Terry and Lampard set to appear in a Bollywood film

The two are set to appear in a Bollywood film that will feature the life of an avid follower of Chelsea. The movie will be called Jhoom.

It features Bollywood heart-throb Abhishek Bachchan as the devoted Chelsea fan. Some scenes of the film will be shot in London and will include footage of the players in action.

The club sees this break as an opportunity to further promote the club in India where the game is popular.

According to the club's business affairs director Paul Smith: "From a Chelsea perspective, we have been looking at ways to reach out to the Brit-Asian community and play a leading role by involving them more in football.

"But we are also looking to Asia, particularly India, as part of the strategy of extending the Chelsea brand into new markets.

"In contrast to the approach taken previously by other clubs, the Chelsea strategy is focused on media and the power of communicating the club's image."

Smith added: "Nothing compares with the glamour and appeal of Bollywood and its stars. Making a connection to the new football fans of India through Bollywood confirms Chelsea's status as the leading Premiership club."

The film will be released next May.

Could this be the first Bollywood film I'll get my hands on? Maybe.

Last Minute Changes

Tonight, Champions' League Qualifiers resume. Chelsea play Levski tomorrow. Anyway, two last changes for the matchday.

I got rid of Villa for now, in exchange of Kaka. Because Kaka was expensive, I had to let go of another one, Simao, and pick one to replace Villa. Chose Venegoor of Hesselink. Unfortunately he might miss tonight's match due to an ankle injury from a match last Saturday. So I'm playing 4-4-2 tonight, with Gilberto of Arsenal taking the other midfield spot.

Wonderful Football Misses

First one's one of the funniest.

Chelsea win against Fulham.

2-0. Both by Lampard. And Chelsea's bad history with Fulham has been sealed.

'Nuff said.


LAMPARD GOOOOAAALLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EPL Fantasy Football

Fifteen transfers and counting. Sheesh. I wonder how many points all those transfer already cost me. Or did they work to my advantage? Right now, I have some of the best players. I hope for this week's round, I earn much more points and climb the ranks. As of Matchday 5, I rank 235,000 out of 934,000. Not very bad but I sure can do a lot better than that. And... I do hope to avoid moooore transfers in the future. Some of the leaders in the Fantasy have made less than 5 transfers. I shall stop at... 20 until Matchday 15 or 20 perhaps.

Here's my squad right now, following 4-3-3 formation:


James of PO is my GK. Van der Sar hasn't been doing as well as this guy does.

Terry (CH), Campbell (PO), Scharner (WI) and Mellberg (AV) play as defenders.

Lampard (CH), Davis (PO), and Parker (NU) stand in the midfield.

Zamora (WH), Johnson (EV), and Seol (RE) will be my strikers.

Subs: Van der Sar (GK, MU), Neville (Mid, EV), Bowyer (Mid, WH) and Ferdinand (Def, MU)

Team composition: 3 Pompy, 2 ManYoo, 2 Chelski, 2 Everton, 2 West Ham, Wigan, Reading, and Newcastle- 1 each.

Football News. 9/18/06.

Ballack apologizes to Sissoko after stamping him on the knee in yesterday's game, Chelsea against Liv. The incident gave the German midfielder his first red of his career. As if being sent off wasn't enough, he will be facing (fuck) a 3-match ban against Fulham, Villa and Reading. He will be back on the 21st... next month.

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England assistant coach Venables considers Scholes to be part of the England squad again. The player was said to have already retired from international football but due to Hargreaves' broken leg which would cost him 6 weeks of football, the assistant coach is asking him to reconsider. Hargreaves' injury seems to open a slot for central midfielder. However, given the situation, we also wonder if Scholes really will be replacing Hargreaves, given Lampard's bad form since the World Cup plus the potential of Michael Carrick. Are we to see another shocker from Macca? Will he drop Lampard?

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And as if we still havent had enough of the Becks issue, here's another scoop. He thinks he won't be playing for England again. (You bet! Are you trying reverse psychology on Macca by saying this?) He still wants to play for England. His resignation only meant he thought it's time somebody else takes over the captaincy. He thinks Terry's a good man for the job. Becks was said to be a 'casualty' of the Sven era.

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Portmouth defender Sol Campbell was dropped by Macca off the England squad...through an answering machine. The coach left just one message in his machine, just to tell he's not part of the first squad anymore. For now, it seems then, the defender will only be playing for his Premiership team.

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It was a shocker that Arsenal won over ManYoo and broke the latter team's straight win record. The game ended 1-0. I wonder where ManYoo's scoring machines were ladt night. In the past, they've been scoring 2 to a max of 5. But last night was totally unexpected. To make it worse, they were beaten by a team who hasn't won anything since the premiership began.

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And Drogba SCORESSSS for Chelsea! (Still nothing from Lampard!) 1-0! Liverpool loses... again! RIP Liverpool. 9/17/06. ManYoo's loss puts them at the same level as Chelsea while Pompy stays on top.

Beckham reveals England heartache

From BBC.com

David Beckham says he has a "burning desire" to prove new England coach Steve McClaren wrong after being dropped from the national team.

"I know people said I should have seen it coming, but it was a total shock," said the former England captain, 31.

"It's a terrible feeling not playing for England after 10 years, but I'm not bitter - more disappointed and hurt."

Beckham told the Daily Mirror: "He has made a decision, but I've got a burning desire to prove him wrong."

The Real Madrid star revealed McClaren had told him "you are one of the casualties" when he took over from Sven-Goran Eriksson following England's disappointing World Cup campaign in Germany.

He added: "It's hard to take when the reasoning behind it was to move on but, I still believe I have got two or three more good years left in me.

"I thought I could move on with the team and not get left behind.

"I heard there were some reports that I had begged and pleaded with him not to do it.

"Well, obviously I was upset but nothing like that happened. I was upset but I am a man and I would never crawl to someone to pick me for the team."

Beckham, capped 94 times by England, said he would always "be available" to play for his country.

"I didn't announce my international retirement because I want to play for England again," he said.

"I still want to reach that milestone of playing for England 100 times and help them win the European Championship.

"It's a target I set myself a long time ago and I won't give up now."

Beckham added: "I want to fight my way back in. Steve McClaren says the door is still open. I'm not so sure.

"I'd love to say I'll play for England again in the future. I'd love to say I'll reach 100 caps and go beyond that, but I wouldn't tell anyone to bet on it."

Did the Gunners make history?

The team was believe to have made history in the Champions League for having starting players from different countries. While it is still unconfirmed by UEFA, for now, we hold this to be unprecedented. The unique line up was created when Toure, one of the 2 Ivory Coast players, left in the 29th minute. As he did, the team then looked like this:

Jens Lehmann (Germany); Emmanuel Eboue (Ivory Coast), Johan Djourou (Switzerland), Justin Hoyte (England), William Gallas (France); Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic), Gilberto (Brazil), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Alexander Hleb (Belarus); Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo), Robin van Persie (Holland).

However, one paper in the U, the Daily Telegraph notes that at one point in 2002, Fulham already was in the same situation. Their team was this:

Maik Taylor (Northern Ireland); Steve Finnan (Republic of Ireland), Pierre Wome (Cameroon), Andy Melville (Wales); Abdeslam Ouaddou (Morocco), Bjarne Goldbaek (Denmark), John Collins (Scotland), Junichi Inamoto (Japan); Barry Hayles (Jamaica), Andrejs Stolcers (Latvia).

Post UCL Matchday1; Pre Matchday2

After 16 games, I ended with 70 points which puts me on the #2 spot in the EPL League, #12 in the Philippines, and I hope in the top 100 in Chelsea league. Not bad for a start, I must say. I was surprised to see though Cannavaro not contributing a single point. Surprise surprise. Did he even play? According to the line-up from UEFA.com, he did. Anyway, both Xabi Alonso from Liverpool and Van Der Sar from ManYoo also almost didn't contribute with their measley 1 point each. I'm quite disapointed especially with Van der Sar. On the other hand, adding Eto'o in my lineup and dropping Klose proved to be a wise move.

As excited as I could possibly be for the second matchday, I already made 2 transfers and assigned a new captain of my team. Also this time, I'm following a 4-3-3 formation, expecting to get more by having more strikers at the back and less wingers.

Ricardo shall remain my striker until Van der Sar gains more points for me.

For the defenders, Van Damme sits down while Cannavaro stays put despite his lack of contribution.

Among my midfielders, Xabi Alonso left to be replaced by Dica who scored a couple last night. Gattusso also sits down.

Finally, all three strikers play next time. Morientes replaced Podolski as it proved making the latter my captain a shrewd move. The former scored 3 goals for Valencia. I know he would score more for me next time.

The Journey of the Late Bloomer. v1.0

I'm already 21. As shameful as it is to admit this, I have not had the slightest clue of the beauty of football until I tried watching the 2006 World Cup. Take note, the year was 2-0-0-6. Back then, there wasn't even any intention of staying glued to the TV. I carried the 'what-the-heck' attitude as I switched on the TV to catch a glimpse of the opening ceremonies. I even almost shut it off a minute later after I saw Shakira was on. But I didn't, again thinking, what the heck. The only thing I can remember about the World Cup of 2002 was that Ricky Martin sang La Copa dela Vida in almost every other show that was on. Having wanted to be 'in' and 'cool' at that moment, I thought, I'll give it a shot. For someone like me who didn't care about ANY sort of sport at all my entire life, it was apparently the hype as the internet screamed every single day, 'The World Cup is coming, OLE! OLE! OLE!' I can't imagine being left out. After all, I've already been left out for the past 21 years of my life, not knowing how something like football could be so captivating and beautiful.

And then football fanaticism was born.

When the World Cup started, just like everybody did, I picked my teams. Because I didn't have a single knowledge of which teams and players were good (well maybe except for the overly popular Brazil and Ronaldinho whose name I couldn't even spell and remember until recently), I had to rely on instinct. I was somehow aware of the buzz created by English football as well as its fans. Also, somewhere in my childhood I can clearly remember dreaming to step foot on English soil. So I chose England first. Then because Germany were the host, they became my second team. My third choice turned to Italy simply because I like Italy. Whether they sucked real bad or played bloody well, I didn't care. Finally, it was a toss between Ukraine and Holland. They were chosen again for superficial reasons.

...Finally, Shakira was off the hook and the first game of the event began. It was Germany against Costa Rica. One of my teams was on. At first, I saw it just like how I did any other show- uncritically and uncomprehendingly. That time, it was just a 'game' for me. But that didn't last very long. The running men soon became known to me as defenders, midfielders, fowards. Germany scored within the first 6 minutes. Then again at 17th. Then at the 61st. There was just adrenaline rush. The game caught me by surprise. I appreciated the game! I appreciated A game for the first time. England was not playing until the following day. I followed the game of my first-choice team, as expected, but this time more closely, with my gradually growing level of enthusiasm for the sport. I knew I had to pick a favorite. Then I spotted a lad who seemed to constantly aim for a goal. Frank Lampard. Then came their second game, and third. He was consistently performing well. Right at that moment, I realized he was the man.

Unexpectedly, the group faced an early exit as they were beaten by the Portuguese. Only God knew how disappointed and shocked I was. The team lost in a shootout. Even Lampard missed getting the ball in. I stared agape at the TV screen. It was 530am here in the Philippines. I still haven't slept. I stayed up until that time to catch their game; something I've never imagined I would do for a sport, moreso for a team. But I did. And yet I got disappointed.

Apparently, I eventually fell in love with the game. I've never felt that excited over upcoming and ongoing games. I never saw myself cheering for a team until then. I never expected to be sympathizing with millions of England fans. Right there and then, I knew that the moment the World Cup ends, my love for the game continues.

A month after came the EPL. Again, being a novice to the world of football, I struggled to pick my favorite team. But my initial thought was, it might be sensible to pick one based on the players I liked in the recently concluded World Cup. Most of my favorites came from England, apparently. Then a couple from each of the other World Cup teams- Germany, Holland, and Ukraine. The names that first came up were: Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and John Terry of England. Then followed Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack of Germany; Arjen Robben and Ruud van Nistelrooij of Holland; and Andriy Shevchenko of Ukraine. The question in my mind was, where can I find at least one or two these players?

Surprise, surprise! Indeed to my surprise, I found 6 of them in one team, including my Lampard. Chelsea. Chelski. The Blues. Now, I know that not only did I become one of the biggest lovers of football in the Philippines, I also became a true blue England and Chelsea fan. Loving football. Loving England. Loving Chelsea.

I may be unlike many people who have vivid chilhood memories of football- going to the live games at Stamford Bridge with their moms and dads or siblings or both, buying and wearing football kits until they wear out, screaming with other England/Chelsea fans to share the victory with each other- but I know one thing is for sure. When I'm old and aging, I will have my own share of that. Even if it all started when I was already out of college.

People, the journey of the late bloomer has just begun with England.

The Journey of the Late Bloomer. ed.

My love for football was born right before I turned 21.

When the World Cup started, just like everybody did, I picked my team. Because I didn't have a single knowledge of which teams and players were good, I had to rely on instinct. I was somehow aware of the buzz created by English football as well as its fans. Also, somewhere in my childhood I can clearly remember dreaming to step foot on English soil. So I chose England.

The first game of the event began. At first, I saw it just like how I did any other show- uncritically and uncomprehendingly. That time, it was just a 'game of running men' for me. But that didn't last very long. Germany scored within the first 6 minutes. Then again at 17th. Then at the 61st. There was just adrenaline rush. The game caught me by surprise. I appreciated the game! I appreciated A game for the first time. England was not playing until the following day. I followed the game of my team, as expected, but this time more closely, with my gradually growing level of enthusiasm for the sport. I knew I had to pick a favorite player. One lad seemed to constantly aim for a goal. Frank Lampard. Their second game and third games followed. He was consistently performing well. Right at that moment, I realized he was the man.

Unexpectedly, the group faced an early exit. Only God knew how disappointed and shocked I was. I stared agape at the TV screen. It was 530am here in the Philippines. I still haven't slept. I stayed up until that time to catch their game; something I've never imagined I would do for a sport. But I did. And yet I got disappointed. Right there and then, I knew that when the World Cup ends, my love for the game continues.

Then came the EPL. This time, I struggled to pick my favorite team among the pool of English teams. But my initial thought was, it might be sensible to pick one based on the players I liked in the recently concluded World Cup. The names that first came up were: Lampard, Cole and Terry of England. Then Klose and Ballack of Germany; Robben and RVN of Holland; and Shevchenko of Ukraine. Where can I find any of these players?

Surprise, surprise! I found 6 of them, including Lampard, in Chelsea. Chelski. The Blues.

I may be unlike many people who have vivid chilhood memories of football- going to the live games at Stamford Bridge with their moms and dads or siblings or both, buying and wearing football kits until they wear out, screaming to the top of their lungs with other England/Chelsea fans to share the victory with each other- but I know one thing is for sure. When I'm old and aging, I will have my own share of that. Even if it all started when I was already out of college.

People, the journey of the late bloomer has just begun with England.

Modified Euro2008 Matchday 3 Squad

I couldn't resist. Despite the fact that the next matchday won't be until early Oct, I still had to make transfers again. I made 4 transfers- one for each position. My recent discovery (please refer to the previous post) enticed me to do this. So here goes:

Van der Sar was replaced by the magnificent German GK Lehmann.

Scottish Naysmith replaced Mathijsen.

German midfielder took the place of Norwegian Stromstad.

And finally, Litmanen left to give way to Spain's David Villa.

The four transfers stil left me with 1M euros to spare.

Revised Champs' League Matchday1 Squad

When I logged in to check my squad again this noon, I saw that one of my players was injured. Kalinichenko. So I had to replace him with somebody else. Because I always don't have enough time figuring out the satisfactory squad in the afternoon, I decided to tinker with it tonight. Everytime I look at my squad, chances are, I will be making dozens of changes, transfer after transfer. Even if it costs me points. Just look at my EPL Fantasy Football. In the 4 weeks that EPL's been on, I've already made 12 transfers while everybody else had only 3 or 4 at the most. Imagine that, 8 more transfers than everybody else, which means I've already lost 32 points just from constantly changing players. Talk about point greediness.

Anyway, it's not an issue with the Champions' League Fantasy Football. At least not yet. It became even more amazing when I discovered from the drop-down menu 'Teams selected by %' which I could only take to mean % of Fantasy players who selected the particular player. Of course, I came to my own rescue of picking the most selected players. So no surprises: I've changed more than half of the players from the squad. So now, it looks like this:

The following have been removed, with their corresponding replacements:

GK- Valdes replaced with Ricardo from Sporting.
I can remember this guy. The fucking good GK which cost England the WC.

Defenders- Both Sorin and Mathijsen of Hamburg were replaced by Belgium's Anderlecht's Van Damme and Chelski's Captain Terry. Dynamo Kyiv's Nesmachniy also left to give way to Ricardo's teammate, Veloso.
Finally, I got someone from Chelsea. Good choice people. At least I wouldn't feel so bad if he doesn't do well, knowing he's been selected by quite a lot of you. But I doubt he's gonna screw up. He plays well.

Midfielder- The injured Kalinichenko and Shakhtar's Tymoschuk were replaced by the cheaper Galatasaray's Inamoto and Benfica's Simao.
While Inamoto's cheaper, I just hope he's just as good or even better than the other.

Finally for the strikers, due to gossips that Klose might not be fit enough to play tonight, I replaced him with David Villa. Another player caught my attention, Eto'o from Barca. So I ditched Ronaldo for him.
This guy's honestly quite one of the best from Spain in the last World Cup. I hope that he gives me the points. In retrospect, this guy's close to being one of my favorites.

After all the tranfers, I still got .5M euros left. Nice.

Who are playing tonight:
Ricardo
Puyol, Terry and Veloso
Xabi Alonso, Schweinsteiger, and Inamoto
All my forwards

Who are playing tomorrow:
Van der Sar
Van Damme and Captain FABIOOO
Gattusso and Simao
None of my forwards

Good luck to me on Matchday1!

Football News 9-8-06 (more of Lampard news)

The ass Ronaldinho claims Werder is better than Chelski and that his team worries more about the Germans, having Klose on their side, than the English.

Lampard defends himself from critics: "Stop just judging me on how many goals I score." This was exactly my point in one of the message boards in BBC. Furthermore, "At the end of the day I'm in there to be part of the team and, if the game goes well and I'm not scoring or even directly making goals, that's okay as long as I'm contributing in other ways." Exactly bud! What the hell is the problem of these people?

"I thought I did that against Andorra at the weekend. They defended in great numbers and my job was to keep the ball moving and I thought I did that." I haven't seen the game but i know you did that. I BELIEVE!

"I could have played for myself and kept getting in the box but that wouldn't have meant I was doing the right thing for the team." Again! My point precisely! He seems to be slowing down, as a WORLD CLASS midfielder to give way to the 'newbies'. That's a mark of a great leader!

"There were times when people were saying I was fantastic when I didn't think I had played particularly well. Now it's going the other way but I'm big enough to take that." Fans are silly, they love you when you score goals for them then when you fluke, next thing you know, theyre cursing you to be out of the squad. It's not all about scoring goals friends, it's not!

Quit it Lampard critics!

UEFA Champions' League Fantasy Team

Finally, Champions' League Fantasy Football is up and running. I have been waiting for it for the longest time. I almost forgot about it until a football mailer came to my inbox with schedules for the first matchday next week. Of course, I rushed to creating my team. With only 100 million euros to spend, though at least it's bigger than the other 2 fantasies), I still managed to form a star-studded team. Apparently, most of my players are limited to the ones I saw in the World Cup and very quickly, from the several Euro2008 qualifiers. Anyway, here is, yet again, UCL's Team InGerrLand.

(By the way, this is the wrong formation. It should be following 3-4-3,
with all forwards used up and Mathijsen sitting down.)

Goalkeepers: Barca's Valdes and ManYoo's Van Der Sar as sub GK.

Defenders: Again from Barca, Puyol, Hamburg's Sorin and Mathijsen (a sub), and Real Madrid's FABBIOOO Cannavaro.

Midfielders: Liverpool's Xabi Alonso, Schweinsteiger from Bayern, Kalinichenko from Spartak Moskva and AC Milan's Genaro Gattusso.

At the back are Madrid's Ronaldo, Werder's MIROSLAVV Klose and Bayern's Prince Poldi.
Just standing by are midfielder Tymoschuk (Shakhtar) and defender Masnachniy from Ukraine's Dynamo Kyiv.

I hope this gives me a good start. Matchday 1 begins September 13th.

PS Semi-bad thing? Unlimited transfers only apply before the start of Matchday1, 1st leg of Round of 16, 1st leg of Quarter Finals and 1st leg of Semi-finals. The rest only gives 1 free transfer with additional cost of 2M euros for each exceeding transfer.

Matchday2 ; Line-up for Matchday 3

Yet again, Lampard's quite lost out there. I hope it's only because he's giving the others the chance to shine. Right, a world-class central midfielder must give way to the newbies and then just be more competitive when tougher games arrive.

Anyway, at the end of matchday 2, I only got 37 points while so many people got about 100 points. Darn those people. My solution for the 3rd matchday? Replacing players again! Mwahahaha. So here's my new line-up:

2 Dutch nationals: GK Van Der Sar and Defender Mathijsen.

The defender is joined by Belgian Van Buyten, Iceland's Hreidarsson and Scottish sub Dailly.

4 guys play it out at the midfield: Petrov, Stromstad, Sionko and Captain Mintal.

At the back, Finnish Litmanen, Northern Ireland's Healy who did a maginificent hat-trick in the last game, and Crouchie. How could I miss an England player.

It's going to be quite a loooong wait. Teams take a break now and resume exactly a month from now. A MONTH. I guess I'm back to managing my EPL team.

Thank you Macca and Captain...

...for standing up for Lampard.

Post-Andorra match, criticisms rained [yet again] on Lampard's poor performance. His detractors don't seem to be done yet ever since they started after Frank didn't score a single goal in the 5 matches England played in the World Cup. I bet even people in the 606 podcast condemned him for not contributing a lot to the game. But the England manager came to his defense, "Frank Lampard normally likes a lot of freedom and space to run into, especially from centre midfield. There wasn't that much space to run into.

"But the one thing that really pleased me about Frank's game on Saturday was he had more touches of the ball than anyone else, he had more passes than anyone else.

"His success rate was higher than anyone else on the park and he received and passed the ball over 100 times. That is a phenomenal number of times. I've never know anyone else achieve that amount.

"It was a different role for him, a more subdued one because of the packed defence, and he really left and created the spaces for other people to run into. It was a different kind of game for Frank and he did it really well."

In the same manner, Captain John Terry defended Lampard saying he's been fantastic the past few games and that he has nothing to prove. He also said that criticisms on him are unfair.


Thank you for the good England people.

Thank you Macca and Captain...

...for standing up for Lampard.

Post-Andorra match, criticisms rained [yet again] on Lampard's poor performance. His detractors don't seem to be done yet ever since they started after Frank didn't score a single goal in the 5 matches England played in the World Cup. I bet even people in the 606 podcast condemned him for not contributing a lot to the game. But the England manager came to his defense, "Frank Lampard normally likes a lot of freedom and space to run into, especially from centre midfield. There wasn't that much space to run into.

"But the one thing that really pleased me about Frank's game on Saturday was he had more touches of the ball than anyone else, he had more passes than anyone else.

"His success rate was higher than anyone else on the park and he received and passed the ball over 100 times. That is a phenomenal number of times. I've never know anyone else achieve that amount.

"It was a different role for him, a more subdued one because of the packed defence, and he really left and created the spaces for other people to run into. It was a different kind of game for Frank and he did it really well."

In the same manner, Captain John Terry defended Lampard saying he's been fantastic the past few games and that he has nothing to prove. He also said that criticisms on him are unfair.


Thank you for the good England people.

multi-player news

Lampard didn't contribute much in the last England fixture against Andorra. I was surprised and disappointed, while at the same time keeping in mind how Lampard detractors would start spreading insults again in favor of Stevie G, Lennon and other allegedly more deserving players. However, to come to his defense, I think the guy's just not having his football days recently and 2 or 3 games without the presence of any crucial contribution to the team doesn't necessarily translate to getting kicked out of the squad and benched. C'mon, the guy wasn't voted England Player of the Year twice for notihng. Just like any other player at some point of their career, he's just having a meeting with bad luck. As a fan, all I could hope for is that he returns to his full potential soon enough to shush those who thrive on making a mockery of his performances and consistently pushing for his removal from the squad.

On the other hand, Stevie G's achieving his 50th cap this Wednesday as the Lions face Macedonians for their second Euro 2008 qualifying game. Macca's happy about how his kid's been doing very well in the team. He seems to be carrying over his attitude and playing prowess from Liverpool to the national team. McClaren said and I quote:

"He's been influential for Liverpool over the years and has changed games and won European Cups by himself.

"Now he's doing that for England so it's great for us.

"The best is still to come from him and all the players.

"He can get better. He has been a fantastic influence in some of the games he has won for Liverpool.

"We want to transfer that to England and he's started to do that over the last couple of games.

Stevie scored his 10th international goal last Sunday in their match against Andorra.

Finally, while Bayern midfielder Hargreaves's move to ManYoo didn't push through, that didn't stop him from performing well in England's games. Picking up from where he left off in the last World Cup, he is still being hailed as one of the best players England have at present. His tackling skills are just great. While he may have received boo-boos when he first played for the World Cup, he is slowly proving his critics wrong by creating significant impact for his team in every single game that he finds himself in. I will keep an eye on this kid. If Lampard doesn't shine in the next couple of games, I'm moving my money to this lad.

Intl football 's not for the eyes of everyone.

Arsenal's Wenger gave out a recent statement with regard to the UEFA Euro 2008, which just started recently. He said that 80% of international football is now rubbish with amateurish teams competing against others which are much out of their league. Just say, for instance, England and Andorra. England rank in the top 5 or 6 in the world while Andorra, 192nd if I'm not mistaken. We're seeing both ends of the world competing unnecessarily. We've all heard of football shockers and upsets but if such a calibre of international games continue, then fans would start losing interest. Quoting Wenger,

"Eighty per cent of qualifying matches this weekend were without interest - and that's being quite optimistic. We are going to destroy the interest of the spectator long-term,

"The basic problem is the congestion of international matches.

"In each Euro qualifying group, there are seven or eight teams resulting from the break-up of the Soviet Union and former eastern block countries and also from the integration of small states like Andorra and Liechtenstein.

His last point makes total sense. If later on, we get all these blocs dividing themselves to independence, then what do we get? Even more unnecessary, undeserving, boring, expectable games with the qualifers lasting for twice as long as now.

Moreover, because of less (or in-) competent teams participating, quality is either being compromised or led to a downward hill. As a newbie to the sport, I fell in love with it for the excitement and thrill it brings me everytime I catch a game. But if my viewing would just lull me to sleep and the game's already just becoming a guessing game of the final scores, then, what's the point still of catching the game? People watch it for the action, not for the right to guess final scores.

I understand we have to respect each country's participation, especially of the small ones. Yet I think the system of the whole tourney needs a restructuring. Games like England-Andorra, France-Georgia, and Spain-Liechtenstein, while they feature the stars of the world, still don't deserve to be aired in many parts of the world. Or maybe anywhere at all. Personally, I think it is all about preserving the very reason people love football and while there's beauty in every game and the sport itself, sometimes dullness just pays an unwanted visit.

English Clubs Takeover?

Remember my entry on interracial premier league? Now read this: UEFA call for an investigation regarding what seems to be a trend of multinationals buying English clubs. West Ham is the latest prospect of a company called MSI, who allegedly funded the buying of Argentine duo Tevez and Mascherano. What we're seeing is clubs no longer owned by the community but by the foreigners. Take note that both ManYoo and Aston Villa are already owned by American Companies. William Gallard, the UEFA Director of Communications said and i quote, "This is a wake-up call and the UK Government have a responsibility to start investigating. After all it's a part of the UK economy."

Philosophy Football

What do you know? Philosophers (and then some famous personalities) also found something in football that they crafted their own intellectual wow-able quotes.

"The goal passes through a series of phases independent of the will of man" -Karl Marx

"All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football" -Albert Camus

"In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team" -Jean-Paul Sartre

"The goalkeeper is the lone eagle, the man of mystery, the last defender. Less the keeper of a goal than the keeper of a dream." -Vladimir Nabokov

"Nothing is simultaneously freer and more constrained than the action of the good player. He quite naturally materialises at just the place the ball is about to fall, as if the ball were in command of him - but by that very fact, he is in command of the ball." -Bourdieu

"Football is working class ballet" -Alf Garnett

"Through a turnstile into another and altogether more splendid kind of life, hurtling with conflict and yet passionate and beautiful in its art." -JBPriestley

"It is not just a simple game. It is a weapon of the revolution" -Che Guevara

"If politics are to be anything other than an empty game, it is towards the goal of the happiness of labour that they must make." -William Morris

"I fell in love with football as I would later fall in love with women: suddenly, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain it would bring" -Nick Hornby

PS Each of these come with a shirt. Precisely how I found these quotes, through shirts being sold online!

It's hard to be a manager. Tough.

And Matchday 1 ends. I got a not very respectable 26 points. The #1 in the league gathered close to a hundred points. I thought I picked good players. Well, actually I did. They just weren't the right ones. Lampard didn't even get past the 5-point mark. Gerrard and Crouch, which were not in my team did very well like they did in the friendly against Greece. And how do I respond to this? Simple. A complete renewal of squad. Out of the 11 players I picked at the onset, none remained in place. Every single player was replaced by better scoring ones. Yep, I replaced Lampard too. If he does well in the next game, then I put him back on the team for life. If he doesn't, well, he's gonna stay out of it. So here's my new team:

Goalkeeper: Stojkovic (Serbia and Montenegro)
Defenders: Weir (SCO), Pernia (ESP), Stankevicius (LTU), and Hreidarsson (ISL)
Midfielders: Petrov (BUL), Stevie G, Hrgovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina), and Mintal (SVK)
Strikers: Litmanen (FIN), Villa (ESP), and Crouchie

With such a good team, I still ended up with 2 euros left to spend for the next round.

F4.

Frustrated Filipino Football Fan.

Given that I don't have anyone to talk to about football here in the Philippines as much as I'd love to, several questions came to mind. How much time does a typical English football fan spend talking about the sport in a day? How much time does he spend reading about football? Watching games? Doing other football stuff?

My case couldn't be critical. It might be here in the Philippines. But I doubt it is in other football-heavy countries.

Team InGerrLand (former GerEngTaly)

Euro2008 Qualifiers started 2 weeks ago. But the games didn't create too much of a buzz that I thought tonight's games were the first batch for the event. Apparently, I was wrong. I even thought England was going to start it all out tonight. But nope, 2 other games precede the England-Andorra match. (But how come tonight's called 'Matchday 1'?) Anyway, the point of this post is to say that another Fantasy Football comes to life. I actually like this better than the World Cup and EPL Fantasies for several reasons:

1. Better graphics.
2. UNLIMITED transfers.
3. Wider pool of players.
4. UNLIMITED transfers...
5. UNLIMITED TRANSFERS!!!

But there's one thing that sucks about it. The limited money to spend. I mean, two with the second one being, an England player costing 7 euros, which means I can only have Lampard on my team. Otherwise, a player or two in my team would have to come from Timbuktu. At least I have fairly decent represented countries in my team. Scotland, England, Ireland (where's Wales?), Germany, Italy Spain, Finland, and Norway.

Because games officially start (for me) tonight, I was quick in creating my own team. Presenting Team InGerrLand. The Scottish Smith defends Ingerrlands post from 'opponents' while Irish, Dutch and Finnish players join Italy's Fabio Cannavaro in assisting Smith. In the midfield, favorite Lampard cooperates with another Irish and Finnish players to keep the ball on the team's side. Schweinsteiger also plays in the midfield. All four run, tackle, and then pass to any of the strikers- La Liga's Fernando Torres, World Cup's Golden Shoe Awardee Bundesliga's Miroslav Klose and Serie A's Luca Toni- to score. And then the squad is complete.

The numbers under the names are the cost of each player.

PS1 I want to join the EnglandFan club. But it's bloody (haha) expensive.
PS2 I'm still frustrated how we don't have football kits here of England, Chelsea and Liverpool. Nike has but they're not what I'm looking for. Crap this.

Football News 9-1-06

Rio Ferdinand's going to miss the first Euro 2008 qualifier game against Andorra tomorrow due to a toe injury. Look how big an impact something small could make. Hehe. The injury has caused the defender to miss the England training over the week but McClaren's expecting him to be ready come Wednesday where the team will play Macedonia for the second qualifier game.

Chelsea got mad at the FA for charging them GBP40,000 after the association found out that the team was conducting their own private drug testing, something which is against to the regulations of the FA. While Chelski claim to have done the testing on their own just as a fight against drugs, the FA still insisted it was imperative that all dope testing be done under their jurisdiction. I find this news silly.

Finally, Frank Lampard said he's ready to be put on spot by England. After the big frustration and disappointment of missing goals and most especially the penalty kick in their game against Portugal in the quarter finals of the WC, he said he's ready to play well, i.e. score, again. From an interview by Kevin McCarra, he said:

"I will take them," Lampard confirmed. "I was going to take one [in the friendly] against Greece if we got one. I am big enough to take the responsibility. I have taken and scored enough penalties in the past. It was a general discussion. Steve [McClaren] instigated it after the Greece game but I am confident enough to say if he wants me to take one I am big enough to do it."

PS West Ham surprisingly snatched the Argentinian duo Tevez and Mascherano on the last day of transfers for the clubs all over Europe. Other big clubs such as Arsenal, Chelski and ManYoo had their eyes on the duo, but it was unfortunate that the two went on to sign with none of them.