Since I did not manage to talk about the Newcastle match last week, I'll touch on it a little. After being pwned 6 goals at Old Trafford, it is highly vital that King Kev's Magpies make it hard for United at St. James Park so as to salvage some pride. But, that did not happened as the Toon Army soon found itself at another spanking by Man Utd - a loss of 1-5 right at their backyard. Rooney's professionalism and unselfish passing deserve some praise, as noted by the last goal. He could have attempted to ram in so as to secure a hat-trick but he generously passed it to Saha who happened to be in a better position. Newcastle's woes continued on with last week's 0-1 loss to Blackburn and they are in relegation battle now. Such a shame considering the amount of money that is being invested on the team and they are starting to emulate Leeds United's path.
Last weekend I watched the Arsenal match instead with my uncle since the Fulham match is kinda certain that Man Utd will win. Fierce match for Arse-nal since they're facing a buoyant Aston Villa that just smashed Reading 3-1. Shame on the Gooners too for failing to kill off the Birmingham team that played with 10 men for over 80 minutes. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed watching Villa tormenting Arse-nal. The surprising thing was that Villa were having all the chances while Arsenal had difficulty breaking into the final third. Timely quick runs by Agbalanhor just kept harassing the Arsenal backline. And in the 27th minute, Villas constant pressure paid off as dreamy Senderos "blurness" put the ball past his own net. Wow, great tap in by the defender, only that it's at the wrong end..lol. And I agree with the commentators that ah boy Senderos was virtually being "bullied" by the bigger Villans player. He + Clichy were always so blur together that they always run everywhere (possibly in panic) whenever Villa break through their lines. I think it was Gallas composed and timely challenges that prevented Arsenal from sinking further. I was preparing to cheer for an Arsenal loss when 15 seconds from final whistle, Bendtner just had to score the equaliser. ARGH..just 15 SECONDS more, it could have changed if any of the defenders had just hacked the ball straight upwards to the sky. Ahh, a draw's fine too and I guess Wenger must be sooo relieved.
Arse-nal lacked leaders to rally them and they always looked to be rather mentally weak. This long stretch of winless runs is already getting into the team. I don't see how Gallas could be one captain that motivates his team out of misery considering he himself is a newcomer. Arse-nal could really have used the leadership fire of Patrick Viera if he's still in the club. Anyways, Man Utd's fringe team easily dispatches Fulham 3-0 and grats to Hargreaves for getting his first United goal with a beautiful free kick. Tonight's Champions League match is against Lyon at Old Trafford and it should not be much of a problem with home support and an away goal cushion.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Monday, 3 March 2008
Spot on: 7 March
Confirmed. I was right! A' Levels result will be released this Friday. This date is also of annoyance to me because this meant that I would miss out on all the drama mamas of the Malaysian elections on 8th March. Ahh, if I had been numbing my thoughts on the exam results for the past two months, now is the time to panic! Time to reflect on my moment of brilliance and flops in the exam halls last year and hope thoroughly that I won't be skrewed on one particular subject : Economics. The other three is pretty ok, not that worried bout them but the point is that I'm shit scared that I can't even pass or get an E for Econs. Even my German exam in O' levels don't give me such chills. On the optimistic side, let's hope that the whole cohort screws up badly together with me and there's moderation..lol.
Well, there was a prison break in Singapore a couple of days ago which I was not aware of until I read in the Star newspaper today. It seems that theStar is so busy blasting news on the elections that it didn't really bother with the panic button that is raised over in the south. It was a lil' shocking too considering that the island prides itself in ensuring that the enemies of the state do not escape if detained or found guilty. Ahem..Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield) anyone?
Well, there was a prison break in Singapore a couple of days ago which I was not aware of until I read in the Star newspaper today. It seems that theStar is so busy blasting news on the elections that it didn't really bother with the panic button that is raised over in the south. It was a lil' shocking too considering that the island prides itself in ensuring that the enemies of the state do not escape if detained or found guilty. Ahem..Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield) anyone?
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Kursus Pelajaran Pemandu
Haha..I'm back! The guns did fell silent for a week..lol. My driving course experience was certainly an interesting one but i'm like 1/8 there only. I actually plan to complete the 5hr undang-undang course (road signs and general motor rules) and finish up the test. Apparently, the booking for the test was not possible within such a short time. I could have continued staying on to take the test maybe on tomorrow or on Tuesday but I'm speculating that the results would be out anytime this week since after this Fri is the March holidays.
I think the 5hr course was the first time in many years that I had sat down and listen to a very long lecture that is done in the Malay language(besides my Malay cikgu in SJI..haha). Well, I'm quite pleased that I didn't lose touch very much and could understand what was being taught. The first instructor was more serious but the second one is more on the light-hearted side. But to sit there listening for 5hrs + break time of 1hr + is quite a bore, that's y it's advisable if possible, do it with a friend. It seems that the driving module in Malaysia is quite advanced afterall. The undang-undang test is done computerised and all attendances etc are kept in the JPJ computerised database. This means that I could easily continue my driving course in Sarawak too if I wan too since all my progress is applicable to nationwide.
My stay in my aunt's house in Sungai Petani has been rather fun. I get to experience a real normal family life with lots of food tasting going on. That's way more like it to life than being stuck with two old folks. The only real setback is probably that I don't get Internet access. I also found that perhaps less than 30% of the Chinese in SP could converse in Cantonese as opposed to maybe about 70% in Taiping. The driving instructor uncle that drove me to the school only could converse with me in Mandarin, so I use wadeva broken words that I learn from watching Channel 8 dramas to communicate with him. And I rarely hear anyone speak Canton in SP except in my aunt's home. Of course, the amount of Canton speakers is mostly concentrated in Selangor and KL where I spent my early schooling days..haha. In Taiping, it's easy to converse in Cantonese with anyone there except maybe some of the younger ones.
I think I'm may be planning to go to Singapore on this Wed night if my speculations are confirmed. Haha, Wed night and not earlier cos i gotta watch my Champions League football in the afternoon :)
I think the 5hr course was the first time in many years that I had sat down and listen to a very long lecture that is done in the Malay language(besides my Malay cikgu in SJI..haha). Well, I'm quite pleased that I didn't lose touch very much and could understand what was being taught. The first instructor was more serious but the second one is more on the light-hearted side. But to sit there listening for 5hrs + break time of 1hr + is quite a bore, that's y it's advisable if possible, do it with a friend. It seems that the driving module in Malaysia is quite advanced afterall. The undang-undang test is done computerised and all attendances etc are kept in the JPJ computerised database. This means that I could easily continue my driving course in Sarawak too if I wan too since all my progress is applicable to nationwide.
My stay in my aunt's house in Sungai Petani has been rather fun. I get to experience a real normal family life with lots of food tasting going on. That's way more like it to life than being stuck with two old folks. The only real setback is probably that I don't get Internet access. I also found that perhaps less than 30% of the Chinese in SP could converse in Cantonese as opposed to maybe about 70% in Taiping. The driving instructor uncle that drove me to the school only could converse with me in Mandarin, so I use wadeva broken words that I learn from watching Channel 8 dramas to communicate with him. And I rarely hear anyone speak Canton in SP except in my aunt's home. Of course, the amount of Canton speakers is mostly concentrated in Selangor and KL where I spent my early schooling days..haha. In Taiping, it's easy to converse in Cantonese with anyone there except maybe some of the younger ones.
I think I'm may be planning to go to Singapore on this Wed night if my speculations are confirmed. Haha, Wed night and not earlier cos i gotta watch my Champions League football in the afternoon :)
Saturday, 23 February 2008
Learning driving
I think I'm going broke..lol. The crazy internet bill was slow to come and when it came, it included 2 months of fees plus RM 75 activation payment. So, altogether, I had to pay a grand total of RM 273 at one shot. I'm going over to my aunt's place in Sungai Petani to learn driving! I figured out that if I were to take it from someone who is my relatives' lobang, I will get some mercy from the examiner..haha.
Today the youth group say goodbye to two gals that would be going out of Taiping to pursue their higher education. One will be going to Sydney while the other, Nicole, would be going to IMU in Bukit Jalil for her medicine course. Although I don't know her that well, I must say she's a really sensible gal and a good example to others after seeing her leading worship at the meeting a few times. So, she gave her parting speech today and I concur with everything that she says regarding about friends and peer pressure. She truly has a sound grounding in her values. And she's pretty bold too to attempt to apply to NUS medicine faculty. It ain't gonna be easy to enter using Malaysian result slips into an elite course that is dominated by the top junior colleges but still, all the best to her for her application. So, I guess every year, the Taiping FGA church loses its youth of 20-30 years old that are going out of town for higher pursuits. Many of them would eventually also settle in the larger urbanised cities like KL and Penang. No wonder every visiting pastor to the church on Sunday always need to give words of encouragement to the congregration..lol.
Anyways, as I was saying before, I would be going away to learn driving. My aunt's place has internet connection but it's dial-up. I'm not sure if it is fast enough to enable me to update my blog and so, it's possible tha this place will fall silent for the next one week. Nevertheless, I'll still give it a try with my laptop there :)
Today the youth group say goodbye to two gals that would be going out of Taiping to pursue their higher education. One will be going to Sydney while the other, Nicole, would be going to IMU in Bukit Jalil for her medicine course. Although I don't know her that well, I must say she's a really sensible gal and a good example to others after seeing her leading worship at the meeting a few times. So, she gave her parting speech today and I concur with everything that she says regarding about friends and peer pressure. She truly has a sound grounding in her values. And she's pretty bold too to attempt to apply to NUS medicine faculty. It ain't gonna be easy to enter using Malaysian result slips into an elite course that is dominated by the top junior colleges but still, all the best to her for her application. So, I guess every year, the Taiping FGA church loses its youth of 20-30 years old that are going out of town for higher pursuits. Many of them would eventually also settle in the larger urbanised cities like KL and Penang. No wonder every visiting pastor to the church on Sunday always need to give words of encouragement to the congregration..lol.
Anyways, as I was saying before, I would be going away to learn driving. My aunt's place has internet connection but it's dial-up. I'm not sure if it is fast enough to enable me to update my blog and so, it's possible tha this place will fall silent for the next one week. Nevertheless, I'll still give it a try with my laptop there :)
Friday, 22 February 2008
GW vs. WoW (Part 1 - Intro & Level Cap)
My World of Warcraft three months subscription ended yesterday at 8.34 pm (lol..i still remember the time). So, after 3 months of playing time, my current characters are a level 66 Draenei paladin, level 44 Night Elf hunter and a level 10 Blood Elf mage. My level 66 could have been a level 70 easily if not for the long hiatus from the Internet that I had. Haha, so I guess that now I could comment on these two mmorpg that are often the source of comparison by many players. I'll divide my posting to several parts/series since they are so many aspects of it to look at.
I've played Guild Wars for almost 2 years plus since 2005 and I've completed all the campaigns. WoW has a solid international reputation, thanks to Blizzard's fame as a quality game maker. However, I did not jump at the band wagon when it first started becoz it's quite costly and secondly, I'm schooling and using maths, the fees paid to play WoW is not worth it. So, that's y I chose to play GW instead. I think that GW is not that famous in South East Asia itself apart from the Philippines or maybe in Singapore. But even in Singapore itself, it's rather limited but at least they had some established guilds like Sg Knights. I doubt GW is really heard of much in Malaysia. So, most of the GW player base are from the USA, Europe or Korea. This is also partly because the origins of the companies of NCsoft and Arenanet. I have to say that Guild Wars remains one of the few mmorpgs that could stand up against the superiority of WoW in terms of quality wise and professional development. Cheapo 2D stuff like Maple Story or Runescape (which are more famous in the SEA region) are just no where near in challenging Guild Wars.
After my A Levels, I decided to give WoW a try to see how different the two games are and I'm fortunate to have some of my SJI friends playing at the same time for company. So, here goes my review...
Price
The most notable difference between Guild Wars and World of Warcraft has to be the price. Guild Wars require only one time payment and you can play as many or as little as you want afterthat. On the other hand, WoW requires one to pay for the game itself, and then also monthly fees if players want to continue playing. So, if you wanna have some fun but don't wanna waste so much money, then Guild Wars is the economical choice. If you're feeling rich, have lots of spare time or don't really bother with the ratio breakdown of price per day, then WoW's tremendous pricing is not really an issue. Of course in the US or UK, the subscription fees is peanuts but if converted to Asian currencies, it's pretty much expensive for folks in the South East Asian region. It's quite manageable in Singapore for S$ 50 for two months but in Malaysia, RM 100+ for that is just mind blowing to keep up. Not only that, it's nonsensical that the BC expansion is priced at S$79.90, double the price of the original. It's even more absurd that I could get a nice package deal of S$69.90 of both original and expansion through the Battlechest as compared to S$118+ if I were to buy them separately. The moral of the story is that you ended paying more for some CD covers if you started playing earlier before the Battlechest came out.
Level Cap
Another notable difference is the level cap. Guild Wars sets it at level 20, while WoW at first started with 60 and then to 70 for the BC expansion and in future 80 when another new expansion arrives. This level cap also determines the type of players that it would attract. Guild Wars developers explained that the low level 20 cap is to ensure that emphasis is on the numerous amount of skills that the game offers instead of focusing on level grinding to survive in the game. Also, Guild Wars is geared towards PvP and so, level 20 makes it easier for skill balancing and enables players to be quickly equipped to battle in the arena. I think this level 20 cap is the pivotal reason why GW does not have a huge following in SEA.
From my experience, I've known quite a number of my friends who started GW but stopped quite quickly afterthat because there is no "ding!" or levelling up motivation to continue once they reach level 20. This low level cap also does not allow them to player kill and have the "superiority complex" over other players. But for the players from America that are in my friends list, many of them are still actively playing in their account. From this observation, I figured out that Southeast Asian gamers just get the orgasm from seeing big numbers in their RPG characters.
In my opinion, there ain't much difference to me for a lvl 20 GW character or a lvl 70 WoW character since both essentially enable players to deal with high-end stuff in their respective games. And in WoW, the level grinding is really attrocious especially in the Outlands when the player is between lvl 60-70. In Azeroth, there are plenty of quests that ask the player to kill 10 of "insert monster name" and maybe 20 at the higher ends. But in Outlands, the number rises to 30 and then the ultimate one that annoyed me was 50. These repititive kills are the only ways for players to overcome the huge levelling gap other than the other more creatively crafted quests. So, at times, one just spends his sorry ass time by completing quotas. GW does have its fair share of grinding with the introduction of achievement bars. But the consequences of not grinding in GW is not that severe or even affects the effectiveness of the character as titles are pretty much aesthetic. In WoW, not grinding and levelling characters meant that one cannot visit many of the high end places and are disadvantaged in many ways (eg. armour gears and mounts). Low levels are prime targets too for maxed out gankers and PKers in PvP servers. So, WoW players do have to spend a huge amount of time and also have the patience to reach the higher echelons of the game.
Ok, I'll comment on other aspects of the comparison at my next gaming post before this gets too long..lol
I've played Guild Wars for almost 2 years plus since 2005 and I've completed all the campaigns. WoW has a solid international reputation, thanks to Blizzard's fame as a quality game maker. However, I did not jump at the band wagon when it first started becoz it's quite costly and secondly, I'm schooling and using maths, the fees paid to play WoW is not worth it. So, that's y I chose to play GW instead. I think that GW is not that famous in South East Asia itself apart from the Philippines or maybe in Singapore. But even in Singapore itself, it's rather limited but at least they had some established guilds like Sg Knights. I doubt GW is really heard of much in Malaysia. So, most of the GW player base are from the USA, Europe or Korea. This is also partly because the origins of the companies of NCsoft and Arenanet. I have to say that Guild Wars remains one of the few mmorpgs that could stand up against the superiority of WoW in terms of quality wise and professional development. Cheapo 2D stuff like Maple Story or Runescape (which are more famous in the SEA region) are just no where near in challenging Guild Wars.
After my A Levels, I decided to give WoW a try to see how different the two games are and I'm fortunate to have some of my SJI friends playing at the same time for company. So, here goes my review...
Price
The most notable difference between Guild Wars and World of Warcraft has to be the price. Guild Wars require only one time payment and you can play as many or as little as you want afterthat. On the other hand, WoW requires one to pay for the game itself, and then also monthly fees if players want to continue playing. So, if you wanna have some fun but don't wanna waste so much money, then Guild Wars is the economical choice. If you're feeling rich, have lots of spare time or don't really bother with the ratio breakdown of price per day, then WoW's tremendous pricing is not really an issue. Of course in the US or UK, the subscription fees is peanuts but if converted to Asian currencies, it's pretty much expensive for folks in the South East Asian region. It's quite manageable in Singapore for S$ 50 for two months but in Malaysia, RM 100+ for that is just mind blowing to keep up. Not only that, it's nonsensical that the BC expansion is priced at S$79.90, double the price of the original. It's even more absurd that I could get a nice package deal of S$69.90 of both original and expansion through the Battlechest as compared to S$118+ if I were to buy them separately. The moral of the story is that you ended paying more for some CD covers if you started playing earlier before the Battlechest came out.
Level Cap
Another notable difference is the level cap. Guild Wars sets it at level 20, while WoW at first started with 60 and then to 70 for the BC expansion and in future 80 when another new expansion arrives. This level cap also determines the type of players that it would attract. Guild Wars developers explained that the low level 20 cap is to ensure that emphasis is on the numerous amount of skills that the game offers instead of focusing on level grinding to survive in the game. Also, Guild Wars is geared towards PvP and so, level 20 makes it easier for skill balancing and enables players to be quickly equipped to battle in the arena. I think this level 20 cap is the pivotal reason why GW does not have a huge following in SEA.
From my experience, I've known quite a number of my friends who started GW but stopped quite quickly afterthat because there is no "ding!" or levelling up motivation to continue once they reach level 20. This low level cap also does not allow them to player kill and have the "superiority complex" over other players. But for the players from America that are in my friends list, many of them are still actively playing in their account. From this observation, I figured out that Southeast Asian gamers just get the orgasm from seeing big numbers in their RPG characters.
In my opinion, there ain't much difference to me for a lvl 20 GW character or a lvl 70 WoW character since both essentially enable players to deal with high-end stuff in their respective games. And in WoW, the level grinding is really attrocious especially in the Outlands when the player is between lvl 60-70. In Azeroth, there are plenty of quests that ask the player to kill 10 of "insert monster name" and maybe 20 at the higher ends. But in Outlands, the number rises to 30 and then the ultimate one that annoyed me was 50. These repititive kills are the only ways for players to overcome the huge levelling gap other than the other more creatively crafted quests. So, at times, one just spends his sorry ass time by completing quotas. GW does have its fair share of grinding with the introduction of achievement bars. But the consequences of not grinding in GW is not that severe or even affects the effectiveness of the character as titles are pretty much aesthetic. In WoW, not grinding and levelling characters meant that one cannot visit many of the high end places and are disadvantaged in many ways (eg. armour gears and mounts). Low levels are prime targets too for maxed out gankers and PKers in PvP servers. So, WoW players do have to spend a huge amount of time and also have the patience to reach the higher echelons of the game.
Ok, I'll comment on other aspects of the comparison at my next gaming post before this gets too long..lol
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Lyon 1 Man Utd 1
Champions League football returns with the round of 16 where United takes on Lyon in France. United played quite well, dominating possession and taking chances. It was unfortunate that they went down a goal first. Five red shirts failed to stop Karim Benzema from powering a rocket shot past van der Sar. I would attribute that more to Benzema's split second of brilliance rather than the fault of the defence. He's been putting up good performances too and his shots were really powerful ones. Lol..if he is Man Utd's signing target, then Ferguson must have looked at the right place. At just 20 years old or so, this young striker looks set to be one the new shining stars in the club alongside with Ben Arfa.
It would be terribly dissapointing if the scoreline had remained till the final whistle. Ferguson entered Nani and Tevez in the last quarter of the game. In the 87th minute, Tevez brilliantly scored an equalizer to put United back in the quest to reach the next round. It's already becoming Tevez's trademark to lurk in the penalty box during set pieces to power in those vital goals just as he did against Liverpool and Tottenham. That is also why United had gone to so much trouble to secure his services from West Ham and he has paid quite a fair share back for United's investment. 1-1 is a decent result, and considering the next leg is at Old Trafford, United have a great chance to advance.
Over on the other side, 0-0 at Emirates ain't so good for Arse-nal since they will be travelling to San Siro next. It is already examplified by United last season that a trip to San Siro is terrifying even with a lead at hand. On the previous night, Liverpool came alive towards the last few minutes and won 2-0 over Inter. I think Rafa Benitez specialization is only at Champions League..lol. Unfortunately, he has to realise that the fans in Anfield are English and the domestic arena is where their pride matters most in front of their other countrymen. While Liverpool's Champions League record is admirable, it's still a little embarassing to think that Benitez's side had trouble dispatching part timers and Division 1 teams in the FA Cup, not to mention too about the countless numbers of draws in the Premier League.
It would be terribly dissapointing if the scoreline had remained till the final whistle. Ferguson entered Nani and Tevez in the last quarter of the game. In the 87th minute, Tevez brilliantly scored an equalizer to put United back in the quest to reach the next round. It's already becoming Tevez's trademark to lurk in the penalty box during set pieces to power in those vital goals just as he did against Liverpool and Tottenham. That is also why United had gone to so much trouble to secure his services from West Ham and he has paid quite a fair share back for United's investment. 1-1 is a decent result, and considering the next leg is at Old Trafford, United have a great chance to advance.
Over on the other side, 0-0 at Emirates ain't so good for Arse-nal since they will be travelling to San Siro next. It is already examplified by United last season that a trip to San Siro is terrifying even with a lead at hand. On the previous night, Liverpool came alive towards the last few minutes and won 2-0 over Inter. I think Rafa Benitez specialization is only at Champions League..lol. Unfortunately, he has to realise that the fans in Anfield are English and the domestic arena is where their pride matters most in front of their other countrymen. While Liverpool's Champions League record is admirable, it's still a little embarassing to think that Benitez's side had trouble dispatching part timers and Division 1 teams in the FA Cup, not to mention too about the countless numbers of draws in the Premier League.
Monday, 18 February 2008
FA Cup 5th Round
Wembley..Wembley..We're the famous Man United and we're going to Wembley
Crunch time at Old Trafford on last weekend as Man Utd takes on Arse-nal. Fergie had omitted many first team members like Ronaldo and Tevez in anticipation for the Champions League match. So, it's kinda like a gamble. Arsenal on the other hand are not in the best of shape with almost their entire first team squad decimated by injury. Adebayor is only half-fit. Many people anticipated it to be a close and tight match. But it didn't happened. The effect of Wayne Rooney in the team was clearly seee. The boy was pushing and pushing Arsenal's defence constantly and before long, he knocked in a goal with his head. Not long afterthat, second goal was put in by Fletcher thanks to a clever run and assist by Nani. And Nani himself rounded it up with a goal by beating the offside line. And just within the first half, the disorganized and dazed Arsenal was down 0-3 to United.
Ohh..the problems didn't end there for Arse-nal. Eboue had to screw himself up by smacking against Patrice. The game was long gone for Arse-nal before half-time. And with one man less, they really had to hold the floodgates now. Lehmann was sleeping in the first half half but he's more alert at the 2nd half by stopping a few potential United goal. Eventually, another goal was in and the finishing touches were done yet again by Fergie's favourite Scotsman, Fletcher.
United clearly had a uniform tactic to dismantle and tear Arsenal apart. There was emphasis on headers as shown by 3 out of 4 of the goals. Rooney on the other hand has been repeatedly trying to beat the offside line in an attempt to unsettle Arsenal's back four. I'm really impressed with Nani's performance in this match especially on the assists that he had set up. Arsenal's selection of players also played a part in their demise. Their team this time is totally haphazard even with Fabregas inside. They have noobs like Hoyte and Traore in the team plus two old timers like Gilberto and Lehmann who are supposedly "betrayed" by professor Wenger. Seriously, I can't imagine what sort of motivation that Gilberto and Lehmann have to help their soon-to-be-gone employers after all the nonsense they've been through. With Bendtner as one of the people leading the strikeforce, it's hard to see Arsenal getting any goals in the match. One can see Arsenal's desperation as Wenger puts on the half-fit Adebayor. And at the same time, Adebayor is desperate enough to try a dive but his theatrics was too pathetic to fool the referee. Lol..he only reacted a second or two after the tackle. Dude, if you wanna learn diving, learn from Ronaldo or Robben and when you do dive, don't do a delayed reaction.
The hillarious thing in this match was how the United players were teasing Arsenal. Rooney obstructed Gilberto from taking a free kick by dribbling the ball around childishly. The referee gave him a yellow card for time wasting..lol. The other one was interesting and it happened during play time. Nani trapped the ball with his head and started bouncing it with the head and the his feet while poor Hoyte was hopelessly chasing him around and falling flat on his face in the process.
Overall, it was a great match coupled by the excellent manner in which Man Utd had won it. Anyways, I can't believe it that Man Utd's being paired up again with another EPL side at the next round. It's Portsmouth up next for United while Chelsea got the slayer of Liverpool, which brings me to my next point. Okay, *clears throat*, Liverpool LOST to BARNSLEY right in ANFIELD. Oh gosh, need to say anymore? LOL, what in the world was Rafa Benitez doing? His time is up, even if the board don't sack him, the fans will slaughter him.
Crunch time at Old Trafford on last weekend as Man Utd takes on Arse-nal. Fergie had omitted many first team members like Ronaldo and Tevez in anticipation for the Champions League match. So, it's kinda like a gamble. Arsenal on the other hand are not in the best of shape with almost their entire first team squad decimated by injury. Adebayor is only half-fit. Many people anticipated it to be a close and tight match. But it didn't happened. The effect of Wayne Rooney in the team was clearly seee. The boy was pushing and pushing Arsenal's defence constantly and before long, he knocked in a goal with his head. Not long afterthat, second goal was put in by Fletcher thanks to a clever run and assist by Nani. And Nani himself rounded it up with a goal by beating the offside line. And just within the first half, the disorganized and dazed Arsenal was down 0-3 to United.
Ohh..the problems didn't end there for Arse-nal. Eboue had to screw himself up by smacking against Patrice. The game was long gone for Arse-nal before half-time. And with one man less, they really had to hold the floodgates now. Lehmann was sleeping in the first half half but he's more alert at the 2nd half by stopping a few potential United goal. Eventually, another goal was in and the finishing touches were done yet again by Fergie's favourite Scotsman, Fletcher.
United clearly had a uniform tactic to dismantle and tear Arsenal apart. There was emphasis on headers as shown by 3 out of 4 of the goals. Rooney on the other hand has been repeatedly trying to beat the offside line in an attempt to unsettle Arsenal's back four. I'm really impressed with Nani's performance in this match especially on the assists that he had set up. Arsenal's selection of players also played a part in their demise. Their team this time is totally haphazard even with Fabregas inside. They have noobs like Hoyte and Traore in the team plus two old timers like Gilberto and Lehmann who are supposedly "betrayed" by professor Wenger. Seriously, I can't imagine what sort of motivation that Gilberto and Lehmann have to help their soon-to-be-gone employers after all the nonsense they've been through. With Bendtner as one of the people leading the strikeforce, it's hard to see Arsenal getting any goals in the match. One can see Arsenal's desperation as Wenger puts on the half-fit Adebayor. And at the same time, Adebayor is desperate enough to try a dive but his theatrics was too pathetic to fool the referee. Lol..he only reacted a second or two after the tackle. Dude, if you wanna learn diving, learn from Ronaldo or Robben and when you do dive, don't do a delayed reaction.
The hillarious thing in this match was how the United players were teasing Arsenal. Rooney obstructed Gilberto from taking a free kick by dribbling the ball around childishly. The referee gave him a yellow card for time wasting..lol. The other one was interesting and it happened during play time. Nani trapped the ball with his head and started bouncing it with the head and the his feet while poor Hoyte was hopelessly chasing him around and falling flat on his face in the process.
Overall, it was a great match coupled by the excellent manner in which Man Utd had won it. Anyways, I can't believe it that Man Utd's being paired up again with another EPL side at the next round. It's Portsmouth up next for United while Chelsea got the slayer of Liverpool, which brings me to my next point. Okay, *clears throat*, Liverpool LOST to BARNSLEY right in ANFIELD. Oh gosh, need to say anymore? LOL, what in the world was Rafa Benitez doing? His time is up, even if the board don't sack him, the fans will slaughter him.
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