Football

Went to Stadium Negeri last night for Malaysia Cup match. Sarawak vs Kedah. This is the first time I watched live-action football in a proper stadium. I watched FAM league (third-tier competition, a rung below premier league) way back in 2003 in Langkawi stadium. It was between LADA Langkawi and another team (can't recall what team).

Then the premier league matches between USM and Pahang, I paid RM10 for VIP (rooftop) seating. One of my friends was playing for USM...Fahmi. We called him Maicon USM. I played against him once and lost (football match...but not the real one, it was PES). 

Abang Khalik warned the situation could be rowdy...because Sarawak fans are quite rough. Along the way, I could see fans in droves (could be spotted easily because they were wearing Sarawak jersey) headed towards Stadium Negeri. It was a bit of a traffic congestion near the stadium, but we went smoothly and managed to find a good parking spot.

There were already large movement of people towards the main gate of the stadium, and the atmosphere was terrific. Most of the people were wearing jerseys, and I was on jersey as well...Malaysian jersey. Inside the stadium, wave of stripes of reds and blues were filling the stadium. The stands were loaded with fans to the core. The kickoff was brought forward to 8.15 p.m.

Some observations :

1. Sarawak fans are passionate about football...this could be seen by their bold, giant attendance. Abang Khalik explained this was due to their recent blazing forms (unbeaten in premier league). Before this, patches of empty seats could be seen everywhere. Everybody likes winners, after all.
2. The stadium could fill 40,000 in maximum capacity. There were some fans who were left standing, so I bet the attendance was more than that.
3. In a city where the majority are Chinese, what probability a Chinese was spotted in the stands among the 40 000 raucous fans? Should be pretty high, no? But I saw none. I sought everywhere, no Chinese faces. This 40 000 ardent supporters came from all over Sarawak (I was told some came even as far as from Miri) but almost none were Chinese. Where were the Chinese?
4. Girls. A noticeable amount of girls were present in the stadium. Why? Some didn't even know the name of the players.
5. Firecrackers. For each of the goals scored, firecrackers were thrown to the pitch. It was no ordinary 'mercun bola' or 'mercun papan', it was 'mercun ketupat'. For those who knows a bit about firecracker, ketupat is the most dangerous among all. When I was in standard six, we got a hold of it. I remember my best friend at that time, Pion, lit it using a 10 meters galah. He was the bravest among us, but even he was scared of it. Imagine if one of those flying ketupat landed on our head instead of on the pitch?
6. Manners. A very young boy in front of me kept uttering profanities every single time the ref blew the whistle to stop the play. He was not passionate about football, he was just passionate of making a scene. And his father didn't say anything...minus in one occasion where he went over the top with some rude remarks and his father finally asked him to sit down. He should have ticked off his young boy much earlier. Such a shame.

Kedah was roundly beaten 4-0. It was a deserved victory for Sarawak. Kedah looked sloppy...their backline were a mess. That second goal was a beauty. Khyril Muhaimeen and Baddrol Bakhtiar were having an off day. They can now kiss goodbye to their Malaysia Cup campaign.

Update 4/9/13 - Syawal told me that Syafira saw me after the match and tried to call me but to no avail (I heard nothing by the way, the crowd was so noise. I was also in a hurry to exit the stadium because of the fear of the incoming firecrackers). Syawal couldn't attend the match because of kenduri.    

Let The Game Begin!

After a very long and tiring summer break, the most anticipated premier league football in the world will kick off in less than 10 hours.

With Real Madrid going mental and bought every stars on sight, this was the most unusual season break ever. Liverpool were one of the victims...losing the influential Xabi Alonso to Florentino Perez's second wave of Galactico's.

But the team is still intact...and with United severely weakened by the departure of two of their talismans, Liverpool have a very good chance to mount a serious challenge towards the title.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for their chance this time around...maybe this is finally their season...

P/S - This will be my final posting. I'll take a long break after this...there's so much unresolved problem clogging up the arteries of my peaceful life. If left untreated, I'm afraid my future would be at harm...

I'll do some catching up with my reading...missed a lot of books lately.

So, till next time...

If you were good in the past...

...can you be better in the future?

Or...you were just...past it?

It was Michael Owen who instilled my passion towards football almost 8 years ago. I became an ardent Liverpool supporter largely because of him.

I still followed his progress during his dismal stay in Madrid, and his injury-hit seasons with Newcastle.

But when he opted to join Man United, it was quite hard for me. Your once favourite player plying his trade in your most despised team? That's too much...

As they say, Form is temporary, Class is permanent. Owen is a class player, no doubt. If he was good in the past, he can be better in the future. He's not past it. Just hoping he'll lost his scoring touch temporarily when Man U meet Liverpool. I'll give my utmost support to him, but not to his new team.

And really glad Mexico gave poor U.S.A a 5-0 drubbing last night. Served them right. How dare they defeated my Spain team 2-0 in the Confederation Cup last two months?

Juara lagi...

Buat kesekian kalinya, aku kembali menjuarai kejuaraan Liga Fifa, versi 2008.

Pertama kali aku join Liga Fifa, pada 2007, di bilik Fisal.

Aku menang tanpa sebarang cabaran...jauh meninggalkan pesaing-pesaing yang lain beberapa tiang di belakang.

Aku tak main tiga game terakhir...sebab dah confirm menang. Team aku waktu tu cuma AC Milan.

Aku mula main Fifa secara serius bermula 2006. Masa tu, teruk aku kena belasah dengan Fahim dari BootSector...seingat aku dia menang 7-0.

Aku tergolong dalam kalangan orang yang degil. Kalau nak buat sesuatu, sama ada aku buat betul-betul, atau aku tak buat langsung. Tak ada istilah B, C, atau D dalam hidup aku, cuma ada A atau F.

Lepas kekalahan memalukan tu, tiap-tiap hari aku berkunjung ke BootSector...aku mula berlatih balik dari mula...dari akar.

Lepas beberapa bulan, aku berjaya kalahkan Fahim. Tapi aku takkan lupa jasa dia yang banyak tunjuk ajar aku selok-belok Fifa.

Firdaus selalu jugak ajak lawan...selalunya di Infinity. Tapi mungkin sampai sekarang dia tak sedar, kebanyakan game yang dia menang, aku sengaja bagi...untuk tak bagi dia patah semangat.

Lagipun cuma Daus satu-satunya teman aku untuk main Fifa waktu tu. Fifa yang membuatkan aku dan Daus begitu rapat.

Untuk versi 2007, ada dua edisi Liga Fifa. Satunya tanpa penyertaan Fuad, penyandang juara edisi sebelumnya (aku belum bertanding).

Edisi pertama Liga 2007 dijuarai oleh Zul. Aku nombor dua...Zul Sabah kedudukan terakhir.

Untuk edisi kedua, aku di tangga ketiga...paling teruk pernah aku dapat. Undian pasukan yang aku dapat ialah Lyon...sampai hari ni aku masih terfikir, kalau aku dapat pasukan lain selain Lyon, mungkin aku ada harapan cerah untuk juara.

Tapi akur dengan syarat pertandingan, aku tak merungut walau sedikitpun.

Dan aku tebus balik dengan kejayaan bergaya di Liga 2008 yang baru berakhir. Aku cuma bolos dua gol...dan mengekalkan rekod bersih tanpa kalah sepanjang pertandingan.

Yang paling manis, aku cuma guna Liverpool! Pasukan yang paling lemah antara kalangan yang bertanding. Terima kasih pada Torres yang menyumbang hampir 90% gol kemenangan aku.

Aku tak banyak berlatih secara fizikal...aku cuma tak berhenti berfikir pasal bola. Setiap saat dan ketika, aku fikir taktik dan skill yang perlu aku guna masa Liga...berbeza dengan lain yang hanya berlatih depan komputer, kemudian bila tak nampak komputer, segalanya hilang.

Takkan ada kejayaan tanpa usaha. Bakat takkan ke mana tanpa usaha yang berterusan. Mungkin kelebihan aku adalah tak mudah terpengaruh dengan serangan psikologi...walaupun aku sendiri tak pasti. Rasa gugup kadang-kadang akan menutup terus segala kelebihan yang kita ada.

Ini Liga yang terakhir. Lepas ni semuanya akan terpisah...mencari arah hidup masing-masing. Surat Perjanjian merangkap Watikah Kemenangan akan aku simpan baik-baik...tak ternilai harganya...

Double Champion!

I was invited by Sani to join Euro Fantasy Football last month.

'Ustaz' Khalid bin Othaman had just created a special league, comprising former students of my former school. But this league was intended for my batch only (9802 – the so-called Crackerz)

I set up my best team, but was unable to update it regularly due to some problems. Once the problems had been resolved, I was back on track. I want to give my all out efforts.

By the time the tournament reached Quarter-final stage, I was lagging behind in fourth places. Atak leads the pack, with Nassoc closely followed in second place.

When Quarter-final stage laid down its curtain, I was separated by the leader of the group by a massive 80 points! With 3 games left to spare, I revamped my team...by dropping the ineffective Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni. I stayed with my 3-4-3 formation...as I badly needed 3 Forwards to supply goals and boasting my points further.

I picked high-flying Podolski, Torres, Ronaldo and Robben. Unfortunately, Robben picked up an injury and was unable to play against Germany. I swapped Ballack with Deco, which proved to be a grave mistake. Deco fell short of expectation...while Ballack roamed forward, scoring goal and provided assists in a clearly one-sided match against Portugal.

And as usual, Ronaldo bottled it big time. I should have figured it out earlier.

I don't need extra defender...as when the opposing team scored, they would lose points. Centre backs are prone to 'tricky' situation...if they marshaled the backline well and kept the clean sheet, they would get extra points. If they missed last ditch tackles and let strikers get behind their back, they're doomed.

And I don't need expensive goalkeeper, as it would further shrink my front-line budget. Furthermore, if he leaks goals, disaster awaits my Fantasy team.

All I need was a reliable goalkeeper, a good and skillful wingback (left and right), a deadly duo of wingers, two attack-minded central midfielders (what defensive midfielders are for in Fantasy Football team?) and clinical strikers.

Strikers job is to score goals. The more the better. They need to constantly test the goalkeeper with shots. Shots on target would received extra points. The goalkeeper who saved a shot also got points. It's a win-win situation.

It was a daunting task. 80 points to overhaul was not easy...by the time the first Semi-final finished (Germany VS Turkey), I was up to third places. When Spain won against the emerging Russia, I moved up to the second spots.

But still, I was 40 points off the pace!

With Spain likely to field 4-5-1 formation due to the injury to their top goal scorer David Villa, and Germany to stick to their traditional 4-3-3, I gave a long and hard thought. After careful consideration, I changed my formation to 3-5-2.

The reason?

Spain and Germany virtually has only one striker on their starting line-up. That would be Torres and Klose respectively. Based on their current form, they won't score much. And I was extremely confident Torres would score eventually. And as Klose was badly out of form, he won't be able to have a good shot on goal, let alone scoring one.

I dropped Klose and put my faith in Torres. And I picked Podolski as another striker.

Final traditionally is a tight affair. Although strikers are the one who usually put the finishing touch, it is the work from midfield that greatly decided the outcome of the match. I packed my midfield with five players...four of them are from the Spanish team.

As in defense and goal position, I picked mostly Spanish player...with Philip Lahm as an exception. Iker Casillas was a risky option…but I selected him anyway.

I was 40 points adrift of the leader...whatever points the league leader garnered after the Final, I need to double his tally. If he get 40 points, I need to get at least 81 points. If he managed 100 points, I need at least 141 points to have any chance to win the league.

Only two teams contested in the final. The choice of players is restricted...the probability that we would ended up fielding the same 11 player on the pitch was indeed very high. It was the choice of the Captain that really matters. Captain is eligible for double point...picking the right Captain was very crucial then.

I gave the Captain's armband to Torres.

And he didn't disappoint me. He scored the winning goal. As Germany's midfield struggled to adapt to a packed Spanish midfield, Torres was able to unsettle Germany's defence with his direct run.

The result?

I got 100 points...while the group leader (Atak) only managed to collect 53 points...I eclipsed him by a mere 6 points. I was crowned European Fantasy Football champion on the final day!

Sani said he rarely logged in to check his team's progress...the reason for his dismay 6th place finish. Losers always give excuses, you know. Huhuhu.

I don't know how to describe my feeling...winning the Fantasy Football as well as watching my favourite team lifting the coveted European Cup. All I know is, sitting atop of the Fantasy League, I only see loser, loser, and loser...13 of them to be exact. Hahahaaa...~

Meet the new European King!

A fine solitary goal by the El Nino was enough to land Spain their first major trophy since Euro 1964.

Torres, who was largely outshined by team-mate David Villa during the course of the championship, struck the only goal of the game in the 33rd minute.

They started the match nervously...at one time I thought they were going to bottle it (as usual) but once their crisp passing got in shape, their superiority reigned supreme.

By leaving their long-serving captain, also dubbed the King of Spain, Raul, back at home, they thrived and successfully removed their perennial under-achievers and "bottlers" tag labeled on them once and for all.

A bright and promising new era has arrived. The King is now being replaced by the dynamic and classy new Prince of Spain, Fernando Torres. Fabulous Francesc Fabregas is pulling the string from midfield...although still overshadowed by the old guard of Xavi Hernandez.

Plus the excellent David Silva and exciting Sergio Ramos, this makes almost half of the current crop of Spanish players under the bracket age of 25 years old. Who says boys cannot compete with men? With the right guidance and mentality, this young and highly talented team can go on to win the next World Cup!

Hail the new King of Europe! Spain rulez!

Numero Uno

-Marching Towards Victory-

Here's hoping Spain go all the way towards the final...

...you are numero uno!