Football: I'm all alone....

It would appear as though I am the only Liverpool fan around that believes that Rafa Benitex's team are going somewhere. everyone else has been complaining, and some have already said that he should be sacked. Tsk tsk, so little faith.

Granted, the've lost to Man Utd, and they have had lousy games against Olympiakos and MU, plus they don't seem to be traveling well. But surely it's still early days yet, and even Valenca didn't win anything during Benitez's first year. HOWEVER, they DID win the league title the year after that.

Having followed Benitez's Valencia, I have complete faith in his ability to change a team. Already, his Liverpool team is showing signs that it CAN go places. But it still needs a bit of time. At least the attacking football is a lot better than it was under Houllier...

Football: A Tribute to Brian Clough

It always amazes me how an entire stadium full of of at least 40,000 - 60,000 people can go completely silent for an entire minute. This happened a lot in the past weekend, as the EPL mourned the death of a legend - Brian Clough, who passed away last week.

I'm not gonna go into the details of who Brian Clough was (after all, he ONLY won two SUCCESSIVE European Cups), so if you wanna know who is was, check out his fact file here, and read a tribute to him here.

As for this blog, here is a collection of quotes from the man that I got from a colleague of mine:

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"Manchester United in Brazil? I hope they all get bloody diarrhoea" - on Manchester United opting-out of the FA Cup to play in the World Club Championship.

"I can't even spell spaghetti never mind talk Italian. How could I tell an Italian to get the ball - he might grab mine" - on the influx of foreign players.

"I bet their dressing room will smell of garlic rather than liniment over the next few months" - on the number of French players at Arsenal.

"I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one" - looking back on his managerial career.

On Eric Cantona's infamous kung fu kick at a fan: "I'd have cut his balls off."

"If he'd been English or Swedish, he'd have walked the England job" - on Martin O'Neill.

"I only ever hit Roy the once. He got up so I couldn't have hit him very hard" - on dealing with Roy Keane.

"Walk on water? I know most people out there will be saying that instead of walking on it, I should have taken more of it with my drinks. They are absolutely right" - a typically candid reflection on his drink problem.

"Players lose you games, not tactics. There's so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win at dominoes" England's exit from Euro 2000, explained the Cloughie way.

"We talk about it for twenty minutes and then we decide I was right" - on dealing with a player who disagrees.

"I'm sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, I'd want to run the show. They were shrewd, because that's exactly what I would have done" - on not getting the England manager's job.

Guessing who nominated him for a knighthood: "I thought it was my next door neighbour, because I think she felt that if I got something like that, I'd have to move."

"For all his horses, knighthoods and championships, he hasn't got two of what I've got. And I don't mean balls!" - Referring to Sir Alex Ferguson's failure to win two successive European Cups.

Brian wasn't a fan of the women's game: "I like my women to be feminine, not sliding into tackles and covered in mud."

After a life-saving operation, Clough gets sentimental: "Don't send me flowers when I'm dead. If you like me, send them while I'm alive."

"I want no epitaphs of profound history and all that type of thing. I contributed - I would hope they would say that, and I would hope somebody liked me" - on how he would like to be remembered.

Football: It's been a gooood weekend

Yup, a good weekend it has been, with Liverpool winning 3-0 at home to Norwich City, and Valencia winning 2-0 at the Mestalla against Racing Santander. The only thing that prevented it from being the perfect weekend was that Spurs went down 0-1 to another van Nistelrooy penalty (A colleague said that if we took away all the penalties that van Nistelrooy has taken and scored, Man Utd would be in the bottom half of the table last season. Whether this is true remains to be seen. Heh).

Anyway, Liverpool's match on Saturday was the first time I actually WATCHED a delayed telecast even AFTER I knew the result. Such is the faith and enthusiasm I have for the current Liverpool team (Right. If Liverpool had LSOT 3-0, I wouldn't have bothered).

Anyway, it was well worth it, as Liverpool once again impressed me, even without Gerrard. Baros scored a great goal, Luis Garcia scored a deflected goal, and Cisse scored a free kick goal. For once, all the forward players delivered.

Xabi Alonso took over Gerrard's role flawlessly, spraying passes and crosses well; while Luis Garcia was again the center of the attack. These two Spaniards, along with Josemi (who didnot play against Norwich), have been very impressive indeed, and I think they will get even better with time once the get used to the pace of the EPL.

Yup, here's to more goooood weekends in the future!

Badminton: What are they DOING there?

Last night, I went to watch a friend play in the inter-college badminton championships. She was playing in the team semis against HELP Institute, who thrashed them 4 games out of 5.

Now, before you say that her team was pathetic, consider this - HELP Institute's team have the following players - Wong Choon Hann. Lee Tsuen Seng. Law Pei Pei. Alvin Chew. All former or current national badminton players.

What the heck are they DOING there?

With all the hoo-haa about the 'failure' and 'short-comings' of the national badminton team, one would think that these players would be training even harder to make up for that 'failure', or at least playing in more international tournaments; instead of playing an inter-college badminton tourney with college kids who are probably only ONE TENTH of their standard. That's almost like asking Zidane or Ronaldo to skip one league match to go play for their local pub team in an inter-pub kickabout.

How do they expect to improve that way? One of the best ways to improve in a sport is to play with superior players who can teach you a lesson or two. What do they expect to learn from playing against a player who probably only touches a racquet once in three months, and can't even smash properly?

Granted, they may be obligated to play for their colleges because of the scholarships given to them, but it still seems a pointless waste of time, considering they are virtually guaranteed of winning without even shedding a drop of sweat, and might even get injured when a stray shuttlecock from a kampung player hits them in the eye.

Perhaps BAM needs to take a good hard look at what the PLAYERS are doing, before even questioning the training methods, or the coaches (which is ANOTHER pet peeve of mine).

Football: Ah.. so THATS his name...

I have to admit, I'd totally forgotten about Antonio Nunez. Being so excited over Josemi, Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso (who are actually PLAYING) does that to you. After all, Nunez hasn't played a single game, after getting injured within days of transferring to Liverpool from Real Madrid as part of the Owen deal. Just what we need - another sicknote.

And now the latest news is that he's gonna be out for another six weeks, by which time I'd have forgotten he even exists anymore... Oh, wait a minute. I DID forget he ever existed...

On another note, looks as if the Man Utd players are getting pretty friendly with the police. Keane's just been hauled up on assault charges, and now Rooney is getting into the act, after being found guilty of driving without proper documents (or rather, not producing the documents when prompted).

One colleague said that perhaps it's a conspiracy against them, instigated by Liverpool supporters. To which I'd blink innocently and say, "Who, ME??".

Football: Deportivo 1 - 5 Valencia : Woohoo!

I didn't get to watch the match last night (didn't even KNOW it was on), but when my colleague told me about it, I couldn't believe it. 5 -1 !!!! This was a Valencia away game at the Riazor, against one of the forerunners of the Spanish league title, Deportivo!

FIVE different players scored (Corradi, Di Vaio, Vicente, Rufete and Baraja), and all this was done without the injured Pablo Aimar. Apparently, Di Vaio's goal was a cheeky backheel, while Vicente's was a screamer. I have GOT to catch the replay of this match.

Even without Aimar, Valencia look very good now. I'm thankful that none of the players from last season's double-winning team have been poached by the so-called 'bigger teams' like Real Madrid or Barcelona. Ayala, Aimar, Vicente, Baraja, Canizares, Albelda, Marchena, Mista, Miguel Angulo (who was nearly sold to Arsenal, god knows why THEY needed another striker) are all still there. In fact, Ranieri has strengthened the squad further by getting Di Vaio, who has been scoring for fun.

Having Ranieri take over at Valencia was a nice turn of events for me, especially since Rafa Benitez went to Liverpool, I was hoping that someone good would take over at Valencia. And Ranieri was a great choice, especially since he'd been at the club before, and is a damn good coach (Chelsea was bodoh to let him go).

Well, at least ONE of my teams are doing well. Now, if only Liverpool could do the same...

Sports I Don't Get (No. 1) - Golf

Yesterday, the US team were thrashed by the Europeans... In golf! Europe's best golfers won the intercontinental Ryder Cup by a record 18 1/2 points to 9 1/2 points (whatever that means).

Cue semi-enthusiastic Mexican wave on one hand.

Excuse me if my enthusiasm isn't exactly boiling over, but I find it very hard to get excited over golf, unless the golfer happens to be Grace Park, and she's wearing something revealing. I just don't get the sport. The ball is so TINY, and yet they spend so much time knocking it over a course that could fit at least a hundred football fields or a few thousand ping-pong tables.

I also can't make sense of all the birdies, eagles, albatrosses, and hornbills that the points system has. At least in football, a goal is a goal, not a chicken.

I tried watching the sport on ESPN once, but all I saw was this - whack ball, walk, walk, walk. Polite applause from audience. Whack ball, walk, walk, walk. Polite applause from audience. Whack ball, walk, walk, walk. After two minutes of this, I switched over to Cartoon Network.

Now, if golfers were required to RUN after the ball, and whacked it like hockey players do, and try getting the ball into the little hole with as few strokes as possible WITHOUT letting the ball stop rolling, THEN you've got yourself a sport.

That way, you'll have the same principles of golf, but with added excitement, and more people besides those actually rich enough to afford gold club memberships might actually get interested in it (Heck, it would be worth watching just to see Tiger Woods fall in the lake while trying to stop his ball from rolling in).

Oh well, enough about golf. I hereby declare golf as the first sport on my list of 'SPORTS I DON'T GET'. Now, excuse me while I go back to watching Johnny Bravo reruns.

Football: Man Utd 2 - 1 Liverpool: Alas!

Sigh... Liverpool lost last night. 2-1 to two very sloppy Silvestre headers that he should never have been allowed to make. I'm waiting for the token office Man Utd fan to come in anytime now and gloat. Sigh...

I have to admit that going into this match, I was more confident of winning this fixture than I ever was in the past three seasons, mainly because Liverpool's football has been better under Benitez, and the 2-0 against Monaco was a damn good result, no matter what critics may say. It's been a long time since I've been this excited about a Liverpool team.

HOWEVER, this game was a sign that a lot still needs to be done. The first half was total shambles, with Liverpool not passing the ball at all, and MU dominating all the way. A few scares here and there, with Ronaldo being the most impressive. Luis Garcia should have marked Silvestre more tightly, and should never have given him that free header. Overall, the entire Liverpool team were pathetic in the first half, even more so when Gerrard left the pitch injured.

The 2nd half was much better. Liverpool were actually attacking. Granted, Cisse (and later, Baros) hardly had a touch of the ball due to good defending by MU, but Kewell, Luis Garcia and Finnan were attacking down the flanks, and forcing MU back. Xabi Alonso was my best Liverpool player (along with Finnan), and Alonso's halfway line lob would probably have caught Tim Howard out (if he hadn't been dropped and replaced by Roy Caroll, that is)

The own goal by O'Shea was good luck, but at least we got something. I was already hoping for just a draw, but then, the silly team had to go and make the EXACT SAME mistake again, allowing Silvestre a free header from a corner. Sigh....

Thoughts after the match: Even though we lost, I'm still actually happy with the way Liverpool played in the second half. Under Houllier, when they had a bad first half, they would almost always continue the second half in similar fashion. But this time, I could see that the players were more determined, more confident to make up for the lousy first half, and this can only mean Benitez is a pretty good man-motivator.

Also, the way Liverpool has been attacking (the first half of this game aside), and the good performances by Josemi, Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia has got me very optimistic about the future of the team under Benitez. After sinking so low, there can only be one way to go - UP!

Anyway, we still have a game in hand, and if we beat Norwich (and MU slip up against Spurs) this weekend, we'll still be ahead of the Mancs. HAH! And I STILL think that we're gonna finish the season above MU. So there!

The Kick-off

This is my eye on sports. Any sport. Badminton, football, volleyball, cycling, F1, lawn bowls, petanque, you name it, I'll talk about it (ok, maybe not petanque. I don't even know how to play it. Ditto lawn bowls, is that even a sport?)

But before that, time to establish my credentials. I watch a lot of sports. Mostly football though, since I support Liverpool, Valencia and Fiorentina (I believe in supporting at least one club in each league. Won't bother with the Belgian or Norwegian leagues though).

I was probably one of the very few people in my office who followed the 2004 Olympics religiously.

I used to run the 400m hurdles when I was in school. I also play a lot of badminton, occasionally futsal, and USED to play basketball, table-tennis (more fondly known as ping-pong), snooker and even chess (don't ask).

Besides the sports I DO know, there are also sports I have no clue whatsoever about. Such as cricket. Golf. Lawn Bowls (is it REALLY a sport???). And that most misappropriately named sport of all - American Football.

So does that make me an adequete sports pundit or what? No? Well, you'll just have to put up with my endless ramblings about Liverpool then. BUAHAHA!