Devils Came To Town

Attended the 1st friendly match between Manchester United & Malaysian national team recently. Went thru massive traffic jam in Kesas highway before reaching the stadium. Reached the stadium bout 1 hour before the match to see crowd in red & only in red all over the places.

Went straight into the stadium in order to get good seat & the Malaysian team was warming up then. Apparently, this is the Malaysian Under 23 team in disguise with addition of 4 senior overaged players. Frankly speaking, everyone thought this is will be a walk in the park for the Devils. Deep inside, I just hope the young Tigers team can play their heart out, giving the Devils a good workout. Starting lineup looked impressive with almost all the Devils first team players in action. From Van der Sar till Rooney, they really looked imposing. By the 30th minute, Devils is 2-0 up with goals from Rooney (I thought it was offside!!!) & Nani. And then the unexpected magical moment came, out of nowhere Amri Yahya nodded down a goal kick from the keeper & send a 35 yarder half volley, crashing the ball into MU goal. Van der Sar, being off position was totally helpless & stunned. Boy, u should look at his face reaction on the screen....truly a world class goal & causing everyone jumping for joy. (that's showed we're still Malaysians anyway)

Second half saw the Malaysian team playing with more vigour. Ben Foster was probably still getting used to the field when he miscued a backpass allowing Amri again to take opportunity to equalise the score. 2-2, something unimaginable in real life. Towards the 84th minute, I seriously thought the score will remains till Michael Owen showed his predatory instinct to slot home the winner to give the Devils a close 3-2 win. Not a bad game for the Malaysians for this match even though they eventually lost the 2nd match to MU again 2 days later.

The players marching into the field

Devils on the corner. Paying more $$ could have got me better photos

One of the counter attack forays into MU's half
Owen & Macheda to the fore. Expect to see more of this pairing in future matches

Crowd in red...

Chelsea is Here !!

Top EPL team, Chelsea (or rather Chelski) was here in KL last week as part of their Asian tour. And I was there to witness them played against the Malaysian national team in Shah Alam stadium, Selangor. Let me clarify here that this does not mean being a traitor for watching other team, besides your favourite team plays. People just dun understand & jumped the gun asking questions like "Ei !!! Ur an Arsenal fan, why the heck ur watching Chelsea game!!!??" Let me tell u ppl out there, my heart & soul is always for Arsenal but tell me how many times u can watch world class football stars live in actions here in our own backyard. It's the love of the "beautiful game" that pulled everyone making their presence to the game. Bet that most of the 60,000 fans present were not Chelsea fans though.

It has been a while since the last time stepped into a stadium. There, I went to Shah Alam on Tuesday evening together with my baby sis (just back from Canada) and 2 Tai's sidekicks Hikari & Tony. Ticket costs us RM83.00 each & settled into seats overlooking the entire field. Tip for newbies to a stadium on your first visit: Spend big on the tickets & u will never regret on the views ur bound to have..:) Chelsea came with their first team players, with the exeception of the injured Didier Drogba. Cech, Terry, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Shevchenko, Anelka & many others...they are all there.

Match Preview:

Nothing to talk about actually. Even a six years old would have correctly predicted the outcome for the match. All the footie fans wanna see are the Chelsea players to show glimpses of their skills, some goals and of course the Malaysian players (who comprises of Under 23 players with mixture of experienced elders) to show them "Malaysia Boleh" spirit with fighting performance. Put it tis way, Chelsea is here for global marketing purposes besides warming up for coming season & Malaysia to accomodate the Blues with a match during their tour. Period

Match Highlights:

Chelsea players took some time to warm up & nearly shocked with a near miss by Malaysian player, Amirul Hadi in the 2nd minute. After that, it was Chelsea all the way, gaining possession for almost entire duration of the match. Deco, particularly was impressive & nearly scored with a subline volley, only to be denied by an acrobatic save by Malaysian keeper, Helmi Eliza. Expect to hear more from him in the coming EPL footie season. Goals from Nicolas "Le Sulk" Anelka & Ashley Cole wrapped up the game for the Blues. The fantastic show by Malaysian keeper, with some superb saves kept the scoreline down & respectable for the national team.

Match Review:
Despite showing some silky skills, Chelsea players clearly were not playing at their best. Probably the horrendous pitch condition caused the Blues to hold back to avoid injuries. Even at half pace, Malaysian players were simply no match to their world class counterparts, exposing the huge gap between the standard of both teams. Nevertheless, the fearless performance shown by the Malaysian players was to be admired. The defenders & goalie could proudly said they had a decent match. At least Scolari said it was a good warm up match, with the locals giving his players a tough time. All the locals need are more match exposures to gain better match temperament & improve on their understanding.

Expect more EPL teams to hop over here in near future. Never mind they're here for the $$$, but what the heck? EPL is now the most popular & commercialised football league in the world, thanks to supports rendered from people at this part of the world. The teams ought to be here in South East Asia at least to show their appreciations to the fans.

Teams before the start

The fans in droves

Now that he got the ball, he's wondering where to go next...

Michael Essien making his run from his own area

Baby sis & me

Ronaldo Leaves United

Stumbled upon these videos in Youtube, referring to the recent speculation of Ronaldo joining Real Madrid. Freaking funny if ur a footie fan, no offence to the Manchester United fans though...enjoy !!!