Thank goodness for football fans like me. We have been bereft of some really good foot ball action for about 2 months now. And come this weekend, we, the guys will have a reason to stay home!! Woohoo!! Money saved!!
Now talking about the latest season, I'll try my best to give an honest opinion on the coming 2009/2010 season. No doubt I'm a Red Devils fan, but this is what i really think. Might still be slightly Biased though. Oh also, This is also what i feel after watching the first episode of Football Focus on ESPN earlier.
These are my picks for the Top 4 places in the league:
1. Manchester United. While MU have lost both Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, they have reinforced the squad with a few names. The most notable would be Owen and Valencia. Now we have lost a total of over 50 goals from 2 players last season. I have no doubt that these 2 new signings will not be able to score that many goals between them. But I do feel that they still have a strong enough squad to win the league. To win the league means to get the most points playing against all teams in the same division. While MU maybe weaker, and looks easier to defeat against the rest of the top 4, I think they are capable of defeating all the other teams while snatching a few point from the top 4.
2. Chelsea. I believe that Carlo Ancelloti will have his work cut out for him this season. If he doesnt win a thing, he's going out the window. Although they may not have any big name signings, Ancelloti has the management acumen to get the best out of his players while playing a new formation. Lampard in the his enw position behing the 2 strikers will be dangerous, just like Paul Scholes in his heydays. They have an already strong squad but i feel they may not be able to win the league this year as the African Nations Cup in December will leave them without their top players like Drogba and Essien.
3. Liverpool. While they may have made lots of money selling Xabi Alonso, I dont think Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani will do much to boost its squad strength. While Liverpool has quite a big squad, but they do not have many match winners in there. If they can overcome their over reliance on Stevie G and Torres then they maybe able to be champions or at least challenge for the title. I think Xabi Alonso will be a big loss to them as he is a great passer of the ball. Aquilani, on the other hand, maybe a good young player with lots of potential, but it is also a lot of unfulfilled potential. Unless he can step up to the plate and adapt very well to the English league, he may not have much of an impact this season.
4. Arsenal. They have effectively lost the chance to win the title several years ago when they sold Vieira and then Henry and then Eduardo and then.... the list goes on and on. This season they have sold Kolo Toure and Adebayor. And full back Phillipe Senderos seems to be on his way out. Looking at their squad, they are very lightweight. Even more lightweight than last year. While they may have some of the brightest prospects in the league playing for them, but I dont think the team has enough mental strength to pull through the tough times. If there is any team that could replace another team from the big 4 this season, i would think that it could be Tottenham or Man City. ANd the team they are most likely to replace? Arsenal. I really feel sorry for Arsenal fans. They should and can do better, but they aren't moving forward.
Anyways, thats my analysis for the top 4 this season. May come up with more as the days go by.
Boodyboy, out!!
Showing posts with label manchester united. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manchester united. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Manchester United Asia Tour 2009: Malaysia vs Man Utd Round 2
This game was scheduled last minute. They announced the details of this 2nd match in the papers on Sunday, the day after the 1st game. This game was to replace the one which they canceled in Jakarta due to the terrorist bombings the week before.
Tickets were only 2 tiers, RM58 and Rm308. Except for Rm308, every seat in the stadium was for the RM58 tickets. After I woke up late on the Sunday morning, well, almost Sunday afternoon, i headed straight to Bukit Jalil Stadium to get my tickets. It seemed that it was the only place to buy tickets for the match. Oh, did i mention that the game was on Monday? Yes, it was indeed a vey very short notice.
By the time I got to the stadium, the queue to buy the tickets was quite long. And there were only 2 counters open. Took me about 40 minutes of lining up in the afternoon sun to get my tickets. For RM58, i think its really worth it :-)
The next day, I got to the stadium at about 5.30pm, more than 3 hours before the match was scheduled to begin. This time, I drove myself to the stadium and parked near the National Squash Centre, nearer to the exit ;-p
My sister was already there earlier, so she queued up outside the gate since 4-ish pm. We both lined up and waited till about 6.10pm, that was when they opened the gates. Every1 rushed to get a good seat including me. I amanged to get a seat right at the first row. But then i realised that being in the 1st row, i'm a bit too low to see the action on the other side of the pitch. So i decided to go a couple of rows back and parked myself right in the middle of the field. I was higher, which gave me a better view of the entire pitch :-)
We killed time by reading some mags which i bought and taking pictures while waiting for my colleague VY and his sister CY to arrive. Once they arrived, me and my sis went off to wander around the stadium to take pictures.
By about 8pm, players from both teams came out for a short warm up. We eagerly anticipated for the game to begin. And at about 8.50pm, the matched kicked off!! The stadium wasn't full, thats for sure, but for such a last minute organised game, there were about 30,000 people that night.
Sure the game was a bit boring as Manchester United scored 2 early goals and killed the game off. Goals from Owen and Macheda did the job as Malaysia lost steam. I guess they didnt recover from Saturday's game. Man Utd fielded a toally different line-up from the 1 that started Saturday's game. Hence the player were much fresher and were able to control the game with ther better fitness. The Malaysian players looked tired throughout the whole game and never really troubled Ben Foster and Tomas Kuszack.
Although the mtch was a bit disappointing, the atmosphere in the stadium that night was not. Inf act, i felt that the match atmosphere was better than that of Saturdays, despite having less people attending this game. I thoroughly enjoyed both games tremendously. Its not often I get to see my favourtie team play in front of me for less than what it would cost me to buy an airticket to Manchester alone. Too see my idol, Ryan Giggs, and to chant and cheer for the players, its a feeling that I will cherish. We left after all the players lef tthe pitch and went home feeling very very satisfied.
Till, the next time I do a mexican wave,
Boodyboy, out!!
Tickets were only 2 tiers, RM58 and Rm308. Except for Rm308, every seat in the stadium was for the RM58 tickets. After I woke up late on the Sunday morning, well, almost Sunday afternoon, i headed straight to Bukit Jalil Stadium to get my tickets. It seemed that it was the only place to buy tickets for the match. Oh, did i mention that the game was on Monday? Yes, it was indeed a vey very short notice.
By the time I got to the stadium, the queue to buy the tickets was quite long. And there were only 2 counters open. Took me about 40 minutes of lining up in the afternoon sun to get my tickets. For RM58, i think its really worth it :-)
The next day, I got to the stadium at about 5.30pm, more than 3 hours before the match was scheduled to begin. This time, I drove myself to the stadium and parked near the National Squash Centre, nearer to the exit ;-p
My sister was already there earlier, so she queued up outside the gate since 4-ish pm. We both lined up and waited till about 6.10pm, that was when they opened the gates. Every1 rushed to get a good seat including me. I amanged to get a seat right at the first row. But then i realised that being in the 1st row, i'm a bit too low to see the action on the other side of the pitch. So i decided to go a couple of rows back and parked myself right in the middle of the field. I was higher, which gave me a better view of the entire pitch :-)
We killed time by reading some mags which i bought and taking pictures while waiting for my colleague VY and his sister CY to arrive. Once they arrived, me and my sis went off to wander around the stadium to take pictures.
By about 8pm, players from both teams came out for a short warm up. We eagerly anticipated for the game to begin. And at about 8.50pm, the matched kicked off!! The stadium wasn't full, thats for sure, but for such a last minute organised game, there were about 30,000 people that night.
Sure the game was a bit boring as Manchester United scored 2 early goals and killed the game off. Goals from Owen and Macheda did the job as Malaysia lost steam. I guess they didnt recover from Saturday's game. Man Utd fielded a toally different line-up from the 1 that started Saturday's game. Hence the player were much fresher and were able to control the game with ther better fitness. The Malaysian players looked tired throughout the whole game and never really troubled Ben Foster and Tomas Kuszack.
Although the mtch was a bit disappointing, the atmosphere in the stadium that night was not. Inf act, i felt that the match atmosphere was better than that of Saturdays, despite having less people attending this game. I thoroughly enjoyed both games tremendously. Its not often I get to see my favourtie team play in front of me for less than what it would cost me to buy an airticket to Manchester alone. Too see my idol, Ryan Giggs, and to chant and cheer for the players, its a feeling that I will cherish. We left after all the players lef tthe pitch and went home feeling very very satisfied.
Till, the next time I do a mexican wave,
Boodyboy, out!!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Manchester United Asian Tour 2009: 1st leg, Malaysia XI vs Manchester United
Hi all, Sorry for the late post on this. Its about a week since the big day for any Red Devil fan in Malaysia.
The 1st game took place in Bukit Jalil Stadium last Saturday. For those who bought their tickets early, they got free training passes on Friday evening to watch both teams train.
I took half the day off on Friday so I could get to the stadium early. The training starts at 5.30pm but i arrived at about 3 something. Since there are no seating restrictions for the training session, i went to the supposed RM308 seats. The seat location wasnt bad, I was seated facing the centre circle. I was expecting a long wait for them to appear but time passed faster as the Malaysian team came out to train at 4,30pm. They did some kickabouts and applauded the crowd, Then at 5.30pm, Man Utd players entered the pitch and we started to get excited. First Paul Scholes came out, then Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville. THen followed the rest of the team; to a standing ovation.
It was obvious who the fans favourites were on Friday itself. Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and surprisingly, Michael Owen had the bigest cheers that day. I bet most of us left the training session eagerly anticipating for the real game to begin the next day.
******************
Woke up on Saturday to send my mothers car for servicing before coming back to do some laundry. Then headed out to Midvalley to celebrate a friend's Birthday in the afternoon. If you are reading this SL, happy belated birthday to you!!
Then at 3pm, headed towards Bkt Jalil Stadium for the big game. Unfortunately the roads leading to the stadium was badly congested. And every car contained some1 whow as wearing red, hahaha!! So i decided to turn back and drive back towards the Tasik Selatan LRT to park and ride the train there.
Big mistake. Ended up paying RM5 for parking (i think the operators were taking advantage of the huge surge in MU fans) which i think is overpriced, since Bkt Jalil only charges RM2. THen the station was also overcrowded with supporters of the Red Devils. When the 1st train arrived, it was so packed, i dont know how some people could continue to squeeze themselves into the crowd. Totally so packe dthat when the door closed, some of the people were squashed, LOL! So i waited for the next train, and the next train was slightly less full, but damn full for any rush hour day of the week. But this time, i'm determined to squeeze myself inside as i didnt want to be late. It was so packed i didnt have to hold on to any thing in the train. We were just standing.there wasno room to even lift my arm to hold on to something, if there was anything left to hold on to anyway.
Reached Bkt Jalil and went straight into the stadium. My RM98 ticket was free seating so I had to go in early to get a good seat. My location this time wasnt too bad. I was seated right at the middle of the pitch on the 2nd tier, facing the same spot i sat in the day before for training. The ticket mentioned that the match would begin at 5.30pm. I arrived at 4pm. I was expecting a long wait as I dodnt believe that they will get Man Utd to play so early in the day, when the sun is still up. I expected the match to begin at maybe 7pm, when it would be a bit cooler.
But luckily for me, I was wrong. The player came out for a quick warm up session at about 5pm. And the match began at about 5.45pm. The Man Utd players look a bit rusty if you ask me. Strayed passes and some sloppy ball control allowed the Malaysian players to capitalise on those mistakes.
The final score was 3-2 to the Red Devils. It was an exciting match as the Malaysian players did their overwhelming best to give the Man Utd players a good workout. I think Man Utd were glad to come out with a victory after a blunder by Ben Foster allowed Malaysia to equalise but Owen late winner save Man Utd the blushes.
After the game, I stayed back to watch the prize giving ceremony as well as the to see Giggs, Scholes and Neville do their cooldown session. I left the stadium at about 8 something. And i thought the nightmare of commuting was over. It wasnt.
They shut all the entrances into the LRT station and only allowed several people in at once to avoid flooding the station.THe problem was, the area outside the station was overcrowded! It was such a hot and humid mass of humans that a lot of people lost their temper. Can you imagine, if a quarter of the people in the stadium had to take the train back, that would mean 20,00 would be stuck there for some time to come.
I was one of those many many frustrated commuters that day. ANd i swear i will never take the train to Bkt Jalil anymore despite recommendations from the newspapers and traffic police. I managed to get into the sardine packed train (sardine isnt the rightr choice of word, more like luncheon meat, no place even for the sardine sauce). And when i got into my car at the parking lot, I had to contend with the jam to get out of the parking lot. That alone took me half an hour. Sigh...
THe match was a good one, but the commuting really sucked big time. i'm sorry if i dont have any pics uploaded yet, i took about more than 800+ pics combined for the 2 matches and training session. Will upload it soon, and will also blog about the 2nd match later on.
Till then
Boodyboy, out!!
The 1st game took place in Bukit Jalil Stadium last Saturday. For those who bought their tickets early, they got free training passes on Friday evening to watch both teams train.
I took half the day off on Friday so I could get to the stadium early. The training starts at 5.30pm but i arrived at about 3 something. Since there are no seating restrictions for the training session, i went to the supposed RM308 seats. The seat location wasnt bad, I was seated facing the centre circle. I was expecting a long wait for them to appear but time passed faster as the Malaysian team came out to train at 4,30pm. They did some kickabouts and applauded the crowd, Then at 5.30pm, Man Utd players entered the pitch and we started to get excited. First Paul Scholes came out, then Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville. THen followed the rest of the team; to a standing ovation.
It was obvious who the fans favourites were on Friday itself. Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and surprisingly, Michael Owen had the bigest cheers that day. I bet most of us left the training session eagerly anticipating for the real game to begin the next day.
******************
Woke up on Saturday to send my mothers car for servicing before coming back to do some laundry. Then headed out to Midvalley to celebrate a friend's Birthday in the afternoon. If you are reading this SL, happy belated birthday to you!!
Then at 3pm, headed towards Bkt Jalil Stadium for the big game. Unfortunately the roads leading to the stadium was badly congested. And every car contained some1 whow as wearing red, hahaha!! So i decided to turn back and drive back towards the Tasik Selatan LRT to park and ride the train there.
Big mistake. Ended up paying RM5 for parking (i think the operators were taking advantage of the huge surge in MU fans) which i think is overpriced, since Bkt Jalil only charges RM2. THen the station was also overcrowded with supporters of the Red Devils. When the 1st train arrived, it was so packed, i dont know how some people could continue to squeeze themselves into the crowd. Totally so packe dthat when the door closed, some of the people were squashed, LOL! So i waited for the next train, and the next train was slightly less full, but damn full for any rush hour day of the week. But this time, i'm determined to squeeze myself inside as i didnt want to be late. It was so packed i didnt have to hold on to any thing in the train. We were just standing.there wasno room to even lift my arm to hold on to something, if there was anything left to hold on to anyway.
Reached Bkt Jalil and went straight into the stadium. My RM98 ticket was free seating so I had to go in early to get a good seat. My location this time wasnt too bad. I was seated right at the middle of the pitch on the 2nd tier, facing the same spot i sat in the day before for training. The ticket mentioned that the match would begin at 5.30pm. I arrived at 4pm. I was expecting a long wait as I dodnt believe that they will get Man Utd to play so early in the day, when the sun is still up. I expected the match to begin at maybe 7pm, when it would be a bit cooler.
But luckily for me, I was wrong. The player came out for a quick warm up session at about 5pm. And the match began at about 5.45pm. The Man Utd players look a bit rusty if you ask me. Strayed passes and some sloppy ball control allowed the Malaysian players to capitalise on those mistakes.
The final score was 3-2 to the Red Devils. It was an exciting match as the Malaysian players did their overwhelming best to give the Man Utd players a good workout. I think Man Utd were glad to come out with a victory after a blunder by Ben Foster allowed Malaysia to equalise but Owen late winner save Man Utd the blushes.
After the game, I stayed back to watch the prize giving ceremony as well as the to see Giggs, Scholes and Neville do their cooldown session. I left the stadium at about 8 something. And i thought the nightmare of commuting was over. It wasnt.
They shut all the entrances into the LRT station and only allowed several people in at once to avoid flooding the station.THe problem was, the area outside the station was overcrowded! It was such a hot and humid mass of humans that a lot of people lost their temper. Can you imagine, if a quarter of the people in the stadium had to take the train back, that would mean 20,00 would be stuck there for some time to come.
I was one of those many many frustrated commuters that day. ANd i swear i will never take the train to Bkt Jalil anymore despite recommendations from the newspapers and traffic police. I managed to get into the sardine packed train (sardine isnt the rightr choice of word, more like luncheon meat, no place even for the sardine sauce). And when i got into my car at the parking lot, I had to contend with the jam to get out of the parking lot. That alone took me half an hour. Sigh...
THe match was a good one, but the commuting really sucked big time. i'm sorry if i dont have any pics uploaded yet, i took about more than 800+ pics combined for the 2 matches and training session. Will upload it soon, and will also blog about the 2nd match later on.
Till then
Boodyboy, out!!
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