Football Ramblings
World Cup
I woke up 3 am in the morning to catch Korea play Switzerland in the last round of group matches. Korea was my adopted team since the last World Cup and I was hoping that they would at least make the second round at Germany. The situation in this group was complicated. The winner of this match would be the winner of Group G as well and get the supposedly easier game against Ukraine in the next round. A draw wound see Switzerland definitely through either as winner or runner-up while the Koreans had to depend on the result between France and Togo. France meanwhile must win the Africans by 2 goals to be assured of a place in 2nd round.
The match started badly enough for the Koreans conceding an early goal through set pieces. The Koreans began to fight back and create some good goal-scoring opportunities but the Swiss were sitting deep and were dangerous on the counter-attack. There was a clear handball offence by the Swiss in the area but the Asians were denied the penalty. In the end the sucker punch was delivered by the Swiss in a very controversial manner. The linesman had raised the offside flag but the referee allowed the game to play on because the ball was played in by a Korean player. The Koreans protested vehemently but the goal was good in my opinion.
The Koreans were unlucky but they had been receipents of some dubious refreeing decisions as well. They were lucky that the referee missed the 'goal' by Vieira in their previous match against France and even luckier throughout the same tournament 4 years ago. The Swiss hadn't conceded a goal yet in the tournament and that speaks volume how disciplined their players had been so far. They thoroughly deserved to go through as group winners ahead of France who recorded a rather unconvincing (to me) 2-0 win over Togo. I hoped Spain will finish them off without mercy in their next match.
The no 19 Korean player Cho Jae-jin stood out for me. He won many headers and held up the ball well in my opinion. However like most Asian strikers he had little composure when presented with the chances. I realised that the Asian teams at this World Cup had difficulties scoring, especially against the European teams. They might have created good opportunities but there wasn't anyone to finish them off. This had proved costly as none of the 4 Asian teams qualified for the next round. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Japan all only had one point and 2 goals from 3 matches. Both Iranian goals came from defenders at set-pieces while the Japanese had a fluke goal against Australia and a well-taken one against Brazil. Saudis scored both of their goals against Tunisia which admittedly was not the strongest team.
Korea was obviously the pick of the bunch among the Asian teams. They managed a 2-1 win over the hapless Togo and even drew with the oh-so-mighty France. They had came back from a goal down in both games and there was genuine belief that they could complete another fight back against the Swiss. However it was not to be and they went home rueing the missed chance to promote Asian football. Most of the usual suspects got into the last 16 and the only surprises were Ghana, Ecuador and Australia. Ghana scored the biggest upset by eliminating the Czechs and hence earned the right to play the reigning champion Brazil. I will be cheering the underdogs on in the knock-out stages and hoping that they will provide an upset or two.
Liverpool
Meanwhile Liverpool has announced that Craig Bellamy will join us for 6 million pounds. I must admit that it is a good deal as it bring us a proven goalscorer in EPL at a reasonable fee but I am also apprenhensive about his off-the-field behaviour. He was involved in too many incidents to my liking and I'm afraid that he might affect our team spirit. However I got a much positive opinion after reading about his willingness of taking a pay cut to play for us. He was offered a new contract extension of 60k pounds a week at Blackburn but he chose to sign for us at 45k p/w. He was a fan since childhood and it was his dream to pull on the red shirt and play in front of the Kop. He couldn't refuse when we came along with the offer and even cut short his honeymoon to complete the deal.
Bellamy is a very competitive player on the pitch and also mentioned in his interview that he wanted to be remembered as a good Liverpool player and not merely as a Liverpool player. We need more winners like him and not whiners like Cisse. I appreciate his love for the club but he must show the goods on the pitch. He had performed well in smaller clubs but it doesn't guarantee success at a big club like Liverpool. Bigger names had came and flopped. Heskey, Diouf, Cisse and Morientes were just some of them who couldn't cut it here. Rafa will probably give him a season to prove himself and hopefully he will grab his chances. With a combination of talent, hard work, right attitude and of course luck, Bellamy will deliver. Hopefully he will not only be remembered as a good Liverpool player but be immortalized as an Anfield legend as well.
I woke up 3 am in the morning to catch Korea play Switzerland in the last round of group matches. Korea was my adopted team since the last World Cup and I was hoping that they would at least make the second round at Germany. The situation in this group was complicated. The winner of this match would be the winner of Group G as well and get the supposedly easier game against Ukraine in the next round. A draw wound see Switzerland definitely through either as winner or runner-up while the Koreans had to depend on the result between France and Togo. France meanwhile must win the Africans by 2 goals to be assured of a place in 2nd round.
The match started badly enough for the Koreans conceding an early goal through set pieces. The Koreans began to fight back and create some good goal-scoring opportunities but the Swiss were sitting deep and were dangerous on the counter-attack. There was a clear handball offence by the Swiss in the area but the Asians were denied the penalty. In the end the sucker punch was delivered by the Swiss in a very controversial manner. The linesman had raised the offside flag but the referee allowed the game to play on because the ball was played in by a Korean player. The Koreans protested vehemently but the goal was good in my opinion.
The Koreans were unlucky but they had been receipents of some dubious refreeing decisions as well. They were lucky that the referee missed the 'goal' by Vieira in their previous match against France and even luckier throughout the same tournament 4 years ago. The Swiss hadn't conceded a goal yet in the tournament and that speaks volume how disciplined their players had been so far. They thoroughly deserved to go through as group winners ahead of France who recorded a rather unconvincing (to me) 2-0 win over Togo. I hoped Spain will finish them off without mercy in their next match.
The no 19 Korean player Cho Jae-jin stood out for me. He won many headers and held up the ball well in my opinion. However like most Asian strikers he had little composure when presented with the chances. I realised that the Asian teams at this World Cup had difficulties scoring, especially against the European teams. They might have created good opportunities but there wasn't anyone to finish them off. This had proved costly as none of the 4 Asian teams qualified for the next round. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Japan all only had one point and 2 goals from 3 matches. Both Iranian goals came from defenders at set-pieces while the Japanese had a fluke goal against Australia and a well-taken one against Brazil. Saudis scored both of their goals against Tunisia which admittedly was not the strongest team.
Korea was obviously the pick of the bunch among the Asian teams. They managed a 2-1 win over the hapless Togo and even drew with the oh-so-mighty France. They had came back from a goal down in both games and there was genuine belief that they could complete another fight back against the Swiss. However it was not to be and they went home rueing the missed chance to promote Asian football. Most of the usual suspects got into the last 16 and the only surprises were Ghana, Ecuador and Australia. Ghana scored the biggest upset by eliminating the Czechs and hence earned the right to play the reigning champion Brazil. I will be cheering the underdogs on in the knock-out stages and hoping that they will provide an upset or two.
Liverpool
Meanwhile Liverpool has announced that Craig Bellamy will join us for 6 million pounds. I must admit that it is a good deal as it bring us a proven goalscorer in EPL at a reasonable fee but I am also apprenhensive about his off-the-field behaviour. He was involved in too many incidents to my liking and I'm afraid that he might affect our team spirit. However I got a much positive opinion after reading about his willingness of taking a pay cut to play for us. He was offered a new contract extension of 60k pounds a week at Blackburn but he chose to sign for us at 45k p/w. He was a fan since childhood and it was his dream to pull on the red shirt and play in front of the Kop. He couldn't refuse when we came along with the offer and even cut short his honeymoon to complete the deal.
Bellamy is a very competitive player on the pitch and also mentioned in his interview that he wanted to be remembered as a good Liverpool player and not merely as a Liverpool player. We need more winners like him and not whiners like Cisse. I appreciate his love for the club but he must show the goods on the pitch. He had performed well in smaller clubs but it doesn't guarantee success at a big club like Liverpool. Bigger names had came and flopped. Heskey, Diouf, Cisse and Morientes were just some of them who couldn't cut it here. Rafa will probably give him a season to prove himself and hopefully he will grab his chances. With a combination of talent, hard work, right attitude and of course luck, Bellamy will deliver. Hopefully he will not only be remembered as a good Liverpool player but be immortalized as an Anfield legend as well.
posted by shyh jie at 10:58 AM
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