Entries Tagged 'Football' ↓

Ever get that feeling of things never going your way, ever though you’ve tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried?

It is definitely an unorthodox method of pulling it off, but I realise that by not trying at all too hard, things do seem to fall into place at times. NOTE: ‘at times’.

Is it because when you come across as someone who tries very hard, trying to be persuasive, even annoying at times, people get turned off? I know I would definitely love to shove my palm into the face of someone who is nagging and pecking at my neck consistently, nitpicking at things and wanting them to be his or her way, except that I don’t shove my palms most time because I’m just too nice and it would totally be unnecessarily disrespectful and I wouldn’t want others to shove their palms into my face anyway.

Of late Liverpool’s woeful form have undergone major operating procedures under the tables of makeshift footballing surgeons, from uncles whose only concern of the outcome of a football match is how much money they make from their bets to veteran pundits on tv, web and the daily papers.

The same time last season I remember that much of the knives were being used to disect the American owners, and much were being said of how they should vacate the positions to some entity worthy of the Red’s proud traditions and ambitions.

But they didn’t go, and in fact they’re here to stay much longer than expected, after any talks of alien takeovers, were alienated indeed.

Now that the skin of the American owners have toughen up against the knives, a new scapegoat is found, recklessly being put onto the operating table at every sign of despair. From Lucas Leiva, to Rafa Benitez, it seems that the knives are sharper than ever and the operational cuts are deeper than ever.

Why the negative sentiments? I often ask when I read them. What is so wrong about Rafa’s selection or tactics that warrants such petulant criticism, like I wonder if these critics were placed in Rafa’s shoes and put on the shoes that Rafa dons, how could they have done it better?

Should Rafa and the Liverpool lads work even harder? I doubt so. Working harder only tires the body and deflates the soul. I believe a marathon work ethic is the key to any successful long-term campaign and at this point of time, after much loss and dissapointment, they (Liverpool) should take things easy — but of course any demanding fans and critics would argue otherwise.

Still I applaud the way Rafa has tackled this issue, by not berating at his players or at match officials, unlike his much illustrious counterpart from Manchester, who seem to deflect the injury of a loss to his team by attacking referees — so that critics write about these attacks more than his team’s loss.

This managerial tactic reminded me so much of how Mourinho used to work, always deflecting losses to his team away, and these are ruthless, single minded managers who will only gladly do anything to get their team back on track.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) Rafa takes it all in, and keeps assuring everyone that it’s just a blip, just a minor hiccup, just an unfortunate series of events, like how Cameron Jerome scored the wonder goal against the run of play this morning. You can’t predict these things.

Amazing match stats right? You’d be forgiven for thinking how cruel the referee was for not abandoning the one-sided match — but that’s how it goes in football, and it’s this beauty of ‘anything-goes’ that eencapsulates why I love the game so much.

Unfortunately, Rafa’s boys drew and lost points yet again, but I won’t be in grief about it, and I won’t brood much, because I know, it’s a marathon baby, and at marathons you don’t go at it 100% all the way, you pace yourself and we all know that in marathons, the winner is never the fastest runner.

Liverpool 2 – Birmingham 2.  The marathon continues.

The alarm went off at 3am, powered on the comp and I tidied the blankets and refilled the water container for my cats.

I was a little groggy but I managed to wake up in time for the Liverpool do-or-die game against Lyon.

And that was before I decided to take another 5mins of shuteye.

When I woke, Lyon 1 – Liverpool 1, and it’s 6.15am already, with the computer presumably running all the way since hours ago and the monitor watching me, sleeping, instead.

I wasn’t shocked at the scoreline, but rather of how I managed to miss the game entirely.

Anyway, so Liverpool loss, yet so what?

What is there to be said that hasn’t been said of Liverpool’s unprecedented string of losses?

What is worth criticising when there’s a good explanation for every move that is deemed mistaken?

Call me the ultimate Liverpudlian but all the talk of neutrals calling for Rafa’s head to roll sounds a bit tiresome already. Is there something else to talk about?

Say, Rafa picking the wrong players? Well could it be that he doesn’t have any other players to choose?

Oh, Rafa sold the wrong players? Perhaps it ought to be clarified that the board approved the sale?

Lousy youths? Wait, before you blame the manager, then did you knew that with his latest contract, he is finally able to bring in the coaches that he can work with? Coaches that think and breathe like him, and possibly to avoid a Robbie Keane event?

The club disintegrating already? Far from it. Rafa has finally managed to bring the youth academy directly under his control, get transfers and acquisition with his blessings and plenty more.

Things are finally looking bright for the manager and I dare say at this moment that Liverpool will be right up there, challenging for the title race, with key players racing to get fit towards the middle of the season.

Anyway, right now the only thing that’s disintegrating clearly are the patience of the critics, who so dearly and badly longed for Liverpool, the perenniel EPL underdogs, to take the EPL by storm.

Sadly, that’s not the story we’re reading these days, where every paragraph is strung with little to no patience.

For the records, I too dearly want the Reds to triumph at everything, but analysing the squad this season I’m content enough and realistic enough to judge just how far the team can go.

I’ll repeat myself that the teams is dearly in need of at least another world class footballer, but to label the current crisis as the be all, end all, it’s simply premature.

This is all, but a test of character and strength of the players, whom I believe will rise above all the fracas and critiscism, for before dawn wakes in the horizon, the empty night spreads it’s cold darkness.

And from my perspective, things are finally starting to click, and this is only the beginning of the Rafalution.

Apologies if all these don’t make any sense, ‘cos at 3am in the morning, it’s rather pointless tiring to stay sane. Especially when you’ve just had a meal consisting of a generously sugar coated prata, or roti boom, and a glass of extremely sweet Bandung, the mind runs wild.

Finally, fodder for journalists and bloggers everywhere to pounce on and milk till it’s dry right?

Liverpool deservedly lost against a Fulham side which seems to have finally found their scoring boots, especially Zamora, who is now famous around the world for missing the open goalmouth from yards out, with the goalkeeper on his bum and defenders miles away.

For having a squad so thin that it makes the Olsen twins look big and fat, Rafa shouldn’t be piling the blame on injuries, because the management team hasn’t been getting their act for a few years now.

The new Anfield stadium that was supposed to be half built by now has it’s planned shelved. The much anticipated and rumoured transfer of David Villa or Silva has just as much weight as the air that you’re breathing in now.

Unless new owners (with $$$) come in to rectify the bank books , he accounts journal or whatever it is that they use to keep track of their finances, and only till then will any reversal of fortunes be truly seen.

I’m afraid there’ll be more of the one hit wonder (victory over the Red Devils) from my beloved Reds this season, as they’ll struggle to find inspiration in their football.

Sure, they’d probably get motivated, but there’s a THICK RED LINE between motivation and inspiration.

Motivation, it gets you fired up for the day, and after you get exhausted, you pat yourself on your back, and then you set off to rest, and you wonder what will happen tomorrow.

Inspiration, it gets you fired up for the day, and ever after you’re exhausted, you still find yourself planning and imagining tomorrow. You don’t really want to rest, so you’ll find hundreds of reasons to continue whatever you’re doing for the rest of your life.

Now this is inspiration.

Badly, and really really badly, Liverpool’s players needs some inspiration right now, and unfortunately an 80% fit Torres isn’t enough, and a sidelined captain is just too bad.

How much can a manager like Rafa motivate? Sure, he inspires, but then it begs the question of who will inspire Rafa?

Fulham 3 – Liverpool 1. So not inspirational~

Purposely I delayed coming up with a post, main reason being I wanted to see how long it takes before the elation susbsides, after Liverpool’s shock 2-0 victory over Man U, but was it really any shock when Liverpool won?

I wasn’t shocked, but I was stupefied (woot, is there any difference???), as if Harry Potter had just sneaked into the room, rolled out his wooden wand from under his robes and stunned me with his Stupefy curse.

When Torres flicked his right leg and plundered the ball through Van Der Sar’s goal, my heart skipped, my pulse raced, my mouth gaped and my mind kept flashing the words ‘Is this for real?’ over and over again. It took a long while before I managed to thwart away Potter’s evil spell and then reality sinked in.

And that reality was that there wasn’t going to be a fifth loss, that I wasn’t going to risk not seeing Rafa at the dugout anymore, that no more beach balls was ever going to take away our deserved three points ever again.

Interestingly, due to Reds loss to Sunderland (caused by an inflatable plastic ball) there was more Beach Balls on Anfield, then there’s ever been in the history of East Coast Park (Singapore). In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beach ball at east coast park. It’s usually either the beach-goers throw coconut husks or babies around the waters. J/k about the babies.

Anyway, an even more interesting observation is how the bookies’ rates weren’t really that favourable of a Man U victory. There really was not much of a difference and if it’s anything to judge by, it shows that they are not 100% confident that Man U was going home victorious. So itreally was a game which could tilt either way eh?

Long story short, Liverpool’s  Mascherano and Lucas played the game of their life, and the young Brazilian was even made to look so damn good at the end of the game — this after much heavy criticism from all angles. Had Torres not scored, I suppose Lucas would’ve waltzed away with the man of the match award instead.

His performance was at an all time high indeed, very impressive and passionate but he is still showing a little bit of immature at times, where a simple pass or a quick body check would’ve kept possession, although you cannot deny that his final ball, leading to Ngog’s goal was perfectly weighted and angled. Here’s to hoping that this is the game he comes out of the cocoon.

But to credit the victory to Lucas alone is myopic, to say the least, for the whole team defended really well AS a team. Rarely did Insua and Johnson vacated their flanks in favour of an attacking position. These two ensured that their centrebacks was duely protected, just like Masch and Lucas did.

And with that kind of protection, Carragher, Agger and Reina excelled. Every attack was denied succesfully and promptly.

In the wings, Benayoun and Aurelio complimented the forwards and provided options for the midfielders, by either pulling out wide or extending on their middle forward runs. They interplayed the ball well with the two strikers too.

Kuyt, as ever, ran his heart out and made sure Man U’s defenders didn’t have enough time on the ball to think of their next move, while Torres instilled doubts within Man U’s defence with his clever runs.

So was Liverpool truly deserving of the bragging rights over their arch rivals? You betcha!

Just don’t mention about the Arsenal game in the League Cup. Bah~

I think I had a deja-vu moment earlier today, and somehow I could relate that my Liverpool was gonna get beaten by Manchester tonight, of which the game kicks off in a few more minutes.

2 goals to Man Utd, that’s just my prediction, based on the deja-vu thingy, and I do not like it at all.

Liverpool without Gerrard and Torres is like, Apple Inc without Steve Jobs or Berkshire Hathaway without Warren Buffet, and to summarise it all, it’s basically pointless to go on without these key players. Or is it?

I’ve been a liverpool fan ever since… my brother is one. He influenced me when I was a kiddo, but it was Steve Mcmannaman who converted me totally. His twist and turns mesmerised me as I seeked to recreate his moves while playing soccer under the void deck, or while faking tuition classes and going for a soccer game instead.

Don’t tell me you’ve never done it before — faking an event to go to another thingy!

Never? Really? Just me then.

Anyway, back to the topic, Liverpool’s poor squad depth is hurting them real bad.

And tonight, somebody gonna get a hurt real bad.

And it’s not going to be Manchester United.

I just know it. Shucks.

If you still hadn’t know, Liverpool’s title hopes were deflated, much like the beach ball that assisted Darren Bent’s eigth league goal did, when the Black Cats conjured a solid home display by scoring the only goal of the game within 5 minutes.

Very disappointing and for once Benitez conceded defeat, no beating about the bush or running around an arguements in circles, but just the admission that his team wasn’t good enough.

For the first time in EPL’s history, an assist may well be attributed to a beach ball indeed.

Anyway, it’s an irritating statistic of Liverpool that they continuously fail to overcome the lower status teams in the league, and once again the statistics adds up here.

Another irritating thing I’ve deduced is of my blog’s auto-starting music — like it’s supposed to only play when someone clicks play and not automatically!

One thing for sure, this is easily fixed with just a couple lines of code, but as for Red’s plight, it might need a couple of zeroes at the end of a chequebook, but that’s not coming anytime soon eh?

Not since 2002 has Liverpool shed any points off any games against Sunderland, and it’s been like a donation drive trip for EPL points whenever they visit the Stadium of Light, so despite Torres and Gerrard’s crucial ‘MIA’ tonight, there’s ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ — unless Lucas starts in the middle again and screws up horribly, again.

And news of Zenden’s arrival at the Stadium of Light hadn’t quashed any fears that Liverpool will be dropping points against a team that’s been on a resurgent run under Steve Bruce’s tutelage. Couple that with the thought that EPL’s top English goal scoring machine of the moment, Darren Bent, will be roaming around in a leaky defence, and one of the top assisting Englishman, Andy Reid, it doesn’t bode well for Liverpool.

So let’s see with Torres and Gerrard out, and with an eye on the Champion’s League game coming up next, just who will Benitez start the game with?

Babel partnering Ngog upfront? Or is it the experienced pair of Kuyt and Benayoun? Or will he gamble with Voronin and.. okay, just Voronin? How scary are these line-up?

Then let’s consider the midfield pairing. Lucas and Mascherano? Hmm, two young South Americans who just flew halfway around the world for integral world cup qualifying games recently. Benayoun and Plessis? Jay Spearing and… holy cow, there’s no more available midfielders in Liverpool!? Aquilani’s still out injured so it’s miserable times these days. Not entirely intimidating ‘engine room’ which no doubt will be eaten alive by Lyon and Manchester, should it remain the same in games to come.

As for defence, I won’t even go in too much, cos there’s not much really.

I wonder if the Arabs will buy the club as is rumoured and perhaps inject the much needed cash to transform the ailing club’s fortunes, but if they were astute businessman, shouldn’t they be looking at the club’s asset and wonder if it’ll even make a good investment? I mean, just look at the players’ line-up!

So sad, but I’ll have to concede that Liverpool’s current available squad looks just as good as Sunderland’s reserve team. What a comparison right?

Anyways, as for tonight’s result, I’m still confident that Liverpool will wing it their way and fly off with all 3 points, simply because the Sunderland boys will be giving way too much respect to the team from Anfield, and play even more defensive, despite Rafa deploying a defensive tactic — as I think Liverpool’s history and reputation carries enough weight to affect Bruce’s decisions.

So 1 goals to nothing, in Liverpool’s favour tonight. Heh.

And I’ve just made my million dollars. But this post isn’t about me, it’s about the unfathomable and almost always blameless Rafa Benitez.

Someone at work pointed out to me that there are great managers and then there are managers that blame others, and Rafa is one of those that finger points often. According to this guy, everytime Liverpool suffers a setback, he refuses to take the blame of perhaps using the wrong tactics or personnel, but rather choose to deflect the attention towards a pair of squabbling owners who don’t give him enough spare change to play with.

And that is exactly what Rafa has been doing eh? I don’t know. My guy at work points me to example like how Rafa wastefully and excessively purchase unproven youngsters, most prominently players like Lucas and Babel who’ve been warming the seats for too many games and staying cold on the pitch for just as many games.

And then he also points at how Rafa approaches a game and comments on the predominantly defensive tactics of the Liverpool manager, and the cautious approach that he brings to the team, which in turns leads to an over-reliance over burnt-out players like Torres and Gerrard.

Of course, naturally being a Reds fan, I oppose and counter his every allegations, but one allegation I failed to counter was why he brought in an injured player for nearly 20million? Alberto Aquilani has yet to even grace the substitute bench, and as excited as I am in watching what he brings to the team, I’m quite sceptic as to his abilities as well.

First off, he’s Italian, and Italians are never known for their creativity nor flair. They’re naturally good at headers or getting a headbuttm especially from certain Frenchmen.

Second off, he’s young. 22years of football experience, unproven at the world stage and Rafa gambles on this prodigy as a replacement for Alonso.

Thirdly, why didn’t he spend that amount on David Silva or David Villa!?!?!?

These are probably reasons as to why that guy at work thinks Rafa is a douchebag, which is against my sentiments, but he does carry some vital points in his arguements.

So this season’s Championship may appear to be slowly and painfully escaping Liverpool’s grasps, but I hope I don’t have to wait 53,000 years to see Liverpool lift their 19th Championship title, ‘cos I’m still willing to wait till next year.

Heh, the ever so typical Liverpudlian eh? Full of patience… and loads of loyalty!

It may seem like a coincidence but does Liverpool’s performance has a relation with my bike situation?

Last mid-week, when Liverpool faltered 2-0 to Fiorentina in the UEFA Champions League, my bike failed to start rendering me bikeless, just as I wanted to return back to work from buying lunch in town, which I then took the cab back to office and barely paying for the fare with just a $5 note in my pocket — the fare was $4.80! Had the fare exceeded my pocket money, I’d have to ask the taxi to reverse then!

Anyway, my bike’s all fine now, despite dying and stuttering back then. I think fine is an understatement. It is ROARING again! Riding in the misty after-rain conditions earlier was simply superb, and I was on my way back from a client’s wedding to watch Liverpool’s game on tele, while I still can. (Singtel’s hijacked the EPL from SCV next year loh! Sobs. No more soccer on the big screen in the living room!)

Liverpool fared pretty decently well in the first half. Mascherano was back to his sniping ways while Gerrard was impeccable as usual. Unfortunately, Torres found the close attention of Chelsea’s defence too, um, close to his liking and was a restricted man throughout the 45 minutes. My thoughts, wow, Liverpool doing really great today! (My bike great, liverpool great, wow, a correlation!) I was pretty confident that Liverpool was going to come out all with all guns blazing in the second half.

Then Chelsea hit us with a sucker punch with the ever-so powerful Drogba crossing for Anelka to open the scoring. My thoughts, wow, Liverpool went behind but its okay, just a minor blip like what my bike experienced mid-week, and I was DARN confident that a late surge will see Liverpool bring home all 3 points.

Peppering the Chelsea end with long shots, mostly off-target, Liverpool looked like they were going to get the equaliser soon, but then Malouda had other ideas, ideas which didn’t quite agree with me, but I had to take it all in like a man. Again, Drogba powered his way into the penalty box before laying the ball into Malouda’s path for the game-and-set goal.

Chelsea 2 – Liverpool 0. It all seems so disappointingly familiar. Bah.

Hais. I guess there’s no relation between Liverpool’s performance and my bike’s situation after all. Maybe it’s my dota situation instead?

Ever felt that when you know you’ve got to do something but you’re holding back because for fear of failure? Well then, have you ever heard of the phrase ‘luck favours the bold’?

This is so especially true as shown in this early morning’s game between Manchester United and Sunderland. Trailing 2 goals to 1, Ferguson’s men threw caution to the wind and sieged Sunderland’s penalty box as if it was Apocalypse tomorrow. Too bad the Black Cats, the nickname for Sunderlandiansm or wahtever you call them, crumbled under the pressure with an unlucky own goal.

Yes, I’d say that it was an unlucky own goal, but I wouldn’t say that Manchester United was lucky. They created THAT own-goal. Would they have achieved it if half their players were half as motivated to play half as determined? Now that’s too many halves but I’m a firm believer that you make your own luck.

Like, why sit around all night long in a cyber cafe playing online games with people you barely know and then get hyper frustrated over a loss, if any? No, you’re not going to seal that $1000 direct sales deal by sitting in front of the monitor playing games.  No, you’re not going to gain insight on how to close a sales, by wasting your time away like that.

Wow. Did I just hypothetically deduce how wasteful I’ve become, albeit indirectly and after giving a short discussion about Manchester United’s insanely obscene amount of luck that goes their way. Think about that 96th minute winner against Man City when they were given only 4 mins to understand why I pick on them specifically. And it’s not just because I’m a Liverpudlian. Okay, maybe it’s because I’m a Liverpudlian and my Dad’s a United fan. But Dad, I’ve nothing against you, in case you inexplicably reach upon these pages and are reading this. Love ya, but I ain’t got enough to sponsor your car insurance. Heh.

Anyway, yes, Manchester United may be claimed as lucky by some quarters, but boy do they work hard in achieving their results.

So final outcome of the game? Manchester United 2 – Luckless Black Cats (Sunderland) 2.

Wait a minute, maybe some people may argue that the Black Cats were lucky to score twice with the only 2 shots on goal that they had? Ahhhh, now that’s another story to tel…