bit disappointed - maybe I was expecting to see a player that blows me away (ala Ozil) - but perhaps I was expecting too much!

The Man U-Stoke match was awesome - Man U were a bit shaky and too much fouling occurred. Man U deservedly won, only by a breath though, because Stoke equalised at the 80th minute. I was already about to cry because I thought it would end in a draw. Thankfully, Hernandez did his magic again to score his 2nd goal in the match. Amazing guy and am really liking him. Definitely not the finished product yet, but hopefully getting there. His first goal was deflected into the net by a back header!! I hope the season has turned the other way round for us.....

That's all for me now - probably more after the CDR match tomorrow!

*Listening to Through Glass by Stone Sour*

scrappy results + excellent concert!

2010-10-23T11:54:00.002+01:00

Bayern drew 0-0. Sigh. I am totally lost for words and am pretty sure they will struggle to qualify for UCL if this carries on. I know, I know - a lot of their first team players are injured - but hey, it happens to every team, doesn't it? Esp for first rate teams, coaches should be well prepared to face these sort of unexpected circumstances. In ANY case, I'll just have to keep supporting them as I believe they do have the quality to produce good football. *breathe in, breathe out*

As I was so anxious checking out scorelines, I was actually in the Apollo Hammersmith waiting for Alter Bridge. Man, they were AMAZING! Myles Kennedy is the ultimate frontman - such a good voice and boy, do they ROCK! I still can't freaking believe that his musicians were in Scott Stepp's Creed band members =.=" (ugh, gives me goosebumps!). Anyway, the concert made me happy at least =). It's funny how I felt so crap before the concert, but during the concert, I had a miraculous recovery, to then feel crap after it! So I think the best cure for any form of illness is rock concert therapy! ^_^ Luckily I'm feeling fine today *fingers crossed* and about to go for a hen do in the next half hour.

Tonight is also the RM vs Santander match, which I will be missing (booooo hisss). I'm not sure what to expect of though - RM tends to slip up against weak clubs....but I'll keep my faith in them =) =) =) *Ozil*

*Listening to Breathe Again by Alter Bridge*

Rooney is the biggest hyprocrite EVER!

2010-10-22T13:12:00.001+01:00

O.O

Properly annoyed he started this whole drama and just signed a 5-year contract. Must be trying to negotiate higher £wages. Jeez......

It's nearly the weekend again...

2010-10-22T09:18:00.002+01:00

How fast time flies and before you know it, it'll be December! Anyway, I've been feeling ill since yesterday - am marginally better today - was about to come down with a flu + cold + fever. Ever since I was feeling slightly feverish, I've been dousing myself with panadols every couple of hours as I need to be well enough for...

1) Alter Bridge tonight

2) El's hen party tomorrow

In ANY case, it's not like I will miss either occasions! I'm really looking forward to the gig tonight - AB is an amazing band - they're SOO much better than Creed and I'm really liking their new album. Only slight nugget is that I'll be missing the Hamburg vs. Bayern match. Perhaps it's a good thing as I can't fathom any logical explanation for a Bayern win. Yeah, it's sad but without *Robbery* (i.e., Robben + Ribery - btw I'm really liking this nickname!), Bayern is almost like a B-team. Muller hasn't regained his form yet, and Lahm can only do so much since the defence is so weak. Kroos is...hmmm...I don't know - I never really got to liking his style of play - he's not exactly fast or accurate and he keeps shooting totally out of range. However, I'm probably quite unfair to compare him to AM players like Ozil though. He'll probably end up being a Schweini type of player IMHO. Altintop is completely hopeless - enough said. Hopefully FCB's good luck didn't run out on Tuesday and Gomez can score tonight...or maybe I'm just hallucinating due to my fever?

The more upsetting fixture that I will be missing is the RM vs. Racing Santander tomorrow night. It'll probably be one of the rare chances to see Canales play (or at least I think he will....) - must remind myself to tape the match! Also, I never liked missing watching Ozil play - his playing is so addictive and I can only wish to see him play every day (He'll probably die from fatigue by the end of the week I reckon! Lol!). Oh well. Let's hope RM's momentum keeps up and that we don't get overconfident!

As MU plays on Sunday, I'll get to watch the Stoke match (yes, I promise not to sleep during the match!) and the next one should excite anyone: Arsenal vs Man City! I'm really liking Silva - he's an amazing AM - surely a Fabregas vs Silva fixture will be fun to watch!

*Listening to Rise Today by Alter Brige*

ugh.

2010-10-21T09:16:00.006+01:00

OK - so we won - but boy, the match was beyond boring. After Nani scored a spectacular goal at the 7th minute, the excitement just went downhill thereafter. Yep, I'm talking about the remaining ~85 minutes of the match. But being the supporter that I am, I refrained from switching to the Inter-Spurs match (which ended 4-3!), and forced myself to watch them play. I can't believe that this is happening - never have I ever felt *bored* watching a MU match up until this season - it started with the MU-Rangers match (which was also a snoozefeast) and then the lucky win over Valencia (yes and that was at 2.45am M'sian time!!). I can take low scoring games, but please play with some flair, skills and ambition! In that respect, I can't complain about the way RM plays - they play a really good game of attacking/flowing football with so much energy and pace.

Nonetheless, 3 wins from my 3 teams is not bad. I'm missing the RM match this Sat night (must remind myself to tape it!) and am having second thoughts about watching the MU-Stoke match on Sun. Oh dear.

Here's a pic to make me happy :D

*Listening to Show Me a Sign by Alter Bridge*

Phewwww............... :D

2010-10-19T21:38:00.002+01:00

Is really relieved - FCB and RM won 3-2 and 2-0, respectively. MoTM for the RM was defo Ronaldo - wow, I nearly forgot how Ronaldo was =). Ozil had a so-so match - could have been better, honestly. Nonetheless, I'm relieved and happy - hoping tomorrow will be a happy night too!

Bad news: Roo is leaving.

2010-10-19T14:47:00.003+01:00

Looks like it's for real. Oh well - I always believed that one should not try to keep a player that does not want to play for you.

But thanks for the awesome season of '09/'10 - we couldn't have done it without you (esp with CR& gone)!

*Listening to Bittersweet Memories by BFMV*

Tonight, tonight...

2010-10-19T10:35:00.007+01:00

The UCL continues tonight with 2 of my teams playing (simultaneously) - I'll be splitting my concentration between the RM and FCB matches, with greater attention on the RM match.

Honestly, if FCB can't overcome Cluj, I really think they don't deserve to get through! Obviously I'm not hoping for that to happen but you never know - FCB is still rather inconsistent and shaky; the midfield is left wanting...and defence...when the CB you use is actually a defensive midfielder, you know it's time to improve your squad (no offence to Tymo as he did great in the Hannover match)! LvG is a master tactician, no doubt - so we'll see what he comes up to tonight *fingers crossed*.

The other match really makes me nervous. Maybe because RM's record against AC has been quite bad - don't think we've won against them in the past couple of years - and AC has a super power frontline that includes Ibrahimovic, Pato, Ronaldinho and Robinho. If that is not scary enough, I don't know what is. IMHO, our defence is still not as solid as acclaimed. I agree with most opinions flying around that RM has not faced a challenging club so far so this match will definitely be a test of true skills and whether these guys can play together as a team. Will Özil be able to rise to the occasion this time around? Or will he be left invisible (or hard pressed in midfield) ala WC10 semis? I don't know. I'm obviously hoping for him to shine here, to prove to the world that he is indeed capable of facing and taking on the world's best teams and excel. Ah well, nonetheless, all the luck to RM for the game tonight *fingers, toes, hands, legs, whatever, crossed*!

So 2 matches that could leave me grinning ear-to-ear or depressed/screaming/tearing - let's hope for the former. =)

*Listening to Keep It Together by Puddle of Mudd*

Random suggestion...

2010-10-18T11:00:00.003+01:00

...after the numerous rumours flying around about Rooney getting kicked out of MU: what about a swap of Torres for Rooney? Since they are both out of form, might as well just swap them for £0 transfer fee. Pretty sure things can't get any worse anyway.

*Listening to All Hope is Gone by Slipknot*

Good result! =)

2010-10-17T22:56:00.006+01:00

Thankfully, watching the final match yesterday was indeed very satisfying! Just FYI, I was hibernating in front of laptop/TV from 2.30pm up to 11pm!! Luckily I have very wonderful friends who understand my utter obsession. Lol! Anyway, the 1-4 drubbing of Malaga was a joy to watch and it basically made my day (which fortunately did not actually end after the match, but carried on 'til 5am since we were playing games after that haha!). Anyway, I do admit that Malaga is not a top-tier team and that the real challenge will take place this Tuesday, when RM takes on AC - now, that is definitely going to be the REAL test of whether the team is good enough, or not. But nonetheless, the two big wins are confidence boosters and I, for one, am glad.

Ozil has been nothing but a joy to watch (bias Em again!) - he assisted the 2nd goal for a tap in for CR7; won a penalty that CR7 converted AND also nearly assisted RM's 5th goal (Benzema was the culprit for this!?!?!). CR7, Higuain and Marcelo were outstanding yesterday - Marcelo was surprisingly not giving the ball away that much! Alonso had a so-so day while Di Maria was decent enough to terrorise the flank. Khedira was steady as always while I think Ramos was missed as the right-back because Albeloa wasn't having a good game. But very soon after the 4-1 was achieved, Mou substituted Higuain and Ozil for Pedro Leon and Canales (finally!). The moment when Mou went over to "ask" Leon to warm up was SOO funny - it was as though he was shouting "Hey you, what are you doing? Hurry up and warm up!" - nonetheless a VERY startled Leon immediately got up to jog (well there was some issues of a bust up between the 2 recently, that probably explains why :P). Still, he did impress me quite a bit, very quick on the flanks and with pretty good crossing skills. Canales, well, I really can't conclude much from the 10-minute cameo for Ozil except that he picked up a yellow card (?!?)...but I probably need to see him play a full match before I judge him. Whereas for Pedro Leon, it was quite evident that he was good (albeit he did have around 20mins of playing time AND is older with more experience), I couldn't quite make out anything to say on Canales - perhaps he will feature more in the Copa del Rey? I have yet to see this most talked about "talent and skills" of this guy - but am happy to give him a chance (yes, he's v cute and I'm unashamed to confess that I'm a total sucker because of that ^_^)

Next up is the RM vs AC match and FCB vs Cluj UCL matches on Tuesday followed by MU vs Bursasphor on Weds. Really looking to these matches! :D OK, I am actually very worried about the outcome for all of them (esp RM), but there's really nothing I can do but pray that they all get through OK....

Love this pic below from yesterday's match btw!

*Listening to Open Your Eyes by Alter Bridge*

2 matches gone...

2010-10-16T17:20:00.003+01:00

...and so far, there's been one good result, and one bad result.

Bayern finally found their form in the 2nd half of the match. They started off very shaky and Hannover actually looked a hell lot more dangerous on attack. But later on, the team (I have to say that it's mostly the 2nd string players since they have a LONG list of injuries...) glued and then it all began when Gomez scored his first! Gomez ended up with a hat-trick to make the final result 3-0. I don't know if this is the turning point we are looking for, but I sure hope so! =) Another piece of good news is Mainz stuttered and lost to Hamburg today - but Dortmund nicked a win off Cologne yesterday at the final minute! All in all, I sure hope it's going up from here for FCB =) =) =)

Man U...man, I really want to scream when I think of how we lost a 2-0 lead to draw by the end of the match. I knew we were not great, but not THIS BAD! It's so pathetic - and I feel so sad and depressed thinking about it.

About to start watching some filler matches (Chelski vs Aston Villa; followed by Barca vs Valencia...) before the REAL match comes along....

I would be really sad if that one ended badly though........

*Listening to Don't Cry by G&R*

Weekend's nearly here!

2010-10-15T12:01:00.002+01:00

And it's the resumption of regular footie!! Yippee!! Looks like I will have to wait for a couple of months before seeing the German team in action once again.

Anyway, tomorrow can prove to be a rather fruitful (or disastrous...gulp!) day in terms of *crucial* matches to watch for me. In a sad way, all 3 of my teams have to collect 3 points each this time - even draws will NOT be good enough at this stage - especially for MU and FCB. For RM, we need the points to keep up with Valencia and Villareal, while trying to keep Barca at bay. Starting with the FCB match kicking off at 2.30pm, which I will try to watch simultaneously with the MU match, which starts at 3.00pm - although I'm not sure how I'm gonna do this or which commentary to follow without missing out on the action. Then, I think I will be shifting downstairs to watch the Chelski match on TV at 5.30pm while trying to help with some cooking (as we're hosting a small party at our house tomorrow) :P. Then from 7.00pm, there will be 2 La Liga matches that will surely be the highlight of the weekend - FCB vs Valencia; followed by Malaga vs RM!

I sure hope my friends don't think I'm being antisocial between 7-11pm tomorrow....

*Listening to All I Want by A Day to Remember*

Life is beautiful...

2010-10-14T11:39:00.002+01:00

I've heard this song for nearly 2 years now - and have just been re-listening to this after discovering that DJ Ashba is also part of the band, Sixx: A.M.

Awesome and really sad song...

You can't quit until you try
You can't live until you die
You can't learn to tell the truth
Until you learn to lie

You can't breathe until you choke
You gotta laugh when you're the joke
There's nothing like a funeral to make you feel alive

Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful
Will you swear on your life
That no one will cry at my funeral?

I know some things that you don't
I've done things that you won't
There's nothing like a trail of blood to find your way back home

I was waiting for my hearse
What came next was so much worse
It took a funeral to make me feel alive

Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful
Will you swear on your life
That no one will cry at my funeral?

Alive...
Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful
Will you swear on your life
That no one will cry at my funeral?

Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful
Will you swear on your life
That no one will cry at my funeral?

Just open your eyes
Just open your eyes
And see that life is beautiful
Will you swear on your life
That no one will cry at my funeral?

Totally blown away...

2010-10-14T08:29:00.002+01:00

...by the G&R concert last night. They were absolutely amazing! Definitely one of the best concerts I've ever seen in my life =) Albeit, Axl came on an hour late (which I was actually thankful for LOL!) - so he came on stage at 9.40pm but proceeded to give the best 2hr 40mins of live music one can ever hope for! I know how everyone puts off G&R just because the band is without 80% of its original line-up (notably Slash) but his new musicians are nothing short of amazing. Man, I have a total crush on one of them: DJ Ashba....his guitaring is STUNNING! Anyway to cut a long story short, they played a good mix of new and old stuff - and without being biased, I must say that the new stuff is surprisingly good too. Axl is in a class of his own in terms of showmanship - boy, does he know how to strut his stuff - AND all those years of rock and roll hasn't affected his voice one bit. In all, freaking awesome show!

Since I'm half happy now, I really hope Saturday will make the other half of me happier still ^_^

*Listening to Paradise City by G&R*

Some thoughts...

2010-10-13T14:28:00.011+01:00

...now that footie season will resume starting this Saturday (for my teams anyway!). Ironically enough, now that I've started supporting 3 teams from 3 different leagues (explicitly) for the first time, I'm pretty certain that none of these teams will come out top of their respective leagues. Sad but true - My brother always used to diss me for supporting teams that are at the top but I'm sure he'll have to take that back now!

Man U: I've supported since I was tiny so my loyalty remains with them without a doubt. I have some teensy weensy hope that they may just end up 2nd! How sad that this once magnificent team has fallen badly. Given that the midfield seems to really lack any creative juice and Rooney has been totally off pace thus far, I can only hope for Hernandez and Berbatov to pull off some miracles this season! Tall order I know. Berbatov isn't even the highest rated out-and-out striker in the BCL, let alone Europe (that belongs to Drogba, Llorente, Milito, Eto'o or Villa!) and Hernandez seems to have some problems keeping his balance (or keeping the ball in most cases!). Oh well, I'm hoping MU gets to the UCL semis...but I'm really not that optimistic about their chances though. MU's defences and firepowers should be good enough to take them far - but a weak midfield will definitely come back to bite them in the end. Sadly enough, there's only so many games 37 or 38 year olds can play.

FCB: Started supporting them after Germany's stellar World Cup campaign with a severe case of liking for Lahm, Schweini, Klose and Muller. BUT after a horrific start of the season, they are now lying in 12th position. I really don't think they can possibly make up for the lost points, which is a shame as they have been playing without 2 of their undoubtedly most creative midfield players, Robben and Ribery, both marred by injuries 'til year end. Sigh. Perhaps UCL finalist, again? That's probably the most I can hope for at this stage. Right now, I just hope they can overcome Hannover this Saturday. With Klose out with hamstring injury picked up from the game last night, I will have to pray that Gomez and Olic make themselves useful. Muller hasn't been playing brilliantly and Schweini is probably still out for this game. When everyone gets back on the team, FCB's starting 11 should have a world-class midfield and strike-force - but defence is something that has to be improved. God, how I hate Demichelis. =.="

RM: My support for them only started due to one person - Mesut Ozil. I've been totally enamoured with him since the first time I saw him play in WC10 and never looked back! Yes, he may appear lethargic and tired while he's on the field, but I have to say that EVERY single time he touches the ball, I am always kept in eager anticipation on what he would do next - his crosses, passing and creativeness on the field has blown me away. I know that I am totally over-reacting and most likely overestimating his abilities but personally, he's my favourite person to watch. I have to admit that out of the 3 teams I support, RM is the team that is either going all the way (i.e., treble) or flop quite badly! The team's quality is excellent though - but I think the defence could be further improved still. Can't fault Casillas so far, Carvalho has been marvellous and Ramos a bit inconsistent but generally not too bad. I don't know why people rate Marcello so highly - I don't think he's a good defender and he gives the ball away a bit too much. Xabi has been fantastic :D and Khedira, doing his job I guess! Ozil is still the most exciting player on the pitch (bias Em :P) - far more entertaining than CR7's selfishness while Higuain should realise that he's actually a decent passer because every time he does that, some other player seems to be able to score! Di Maria has been outstanding lately, if not a bit inaccurate and his ball control is still lacking. Not seen much of Benzema that has impressed me and Canales, well I've not seen him (with my own eyes) play for more than 10mins! Don't get me wrong, I can spot 101 weaknesses in Ozil too: he's not clinical enough in his finishing and I think he needs to start being more confident at taking shots himself, instead of passing it to someone else. He also takes a while to warm up in matches - which isn't good when it's an important match! I'm slightly worried about what's gonna happen when Kaka gets back from injury as they both play the same roles in the team. I also somehow can't see all of them fitting on the pitch and at the mo, don't know who is going to be the sacrificial lamb. Thankfully, that won't be happening 'til the beginning of next year so I hope Ozil will improve enough to be the guaranteed starter by then! Strange (if not biased?), but I actually think he has improved since the first time I saw him play - more assertive and I think he's slowly trying to take on the shooting role in the team. And for the first time yesterday, I noticed him running back to defend - I think it's just that I've never noticed this previously. As "lethargic" or "tired" as he looks, when he get's the ball, he sure can run and outpace defenders. Maybe it's part of his grand scheme to deceive defenders into thinking he's tired or something! =) I am praying for RM to win the treble - but with Barca, Inter and Chelski standing in their way (I'm not naming FCB or MU here because I'd be equally happy if any one of my teams wins the UCL!), it may prove to be difficult to achieve all these in the first season for Jose's underlings - but nonetheless, am keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

Alrighto - I've definitely been ranting too much here. But this is basically my 2-cents worth on my 3 fav teams. SO other than hoping for an awesome G&R concert tonight, let's hope Saturday will make Em a happy girl =) =) =)

*Listening to Street of Dreams by G&R*

WOW!!!

2010-10-12T19:42:00.001+01:00

Awesome run by Podolski :O :O :O!!!

3-0 =)

Can finally smile now...

2010-10-12T19:33:00.002+01:00

Gomez scores the 2nd one to seal the deal. =)

Wow...

2010-10-12T19:27:00.000+01:00

Muller's been subbed with Marin - but that's because he is so damned useless today. Shame, though. Really like this dude....