Tell you about it some time.

And so, i am back.
After a whirlwind of activities.

After econs s yesterday, i went to bishan to settle some insurance stuff, den went to join s23 for dinner. after that tim drove us to east coast park. by the time we reached there, it was like 10plus already. nic, jill, debbie, hang and i stayed over. we talked and played card games. perhaps the most significant idea of the day was the concept of conscious thought and unconscious thought. it seems as though man's unconscious thought is accurate, while conscious thought, by creeping in, clouds one's judgement and undermines the usefulness of unconscious thought. nevertheless it was certainly an unlikely mix of people who stayed over. who would have thought, a mere year ago, that the five of us would be together at the beach?? where would we be in a year's time?

so i reached home at 8 in the morning, after which i watched the epidsode of Last Christmas, which i taped last night. Aoi finally told Higaki of her feelings towards him. But most memorable and thought provoking, was Higaki's words to Aoi(before Aoi's bombshell declaration). He said that he would let go of Ritsuko(the one he loves all this while). Perhaps he would even consider dating Aoi, after all, there would be no pressure at all, two people who have lost faith in love. Moreover, as he claimed, the outcome would be known, it was impossible between them, hence there was really absolutely no pressure at all. Certainly, he was able to behave more freely around Aoi.

And i was thinking, how true.

But there was another twist. Ritsuko actually likes Higaki. In her exhibition, there was this work of a man's backview, which was undoubtedly Higaki's. Aoi told her: You should look at him straight in the face". That was when Aoi gave up too, i guess. And Ritsuko and Higaki did got together.

Maybe you would tell me how you feel.

And i lounged around online a while, before going back to town(less than 24 hours since i left it the previous night), met matt and ps to look ard for clothes. den went to join cf and ed for sushi. our form left us. and my weariness caught up with me. but i got quite pissed towards the end, due to some unwelcoming news on my hp. nevertheless, i am back home now, and have sorted them out. hopefully, there is nothing wrong anymore. spare me the trouble.

And Orange Range's Hana is absolutely nice.

naze boku ha koko ni irun darou
naze kimi ha koko ni irun darou
naze kimi ni deaetan darou
kimi ni deaeta koto sore ha unmei

why am I here?
why are you here?
why could I find you?
it was fate, that I meet you.

[my favourite verse from the song]

oh yes, and aya ueto's ai no tameni pv is damn nice, and the song is very nice too. aya is so stylish! "tada ai no tameni!" (it's just for the sake of love). aya always seems to be with a live band in her PVs.

anyway i bought densha otaku! shall start watching tonight!

why do i like Aya Ueto? actually i don't really know. she isn't a fantastic singer; her songs are nice but not exactly top 10 material for me( top 10 would be songs like Missing You, Goodbye, Tentai Kansoku, Hana etc). I only watched one of her drama-Ace o Nerae. while i liked her acting in that drama, you cant say i am a fan of her acting, cos i nv see enough to judge. She just has this style about her.

they say you smile a lot.
i don't even realise that.
so why do i like you?
i will think about it, and
Tell you about it some time.

but i do know
i prefer to let you talk
when i am with you.
Somehow.

Pick the Joker!

my parents are watching tong xin yuan...OH MY GOD!!!!
i am thankful for Last Christmas..at least mon and tue will be watching that during the slot. or i will die...tong xin yuan is like ultra lousy, and i really mean it. i think its a dumb show and quite disgusting and unbearable to watch at times. i wonder if these are considered inflammatory remarks..but HEY its the truth, at least in my humble opinion...i tink local dramas are still quite sucky.

and i woke up this morn to watch man utd v villareal, but switched it off after 20 minutes. Villareal without Riquelme is really just an ordinary team. i din know how they survived, but i thot they would get thrashed, based on that first 20 minutes. Nothing, that was what Villareal were. And i couldn't imagine them waking up to play good football either; such was their lousiness that you din really have any hope of them doing something. As it is, Riquelme is really invaluable to the Yellow Submarines...Anyway the reason why i wanted to watch the game was cos of him. I woke up, went soccernet, to find that he's out for the game. But i decided to give Villareal a chance. oh well.

So i slept like a total of 5 hours. 2 before the game and 3 after the game. Couldnt really sleep; took a long time to fall asleep, hence the short periods. And soccer after that.

Maybe goals and brilliance are substitutes. when you keep scoring, you dun show those moments of magic; when you dun score, you show these brillliant touches. Saturday got the goals, but not really magical, Sunday was magical but no goals, today got the goals, but no magic. magic these days no longer refer to perfect crosses but that kind of snap decisions which really unlock the defence.

According to Aoi in Last Christmas, there is always soemone who picks the joker(as in the poker card). Meaning bad things will jsut befall him. Like being very tired and finding a seat on the train only for a needy old lady to hobble along and having to give it up; falling sick and couldnt remember her last eg, either getting stuck in the rain or getting stuck indoors. one thing abt jap dramas is the characterisation. its deep. theres a past. theres a reason why. and they have these insights which really make you think. jap dramas make you think. or give u the room to think, to reflect. that is the kind of standard.

i am beginning to like Last Christmas more and more. its funny, interesting and nice to watch.

So, A's are almost over. Left wif phy s and econs s.

i just finished Ace O Nerae, the tennis jdrama wif Aya Ueto.

i quite liked it, partly due to Aya, partly due to the way it is. i know jfan drama says u either love it or hate it, cos its manga roots( it was based on a manga) no doubt helped made it abit exaggerated and overdramatised in terms of the tennis plays and the characters..well u noe wad comics are like. and not everyone can stand it.

in any case, i can. i quite liked the thoughts of teh characters, when they play, like sort of communicating via telepathy. reminded me of wild striker, an anime. i still cant say wad i like abt the drama. i dun like toudou, the lead character. tink he look too sissy for aya. but maybe, some parts of it, i can identify with.

and i was watching last christmas on channel u just now. quite nice, quite entertaining in its own way. i think i will keep watching. and it gives u the christmas feeling, which i am quite a sucker for. and somehow the christmas stuff are out alr, even as early as deepavali. funny. but ja, last christmas is interesting.

and i am wondering if my leg will rot. just realised its actually quite bad. hope it din get infected, cos i onli treated it like on sun morn. got it on sat nite. den sun morn played soccer again. there wasnt any blood on sat, so i continued playing. den realised on sun morn it was quite bad. hope the searing pain stops by wed, cos tts the next soccer

The Myth of Perfection

"Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didn't let them down. I want you to put each other in your hearts forever, because forever is about to happen. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, with love and joy in your heart? If you can, you're perfect." - Gary Gaines

Thierry Henry is majestic. There is no denying that. I was watching the highlights of last week's epl matches. The way he skip past a player, i do mean skip past, cos the defender flew in at him, was graceful, elegant. Whenever Henry gets the ball, you have this sense of anticipation. Henry in full flight is amazing. Grace, elegance, majesty. Thierry Henry.

And yes, i am ashamed and humbled that i even dared to doubt him.

on another note, van persie has been brilliant. the touches, the flicks, the goals. not that the otehr players don't do it, but he is starting to look more and more like Dennis Bergkamp. which is heartening.

and sunderland ought to learn: you can't defend like that against such a fast and skilful team. They tried to defend flatly high up, but you absolutely can't do that against Arsenal. Just a flick and someone is through. like van persie flicking the ball through to lauren who squared the ball for henry to slide in. Breathtaking, i must say. the sheer pace of it. that team goal. Henry is getting back to his best, van Persie is putting in a serious case for a place in Holland's starting lineup, Campbell and Toure back in defence, Arsenal is back.

There's something about Arsenal that makes them the most watchable team in the EPL. Yes, they play long balls here and there, but the flicks, one-touch passes, quick movement really make them a joy to watch. every team will play long balls now and then, but arsenal is not defined by it, unlike chelsea and other defensive minded teams. Wenger seeks to entertain. i love his attitude.

Soccernet published an article, contending that Betis and Man Utd may have exposed Chelsea's chinks in the armour. Well, haven't they been obvious all this while? It's just that maybe Man Utd exploited them, to a certain degree. I din see what Betis did, so i cant say. but man utd's goal exposed chelsea's overshifting defensive behaviour. imagine, their greatest asset is their defence which has such a characteristic that can be potentially fatally fallacious. and in that article, they say chelsea's first aim, like any other defensive-minded team, is not to concede, unlike the attacking mnded teams like arsenal and barcelona. How true.

and with King Henry, Prince Robin and Jose the Gypsy King, with Dennis the God intervening now and then with his heavenly brilliance, don't write us off just yet.

Football and Exams

Football has a lot in common with exams.

Take essays for example. For GP, you only need to do one question well, out of 12 questions. Is it not the same with football? One shot is all you need to score a goal and win the game.

Another example would be spotting questions and having favoured topics. We work more on that and hope to do it during the exams. Most teams have a preferred stylef of play, just as most players have a preferred style of play, a repertoire of tricks. And the similarity goes deeper. During exams, we may be forced to do something we prefer not to. In other words, change the game plan. Now, that sounded like it came out of something football-related.

Sometimes, we have done all that we can. Whether or not it is enough is another story. Even if you get 70, you might not get an A, cos the marks may get hyperinflated. It should have been good enough, but it wasnt. Same in soccer, a team with 80 points may not win the title if another team has 81.

And at the end of the day, the little marks here and there count. Whatever marks we lost due to carelessness, or whatever working marks we gain all return to haunt or bless us. Someone once said: the most important points are not those from the games against the big teams, but those against the small teams. There you have it.

That day we were looking at the odds. Someone said football is rigged by the european gangs, like the mafia etc. they will throw away games for money, after all, the season is long and they can afford to do it for a few games.

I got very angry. Hey, if you are a Catholic and someone insult the Pope's integrity, what would you do? Football is my religion. I guess you see where i am coming from.

Regarding comparisons with the Pope, i remembered how a book about the feelings of the Ajacied as to Johann Cryuff playing for Feyenoord. Like the Pope becoming Protestant. How apt.

You must realise that Ajacied refers to Feyenoord as the F-word.

But Arsenal must have no complaints about Feyenoord. Look at what Robin van Persie is doing for us. I am glad he came to us. And Wenger is interested in Ghaly, as a replacement for Vieira. Who in the world is Hossam Ghaly? I hope he is something, and he comes to us if he is something. Trust Wenger.

Ajax

I am relieved to hear that Sarpong, Goosens and Yildirim have signed professional contracts with Ajax. This is especially so when Chelsea are interested in Sarpong and Goosens. No way, i tell you, no way we will let our best youngsters go to that wretched club.

I hope the trio would be ready next season. Our good youngsters seem to graduate from Young Ajax in threes. This season, we had Urby Emanuelson, Hedwiges Maduros and Ryan Babel joining the First Team.

I was looking through the squad list and chanced upon Mitea's and Obodai's name. Wondering what they are doing now. They played quite a bit last season. Was hoping for more, after all, they were quite promising. Hopefully, their absence is due to injury or something.

But Pienaar has been playing well. These few games. It is heartening. Despite knowing that he might not be around at the end of this season.

I wonder if 8months have passed. When will Lahm(Bayern) and Maxwell return to action? I hope Maxwell can recover his form quickly. i am hoping he will not leave. That is likely, after all, i guess clubs have forgotten about him, such is the length of his layoff. So i hope that he will be given time to recover his form. After all, 8 months is a long time.

I have been thinking, what it could have been if the team stayed together throughout. Some players would not have had the chance to show what they can do. But you still wonder what it could have been, if your best players then combine with the best now.

The Dream Team of the New Ajax (2001-2005)
--------------------------Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Steven Pienaar ------------------------------------------Ryan Babel
-------Rafael van der Vaart Tomas Galasek(C) Wesley Sneijder
---Maxwell --------------------------------------Hatem Trabelsi
--------------------Christian Chivu--- Johnny Heitinga
---------------------------Maarten Steckelenburg
Bench: Bogdan Lobont, Nigel de Jong, Urby Emanuelson, Hedwiges Maduro, Zdenek Grygera, John O'Brien, Yakubu Abubakari, Mido

John O'brien left without a word. After close to ten years at Ajax, he left for Den Haag. The past 2 seasons were spent on the treatment table. Injuries. I pray that Maxwell will not end up like him. O'brien is really perhaps my favourite American. Always a fan favourite.

Daniel de Ridder has left too. "His career at the club he really loves has never really started." We heard alot about his talent, though i never watched him play before. Sad in a way, when you read that.

Obodai has left too, it appears. To Sparta Rotterdam. Yakubu too. Yakubu played very well in the games against AC Milan in 2003. Protected the defence. Thought he could do more, but it was not to be.

It's that Faith

So, my faith was vindicated. Betis defeated Chelsea, the first team to do so. Lille defeated Manchester United. Ajax scored a last-gasp winner at Thun. Arsenal hammered Sparta 3-0.

Betis 1-0 Chelsea
i told you, betis can play football. even with like 7 regulars out. and it is the perfect way to bounce back from 3 straight defeats(or was it 4?) including a 5-0 humiliation at the hands of Malaga. according to kc, they played like men possessed. even varela, which is nice to note, considering i condemned him after that 4-0 showing which he gave away too many square balls. nice to see him bounce back like that.

Lille 1-0 Man Utd
i bet on a lille draw, after some thought and serious discussion with kwan and kc and wj. i should have stuck to my gut feeling tt lille can win. but the threat from rooney, ronaldo din quite materialise and lille got their first ever goal.

the problem with ronaldo is that it takes 3 men to stop him, but man utd cant exploit that cos he cant get the ball out to maybe rooney. and a bigger problem is the smith-fletcher partnership in midfield taht is really terrible, no drive, mistimed tackles, poor passing, cant win the 2nd balls, losing the balls. and ferdinand din bounce back like varela. he still looked lethargic. which is a shame, considerign how much he is paid. u will laugh when they say he was the most expensive defender. oshea still look shaky. and van niistelrooy was a broken man, totally intimidated by tavilidris, which is a shame. i felt sorry looking at him, haggard. he even looked abused.

but u have to hand it to lille. they played like men possessed, yes thats the word. possessed. every ball, every space. closed down. destroyed. intercepted. tackled. tts wad they did. and if u tink they only put men behind the ball, they stringed together some neat passes and looked like scoring more than man utd. in fact, they had 3 very good chances and man utd had one. if taffereau's freekick had not been tipped away by van der sar, which is a herculean effort, really, it could ahve been one of the contenders for goal of the week. perfectly struck, dipping in to the top left corner at the very last moment. and acimovic's goal is a signal that things have to change. smith and fletcher din check his run. he scored. as simple as that.

towards the end of the game, i realised i would rather lose the money den see man utd equalise. because lille din deserve to draw. they fully deserved to win. and i was very touched by their performance, believe it or not. first time in a long time i see a team fight like that. (but then again, i only get to watch champs league and a few internationals) but inexperience will hinder their progress. they looked too excited when attacking. no nerves. when the whistle blew, i tink the crowd must have been touched, having travelled to paris to watch(lille's metropole stadium was too small by uefa rules) this team pull off such a stunning upset.

Thun 2-4 Ajax
we hit back perfectly. if the strikers cant score, the midfielders and defenders will. sneijder and de jong. anastinou scored the 2nd and boukari the 4th(they are the forwards). last gasp victory. 2 goals in extra time. but the faith carried us through. That faith. i am thankful that i never lost hope when thun equalised for the 2nd time. interestingly, soccernet said thun had the lion share of the chances. ajax had 10 shots on target, thun 4, ajax 58% possession, thun 42%. maybe they meant that their shots were better. but lion share sounded wrong. so maybe the score flattered us in that we are really lucky to have grabbed two goals in injury time and thuns better shots din go in. so we thank God for watching over us.

Arsenal 3-0 Sparta
Henry, van Persie, van Persie. the scoreline flattered us, it appears. but we are through. so lets use the two games we have to plan how are we going to revive our season. blood the youngsters, arsene, blood them!

Have we become a fable, lost in time?

Ernst Bouwes has launched a scintillating attack on the Ajax system, labelling it as the graveyard for strikers. Excessive pressure on the striker, even within a club, coupled with an emphasis on sticking to position, has plotted the downfall of many an international striker.

"The Ajax number nine has to finish a cross at the near post. And be the one to deliver the ball to the winger from a central position outside the box. Or make a combination with a midfielder. And don't forget to waltz through a defence occasionally. "

I have always thought that Ibrahimovic did the above, with an overdose of style too. Although Bouwes quoted Ibrahimovic's revelations that he faced much more pressure at Ajax than at Juventus, it must be noted that perhaps, contrary to what Bouwes would have us believe, we let him go not because we thought he was not good enough, but because he had problems with Rafael van der Vaart which threatened the unity of the team.

As of the inability of Machlas, Sonck, McCarthy and Charisteas to reproduce their form for Ajax, I would attribute it to their lack of ability. You don't see McCarthy doing particularly well now in Portugal, do you? Charisteas is never quite a proven scorer, even at Werder Bremen. He is Greek, for God's sake! You know Greece can't attack, so what are you exactly expecting from a Greek striker? Sonck had the most promise, but i felt that he faded out more because he was being played as a right winger, rather than a centre forward during his stint. They were not quite good enough, to be honest. Certainly not in Bergkamp and van Basten's league.

So, is the Ajax system obsolete now that there is no one talented enough to play in that fabled system?

'We all know that this is not realistic, except for the homegrown players and technical staff. They are convinced that they are up to it, although the world has changed around them since the early seventies'-Wesley Sonck

4-3-3, wingers to pull wide, centre forward to remain as a pivot, the rest, free to play. that is the basic principle of Ajax's play, immortalised forever by that 1970s team led by Cryuff, emulated by van Basten's team in 1980s and once again emulated by that Golden Generation of the 1990s.

I don't believe that it is impossible to play such a system even in this era. Not when you have watched Ajax play before. You don't need particularly talented players, though i always believe that the young Ajax players are very talented. Once again, i will refer to that team of 2002/2003 which captured the imagination of the world during that magical season. They never quite went all the way, but they fell because of inexperience, not due to the flaws of the system.

It's true that we don't have the player for it now. Ibrahimovic was the man for Ajax. His departure was regretted by many in the stands. He was after all "the Golden One". So what if there is a dearth now? I have the faith that others in the team will make up for the struggling strikers. Ryan Babel might even be the solution. Who knows, a few years down the road, the next van Basten may appear. Treat it as an extended injury crisis. Arsenal plays its own system even without Henry. It is the philosophy, just as it is here at Ajax. You have to believe in your system to play it.

And the system is still relevant. Holland uses it too, to devastating effect. Even Chelsea employs a boring version of it, playing more often with a 4-5-1, but the concept is quite the same, just that they don't do it with the style Ajax always tries to. Style, something Sonck claims is an overrated ideal that is no longer practical. What the hell is Ronaldinho doing then?