The Best Remedy Is A Victory

[Cartoon taken off Yahoo! Search Engine; check out www.newbreen.com for more]

When Obama won, a friend of mine wanted to throw a party and celebrate it in style. I rubbished her for it. I didn’t get why people here in Singapore are making such a huge deal out of him winning. For me, it bordered on ridiculous when people suggested that U.S will improve relations with Southeast Asia because Obamaused to study in an elementary school in Indonesia. I mean come on! That’s a far-out stretch. You think he’s going to throw you some carrots amidst times of economic devastation in his OWN country because he might be a little nostalgic about his ol’ school? For all we know he had a torrid time there.

To my friend’s credit she packed in a few punches like how Obama’s world policies will have a trickle-down effect and conservative nations like ours, will eventually loosen up a few buttons. Who knows? The men in white (our ruling party, PAP) might take some chill pills and progress towards a more liberal style of managing the state. Or so she says.

[Funny Obama poster]

I re-asserted my point. That these are all speculation and the fact is as much as we like to confuse the two, the President of the United States is NOT the President of the World. Singapore is not under his jurisdiction and we may not stand to benefit in a concrete manner. All we have are ideals of the “hope” he promises. But the “change” part that Obama’s goin’ on about? That might not have much of a direct relevance enough to impact us. So why get all emotional when he’s not your president? Or rather, why rejoice when all he gave the rest of the world is the audacity of hope and a promise of change…change that might not even be advocated by other governments in the world because they deem it too…err…audacious?

Where am I going with all this and where’s the sports in it? Well the thing is, my friend ended our debate with a very, very fair assessment that made me concede defeat. It occurred after the game last night. The game where Arsenal beat Man U 2-1? Yeah that.

[Nasri's goals means more to me than Obama's speech?]

I was proclaiming to her how fantastic I feel after the win and she turned to me and said, “How ironic. You go on and on about how Obama’s win has no direct relevance to us so there’s no need to jump around and celebrate it. But then, a few days later you go f**king mental over Arsenal’s win! UNBELIEVABLE, ARSENAL?! Even if they won the quadruple for all I care, they won’t change the world’s policies. Obama on the other hand, is in the position to do just that! You’re one to judge huh?”

What can you say to that? Nothing! The truth is, it’s all about emotional attachment and priorities. I’m not trying to trivialise anything political here but let’s just say Arsenal winning is slightly further up my priorities list than Obama. I don’t know how that happened but somewhere along the line, it did. And I’m not going to make any apologies for it even though I may have sounded like a parochial redneck Republican (I’m not by the way) throughout this entire post. It’s slightly sad to admit that I’m more concerned about what Arsene Wenger is going to do with Arsenalthan what Barrack Obama can possibly do with the world.

[Bono Stuck In A Moment.]

Speaking of political figures, Bono was watching the match at The Emirates yesterday! He doesn’t look too pleased though. Maybe he’s a Manc just like his Irish counterpart Roy Keane.

Laughing Stock

[Randy and Bentley, one of a kind]

In Survivor Gabon, there’s this 49-year-old contestant called Randy. Randy is a miserable old git. His bio goes something like this:

Randy Bailey wants to be personally responsible for crushing the hopes and dreams of all other contestants with delusions of winning SURVIVOR. He considers himself a ruthless bully who enjoys picking on those that were not blessed with his strength or intellect.

Randy’s team always wins and they love winning. But Randy is a class apart. Randy loves winning not because it is a testament to his team’s abilities and strengths but because he loves to watch others lose. One time, after winning a food challenge, he took a croissant or sumthin’ and stuffed it into his mouth in pure ecstacy in front of the losing team. In other words, he lacks class.

Where am I going with this? Well, I saw this fantastic photo in The New Paper today taken off Reuters. It is a picture of Spurs celebrating after their 2-1 win against Liverpool. But it shows two classes of players in the same team. It shows Corluka extending a professional “good game” hand to Mascherano and then it shows Bentley celebrating AND laughing openly at Mascherano.

[Bentley laughs at his opponent's loss]

Over a week ago, Bentley admitted that his side was the laughing stock of the EPL. And now, after a good run, he’s behaving like an unworthy winner. The lad’s a good player and his goal at Emirates could be the goal of the season but he really lacks class. I don’t know if it’s just him letting out his pent up anger after such a terrible start to the season but in any way, it was cheap.

[Bent celebrates after Carragher's own goal]

His team-mate Darren Bent said this after the match:

David Bentley is doing cartwheels and stupid dances. He is one player who has been fantastic since Harry came in.

Well I hope Harry teaches him a few ways on how to conduct himself as a proper competitor. Bentley is slowly chalking up enemies from the opponents’ camp. First Arsenal, now Liverpool. Who else is he going to piss off next?

Shortlisted for Soccerlens Writing Competition 08!

Hello there, mates! I’m here to announce that my article is up at the Soccerlens website for a football writing competition. It’s entitled “F**K FOOTBALL!” No points for guessing that it’s inspired by that awful, awful match between Arsenal and Spurs. Some people react to derby disappointments by wallowing over a pint at home. I thought I’d write about it instead, to exorcise the White Hart Lane demons and all you know? Here’s an excerpt:

“Whether you’re a Gooner, a Geordie, or a Kop, the most obsessed of us lot all have one thing in common – at one point or another, we’ve all been hurt and betrayed by our beloved football club before.

Football hurts. And sometimes, it can hurt like f**k. Isn’t it awful how we keep coming back for more even though we’ve been inflicted with a pain like we’ve never known before, time and time again? Like sadomasochists, we just keep going at it no matter how gutted they make us feel!”

Please go on over there and drop some comments and share your painful memories too! Have a look at the other quality articles up there as well while you’re at it yeah? Thanks ya’ll!

Absolutely Gutted (Arsenal 4: Spurs 4)

I probably shouldn’t be blogging right after a derby match that has left me more broken hearted than I can ever remember. But such are the best derby matches between Spurs and Arsenal. High scoring, high energy, high emotional level and a great deal of hurt. Inexplicable hurt. It’s like ripping band-aid off an unhealed wound.

So, no match report. No nothing. I shall announce this blog closed for the day until I recover from this terrible heartburn. Which also means as per high-octane derby tradition, I will ban all sources of sports coverage until it all blows over. If I don’t read about it, I can pretend it never happened. Oh yeah and please don’t send me messages of commiseration or condolences, it’ll just make me feel even more gutted.

[I'm too gutted to think of a caption]

Halloween came way too early for us, Arsenal fans. That sight of David Bentley doing some kind of a happy-feet jiggly dance with his Spurs mates at the end is definitely not for the faint-hearted gooners. At least it scared the f**k outta me. This is what scary stuff’s made of.

Lucky Liverpool? (Liv vs Chelsea 1:0)

I’m always the first one to get fed up whenever Liverpool get lucky and win matches they don’t deserve to. This has occurred on more than one occasion leaving me seething wih post-Birmingham, Gallas-like petulance. Yesterday, despite the Alonso goal being slightly deflected off Chelsea’s Bosingwa, Liverpool’s win had nothing to do with the fact that Lady Luck has taken a major fancy to them. Yes, yes you heard me right, Liverpool actually played well against Chelsea yesterday.

By playing well I don’t mean they played raunchy football. There’s nothing sexy about running at the Chelsea players like rabid dogs on steroids and nipping at their heels faster than you can say BOSINGWA! But Liverpool had a sound defensive plan and they stuck to it. No space for Chelsea players meant that they couldn’t play the ball on the ground and resorted to long balls in the box which wasn’t what Scholari had in mind,

“They lost the confidence to touch the ball and were afraid of not changing the result. This is not the football we play normally. We need to try to play on the ground, not high balls, because I don’t have big strikers. I said to them ‘Look, try to keep on playing’ but they didn’t listen.”

[Alonso and co celebrating their 2nd win against a fellow "Big 4"]

So the Kops copped a win and ended Chelsea’s unbeaten run to go clear 3-points at the top. They have every reason to be brimming with confidence and be buoyed by the result after defeating two of the Big 4 teams. But unlike Benitez’s belief,

“We can go to any stadium and win games. Today, against a very good team, a very offensive team, we showed we were thinking about winning,”

they can’t just go to any stadium and win games. Benitez’s tactics work best against teams that play open, attacking games but against teams with stolid defending, there is a very high chance that Liverpool might struggle and indeed they have against Boro, Aston Villa, Stoke and Wigan. So how they react to teams like Hull and Fulham in the coming games will be very telling.

Mascherano agrees just as much,

“We know that beating Chelsea isn’t enough. We need to keep going. It was a great day for us but it’s too early to talk about the title.”

Speaking of Masherano, he really needs to keep a lid on it. Seriously, the dude has been sent off so many times for yapping and remonstrating too much I’d be nervous if I was his team-mate. Yesterday, he was at it again! He tried to talk the ref into giving Ashley Cole a red card for a challenge. As much as I can’t stand Cashley Cole myself, Mascherano was really lucky to get off with just a yellow card for dissent. What were you even thinking Argentine bro? Your team were doing great and you should just shut your verbal tango up and get on with the job well done.

[Mascherano needs to put a lid on it]

With that said, congrats to Liverpool for getting a positive result from what was potentially a difficult game. But like man-of-the-match, Carragher reiterated, there’s no need to get too carried away. Remember Arsenal last season? They were leading the table all the way until towards the end. A broken leg can change the course of a season. So Liverpool…erm, break a leg?

“A Manager Who Is A Great Communicator to Players”

Our guest columnist Chow Kar Hing (email him at vi_per@hotmail.com), tells us why Juande Ramos’ short reign failed and how Harry Redknapp can make all the difference.

[Bentley and Bent celebrate Spurs' first win of the season]

One can only imagine the frustration of Spurs’ fans watching, hearing, and reading about the imploding Tottenham Hotspur. Many have written and dissected what little bits of ‘insider’ news they could obtain, eventually laying the blame on almost everyone associated with the club.

A particularly damning observation however was how the 11 players and 7 substitutes chosen by Ramos if reconfigured could have yielded better results than disjointed displays. Pavlyuchenko’s recent weekend goal assisted by Bentley against Bolton lent credence to this notion. Spurs eventually went on to win their first match of the season 2-0, with the second goal coming from a Darren Bent penalty. One wonders why then Ramos persisted with tactics that had failed for 2 months.

ESPN’s pundits also recently made a compelling comparison of England’s Italian manager Fabio Capello against Ramos. Both were handicapped by lack of English grasp, but Capello bulldozed his way into learning it to communicate with his players and the media.

[Ramos unlike Redknapp, failed to realise that communication is key]

Ramos, after half a season, a summer break, and 2 months into the new season, still delegated post-match English media interviews. By choice? If so, the thought of a manager who chooses to shirk responsibility of failure should be even more worrying than just one who was too ignorant to not bother learning how to communicate with his players.

Language sounds trivial, but it probably contributed to the problem. The title of this column is adapted from Spurs’ Chairman Daniel Levy’s statement announcing the sacking of Ramos and appointment of proven miracle worker, Harry Redknapp.

Early in the statement Levy laboured to not blame any one person for Spurs’ falter, but several paragraphs later described Redknapp with the title quote – “We now have a manager who is a great communicators to players”. As opposed to Ramos perhaps.

We will never know for sure. But either ways, he is right about Redknapp. Arsenal fans will have something to think about now in the upcoming Spurs clash. After all, all Redknapp has to do is reconfigure the same players.

Rooney Pisses Off Fans From Boyhood Club

[Rooney gets a yellow...]

[...he then incites the Goodison faithfuls...]

[and he gets subbed for damage control; pics from AP.]

It had all the makings of a great day for Wayne Rooney. He just celebrated his 23rd birthday and he had an opportunity to score his 100th club goal. Instead, he got yellow carded, provoked the crowd and got promptly called out of the pitch by Ferguson. Worst, he witnessed his side drop points against a determined Everton side (match ended with a 1-1 scoreline). For someone who grew up supporting Everton and who once wore the t-shirt “Once a blue, always a blue”, Rooney’s reaction was disappointing even to me, a non-Everton fan. I can only imagine what the Evertonians must have felt like when Rooney kissed his Man U badge and signalled number 1 in their direction.

Maybe that was why the PA system kept repeating the message “Fans from visiting side please stay in your seats after the match and we will escort you to your coaches and to the carpark”. Rooney has successfully pissed off fans from his old club by that disrespectful sign; their relationship is beyond repair and what the message really meant was “visiting Man U fans you are so going to get whipped cos your star footballer is a punkass”.

6 years has passed since his career took off at Goodison Park but shades of his temperament are still evident and this incident just confirmed that the married 23-year-old hasn’t quite matured yet. Perhaps he never quite anticipated how much he would be affected by the Toffees’ booing.

[Rooney still hung up over Everton?]

It’s like bumping into an ex whom you had an acrimonious relationship with. Rooney wanted to prove that the new long-term commitment he has with Man U works better than the one he had with Everton. So when they bumped into each other, the kissing of his Man U crest is like saying “Kiss my ass, bitch! I’m so much better off without you.” There’s nothing gentlemanly or classy about his goading but he could be forgiven for reacting in such a passionate manner. If anything, it just proves that he still hasn’t completely gotten over his ol’ bird, Everton. Why else would he be so affected?

Money No Enough (The Liu Guodong saga)

[An ecstatic Tianwei jumps into the arms of Coach Liu]

Remember this? Barely two/three months ago, I jumped into my dad’s arms when Team Singapore beat Republic of Korea to win a silver after going barren for almost 50 years. I remember my dad saying “Girl, you so happy for what? They all from China you know. They don’t care about Singapore lah they just care about winning.” But I ignored him and I was a little miffed. If he wasn’t my dad I might have even socked him in the mouth for ruining my  moment of patriotism.

Now I’m just glad my dad isn’t the “I told you so” type. Because boy can he rub it in my face if he wants to. The table-tennis fiasco has gotten so out of hand it’s even uglier than Madonna-Guy Ritchie’s divorce and Ronald Susilo-Li Jiawei estrangement put together! It’s as if they’re fighting for alimony. Too bad they didn’t sign a better pre-nup.

Today’s ST report has it that Liu Guodong was only offered $6,300 instead of the $8,000 initially reported online. He thinks this is insulting. On a purely market based view, Liu is free to leave if he feels his pay does not match up to what is offered to him elsewhere. For someone who got us a silver, it does seem a little meagre. Even top PR consultants (which I personally feel both STTA and Liu really seem to need) can earn more than that. But I cannot profess to understanding how the wage system works in the Singapore Table Tennis Association. There are conspiracy theories abound of course, that Lee Bee Wah has a major clash of personalities and egos with Liu so him leaving is the best course of action. That’s fine and dandy if we have another top coach sub waiting in line. But do we?

[The honeymoon's over, folks]

See? This is what happens when things are left to the market. Coaches and players brought in from elsewhere are not emotionally vested in Singapore. You’d be foolish to think otherwise. They’re here because they have been given the opportunity which they weren’t given in their own country. Singapore is a stepping stone for them. And when things go wrong and they get offered peanuts, nothing else will hold them back. They can go anywhere…heck even Congo, Austria, Dominican Republic all have China-born players in their ranks. It’s fair game to migrate to someplace that offers you more. There is no law stating otherwise in this increasingly globalised state of affair.

It’s sad that things have to come to this ugly, public break-up. And like any divorces, the kids are the ones who will suffer unfairly. Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and most significantly Feng Tianwei will now face an uphill battle after being unwittingly embroiled in this huge mess (that started off as nothing more than a petty affair). Worst, Feng might just leave under Liu’s “custody”.

Singapore’s women’s table tennis team is fast disintegrating. I need to remind myself to take better care of my eyesight. Afterall, I might be 71 (48 years later) the next time I watch our table tennis team take another medal.

CNA: “Kallang could roar again”

[pic of the National Stadium from Flickr]

You have GOT to be kidding me! Read the Channel NewsAsia article about how the Suzuki Cup semi-finals and finals might be held in the National Stadium? The NATIONAL STADIUM?! Didn’t we give it a grand send-off on the 30th June last YEAR? We even had a commemorative event playing the Aussies. I remember because Mark Richmond made a moving speech on the pitch about his most memorable moment at the National Stadium. I remember because the FAS said in a statement on their website dated April 2007,

“It will be the final football game played at the National Stadium, before the stadium is demolished and a new sports hub constructed in its place.”

I remember because my younger sis and I got misty-eyed when we were at the last competitive match there against Thailand. At least, that was what we all thought…that it was the last competitive match. Might as well have been crocodile tears because the official closing ceremony…is quite a fluke ain’t it? The grand dame was supposed to be torn down to make way for a new S$1.87 billion Sports Hub. Then…nothing happened. STALEMATE because of delays in securing paperwork.

[What the new Sports Hub is supposed to look like]

Why get us all nostalgic if you’re going to keep hosting matches? Headline after headline after headline of “KALLANG ROARS AGAIN!” has gotten all of us fed-up. Even Rod Monteiro made a comment about it on air awhile back. It has become quite the joke among us. I hear some people saying there will be endless movie sequels for The Kallang Roar because the stadium’s never going to get torn down, ever.

Aussies came, Lebanon came, Uzbeks came, Saudi Arabia came. Heck even Brazil came! Still, the stadium remains standing…probably against its own will as well. Maybe the Pope needs to come back and conduct anther mass to kill the spirit of the dying dame on life support. Or maybe, Spurs need to come back and let Singapore beat them 4-2 on penalties again Just for the record, Celtic, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle Unite, Liverpool and Manchester United all came to the National Stadium before but Spurs were the only English team that got beaten by Singapore. I kid you not!

Champions League Highlights

[Bayern's Jurgen Klinsmann does a jumping-jack]

Holy guacamole! 36 goals in eight matches across the Champions League! That has got to be some kind of a record. Juventus surprised Real Madrid with a 2-1 victory, courtesy of del Piero and Amauri goals. Villareal had to rely on their super sub, Llorente’s hattrick to see off a stubborn Aab Aalborg side 6-3. And Bayern Munich smashed 3 past a Fiorentina side sending their coach Jurgen Klinsmann, into waves of celebratory, frenzied jumping-jacks at the sideline. Always fun to watch.

But let’s talk about the Arsenal and Man U matches shall we?

Arsenal vs Fenerbahce 5-2

It’s no easy feat to come to a stadium full of Fenerbahce fans. They are renown for creating an atmosphere like no other. Don’t believe me? Just watch the following video and tell me you won’t be intimidated by 55,000 fans jumping all at once.

Scary ain’t it? But the young Guns held their nerves under stand-in captain Almunia, who led by example and made a couple of important saves. He rarely loses his cool so it’s very telling when he blew his top at Silvestrefor scoring an own goal. Perhaps it’s the armband giving him a new voice. Whatever it is, communication’s always good and we don’t see him shouting at Gallas whenever that bugger makes a mistake. More of the yelling directed towards Gallas please, Almunia!

[Captain Almunia was superb]

While Arsenal were fantastic at the front taking chances whenever they could instead of hemming and hawing at the goal mouth as always, defense is still proving to be quite a problem. The 2nd choice pairing of Silvestre and Song weren’t as convincing. Silvestre scored an own goal and Song headed back a ball straight to the foot of a lurking Guiza letting him chip it over an advancing Almunia. But it’s only their second game together and they can only get better although I personally think Djorou will be more steady alongside Silvestre. Whatever it is, I don’t rate Gallas highly as a captain and here’s to hoping Silvestre will dislodge him.

[New defensive pairing of Song & Silvestre]

Right now, Arsenal are playing just like how Hamilton is driving. Sometimes they’re freakishly good and at other times they make reckless mistakes and squander chances. This is definitely expected from a young side. Consistency is their main problem but there’s no denying how talented this bunch of youngsters are. Even 17-year-old Ramsey got on the scoring board! Wenger made a shrewd change to the line-up by dropping Van Persie and including Diaby in a 5-man midfield. He repaid Wenger’s faith by scoring a goal but got yellow-carded right after for lifting up his shirt while celebrating the goal. I thought that was bloody hilarious. Refs are such mood dampeners sometimes.

[The young team celebrates the win]

Perhaps another main problem with Arsenal is that when it comes to the open play style of European teams, they’re able to play their full-flow champagne football. But when they get back to the EPL and face teams with “negative play”, they don’t really have an answer. They continue to titter around opponents’ box not knowing how to slot in the ball with 11 players parked in front. Once they find a solution to that, they are going to be flying at the top four. Whatever it is, the 5-2 win will definitely be a great birthday gift to Wenger who celebrates his 59th birthday! He says: “I am very proud of the team. The average age was 23 and I am proud because we came in and tried to dictate the game in a very heated atmosphere.”

Man U vs Celtic 3-0

[Berbatov gets pats on the back by Evans & Vidic]

A flick here and a flick there and Berbatov’s got Man U 2-0 up. It was really that simple. First goal was an unopposed tap-in by the Bulgarian who seemed to have perfect vision of where the ball was going to be. But replays showed it was offside. Replays also showed that the second goal by Berbatov should be ruled offside as well! The third Rooney goal sealed the deal and while the first two goals were an unfair blow to Celtic, the fact of the matter is, Man U were a class apart and never looked in danger of losing the game.

[No one can stop Rooney's hot streak]

Rooney’s playing like never before. It’s a little bit disjointing to watch an industrious player like him play alongside an “economy of movement” type of player like Berbatov. But it seems to be working very well. Shrek’s got something to prove this season. He has shown that he can sacrifice himself for the good of the team last season. But this time around, he’s going to burst forward as the leading star of the show. One year of playing the supporting actor to Ronaldo might have been quite unsettling for someone of his calibre.

[Move over Ronaldo, here comes Shrek?]

“The only reason we are not talking about Wayne at the same level as Cristiano is the fact one of them scored 42 goals last season. That is why Cristiano should win the Balon D’Or. If Wayne can get to that sort of level, he is there,” said Ferguson as if to further fuel the fiery fireball that is Rooney.

At the start of the season, rumours of an indispensable Ronaldo moving to Real Madrid sent even Ferguson into a slight panic. But at the end of the season, if he does leave, it wouldn’t matter as much because Shrek’s gonna rule.