Mr. Haxa Does The Blogs

EURO 2004: My Reflections and Thoughts

Since the final World Cup 1998, I began suspecting greater scheme of politics and economics in the football. Throw in variables like host nation, continent lobby, FIFA leadership, European Union spirit, money and bets, sports economics, and play around with game theory, I could see some correlations and self-explanatory reasonings to why underdogs have made their ways into the some championships, why some giants tumbled in the legs of new nations in football, why the upcoming Olympic nation (Greece is in the final of EURO 2004), why some defending big European league champions give ways to some new clubs to win titles, and why there were two Asian nations made into advanced stages in World Cup 2002. Let's just wait for more shocking things to happen if the African continent win their lobby to host future World Cup!

By this, if my intuitions and hypotheses are right, then some matches will be producing some predicatably 'unpredicatble' results giving in new nations such as Greece, a no-name in international football nation as well as one of the poor European nation a big boost and morale in preparation to the 2004 Olympic games as well as improving the national league in the global arena. TV stations and other media will probably talking about Greece players' transfer into big league such as the English Premier League, Italian Seria A, and Spanish La Liga. This is probably the best thing could ever happen to a new union nation such as the European Union. Wonder when will Asian countries go this further? Or perhaps at smaller scale, ASEAN nations?

Despite all the above, EURO 2004 has left some great moments such Ibrahimovic goal, the flaws in Italy's defensive tactic after leading 1-0, the great TV3 and TV8 coverage, the shocking results that I suppose have dissappointed many betters, and the great anticipation of who will be winning the EURO 2004 later today.

Who's your favorite? Greece or Portugal?

Great Saturday, Great Weekend

1. Woke up early on a Saturday!!!
2. Breakfast at Saravana Bhavan with bloggers' friend. Had a great time celebrating Fische's birthday and getting to know Adam and Ayeshah. New breakfast members, Johan and Sashi.
3. Karaoke at KTV Summit. Warming up for the night :-) Bought Mystic River DVD. Thanks Ash and Johan for introducing to this durian cake!
4. Tried to watch Mystic River but was just too tired. Took nap
5. Paid a brief visit to our neighbor's son birthday party. Love the salad! Sorry I had to rush out in hurry.
6. Met some OPs OPHELIA casts at Captain's Cabin to watch Dara's show. Had to wait till about 12.30am to watch her performing. Deafening experience it was as our table was VERY near to the 6 big speakers playing really loud music. Nevertheless, we had really fun time watching Dara and also celebrating Maya friend's Karisma birthday there.
7. Left Captain's Cabin and went to Red Box Karaoke. We were there until 4am singing LOTS of songs with LOTS of blasts and fun. Guys, we have to do this maybe once every month. Thanks to Fang for organizing. And talk about pushing customer serivce to max, Red Box is the place to be. Spacious, clean, with each room has its own toilet!!! And I was simply shocked that the management posted list of roadblocks in KL when were leaving the premise at 4am.
8. And on sports news, Perak defeated Pahang, 3-2!!! Read The Star "Perak burst Pahang's Bubble"
9. And we now have a new tennis sensation, Maria Sharapova who trashed Serena Williams 6-1 6-4! Earlier, my favorite, defending chmapion Roger Federer defeated Sebastian Grosjean to play against Andy Roddick in the men single Wimbledon final later today.
10. Greece will be playing against Protugal tomorrow. Who will win???

So, how was your weekend?

The Ibrahimovic Superb Goal

The best goal I ever seen in Euro!!! And I saw it live! Taught Italy lesson for not to be too confident in defending, taking out attacking forward when gotten one goal.

Ibrahimovic goal rocks!

The Malaysian Super League | Perak 0 - Pahang 0

Another splendid game by Perak (all yellow). Only that it was a draw game 0-0. Otherwise, on the scale of 1 to 10, Perak displayed 9 in game control and skill. Pahang looks like they make mistake on their import players. Indra sure missed his teammates. That guy clearly didn't get all the support he wanted. Kudos to Seator, Saravanan, and Kit Kong on good passing and tactics. Could have been better, though ... as mybrother put, something was not right between Seator and Saravanan. Credit should also go to the defensive side ... the lanky no 4 is so skillful. I couldn't wait to catch more acts of this player.

Hopefully another good year for the Perak FA. We love our team!!!

The First February Weekend - Of Sports, Movie, and Studies

It was a weekend full of sports. Started with the victory of Perak beating the national team followed with the victory two of my bets in the first Grand Slam of year, i.e. Justine Hardine-Henine and Roger Federer, the excitement didn’t stop right there, Thiery Henry displayed a class of his own through that most talked about goal shot of the week and at the same time stole the thunder from Reyes, the newly signed teen sensational from Spain. Also interesting was the Anelka-Cole drama.

Monday morning I woke up so early that I followed Michelle Kwan’s 8th success at the National Figure Skating championship in Atlanta, only to find out later on that it was the 38th Super Bowl. Watched it till the 3rd quarter. The Patriots won in a high adrenaline final just like the final game of the Rugby World Cup. The half time concert was entertaining though.

Well, one thing for sure. Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake have lots to answer for the booby incident during the concert. The network TV stations that broadcast the big event could be in trouble as such display is allowed only on cables in the states (as I was informed).

Had to stop there at the third quarter to rush for the movie Runaway Jury that I thought was great. It was one of the great John Grisham’s work adapted into movie. Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack, and Rachel Weisz were awesome. Great acting with good drama and twist, the movie is highly recommended to Grisham fans.

Well then, a friend called me to inform me that he managed to get me the first season of Six Feet Under on DVD! I can’t wait to get them and watch this highly rated show on HBO and see what the fuss are all about the Frances Conrad victory at the Golden Globe.

And here I am now about to brew my coffee for a sleepless night reading and drilling on forwards, futures, swaps, and options!!!

Perak 3 - Malaysian Senior Team 2

[Picture: The Star]

Perak had just beaten the Malaysian national team 3-2 earlier at the FAM training center in Kelana Jaya. In this game controlled mostly by Perak, the three spectacular Perak goals were shot in the second-half by:

Goal 1: Frank Seator
Goal 2: Frank Seator
Goal 3: Mohd Khairul Naim

Congratulations to Netto and the Perak team. Look forward to see you guys at the National Stadium this February 14th, 2004!!! Seator rocks!!!

K. Rajagopal, the national admitted that the national team defensive side is too weak and it sure scare the hell out of them prior to their next friendly against Japan before their tournament begins. Seriously, they should drop off Azmin Azram and replace him with Hamsani!

Perak Friendly Match | Perak 0 - Selangor 0

We were just got back from the Shah Alam stadium earlier this evening together with thousands other fans of Perak who were eager to witness the new faces in the team in anticipation of the 2004 Super League. Most of us at the stadium were a mix of fans living in the Klang Valley who for most part didn't have the opportunities to catch Perak friendlies in Ipoh and fans from Perak that came in driving as well as those three busses as reported in the newspaper.

The MBSA that manages the Shah Alam Stadium was put to test of their management capability when an unexpected thousand of Perak fans came for the friendly match. The situation at the front gate for tickets was chaotic. Lines were long and there were only a few of them selling tickets at RM5. After we got ours, we quickly entered the stadium sitting in front of a long row of 'strong' people from the Perak Fan Club management.

Damn the stadium management that they let in the crowd after us for free because of tickets unavailability. And to show the unprofessional part of the stadium management, the tickets we got was from the 2003 unfinished ticket of an event in Kuala Selangor stadium.

As it was raining heavily an hour earlier to the match, there were ponds of water on the field. And we just didn't get it as to why the irrigation system failed to divert the water into the drain that there was still too much water on the field until the end of the game. Since there were so many ponds of water, the game was quite fun to watch as it was like a bloopers you sometimes saw on TV.

For most of the game, Perak had so many chances, but failed to convert them to goal. Frank Seator, V. Saravanan, Surendram and Nantha Kumar had so many shots on goal. Meanwhile, our hero Khalid Jamlus didn't play last night.

This friendly match was also a platform for the Perak FA to test out their new impart players. And Perak really have done a great job in the selection process this season. Frank Seator is still dangerous with Saravanan at the front end. Surendram probably from President Cup together with Asmawi Bakirin were very effective in the winger position.

And Nantha Kumar, Ahmad Shahrul Azhar, together with a new import from Argentina (Ricardo Silva - jersey 13) were just amazing. As Sharul Azhar made way for Ricardo in second half I was particularly awed and fascinated with this player's dribbling and passing skills as well as his maneuver of balls from center to front and back.

The defensive side was just as good as last season or probably better in some ways. Shamsol Saad with this new import also from Aregntina, Luciano Gouz (? jersey 4) and two others (will get their name later) were a good barricade before Hamsani who made some spectacular save last night.

Since the stadium was wet, Perak one-touch passing was effective in some ways that Selangor players really had some hard time defending. Most of us at the stadium had the consensus that Selangor FA had done a really bad job in the selection of their players for this season. Let me not get into details on that!

Although it was a level game, we returned home happy knowing that this season debut of the Super League looks like another promising year for Perak. Besides, after their training in Australia, the team will be in the Asia Cup. Hopefully, this year the FC will win more cups into their collection and maintain the status of the best football team in the country as well as making its way into the continent arena!

And England Won The 2003 Rugby World Cup

The one-month long 2003 Rugby World Cup is over. And England had won it by 20-17 against the Wallabies in the most thrilling final World Cup game I've ever watched together with other 300 million people worldwide. The commentator made a remark that the game had a script of Hollywood blockbuster drama written all over it.

The match got leveled at 14-14 by full-time after the Aussies made a comeback from 5-14 in the first-half. So, it went to 10min-10min extra, that it got to 17-17 after the first-half of the extra time. Nevertheless, England forward controlled most of the second part of extra time that their brilliant move got Jonny Wilkinson scored a drop kick to give England three-point edge when the games had remaining 26 seconds before it could get to a sudden death.

It's a sweet one for England because this is the first World Cup for them since their football's World Cup in 1966. Congratulations to the team and the loyal English fans cheering and supporting their team in a full-capacity Telstra Stadium.

This is my first time following a rugby tourney on TV and I have come to understand the game a bit. It was like a déjà vu to me that it reminds me of the time I first followed the golf’s US and British Open two years ago. And terms such as scrum, try, conversion, and penalty are beginning to make sense. Meanwhile, names such as Flatley, Michalak, and Johnson would be interesting to follow after knowing only Lomu and Carling in this sport.

Besides, the art of attacking and defending are definitely interesting to learn from this game for a change after a watching too much soccer! [Picture: Mark Baker, AP]

Top Ten Reasons Why Perak Lost in the Semis

1. Tony Netto should have substituted Yusri Che Lah for Saravanan as the second-half started
2. What is up with Shamsul Saad? Own goal in away first leg and that errornous passing!
3. Jibong should have been in instead of Chan Weng Hong
4. All went wrong for Hamsani
5. Failure in midfield
6. The most terrible defending ever in the 2003 season
7. Where was Baichung Bhutia in second half of the game?
8. It rained non-stop, that there were just too much unforced errors
9. Over exposure in the media
10. No luck, eh?

The Henin-Hardine|Clijsters Battle

Today, shockingly, the sports section reported on Justine Henin-Hardine of being suspected of drug taking upon her arrival at the Brussels airport in Belgium, a 10 million population country, which Vijay Armitrage described on Star Sports, a country that is only bigger than the Williams' house. Justine denied that she is a drug cheater (Read| Henin: I am not a drug cheat)

In a country that is divided by French speaking people in the south and Dutch (Flemish language?) speaking on the other side, it is interesting to follow the cat fight of the North and South over these two girls who lives 15 miles apart. That although Justine defeated Kim at both French and US Open this year, the USTA computer ranks Kim Clijsters as the world no. 1!