Football time!

Where have all the Malaysia badges gone!!

Malaysia beat Laos 3 - 1 and qualified for the SEA Games football final - after a lapse and gold drought of 20 years. But what a crap it was., the semi final game. Malaysia - oops sorry - did I say Malaysia? or was it 1Malaysia or heck, was it just my eyesight? bloody hell that jerseys haven't got any Malaysian badge on it!! That semi final or rather the team was actually representing FAM and not Malaysia or 1Malaysia! An oversight or was it done on purposed? Can someone explain to me why the Malaysian Under 20 team - or for that matter - the football team have FAM badges on them and not the national one!

Anyway, I was shocked to witness the game - the standard of football , the 'way the Malaysian' team was playing. Schoolboy standards to say the least - ball control was terrible, no possession football, no vision, cant even passed the ball properly. Utterly rubbish. What a standard! I think they were lucky, really lucky and fluke to have beaten Laos. That guy who scored the second goal, was running aimlessly minutes earlier (when he had the ball), just did not know what to do with the ball - before he was brought down by the Laos player. And presto, a minute later he scored and became the instant hero!! But I tell you, come final, they will be slaughtered by Vietnam, if they produce that kind of football, that king of 'commitment!'.

We have a long way to go in this game. We must be serious if we want to put the country high up the pedestal of world football.


Good luck 1Malaysia. Good luck for the final.

Kalah

Malaysia kalah kepada Vietnam menerusi sepakan penalty 6 - 5 selepas bertarong dalam pertandingan akhir Pestabola Merdeka. Pasokan yang nampat gah dan 'mengaum' tiba-tiba mengucing dan akhirnya menikus semasa di Final. Tidak boleh bayangkan keresahan penonton di Stadium apabila tengok cara Malaysia bermain bola. Apa yang dia orang belajar atau practice masa training, wallahualam. Nampak sangat tak boleh menyepak, tak boleh kontrol bola, tak reti nak passing, bak kata lain.. main buran je. Basic main bola pun tak da. Pamcit dan tak pandai create space. Zaki.. apo yang kau ajar ni? yang tua-tua macam Khairuddin Omar, Indra Putra, Zaki Misbah tu, tukar dan main futsal saja lah. Lagi pun kalau kalau semasa ke Thailand nanti ada reason.. team maseh muda.
FAM ni pun tak reti berniaga ke? Nama tournement 'Pestabola Merdeka' tapi buat tak kena bulan. Timing out. Spirit out. Amende you all ni? Pening pening!! Ada akhbar yang melaporkan penonton seramai 50,000 orang?? Stadium nampak banyak kosong.., 50,000 amende.

Nicol juara

PEMAIN nombor satu dunia, Nicol David akhirnya berjaya menebus kehampaan tahun lalu apabila merampas kembali gelaran skuasy Terbuka Dunia dengan kemenangan ke atas harapan tuan rumah, Vicky Botwright di Manchester semalam. Nicol, yang turun sebagai pilihan pertama, tercicir satu set pada permulaan – kali pertama dalam lima perlawanan sepanjang kejohanan – tetapi memenangi tiga permainan seterusnya, 5-11, 11-1, 11-6, 11-9 untuk merangkul gelaran ketiganya. ... LAGI BERITA
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Salute to Nicol. What more can we say. She has proven that she's the No. 1. If only Malaysia can produce more sportsman like Nicol ..

Malaysia bimbang tekanan

SHAH ALAM - Skuad negara telah pun mencatat kemenangan moral menentang Nepal pada pertemuan sulung Pestabola Merdeka malam ini apabila pengurus lawan, Rajendra Singh mengakui Malaysia sebuah pasukan hebat untuk ditandingi.
.... LAGI
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What? Pestabola Merdeka? Bila? Dimana? Siapa lawan siapa? Malaysia bertanding ke?!! Jepun, Korea Selatan datang ke? Singapore mari ka? Such a state of Malaysian football. Nak adakan pertandingan penuh dengan dilemma. Tiada pilehan terpaksa jemput team yang dahulunya tak masuk 'book' pun. Shame on you all footballers! Makan gaji main bola tapi performance hampeh!! Buat malu FAM, buat malu Malaysia. Yang herannya you all tak malu pun!! Dilemma Bolasepak Malaysia!

OJ faces life and death in prison

OJ Simpson's 1995 trial for the brutal murder of his ex-wife and her friend captivated America and sparked racial tension. But since his dramatic acquittal he has lived a twilight existence and been pursued at every step by his ex-wife's father. Now, following his conviction for a bizarre robbery, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

It was a scene that many Americans had been waiting exactly 13 years to see. OJ Simpson, the former American football star widely believed to have got away with murder, was found guilty in a court of law, meaning he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
On the exact anniversary of the day in 1995 in which Simpson was cleared of killing his ex-wife and another man, he was found guilty of robbery and kidnapping in a bizarre Las Vegas crime. MORE

The many public faces of OJ Simpson

From the San Francisco ghetto to Hollywood via a glittering career in American football, then murder charges and now a conviction for kidnap and armed robbery, the trajectory of OJ Simpson's life has been anything but predictable.

Orenthal James Simpson, better known as OJ Simpson, acquired the nickname The Juice for his fluid running style during his American football years.
This was an impressive achievement, given that as a child he had suffered from rickets and wore leg braces.
He retired from his sports career in 1979, after a successful career with the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers. Simpson went on to appear in minor roles in a number of films, including The Towering Inferno and The Cassandra Crossing. ... MORE

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OJ's episode should reminds us in our quest for glamour and wealth. Nothing better than freedom!

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1

Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas wheels away after rescuing a point for Arsenal.

ARSENAL dropped two more points in the title race at the Stadium of Light.
Arsene Wenger's men believed they had erased last week's defeat to Hull following their Champions League thrashing of Porto in midweek.
But Sunderland's battling stars had other ideas and gave the Gunners a real fright.

Roy Keane's side might have had all three points after Grant Leadbitter's 86th-minute rocket put them in front.
But Cesc Fabregas headed home in the third minute of injury time to rescue a draw for the visitors.
Wenger claimed Sunderland's defensive tactics made it hard to break them down. ..MORE
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After the game, Arsene Wenger blamed Sunderland for their defensive game which of course resulted in the 1 - 1 draw. Wenger frustration is expected. But then Roy Keanne's tactic is also expected of Sunderland. Keanne's strategy was to defence and counter attact whenever they have the chance, and it works for them! Arsene Wenger knew it but couldnot break Roy Keanne's tactic!.

Other EPL results played last nite.

Blackburn 0 Man United 2
Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1
Wigan 0 Middlesbrough 1
West Brom 1 Fulham 0
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This incidence reminded me of my HBP (Housing Building & Planning) inter year football game in USM. We had to plan the team strategy when my team (Year 1) was drawn to meet Year 2 for our first game. And we had to think hard because half of the Year 2 team players were from the present university football team. We had a simple game plan, that is to defense and only to attack when we had the chance to do so. We had a very reliable goalkeeper in Wan Osman (he played goalkeeper for the University team), a strong backline in Zul Ismail (he's the fullback, the stopper for USM hockey team), Mahadi as the centre forward, Musa and Bakar Johar as wingers and yours truly manning the midfield. The strategy worked, we frustrated the opposing team so much so that they began to fight with each other and lost their concentration and lost the game!. Would you believed it, we won 2 - 0. Both goals scored by Mahadi. My team eventually won the tournement when we beat Year 3 in the final!

Ramos keeps faith in Spurs

Under-fire Tottenham boss Juande Ramos is determined to turn the club’s season around after their worst league start for 53 years.
Ramos was in the spotlight after fans turned on him during the 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth last Sunday, although there was no suggestion from within the club that his position is insecure.
Spurs’ efforts to do so start in Poland against Wisla Krakow on Thursday when they look to reach the group stages of the UEFA Cup by defending a 2-1 lead.
Then they face Hull at the weekend in their attempt to climb off the bottom of the Premier League. ... MORE.

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The headline should have been 'Spurs keeps faith in Spurs' instead. Spurs has themselves to blame for the poor start to their Premier League campaign this season. It is expected actually when the management decided to sell off and dump Keanne, Berbatov and Defoe. I pray hard that Ramos can turn around the team and to get them out of the danger zone, the soonest possible.

I became a fan of Spurs since the days of Martin Peters - yes, you guessed correctly, eversince the 60's. I remembered going through the Shoot magazine at Mubaruk Bookstore, Ipoh old town, during my schooling days, just to catch the 'latest' news on English football especially so on my fav footballer - Peters. I cant remember the price though but I did make the order from the bookstore for the Shoot magazine to be sent by post. I spent nearly all my allowances buying this magazine, can you imagine that. Anyway, it was because of Martin Peters that I became a Spurs fan. Having witnessed how Peters helped England captured the 1966 World Cup, to me then, there was no other and better players in England than Martin Peters. Of course, eventually Spurs had other 'Star' players as well, such Hoddle, Gascionne, Ardilles, Villa, Archibald, Teddy Sheringham, Anderton, Campbell, David Ginola, Linekar and Klinsmann. But nothing compares to Martin Peters.

Audere est Facere (lit: "To Dare Is to Do")

Laa.. Kecundang lagii!

HARI malang menimpa skuad negara apabila lima daripada tujuh beregu kecundang pada pertentangan pusingan kedua badminton Masters China, semalam. Turut tersenarai dalam himpunan kecewa itu ialah dua beregu utama - Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong dan Fairuzizuan Tazari-Mohd Zakry Latif - yang masing-masing tunduk mengalah kepada lawan kurang ternama. Kien Keat-Boon Heong, pilihan ketiga, tumbang kepada gandingan muda tuan rumah, Sun Junjie-Xy Chen 23-25, 19-21 - kekalahan yang menghampirkan mereka kemungkinan dipisahkan jurulatih, Rexy Mainaky. Fairuzizuan-Zakry pula tenggelam punca ketika menentang beregu keempat Indonesia, Hendra Aprida Gunawan-Joko Riyadi untuk kalah 21-12, 19-21, 8-21 dalam tempoh 37 minit.
LAGI..
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It's getting more serious than I thought. BAM should take the hint and not to wait any longer than it should to remedy the situation. They must tstudy why after the Beijing debacle, the players' performance is getting from bad to worst. Tazary and Zakry performance has nosedived ever since they wre left out of the Beijing entourage!. We hope that it has nothing to do with coup d'etat or anything like that. As I previously mentioned the key element to sporting excellent is discipline, discipline and discipline. if you are a movive maniac, a kung fu movie one, look how the kung fu master trains their students. It is no longer 'practice makes perfect' but "PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT'.

Salute to Nicol!!

Squash: Nicol in seventh heaven with Dutch victory.

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KUALA LUMPUR: Top seed Nicol David gunned down her seventh consecutive Women's International Squash Players Association (Wispa) title with a convincing win over world number two Natalie Grinham of Holland in the Dutch Open final in Amsterdam yesterday.
The world number one beat Natalie 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 to dash the hopes of the Australia-born player to earn her first title as a Dutch player.
The 25-year-old Nicol appeared to struggle to find her footing in the early stages of the match and trailed 5-9 in the first game. But she produced a superb comeback to reel off six consecutive points and her rival never recovered after that.
Defending champion Nicol went into the match with a big psychological advantage over Grinham. They have played against each other 10 times over the last two years and Nicol won nine of them.
In the semi-finals on Saturday, Nicol took just 32 minutes to secure a 11-9, 11-5, 11-8 win over fourth seed American Natalie Grainger. Grinham reached the final by beating eighth seed Alison Waters of England 9-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8.
The previous titles Nicol won this season were at the Apawanis, Kuala Lumpur, British, Seoul and Malaysia Opens and the Singapore Masters.

WOMEN
Semi-finals: Nicol David (Mas) bt Natalie Grainger (Usa) 11-9, 11-5, 11-8; Natalie Grinham (Ned) bt Alison Waters (Eng) 9-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8.
Final: Nicol bt Grinham 11-9, 11-9, 11-5.

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I really salute Nicole Anne David. The way she has done it, should put a shame to other Malaysian sportsman. Imagine a scenario that if Malaysia has not gained her independent., the late Mokhtar Dahari would have played for England and Nicole would have also and she'll definitely a millionaire by now. Malaysia wolud have won her first gold in the Olympics in Beijing had squash been one of the sports been competed. Gosh!!

No budget for sport ah?

Budget 2009 already out. Government servants jumping up and down 'cos they got the one month bonus. But I sort of wanting to see more money be spent on develpment as well. For example money should be spent on building up more sports facilities, improving the existing one and the needs to nurture budding sportsman. Malaysia is well known for its hockey, squash, badminton, lawn bowl and of late archery and swimming. more efforts and programme should have been given towards developing these games. Badminton, squash and hockey deserve the special treatment. We need to built more facilities and amenities to expand the pool of players for these sports. We cant simply rely on the 2 Dato's to keep on flying the Msian flags. Hockey need to be expanded and games be held at every states rather than concentrating within the Klang Valley. Bring the game to the other towns. I used to watch hockey at ist best time in Seremban. everything was held and organised at the NS Padang. The stiff and rivalry between KGV and St. Paul and the games played by Kilat and PD Garisson and not forgetting the Tampin Rovers had all contributed good hockey not only to Negri and Msia but to the world of hockey as well. We've heard and had the likes of Brian Sta Maria, Fidellis, Williams and Lazarrus coming out of Negri's hockey. It is high time MHA to revamp and plan their programme to let the states held and expand the game hockey.
If we are targetting for London Olympics in 2012, then we better start and get cracking now. I dont want to hear Ministry of Sports or KOAM still giving the same excuse over and over again. Tak syok la like that Sir!

Football my foot!!

Cant imagine that FAM did reverse their stand on foreign players playing in Malaysian league. But Im sure the ruling is not going to serve the Malaysian football standard any better. I thing they have put the nation on dismay. What FAM should have done actually is to study how to bring back the fans. Of course with modern games and ASTRO spoiling tje football league in the country, FAM found it difficult to gain enough money to pay the players let alone the foreign one. But the reverse will not improve Msian football. When we mix politic and religion with football, then thegame will suffer. One may asked why is it so important for football clubs in the UK or Europe scrambled to buy players, top or otherwise but the story is the reverse in Msia. Will all the hypes and announcement, it will leads to spur the fans, the supporters and eventually leads to increase in season tickets sale. The Club will try and buy players simply s marketing plans to boost tickets sales and merchandise. What we have in Msia is not very encouraging. We dont encourage fans to travel simply because the holidays are not synchronise! Sunday is a working day in Ktan and trengganu as well as kedah, so how do you expect for them to travel and follow their teams? Cant afford to take holidays the entire seasons! Bus companies will not thrive, hotels will not be able to do extra business, stadiums will not be filled!

FAM and state government must go back to the drawing board, Think how to bring back the fans, how to fill up the stadiums. Donot politicised football! Think football as an industry! We have a lot to gain, we can improve the economy and bring back the glory of football in the country and malaysia's reputation as a footballing Nation.