The Devils (Re)Visited

Went to the Man Utd training session the Friday the 17th July. Was supposed to go to the actual match on Saturday, but had more important things to do (i.e. a photoshoot). Not much regret ‘cause the 2 players I really, REALLY wanted to see above all else was Carlos Tevez and of course, Christiano Ronaldo. Too bad, both are now gone to pastures anew. The new recruits for this year i.e. Valencia and Obertan ain’t nothing much to shout about, while Michael Owen, well, not much as a fan either since he’s an ex-Scouser haha. If only they came last year, while Ronaldo and Tevez were still in the team, it would have been perfect. Last year was also when they won the Premier League and the Champions League, so I’m sure the euphoria would be out of this world. Plus the cancellation of the Man Utd tour in 2007 due to the clash with the Asian Cup being held in KL, there goes the chance of seeing Ronaldo and Tevez running rings around Malaysian defenders in a red shirt of Man Utd (thank you very much Mr. Peter Velappan).

So far, I've seen Man Utd in 2001 during their last visit to KL (when Beckham and Co. was around); Chelsea, Newcastle, and Birmingham City during the 'Premier League Asia Thorphy' tournament in 2003 in Malaysia; Arsenal waaaaay back in 1999 (all hail Dennis Bergkamp); Real Madrid Vs. Valladolid in Madrid itself (during my UK years); and a few League Two matches (it was some match between Barnet, Northamption, Screwsbury and Hereford I think...can't remember which versus which already haha).

But the training session was still fun, and heck since it’s free, why the hell not….

So the only team I haven't seen on Malaysian shores is Liverpool...Somebody make them change their sponsors please??!!

A League of Their Own...

Did you watch the Champions League final between Manchester United Vs. Barcelona? So disappointing wasn’t it, Barcelona totally outclassed United. Not the ‘goal-feast’ that everyone had predicted, and I expected United to give these Spanish a fight. But it was all one-way traffic after Barcelona scored their 1st goal. At least United could have scored some goal, then losing would not have been so disappointing. Oh well. There’s always next season. But Barcelona already had a magical season, with already winning the Spanish League and Copa Del Rey, and considering how they won THAT match against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final, you just have to admire their persistence to win, and admit that the God’s are indeed shining their holy light on them this season. Well done Barcelona, try again next season United!!!

And speaking of the Champion’s League, here’s something that will give a whole new definition to the term ‘die-hard fan’. Read below, taken from Soccernet.com:

“A Manchester United fan in Nigeria killed four people when he drove his minibus into a crowd of Barcelona supporters after his team lost the Champions League final, police said on Thursday.

The crowd in the town of Ogbo were celebrating Barcelona's victory after Wednesday night's match when the bus drove into them. A police spokeswoman said 10 people were injured and the driver was arrested.

"The driver had passed the crowd then made a U-turn and ran into them," she said.

Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 in what was hailed as a "dream final" between two of Europe's best clubs. Both teams have large fan bases in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.”

To young MU fans, don’t do this at home!!!

A Rush to the Head: Winning a Man Utd Jersey

Weekend of 10th & 11th November

Shoulder to shoulder with a legend: Mr. Ian Rush.

Aaahhhhhhhh, what a weekend!!!! I think this weekend of one of my luckiest weekends this year. Why? ‘Cause I won a brand spankin’ new Man Utd jersey signed by the main man himself, Mr. Christiano Ronaldo!!!!! WOoOoO-HoOoOoO!!!!!! It came along with EPL shields on both sleeves, with Ronaldo’s name and number printed at the back, and with the signature crafted on the legendary number ‘7’. Check it out:

Tired but grateful for the jersey. Heck, the Nike tag is still on it!!!

I mean, WOW. Even without the signature, this jersey would have cost like what, RM300 plus with the printed number, name and shields? And with the signature on it, I guess to me, this jersey is absolutely priceless. EXCELLENTTTTTT!!!!!!

I didn’t even have to pay a penny ‘cause I got it from a lucky draw. See, if anyone had noticed recently, Mr. Ian Rush from the legends of Liverpool FC came down to Cheras last weekend to do some publicity thing for Y&Y group (which is currently handling the development of ‘1Shamelin’ shopping mall, an up-class shopping complex in the heart of Cheras). I was there to attend his media conference (basically I sneaked in hahaha. Here are the photos!!!). After the conference, Mr. Rush came out to greet the fans and signed autographs for the mass visitors that braved the rain. Yes, the rain. And the event was an open-air event which had limited cover. But a lil’ rain aint gonna stop me from seeing of one the most prolific and greatest strikers to grace the green grass of English football. And after a 30 minute aqua treatment for my hair and body, I finally got my signature from him. I even got him to sign my company name card just for fun. HA!!!! Check it out below:

Hhhmmmm, looks abit like Mr. Bean....

Mind you, I’m a Man Utd fan, but I’m open-minded about these things. Even if it’s Steven Gerrard or Didier Drogba coming down to KL, I’ll try to attend if I can. ‘Cause, you see, when will another opportunity pop up to see these guys in real life? Close to zilch. So, even if it’s an old hack like Ian Rush or a cocky German like Jens “I’m too good to be on the bench even I’m 37 years old” Lehmann, I’ll be there if time permits. Heck, I’m a football fan, not just a Man Utd fan, and it’s my duty to support these guys dammit!!!!

Anyway, putting my football emo aside for a minute, let me tell you how fortunate I was with the lucky draw. There were in fact other jerseys to be won such as Frank Lampard’s signed jersey, Michael Owen’s jersey and of course the C. Ronaldo jersey. Lampard’s & Owen’s was won through playing games, which I didn’t participate (‘cause, you know me, I malu lah). Ronaldo’s was won through a lucky draw, and out of a few hundred people there, I was the lucky one. VERY LUCKY ONE because to be eligible for the draw, a person needs to fill out this card and each person has unlimited entries. I saw kids and enthusiastic fans filling up card after card, so serious with sweat and discussion, I thought these guys were voting for the next President of the Inter-Galactic Universe. But I only filled up 2 cards. The first card was when I entered the event, and the second one, honestly I didn’t even bother to fill up until a sudden jolt in my consciousness that screamed: “FILL UP A SECOND CARD”. I duly obeyed the voice from my Lord of Screaming Consciousness and took a card from a lady, filled it up with an ink pen (which the name got blotched. That pen was all I got from my friend). Gave the card to an event girl that was on the way to submit the final entries, and 10 minutes later, Mr. Ian Rush took the liberty to conduct the lucky draw and BAAAAAAAAM!!!! There was total confusion. Total bedlam from the organizers because the card Mr. Rush took out had a blotched name on it. After a few tries with his Welsh tongue trying to guess the name on the card, he uttered a few words along the lines of ‘Raymond’ and instantly I knew it was me. I rushed up the stage like a striker sensing a goal, pounced on the opportunity to claim my prize and screamed that the name is indeed me, and scored when Mr. Ian Rush shook my hand with congratulations. The cameras went wild, the crowd clapped (although there was some boo-ing from some sections of the crowd. You know how they are), and I thanked my lucky stars for filling up that second card.

From the excitement, I forgot to give my camera to my friend for picture taking while I accepted the prize. So, no picture of me and Mr. Ian Rush with the Ronaldo jersey. DAMMIT!!! But there was an individual photo session later and I took a picture with him anyway, which was this blog’s top photo above.

After Mr. Rush left, there was more activities such as fire-eaters a.k.a. flame throwers a.k.a. breath so bad flame can spew out from his mouth, an exhibition of football wonder kids (10 year old kids doing perfectly timed step-overs and ball balancing skills. Amazing. What milk do their mama’s give them??!!!), a dancing performance and clowns. Well that’s all I saw because at around 10pm the rain started to fall again and I left the place feeling not just happy, but relieved.

I felt relieved because finally this year, something good and fortunate has happened to me. Let me tell you, throughout this year, some really bad and weird things occurred to me which I find not just annoying, but to the point of total ridicule. I mean, take for example in the month August. Within this one month, my PS2 stopped working for some weird reason; my hand phone short circuited from, according to the technician, “a mass intake of water into the phone board which resulted in circuitry malfunction”. I mean, WTF, since when I took my phone for a swim?? You think I miss my calls so much until I can’t let it go even when I was in the pool?? And last but not least, my car. My right-side door got slammed by a motorcyclist, my front bumper got knocked by another motorcyclist and my back bumper got hit my a guy in a car while I was paying toll. Paying toll for sweet sake, my car is not even moving and it got hit!!! AARRGGHHHH!!! Anyway, that’s another story. And all this incidents happened in the month of August. Just imagine. Sigh.

So, with this fortunate win, I felt like a big burden has been lifted from my shoulders and I felt that finally, the entire world is not against me. I guess Fortune & the Gods has not forgotten me yet…

Of Being an Official 'Red Devil'

Weekend of 27th & 28th October

What a weekend for football. In England, Arsenal was playing at Liverpool which Arsene Wenger’s men should have won hands down if not for 2 open goal misses. Over a relatively short distance away in Italy, AC Milan was having a go at Roma which the Roman’s won 1-0 even though they can afford to miss a penalty. In Spain, Sevilla entertained the bewildered players from Valencia, and the fate of Valencia’s manager hanged in the balance as only victory would guarantee Mr. Quique Sanchez Flores’ job for another week. Valencia duly lost 3-0, thus dramatically dropping the axe on Mr. Flores. And in Germany, Bayern Munich was at the throats of Dortmund’s industrious players, but the superstars of Munich can only muster a draw. But for me, the pinnacle of my weekend football euphoria was not at the plains of Spain or the sunny coasts of Italy. No, it was in Malaysia. No, it was not even close to any football field in Malaysia. It was in fact, closer than any distance measurable. It was close to my skin. So close in fact, it drapes around my upper body like a flag of pride, joy and glory. If you still have no idea what I'm talking about, i'm talking about the latest football jersey from one of the greatest club in the world: Manchester United. Yes, I bought United’s latest home jersey. What?! Have I gone bonkers spending close to RM 300 bucks on a shirt? No, in fact I haven’t gone bonkers or suffered a pang of Britain’s latest mad cow disease. Why I bought it is because a friend of mine is working at AIA in the Bukit Jalil offices, and AIA being the main sponsor of Man United, they can get the jerseys for a reduced price of RM 150, without buying any con-job insurance. Being relatively cheaper than the market price at the moment, and the jersey being flown direct from UK, I was assured a low price and guaranteed originality. Balancing the pros and cons, I took the offer and eventually the jersey feel onto my hands last Sunday. Thanks very much to L.E. for the offer and very special delivery (me and L.E. were suppose to meet up with friends and hand over the jersey to me, but apparently L.E. forgot to bring it and L.E. went all the way back home to get. God bless her. Amen). At long last, we shall behold below the images that is the pride and joy of my wardrobe:

Front View: The 'Red Devils' badge. I'm now an official Devil!

Back View: The white stripes of MUFC.

Withdrawn Frontal View: AIG = Alex Is God?

But the jersey would not be complete without the names and numbers of my favorite players, would it? I’ve thought long and hard about which player I should print on the back of the jersey. And in true honesty, I’m still thinking about it haha. Because I still can’t decide. Should I put Ryan Giggs, one of my all time favorite player and a legend at Mand Utd? But I already have his name printed on my old Man Utd jersey. So, should I put Christiano Ronaldo, one of the best tricksters and attacking player in the current squad? But his name is so common, anyone can catch his name from Petaling Street to Pavillion. What about Nani instead? He is labeled the upcoming Christiano Ronaldo. But, his future may yet be uncertain. But a tempting choice would be Carlos Tevez. Now, I like him as a player: he is fast, smart, skillful and is never dull to watch. In other words, Tevez is a world class player with world class footballing ethics (i.e. he doesn’t do diving). Tempting, tempting!!! And yet, there is still Rooney, Scholes, Hargreaves, Vidic & Anderson to ponder on. So much to ponder, and only 1 jersey to print on. Dammit!!! Anyway, i think, with 80 % probability, that the name I will print on my jersey would be....drum roll please....Carlos Alberto Tevez. Yes, he beats Giggs and Scholes to it as he holds a sentimental place in my heart, partly because whenever I play my Ps2 game 'Pro Evo Soccer' I just keep on scoring with him. And during his West Ham, Boca Junior and World Cup matches he never fails to excite my football tastebuds. He is a top player with flair, panache and goals as a player. Thus I think he is the right choice to grace the back of my Man Utd jersey. Agree or disagree? Thoughts and comments would help, guys and gals. Anyway, here's a snapshot of what Carlos Tevez and his number would look like if my intentions succeed: