Villa Hat-Trick Ace

Remember the name and number: David Villa

Spain entered the tournament with much to prove to the world that they will no longer be an underperforming side. For all the talents in their team and the local stars in La Liga, Spain has not really been able to win the big prizes at the international stage. Somehow for this tournament, there's just a weird feeling that they may just do it. With emerging talents such as Fabregas and Sergio Ramos plus hot on form strikers like Torres and David Villa, the Spanish team is one not to be reckoned with.

It was a sluggish start for the Spanish at the first quarter of the match but eventually, they broke the deadlock when Torres unselfishly passed the ball to David Villa for him to score the first. Not long afterthat, Villa was at the receiving end of a piercing Iniesta pass and he made no mistake in securing his second. At the second half, a magnificent solo ball control movement by Villa enabled him to pop his hat-trick in. The three goals were truly magnificent finishing from the Spanish marksman. The Russians were left dejected after being run ragged by Villa. Anyways, to retain some form of pride, they managed to score a consolation goal to make it 3-1. But Spain was not done. Fabregas was introduced as a sub into the game and he too wanna get into the scoresheet. And he does it superbly with a connecting header late in the game.

The 4-1 scoreline reflects the superiority of the Spanish in the match although they had to take some time get settled into the game. Lol..to think that this was the Russian team which edged out England for Euro 2008. Gosh..Steve McClaren really blew it up.

At the end of the first round of the group matches, there ain't any surprising upsets (apart from Italy, if u want to count it) and the results were more or less predictable. Spain will face Sweden in the their next match.

Oranje Blitz

Van the man celebrates his opener with his teammates and fans

What a match! In one of football's most delicious match-up, it certainly didn't disappoint. Two distinctly different systems at work - The flamboyant Dutch and the organised Italians. In the end, the Dutch proved to be too much for the Italians as the Azzuri had no reply to the way the Orange men had been playing. The Italian defence is just as clueless in stopping the rampage. They were outclassed and outplayed time and time again by the Dutch attackers.

Of course, Italy had been touted as favourites for the match due to their status as World champions. There were many supporters of Italian footie around me but personally, I don't really fancy them.(partly cos they gave Deutschland the boot at the WC) At the international stage, I'm a fan of two countries, one being Nederland because of the brand of creative footie that they play and the other being ironically, their bitter rivals, Deutschland whom I regard as a solid balanced team with a strong determined spirit.

I had earlier predicted that Nederland would overcome Italy with a scoreline of 1-0 or 2-1 but I certainly didn't expect them to romp past at 3-0. In any case, I was delighted with the way the proponents of Total Football had won the match and proved to football skeptics that the game is not just about a straightforward game of 22 behind a ball.

Ruud van Nistelrooy opened the scoring with a rather controversial offside goal but UEFA ruled later that it is valid. The reasoning given was that although Panucci has been off-field as a result of the momentum, he is still considered to be in-game and as a result, his position ahead of van Nistelrooy played him onside. The second goal which followed after the first was a beauty and a testament of the particular distinct Dutch style of counterattacking. From an Italian corner, the ball is cleared away from the Dutch lines and almost immediately afterthat, waves of Orangemen started to sweep across the field in terrifying speed. It started with van Bronckhorst who passed it to van der Vaart. Vdv then planted a superb long range pass back to van Bronckhorst who then crosses it to Kuyt and Sneijder finishes it with style from a volley. From an Italian corner to a Dutch goal..lol. The third one is rather impressive too and again it is a component of counterattacking which the Italians dreaded so much on that night. Van der Sar made a superb save from a Pirlo free kick and the Orangemen were off and away again in pushing towards the Italian goalpost. The Oranje weaved a set of crafted moves which ended with van Bronckhorst heading the ball into the net to make it 3-0.

Italy has been well known to play a short passing and slow build up game. Opponents often find it hard to match up with them because they retain the ball most of the time all the way to the final third where apply a finishing. The Dutch playing style disrupted their traditional rhythm and the Italians were often thrown into disarray the moment counterattack occurs. As such, it is common to see the Italians retreat in panic. Sometimes, there are up to 3 blue shirts chasing after 1 orange fella. The agile silky movements of the Dutch made the Italians look like Ah Peks or grandpas on the ball. Italy is one hell of a juggernaut of physical superiority but Nederland made up the shortage with a keen flair on the creative manipulation of the ball and speed. Honestly, defence has not been the main highlight of the Oranje but for them, attacking is a form of defending. Look at the amount of times van Bronckhorst has pushed upwards and being a constant pain to the Italian defenders even though he was the left back. When the Dutch defence has being breached (which is quite often..haha..and sometimes done in deliberation for counterattacking purposes), they always have one solid person to depend on who have time and time again denied the Italians with his classy saving skills - van der Sar. Nederland would have conceded goals if not for the giant between the posts whom in my opinion, is comparable to the influence that Oliver Kahn had on the German team.

As for the other match, it's a bore 0-0 draw between France and Romania. By overcoming Italy, Nederland has one foot foot into the quarter finals since on paper and theoretically, they shouldn't have problems in dispatching Romania (cannot be guaranteed cos Nederland actually had trouble with Romania during the qualifiers). Anyways, Italy would need to work hard to win the remaining two matches if they wanna go through. As for the Oranje, they have Les Bleus as their next opponents for another delicious encounter.

Poldi's Brace

Podolski coolly smashes in his 2nd goal of the tournament

Germany started the campaign well with a 2-0 win over Poland, thanks to double goal scorer Lukas Podolski. The Germans were highly organised in the match and the passing was done with precision. I'm kinda amazed that even when the Germans were forced through narrow paths by the Polish defence, they managed to get the ball through to each other. The Polish defensive tactics were very flawed from the beginning. They pushed up the line so far ahead that they were left vulnerable the moment Germany counter-attacked. The first goal was conceded in such a manner. The Poles got a couple of shots but none of them were of quality to trouble Lehmann.

The German attack got boosted in the second half with the introduction of Bastian Schweinsteiger and it was clear that he was the architect for the second goal. One of the Polish defenders dwelt on the ball for a few seconds too long and Schweinsteiger punished him for it by snatching the ball away. He crossed the ball in for Klose who missed but Podolski was there to pounce on it. Poldi did excellent in his role as a goal poacher. Much has been criticised about his inconsistent form in the Bundesliga but he does really perform when it comes to the international stage. Mario Gomez, who has been touted as one of the bright new talents of German attackers, had been particularly disappointing with so many misses from easy chances. He gotta improve his strike qualities if he wanna retain his place in the starting eleven. One interesting thing that I noticed was that Lahm and Schweinsteiger were both playing at the right wing instead of their traditional left. It worked out nevertheless. Compared to his poor form in World Cup 2006, Captain Ballack was absolutely superb in the opening match. He was the midfield general who coordinated all the movements of the squad with gusto.

I really respect Podolski for his muted celebrations when he score both of his goals. Poland was his birth country and he reminds us that one should never forget his old roots.

Euro 2008 starts!

The opening match is tonight at 12 am - Switzerland vs. Czech Republic. It's football action everyday but it's gonna be problem if you live in the wrong time zone. In Malaysia, the group matches are at two time slots only, 12 am or 2.45 am. The thing is that unless it's the weekend, a lot of sleep would have to be sacrificed. Unless of course if all the TVs around Nilai telecast the recorded matches 24/7 during the day time. The worst thing is that all the hot group C match up happens at 2.45. And if one can only stay up at 12 am the most, he'll probably watch Romania in all their 3 matches..lol.

Anyways..here are my predictions. Let's see how many of them I got correct at the end of the tournament..haha.

Group Stages: Russia, Greece, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Turkey, Italy, Romania

Quarter Finals: France, Sweden, Croatia, Czech Republic

Semi Finals: Netherlands, Portugal

Final: Spain vs. Germany

Champions: Germany

P.S. Okay, I'm a bit biased here cos I support Deutschland..lol =p

Fuel Price Hike

This is probably the biggest news since the end of elections. Petrol prices in Malaysia had risen by 78 sen/per liter and the problems would be more than just cars. Stan will attempt to comment on this issue using a little of his noobish and horrendous economics knowledge..lol (so do forgive him if he makes some noob mistakes in analysis..haha) But mostly it would be sociological lar..

The common citizen would complain that the govt is bloodsucking with such a sudden increase but they have to see that sooner or later, petrol subsidies would have to be removed. Continuous subsidies would plunge Malaysia's budget deficit into a dangerous level and that won't be good for the economy in long run. Besides, prolonged subsidies also encourages some wasteful habits from the citizens. BUT now that subsidies are being pulled out, the federal government would probably have some additional funds and history don't look very kindly on the BN where these funds would either end up as rasuah, useless projects or inefficient policies. Anyways, great job by Tony Pua in critically analyzing the situation using economics instead of blind outright opposition.

Closely related to the petrol hike is on the state of public transportation in the country. Poor public transport services meant that people don't really have much choice but to continue using their cars as means of transportation even for short distances. KTM trains arrive at irregular intervals, taxis that charge their customers at ridiculous rate and buses that are maintained poorly are some of the persistent problems.

From a common citizen's point of perspective, it's gonna be some hard days ahead no matter how bad or how good the reasons are for the sudden price hike. Stuff like electricity, water and certain daily necessities would increase in addition to soaring food prices. The common citizen ain't gonna be speaking Economics. They are looking at the end-result and what is directly affecting them. And this brings to the question whether such a move is one of the political suicide actions taken by the Badawi administration.

Already deep in trouble internally within the party, the basis of Badawi's hold in power is further corroded as all sections of Malaysian community (including Dr. M's camp) heaped more criticisms on the PM. Massive scenes of chaos and panic are reported around the petrol stations in the country even before the announcement of the price hike. The quick implementation and withdrawal of the foreign ban on petrol reveals the fickle-mindedness of policy makers in the government. These are the issues that provide free ammunition for the anti-Pak Lah camp. Reactions are coming in thick and fast in all sorts of media. It would be interesting to see how far the reactions (be it physical or virtual protest) would go.

Music stuff

A couple of days ago, in a moment of absent mindedness, I left my pencil case at the lecture theater where I had my Malaysian studies lessons. I really don't know how that could happen and I realised about that boo boo when I wanna start on my contract law tutorial. Fortunately, I could trace back my steps and discovered it below a chair, with its contents ransacked of course. Lol, I'm just thankful that I didn't lose the entire thing. My current G2 pen, a ruler and a stapler is gone but the rest of the stuff like my highlighter, a memento of my previous Eng Lit class and G2 refill is still there. Ahh, looks like I gotta be more careful with my stuff. Previously, I even left my ELS book at the moot court...zzzzz..

On last Tuesday, I had my first guitar class which is organised by Impac. It's easy to learn since they are only 4 people in the class..haha. One thing which made my day was that I finally learned how to play the B and F chord! I tried finding in chord books but I don't have a real human telling me how it's done. And on that day, the mystery is solved! Another interesting that I found out about the guitar is about scaling where I can actually play all the piano notes on the guitar. It's kinda fascinating and I guess that's where all the guitar solos come from.

Then yesterday, I was invited by CF to play drums for the worship team. I must say this was a personal record time of practicing for 1.5hrs and jumping straight into performance mode. The previous one held was 1 week of practice with Jordan back in 2006. Well, I did the best I could and hoped that it turned out well..(fingers crossed..haha). From the feedback I get, it was generally positive lar..lol. So, thank you God for the guidance during worship session :)

Anyways, I still need to improve on my high-hats and come up with some creative beats other than the typical monotonous 16 beat taps. And for guitar class, it is definitely very convenient and useful if I had my beloved guitar with me but as of right now, it's stashed away in Taiping! Oh man, it's gonna be tough to find a time to go back..and it looks like I have to borrow one from someone in the university..haha.

Indiana Jones and the Cystal Skull

[Warning: Spoilers ahead] Indiana returns to the screens in 2008 with an adventure that is set in Mayan jungles. It's being 19 years since the last Indy movie was on the cinemas (lol..it's almost as old I am). So, one can see it like maybe when Star Wars first returned back to the major screens in 1999.

Of course, there's no young-looking Harrison Ford in those Han Solo days. He's already 65 years old but nevertheless, Ford still looks graceful in the movie. In the opening scene, the audience can feel there's still some charm left in old Ford, just like Sean Connery. One thing this new Indy installment does is to reintroduce back those classic old days where the commy Soviets are always the baddies! lol..

Cate Blanchett is really awesome and impressive in her role as a Soviet agent. Top class acting from her and she could reproduce the Russian accent very well. There's a great sense of profesionalism about her and her stern icy look is truly a memorable feature of the film. There are very few actresses that command such a respect from the audiences and Blanchett is one of them. It was not only her Hollywood career but also her role in theatre works which is admirable, similiar to Sir Ian McKellen. Actors/Actresses that have theatre background previously are a distinct breed from the rest.

One thing that I noticed is that the movie is created with the nostalgic theme in mind. It feels very eighty-ish where some parts are just rather corny but nevertheless enjoyable. There a couple of punch lines and in-house jokes that are quite hilarious. I think the alien bits there are probably an allusion to Spielberg's and Lucas' work of sci-fi such as E.T. and Star Wars. Lol, they could have put the alien space craft as any sort of creative shape but they had to put one that is cliched - the flying saucer. Again, this is probably to comply with the zeitgeist (spirit of the time). Speaking of Indy meeting his own son, i wonder whether it rings a bell on the audience about Anakin and Luke..haha.

The CGI is well-done and at times, it reminded me of the maze and levels in Tomb Raider..lol. Music wise, it's from Lucas' good pal John Williams who is also the composer for the Star Wars movies. So, the Indy film music is the classical orchestra style, something which is in line with the original series. Anyways, the end is reasonably concluded and I happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching the show :)