Black Russian for the Oranje

Russia stomped into the semi final when they beat Holland 3-1 (aft, fulltime 1-1) this morning.

They look set to beat Holland when Roman Pavluchenko scored in the 56th min, but Nistelrooy delay their party and equalised in the 86th min with a diving header.

The Dutch looks tired and their defence couldn't keep in pace with the Russian's attack. Guus Hiddink's team up the tempo in the 2nd period of extra time. Man of the match, Andrei Arshavin (10) floated a cross over the top of Van der Sar and Dmitri Torbinsky (7) need no invitation and tap into the empty net.

Andrei Arshavin killed of any hope for a Holland come back when his shot went thru Van der Sar's leg.

Looks like Vodka or Black Russian are not Holland favourite's drink!!

Turkish Delight

Woke up at 4 plus to check on the match between Croatia and Turkey. On TV, surprised that Croatia was held at bay by the Turkish. With 5 minutes remaining to penalty shoot out, Croatia kept attacking. Croatia's Ivan Klasnic broke the dead lock on 119 min. Turkey hit by injuries and suspensions threw every trick they had and Semih Senturk's strike gave all Turkish fans something to cheer for. His strike was 120 + 2 min of added time.

Penalty shoot out time, Croatia to kick first. Tottenham's new signing Luka Modric put the ball wide. Turkish scored all 3 penalties and Recber Rustu, stand in keeper for suspended keeper Volkan Demirel, saved Mladen Petric's spot kick. Dark horse Croatia is out and a new dark horse was born.

Turkey will face Germany in the semi final next thursday, 26 June.

Netherlands vs Russia

Tonight we'll see Guus Hiddink's Russia taking on his birth country, Netherlands. With attacking talents on both sides, it will be tough for the defenders. The Oranje will be fresher since they kept most of the players in the last group game, while the Russia had a hard fought with the Swedish.

My pick, Marco van Basten's side to advance into the semis and Wesley Sneijder to be on the score sheet.

3-1 9.00

Portugal vs Germany

Well, if there's a bet on pick the last 8 on Euro08, I would have won. Looking back at my pick on 6th June, I got all my picks right!! 2 groups winner, Portugal (1.95) & Netherlands (3.20) right also.

Portugal will play against Germany, Croatia meeting Turkey, Holland host Russia and the Spainish will fight with the Italians in the Quarter-Final.

Portugal vs Germany

Luiz Felipe Scolari rested 8 players against Switzerland, will have them back after a week rest. Germany's defence will have to deal with the likes of Christino Ronaldo, Deco & co. German coach Joachim Loew will keep his fingers cross and hope that top scorer, Lukas Podolski will be fit in time to face Portugal. The Bayern Munich forward has a calf injury.

Pete: The battle will be in the midfield, Ballack, Schweinsteiger, Hitzlsperger vs Deco, Petit, Simao and Ronaldo. 2-1 to portugal. Longshot: 3-1

2008/2009 Fixtures out

Fixtures for new season are out, all clubs are gearing up for the new season. Defending Champion Manchester United kickoff their campaign at home to Newcastle. Chelsea new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, will get a taste of English league when they entertain Portsmouth. Liverpool will travel to Sunderland and Arsenal host newly promoted West Brom.

16 August
Arsenal v West Brom
Aston Villa v Man City
Bolton v Stoke
Chelsea v Portsmouth
Everton v Blackburn
Hull v Fulham
Man Utd v Newcastle
Middlesbrough v Tottenham
Sunderland v Liverpool
West Ham v Wigan

BPL updates

Cardiff City teenager Aaron Ramsey has completed his £5m move to Arsenal.

Champions League winners Manchester United and Premier League giants Everton were also in the hunt for the 17-year-old Welsh prodigy.

But Ramsey has signed a long-term deal at Arsenal after they flew him to Switzerland for face-to-face talks with boss Arsene Wenger at Euro 2008.

"He was a big factor in my decision to join Arsenal," said Ramsey. "I'm so happy to have signed for Arsenal."

Ramsey spoke to Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson on the telephone as initially Premier League champions United looked favourite to sign him.

Cardiff made no secret of the fact they wanted him to join United to take advantage of the loan-back agreement.

He also met Everton manager David Moyes before being flown out on a private jet to Basel last Saturday to meet with Wenger.

"Arsene talked to me for a long time about the club and the plans for the future, which really excites me," said Ramsey.

"Arsenal is a club which always gives young players an opportunity at the highest level of the game and I am going to work my hardest to be part of future successes here.


Liverpool will make an improved offer to sign Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry after having a second bid - believed to be £13m - turned down.

BBC Sport understands boss Rafael Benitez is poised to go back to Villa in a renewed attempt to bring the acrimonious saga to a conclusion.

The £18m-rated 27-year-old has told Villa he wants to sign for Liverpool.

Liverpool hope to sell Xabi Alonso to Juventus to help fund the deal, but have yet to receive a serious offer.

O'Neill has been critical of Liverpool's pursuit of Barry, who captained England for the first time and scored his first international goal during the recent friendly against Trinidad and Tobago.

Liverpool are keen to partner Barry in midfield with his England colleague Steven Gerrard and have declared their interest publicly, much to O'Neill's fury.


England midfielder David Bentley has told Blackburn he wants to leave Ewood Park for a new challenge.

"The situation is I want to move on. I want to be playing Champions League football, or in Europe.

"I've been here for three years and I love the club and I love playing for them but I feel I've done everything I can," the 23-year-old explained.

Bentley, who began his career at Arsenal, has been linked with possible moves to Liverpool or Manchester City.

City are now managed by former Rovers boss Mark Hughes, who has been promised substantial transfer funds by owner Thaksin Shinawatra with the aim of turning them into one of the Premier League's elite clubs.

Luiz Felipe Scolari says a new challenge and financial security were two reasons why he agreed to become the new manager of Chelsea on 1 July.

The current Portugal coach said: "Five and a half years is a record for me in a job. It's good to change."

The Brazilian conceded that there was some financial motivation behind his decision because the 59-year-old wants to retire before he is 70.

"Yes, that is one of the reasons," added Scolari.

"I spent 20 years as a club manager, so I think I know the ins and outs of club management.

"When I work with my players, I speak English, Portuguese, German, Italian because football is one language.

"I feel comfortable anywhere in the world as I'm someone who always has good relations with people around me."

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2010 Fifa World Cup Asian Zone Qualifier (3rd round)

Ok, here's the 1st post of Local football.

After so many rounds of talking about "LAST MATCH" @ the National Stadium (since 2005) and with no EPL on a saturday nite, a few of my colleagues n Bernard headed to Kallang for this match between Singapore (plus some foreign talents) vs Saudi Arabia.

Singapore started well and on the 3rd minute of play, they were presented with an golden opportunity. The Saudi defence couldn't clear the ball and 2 Singapore players, lurking near the last man were left facing the Saudi keeper. Khairul Amri clearly can pass to his teammate for a simple tap in, chose to shoot instead. His weak shot was palmed away by the Saudi keeper. Almost 22,500 fans (minus the Saudi fans & me) had already lifted their bums, hands in the air, shouting GOAL and they can't believe the Lions had missed. He was substituted at halftime.

Nothing much had change with the Lion's style of play, slow in attack, no support from the midfield (can see some players relax jogging to join the attack), players don't know how to run into space (to get the ball or to pull the defender with him to open up the defence for the attackers or midfielders), slow in counter attack when free kick is in our favour, must wait till Saudi ran back to defence then kick the ball... WTF.

Even this Saudi also commented that we Singapore should not concentrate so much on nationalized expired players.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=802013.html#saudi+arabia+march

Do the Lions have initiatives or Singapore coach Raddy Avramovic tactics wrong?? Instead of shouting instructions at the touch line, he spent more time warming the bench. Maybe he knows that his job is safe even if Singapore couldn't qualify.

Singapore no. 6, Precious Emuejeraye was our entertainer for the night, his big body frame and his style of running was just like Kung Fu Panda.. Remember when he was chasing a ball during the second half, section of the fans (I started) shouted "Run, Run, Run... The way he ran is so funny! He even use his bum to block the ball.

My Man of The Match was no. 1 Hassan Sunny. Saved few shots from the Saudi.

Weakest link was no. 16 Daniel Bennett.

Maybe I watched too much EPL, their standard and Local standard are miles apart.

Maybe we play in Malaysia Cup better, at least we shout BU-TOK or Referee Kayu, still got players understand what are we shouting for. No point we shout & shout to visiting teams and they don't even understand what's that!

Nice try Team Singapore, maybe try to qualify for AFC Asian Cup first.

P.S. is this really the LAST TIME National Stadium open its door?



East entrance


Saudi Fans


Match ticket. 4 numbers to buy.


My dinner.


Scoreboard

UEFA Euro2008

The long awaited European Championship is back. This year there's no 3 lions cos they were lousy!! Only interesting to watch is Group Of Death which is Group C. World Cup Champion, Italy, Holland, France and Romania were grouped together. Will we have another underdog as European Champion?? Stay tune!

Group A
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Portugal
Turkey

Group B
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Group C

Netherlands
Italy
Romania
France

Group D
Greece
Sweden
Spain
Russia

My Predictions for top 2 teams in each group to qualify for the quarter final.

Portugal 1.95
Turkey
Germany 1.45
Croatia
Netherlands 3.20
Italy
Russia 5.00
Spain

Top scorer
R. V. NISTELROOY 14.00

Championship Winner
HOLLAND 9.50

Players to watch

Luca Toni
Karim Benzema
Luka Modrić
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Kim Källström


My 1st eleven