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A decent performance against Porto, a magnificent scoreline thought, that didn't really reflect the game played. Spanish hotshot Fernando Torres got his goal after some slack defending from Porto's captain Lucho Gonzalez, nice goal, smartly headed it downwards, hard for Porto's keeper Helton to catch. Liverpool then dominated the game for around twenty odd minutes. I simple forward advance from Porto led to their goal. Left midfielder "Kaz" marauds down the left side, and against Javier Mascherano, he just muscles him out like he's not even there, and Steve Finnan doesn't cover well. Kaz provides a brilliant cross, and although to far a hit for striker Lisandro Lopez, he manages to stretch, whilst out muscling Alvaro Arbeloa, and get a magnificent header pass Pepe Reina. After that Liverpool were all over the place, and could and should have gone two, or three, behind after a glaring miss from Lopez and a deflected long shot from Marek Cech.

Luckily for the Reds, half time came soon enough, with boos ringing round the stadium, for the Reds' owners? The referee for no stoppage time? Or just plain simply, Liverpool? I'm still puzzled. Anyway scrappy plays here and there dominated half of the second half, but a pinch of deflection luck and persistent Torres managed to get Liverpool ahead again. A handball by Porto's defender Milano Stepanov gave Reds' skipper Steven Gerrard a goal from the penalty spot to extend Liverpool's lead. Poor defending from the corner again gave substitute Peter Crouch his first substitute goal in over 19 months. Haha... And with news Besiktas got a late winner against Marseille, it looks that even the Marseille and Porto might crash out if both lose their last match, which I hope so for Marseille!

Now Liverpool face Bolton Wanderers, conquerers of the champions Manchester United last weekend, at Anfield on Saturday.

Anfield
Saturday 1 December 2007
10.55pm (SG, GMT+8)
Channel 21/22/27

Liverpool Line-Up (Probable):



Anfield
Thursday, 29 November 2007
3.55am (SG, GMT+8)
Ch 24 (STAR Sports)

Liverpool Line-Up (Probable):

Substitutes (Probable):
30. Charles Itandje, 5. Daniel Agger, 6. John Arne Riise, 21. Lucas Leiva, 11. Yossi Benayoun, 15. Peter Crouch, 10. Andriy Voronin

After a disappointing start to the Reds' Champions League campaign in September, which included unfortunate defeats to French relegation candidates Marseille and Turkish outfit Besiktas, plus a good point against FC Porto, Liverpool have managed to pull themselves from the dead with that 8-0 humiliation of Besiktas at Anfield to still put their qualification hopes in their hands. Liverpool now host the return leg against FC Porto, hoping to go one better against the Portugese giants. To make matters more complicated, the off-field argument between owner and manager is ever brewing, and most Reds fans will hope that the off-field hierarchy battle doesn't affect the players' on-field performance.

Rafa Benitez should field his strongest side against FC Porto. The back line should be the standard, however only Jamie Carragher's place is set, as Daniel Agger, John Arne Riise or Steve Finnan might pipe Alvaro Arbeloa, Fabio Aurelio or Sami Hyypia of a place. Skipper Steven Gerrard will pull the strings from midfield, and bomb forward often, with Argentine Javier Mascherano just behind him, protecting the back four. Having only played Ryan Babel as a sub, and coming on to score, Benitez should field Babel from the off, creating much havoc at Porto's fullbacks. The return to fitness of Harry Kewell should see him win a berth at left wing, as Yossi Benayoun and Jermaine Pennant should not have recovered yet. Record signing Fernando Torres should start, however it remains to be seen as to who begins alongside him, unless too, we'd never know, Rafa Benitez goes with a 4-5-1. If it's a more likely 4-4-2, Dirk Kuyt will provide the hardworking link-up between midfield and Torres, Peter Crouch will provide the aerial threat and target-man option, whilst Andriy Voronin could do the linking-up work too, but at the same time get amongst a goal or an assist.

So hopefully Liverpool, by the time of Thursday morning, still have their qualification hopes in their hands, and hope Besiktas do them a favour by not losing to Marseille.


Bye~!



The various regions' 2010 World Cup qualifying draw had been made yesterday. This is the European qualifying groups, if you're too lazy to see it on an official football news site.

Group 1: Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta

Group 2: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg

Group 3: Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino

Group 4: Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein

Group 5: Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia

Group 6: Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra

Group 7: France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands

Group 8: Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro

Group 9: Holland, Scotland, Norway, FYR Macedonia, Iceland

The top team qualify directly to the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, whilst the highest ranked eight second placed teams will battle it out in the playoffs for four remaining places.

So England have a fairly straightforward group, just like its Euro2008 qualifier group. It's just really up to them not to complicate matters. As there are only 6 teams to a group, there'd be lesser matches left should matters be complicated. Each team plays each other team twice, I think, home and away, and a team plays 10 games in total. England need to beat the likes of Andorra and Kazakhstan, no screw up like draws, screw ups here don't include losses, unlike their third game when they drew to Macedonia in the Euro2008 qualifiers. Belarus is a tougher opponent, but if England can take 4 or more points of them, it'll still be fine. Ukraine and Croatia are much tougher group opponents. England will want revenge on Croatia, so another four or more points off the Croatians would be good, and they need another four or more points off Ukraine, to be in a comfortable, and maybe group winners position.

Portugal's only really challenging opponents is Sweden and Denmark, even then the Danes aren't that good anymore. Greece, Israel and Switzerland all stand a chance of going through, and Israel might even pipe the Swiss for a second place should Greece be in fine form. The Czech Republic, Poland and Northern Ireland all also have a chance of making it, whilst Slovenia and Slovakia stand an outside chance of getting second. Germany and Russia should make the top two, it will be seen whether Wales or Finland can pipe either two for either slot. Spain should make it, but Belgium and Turkey have to battle it out for the second spot. France should make it comfortably, Romania and Serbia would have to battle it out for second. Italy should have a comfortable ride in the qualifiers, whilst Republic of Ireland need to take at least 4 points of Bulgaria to get into second place. Holland should make it, but Scotland, Norway and even Iceland have a chance, although the Scots should see it through, this group is special, it only has 5 teams.

The South American World Cup qualifiers has already begun. Paraguay currently lead the way, as only the top four teams will go through automatically whilst the fifth placed team will meet one of the North American team to fight it out to figure who will make it to the finals.

The North American World Cup qualifiers have yet to begun. However, to make it simple, the top 3 teams of the last, and final, qualifying group will make it to the finals, whilst the fourth placed team will playoff with that fifth placed team from South America.

The Asian World Cup third qualifying group, which consisted of Singapore, was drawn, and the top 2 teams of each group qualifies for the final qualifying round. The final qualifying round will divide the ten teams into two groups, in which the top 2 teams of each group qualify directly, whilst the third placed group of each group playoff with each other, and the winner of that playoff will play with the winner of the Oceania region.

So that's the major regions' qualifying groups. Will be having an eye on Singapore's progress, hope they can reach as far as possible, maybe fourth round? Haha...

Bye~!

The class chalet wasn't what I expected, below average! But can't really complain, since I wasn't the one who organised it. The turnout was way below what many expected, honestly. Only two teachers were present, and only almost half the class came. The chalet in itself was pretty small, I don't really wanna describe that. The rain the day before didn't really help either, as the field near to the beach was really wet and muddy. The whole day was plagued by constant drizzling. It wasn't a good experience. Argh! I actually wanted to stay overnight, but after looking at the place, I just couldn't stay and just decided to go home, yeah...

Anyway back to football, with England's heartbreaking exit of the Euro 2008 Championships, I shall turn my attention back to club football. Liverpool are only six points behind Arsenal and hold a game in hand against Manchester United and Chelsea, so not every thing's doom and gloom, as its a major improvement from last season, if you look at it that way.

St James' Park
Saturday, 24 November 2007
8.40pm (SG, GMT+8)
Channel 27

Liverpool Line-Up (Probable):

Steve McClaren sacked!!!

And no it's not in the Quarter Finals, its the qualifying group stages.
What a joke lah England... I really think that Israel's win over Russia was not really a blessing, but really a curse in disguise. If Israel had only drawn, England would have needed a win, hence former England manager Steve McClaren would not have played a 4-5-1, but would have gone all out for a win. It was coming really, McClaren's sacking. Let's look at the players last night...

Scott Carson was HORRIBLE. He can only redeem himself one bit by that outstanding, but really, reaction save to keep it at 2-1. Micah Richards, that was his worse game in my opinion. His lack of international experience showed in that match. He was really running around like a headless chicken, in my opinion. Sol Campbell was exposed time and time again with his lack of pace, as Eduardo da Silva and Ivica Olic gave him and Joleon Lescott a run around. Wayne Bridge was a terror down the left flank, FOR CROATIA! He's runs and crosses were absolutely poor, his defending? Need you ask? And to think this is the second choice defence behind quartet Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ashley Cole.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was pretty much average, one or two successful runs, one or two decent crosses, that pretty much sums up his performance... Wait, he had a one on one with the goalkeeper when England were one down and his first touch failed him, the rest was history. Gareth Barry, what the heck was he doing??? He was suppose to play in the hole, wasn't he? He was time and time again going further ahead of the two attacking midfielders. Crap. Steven Gerrard didn't look good either, one or two nice passes complimented with ten misplaced passes. Frank Lampard's only contribution was probably his bravery at the penalty spot, and that he converted it. Joe Cole's little moment of brilliance here or there was just about it for the Chelsea winger, his crossing weren't very good either. David Beckham's sublimed cross for the equaliser was his only contribution, his set-pieces tonight wasn't as great.

Peter Crouch managed to get the equaliser after a brilliant first touch chest control and a close range volley. His holding up play was good but there weren't any midfielders close to him to help him. Jermaine Defoe looked decent, but not fantastic. Darren Bent, he should have scored when he had that chance. Once he missed that chance to make it 3-3, it was bye bye to Euro 08 for England.

Micah Richards plays with Richard Dunne in central defence for Manchester City, where he looks good, but he has the assurance that Dunne is there when he is out of place. Sol Campbell plays with a much faster Sylvan Distin at Portsmouth. Joleon Lescott plays with a much pacer Joseph Yobo at Everton. Wayne Bridge is second choice at Chelsea, so to Shaun Wright-Phillips! Joe Cole, Lampard and Gerrard are the only other first choices. Lampard has Michael Essien or Claude Makelele or Jon Obi Mikel supporting him from behind, covering the defence. So to Gerrard, who has either Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva or Mohamed Sissoko protecting the back-four. All of England's strikers today aren't even first choice at their clubs. Crouch hardly gets a game under Rafa Benitez. Darren Bent and Defoe can't displace Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov at White Hart Lane.

This is the state English football is in. The only bright side is Stuart Pearce's U-21s. The likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor, Lee Cattermole, Theo Walcott and Steven Taylor excites any England fan.

Now I really wish Jose Mourinho will come in as England manager. His utter arrogance will surely subdue the ever-pressurizing English media. Alan Shearer could come in at assistant manager to give Mourinho much more insight than the Portuguese already knows about English football, and yet Shearer can learn the trade as manager too.

I don't have a clue what I'm going to do next June.

Bye~!

So its the second last round of matches of the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. After so much time being spent over the course of 2 years, involving so many countries, stadia and not forgetting, many club vs country issues being brewed and solved, it had come down to it for most countries yesterday night, and for some it will come down to Wednesday's matches.

I was really disappointed to see Scotland not qualify, after such a fairytale campaign, highlighted with their two wins, home and at the Stade de France, over the French. But against Italy, their defence was really lacking. Luca Toni's 2nd minute goal was really due to some poor marking on the part of the Scots, they didn't mark the crosser, Di Natale, and the latter duly got the cross in for the Bayern target man. Scotland also had many chances to get back into the game, one in particular, was Everton forward James McFadden missing the target with Gianlugi Buffon scrambling across his goal. It was also kinda cruel how the last minute of the game killed of Scotland's chances. An Andrea Pirlo set-piece saw Christian Panucci rise highest to score, again because of poor defending, as no one challenged Panucci in the air. So unfortunately, Craig Gordon and company will not be in Austria and Switzerland next summer.

Portugal have to battle it with Finland and Serbia for the other spot of qualification, which Poland had already booked one place. Portugal just have to draw with Finland to make it to Austria and Switzerland. Cristiano Ronaldo and gang should take care of it.

England wasn't on the pitch yesterday night, but the England fans all over the world, English or not, will definitely have their morale boosted after Israel did them a HUGE favour by beating Russia 2-1 in Tel Aviv. Israel took the lead through some good movement and a great through pass, to allow Elyaniv Barda to score inside 10 minutes. Russia came out fighting in the second half, and in truth the only keeping England in Euro 2008 was Israel's goalkeeper. Guus Hiddink must have set out Russia to go all out for it, and it was seen by the substitution of Dmitri Sychev. This Locomotiv Moscow forward looked very bright, and he could have got Steve McClaren sack with two shots, a long range one that just eased past the post, whilst another one that hit the post after a good run. The center of Russia's three-pronged defence committed a huge error, Omer Golan dispossessed the Russian sweeper, and an incoming Israeli midfielder recovered the ball and slide an inch perfect pass to the on-running Golan to finish past the hapless Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. With Croatia surprisingly losing to lowly Macedonia, England not only have a chance of making it to Euro 2008 with a draw at Wembley, a win would put them at the top of the group, and be seeded in the group stages in next year's tournament. Its all firmly placed back in England hands, can they take it, or will they slip up at the final hurdle of the year?

Spain gave Sweden somewhat of a thrashing too, and secured their place in the finals. Joan Capdevilla volleyed home a Xavi corner to score Spain's first. Very nice goal, indeed. Sergio Ramos scored the third after Capdevilla had another of his volley, from a corner too, saved on the line but the rebound, unfortunately, fell to Ramos to score. Spain cruise to victory, and they should secure top spot in their final qualifying match. It would also be interested to note if Northern Ireland can do the impossible and steal a spot from Sweden, after such a magnificent start to the campaign, with David Healy in the centre of it, especially the 3-0 win over Spain, but it just sizzled out, sadly.

Congratulations to Netherlands, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Croatia, Greece, France, Italy and Poland for making it through to the Euro 2008 finals to be held in Austria and Switzerland next summer!

And good luck to England!

Bye~!

So I'm gonna talk about some stuff that have been keeping me busy during the holidays so far... All games, yeah... Just read on...










FIFA Soccer 2008. The game I've been playing every night. Very nice, although at the start was very frustrating. Agree with GameSpot's review that this game has a steep learning curve. But now getting a hang of it, at Semi-Pro that is, its a very fun game. I still tend to lose the odd game here and there, but winning most games is quite satisfying. The cover on the left isn't the Singapore one, the latter instead has Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and Barcelona superstar Ronaldinho as the cover men. On the XBox360 this game is just great. Luv it.

Check out GameSpot's review.








So here are the games that I've played. Just special highlight to FIFA Soccer 2008. Great graphics and game play... Haaha...

Bye~!

So England's next two matches, both potentially being of no importance. Before that, I'd like to respond to this report in all the newspapers with them stating Israel are going to field a bunch of unknown and untried youngsters against Russia. Here's the thing, if you still don't have a clue. England need Israel to hold Russia to at least a draw, better a lost, and of course, win against Croatia, to qualify for the Euro 2008 Austria-Switzerland final. Thus everyone that is concerned, both positively and negatively, with England, have their eyes set on the Israel-Russia match. For the Israelis to come out and say that they don't care about England's chances, but is only bothered about their future with their young talent. Well for one, I can't really blame 'em. The Israelis have nothing to lose, they do not have the slightest chance of qualifying. So I don't blame 'em for having the thoughts of fielding their unknown young talent to face the experienced Russians. Its a good learning and valuable experience these young Israelis can garner to improve their game and eventually help Israel to a major tournament in the future. I don't see what's wrong with that.

This trying out youngsters against the mighty Russians thing is really a 50-50. It either miraculously works, or it doesn't pay off, without any huge damages to Israel. It could work for England in a way that, with these youngsters wanting to prove themselves, wanting to shine to get a move abroad to a major European league, so they may try their very best, and might find themselves with a shock 1-0 win or tight draw at the end of the 90 minutes. It could also back fire against England, as these inexperienced youngsters get outplayed, or is told that the result isn't important and these young Israelis are totally relaxed and unprepared. The Russians come out 2-0, 3-0 winners, and England are essentially playing a friendly against Croatia.

So back to the England part, they first have to deal with and come away injury-free in their friendly against Austria, one of the hosts of that tournament. This is the line-up that is already confirmed by Steve McClaren, and its still a 4-4-2.


Aah the past few days had been a little bumpy and rocky. There were some drilling at my house, fixing some new air-con or something. I need to go out more often, catch a movie or just chill with my friends. You know its like, when you are in school, slugging it out just for less than a dozen examinations, you just feel, or is just hoping that the holidays would come and swallow you up in them. And now, when you are in that holidays, its like I feel very bored now, and wished there were some schooling. Maybe for the social interaction, maybe for some learning, as my brain is going to be as good as dead soon. So really, maybe get some friends over, game around and yeah... Just enjoy ourselves.

So this is my revamped blog. Felt it was kinda messy and too extravagant, with too much stuff lingering around, an eyesore probably. So I cut down a lot of stuff, changed the font to a much nicer to see one. Took out most of the marquee stuff and added a nice little clock on the left of the screen. Haha...

So some interesting stuff here for those football or MLS fans, or just Beckham-lovers...

Firstly, once-Dutch player now coach Ruud Gullit is the manager of LA Galaxy. Looks like another move by the MLS franchise to get much publicity. He was the one who guided Chelsea to FA Cup glory but was not as successful at Newcastle. Now at LA Galaxy, how much more successful can he be. David Beckham, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't he the captain of the team? For Gullit to not play him even when he's fit, and that Beckham would walk away each week with a bucket full of cash, I don't think that would happen. Nice try Gullit to try to show the strong side of yours, I doubt Beckham would not play even when off form.

Oh yeah, LA Galaxy played better and won more matches without David Beckham in the team... Hmm...

And this is what most people are at now, at least for the people I know...

So this is Facebook. Created an account just about a week or so ago. A lot of cool and, honestly, quite dumb stuff, but overall its quite nice. One instance is like you can keep sending Booze, all sorts of Booze, most with quite stupid names. And there's Jetman, very little graphics but very addictive. Haha... Care to check it out, maybe create one and add me...

Well done to Bolton Wanderers for their well fought draw against German giants FC Bayern Munchen.

Bye~!




Hmm... I need a more 'professional' looking skin for my blog. Its my 200th blog post. Not bad, well... Mostly are about football, if you ask me. If there's any skin you stumble on, why don't you message me on MSN or leave a tag. So there... There's not much I can write about what I'm doing... Its just that I'm struggling at FIFA08. A day or so ago I thought I had it when I owned Newcastle away 4-1. But since then, I think I got a little complacent and started drawing and then losing to Chelsea 3-0 after dominating most of the game. Sian... Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is quite nice of a game, its just that my computer's graphics cant seem to support it to reach the maximum potential. So looks a little graphicky whilst looking at my bro's one, looks so much better. Hahh...

Liverpool thrashed Besiktas, erm... 8-0. Yes, eight. I know its a little bit of old news. But, its a new record! I wasn't so delighted as most would be after scoring eight in a Champions League match. Porto won at Marseille, not good! Liverpool need to win at Marseille and against Porto to guarantee qualification. Hopefully, but unlikely, Besiktas would do the Reds a favour, recover, and at least try to snatch a point of Marseille. Miracles do happen, right?

Javier Mascherano's the best defensive midfielder in the world, trust me...

Bye~!

So the November/December holidays has not been as nice as I wanted. That XBox360 is finally exchanged, I managed to start playing my FIFA08 on it, but it's not as easy now it seems. Quite difficult to score, the goalkeeper's imbar at times and it seems the opponent's team can score with one shot on target, whilst you can't with ten or more shots on target. Maybe too realistic? Maybe I suck or ain't too used to it eh? So anyway, getting bored of Football Manager 2008, I decided to go try out the Tiger Woods golf game on the Wii. Quite fun actually, swinging of the golf club. Got quite a couple of birdies and eagles. Tyco? Nah...

Besides the gaming and enjoying part, I still had to go back to school for remedials, as most know. So I'm now just looking forward to my first ever chalet? I dunno whether it'd be good or bad. Ooh yeah... I also just created a Facebook account, can do all sorts of crap with it, seems Friendster's losin' it. Haha...

Now how can I ever have a post without soccer? Anyway this is really important to me. Liverpool vs Besiktas, from Turkey,
at Anfield.
One point from three out of six games. Not very good
for Liverpool.
They need to win Besiktas for any hope of qualifying out of the group stages.
At stake,
£10million. So there...
Three wins out of the remaining three games,
starting with Besiktas.
Tomorrow morning, Liverpool will be up against it. Odds favour the Turks, after their win in the last game. The team line-up that I hope to see tomorrow morning:
25 jose Reina
11 yossi Benayoun
8 steven Gerrard (c)
20 javier Mascherano
7 harry Kewell


Ewood Park
Sunday 4 November 2007
1.10am (SG, GMT+8)
Channel 27

Liverpool Line-Up (Probable):

Lenny
Joseph
Hua Peng
Sei Yee
Kelvin Kartoyo
Melvin
Seng Yew
Samuel C
Celeste
Mark

Liverpool FC
iMedia
09S23!