EURO 2008 Preview: Vienna Calling

Tonight, two top teams are going to compete for the ultimate prize. A short analysis then:

Germany:
There are always a team which performed insufficiently in the group stages and then suddenly gets the call of form just in time for the elimination rounds. Portugal was the typical one in EURO 2004 and France in World Cup 2006. This time, it is the Germans. The team had barely got through the group stages, but inspirational performances from certain individuals provide them a sort-of dream final. German might miss inspirational captain Michael "the log"Ballack to injury.

Men to watch:











Bastian Schweinsteiger: The man that is giving me trouble in spelling and sometimes pronouncing his name. Almost a flop in the group stages with a red card, he turned inspirational in the knockouts.














Lukas Podolski: Top scorer for the Germans. A converted left winger with speed and good instinct for goal.














Miroslav Klose: Had always been impressive since I followed World Cup 2002. Best stuff is his aerial ability.

Spain:

After 44 years of waiting, the time has come. Simple said. Winning all matches in the tournaments, they can be called the slight favourite here. With a pool of talents, they have finally shag the tag of tournament underperformers. Also, their football technique is a joy to watch. Sadly, they will miss tournament top-scorer David Villa to injurty.

Men to watch (too many in fact, just pick three here):














Iker Casillas: The ever-present goal keeper for my generation since WC 2002. Always impressive and with good reaction. Arguably the world's best keeper for me since Kahn's retirement.














Fernando Torres: El Nino had always been a favourite to me. Skill, technique, aerial and pace. A complete package. Let's hope he perform better than in the semis.














Cesc Fabregas: Super-sub for most of the tournament matches, he is set to graduate into first team selection. Dynamic young playmaker with good passing and vision.

Who will win? I am a supporter of Spain. Nuf' said.

Futsal Investment

adidas has been my first option when finding a footwear since I started playing football. I somehow find the three stripes attractive and significant. Of course I love their design too.

This time, due to my sports psych. involvement in playing (and studying) futsal, I decided to invest in one of their futsal boots.



















adidas Absolado PS.

It costs me Rm179.90. Sounded pretty expensive. Why not get brandless futsal shoes for only like 30 bucks you asked? First of all, it definitely last longer, say 3-4 years. The 30 bucks shoe that my friend wear are already giving him problems in just 5 weeks. Plus, adidas shoes (and mostly all branded shoes) provides the technology to keep your feet safe and comfort. Unless you bought a wrong-size footwear or chapelangs from black markets, it practically protects your feet from being prone to most injuries.















Slick, comfy and effective.

...think adidas should sponsor me for the publicity.Hint. But seriously, they do provide me good stuff. Thanks for that.

EURO 2008 Update: Semi Finals

Match #1: Germany vs Turkey

I fancied the Turkish side. They battled every moment on the field, giving the Germans almost no air to breath. But in the end, fatigue and slight inferiority of skill and technique gave way. I would say the Germans are lucky, the Turks had too many chances waisted or kena tiang. The most potong stim moment of the match is that we lost live coverage for almost ten minutes. And in that ten minutes, two goals were scored. Gaahh. All in all, salute the Turks for their fighting spirit.















Lahm with the decider of the match.
GettyImages

Match #2: Spain vs Russia

Russia is another Turkey sort of team, their never-say-die attitude is much accounted for their claim in the semis. Too bad Spain had much more entertainment and a better team to offer. And as they had done once in thrashing the Russians in the group stages, they met the expectations. A 3-0 thrashing by the Spanish armada is too much for the Russians. Fast tempo and the short passing are too much to handle. And maybe Russia got a lil'bit relaxed or fatigued by now. They don't really show the determination that was apparent against Holland. The Spaniards bossed around. Of note, Torres was awful and Fabregas is well, Fab-ulous. Casillas can seat at the goal post and play PSP almost the whole match. And oh, finally alot of people now know who Daniel Guiza is.
















Daniel Guiza: "Esta manera al final."
GettyImages

The ultimate final to follow: Spain vs Germany.
Stay tuned.

Short Simple and Straight

"You don't live to please others. You live for yourself."

It is the simplest straight-to-the-point advice that I haven't got for some time. It is so cliche that we tend to ignore the some of the most basic principles in life. I trailed away, it is time to receive a whack at the back of the head.

Sometimes, the simplest of sentence is much worthier than a long winded, you-know-lah-hoh-sortof explanation. A reality check like this doesn't make you go back snoozing after a wake up call. It is these short piercing truthful words that enlightens.

To J&J, thanks for the slap of reality. I should consult you guys more often.

EURO 2008 Update: Quarter Finals

Just a short update here.

It is halfway through the quarter finals now. Lots of surprises so far. Dutch out. Portugal out. Croatia out. In fact, the pattern so far is the winners of group stages were beaten by runner-ups of their own groups (confusing leh..). Anyway, was disappointed that the Netherlands were out. Their group stages football was a joy to watch. Total football. Too bad they can't perform in the Russia game. So was Portugal..although Germany's football is starting to look more like...er...football now. Good thing. As for the Croats, never a fan of their football, favoured Turkey to go through that one.

















Poor van der Sar. No last hoorah before his retirement.
GettyImages.
















Turkish Delight. Can't really figure how they gonna compete with so many players injured and banned in the next round. Empics.

















Joao's emotion practically says all for Portugal.
GettyImages.

Tonight's will be a competition for a team famous for their attacking flair (Spain) and a side with tenacious defending (Italy). Hope they don't cancel each other out. I want a GG.

Update:
















Spain went through with Iker Casillas stopping two penalty kicks in the shootout. The whole match was mostly uneventful as the two sides expectedly canceled each other out. For once, one of my favoured team went through. Deja vu for Russia? Finding out in 3 days time.

Impact of Reinforcement.

You receive an assignment which gives you like 5 minutes to present. You looked at it and you have absolutely no friggin idea what the hell is about. In addition, the lecturer accidentally(or rather the pessimistic thought of he-purposely-do-that-one) skip the part you are suppose to understand in order to present.

You then go read the text book. You read first time, stare at wall. You read second time, mumbling: "Nabeh, can this book speak English ah?". You read third time..fourth...fifth....and again. Again. You go googling, wiki-ing, dictionarying, E-journaling. It would take you the whole damn night just to understand at least at skin level. It was tomorrow, the presentation. You are still at skin level. Ok, a lil deep inside, say dermis level. You rap on with only the gut feeling telling you are on the right track.

After 5 minutes, the non-pleasing lecturer, with a big satisfying grin, says: "Very good." =.=



.....you think I don't appreciate that?! Hell, you are wrong. The two words, very powerful words was enough to make me feel elated. After all the hard work, all you need is an acknowledgment. Marks sure doesn't matter at the moment.

Moral of the story...I am so easily pleased...Ok...the real one...You just need a short comment, say two simple words, to really motivate and encourage and to keep going. It's Psychology 101. XD

European Football Feast

I really don't know where to start about EURO 2008, because I can keep on barraging you with facts with one friggin 69 pages long post. Should I talk about the players? The team I supported? The history? The managers? The pitchman? Or the hot chicks that flaunt around the stadium?

Ok, maybe I should talk about teams that I had admired this time. And trying to talk in laymen terms.

Holland













Prior to their amazing record against current and former World Champions this time, Holland is known for their history of total football and attacking flair. And to see them demolish current World Cup winner Italy 3-0 and France 4-1 is just simply breathtaking. Armed with a flair of talented attackers, organized defence and slick free-flow passing, it is hard to discard them as favourites.

Men to Watch:
Ruud van Nistelrooy (aging but still haven't change the ability to find best position and score goals), Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Robin van Pussy..sorry..Persie and Rafael van der Vaart. Plus they are sort of a eye candy, except maybe almost bald Robben.

Spain














Another team that I had supported for years. Though always had a bad record in big time tournaments, you can't deny that their aggressive technique-based direct play of the game. Another team with lots of attacking flair.

Men to Watch:
Fernando Torres (me is big fan simply because he score goals like nobody's business), David Villa (another crazy scoring machine), Iker Casillas, Cesc Fabregas

Portugal














Much like Spain, with different set of players. Afterall, they are neighbours. Once again, it was free-flow football and skill showing players, albeit a slower tempo of play.

Men to Watch: Cristiano Ronaldo (much as I don't like his attitude and because he is with ManU, his footie skill is still undeniably breathtaking), Deco, Pepe and Simao.

That's it for now. More to come......

College Starts...

Or at least it was 3 weeks ago. 3 weeks ago, I was eager to go back college after 3 months of hiatus. I was excited, I was anticipating, I was motivated. Ahh...u got it now huh? I was.

Now, I am tired, exhausted, slacking and slightly unmotivated. College sucks the soul out of people. Even when you had a bright halo with the sunlight shining at the background, you will ended up like a zombie dragging twenty inches under the floor.

Subjects come in with full strength of nukes ready to blow me up anytime. First, it was physiological psychology (even the title already get me into trouble while typing). Describing in short, it is 2 years of secondary biology plus new bloody medical terms plus Ingerris version of nightmare revisited after 3 years discarding it.

Child and Adolescence Disorders is tough partly kids are hard to study and partly our hardcore lecturer emphasized critical thinking. I am not complaining the critical thinking, but there are always times when your brain comatose itself. Frequently that is.

Then there is Motivation and Emotion. Title sounds motivating but. More like the Emotion part plays the bigger role when we all go emo-ing about how hard to really adopt them in real life with all those theoretically rigid paradigms.

Sports psychology is fun, at least practically. We got to play futsal and study it. Hehee. In any dark gloomy days, you had to admit that there is always a silver lining. And that is the one and only. Apart from that, we sort of suffer from the language deficiency lecturer. I would give him credit for the lots of effort put in to let us understand but sometimes when you don't get it after many alternative explanations, you still have to go:"Pfft. Lousy lecturer."

And then there is THE thesis. It might be the preliminary round, but it has taken toll on us. Tension, stress, anxiety...gah.

It is mid-week 3 now. And it is time to regain strength.

Really Bo-Lui Liao Lar

WTF is wrong with the PM? Was the chaos in the political arena not enough ar? Testing on where our patience can go isit?

Abstract from the Star, 5 June:

The Government announced yesterday an increase in petrol and diesel prices, stating that it can no longer continue to subsidise fuel.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the new prices were still at a 30-sen per litre discount from market prices.

In other words, if the market price is RM3 per litre, Malaysians will be charged RM2.70 at the pump. He said the price would be adjusted monthly based on the global oil price.

Gah! I damn bankrupt d...and here comes the political suicide move that the government takes...pisses me (and millions of Malaysians) off. KNMCCB.

And to add salt to wounds, the have to add a list of "consolation"like this:





The Star, 5 June.

Why?! Why Thailand and Singapore? They don't friggin produce oil. We do. What's the point of listing it out? Why don't you list out UAE who is only RM1.10 and Venezuela with only RM0.16?
This is no consolation ok? Think that Malaysians are damn dumb issit?

Whatever not, the plans for going to occasional trips with my fellow driving kakis sure do have to cut down..or might as well cut off. Can't really afford. 41% of increase...and we are students.
















RM1 fuel prior (left) and after (right) the hike.

And as for trips to college, I will gradually revert to taking bus. No more faraway yam chas. No more midnight movies. No life.

....And The Sui-ness Continues

I believe in Feng Shui, partially at least. And to see my ass kicked time and again is sort of exhausting. I am totally worn out by now.

So, they say that bad things comes serially, in mandarin (huo bu dan xing). As if going pokai is not enough, my car bat was gone again last night, so I have to borrow roomie's scooter bike to go yam cha at TBR. It rebelled and I crashed. External injury. Pain. Agony. And there goes my cash again. RM130 for just the signal lights. Sob.

I ponder upon the calamity that was torturing me these few days and wonder whether it had come in full circle yet. I hope it already did. Apart from the physical and financial disasters, there is the psychological and emotional struggle that threaten to rip me off anytime from the inside. People around me changed, for the good, the bad and the ugly. And partly, I had to adapt to those changes. Shrugged these off as test of faith was the easiest avoidance technique, but to this level, it had little effect as consolation.

I talked to mom this afternoon about all those non-scientific stuff as in being so sui and every nightmare seems to come true thing. She said it was sometimes a patch of life. I agree. But never had I felt so fatigued and energy-draining. How I wish I can like cut-and-paste good file patches of life into this struggling period.

I have to go through this. It is a matter of perception and I definitely knew better for being a psychology student. But sometimes and maybe just sometimes, luck, fate and all those Feng Shui stuff sort of intervened and I can't really disregard them. Part of me is still religious.

....and to make matter worse, PM announced the price of petrol goes up to RM2.70 from Rm1.92 moments ago. Mere coincidence? I doubt that.