BoA SONGS & MTVS

Teg! Shevy! Some good and quite updated BoA mp3s and mtvs online to hear and view.

The mtvs need long time to load so be patient. Some of her new songs are quite nice. I need to update now that I am so outdated. Enjoy!

BoA

010203040506

This is lame but well, what are the coincidences you get the numbers combinations above?

At exactly one hour, two minutes and three seconds after midnight on the fourth of May, the time and date will read 01.02:03 04.05.06. It's more than an interesting string of numbers, as this combination comes together only once every hundred years -- practically once in a lifetime.

The Star even does a countdown for you!

3 days 9 hours 10 minutes 10 seconds left until 01:02:03 on 04/05/06.

JOLLIBEE BRUNEI

OK, I have to admit, Jollibee is so much better than those overhyped McDonald's (which to me serve the smallest, crappiest and most lousiest fastfood in the world) and even KFC's chicken.



I saw white rice in the set and was really reluctant to order. Then, I remembered that Brunei's rice quality is damn good as I heard. I decided to give it a shot and man, after eating American imported rice, Japanese imported rice, Korean rice, I think Brunei rice is up there among them. They have the nice fragrance in them and really tasted great! I almost wanted to buy rice back!



They have these cheese fries which are so 100X more generous than all those stingy KFC cheese wedges. You have more cheese to enjoy than anything else. This one also tasted much better. The spaghetti was nice too. The chicken? Better than KFC and of course 100X of McD.



OK, I have to admit only the burger tasted lousy. Why? Not much ingredient inside, very simple. If not, perhaps it can be better.



Generally, I feel Jollibee tasted better because all the food feels more homecook. Things don't taste like commercially manufactured and standardized. Take the fries as an example. Even the rice is the good grade local rice and not those standardized cheap lousy rice you use to get in restaurants. Jollibee beats KFC and McDonald's anytime anywhere!

I was shopping at the shopping centre downstairs and found these two cans of A&W RootBeer and CreamSoda. I decided to give them a try since their cans look very cool. Loving it! I will post more about Brunei in the next post.

FOOTBALL: CHELSEA 3-0 MANCHESTER UNITED

Chelsea demolished Manchester United and become the Premier League champions! Congratulations to them! Wayne Rooney will be out for 6 weeks? Well, honestly, England will be very worried. They are ridiculously short of attacking options and have to rely on injured Owen and 18 matches per goal Crouch. They even give themselves so much hope to win in Germany under such circumstances? Hehe! Get real dude! The only players in the England team I do respect are Lampard, J.Cole, Terry, Gerrard and Carragher. To me, only these 5 are considered world class and the rest are unknowns.

Barcelona are almost there to also collect their back to back La Liga crown. Juventus will have to battle it out with Milan until the end as they dropped too many points.

I'M BACK PEOPLE!

I just woke up from a superpower sleep! I am damn refreshed now after sleeping merely 2-3 hours per day since last Friday. My zombie status has gone. Now, I am alive again and I will answer all the comments below!

I did watch the exciting Barcelona Vs. Milan match. Shevchenko and Milan were unlucky to bow out! Still, Ronaldinho is God of football now! Look at his skills? Which stupid club in the world don't want him apart from Real Madrid? Real Madrid are in total chaos now and how sad I am looking at it. I just look in awe of all of Ronaldinho tricks on the field. He is a superhuman! Arsenal better pray hard he is having the worst luck or sick or having stomachache or whatever sickness during the final in Paris. He is just too incredible to lose.

Yes, you can argue the situation to be the same as last season. Milan go into the final and meet underdog Liverpool. Everybody don't give a chance to Liverpool to win and see what happens. Let me tell you what my instincts are telling me right now why it is different with Barcelona and Arsenal.

1. Milan are reputed with historical records to always let oppositions score tremendous amount of goals even when they are leading by so many goals from the 1st leg.
2. Milan have a good side but nobody as legendary as Ronaldinho. If Messi is fit, you have another legend in the making to play.
3. Barcelona have a more younger side than Milan to confront the speedy young side of Arsenal.

If Barcelona stay healthy and injury free into the final, there are no reasons I can think of for Arsenal to win apart from extremely bad luck. Honestly, I salute Henry, Fabregas and Wenger for all their achievements so far. However, if they play like how they did in the 2nd leg, they will be murdered alive in Paris. I wish for a good match but sorry, honestly right now, I think you are just unlucky meeting a legend in the final. If you really can beat them, then I will be happy for you for the first ever Champions League win in your club history and make Manchester United envy like shit.

Wenger's optimism is making me laugh. He is probably that optimistic because he thought his Henry is as good as Ronaldinho. For me, Ronaldinho is one level higher than Henry. Just look at how he played, he seems to know 2-3 steps further than anybody on the field. You know, imagine you play with a very experienced chess master, you can easily see from his tactics, he already see 10 steps ahead of you. That's how I can describe Ronaldinho, that his mind is fast and extremely faster than anybody on the field. He thinks ahead of other players on the field, that's his greatest advantage. Add that to his superlegs, you have a complete football legend.

OKlah, I will start posting about my trip to Miri. Let me relax myself abit before I do it! hehe! I need to look at VRay 1.5 as well as waiting for Quest3D 3.5. Here is a rendering of VRay's latest capabilities! Kick ass renderer! Mind you this is fully rendered, no Photoshop and all those shits.





Both are rendered using VRay Sun and VRay Sky.

FOOTBALL: VILLARREAL 0-0 ARSENAL

No torpedos fired. Villarreal wasted so many chances. They are not worthy of the chance to go to the final. They are really lousy in front of goal. Riquelme looks unable to concentrate the whole night. His freekicks and even the penalty kick lacked any stings or killer instincts. They don't really seemed to be of any threat to Arsenal.

Arsenal just try protect their lead with lsome counter attacks once a while.

Before the half time starts, a fan ran in with a Barcelona jersey with Henry's name behind and gave it to him. Hehe! It is funny when you see Henry holding that jersey.

Well, continue my report now. Will print before noon to submit.

FOOTBALL: 2006 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMIS 2ND LEG

When I saw a football article with a headline titled Up Periscope!, you just won't believe the extent people go to describe the submarine. What? Submarine? Yeah, you hear me right. It is yellow in colour some more. I read so many articles already wondering why they are called the Yellow Submarines as they slowly, anonymously and secretly climbed to the pinnacle of the Europe's big stage, catching everyone unprepapared. The search has begun to find the linkage of submarines with Villarreal. How on earth such connections come about?

I have no idea, I am just abit insane right now with minimal sleep and writing rubbish posts here. Hahaha! Now I know the feeling of disillussion and hallucination and perhaps how hypnotism works. I'm sure I can be easily hypnotized in my current state now.

OK, let's get back to the ultra lame 'Up Periscope!' issue. I honestly don't see much of a threat Villarreal possessed to fight against the Gunners. I hate matches like that where it is so one-sided with one team attacking and the other defending even with 11 men on the field! As the Gunners fire their 'Arsenal', ok, I am being lame here, alright? Just get along with this lame article already! So, the Gunners are firing every single arsenal they have during the first leg while Villarreal still swim deep in the sea with their periscope down and all the torpedos highly secured, without the urge to aim and fire any at the Gunners' way.

Basically, Villarreal has to really forgo their precious torpedos if they really want to win this war. They must really learn to start attacking. Now, your periscope is up, you can aim and shoot! Haha!

Now, can somebody please solve this mystery once and for all?

Why are Villarreal nicknamed the Yellow Submarines? I need an answer! I have yellow submarines swinging around my head now like the Looney Toon style! Campbell will be back though and hopefully he will make a quick impact. He needs that seat on the plane to go to Germany during this summer!

Before I end this post, let's get abit serious.

FC Barcelona VS. AC Milan

Barcelona will be playing in Nou Camp and I don't see why they are the favourites to go through with the injuries sustained in the Milan camp and the superhuman Ronaldinho, the making of the next legend at the moment! Yes, be honoured to be able to live through the era of such a legend. It is like the honour to be able to watch Michael Jordan play basketball live and now, the superhuman LeBron James. He will always be in my mind the biggest transfer decision mistake that Real Madrid had done for the sake of some undeserving player called David Beckham. Time already proves it that Real were stupid to choose him over Beckham. Now, Ronaldinho is the richest player in the world and it is just the beginning for him! Now, Barcelona have the last laugh and winning titles little by little as time goes by.

Yellow Submarines VS. Red Gunners

Who will have the bigger canons? We can't wait! I will rush report while watching LIVE football!

HAVING A BED IS A LUXURY!

Yes, please be always appreciative and extremely happy as well as never take for granted for the comfort to be able to sleep on a really nice and comfy bed. I had not sleep on a bed since Friday and this is probably the longest record I never sleep on a bed for so many days apart from those Boys' Brigade camping days where I always sleep with Johnny side by side. No, we are not gay! We are just scared of the zombies wandering around haunting for young and virgin boys at that time. Haha!

Anyway, I have a report submission on 26th morning as well as a presentation on the 27th morning. That is the reason why I am sleeping on the chair in my office for so many days. In addition to that, I had a last minute request by my sister to design something on Saturday to be submitted to her late last night! What can be a more bad timing than this? Of course I told her my mind is half dead and my creative cells in my brain are no where to be found. I just help them do some layout design if you call that a design to look presentable for the competition. Hope it will not end up last place. Some cheap Photoshop editing with some KIASU VRay 3DS Max 8 rendering to make it look so oh-so-high-tech (at least for secondary school kids) but in the end, the intended rendering is for the background which is overloaded with other things I think you can barely see the background that is oh-so-high-tech!

Anyway, lemme get some fresh air, some decent rest before I go for the final push! I barely sleep for 3-4 hours for the last 3-4 days. I am like a zombie myself. Hmmm, well, last hurdle to go!

Ripley's Believe It Or Not! I was the internal bus from my hostel to my office just now and saw an ambulance parked at the very first row of the closest lane at the nearest junction to the university hospital. The distance is barely 500metres and it was knocked from behind by a black car. Hahaha! How super-ultra-mega-bizarre-massive-gigantic-extraordinary-SOI! Like totally dude! So damn unfortunate! I bet if there is a patient in the ambulance in need to get to the hospital right away, the people can still make it by carrying them on the stretcher and skateboarding their way to the hospital in time!

WooooooooHoooooooo! Tony Hawk style! Like totally dude! Awesome! (I miss my Tony Hawk combats with Johnny on the PS2! I love the Coffin Grind move dude!!!)

Back to work! Please don't mind my soundless/senseless mind. I am a zombie, remember? Oh, where was I? Oh yes, back to the title of this post, appreciate and treasure your comfortable beds.

Regards,
Badly-Need-A-Bed Human

Took me hours to post this with this notice coming up everytime I tried to post. This is the first time I see such a notice for using Blogger for this long.



P/S: This is probably the most insane, bandwidth & space-wasting post ever in DieHardX's Territory! Champions League semis 2nd leg football matches coming! The only way to be sane again!

FOOTBALL: TITANIC SEASON ENDING CLASHES

The season is fast approaching the end. All leagues are wrapping up very soon!

CHELSEA VS. LIVERPOOL

They are meeting at Old Trafford? Weird place to play each other. Hehe! Still, for Chelsea a win will be their potential second title this season and Liverpool have this last chance left to get something out of this season.

ARSENAL VS. TOTTENHAM

4th placing. It is important for Europe's sake. For all the money. Arsenal have an important clash for Champions League honour this coming week. How much will they bet on this match? Any injuries sustained is totally bad! Cole and Campbell should return anytime soon! That's some good news but since they are now on a good run, will it be good?

Tottenham have been impressive this season. I hope it will be an entertaining match. Arsenal just have to hope their good form in Europe will be working now! This is crucial for next season!

OK, I need to rush back for my submission and presentation for next week. Wish me luck people! I need all the things I can get! Hehe!

FOOCHOW DIALECT PING YING

My Fuzhou friend, Shuanglin sent me a link for the education of my mother tongue, Foochow. It is so funny because this is the first time I see Chinese characters with Foochow pronounciation! I had a great laugh when I tried to understand what they are speaking! It is good to finally hear a formal dialect education! Hehe!

FOOCHOW DIALECT EDUCATION

It is also interesting to see how real formal reading pronounciation hears like compare to our everyday speech version. Well, I recalled hearing grandma and grandpa reading in Foochow while reading the newspaper, hearing Foochow news in the radio and going for a church service conducted in Foochow.

Ak Moh Tiang Leh Ung!!!

Enjoy dudes!!! Have a nice weekend!!!

FOOTBALL: ARSENAL 1-0 VILLARREAL

Toure created history in Highbury to be the last player to score in the last European match played there. At least Arsenal won the last match 1-0. It was a fast and exciting match with most offense by Arsenal, having many chances to score. Villarreal with their 2nd choice defence and goalkeeper really struggled to maintain the scoreline low against them.

Arsenal were the better side, playing well collectively as a unit, even with old horses Ljungberg and Pires doing well the whole night through. Henry again was dangerous all the time and the only goal of the match was possible because of the smart move started by him passing into the penalty box to Hleb who finally passed in for Toure to score.

Arsenal escaped a penalty booking for the from behind tackling of Jose Mari by Gilberto in the box. I guess the referee missed it. Riquelme complained and got a yellow card. Villarreal escaped a red card booking for Sanjuan Quique Alvarez I think for holding on Henry when he attacked. There were a few offside goals scored by Arsenal which according to replays were correct. Pires came close a few times to score.

The game in the first half was more exciting while the second half was more defending for Villarreal and attacking for Arsenal. Villarreal had alot of players falling down and wasting time, frustrating Arsene Wenger as he definitely wanted more goals to be scored before the 2nd leg.

The interesting part was a squirrel interfering the match during the first half. It was busy running around in the pitch, eager to be part of the action. I was having this outrageous thought of what will happen when a cross came in, hit the squirrel and goes into the net? Well, the scoresheet will have an animal, which is the SQUIRREL scoring for the first time in history! Haha!

Looking at the overall performances of both clubs, it is clear that Arsenal were the better side of the night and deserved to go through for their workmanship and sportsmanship. They need to defend a draw or at least score a goal to make life very difficult for Villarreal in Spain. It should not be a problem for them. They have an added advantage too now that Tacchinardi will not play in the second leg for his card collection. Arsenal can go all the way and most probably meet Barcelona.

While let me get back to my work or sleep. You guys have a good week ahead!

DAMMIT, I MISS THE MATCH!

I missed the Manchester United VS. Arsenal match.
Then, I missed AC Milan VS. Inter Milan match.

What can be worse than all the above? Well...

I miss the Barcelona VS. AC Milan match for oversleeping after my tiring day from preparation of presentation and presentation itself! Crap! Why is my handphone alarm not working?!!!

How did it go? Good? My Singaporean friend told me it was just average. Back to rush for my submission and presentation next week. Hope I won't miss Arsenal-Villarreal early tomorrow morning!

Oklah, here are some photos of me in Miri.



At the hilltop looking down the city centre. I was at the Petroluem Museum. You can easily count the number of skyscrapers!



At the beach along the stretch of Marriott Hotel and Park City Everly Hotel.



The beach was fine. They have really good BBQ corn. First time I tasted such good corns compare to Sibu and Kota Kinabalu. They are also generous with the butter and they use high grade butter. You get to enjoy the natural sweetness of the corn.

FOOTBALL: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2006 SEMIS FIRST LEG

This is it, folks! The giant clash and the dark horses clash! I hope we will be entertained to the end with these two features.

AC Milan VS. Barcelona

Remember when they were in the group stages a few seasons back and you see how Ronaldinho and Kaka commanding attacks after attacks from both directions? The matches are so ferociously fast and exciting, there are no delays, no wasting time passes, no freekicks, no outsides, no offsides but just offense after offense. The matches were so thrilling I was literally at the edge of my seat, or was I standing all the time? It is these kind of matches that you won't want to take your eyes away from the screen even for a second.

Arsenal VS. Villarreal

Honestly, Arsenal have come this far and should fight till the end! They had impressed in the last two clashes with Real Madrid and Juventus and should not falter with this match-up. Arsenal will have ground advantage as well as the good timing with the injuries sustained by two first-choice central defenders of Rodriguez and Pena as well as first choice goalie Sebastian Viera getting a one-match ban. Forlan and Riquelme will be the players to watch for Arsenal. The ability to match Arsenal will probably lie mostly on the shoulders of Riquelme as players like him make a difference in such important matches. Henry is of course again the man for Arsenal to impact the match results.

In the end, will it become an AC Milan-Arsenal final or an AC Milan-Villarreal final or a Barcelona-Arsenal final or a Barcelona-Villarreal final?

Imagine this, if it is an Arsenal-Barcelona match for the final with Barcelona getting the victory, how much more will Thierry Henry be influenced to go to Barcelona? That is the worst come to worst scenario. It will be interesting if Arsenal win their first ever Champions League title and Barcelona will be speechless to approach or talk about Henry ever again! Haha!

Funny things happen in football I tell you. Sometimes, coincidences are so common you thought God is definitely not playing with dice! Hehe! Well, which final do you guys want to see? I would love a Barcelona-Arsenal final. A clash like that will be very psychological for Henry. It will be the best answer to him if he still cannot make a decision. Hopefully, the outcome of the clash will present him a clear direction in the future.

I'M BACK (FOR A WHILE)

I was in Miri last week for Lee Ling's birthday. Just came back last night! Was a great rest for me and therefore, I totally done too little of my work as planned. Sigh!

I have submission on the 25th April and a presentation on the 27th April so I will have little updates then apart from probably Champions League football, hehe!

I got a presentation tomorrow too. Therefore, I need some time off!

Will write abit about Miri when I am back after 27th April. Here are some things I found about Miri when I was there:

1. The weather is not as scorching hot as I thought it would be when I remember I was there when I was in my teens. I remember I was soaking in the hotel swimming pool and still sweating away! Probably because Sibu weather has gone hotter and I am used with super damn hot weather conditions like in Penang, Malacca and Kota Kinabalu. Sea breeze is definitely the main cause for all these coastal cities.

2. Miri food seems to be sweet generally. From fried kueh tiaw to their kampua, everything has a sweet taste - char siew sauce being the main cause.

3. Miri is dominated by Boulevard and all other shopping centres are almost half alive or totally dead. It is really very bad when you go into shopping centres and you only see like 10% of the shops there still operating.

4. Miri chicks are not bad, they are generally spending more time, money and effort on their wardrobe and makeup than Sibu chicks.

5. Miri only has 1 cinema left run by Star Cineplex, which is crappy! Ok, they have 4 cineplexes altogether. The Sibu version will have intervals where sound won't be heard from the speakers, the focus being totally lost on screen or sometimes you get a totally blank screen. Many times I find myself going out or somebody else to shout at the staffs to do something. Crappy! The Miri version has this constant problem of sound suddenly disappearing from your left or right speakers. No, it is not surround sound effect I tell you!

6. Miri city is actually not big. Probably the size of Siby city as well. Maybe just slightly more bigger.

7. Miri is populated more by the Hakkas so you can still swear in Foochow there to go unnoticed. Hehe!

8. Miri's two side to side resorts, Rihga Royal Hotel and Holiday Inn Hotel no longer existed and it is now Marriott and ParkCity Everly Hotel. I stayed in both the resorts when I was there during my teens and was surprised by the change! I dined at Marriott and it was not really as splendid as the one in Singapore. Rumours have it that the boss who owned both Rihga Royal Hotel and Holiday Inn Hotel was forced to sell them because of the debt of his son/s who bet too much in football matches!

9. Miri's food pricing is almost like in Kota Kinabalu. Kota Kinabalu has higher living standard because of tourism and Miri has oil.

10. Miri is very much a Taoist and Buddhist town. I went to a Methodist church service during Easter and they have like a congregation lower by around 150 people. They can easily identify newcomers for sure even how hard you tried to hide yourself! The evening service is even worse, like 50+ people looking at the bulletin report!

11. Miri has many parks which look nice and they have the 3 lanes roundabout. You always find traffic entangled on the 3 lanes, people wanting to go extreme left from extreme right lanes and vice versa. You can easily find many situations where accident is going to occur.

12. The city and housing estates are badly lit at night. It is all too damn dark with those ancient yellow lights.

13. They have a night market just like Sibu but only operating on weekends from Fri to Sun.

14. Miri has really huge mansions (especially on hill tops and sea sides) which have extremely rich owners with unlimited garden space. Still, when I see those huge mansions in Brunei, those in Miri are nothing. I saw one house in Brunei which has a main entrance gate with a road like the airport runway, lighted up just as long enough probably for the private jet to land. It is literally like a runway at night when the rows of lights are on! The garden is like 100 times bigger than my garden at home. They have this gigantic water fountain in front which is like those you get at giant city squares! Damn man! Talk about super luxury life!

We also drove to Brunei (which explains why I saw the gigantic mansion above). I will review the trip there too after the 27th. This is my second time there since when I was in my young teens. 10 years back? Man, the Jeludong Park is like a ghost town now! I recalled when I went there during my first time, it was fully packed and fully functional. Now? Most of them are dead and you need to pay! The good thing is probably you get to enjoy anything without needing to fight over long queues but the choices are extremely limited.

I just had my longest bumper car ride there. You hardly have crowd there so basically they let us drive through 3 full songs! Yeah man, you get to drive till you are sick of the bumper cars. Since there are like probably only 10 of us in the ring, the 3 staffs have to join in the action to give more bumping in the ring. Now, you understand bumper cars suck if there are not enough people in the ring. You hardly get bumped! Haha!

There is a time when we were at the road when the police came in their motorbikes and asking us to pull over for the Sultan's somebody in the fiery Lamborghini to drive through! Rich people have special treatment. Those lucky souls!

I just want to say that they have really damn nice rice! The rumours are true then that Brunei has good quality rice! Now, the last time I had great rice was the imported expensive American grown rice, the Japanese imported rice and the rice I had in South Korea. Reminds me of how awful our rice actually taste like.

OK now, you guys have a nice week ahead. I leave you with two steamy hot news from Japan.
Tomomi Kahala
Fertility Festival (check the video too!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY!

Many happy returns to a great year ahead dude!

Love, luck, health & wealth!

Everyone wants them always!

Have a nice one dude!

You are officially as old as I am! Haha!

FOOTBALL: MANCHESTER UNITED VS. ARSENAL

Well, what is left for this match to play for? For Manchester United, to maintain second placing and for Arsenal, to get fourth placing at least.

JUVENTUS VS. FIORENTINA

As for Juventus, they have only the Serie A title to focus and win. Fiorentina can spoil that party or at least delay it a little bit more.

Well, I am nearing submission so busy like crazy to chase the dateline. Minimal updates from now until end of April.

FOOTBALL: MILAN 3-1 LYON

I woke up half of 1st half. Nice flow, Milan seemed more dangerous in the first half. Lyon did not disappoint too. Both goals scored in the first half were from headers.

Lyon players were really good with possession. They try the best to keep the ball as long as possible. It helps to pressure the opposition. Their 1-2 passings are good. They cut through Milan attacks with great pace. Dida was not very stable in goal as Lyon gave Milan alot of set pieces attacking. Wiltord especially tried hard to win alot of balls for Lyon, playing at a more defensive position.

Milan attacked more effectively from the left with Serginho and Kaka doing all the runs. Still, Lyon were doing alot of good passes and held on. Seedorf had a good chance and wasted it with a good position and opening in front of goal. I can see that Lyon were playing very neat and clean football. Very disciplined indeed.

As it approached the 60th minutes and beyond, Milan started to get more possession and attacked more. Then, Lyon gave a few scares. Govou almost scored when he managed to squeeze in with just Dida in front of goal but unselfishly wanting to pass to Wiltord but was cut out. I thought he should have tried his luck eventhough he was not in a very good position and at a very tight angle to score. Juninho also did alot of damage with great ball dribblings in attack. Wiltord also helped to head the ball out of the goal line which almost destined to be a goal. He was really hardworking whole night long.

Coupet also impressed me whole night with all the jumps and great saves. He was the better man in front of the goal tonight. Kaka was extremely quiet for his standards. I guess I can summed up that Serginho was the most dangerous player for Milan in the second half. The tempo slowed down by the 80th minute as both sides looked tired.

Suddenly, a good cross came in and dropped in front of Shevchenko with good opening. He tried and shot the ball over Coupet but hit the post. It came back and Inzaghi managed to put it in. It looked like Kaka who scored it instead. It was abit too late for Lyon. A very dear defensive mistake in the 88th minute. Then, another good chance for Shevchenko taking advantage from a disastrous defensive error for a ridiculous back pass from a defender to score with a 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper.

I guess luck was on Milan's side in the end. To me, Lyon deserved to go through for all the hardwork and the football they played. The scoreline is not fair to Lyon at all. Oh well, football is like that sometimes.

FOOTBALL: G14 VS. FIFA

How many goals will be scored? Who will win?

Who is in the G14 or should I say G18?
AC Milan, Ajax, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Lyon, Manchester United, Marseille, Paris St-Germain, Porto, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Valencia (18 clubs?)

Who is in FIFA?
Fifa president Sepp Blatter

The scenario:
The brotherhood of the richest in Europe (which excludes Chelsea and AS Roma) is helping to fight a court case with Lyon against FIFA.

They claim Fifa's rules, which stipulate clubs must release players, violate European laws of competition. G14 director Thomas Kurth described the situation as "an abuse of a dominant position by a governing body."

The action was triggered by the injury sustained by Lyon's Eric Abidal, who broke his foot playing for France in an international friendly against Costa Rica in November.

Lyon released six players to France for that friendly. Their president, Jean-Michel Aulas, said: "On average, our players have been away on national team duty for 500 days per year.

Aulas is suing Fifa for 1 million euros (£675,000), with G14 offering its support and financial help with the legal fight.

Kurth said the right to compensation is a motivating factor behind the writ against Fifa that they have issued to the Lyon High Court.

G14 is also supporting Charleroi's legal fight for financial help after Abdelmajid Oulmers was hurt playing for Morocco.

Under Fifa regulations, it is mandatory for clubs to release players for international matches which appear on the Fifa calendar, including friendlies.

The crux of the matter is that clubs who, as the players' employers pay their not inconsiderable wages, fear losing their stars injuries sustained on international duty.

Earlier this season Arsenal's Gael Clichy fractured his foot playing for France while Barcelona's Mark van Bommel was injured playing for Holland, though neither club opted to seek compensation.

My opinion?

Both parties are in the wrong but I for one agrees FIFA's Sepp Blatter is the cause for all this shit. Everyone sees the G14 as evil devils for using the economic might to bully FIFA's authority as world football governing body. I for one felt that we are lucky we have rich clubs. If not, Blatter will turn into a Hitler.

Just look at the amount of rubbish international friendlies and worthless tournaments mushrooming out for the past few years. Who the heck invented all these rubbishes? For what? To gain some financial worth? To get publicity? The timing and schedule of those worthless and useless matches are always under question. Can't you play all those shits during off season? Can't you see how packed the season already is? What for having worthless friendlies when the country cannot put 100% effort for the players, the strength and soul to play? Why bother to organize such matches?

The club are paying for the players and releasing them for national duty as FIFA had ordered. If they are injured, can't the employees ask for some compensation? They play for the country for FREE! Loyalty? Get over with that. How many players you see nowadays are playing for adopted countries? All those national spirit is bull crap. It is all rubbish. If you argue to that extent, why don't you argue that every single club in a particular country must have at least 50% of its original nationality players? Arsenal is the best example of total non-English club, although you can argue about Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell but they have not been playing for ages. Spanish La Liga has this maximum 3 non-EU players policy but racism is so bad there.

The point is FIFA should get some insurance policy for players playing for countries. Look at other sports. How many stupid tournaments worldwide do they have? NBA never has this problem. It is the stupid system which is causing it. All those FIFA crap ideas to generate own income and popularity. This is Sepp Blatter's dictatorship control policy.

Let's face it. FIFA is making use of the fame and popularity of the players to generate income. Without them, the tickets won't sell and the matches will not give them a handsome profit. Don't be so stingy and share some burden!

FOOTBALL: 2006 EL CLASICO II

Barcelona VS. Real Madrid

The overhyped, overpromoted and overemphasized El Clasico twice a year is sometimes irritating me. The focus and publicity it garnered has always overshadow the football match itself. This time around, we have a situation where Barcelona can afford to play 50% of their strength to concentrate on the coming week's Champions League match. A defeat won't destroy their La Liga crown capture hope much. A win will definitely end much hope for Real Madrid with that giant gap with the season coming to a very fast end. Barcelona need the best squad preparations for the Champions League as their chances are not very good with a goalless draw from the first leg.

However, pride is much for Barcelona to defeat Madrid because of the significance of the El Clasico victory itself since the rivalry from the historical backgrounds of both clubs. For more in depth details, please read the article below.

Probably the only other match worth watching this weekend is the one below. While I am busy with exam and final project presentation next week on the same day! That is too heavy for me! I need to hit the books and swallow as many pages as I can so hopefully they are imprinted in my memory cells somehow (Doraemon style) before they are digested and released! Hehe!

Fiorentina VS. AS Roma

Before I go,

HAPPY APRIL'S FOOL!

I have a cousin who was born on April's Fool! Imagine all the fooling she will get during her birthday! Gee.....! Have a nice football weekend fellas!

As for the predictions, I am a Real Madrid fan, so I want them to win super big. Realistically, Real Madrid always disappoint in big matches these days. No player in the squad I can have faith in but Robinho and Cicinho. The rest? They are busy resting in their comfortable benches on the pitch and enjoying the good pay too.

Real Phil Ball's article titled Blame the Benches

Phil was accompanying the excellent Drew Carey, an American writer, actor and comedian who was in Spain to film the week's build-up to this week's clásico in Barcelona.

Here's the portion from his article:

Drew Carey sat back and stretched out his legs. 'Man, this is the life. This is so comfortable. I cannot believe this. This is Business Class!'

I sat back and dreamed I was the young Raúl, about to go out there and make my home debut, against Atlético Madrid. But I couldn't move, sunk down into the leather, awaiting the smiling hostess and the complimentary drinks.

Drew launched into a rant: 'This is why they've gone down the tubes. It's obvious. This would never happen in the States. Doesn't matter how much you're earning in baseball or American football, you sit your ass down on a hard wooden bench. It's kinda symbolic.'

The point was a good one, as was the further suggestion that if he were the club president, the first thing he would do would be to restore the wooden benches and bring back some sort of authenticity to the whole scene. It seemed a fair point. How anybody could prepare for a game in such a pampered environment seemed hard to fathom.

Here is the historical article.

(Article taken from http://www.goal.com)

El Clásico: A Historical Perspective

Barcelona and Real Madrid have their bitter hatred of each other rooted in history and politics, but these days keeping the rivalry well fuelled is more about financial gain and publicity.

The two sides go head-to-head on April 1st at Camp Nou in a duel that has little to do with the Catalan giants’ current domination in the league.

The pre-match rhetoric has already begun in Spain's four daily sports newspapers, two of which support the Madrilenians and two that support the Catalans.

This year the Madrid-based hacks will have their work cut out when trying to criticise Barça as Frank Rijkaard’s team are proving to be head and shoulders above their arch-rivals and have already won 3-0 in El Bernabéu in the first meeting between the two sides earlier this term.

The build-up, the hype and the propaganda are what make this one of the most attractive fixtures in world football, but how much of the traditional rivalry still remains?

Barcelona supporters have always believed that Real Madrid symbolised General Franco's regime that ruled Spain from 1939 until 1975.

The team in all white came to represent the dictator himself and Catalans used the team's visits to vent their resentment for the oppression of the province.

Madrilenians in turn saw the Blaugrana as the figurehead of a separatist movement that represented the exact opposite of their own ideals.

The Franco years are littered with accusations of match rigging, bribery, and extreme partisanship as trouble raged both on and off the field when the two teams met.

The winning side would always crow and taunt the defeated, while the losers would claim that the matches were already decided before kick off and that they never stood a chance.

One famous incident, that is still likely to open old wounds when mentioned, is the Alfredo Di Stefano transfer saga in the 1950s.

The passing of time has led both sides to accuse the other of underhand dealings, with the Catalans still claiming that Madrid used their political influence to stop the Argentine star lining up alongside their hero Ladislao Kubala.

But the facts shed a very different light on proceedings.

Di Stefano was playing in Colombia for Millonarios, where the supporters adored him, while River Plate still held his registration.

During a tour of Spain, he was spotted by Barcelona who immediately contacted River and the Buenos Aires side agreed that he could join the Catalans if Millonarios agreed.

But the Colombians were furious that River had agreed to the deal and said that he would never leave their club.

Their anger reached boiling point when Barça persuaded the player to abandon the club during a trip to Venezuela and he publicly vowed never to return to Colombia.While Millonarios refused to discuss any transfer under the circumstances and Barça refused to return him, Real Madrid made an approach and offered a large sum of money to both River and the Colombians for his services.

The ensuing dogfight finally saw the intervention of the Spanish FA who ruled that both clubs could share the player with Madrid having him for the 1953/54 and 1955/56 seasons and Barça for the 1954/55 and 1956/57 campaigns.

But the sudden resignation of Barcelona president Marti Carreto caused chaos at the club and the interim administration cancelled the deal as they sought a new leader and Di Stefano was left to sign for Real.

He went on to help Madrid lift the first five European Cups ever played and become one of the world’s most revered players, playing alongside the infamous Ferenc Puskas.

It was a highly embarrassing episode for Barça who allowed such a talented player to join their bitter rivals without any help or interference from the government of the time.

After the end of Franco’s reign such confrontations have been rare, but six seasons ago Luis Figo, despite being a hero to the Barça faithful, changed all that when he switched allegiance in a move that reflected the Di Stefano saga.

After becoming an idol at Camp Nou, Figo demanded that the club award him with a pay rise matching that of the best players in the world or he may have to move elsewhere.

Rumours abounded that he had signed a pre-contract with Madrid and that if Real’s presidential candidate Florentino Perez won control of the club he would move to the Spanish capital.

Barcelona played Figo’s bluff and refused to meet his terms and in June 2000 he confirmed the rumours by honouring his agreement with the newly installed Real supremo and signing for the European Cup holders.

The Catalans were outraged and showed their incredulity when he returned to Camp Nou in the white of Madrid in October of the same year.

The build-up to the game had an extra edge and the Catalan press took full advantage. branding him a Judas and encouraging the club’s supporters to give their former hero a ‘special’ welcome back.

Missiles reigned down from the stands every time he ventured close to the touchline, while the crescendo of noise and the banners that questioned his morality, parentage and greed made the game a ferocious encounter. Barcelona won 2-0.

But Barcelona need to hate Madrid and Real need to hate them back if the worldwide interest in the historic encounter is to be maintained and the money is to keep on rolling in.

The interest, revenue and publicity that each action and word that is aimed in the other’s direction creates a real air of excitement as two of the biggest clubs in world football slug it out for supremacy.

The game itself is watched by millions not just in Spain, but all over the world, and the interest is fuelled by the public slanging matches and the redrawing of battle lines before every meeting.

With Franco gone, Catalunya is enjoying greater autonomy than Northern Ireland, Scotland or Corsica while the government now has the kind of power and financial control that some European governments will never have, and the painful memories of the dictatorship are slowly healing.

There are those that want Catalonia to be a separate country and there are those that would like it to fall back under Spanish control, but with neither likely to happen in the foreseeable future, the rivalry between the two factions is now fought on other fronts.

The directors, the players, the press and, more specifically, the supporters of both clubs, who need each other as much as Spanish football needs them, fight the fight and keep the flame of hatred burning.

So the hype to this clash is already reaching a crescendo and when both sides enter the field it will be a battle to let the world know who is the best, as much as to settle some historical scores.

Lucas Brown