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Goodbye Sir Alex

9 May 2013

Can’t believe I just got the news that Sir Alex has announced his retirement at the end of this season. It’s a shocking blow. I knew it was going to come sooner or later but didn’t think that this season would be his last.

There was news this morning that he might announce something about his retirement but nothing was confirmed. But half an hour ago, news started breaking out and a statement was released by Sir Alex himself saying that he will retire at the end of this season. Sources are saying David Moyes will be the new manager and I’m happy with that. He’s got good experience with English football, done well with Everton with limited resources. Everton has finished above Liverpool in the previous season and is poised to do the same this year.

With David Gill and Sir Alex leaving end of this season, United’s leadership will have a very different look soon. Hopefully whoever takes over the realms will continue Sir Alex’s work keeping United a world class team. Still can’t believe this happened. So surreal and it’s like getting punched in the chest. The last time I felt this way was when Steve Jobs passed away.

#ThankYouSirAlex

90s Aussie Heroes of the Singapore National Football Team

3 April 2013

As a kid growing up in the 90s with a feverish passion for football, the Singapore national team playing in the Malaysian League was the pride and joy of the nation. Even though we were playing as a country, we were allowed to “purchase” foreign players during our time in the league. We had a number of notable Aussies playing for us. Craig Foster and Warren Spink in 1991, Alistair Edwards in 1993 and Abbas Saad in 1991, 1993 and 1994.

We got kicked out of the Malaysian League in 1994 after winning the Malaysian League and Cup double and things in the national team were never quite the same again. Yes we’ve won the regional championships 4 times now but the crop we had in the early 90s were a special one. They were even dubbed the “Dream Team”, a status that many believed befitted the team at that time. The team even recorded a song in 1993 and I remembered vividly I bought the cassette tape for it.

Fast forward a decade later, I moved to Melbourne in 2005. I started supporting the local club Melbourne Victory in the A-League and have fallen in love with the passion of the fans in this country for the beautiful game.

It was also pretty awesome to be seeing Craig Foster on SBS presenting football related shows and brought back a heap of emotions I had as a kid when I watched him play for Singapore.

Abbas Saad was quite the cult figure in Singaporean football. You can mention his name in the country and everyone will remember his silky skills and how potent Singapore was as an attacking force with Fandi Ahmad, V.Sundramoorthy, Alistair Edwards and him in the same team. Abbas Saad’s most memorable performance would be his hattrick against Pahang in the 1994 Malaysian Cup final where we destroyed our opponents 4-0 to bring the Malaysia Cup back to Singapore after a 14 year wait. Unfortunately, Abbas Saad was convicted of intention to match fix in Singapore after the Malaysia Cup final and was banned in football related work in Singapore. The ban was only recently lifted in 2009 after 15 years.

Finally, it wasn’t until a couple of weeks back when Perth Glory decided to appoint Alistair Edwards as interim coach (now full time) that I realized he has been the assistant coach for the Joeys (Australian U20 team) all this while. Great to see him again and like Craig Foster and Abbas Saad, Alistair brought back heaps of memories during his time in Singapore. As it turns out, his team Perth Glory is playing against Melbourne Victory this Friday in the A-League Finals elimination game. On any other occasion, I would have been behind Alistair’s back but because they’re playing against my beloved Victory, I would have to be supporting Victory and hope they kick Perth Glory out of the finals.

No hard feelings Alistair.

I’m really fortunate to have grown up in the time where these Aussie footballers were marking their mark in Singaporean football and it was an absolutely joy to be able to see them play. The fact that I’m now living in Australia and am able to keep up with their work in football makes it even more amazing for me and my Melbourne residing, football crazy Singaporean friends.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank everyone of them for making football so special to me.

PS: I tweeted Alistair the Dream Team video and surprisingly got a reply from him on Twitter. You have no idea how happy that makes me.

Victory Wins Melbourne Derby. Singapore Wins Suzuki Cup.

24 December 2012

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Melbourne derby on Saturday between Melbourne Heart and Melbourne Victory and what a match it was.

Victory hasn’t done well in the derby in the last couple of occasions so it doesn’t sit well with both the supporters and players alike. It was absolutely paramount that we get a win, both for pride and to keep our position on the table to put pressure on Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United.

Something that I’ve noticed with Victory’s play was that we no longer rely heavily on long balls to our strikers. Ange came into the team this season after winning the Grand Final with Brisbane Roar last season with their slick passing game and it seems like he intended for Victory to play the same kind of football.

We played our usual passing game and Rojas and Archie were a constant menace with their running but struggled to find a break through in the first half. Heart was their usual lively self with Fred pulling the strings and they looked dangerous every time they came forward.

The second half came alive when Rojas scored a well worked goal from a deflected Milligan cross before Fred equalizing from a Marronne cross with just 8 minutes of the goal remaining.

The match looked like it was going to end in a draw until Archie Thompson popped up in stoppage time to get onto a Rojas pass to dink the ball over Clint Bolton to win the derby for Victory.

Absolutely amazing stuff. The Melbourne Victory supporters were going mad and the Heart supporters sitting around me were all dumbfounded.

This is why football is the most amazing sport to watch. The emotions you experience is almost like a roller coaster ride but when your team wins it, and in such an amazing fashion in stoppage time, it’s just indescribable.

Victory fans were singing for an least another half an hour after the game ended. Definitely the best fans in the league.

Coincidentally, on the same night, Singapore was playing Thailand in the 2nd leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup.

Singapore played and beat Thailand 3-1 in the first leg of the final at the Jalan Besar Stadium and went into the second leg in Thailand in confident mood.

The Thais came out all guns blazing in the second leg and was bombarding the Singaporean goal with attack after attack and managed to score a single goal to beat Singapore.

The result wasn’t enough to overturn the 3-1 deficit in the first leg and Singapore won the coveted South East Asian title for a record 4th time.

Champions of South East Asia again! Champione!

AFF Suzuki Cup Final 1st Leg Singapore vs Thailand

AFF Suzuki Cup Final 2nd Leg Thailand vs Singapore

Good Day To Be A Man United Fan

10 December 2012

I swear to God you can’t make up shit like this.

Robin van Persie has been in scintillating form since moving to United and having scored 10 goals this season, his 11th marked an injury time winner against cross town rivals Manchester City.

The win wasn’t without drama though.

Wayne Rooney put United two nil up by halftime before their defensive frailties was exposed again.

Yaya Toure and Zabaleta clawed City back with a goal each in the second half before van Persie scored an injury time free kick to win it for the red half of Manchester.

And as if that wasn’t good enough news for a Manchester United fan in Australia, there was more to come.

The club officially announced today that they will be playing a friendly in Sydney on 20th July 2013 at the ANZ Stadium against an A-League XI side chosen by A-League fans.

I was hoping they’ll make the trip across to Victoria to play a Melbourne team but it looks like that isn’t going to happen so road trip to Sydney it is then!

Tickets are available for Football Family members tomorrow at Ticketek.

And last but not least, Victoria Beckham was reportedly a favourite to be a new judge on Australia’s Got Talent. If she really does accept the gig, there would be a high possibility Becks would be following the missus to Australia.

Melbourne Heart seems really keen to sign the player even before he announced that he’ll be leaving LA Galaxy and with stars like del Piero, Heskey and Ono gracing the A-League this season, it would certainly help further boost the image of the league if Beckham joined a local team.

I last met him at Courts Bukit Timah in 2001 when the Manchester United squad came to Singapore for a friendly where Alex Ferguson famously played first team goalkeeper Fabian Barthez as a left winger.

Ahhh I love being a Manchester United fan. Pretty good day to be one innit?

Suzuki Cup 2012: Come On Singapore!

30 November 2012

I was surfing The World Game recently for Barclay Premier League highlights when I noticed that the AFF Suzuki Cup is currently being held in Malaysia/Thailand. Two group matches have already been played and I quickly scourged the web to find out how Singapore has been doing in the competition.

My last memories of this competition were probably in 2004 (when it was still called the Tiger Cup back then) when Singapore beat the unsporting Indonesian team in both legs of the final to be crowned ASEAN champions for the 2nd time in the competition’s history.

The sweetest moment would have been in 1998 when Singapore, perceived as the dark horse of the competition, pipped host nation Vietnam in the final with a single goal to clinch Singapore’s first ever international trophy.

I could still remember that goal that won us the title like it was yesterday. Sasi Kumar’s bundled the ball into the Vietnamese goal with his shoulder in the 60th minute to clinch it for us.

The feeling of being champions in the region for the first time was indescribable and the closest high that we’ve experienced since the becoming Malaysian League and Cup double winners in 1994.

Singapore went on to win the competition for the third time in 2007.

It’s a pity that I do not recognize most of the Singaporean players in this year’s compeition as I’ve been following the Socceroos (Australian national football team) and A-League since moving to Melbourne. I do hope that Singapore do well in the competition and especially against Malaysia and Indonesia (personal vendetta haha!).

Malaysia vs Singapore

Singapore’s first match in Group B was against our traditional rivals across the causeway, Malaysia. It must have been a really tough match to play against the host nation in one of their biggest stadiums in Bukit Jalil seeing that the crowd was going nuts back the home team.

The Malaysians look like they were technically superior on the ball against the Singaporeans but struggled to deal with the physical aspects of the game.

And it wasn’t long before one of Singapore’s trademark long balls unlocked the Malaysian defence for captain Shahril Ishak to score the first goal. Ishak added a second later on in the first half before Duric secured a convincing win for Singapore with a header in the second.

Pretty good start for Singapore I would say.

Indonesia v Singapore

Singapore’s second group match was against Indonesia and I REALLY hoped Singapore gave Indonesia a good old fashion beating.

The Singaporean efforts were undone midway through the second half when Irwan Shah was dismissed for a second yellow card. It was the catalyst needed for the Indonesians to push forward and scored with a deep free kick, similar to the one Ronaldinho scored against England in the World Cup in 2002.

Singapore pushed on in the dying minutes and Duric hit the crossbar with a header before Khairul Amri’s appeal for a penalty after he was upended in the box was ignored by the referee.

Disappointing result as a win would have secure us top spot in the group stage and a guaranteed spot in the next round with a game to spare.

Indonesia tops Group B with 4 points, Singapore and Malaysia are level on 3 points and Laos is at the bottom of the group with 1.

Next Match: Laos v Singapore

Singapore would need to win against Laos in their final group game to advance to the knock out stages and I’m sure we can do well against the minnows seeing that we once beat them 11-0(Alam Shah scoring a record 7 goals in that game) in the same competition 5 years ago.

Come on Singapore!

Barclays Premier League 2012/13 Game 6: Manchester United vs Tottenham Hot Spurs

4 October 2012

Manchester United looked like in buoyant mood when Spurs travelled to Old Trafford. United have won their last four league games after losing the opening match of the season to Everton and Sir Alex seemed like he has sent out a team with intent after a mid week win over Galatasaray in the Champions League.

United started with Lindegaard in goal, a sight that is familiar to United fans now in the league after De Gea has been relegated to Champions League and Capital One Cup outings.

Vidic is still out for United so Evans keeps his spot along side Ferdinand, Evra and Rafael in defence.

There was a surprise start in midfield for veteran Ryan Giggs on the left wing, with Nani moving to the right. Scholes partnered Carrick in midfield with Kagawa starting over Rooney to support van Persie in attack.

Spurs were not pushovers though, with new signings Dembele and Dempsey both playing giving them a huge physical presence over United in midfield. Spurs are most effective going down the wings with pacy players like Lennon, Bale and Walker looking to create problems for United’s fullbacks.

And indeed it was another new Spurs signing, Vertonghen, playing as a left back that started the ball rolling by scoring in the second minute. The Belgian international picked up the ball in his own half and want on a marauding run past Nani and Carrick before escaping the attention of Rafael and slotting the ball past Lindegaard.

Sir Alex must have hoped that United would come out of their slumber with a response but things got worse in the half hour mark.

Scholes lost the ball in the middle of the park to Dembele and the midfielder laid the ball off to Bale who out paced Ferdinand to run straight into the heart of the United defence and calmly placed the ball past Lindegaard with his right foot.

United struggled to create anymore chances in the first half and went into the half 2-0 down.

Sir Alex must have wished that he started Rooney instead because when the Englishman came on at half time replacing the ineffective Giggs, it sparked an amazing turn of events that almost went United’s way.

Six minutes into the second half, Rooney collected the ball on the right wing and sent a delicious cross for Nani to poke the ball home past Spurs keeper Friedel.

It seemed like an amazing come back was on the cards with that game in 2001 still seemingly so fresh in everyone’s mind.

But it all started to backfire for United when they started to pour players upfront to find the equalizer. A minute after Nani scored United’s first goal, Defoe broke free and fed Bale who fired a shot that was well saved by Lindegaard only for him to parry it into the path of an unmarked Clint Dempsey. The American international could not miss and put Spurs 3-1 up.

Spur’s third goal failed to knock the wind out of United and they capped off an amazing three minutes of football by scoring a minute after Dempsey’s goal. van Persie found Kagawa at the edge of Spurs box and the Japanese knocked home United’s second goal of the night.

United and especially Rooney weren’t going to give up without a fight though. The second half was almost played entirely in the Spur’s half and Rooney struck a freekick which came off the post. Soon after, Carrick put van Persie through only for him to scuff his shot with his favoured left foot.

Scholes managed a shot from the edge of the box which was well saved by Friedel and late on, Carrick had a looping header that came off the crossbar from a van Persie corner.

In the end, United couldn’t find the goals they need past the well marshalled Spurs defence and it marked a first win at Old Trafford for the North London team in 23 years.

Player Reviews

Ander Lindegaard
Rating: 6.5/10

Has seemingly made the Premier League games starting spot his over de Gea. Wasn’t really tested during the game besides picking the ball out of his net three times. Was on hand to block Bale’s shot in the second half but only manage to knock the ball down to Dempsey for Spur’s third goal. Defence really need to protect him better.

Rafael
Rating: 5/10

Had a torrid time marking Bale and Vertonghan and had trouble tracking back against Vertonghan for Spur’s first goal. He was out of position when Defoe broke free in the second half and Ferdinand had to cover him thus exposing space for Dempsey to capitalize.

Jonny Evans
Rating: 6/10

Continue to start alongside Ferdinand as Vidic is out for two months. Did well in most instances but could have done better covering his keeper for Spur’s first goal. Was tricked by a Defoe with a deceiving run to allow Bale to run free in United’s box. Needs to improve communication and play with Ferdinand to marshall the defence better.

Rio Ferdinand
Rating: 6/10

Was horribly exposed by Spur’s pacy players, especially Bale when he literally ran past Ferdinand to score. Had a decent second half but couldn’t be blamed for going out of position for Spur’s third goal. He is strong with reading the game but it’s useless when faster players like Lennon and Bale just skips past him with ease.

Patrice Evra
Rating: 6.5/10

Had a decent game and even though Lennnon is very quick winger and probably hard to mark, Evra kept him in bay and made sure that most of the danger came from Spur’s left side of the field.

Nani
Rating: 6.5/10

Played a much better game compared to his disastrous performance against Liverpool the previous week. Polished up on his crossing and even though still had a tendency to take on defenders instead of making a pass, his decisions in this game are a huge improvement. Managed to score a goal in the second and this should do his confidence no harm.

Paul Scholes
Rating: 7.5/10

Was largely disappointingly in the first half with physical players like Dembele and Dempsey running the show for Spurs. Had a better second half dictating the play in midfield, spraying the passes with laser like accuracy and even managed a classic half volley shot on goal which was well blocked by Friedel. Have no idea how we’re going to replace Scholes.

Michael Carrick
Rating: 7/10

Was largely anonymous like Scholes in the first half and picked up his game in the second half. Was unlucky to have a corner came off the crossbar late in the game.

Shinji Kagawa
Rating: 6/10

Another quiet game for the Japanese. Played most of the match with his back to goal and play simple effective passes. When he did try to make runs with the ball, he was easily bundled over by the bigger and stronger opponents. Did well to score a goal though but it seems Kagawa needs to find a more effective way around stronger opponents.

Ryan Giggs
Rating: 5.5/10

Simply doesn’t have the pace to play along the left wing anymore and was ineffective through the first half. Kyle Walker had an easy job keeping Giggs quiet in the first half and it seems that the Welshman would be much more effective in the middle of the park for United.

Robin van Persie
Rating: 6/10

Was isolated in the first half of the game and couldn’t really do much and had to drop deep to get the ball. Had a couple of chances in the second half after Rooney came on but had one effort ruled out for offside and he missed horribly when put through by Carrick.

Wayne Rooney for Ryan Giggs
Danny Welbeck for Shinji Kagawa
Javier Hernandez for Rio Ferdinand

Barclays Premier League 2012/13 Game 5: Liverpool vs Manchester United

24 September 2012

Manchester United travelled to Anfield for Liverpool’s first home game since the release of a report by the Hillsborough Independent Panel exonerating their fans from blame for the 1989 tragedy.

The spotlight wasn’t just on the occasion though as all eyes were on Evra and Suarez. The latter was charged with racially abusing the Frenchman and Suarez incurred the wrath of Evra when Suarez refused to shake his hand the last time the two teams met.

Millions were wondering if they would proceed with their pre-game handshake without the fiasco that ensued but it seems like both players realized that the occasion was bigger than their history and the handshake went about without shenanigans.

Lindegaard was preferred over de Gea after the Spaniard played in the mid week Champions League game. Another notable absentee was United’s captin Vidic who was out with an injury and Evans was drafted in to partner Ferdinand in defence. Giggs started with Carrick in midfield, Nani and Valencia roamed the flanks and Kagawa supported van Persie in attack.

Liverpool came out all guns blazing and was dominant throughout the entire first half. Manchester United had no reply to Liverpool’s slick passing and Valencia and Nani were on the back foot for most of the first half having to help out in defence.

Suarez was particularly lively, bringing the ball into the box on several occasions and threatening to score but Ferdinand and Evans did an amazing job pinning Liverpool back and making sure Lindegaard was well protected.

Both Borini and Gerrard came close to scoring and United’s only chance in the first half was a weak shot by Giggs that flashed wide of the Liverpool goal.

Shelvey was given his marching orders when he went in on a crunching tackle on Evans. Several onlookers have suggested that Evans should have been given a red as well as he went in on the ball against Shelvey with a two footed lunge but escaped punishment because he went down wringing in pain.

Even with ten men, Liverpool were still playing the better football and right after the restart, Gerrard pounced on some weak United defending to volley past Lindegaard to give Liverpool the lead.

Scholes came on for Nani at half time and even though Liverpool got the lead so early on in the second half, Scholes’ presence in the United midfield seemed to instil some confidence into the visitor’s midfield with some assured possession.

Five minutes after conceding the goal, United’s Kagawa laid off a ball to Rafael for the right back to curl a delightful left foot shoot past Reina into the Liverpool’s goal off the post.

Liverpool continued to press for the winning goal but with one man down, it meant that they left holes in the back and Valencia capitalized in the 81st minute to surge into the Liverpool box before being brought down by Glen Johnsen.

Robin van Persie stepped up to dispatch United’s penalty and put United in front with 10 minutes of the game remaining.

Liverpool did not give up and United had Lindegaard to thank making crucial saves against Suarez and Suso to make sure that United left Anfield with 3 points.

Player Reviews

Ander Lindegaard
Rating: 7.5/10

Did himself no harm by putting in a good performance for United and justified Sir Alex’s decision in playing him. Made some crucial saves against Suarez and Suso and was definitely a more composed figure in goal compared to de Gea.

Rafael
Rating: 6/10

Had a torrid time defending against Glen Johnsen and Borini and Valencia was pegged back alot in the game to help out defensively. Was eventually taken off and Valencia was pushed into the right back position. Personally I think we need Smalling to be back to provide more options in the right back position.

Jonny Evans
Rating: 6.5/10

Evans had a good game replacing caption Vidic and was involved in a tackle with Jonjo Shelvey that resulted in the Liverpool midfielder getting a red card. He was assured in his partnership with Ferdinand and was an apt replacement for Vidic.

Rio Ferdinand
Rating: 7.5/10

Was outstanding against Suarez and his quick feet and used his experience to keep the Uruguayan at bay. Both Evans and Ferdinand could probably have done a better job when Liverpool scored but it was the only blob in a good performance.