BPL Opening Night, Counting my Piggy Bank

I hate the acronyms 'BPL' compared to EPL. It sounds like British Petroleum League. That's like WWF changing to WWE. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you say it.

There were a few good matches and goals but the only match that mattered to me was Aston Villa vs Liverpool and Villa lost 2-1 . I'm only a teensy bit upset because them losing to Liverpool is like a foregone conclusion (cos they haven't beaten 'Pool at home in 9 years).

That's the advantage of supporting smaller mid-table clubs. Your expectations aren't as high. A draw against a big club would be a happy result, a win would be a miracle. But i think Liverpool were lucky to get the win. They needed a Laursen OG and a 87 min to get all 3 points. Poor Villa. And except for Reo-Coker, the entire squad looks the same as last season..
-----------

I finally opened my piggy bank and counted the coins inside on Friday.

Grand total : $374.20. Decent for a year's savings (and considering how often i take coins out of it for bus fares etc) but a little short of my $500 target. Anyway i'll be changing the coins into pocket money for Japan.

Asian Cup 2007: Australia vs Japan

Looks like i got my wish, though it wasn't a thrashing but in the end it's the results that matters i guess. Quite a big of excitement after 70 minutes when Australia scored through John Aliosi, then Japan equalised through Takahara almost instantly.

Strong, composed finish from Takahara

And a few minutes later, Australia had a man sent off for a flying elbow challenge. I thought Japan would impose their grip on the match after that, but it went all the way to a penalty shoot-out.

Australia had their own selves to blame after their first 2 PK takers (Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill) had their poor penalties saved, but all credit to the Japan goalie. Japan won the shootout 4-3 and will face either Uzbekistan or Saudi Arabia in the semis.

Celebrations after winning the shoot-out!

-----------

Finally completed [eM] -eNCHANT arM- (the NA title is "Enchanted Arms") today. First RPG i've finished on the X360 and it's actually very good. The combat system (sort of like turn-based chess) is unique in that the damage for every move is clearly shown beside the move name, eliminating random damage (or critical hits) so you actually can plan right down to the last HP how much you can hit an enemy in 1 turn.

If you think that makes it sound easy, think again. The final boss(es, all 7 'final' battles) are actually quite challenging and require alot of prior preparation. A little short (26 hours) for the main storyline but that's excluding me entering the bonus dungeon or aggressive levelling (finished at lvl.47).

Next game i want to start on (and hopefully complete) is the IdolM@ster. Looks like only 1 person in Singapore has completed that game so far.

Asian Cup 2007: China vs Uzbekistan

It's been 5 years since my house's was hooked up to SCV. Now we have 3 sets in our new place and i even got one for my own room. Frankly i don't watch much TV and the only thing that makes the price of cable worth it, in my opinion, are the sports programmes. Gone are the days where i have to invite myself to other people's house to watch soccer or MotoGP!

I was rooting for the South East Asian teams (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam; teams i would normally be booing in the Tiger Cup) but only Vietnam managed to advance to the q-finals.

Caught the China vs Uzbekistan game tonight, and knowing me you know i would be hoping China would lose badly. And probably the best thing to happen to me this week was to watch them get thrashed 3-0.

1-0!

2-0 as the ball takes a slow roll into China's goal.

Too bad i already took my camera down when they scored the 3rd late in injury time.

However, the match took an ugly turn early in injury-time when China's striker no.9 stayed downed on the pitch for a good 5 minutes and was eventually stretchered off, quite motionless.

As much as i enjoyed watching them lose, no one likes to see someone get injured in any sport. Hope he's alright. The match ended with an unheard of 11+minutes of injury time because of this though.

Man, i wouldn't want to be China's coach right now. He will be lucky if he is just fired straight. I expect him to be stoned or to face a firing squad when he arrives back in China.

So the quarter finals line up:

Iraq vs Vietnam
Japan vs Australia
Iran vs Korea Republic
Uzbekistan vs Saudi Arabia

Secretly i'm rooting for Japan to win the cup again. Actually any team besides Australia would be fine. Haven't forgiven them for thrashing us 3-0 in our final Kallang Stadium match. Have to keep this Saturday night free to catch Japan take on Australia, and hopefully thrash them.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

For all the hype about today being the last match day at the National Stadium before it is demolished, surprisingly i didn't feel a single bit sentimental about the entire event at all. At the end of the day all i really cared about was watching a good soccer match. Overall i'm much sadder to see us lose than to know this is our last game at Kallang.

One last pic for old time's sake. You can tell the true fans by the shirt.

And we played well** against Australia. To lose 3-0 despite having so many chances to score just reflects how badly we lack the killer instincts in front of goal. Even big-game scorer Indra Sahdan couldn't break our duck, and was guilty of missing a fantastic 1-on-1 chance in the first half.

(**To quote from this Soccernet article: "The result might have been different had Singapore capitalised on goalscoring chances they created in a scoreless first half after opening up Australia's defence." and Australia's Coach: "Our attacking play was fantastic but we've got some work to do in defence. I was not happy with that side of things,' Arnold told reporters.
'Singapore tested us and were very unlucky. We have a lot of work to do.")

Viduka getting the better of Noh Rahman.

Australia's striker, Mark Viduka on the other hand, was a class act. The ease at which he found space to score his 2 goals was just fantastic.

Kewell going by Aide and Precious

Harry Kewell came on for the last 30 minutes and scored Australia's 2nd goal, as well as assisting Viduka for the 3rd.

They must have had like only 10 firework to shoot off.

Good thing we didn't stay for the fireworks display and the closing ceremony, cause the fireworks were just pitiful. It's as if they were on a shoestring budget. Managed to catch the display just before we boarded the bus.

Anyway, farewell to the Grand Old Lady of Kallang. Thanks for all the good memories (not last night though). Really a shame we couldn't win our final match.

Tale of Two Cities

"Tell me what you can hear

And then tell me what you see

Everybody has a different way to view the world"

2 events in the past 2 days kept making me think of this refrain from the song 'Different World' (Iron Maiden):

1) About the football i watched 2 nights ago, i wrote that i thought our team played like crap. Newspaper and S-league.com (and even the Saudi coach) gave rave reviews on our performance. I must have been at the wrong stadium watching a different game. And i always thought i had low standards and expectation in football. I am an Aston Villa supporter after all.

2) Strait Times today (29/06/07) had an article on 2 newly promoted 1-star Generals in the SAF. One of them was my old boss COL John Wong. To quote from the papers:

"Navy Colonel John Wong Chee Meng is not your typical career military man - he is also a doctor. True, he stands ramrod straight and looks lean and fit"

I really must commend the Strait Times, that they are doing their bit for the society by hiring blind reporters to write their articles. I don't think anyone with eyes will describe John Wong as lean and fit..
-----------

Spent an hour painting something on my Subaru WRX STI '05 last night in preparation for an online Forza 2 tournament later on (11pm). What do you think?

Brandon says it looks childish. Which is probably one of the least insulting comment he has ever given me (it's my birthday that's why). But i kinda like the plaster design w/ the car number on the bonnet and the sides.

Coicidentally, this birthday post happens to be my 100th post as well! So Happy Birthday and congratulations to me on my century post!

How Many More Times

Just finished day 3 of my mini-soccer marathon. Played on Wednesday at NDU's basketball court, Thursday at Tuas (but only for 10mins cause got called back to man the phone) and today at Temasek Club (7pm to 11pm!). And this will be really stating the obvious, but i suck real bad at soccer. Day 1 i thought i was just rusty cause i had not played for a damn long time, but day 2 was equally bad and soccer today confirmed that i have lost whatever iota of skill i once had. It's not a question now of what i can do when i have the ball at my feet, but of when i will lose the ball eventually. But it was nice to meet up with Ken, Yong Quan (wonder if he has forgiven me for the GB incident...) Clarence, Siew Rong (thanks for always booking the court for us) and Ah Boon. Always fun to play soccer with them, especially at TC where the shower facilities are excellent. (Except tonight someone vomitted at the shower room entrance. And it stank of red wine. And it was damn gross) For most of the night i had Duo Teng, Sau Kit and Victor on my team so we still won 90% of the 4v4 matches played. But they could have just replaced me with any Tom Dick or Harry on the street and we would have still won anyway.

Had late dinner at Al-Ameen after the game. This is the first time Duo Teng did not manage to finish a jar of green chilli on his Nasi Goreng Kampung. I have also yet to see him order anything else but that as well. I really pigged out tonight, had a packet of roast chicken before soccer, and ate 1 plate of 5-star Hainanese white chicken rice while waiting for my 4 kosong pratas after soccer. On top of that i drank 1 can of 100plus, 1 cup of home-made barley, 1 teh-tarik ice and 1 Seasons ice lemon tea during the Al-Ameen trip. But hey! At least i didn't eat unhealthy fast food right? Actually i think in Singapore, mainstream food outside of fast food joints are just an unhealthy. So as long as i eat out i think i just increasing my cholestrol levels. Unless i eat just order porridge or some vegan dish. But I think my stomach must be feeling damn confused by all the rojak i mixed inside tonight. Hope my tummy doesn't get upset in the middle of the night.

Karaoke (again..) tomorrow night is set! This is like the 3rd time within the last 30 days i have been to a KTV. All 3 times with a different set of friends. Anyway i got my PSP all charged up and ready to record any singing we do tomorrow. Hope Matthew can make it cause i need someone to sing English songs with me. Anyway tomorrow we will be up against our NMS Talentine Winner Eugene. So must really try to knock him off his perch and stake our claim as the next NMS superstar..

Most likely i will be getting 2 new games this weekend at Funz Centre, "Battlestation Midway" and "Winning Eleven: PES 2007" for my X360. Yup, it's payday tonight and i want to spend it all! Even though i still have so many games i'm yet to complete at home. But i'm just greedy for new stuff i guess.

Love Flies Away

Yay! Aston Villa will be sponsored by Nike from next year! This is a pleasant change from the Hummel jerseys i have been buying the past 3 seasons. I hope the price don't increase so much just because of the branding. I kinda like Hummel actually. Mainly cause it's fun to hum the 'Humm' in 'Hummel'. I hope we get a better sponsor next season as well. I don't like being a walking advertisement for an internet betting company's on my jersey.

After reading Ming Wei's blog, I realised that people will seldom talk about relationships in front or with me. I guess it's because the only relationship i can share about is that with my games and consoles (Tip#37: Long hours invested in a game doesn't neccessarily mean you will get a happy ending). I can also discuss fictional relationships that happen in Dramas, anime or videogames. I like love ballads with meaningful/sad lyrics. But when it comes to real love and problems i can't be really bothered listening, giving advice or sharing. Is that sad? Well to each his own. I get as much satisfaction and enjoyment doing what i like to do. Plus i think maintaining my 'relationships' is much, much easier.

And we finally took our branch's photo today. I'm just waiting to see how bad i will look in the photo. I think i'm terribly unphotogenic. Or maybe cause i actually look bad in real life and i don't notice it.

Made a poster last night that i'm gonna try to get signed by this year's Singapore AFC squad. I hope i didn't miss out anybody in the poster. I love making my own stuff to be signed. Anyone can get an autograph, but my poster + autographs will be one of a kind. I also have another one of a kind signed poster of the 2004 squad. But i have to say my design this year looks hell of a lot better than my previous design. Going to print it on A3 when i get the chance.

And by popular demand i decided to upload another karaoke video of everyone (but me) singing "Don't Cha". CPL Fan was especially enthu' during the 'Don't Cha!' part.

Take That Thailand!

What a heart-stopping Finale to the 2006 AFC...Singapore looked like they were going to collaspe anytime under the Thai attack (match report) but somehow (as always) we managed to come back from an early goal down to defend our title as ASEAN Champions (1998, 2004, 2006 Winners!) I guess the turning point of an otherwise torrid match for Singapore was when Noh Rahman managed a superb last ditch block on the goal line to deny Thailand their 2nd goal (70+min). After that the Thai attack started to sizzle out and Singapore managed to get their foot back in the game, ending in a fantastic strike by supersub Khairul Amri in the 81 min. Wow, me and my dad nearly had a heart attack when Amri scored. But i think we were the only one in my whole street watching the match cause it was so quiet all around except for the both of us screaming our lungs out (alot of old folks living around our house..i think we might have woke some of them up). I think i shed some tears of joy while celebrating. I think Thailand mentally cracked after such a later hammer blow cause they seemed to just give up from that point on. Indra also did his part while on the bench to irritate the Thai players (earning himself a yellow card) by holding on to the ball and delaying play during the last couple of minutes.CONGRATS to Singapore..even though we had a bad game but we showed them 30,000 Thais our never-say-die spirit and deservedly defended our title. Really looking forward to the Lions victory parade in Orchard Road when they return. I'm already planning a new poster to get autographs from the team.

Met with Alex Wu (my best friend from BMT) yesterday for a drink and dinner to catch up. He shared this very funny YouTube clip with me (view here). If you have been following the news or forums you would have heard of this. Basically it's just some chinese guys going to an Indian (Halal) food shop and ordering pork as a prank. Hilarious stuff.

Borrowed 3 DVDs from Video EZY yesterday, Seven Swords (七劍), Be With You (いま、会いにゆきます, Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu) and Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War. Watched about an hour and a half of Seven Swords and then stopped cause i couldn't handle how corny the movie was. And this is coming from someone who enjoys watching corny and B-list shows. The seven swordsman are so powerful that its not even cool when they manage to destroy the bad guy's fort of over a 1000 people. And all the villans always talk big about taking the head of the heroes but they are so weak compared to them i actually feel sorry for them. I was hoping that at least one of them will kill one of the hero in the first part but alas, no such luck. Unless the storyline starts twisting for the final hour of this show, i will probably rate this as one of the WORST asian movie i have ever watched. I have no idea what the reviewers on IMDB were talking about when they said it is a masterpiece. Bleah..

The 2nd DVD i skimmed through was Be With You (starring the lovely Yuko Takeuchi). I just watched the Trailer for the show under the Special Features and i already cried a whole bunch of tears. Better ready my tissue box(es) when i actually start to watch the main feature.

Be With You (いま、会いにゆきます, Ima, Ai ni Yukimasu)

I Need a Fix

Came back from the Singapore vs Thailand Finals yesterday night after midnight so i was too tired to write anything about the match. And judging from what i was reading from the papers/internet and hearing from everyone else, i think there's nothing new i can add to what's already been said, but i wholly agree that everyone involved in that facade should be fined and banned. Thailand next time if you want to stage a walk-out, for goodness sake do us a favour and have the balls to actually WALK OUT. Don't waste our bloody time. My compliments to Thailand No. 23 who was the only who was sporting enough to shake hands with our players after the final whistle. Not like the rest of his teammate who saw it fit to surround and harass the referee after the whistle for who knows what reason? You want to act tough and bully the referee at least do it during the match and earn your red cards like a man. I can only assume the referees in Thailand have NEVER made a wrong call and so Thailand didn't know how to react after one.

Can you spot all the losers in the picture?

"Their testicles shrunk after all the vehement booing from the crowd, the Thais meekly re-entered the pitch with their tails between their legs."

Our department is going to PartyWorld at Orchard tomorrow after screening the new U/M tomorrow to de-stress after a super tiring week of VA (I'm feeling shagged even though i did the least work..). I've been nursing (nursing as in still eating my regular junk food + some Panadol Cold) a cold/flu/sore throat since last Friday and it hasn't improved till tonight. Going to 2 matches at the National Stadium and screaming my lungs out probably wasn't the best track to a quick recovery. I hope i can squeak out some sound to sing tomorrow. Otherwise the rest of the KTV party are going to know the true meaning of Zhao Xia tomorrow night.. Oh yah, this would be the first time i will be going to a PartyWorld karaoke, so far have only patronised K-Box. Hope they have more variety of songs but i think i promised i would only sing Chinese songs tomorrow, so i guess i will be singing the usual 伍佰, 周華健 and 周杰倫 songs. Ee Wei passed me some 王力宏 songs just now so i will be trying to learn some new stuff to add to my (extremely) limited repertoire.

Tomorrow is also our department's long awaited/postponed photo-taking session! Weee! We were supposed to take from last week but only reminded again on Wednesday (when Ming Wei forgot his No.3) and then today (when *D. Law went AWOL when we were free to take the photo and we fell asleep and got caught by *Ah Chew for taking a well-deserved nap). Before we left today *D.Law told us to polish our boots tonight for the photo-taking. I am half expecting to witness the unveiling of some super-camera tomorrow that can capture how shiny our boots are during a photograph. I hope me and my Kiwi-shined boots won't be disappointed. And i hope i don't look too cock or too white in the photos this time.

* Not their real names. Duh..

AND THE TROGDOR COMES IN THE NIGHT!!!!!

This is a really cool Guitar Hero II song that i think few of the people i know have played even though they own the game. Herbert can't be bothered to play beyond 'Carry On My Wayward Son', Nigel probably stashed his disc somewhere and lost it, Matthew's PS2 is somewhere in his storeroom and Eugene is having trouble with 'Medium' difficulty so i presume he hasn't bought and played any of the bonus songs. The silly lyrics of "Trogdor" reminds me of "Caveman Rejoice" from Guitar Hero I.

"Trogdor" - As Performed by Strong Bad Youtube Expert Video
Trogdor The Burninator Wiki Entry

"Trogdor" Lyrics:

TROGDOR!!!!

TROGDOR!!!!

Trogdor was a man!

I mean, he was a Dragon Man

Or maybe he was just a dragon

But he was still

TROGDOR!!!!

TROGDOR!!!!

Burninating the countryside!

Burninating the peasants!

Burninating all the peoples

And their thatch-roofed cottages!

Thatch-Roofed Cottages!!!

Whoa, this has wicked cool guitar solos

It's like squeegly vs. meedley over here

Go squeegly!

Go Squeegly!!

SQUEEGLY WINS!!!

When all the land is in ruins

And burnination has forsaken the countryside

Only one guy will prevail.

My money's on

TROGDOR!!!!

TROGDOR!!!!

And the Trogdor comes in the NNIIIIIIIIIIGHHHHHTTT!!!!

For the time being i'm not going to touch my PS2 GHII while i wait for the X360 version of it to be released. The main thing to note about the X360 version is that it has 10 new tracks(!) including an Iron Maiden's "The Trooper"(!!) and "HUSH" by Deep Purple. Also in this version are downloaded new songs from XBOX LIVE and also rumored is that the entire tracks of GH1 can be purchased as an add-on. Also the guitar controller for the X360 is shaped like the Gibson Explorer as compared to the Gibson SG shape for the PS2 version. This looks like a really must-buy game this year.

X360 New Tracks:
"Hush" - Deep Purple
"Dead!" - My Chemical Romance
"Billion Dollar Babies" - Alice Cooper
"Salvation" - Rancid
"Possum Kingdom" - Toadies
"Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" - Rick Derringer
"Life Wasted" - Pearl Jam
"The Trooper" - Iron Maiden
"Drink Up" - Ounce of Self
"Kicked to the Curb" - Noble Rot

Secured 4 tickets to the Finals tomorrow as well (Thanks Mom!). Hope for a fantastic final game at our National Stadium tomorrow before it makes way for the new Sports Hub at the end of the year.

4 tickets secured! No extras this time round 'tho.

The Big Fight Part 2 (End) OLE!

Reached the stadium too early (around 7pm) so we had a lot of time to kill before kick off. So what did me and Alex do? We tried to re-create one of my favourite pictures from 2 years ago:

Alex is shocked at the modern technology they call the 'camera'.

Unfortunately all our attempts, before kick off, half time and after the match ended in failure. I guess it's true when they say you can never go back...

Nothing came close, unfortunately.

Back to the match. One of the best Singapore match i've seen and the players really tried to play up to the capacity (55,000!) crowd. It was left to Ridhuan Muhd (equaliser) and Lionel Lewis (saved the final penalty) to send us through to the finals. FT and ET ended 1-1 and we won (for the 3rd straight time against Malaysia) 5-4 on penalties. (MATCH REPORT: SLEAGUE.COM or SOCCERNET.COM). I'm not very good with adjectives to describe the atmosphere or the match so i'll just say that if you didn't make the effort to be there, shame on you. Please don't try to act like a Singapore fan now that they reached the finals and snatch up the tickets when they go on sale.

And to Rong Ming, who SMS'ed me during the 2nd half, "Quite a boring match huh?"..Boring your head la! Think you need to see more Singapore soccer matches if you can label such a great game 'boring'. Or just stay home and watch your Man United.

A bit sleepy now after the match. Will revisit this post tomorrow and see if i have anything to add. Check out the few pics i took below.

Stadium at 7:30pm still filling up.

Goal for Singapore! But nobody could tell who equalised from where we were..

Through to the finals after Lionel saves the penalty!

The average moving speed when we were leaving the stadium was about 5cm/s, sometimes less.

Sent this to Ee Wei recently but i decided to post this up cause i love this video. It's the ending theme/credits for "Pride" taken from Episode 11 *No spoilers in video*. Song is "I Was Born To Love You" by Queen. The part where Halu scores and the crowd goes crazy, coupled with the music gives me goosebumps everytime i watch it. Great use of a great song from a great band. Ee Wei if you want this series just ask me, since you helped me burn so many series before.

Click here to see the video (FLV format 3:33 mins)

The Big Fight Part 2

Less than 24 hours to the 2nd leg of the AFC Semi-Finals! Will be updating with all the latest reports before the big match tomorrow.



That's me (in red) getting autograph's from Dickson (hidden), Alam Shah and Shahril Jantan 2 years ago at TP stadium. What a totally irrelevant picture.
Lions Team News: Previous Match ended 1-1. Away goals don't apply. If it is still a draw after 90 mins, then 30 mins of extra time will be played. If still a draw, a penalty shoot-out will decide who advances. Singapore Captain Aide Iskandar will be suspended because of his red card for 'ungentlemanly conduct' in the previous game. Indra Sahdan will be leading the lions out tomorrow night. Mustafic Fahrudin will also be back in midfield after his previous game suspension. Subramani is still 50-50 awaiting a late fitness test. Top scorer for Singapore is Alam Shah with 9 goals in 4 games, 7 coming from the game against Laos.

Web Articles:
Previous Match Report SLeague.com
Previous Match Report ChannelNewsAsia.com

Singapore coach issues ASEAN rallying cry Soccernet.com
Raddy challenges Lions to shine SLeague.com
Norizan: Kallang Roar will not unnerve us SLeague.com
Indra to lead Lions' tiger hunt SLeague.com

Will update this if i find any news update tomorrow before leaving for the match. Go Lions Go!

Cold Day in the Sun

Completed Lost Planet early this morning(3am) before going to sleep. The graphics are excellent on my HD-tv. CAPCOM tried to make the gameplay and story cutscenes epic and film-like but shot themselves in the foot with a shallow and incoherent storyline. I'm not expecting a Hideo Kojima type of story but the least they can do is tell a story that makes sense. At least Dead Rising (also by CAPCOM) had a engaging B-movie storyline.



Wayne finally understood why his father warned him to stock up on bug spray.
The likeness of Wayne (what kind of stupid name is Wayne for a main character?) was kindly provided by Korean actor Lee Byung-Hun. CAPCOM has a habit of using famous actor's likeness in their games (see Onimusha series) but Lee looked extremely out of place in the game as everyone else, including his own father are Caucasians. Anyway i already posted this game for sale here. Also selling Saints Row because i didn't like it when i playtested it last night. Everything in the game screamed 'cheap production' and i hate how 'black' the game is (music, dialogue etc). Nigga jokes and talk always gets on my nerves.

Alex took up my offer of the extra ticket to tomorrow's match so i guess he will be tagging along with my dad, mom and myself. I just pray that he doesn't turn out to be a jinx but at least i have someone to vent my anger on if Singapore lose tomorrow. Good thing he is quite chubby so he should be nice to whack. I can give him his birthday handshake as well when i see him tomorrow.

Songs For Rainy Days:

As recommended by myself less 'It's raining men' cause i hate that bitch and song

Light Drizzle
'Raindrops keep Falling on my Head' - BJ Thomas
'Crying in the Rain' - Everly Brothers
'Rhythm of the Rain' - The Cascades
'Rainy Days and Mondays' - Carpenters

Drenching Downpour
'Rain' - The Beatles
'The Rain Song' - Led Zeppelin
'Let it Rain' - Eric Clapton
'Texas Flood' - Stevie Ray Vaughan
'Riders on the Storm' - The Doors

Torrential Floods
'Have you Ever Seen the Rain' - Creedence Clearwater Revival
'November Rain' - Gun n Roses
'Who'll Stop the Rain' - Creedence Clearwater Revival
'Rainmaker' - Iron Maiden
'Purple Rain' - Prince

14 Tracks ??:?? mins (definitely not enough to last through one rainy Singapore afternoon)

The Big Fight Part 1 (End)

Final Score 1-1. What a terribly disappointing match... The first half was like watching school children playing soccer. The passing was abysmal and the defenders gave the Malaysians a zoo's space to move about and attack. Singapore must really trust Lionel Lewis to save them and he did when he had a superb reflex save to deny Malaysia a 2nd in the 80th+ min. And of course our goal machine Nor Alam Shah was once again on hand to rescue Singapore from defeat. On the whole everyone played poorly, especially the usually dependable Daniel Bennett. Even Lionel was having somewhat of an off-day.

The saddest part of the match is that it seemed too..friendly. Where are the bloodied noses, spit-in-the-face, skull-fracturing-elbows and leg breaking tackles? Where is our traditional heated rivalry? Maybe we need Mahatir or MM Lee Kuan Yew to stir up some water under the bridge issue before we can see some heart and passion in the next game. Oh ya, another sad thing is that i was shouting at the players and referee through a TV screen. It sucks not to watch a Singapore match live.

However, at the end of the day, the results suit Singapore better for the 2nd leg this Saturday since we have home advantage. Hope they wake up their idea and play some decent football (read: learn to pass to your own players!) and for goodness sake, like they say in the SAF, "Show some bloody urgency!"

Anyone need tickets for the match on Saturday? 8pm National Stadium 27th Jan Sat. $6 Gallery $10 Grandstand. I'm probably buying them this Thursday.

The Big Fight Part 1

Tonight is the first leg of Singapore's AFC Semi-Final clash! Against our arch-rivals Malaysia no less!

Flashback to almost 2 years ago and the Tiger Cup (as it was known back then) Finals. First time in my life i witnessed a sold-out National Stadium soccer match, thanks in part to all the suddenly converted Lions fan just because Singapore reached the finals..but anyway, the atmosphere can only be described as the Holy Grail of local soccer. Fans were singing, people young and old were Kallang waving and the noise and fanfare reverbrated throughout the stadium. Best match i ever watched. Period. For the record, Singapore won 2-1.

Before the match. Check out the sea of red.

After. Yes the inhumanly white guy in both pics is me.

So good luck to our Lions tonight. I hope to be able to see Singapore in consecutive finals and to savour the atmosphere one more time.

Oh yah, my Erika Toda 2007 Calendar arrived yesterday! Much bigger (bigger referring to the calendar size) than i expected but i was disappointed that there are only 7 images, 1 cover, 6 2-monthly pictures/calendar instead of 1 picture for every month. The biggest problem is that its quite heavy and i have no idea how to hang it on my wall. For the time being i will just keep it in it's tube till i can find some way to put it up.

The cover. Erika looks different in this pic.

January/February pic. Those dots at the bottom are the calendar dates. Totally impractical but who cares?