:come into Dr Love's little world:
Monday, October 27, 2008 || Chelsea 0 - Liverpool 1
New-Partnership of Carvalho-Terry
Well, they are not exactly "new"... But Carvalho only just came back from injury not to long ago, and haven't played with Terry consistently... There were times when they showed confusion on who is taking the balll... It didn't help that the usual tireless Essien is not ard to provide some cover for the back four... The more attacking-minded Mikel did help the cause as he is more interested in giving hard tackles than actually getting the ball and passing it to the teammates...
No Drogba
Didi Drogba is a constant thorn for many teams including Liverpool... For teams without a strong and tall defender, he is a nightmare... Carragher and Agger ain't the biggest of defenders and had had some problems with Drogba in previous seasons... Without him, Anelka is like a headless chicken running around naked... Anelka is a "get the ball and shoot" type of striker, what Arsene Wenger termed as "fox in the box". So pass around the penalty area and pass to him and he will deliver... However, the problem is, there is no second striker taking away the defenders from him to give him space to shoot... Everytime he got the ball, he only had a split second to turn and shoot, before a defender comes to him...
Mascherano nullfy Deco, Midfield giving little time/space
Everyone knows Deco is the creativity force in the chelsea team... He is one of the reason why Chelsea is playing more flowing football now compared to Jose M and Grant's time... He is like a master puppeter, controlling the elements on the field as instructed by Solari... Credit to Benitez that he recognise this and send Javier on a mission... Chelsea resulted in crosses and long balls, but with no one to aim for...Lampard was still making runs into the box, but if the balls are coming from the air, then he, along with Anelka, are both as useless as putting 20 cent into a 50-cent game machine, it doesn't work !!! The rest of the midfield of Gerrard, Alonso, Riera, Kuyt were giving the Chelsea midfield little space and time to execute the much need final pass to Lampard and Anelka... Due to these factors, Chelsea hardly threaten Pepe Reina's goal... On the other hand, Liverpool looked dangerous everytime they go forward, with good movements, quick passes and off the ball runs, Petr Cech was the busier of the two GKs. In fact, Alonso could have seal the game when his FK hits the post with Cech rooted to the ground...
Clever Tactics
For a long time, I have been complaining abt Benitez's tactics... But for the past few matches, I got to salute him... During the Wigan game, he took out both full backs and replace them with midfielders to beef up the attack to get the goals... During this game, when Solari took out Kalou and Malouda to replace with Di Santo, the Argentine striker, and Belleti, to change to a 4-4-2, Benitez brought on Babel to use his speed cause problems for the slow defence... knowing that Babel has the potential to sneak in behind the defence in times of counter-attack. Realising that Di Santo is pretty effective in the air, he brought on Hyypia to complement Agger's and Carragher's ability on the ground... And after that, it was a safe journey home...
Impactful Bench Players
Chelsea, with all their injury problems, did not have an impactful bench player at all. The players brought on, Belleti, Di Santo, and Sinclair, are all fringe players who hardly injects any impact into the team, no punch, no creativity, no speed. I always think when you choose your substitutes, they have to have these 3 factors.... On the other hand, Liverpool had a few options... Babel, the speedy forward and winger, Benayoun, the creativity spark, Lucas, the additional protection for the back four, with some attacking runs, and Pennant, the winger who gives width to the attack and stretches the defence further...
Credit to Liverpool team and Benitez... I hope this momentum goes on... If by Christmas, they are still in the Top 2-3 and less than 3 points away from tbe leaders, I think they got a good shot at the title...
Hisashi Mitsui |10/27/2008 01:59:00 AM
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(0) comments Childish Soccer Team
What happen was a simple mis-understanding... It was a long ball and my team striker was chasing it. Their GK was out to get it too, it seems like a 50-50 ball, so the striker attempted to get the ball, but the GK was there first. The GK was not happy with the attempt, and said something to my teammate, what happen after that, was one of their defender took a cheap push to my teammate, my other teammates were in the field, tried to get the affected parties away, but seems like all their players were in the mood to fight... One of my friend, who happened to be from Law School, while pushing away one of their players and telling him not to fight, got 3 cheap shots, one from the back, and another 2 after he fell to the ground... 2 other teammates also suffered a couple of cheap shots from the other members in their team, but were not serious. My lawyer fren, wasn't so lucky, as the hits were given when he was on the ground.
A check with the referee indicate nothing wrong with the attempt as it was 50-50. The striker did not even kick or hit the GK, just a bump of bodies, which is pretty common for soccer. My striker fren also did not make a fuss, or try to stir any hard feelings and walked away immediately... I guess this childish team are not happy with this type of action which is usually part and parcel of the game... On the other hand, when they made some dangerous tackles, they did not say sorry or whatsoever... In the first place, I really wonder why are the rest of the team members getting involved, what they should do is to cool the GK down, and instead, the entire childish team joined him...
Seriously, if you dun have sportsmanship to leave the matter to the ref for such decisions, and want to take things into your own hands, then you are not fitted to be a sportsman... Go be a loan shark or gangster instead...
Anyway, the ending pt is that my teammate called the police, to record the case and for the safety of everyone... My lawyer fren pressed charges, so I expect the offender to be charged and sentenced accordingly... Morale of the story, Don't mess with a lawyer !!! haha
Hisashi Mitsui |10/27/2008 01:36:00 AM
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Thursday, October 23, 2008 || 命中注定我愛你 元若藍&吳忠明-心願便利貼
Hisashi Mitsui |10/23/2008 12:01:00 PM
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Hisashi Mitsui |10/23/2008 11:54:00 AM
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(0) comments [KTV] 許茹芸 & 阿穆隆 - 男人女人
My latest song after my fren intro me in KTV
Hisashi Mitsui |10/23/2008 11:52:00 AM
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Monday, October 20, 2008 || Things to do to built a great team
Having been watching soccer for 20 years, seeing my beloved Reds fall from their grace and an win of the championship by Leeds Utd and Blackburn, and then the era of Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea... I have my own opinions of how to built a great team...
Strong Defence with a good Keeper
A solid Defensive Midfielder
When Makelele left Real Madrid for Chelsea, no one thought that would hurt Real so much that season. Without a good and tenacios DM, it is like leaving your brand clothes outside your house, waiting for a occasional thief to come and snatch ur prized possession from you. Man U had Roy Keane, Arsenal had Vieira, and together they almost dominated the 90s... the jose-led Chelsea had Essien and Makelele... many people seems to forget the importance of these lesser-paid players who do all the dirty work... A good DM calms the team down, charging at players when they get the ball, giving away an occasional foul when needed to stop counter-attacks, tackling a player down when the opposition has the momentum... these little things changes the form and complexion of games.... in the current structure, the type of DM is no longer someone who charges a player down, he needs to know how to pass, when to pass, to the correct player etc... players like Carrick and Fabregas are two good examples of attacking-minded, defensive midfielders...
A competent player-maker
Without this, a team is nothing as well. That is why Solari, being the great coach that he is, brought Deco from Barcelona... understanding that Lampard is more of an attacking midfielder than a player-maker... The Man U of old had players like Scholes, Giggs, and of coz, the famous Eric Cantona... The title winning Arsenal teams had players like Pires and Henry, who can unlock defences... This person is like the tactician on the field, giving instructions and orchestrating play... like a conductor of sorts...
Player(s) who only need one chance to punish you
A good example of this type of striker is Drogba... You can keep him silent for majority of the match... giving him little space, assigning two defenders to him each time he gets the ball... You can let him have zero shots on goal for 80 min of the game but all he needs is ONE chance, and he will punish you... Arsenal had Henry, Man U had D. Yorke and now Rooney and Ronaldo...
Looking back at the problems that Rafa had when he took over the Reds... he almost had zero out of these 4 items... maybe 1, which is Gerrard being the good DM... other than that, he has nothing... In Defence, was Carragher and Hyypia, who seems like a couple who always meet each other at the wrong time of their life, Hyypia is slowing down due to age, Carragher is just starting to be the dominant figure in defence, getting sufficient experience to do what he is good at at the right time too... Keeper was Dudek... Though he won us the Champions League, almost single-handedly, he could not have the consistency which great keepers from the old Arsenal and Man U have to help the Reds maintain a title challenge through a season.... There is no good player-maker as well... Gerrard is usually running around like a head-less chicken, not knowing when to shoot or when to pass... there is no one up front to punish opponents as well... My god, Rafa... True, there were quite a few misses in the transfer market... players like Pennant, Nunez, Komkcamp... but these few years saw him learn some lessons... He got Agger in to partner Carragher, allowing Jamie to be the leader while Agger learn the ropes, with Hyypia as the supervisor, and now with Skrtel, the defence looked solid. Reina has been wobbly for 2 season now, but he did maintain record number of clean sheets with the defence... Alonso/Mascherano and gerrard compliment each other well with one defending, one attacking... this allows Gerrard to play behind the striker and playmake from there... Torres taking the role of the type of player to punish you with one chance... Now with Keane, a player with a little of both play-making and punishing ability, it looks like Liverpool is ready to sustain a title challenge. But on the other hand, the other top 3 teams also have these 4 qualities. To me, this season will be the most interesting one yet... We shall see what happens next May...
Hisashi Mitsui |10/20/2008 07:33:00 PM
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Sunday, October 19, 2008 || How come Liverpool is playing so well?
Now to the question on why Liverpool is playing so well now? I believe it is largely down to Sammy Lee... Now the reason why I say that is becos of the same impotance which Carlos Q has on Man U. When he went to Real Madrid a couple of seasons ago, Man U suffered... Why? To me, Man U has a fantastic manager in Alex Fergie... But is he a master tactician? Many insiders in Manchester has often mentoned that Fergie often ask Carlos for his opinions for selection of tactics and starters, and during match changes... Turning the picture back to the Reds, Sammy Lee added what Rafa do not bring to the table... Rafa is a calm and collective manager, but how many times did he produce inspiring team talks? I am not sure, perhaps the CL final in 2005 was one... But sammy lee brings in something which Rafa couldn't... a piece of Reds tradition, and passion... Rafa has done well to bring in a host of boyhood Liverpool fans, great players like Torres, Gerrard and Carragher, lesser players like Pennant and Robbie Keane... However, these players seldoms need to have Pride and passion when wearing the Reds Jersey... And that is what Sammy Lee brings to the table... This allows Rafa to concentrate more on tactics, which he excels in... Sammy Lee's knowledge in English football and what brings success to the current Arsenal and Man U also improve Rafa as a manager... Paco as an assistant manager, is good, but he does not make up for Rafa's shortfall...
SO Sammy Lee, thank you. Go REDS... bring back the honour !!!!
Hisashi Mitsui |10/19/2008 12:15:00 AM
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Wednesday, October 08, 2008 || HK/Macau/Shenzhen trip
Another trip to HK... this time, 5 days, 4 nights... it was pretty well worth it... at least according to Gracie... We covered pretty much all the places we wanted.... found some really cheap places.... here is our itnerary...
Day 2 Our day 2 was different.... we took MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui and walked to Harbor city for a ferry to Macau... unlike my previous trip, i only managed to win abt 1.2k HKD this time round... in fact, I was losing money most of the time.... anyway, with the 3000+ i won the last trip, it was a lot of money for us to have a good spending trip... haha.... after we returned, we stayed in TST for shopping where Gracie bought some nice clothes at 99HKD each... though it is ard 20 SGD, she lived to regret the price... We returned to the hotel after the late night shopping...
Day 3 This is a more exciting day, with shenzhen shopping on the agenda... we took the free shuttle bus to mongkok (from the hotel at 30 min interval) and took the MTR to Lo Hu... if you are not prepared, you could be taken aback... the trip took abt 40 min, and 30+HKD on your octopus card... but it is well worth it.... with Remini now stronger than HKD, the shop owners are all quoting prices based on that... with my previous experience there, i told Gracie to quote prices ard 30% of the quoted prices, and slowly up-ping to 40%. 50% is a little over-kill... She was surprised that it works most of the time... you will be surprised how ridiculously low the prices here can get... in the end, we spend quite abit of money here... within 3 hrs of shoping... after that, we wanted to go to the outlet building to Kwun Tong... but to my surprise,, it is closed... they all moved... sad... totally.... no more cheap adidas and nike stuff... we went back to Mongkok and walked to another side of the Ladies market (across Argyle St)... a lot of pple stopped there, but if you walked 1 block across, you will find the reminding half of the ladies market, and guess what, they are relatively cheaper... best of all, is that they have more stalls on ladies clothings, similar to those at TST, but at much cheaper prices (now u noe why i said gracie regretted on the price she paid at TST...
Day 4 We wanted a relaxed last 2 days and tat is wat happened, we went to Huang Da Xian, to pray for family and career... and returned to Mongkok to shop at Argyle Centre... this is a funky place for females, and an almost must-go... the things here are trendy, and most importantly, cheap... however, it is terribly boring for me, as 95% of the shops here sell things for females.... and not surprisingly, we spent quite abit of time here... gracie felt tried, so we returned to the hotel to rest... she took a nap while i went to a huge DVD store at Mongkok to source for some older DVDs... and i managed to get Top Gun and Se7en... i wanted to get Blade I,2 and 3, but they seems a little too exp... after dinner, we went back to the stretch of ladies market from day 3 (the cheaper stretch) and finished what we din finished, coz when we were there on day 3, they were mostly going to close...
last day nothing much, it was hot in the day and we went back to argyle center... nothing much happened...
day 1
Reached HK abt 1730H.. by the time we got the baggage out of the belt, it was closer to 630pm. We din get any transport arranged for our hotel, so we went to check out the info counter at the airport... one thing efficient abt their airport is that they have a list of hotels in HK and the best few ways to get there, either by Airport express (MTR +Bus) or shuttle bus provided by hotels... We were staying at Metropark Kowloon, a 4-star hotel, and luckily, they have an alliance going for shuttle buses at 110 HKD per head. We chx the airport express price which goes for 90HKD, and we need to check to a bus after that... so the shuttle seems like a better option... While waiting for it, we also bought the octopus card... if you are going to HK on a free-and-easy mode, this is a must-have... at 150HKD (50 as deposit)... by the time we reached the hotel, it is abt 730pm... Gracie was hungry, so we walked to Ladies Market area, which is abt 5-7 min walk, with the Mongkok MTR additional 1-2 min. Nothing spectacular there, the usual bargain and bargain...
Hisashi Mitsui |10/08/2008 10:30:00 PM
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