Category: Sports

I watched only the South Korea-Togo match last night – which was unfortunate since both Brazil and France were up in two different matches on Wednesday morning – and I want to say that I don’t feel South Korea deserve their points.

Before the game, I admit that I had a very low expectation of Togo. As such, my expectation was a thorough win for the South Koreans. This game however was not an easy win, at least before Togo was down to 10 men. To my great surprising, just like how Trinidad & Tobago performed against Sweden earlier, Togo faught valiantly and could possibly defeat the Korean if it wasn’t for the red card. If Togo had a full team, Korea could have struggled a lot.

I’m not questioning the booking but still, it seemed to me that the Koreans were out to prove that 2002 was a sheer luck instead of otherwise. Togo seemed dangerous and from my point of view, just like me, the South Koreans underestimated the African nation and almost paid the price for it. They should have paid the price but they got away with full points.

Regardless of that, I now know who I’m supporting within Group G. I feel the guilt of underestimating Togo and now on, I’m rooting for Togo for any match within Group G. I wish them the best of luck.

Let me be the first to say that this particular match reminds me of Manchester United’s win over Bayern Munich in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League Final. The Final was harsh for the German; they were a goal up while all the German fans singing and dancing knowing that Bayern Munich was leading in what was already stoppage time, only to lose to the English. Two English goals in stoppage time. Two goals two minutes apart during stoppage time. The English won it. Everybody had expected a German win. But it was not. And it was harsh.

The Australia-Japan World Cup match wasn’t that harsh (tag). The atmosphere wasn’t comparable to what the German went through in 1999. Still, I’m sure the Japanese were devastated as much.

I almost felt pity for the Japanese but given Shinji Ono actually played for Feyenoord once, I reconsidered my position. I wanted to support Australia because Jason Culina was an Ajacied once but since he’s currently with PSV, I decided not to support the Socceroos. In the end, I took the Swiss’ by default position.

Anyway, Czech Republic is up against USA today. Go Czech! It should be a fun match to watch but alas, I’m too tired to stay up for it. So, while I’m slumbering in my bed, my heart will be in Gelsenkirchen.

Bah, screw tomorrow’s work. I’m sleeping in front of idiot’s box. This is a once in four years affair, dude!

I’m delighted to witness the Dutch cliched their first win (tag).

The first half was dominated by the Dutch and proved to be a boring one, despite the fact that the only goal of the match occurred in the 18th minute. The second was more interesting than the first, with the pendulum tilting slightly to the Serbia and Montenegro’s side. A more even fight and more entertaining. In the end, like what the commentator said on TV, the Dutch won the match but Serbia and Montenegro was hardly humbled.

I was surprised to see how ineffective Kezman was. Kezman was a hitman at PSV Eindhoven a couple years back. After Nistelrooij left for Manchester United, it was Kezman that rocked the Eredivisie. Worse, Ajax had no answer for PSV forward. He was feared by everybody and he scored goals like it was nobody’s else business. Today fortunately, he was hardly noticeable.

Nistelrooij was nowhere in sight too. Arjen Robben however is another story. It’s just a sheer pleasure to watch him play and create havoc in the Serbia and Montenegro’s defense.

There are a few teams that I prefer not to see making any breakthrough in this year World Cup (tag). They are Brazil, Argentina, Italy and the United States. And maybe England too because their press keep expounding on the fact that they won in 1966 and that they keep repeating that they might repeat the success in 1966 at every World Cup. But if somebody asks me which one team is the team, the United States of America is it.

I don’t hate the US players. In fact, one of their players, John O’Brien is a former Ajacied. Usually, I would support teams that have any Ajacied in it. For this reason, apart from the Dutch team, I wish to see the Czech Republic-Ajacied Galasek and Grygera in it-as well as Sweden (Ibrahimovic and Rosenberg) to have a good run this year. If Argentina had called Mauro Rosales, I would probably have taken Argentina out of my I-don’t-want-to-see-them-win list. However, my sentiment is mostly correlated with world politics.

I believe a lot of people share my sentiment. When I was a freshman at Michigan in 2002, I spent my time watching the World Cup with Malaysian and other Asian friends. I could say with confidence that we had no stomach to see the US making strides in the World Cup despite us being the US. Even my European friends felt the same way. If I were to generalize, I would say the international students that had the slightest interest in football wouldn’t want the US have anything to do with football. The reason, like mine, would be world politics. It’s the way the US was and is bullying the world.

And it’s not entirely just that. When the world play football, the US play American football (disclosure – I love college football). When the world play cricket, the US plays baseball. And they even called their baseball tournament as the World Series despite the fact that there’s nothing international about the World Series. It does seem that the United States views the world as anything in between Los Angeles and New York. When a person has that kind of mentality, it’s hard for that person to make friends. And that those that. And that what’s happening at the World Cup.

Anyway, the US is in Group E along with Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana. Within that group, I’m rooting for the Czech. And I hope Ghana would push Italy and the United States aside, sending the other two teams home before long.

Despite all that, I don’t hate the United States. I do share the United States secular ideals. But when it comes to foreign relationship, I’ll give the US a zero and for that, I feel no reason to support the US team in the World Cup. Taking it one step farther, I’ll take quiet pleasure in seeing any US loss. The greatest pleasure would come from Iran defeating the US, if such matchup is possible.

p/s – many years later, welcome to the Malay College!

The Emperor and Empress smiled, waved and shook hands with those who had turned up to greet them at the stops they made, the highlight of which was their visit to the Malay College Kuala Kangsar. There, a small stone monument which was made to commemorate their visit in 1991 had since been updated. Upon arrival, the royal couple immediately went to have a look at the updated plaque, before touring the college.

“They were especially looking forward to meeting the students. They had insisted that they wanted to come back here because this visit was in their original programme in 1991,” said a Japanese senior government official.

Promised fulfiled, at last. Now, it’s time for Raffles meetup.

p/s – I had expected Sweden to make a huge killing on Trinidad and Tobago. On the contrary, not only did Sweden fail to win, the Caribbean nation at times threatened to take the lead. At one time, a Caribbean player hit the Swedish woodwork!

Not Ljungberg, not Ibrahimovic, neither Larsson nor Allback could outdo very much unknown Sancho or Hislop. Not full Swedish team could not overrun a ten-man team!

This has to be the best match yet. A scoreless draw but an amusing shocker full of attacks nonetheless. Trinidad and Tobago managed 6 shots while Swedish managed 18 but still the former stood tall and strong against Sweden. I salute Trinidad and Tobago. A well deserved point.

Sweden has a big problem. For Sweden, progressing into the second round will be a tough affair. If they can’t defeat Trinidad and Tobago, they would have problem against Paraguay; even more so with England. But seeing how way England played earlier, I’d like to think that it’s England that’s having a major problem. While Sweden has been embarrassed by Trinidad and Tobago, at least they are playing good football. England however only got lucky with Paraguay while looking lethargic.

And now, time to glorify Ajax. Trinidad and Tobago is being coached by Leo Beenhakker. Leo Beenhakker was Ajax’s coach in the 1980s and technical director from 2000 to 2003 at the Dutch club.