Viva Italia! 0 lalalas
Huhu, finally the World Cup is over, and I've lost an excuse for staying up late. I watched the finals with mixed feelings. Italy's goal was breached in the 7th minute in a penalty - a definite shocker, and a stupid tackle - and I nearly gave up on the whole match. Luckily I didn't. Both sides performed very well (finally!) with smooth, elegant passes and strong attacks. I was extremely impressed by Italy's water-tight defense, led by Cannavaro. The French Fries, no matter how skilful their attack, were intercepted masterfully by the Italians. Buffon was excellent, lightning-fast and accurate in his several saves especially that deadly header from Zidane. Materazzi scored the equalizer with a header and nearly took the lead with another header which hitted the post. Then Toni also nearly scored one.
From the start of second half, French started to dominate and the Italians seemed lame (except for the defense of course). Lucky for Italians that they have world's best defense and goalkeeper. Their attacking power can be decent at times and non-existant at others, which is not good. I was extremely irritated by the fools diving to earn undeserved freekicks, especially the ponytail fool, the strikers weren't much better. Of course, none can top the Portuguese "Diving King" Ronaldo (not the Fatnaldo). The French were tough with Zidane, Henry, Ribery but the defense was impenetratable. Zidane, obviously frustrated by their goaling impotency - the missed chances, headbutted Materazzi, who prior to that offense caressed Zizou's firm chest. I was like "World Taekwondo Federation" when I saw that. Really sad sad shameful retirement for such a talismanic player. I was really saddened but he deserved the red card for making a fool of himself.
Then the penalties. I thought the Italians were goners, but how wrong I was. Everyone scored except Trezeguet who replaced Henry-or-Ribery-I-forgot. What luck for the Italians! But I'd say they did well in the shootout, although I was disappointed by the absence of magnificent penalty saves of those made by Ricardo and the Ukraine handsome Greek-looking keeper.
In short, quite disappointing given a great game at the 1st half. But Italians won! So I'm happy. The referee was good too, nearly missed Zidane's un-Zidanelike beastly act though. The best match I've ever watched though, with both sides equally good - balanced play. Zidane = Ji-Dan (egg). The Italian Job is done, nuff said
p/s: tried to upload a .gif file of Zidane's headbutting but the blog doesn't support .gif files
England and Brazil lost.... 0 lalalas
Aih, the title explains it all... At last, those overrated super-countries have been kicked out. Stuttering from the start and slow to warm up, I was heart-broken by this but I have to say they deserved it. Luckily I still have Germany to support. I guess the way is to support strong teams, or not to support any at all; but for enthusiasts, this is impossible. Both teams have the most stars, yet they shone too bright that they blinded themselves to their weaknesses.
p/s: I liked the Australians too, despite my dislike for her idiotic prime minister John How-art-thou?
p/s2: Sven sucks
World Cup Fever 0 lalalas
Yes, today I found a 24-hour mamak near Ridzuan equipped with big screen and astro to watch World Cup!
So just now I watched the Germany vs. Ecuador match and England vs. Sweden match over there. The Germans were impressive, squashing their opponent 3-0. First 2 goals by Klose and last by Podolski. The Germans were extremely efficient, pressing on Ecuador throughout the game. Their defense looked pretty solid too. Ecuador, on the other hand, were in distraught, presenting a game full of miscues, giving up possession easily (and accidentally). Germany, exploiting those chances, blasted the Ecuadors. I'm getting increasingly impressed by Klinsmann coaching ability.
The England vs. Sweden match ended in a 2-2 draw. Pretty disappointing and shocking. Nearly fell down in the mamak shop after the match finished - don't know if it's caused by exhaustion or the blow caused by Larsson's equalizer at nearly 90-minute, a few minutes after Gerard's excellent header into Swede's goal. The Englishmen played well in the first half, pummelling Swedish defense with powerful out-of-penalty-box shots. The first goal by Joe Cole was perhaps the most beautiful goal in all the matches I watched. It's a pity that Owen injured himself (sort of twisted/broken his leg) after 1 minute or 2 after the opening. The Swedish retaliated in the 2nd half. Serious comeback. Although they couldn't bring the ball to the penalty box, their corner kicks seriously threatened the English defense. Weird...England seemed so defenseless against those. Besides Allback's first equalizer, there were other good attempts, I think 2 hit the bar.
I finally remembered why I distanced myself from football matches. It's not mainly the time consumption factor, but it's the emotional attachment to a team. When you watch a lot of matches, you sort of become a fan of a certain team - when it goals you roar with excitement, when it concedes goals/loses/doesn't perform you get heartbroken. That's what I felt when both of England's goals were equalized by the Swedes.
I think England failed to win because they missed too many valuable chances on the first half, and they displayed a lacklustre performance in the 2nd half. Plus the vulnerability of the goal to free kicks and especially corner kicks were disturbing. Overall their performance was better than that in their previous two matches, but the warming up is just not fast enough. Hopefully they can reach optimum state when they face Germany (Germany = deadly) later. It's going be tough going from now. God save the Queen!!
World Cup 2 lalalas
I've been watching World Cup although I'm not an avid football fan. So far, the matches haven't been that exciting especially for the supposed-to-be-strong country, like England and Brazil. Methinks Brazillian coach should get over with Ronaldo and change him with Robinho permanently. He's done with gambling and the Brazillian's victory was nearly compromised. Move your asses, England and Brazil! Downing you get out too! I'm so tired of all these countries performing badly. France too was uninspiring. Zidane, you should have stayed retired. Hoping for a really good match soon- so far I've only seen 1 side performing well, if any, in any matches.
