Oz ROBBED of deserved victory!

As you guys can see, my prediction didn’t come true at all. There were a lot of scoring chances for both teams, but none managed to convert them, mainly because of poor finishing and also inspired goalkeeping from both keepers. I almost got 1 part right though, that the game would go into extra time, before Oh-so-gross-Grosso did his theatrical piece in the penalty box & that Spanish referee Cantelajo fell for it like an amateur who has never watched a Serie A game before. The rest of the story, as they say, is history.
(Side point: some Serie A players, esp Grosso, could probably qualify in another Olympics sport after they quit soccer. No prize for guessing which 1 =)

Italy played like pros even after Materazzi was sent off, but they definitely did not do enough to get a victory over the Ozzies. The Roos were so disciplined in their approach that its inferior technical skills were covered up totally and the Azzuri seldom had any chance to stamp its authority on the match. With a bit more luck, Socceroos’s supporters would be going crazy at Fed Square, instead of Azzuri’s fans partying outside St Peter’s Square.

Tough luck mate. You guys certainly did your absolute best in the match and there is no need to be ashamed because of an absolute farce in refereeing. Next time the Roos will be at the 2010 South African World Cup and kick out Saudi, which in my opinion is the weakest team in Asia, from the Asian world cup qualifying rounds. We will be better prepared next time to launch an assault all the way to the Final!

World Cup jokes

It's just before the England v Brazil match. Ronaldinho goes into the Brazilian changing room to find all his teammates looking a bit glum.

What's up?" he asks."Well, we're having trouble getting motivated for this game. We know it's important but it's only England They're shite and we can't be bothered."

Ronaldinho looks at them and says, "Well, I reckon I can beat them by myself... you lads go down the pub."

So Ronaldinho goes out to play England by himself and the rest of the Brazilian team go off for a few jars.After a few pints they wonder how the game is going, so they get the landlord to put the teletext on. A big cheer goes up as the screen read" Brazil 1 - England 0 (Ronaldinho 10 minutes)". He is beating England all by himself!

A few pints later and the game is forgotten until someone remembers, "It must be full time now, let's see how he got on."They put the teletext on. "Result from the Stadium ' Brazil 1 (Ronaldinho 10 minutes) - England 1(Lampard 89 minutes)."

They can't believe it, he has single-handedly got a draw against England!! They rush back to the Stadium to congratulate Ronaldinho. They find him in the dressing room, still in his gear, sitting with his head in his hands.He refuses to look at them.

"I've let you down, I've let you down." "Don't be daft, you got a draw against England, all by yourself. And they only scored at the very, very end!" "No, no, I have, I've let you down...I got sent off after 12 minutes....!!"
________________________________________________________

A German family head out one Saturday to do some shopping.

While in the sports shop the son picks up an England football shirt and says to his sister, "I've decided to be an England supporter and I would like this for my birthday."His big sister is outraged by this and promptly whacks him round the head and says, "Go and talk to your mother."

So off goes the little lad with the white and red football shirt in hand and finds his mother."Mum?""Yes son?""I've decided I'm going to be an England supporter and I would like this shirt for my birthday".

The mother is outraged at this, promptly whacks him around the head twice and says, "Go and talk to your father."

Off he goes with the football shirt in hand and finds his father."Dad?""Yes son?""I've decided I'm going to be an England supporter and I would like this shirt for my birthday."

The father is outraged and promptly whacks his son around the head 4 times and says: "No son of mine is ever going to be seen in THAT!"

About half an hour later they're all back in the car and heading towards home.The father turns to his son and says: "Son, I hope you've learned something today?"

The son says, "Yes dad, I have.""Good son, what is it?"The son replies, "I've only been an England supporter for an hour and already I hate you German bastards."

World Cup woes...

Arranging study time during World Cup screening can be a real headache sometimes. I'm usually in the study mood only at night, & before I even get warmed up, some important matches will be screening!

Germany VS Sweden, England VS Ecuador, & Oz VS Italy tonight! The list goes on & on. Don't think I'll ever get down to any REAL studying for some time =) Not that I needed that anyway. I just realised that passing exam for the insurance licence is as easy as memorising the answer keys in the practice exam papers, just like what I had to do with TYS during 'O' Level prep! No more late nights trying frantically to memorise all the stuff in the txtbk anymore! Yay!

Talkin' abt World Cup, Germany's 4 star showing against Sweden was a real surprise. I've read so many bad reviews on their performances during the warm up matches, saying that they have no real quality players, apart from Ballack, & that they don't have any real chance of winning the tournament. Well, all those commentators would better pray that they don't lose their job after Germany's impressive showing so far. Klose & Podolski are the 2 top strikers in the competition at this stage, & its much maligned backline has managed to keep clean sheets for 3 consecutive matches. Apart from that, in my view they also have the most creative midfield right now in the competition, slightly ahead of Argentina, which is also a hot favourite for the title. It will definitely be a great match when they meet in the quarters sometime later this week!

England has however flopped big time in my opinion. Despite boasting a team filled with superstars like Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, & Becks, they have not impressed at all in all their matches. In fact, the sole reason they've gotten this far is through some opportunistic strikes from certain players, not because they have managed to outwit their opponents like what Germany did. Against Ecuador, England could not impose its authority on the game at all, despite having world-class midfielders, anyone of which would be worth more than the whole of Ecuador's starting line-up combined. Lampard and Gerrard are midfield enforcers for their respective teams, both of which have scored more than 20 goals last season, but they were playing so many long balls up-front that the scoring chance almost never came. Both had a poor game, especially Lampard, who could usually be trusted to finish off even half chances when playing for his club. His finishing last night left a lot to be desired and it can be seen that he was really lacking confidence. Sven will probably have to drop him for the next match & summon a holding midfielder like Carrick or Jenas to replace his role in order to have a realistic chance of beating Portugal in the next round.

My prediction for tonight: Oz 2 - Italy 2. Oz scores in extra time to take it into the quarters for the 1st time! Kewell will score the 1st, & Cahill 2nd, before Bresciano scores in the the extra time to win the game!

monotonous..

If you’ve been checking for updates on this blog & haven’t found any, the reason is because there is nothing new happening here. I could post up what I’m up to over here, but that’s just gonna bore the c*ap out of everyone. I decided to spare my ‘faithful’ readers the details of misery I’m suffering to keep this place a bit more interesting =)

I’ve had complaints that this blog is not updated regularly enough though, so here’s a bit of update to what I’m doing currently:

Some of you may have known that I’ve been trying to set up a ‘perpetuity’ (for non-finance pplz, it means guaranteed regular payout for the rest of someone’s life), & so far I’ve managed to work out a part of it. Currently working on the 2nd installment, & this is worth much more than the 1st one. Meanwhile, I’m also taking exams to qualify as a financial consultant (read: insurance agent).

To tell the truth, I don’t really care about the financial aspect of the job, because I’m getting more than enough income from my own business dealings. I’m only doing it because AIA is offering to help me apply for my PR status in Singapore, which would take only a few weeks to approve compared to getting one myself under the landed PR scheme.

I’ve just passed my 1st paper today, & will be taking another exam next week before I can qualify as a consultant. That’s not all though, coz there’s at least another 3 shorter exams to take before I’m qualified to sell all the AIA’s product range. Not too concerned with all that at all coz I’m only doing it to gain the PR status anyway.

Life’s been so boring here in SG recently, now that my cousins are back in Indo for holiday. Oh well I guess I’d better get adjusted to it since they won’t be staying here forever anyway. I only realized that the human interaction, or rather the lack of it, is sorely missing in my current life after I chatted briefly with Cindy on MSN. It’s been a while since I can talk freely to a friend & not having to put up a façade or screen my words before I say ‘em out, & I miss sorely the open truthfulness of my close friends in melb. It is an important mechanism that brings me back to reality once I stray too far into the dreamland, & an equally significant support group that I know will always be there for me when I’m down & depressed.

There’s none of that here, & even though my family does provide certain level of emotional support as well, it’s not the same as having bosom friends who can understand and assess the situation more objectively. *sigh* How I wish I could be back in Melb at this instant moment….

Food Avalanche!

This was a post written about 2 mths ago when I first came back to SG:

Since I came back to Indo, I’ve been overfeeding myself plenty of yummy stuff everyday. Mom has been cooking my fav dishes, & what can be a better compliment to her other than finishing what the cook cooks? :-) I know, I know…. These are only excuses for satisfying my ever growing appetite. Mom doesn’t help either by overestimating the portions every single time + making me feel guilty by saying she has to throw away the stuff if we don’t finish it. Dad doesn’t really care about that so I have been the only one that saw the pt of not wasting the food & hence has to finish it at the end *haiz*

Back in my hometown, the only thing I look forward to everyday is the baddie session after work. Have been going to my club pretty regularly, except for yesterday & today bcoz I’m too lazy to move after I come home. As always, I’m still very impressed with the standard here but this time my experiences from playing in competitions has paid off a bit. I think I’ve risen in standard from the C+ grade to B- in my club bcoz I can finally hold my own when I play against the B grade ppl. Ppl in that grade are mainly old men who are past their prime, but still pack a punch either because of their special shots, or that they just have way more experience than me. I’ve played a few times with the people from the A- and A+ grade too, & found that they are still way tooooo good for me!!! By the end of the matches, I always felt super tired and felt that I haven’t performed well at all, but all of them could still start another match as if the one before was just a warm-up!

Playing in my club involves a lot of pressure because betting is involved in every match. The atmosphere there is like playing soccer matches in Camp Nou of Barcelona or Santiago Bernabeu of Real Madrid, definitely intimidating for people with very little experience. It’s not uncommon if someone asks you to stop midway during a match while they decide and offer the odds to the other people there. I was recently involved in a ‘Match of the Day’, betting-wise, with bets up to 1 million buck (AU$150). Everything was going well for us & we were leading 29-23 (30 point old system), just 1 point away from victory. Our opponent was definitely weaker than us & I had expected to close the match there. We lost our serve, & lost 7 pts straight because the pressure was getting to my partner and caused him to lose concentration. & so, we ended up losing the match against a weaker opponent, just because the pressure cooker environment was getting to us so much. Definitely a good practice ground to learn how to calm myself down when so many pairs of eyes & screams are directed at me all the time during the match. My ex-coach also told me afterwards I should have stopped to get a drink when they were on a winning run, just to disrupt their momentum and get my partner’s back to normal. As Jacky Wu always says, ‘The ginger old is spice’ (clue: translate to mandarin). Hope to learn more from these old masters before I head for SG soon.

misunderstood

It's a bit saddening really, but sometimes the people whom I thought would understand my actions misread them totally sometimes...

Possible interpretations of this include: those people don't really know me at all, or that I don't show my true self enough to them. Of these, I think the latter is more plausible. I've opened up considerably since I moved overseas, but I still don't really feel comfortable in a crowd. It's a flaw that I'm trying to rectify, but it takes a lot of effort for someone not known for his socializing ability. Still, I'm confident that I'll get past this obstacle in the future.

I don't think I've ever had a friend who has managed to guess my every move before I even put it to action. You know, someone who can preempt your spin kicks when you're playing Tekken or Street Fighter on PS2 (ok, maybe this is not the perfect example =) Anyway, you get the point. One of my childhood friends comes really close, but even he was shocked by some of the decisions I made in the past. All right, I guess life wouldn't be that exciting anymore if someone always manage to know what you're thinking, but sometimes I just wish that someone would understand the reason of why I acted that way, & what I want to achieve in life...

To be continued...