Next Writing Exercise

2011-11-30T20:09:00.142+08:00

At the end, we ran through the crazy fixture in one piece.
During this 10 days stretch, we beat Chelsea twice (2-1, 2-0) at Stamford Bridge, and held the leader Manchester City (1-1) at Anfield.

Really not bad, considered that we couldn't beat newly promoted Norwich City and Swansea City at home.

A few observation/comments from these three matches:

(1) Dalglish finally changed the lineup and started Bellamy and Maxi (in both Chelsea games). Both players seized the chance and delivered. Maxi scored both opening goals against Chelsea, while Bellamy's pace and energy completely revitalized our frontline. I know we were really sucked (before this stretch) when I am writing good words on Maxi here.

(2) I hate to write the following sentence, Lucas is playing better this season and he is no longer our weakest link. Although I still don't regard him a good defensive midfielder, still too many cheap foul and dangerous pass at the back.

(3) Joe Hart is for real. He was the only reason Manchester City could leave Anfield still unbeaten.

(4) I am glad to see Carragher on the bench. And from the early sign, Coates is a fearless defender, will he be our new hope?

(5) Our three expensive signings Carroll, Downing and Henderson were all failures so far. Among them, Henderson was the biggest bust. He looked clueless on the pitch.

(6) Spearing showed his composure in the Chelsea game (a rare start for him). I want to see him more.

(7) We played football with energy and purpose in the last three matches. We had excellent record against the good teams (3W2D1L) this season, but we played poorly against the second/third-tier teams. If we want to challenge the title for real, we must improve our consistency in the future.

2011-10-31T20:30:00.007+08:00

We watched Ivana's first ever concert in the HK Coliseum last night. It was the best concert in 2011 and I was glad that we didn't miss it.

Sorry, allowed me to correct myself first. It's not a music concert, it's an art performance. Ivana perfectly intergrated music, fashion, visual, lighting, stage design, dancing, and acting together to give us an unforgettable art performance.
The (42 people) band was just incredible. It was big and consisted of three segments (orchestra, rock and electric instruments). It was led by three of the best new-generation music directors in Hong Kong: Alex Fung (our music director), Edward Chan (our band leader), and Ho Bing (our conductor). It's a dream team to me. All the songs were presented in the prettiest and grandest way. Suddenly I realised that sometimes magnitude and budget did matter in artistic performance.
Ivana's vocal is simply flawless last night. She was one of a few singers in HK who sang better in live than in studio, and she was in top form last night.
The first (of so many) highlight came pretty early, when she sang the first phase of 一秒感動, I almost dissolved into molecules... That's how Ivana touched my heart with this song.
The first surprise of the night was 她扔了根火柴. I didn't expect her to sing this one because 小團圓 was more popular for the audience, although I liked this one more. I was amazed by Ivana's "old Shanghai" tone and never figure out how she could change the tone so drastically. She was a genius.
Then came my favourite segment of the concert, 雷電 + 恨也講資格 + 畫意 + 最好的 (with her wooden dress and aeroplane accessory). I loved the whole package, so dark but so beautiful. Ivana simply sang her soul out in 畫意 (and she sang the original lyric 執起手槍然後自殺). I believed no female singer in HK could handle 畫意 liked her.
Of course, who could forget the dramatic ending of 迷失藝術 + 末日 (in Wyman's designed long dress with balloon and lunch box)? A perfect ending of a wonderful night.
One funny incident happened during the encore last night. When Ivana was playing the piano and singing "Rainbow Connection" (with her own iphone to show the lyrics!), her iphone rang and interrupted her singing. She answered it and it's Eason calling her from the floor! They chatted for a while, and then Ivana finished the song to finally end the show.
Lastly, I wanted to give a big hand to the audience last night. They were probably the best crowd ever in a pop music concert in the HK Coliseum. There's no awkward shout/clap/singalong to interrupt the performer. There's only admiration and respect towards good music. The audience would patiently wait till the last note ended before clapping their hands (and might sometimes miss the chance). It just confirmed the notion, "what type of singer attracted what type of fans".
Ivana, you just give us the ultimate concert experience in HK Coliseum. Thank you for everything.
I really hope that Ivana can have another concert in HK Coliseum in the future. In view of the box-office result in this one (no full house in two shows), I keep my finger crossed...

2011-10-24T20:22:00.010+08:00

It's the first time I wrote about Liverpool game in this new season.

I have still watched all their league games so far, I just don't have the mood to write thing on them yet.

But after such an epic weekend of football, I have to write something.

Two unthinkable results came out last night:

Manchester United 1-6 Manchester City: A Balotelli's double; a Dzeko's double; Silva supremacy; Evans' red card early in the second half; complete City domination in the second half; 3 City goals after 89th minute; and lastly the buring question, "which one was more humiliating, an away loss of 2-8 or a home loss of 1-6?" Any idea, MU fans?

QPR 1-0 Chelsea: Chelsea was down 1 goal and 2 players (2 straight reds, and I had an impression that the number of red card in this season had incresed so far) in the first half. At the end, it was just too many men to cover and the newly promoted QPR handed Chelsea a stunning loss.

Lastly, let me wrote something about the Reds. They drew 1-1 with the newly promoted Norwich City at Anfield on Saturday night. It's a costly draw because it's a game we needed to win, and should have won. We created enough opportunities for a big win but we couldn't get the ball over the line somehow. We hit the pole and bar three times, and their GK Ruddy made some fine saves during the game. But the main reason for the draw was our leaky defense. Among our regular back four, I only regarded Enrique (my favourite new signing in this season) as an above-average defender. Our centre-back position was clearly the weakest link. Carragher was showing his age (btw, I never regard him as a good defender); Skrtel was too inconsistent; Coates was too green; and Agger was always injuried. Our aerial protection was really poor and Holt's header was the best evidence. The fact that we still hadn't hold a clean sheet in all the home games this sesason spoke volume of how bad our D was. And this should be Kenny's main focus in the training groud.

Speaking of Kenny, I feel that his in-game tactic isn't sharp or fast enough for today's high-pace game. Is it due to the long layoff or his outdated approach? Of course I hope it is the former case and he will make adjustment with the season goes on.

P.S. I just hate the new Adidas' training staff jacket in which the staff's initial (e.g. KD for Kenny) is printed on it. For me, it's just odd and ugly.

2011-10-20T20:25:00.013+08:00

We watched Jan Lamb's latest standup last night.

Before the show, I told MW that if this one was not better than his last one (aka Disney Golden Mickey Music Show), this would be his last one for us.

Oh my... this one was worse.

This standup was lack of focus, themeless, disorganised, repetitive, boring and at times, annoying. I couldn't see any relation between his content and the title. We nearly hadn't crack a laugh for the whole show, and MW kept looking at my watch during the show to see how much time left. On a whole, a disaster for us. I would rather go home and play Dayo's first standup DVD (for the 179th time) because it was more entertaining.

I suspected that, deep down, Jan knew that the standup sucked. Maybe that's why he turned the entire rundown upside down after the first show. He hoped that by opening the show with the Softhard+Grasshopper musical segment, the audience would be fired up so they might give more response to his "so-so" standup later on. I thought he gambled it right (from the reaction of the audience) although it didn't work on us. I remembered me thinking at that time, "oh, I read that this part was supposed to be the highlight of the show, but I still felt bored... didn't it mean that we can leave now?" The whole musical segment was lazy and aimless. I particularly hated the way they played the classical "softhard" jingle at the end, trying to raise all those fond memories from the fans (and again, it failed on me)... To me, that move was simply pathetic (they even did it twice). And that's the killer bow to me.

At the end, I promised MW that this would be our last Jan's standup (until further notice).

Sorry, Jan. I think I know how to quit you. You just help me to.

2011-09-13T23:45:00.004+08:00

I had losted my faith in 903 Live since last year, mostly because of the bad sounding. However, I simply couldn't resist this dream casting: Hacken x Lam, so I gave it one more chance.
Frankly, I was quite disappointed.
The main reason this time was not poor sounding (it wasn't good, but this two guys' vocal trumped everything) but the rundown. This might be the least cross-over and surprise rundown in the history of 903 Live. They had only 6 duets in the whole show (while "number life" was the highlight) and that's NOT enough! Lam didn't bring any new song and he simply held a mini-concert for his last two Lamusique albums. A bit lazy even for a sixty-something old man. Hacken sang some Sally songs for a change but nothing more. The whole rundown was predictable and boring.
Of course, the performance was really powerful and outstanding. They proved once again that good vocal could trump bad sounding. Hacken is good, and Lam is better!
Any more 903 Live in the future? I have no idea right now.

2011-08-29T20:33:00.016+08:00

Khalil 15 Live.

Another showtime for Khalil's musical talent.

Just wanted to shouted out (before everything) for one last time that the seating and sounding in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre was not up to standard! The bad sounding there was notorious, and the level-ground seating arrangement was really designed for convention and exhibition but not concert. I could hardly see the stage from my seat. I can't tolerate it anymore and shall think twice for any more concert held in this venus in the future.

The first thing I wanted to say about the show was that the crowd was crazy last night. Many of them stood up and danced right from the very beginning! I never expect to stand for so long in Khalil's concert and at times I felt liked I was watching Grasshopper. Just unbelievable!

The first part "Trio" was liked a mini-concert by Khalil, bass guitarist 基仔 and drummer 一丁. They played some new songs from "15" with 3 instruments only (guitar/bass/drum or keyboard/bass/drum) and this was a new experiment for us. I could feel that Khalil had really trained hard on his skill in guitar for this show. Among them, I loved the new version of 二人遊 (I liked Khalil's guitar solo) and Over (1-ting's drum rocked!).

The second part of the show was a full band (we had strings!) concert in which Khalil focused mainly in the vocal part. And this time he brought out some really juicy side-cuts liked 小小蟲 and 黑洞裡 (both were my favourite). Khalil also sang a demo song "Rosy" which was lovely and made us looking for more in the future!

After watching our special guest Fiona dueted 四人遊 with Khalil, we both agreed that they were just friend and nothing more. Same feeling on Ivana and Hins (after watching "Octave").

This was the last show and therefore we had a 2nd encore! Khalil came out with the band to sang this lovely classic "wonderful tonight" to end a wonderful show.

2011-07-18T17:42:00.029+08:00

To be honest, I didn't have much expectation before I went to this Hacken's concert.

One big reason might due to the lack of noise for this concert. This time the promotion was so little that it sorted of become an anti-promotion to me. (Would it be so bad that they just didn't want people to come and see it?)

Of course, we loved the show very much, to the extent that we watched it twice (the 1st and 4th show)!

Our guest in the 1st show Joey (finally) said something right: this show was very musical orientated but at the same time it's still very entertaining. Yeah, right on the spot to sum up the show. Thank you Joey.

I could feel the effort Hacken and producer had put into the show throughout the night. There're many old folks with new faces/classical touch, there're segments designated for new/uncommon instruments (e.g. 三弦 as electronic guitar).

Most importantly, Hacken came out with a bang! He was liked a dormant volcano who hadn't exploded for years (no live performance in TV for two years) and finally had a big explosion! His vocal was in good form and blended with the orchestra liked a musical instrument with perfect hormony. Really a joy to listen his live performance.

While he was singing 天水圍城, I was thinking of the power of promotion. Frankly, this was a solid and decent song with a social-orientated lyric by Lin Xi, but it got much much less compliment/noise compared to Eason's 六月飛霜 in which people raved about Lin Xi's social-orientated lyric. To me, both songs were similar in quality but the great contrast in media attention just demonstrated the importance of promotion.

There're many memorable moments in this concert, here's the top 3 among them: (1) 深深深 with a brand new touch! The rhythm was very difficult but interesting. Hacken couldn't handle it perfectly in the first show, but he mastered it in our second one. I loved it! (2) 夢如歡舊 (逆行演繹舊歡如夢) really got me. What a stunt! Just unbelievable. (3) 飛花 (with Opus 3) sucessfully blended opera style with canton-pop and the result was beautiful. I particularly liked Hacken's old-school-non-stop-vibration. Two honorable mentions included 護花使者 (三弦 vs electric guitar) and the standup songs segment (left-over ideas from the never-happened standup concert?).

Hacken even sang two side cuts (in our second show), 九月中的陌生人 and 三千零一夜, for all those die-hard fans liked me. Fans always want him to sing more side cuts but being a conservative guy with an EYT mindset, Hacken nearly never took risk and cared too much about the mass audiences. As his fan, I had to respect him for that.

We watched two shows and it worthed the money because two was better than one. The second show was more smooth in the rundown and Hacken's performance was better in songs with new arrangements (particularly in 回首, 深深深, and 榮譽勳章). On the other hand, we had the privilege to hear 紅日 (brass only) which only appeared in the first two shows because Hacken felt that the audience were more passionate with the original version (another trace of his EYT gene); and two only-in-the-first-show song, 大開眼戒 (realted to 紫荊俠 in the standup song segment) and 情非首爾. Moreover, we had our special guest Joey who dueted 刻不容緩 with Hacken in the first show!

The only thing I wanted to complain was the poor seating plan. We were basically sitting behind the stage in our second show (due to the late purchase). To be frank, we wouldn't rate it so high if we hadn't watched it before, because we couldn't see some important visuals (e.g. MV of "再見穿梭機") on the central big screen from our side monitor. A big big mistake from the production team.

I haven't bought concert live cd for quite a while, but I am looking forwards to this cd on our way home after the second show. Good show, Hacken!

2011-06-20T22:00:00.008+08:00

We watched Lam's concert last night.
First of all, happy father day to Mr. Lam.
What a powerful performance by a sixty-three years OLD man. Really not bad.
(At least I couldn't envision Eason singing on stage half liked Lam 10 years from now, and he still didn't reach 50 by then.)
The rundown employed a time-tunnel format in which Lam sang songs from his first to his latest album. Because there were so many songs to sing (nearly 50 in total), many of them were played in medley-style. Among them, 吖嗚婆, 澤田研二, and 花街70號 were a big big surprise to me, liked a dream came true. Lam's vocal was in top form and he could still shouted his high note effortlessly at this age! Tonight's 追憶X單車X空櫈 was even better than the studio version, so touching.
Our seat was the exact opposite to the VIP seats, thus we had a good vision to all celebrities who attended the show. And there's many of them. Among them, my focus was on two persons who sat next to each other, Y and Anthony Wong (Ming Gor). Y was really cool and rarely showed his emotion (liked clapped/shouted), while Anthony looked so young from distance (and I had been waiting so long for his new album).

2011-06-13T23:00:00.020+08:00

The 2010/11 NBA season started and ended with a bang!

All the chaos started with the "Decision". From that onwards, everything broke loose. The Miami Heat became the biggest story in NBA. They were both the clearest favourite AND the biggest villain, and we hadn't had a team liked this since the Shaq/Kobe Lakers in nearly one decade ago. The Heat struggled a bit in the first half of the season (it's too early; the bench were thin; they were playing 3 on 5; chemistry and teamwork needed time to develop even for great player liked LeBron and Wade...). Things started to come together for the Heat after the All-Star break and they bullied the Celtics (Rondo's elbow and Shaq's back) then the Bulls (great D but no O except Rose, especially at the end of 4Q, but really great D though) in the playoff to advance to the NBA Final to face the Dallas Mavericks for a rematch of the 2006 Final.

(I really felt sorry for Rose and Durant: nothing could be done by the Bulls for all those improbable 3 pointers from LBJ and Wade in the 4Q; and all the poor decision-makings in 4Q for the young Thunder.)

To be honest, after what happened in 06' Final, I believed the scene of David Stern presenting the champion trophy to Mark Cuban would never happen in my lifetime. And from what we saw in the Eastern conference semi and final, thing didn't look good for the Mavericks. LeBron and Wade just found the winning formula of playoff basketball in the conference semi/final: knock-down D for 48 mins + clutch shooting in the last 2 mins. And if they kept on making those killer 3 at the end of 4Q, they were simply unbeatable in the Final.

Fortunately, the odd finally caught up with LeBrona and Wade, and all those ill-advised 3 finally stopped falling for them in the 4Q. More importantly, LeBron folded mightily since Mavericks' historical rally in Game 2. On the other hand, these veteran Mavericks just kept coming back and never quit with Dirk Nowitzki leading the way. Big Dirk was the new Mr. Clutch and owned the 4Q. His high-post moves were efficient, clinical and lethal. At the end, the Mavericks came back from 1-2 deficit and won the last three games to become the new NBA champion.

As an underdog fan in sport, you wait (and lose) and wait (and lose) and... finally one series like this happen... to make you realize that all the waiting and suffering is worth it because everything pay off at the end. Thanks Dirk, JT, Barrea, Chandler, Marion, J-Kidd and Cuban, you guys deserve it. Also thanks LBJ, Wade and Bosh, you guys play the role of villain to perfection (including the losing effort at the end).

One big question hanging after the Final will definitely be, "what's wrong with LeBron?" His collapse in the Final was epic. We can play the "he'd quitted on that Cavs team already" card for his behaviour in G5 of last year conference semifinal against the Celtics. But this one? In the Final? With this Heat team after the "Decision"? I have absolutely no idea. Maybe he is really the A-Rod in NBA.

Best 5: Howard (will he leave the Magic after the first-round exit?), Dirk (he is the MAN), LBJ (the king with no crown), Wade (one thing is certina, Wade is the best player in the Heat in the Final), Rose (if he can get a little bit more offensive help next season...).

Favourite team: Dallas Mavericks (all the come-back in the playoff)
Favourite players: Durant - Thunder, Rose - Bulls (fast don't lie), Dirk - Mavericks, J-Kidd - Mavericks (finally, the ring!), Griffin - Clippers (for all the exciting dunks), CP3 - Hornets (the best PG debate is over), Wade - Heat, Nash - Suns, TD - Spurs

Favourite Series: The 6 games Final. It would probably be remembered as the best Final in the past decade.

Of course, the biggest question right now must be, "will there be any NBA game at all next season?" Stay tuned.

2011-06-06T20:16:00.014+08:00

Nadal vs Federer.

Always a classic-in-the-making when these two men playing in a Grand Slam final. And this time was French Open 2011.

This one was intense, exciting and full of magnificent tennis. Nadal finally won his sixth French Open titles (and his tenth Grand Slam titles) by beating Federer 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1 in four sets.

Watching the game unfolded, a few questions went through my head:

(1) Historic prospective: Who is the greatest player of all time? How can Federer be the best player in history if he isn't even the best player in his generation (he is 8-17 against Nadal, and 0-4 in last four Grand Slam tournaments)? I can't stop thinking that, "WHAT IF" Nadal wasn't injuried in 2009? Federer might still searching for his first French Open title and tying Sampras with 14 GS titles, while Nadal might already have 11 or 12 GS titles under his belt, giving him a really good chance to overtake Federer in GS title.

(2) Tennis prospective: Watching the match, one will certainly feel bad for Federer. What can he do to beat Nadal? You can't beat Nadal on D (by long exchanges) because he rarely makes error; and you can't beat him on O (by hitting risky winners) because he'll trace it down and return with a winner (his running return is unbelievable)! He simply owns the best D AND counter-attack, so pick your poision and good luck. I can't think of a way to beat Nadal right now if he is on his game. On the other hand, it's quite difficult to cheer for Nadal, because his style of play (excellent D, seldom takes chance, and thrives with counterattack) is a bit boring for causal fans like me.

2011-06-02T21:10:00.011+08:00

We watched musical "I love you beacuse" tonight.

Only because of Ivana.

We saw Kay and Louis in the waiting area before the show, and it was possibly our only highlight of the night.

We just didn't like the show.

It was no match to "Octave".

Three killers for the show:

1) Although Ivana, Edmond and Luna (wow!) all sang well, they just couldn't cover up the fact that Joey Leung was a bad singer.

2) I simply didn't buy the main concept/theme "you need to find the Mr. Wrong in order to get your Mr. Right" of the show... I just couldn't. As a result, the show failed to reach me. Also, I didn't think 1-Fung had done a good job this time in writing (translating?) the lyrics. Most of them were just dialogue/word/phase without a heart. To be fair, this being a cover version of a Boardway show probably was the main reason why it didn't work.

3) There's not a single memorable theme song for the show. I couldn't remember any melody/song after the show, and to me that was the lethal dagger for a musical.

2011-05-30T11:40:00.016+08:00

We watched Andy Hui's On and On Live last night.

It's our first time to see his concert. We bought the tickets in his last concert back in 2005 (also the last show) but we didn't make it because my grandfather had heart surgery at that time. I just learned that it was six years ago. Wow, time flied! Looking back, the $1M my grandfather spend for his heart surgery really worthed every penny.

We came in with some expectation because we knew Andy was a decent singer. At the end of the show, we were a bit disappointed.

The primary problem was that we felt quite detached throughout the concert. I knew that we were not his fans, but we were not the other Andy (Lau) fans either and we enjoyed his show very much! The problem was that we weren't touched. He sang liked a pretty good performer in karaoke, and that's not enough for us. And I didn't think it's a harsh request from someone who had been singing for a living for 25 years, right?

Most of his songs were presented without any new arrangement (and he sang with the same tone), no wonder we felt a bit bored. Even the one song which indeed had a new arrangement, "heart blood", it was worse than the original. It just solidified my belief that Mark Lui was not a good musician. (Why bother to change if you have no idea how to change, Mark? Sorry Mark, you are never my cup of tea.)

Also, most of his "classic" song was only "季選 classic", not "金曲金 classic". One won't get too excited in 季選, right?

I gave up any hope of hearing my favourite "On Song" half-way throught the show because I reckoned they were never in his list of classic song. Fortunately, I got a mini-version of "give away love" during encore. Already a big bonus to me.

Overall, the stage design was a bit strange to me. All those hanging cages didn't look pretty to me. Frankly, I found most of the stage design of HK singers was too simple to be ugly after Jay's concert. Might be I was a bit harsh here, but shouldn't we look for the best?

The first and (possibly) only highlight of the night for me happened when he sang "love you". And THAT was a "金曲金 classic".

Lastly, Andy came out for a second encore tonight and sang "only you are not replacable" for the second time. I knew this was a special song for him (and Sammi), the scene was very emotional and he cried during the song. However, I simply couldn't feel for him this time because I felt sorry for Andy's ex-girlfriend Michelle everytime I heard this song. What's her feeling when Sammi sang this (Andy's) song night in and night out in her 2010 concert? I would never believe Sammi and Andy weren't up to something back then... Moreover, I hated the way they used their relationship to promotion their album/concert (for way too many times). When did they announce their latest reunion this time? Andy's press conference for this concert. I just hate that. Therefore, I might be one of the few person in HK who didn't feel happy for them (it seemed that they were meant to be together in many people's mind). Sorry, Andy and Sammi, I only felt sorry for Michelle.

2011-05-29T23:00:00.014+08:00

My 2010/11 soccer season review:

One of the big question for many soccer fans going into this season was "could Mourinho's Real Madrid break Barcelona's dominance?" Soccer God heard our prayer and granted us 5 matches (and 4 in 18 days) between this two giants for the final answer. At the end, Barcelona held a 2-2-1 edge (including a 5-0 demolition at Nou Camp in Nov 2011), gave away the least important Copa del Rey (lost 0-1 in OT), but went on to win the La Liga title and knocked Real Madrid out in the semifinal of Champion League. They then outplayed the Premier League champion Manchester United in the Champion League Final at Wembley to comfirmed their dominance in world soccer. To be frank, I was a bit worried when Barcelona replaced Ibrahimovic with Villa before the season because I believed there would come a game in which they desperately needed a forward with good aerial power. And once again, they proved me wrong. Their attacking formation was so good that they didn't need to throw any strong body on the wall. Messi thrived in the central forward role and formed one of the most prolific front-line with Villa and Pedro. They were supported by the best midfield combo (Xavi and Iniesta) in the world. They just up-graded the Spainish offense (small ball, run-and-pass, supreme one-on-one skill, teamwork) by adding the best footballer in the world Messi as the leading striker. They were definitely the best team (club and national level) I watched playing in the past decade, and certainly one of the all-time greatest team.

Best team: Barcelona (and they are better than ever)
Best 11: (an all-attack 4-3-3)
GK: Van der Sar-Manchester United (hard to believe it's the final year in his brilliant career)
D: Bale-Hotspur (anyone remember he started as a LB?), Pique-Barcelona (he is big, fast, skillful, with good header, and can score goal), Vidic-Manchester United, Alves-Barcelona
M: Xavi-Barcelona (the brain of Barcelona and Spain, the best midfielder since Zidane), Iniesta-Barcelona (maybe a better ball handler than Messi), Mascherano-Barcelona
F: Villa-Barcelona (continued to shine despite moving to L wing to accomodate Messi), Messi-Barcelona (I love to say it, the best player in the world), C. Ronaldo-Real Madrid (I hate to say it, the second best player in the world)

Favourite team: Liverpool (a great season for me to experience what's real fandom)
Favourite player: Suarez-Liverpool (I was his fan right from his first match for us), Meireles-Liverpool (the best signing of this season), Messi-Barcelona, Xavi-Barcelona, Iniesta-Barcelona (to me, his absence was the main reason why they were beaten by Inter Milan in the Champions League last year), Modric-Hotspur (the little magician in midfield) Bale-Hotspur (his second half hat-trick against Inter Milan just shocked the entire soccer world)

2011-05-23T20:30:00.007+08:00

Premier League Game: 38

Aston Villa vs Liverpool 1:0

At the end, we lost two in a row to end a disappointing season.

At the end, we lost the 5th (Europa) place to Hotspur and there'll be no more mid-week Europe travel next season.

At the end, we were 22 points and 1 title behind the champion Manchester United.

The game itself was lethargic to watch, our team play like we didn't care and Villa players had nothing to play for (but they actually played with more passion). Two potential targets in our summer shopping, Downing and Young, combined for the only goal for Villa.

And finally, our season was finished.

Result-wise, this was definitely the poorest season in the last decade. We had the worst season opening result in the last fifty years, and we were actually sitting in the relegation zone after nine matches. We experienced a change in ownership; two changes of manager; and the sale of our top player on the last day of the January transfer window. We only managed to get 58 points at the end, and finished at sixth place with no European football for next season.

As a fan, this season was really tough and difficult. The performance on the pitch in the first half was simply horrible to watch. Our result was so unpredictable that we were 4W2D (against the top three, and two W against Chelsea) and 3L1D2W (against the last three, and two L against Blackpool). We basically had no idea what to expect before every match. Fortunately, thing started to turn better since the arrival of Kenny, and we finished the season in a high note (hmm... until the last two matches).

On a whole, this season was an excellent chance for me to experience ultimate fandom. Now I get the taste of what the fans of Sunderland/Fulham/Wigan feel. So cruel, so painful, but so real. I'm glad that I only need to taste it for half a season.

At the end, we have a new owner, a return of the King, and a young and promising frontline partnership. And hopefully, a bright future.

Point: 58 (final); Rank: 6th (final)

2011-05-16T20:30:00.005+08:00

Premier League Game 37:

Liverpool vs Tottenham Hotspur 0:2

A showdown for Europa glory next season. Who win this one would have a great chance to get the 5th spot for Europa qualification.

We were heading into the game with a slight edge becuse of our amazing form and the home-field advantage. I thought our fans (including me) got a bit carried away with our recent run of result (4W1D and 17 goals in last 5 games), and started to forget the large gap between us and the champions league place.

And Hotspur players came and gave us a reality check last night. A big wake up call. Thank you very much.

They were lively amd skillful. They controlled the midfield (Modric was the man). They simply ran at us right from the start. They took an early lead when Van der Vaart shot that wonder strike. We tried to responsed after that but the O didn't run as smooth as we were in last few matches (any relation to the return of Carroll?). And referee Webb gifted Hotspur a penalty (it's NOT a penalty, at all) in the second half to seal the game.

Two streaks ended last night: our unbeaten home record under Dalglish; and my favourite consecutive-league-game-scoring streak.

So did our Europa dream, probably.

But frankly, I'm not particularly upset about the last one. I believe we'll be better off without any European distraction next season.

Point: 58; Rank: 6th

2011-05-10T17:15:00.009+08:00

Premier League Game 36:

Fulham vs Liverpool 2:5

Another Monday-night-recorded game (which I hated, and that's reason no. 31 why I secretly didn't want them to play in the Europa next season). Another rout (which I loved). And the fact that it happened away from home just made it a bit sweeter for the fans.

Our O was running in full cylinder right now with Suarez leading the way. Maxi got his second hat-tricks in three games (the best example of right location at right time); Kuyt kept scoring liked he was out of his mind; and Suarez finally got his share for his tireless work up-front at the end.

One statistic really stood out to me in this Dalglish's era was that our team had scored at least a goal in 16 league games in a row since his take-over. To me, that's the single most impressive achievement for the manager.

Two more games to go, but I am already looking forwards to the next season.

Point: 58; Rank: 5th

2011-05-02T22:40:00.002+08:00

Premier League Game 35:

Liverpool vs Newcastle United 3:0

I recorded this game and watched it AFTER the Arsenal-MU game. What a game! Arsenal players finally redeemed themselves by beating MU once. Arsenal 1-0 victory just broke the title race open once again, Chelsea now have a real chance to overtake MU when they meet next week at Old Trafford. Bring that game on!

Back to our game, I had not much to say because I only spend 20 minutes to run through the film. Just a few comments: I was happy with our youngsters and I loved their progession in this season, I hoped they would continue to improve in the coming season; G. Johnson was back and we missed his offensive power; Maxi was definitely the lucky star in the last two games; Suarez's never-stopping workrate and passion to score finally paid off for him and I was really happy for him!

We are 3W1D in the last four matches and have scored 12 goals in that span. And suddenly we are back to the hunt for Europa football next season. Is it a good thing for us next season (playing the Europa)? I don't know. But I really enjoy the good run right now. Let's keep it up!

Point: 55; Rank 5th (highest this season)

2011-04-24T10:03:00.001+08:00

Premier League Game 34:
Liverpool vs Birmingham 5:0
The biggest win for us in this season.
You knew thing was going extremely well when Maxi got a hat-trick and Cole scored his second league goal for us (since 1/1/11) in the same game. My favourite boy Suzrez couldn't even crack into the score-line (although his behind-the-leg shot worthed a mention here).
We finally played like a contender at home, though it was a bit too late.
Point: 52; Rank: 6th

2011-04-18T21:45:00.006+08:00

Premier League Game 33:
Arsenal vs Liverpool 1:1
First of all, let's make it clear that among the other "big four", I hate Arsenal the least. Of course I remember the "Michael Thomas' misery" (I watched that game LIVE, a rarity in year 1989), I was just too young to understand the significance/feel the pain at that time (if only I knew that we would NEVER win another league title since 1990 back then...). But I am always a big fan of Wenger (I like that he looks more like a scholar than a football club manager) and admire their style of attacking football. Yeah, even though they are not winning any trophy, they always play entertaining football on the pitch. Frankly, this makes me very difficult to hate them.

Then comes the big confession, last night game against Arsenal was the only game in this season that I felt ok if we lost (hmm... I actually secretly rooting for Arsenal to win, ok?). All is because I didn't mind losing a game if it could pave the way for Arsenal to catch league leader MU in the title run-in. Yeah, I hate MU to such an extreme degree.
The game itself was intense. We lost half of our starting back four during the game but Arsenal couldn't take any advantage from that. I thought if you couldn't break a defence held by Skretl, Kyrgiakos, Robinson and Flanagan (two teenagers), you probably shouldn't win the title. Watching this young Gunners winning tons of possession but couldn't find the killer touch was frustrating even for a non-fan liked me. Their obsession in creating the perfect chance was pathological, and all those extra-passes in the crowdy box were impractical. They had to learn about "less is more" before talking about challenging the league title.

All the drama was in the stoppage time (8 minutes). Arsenal finally found the breakthrough when Fabregas was brought down in the box and Van Persie calmly scored from the spot at 97th minute. To be honest with you, it's the first time I felt relieved when Reina couldn't save a penalty. When every Arsenal fans (including me) were celebrating for a tough win, an unthinkable event happened. Lucas was pushed down in the box and referee awarded us a penalty which was converted by Kuyt to force a draw.

I should be shouting liked crazy, instead I was stunned for the thriller ending. And that's the worst part of the story.

"Karma God" certainly did his work last night.

I shall never ever root against my team in the future. It'll never end well.

Point: 49; Rank: 6th

2011-04-18T11:44:00.013+08:00

We went to Jacky's 1/2 century concert last night.

The show was fantastic and Jacky gave us his 100% on stage. A world-class performance by a 50 y.o. singer. What a feat!

As usual, Jacky's show always start at 8:15pm. HK people are used to be late to concert and I hate that. We need more Jacky to train our audience.
The show started with a mini-musical (with special guest Shu Kei on screen) and it's great. Everytime I watched Jacky performing in the mini-musical, I would regret missing his "snow wolf lake" back then. And that's why I was really excited when he said he would consider doing a new musical in the future.
The second part of the concert was the rock&roll segment. When he sang "Kiss Goodbye (rock version)" and heat up the stadium, I remembered how Mark Lui critizered Voices contestants for ruining this "love" song with the rock version. I was certain that he didn't know Jacky himself had sang a rock version long ago. I wondered how people could rank him one of the best producer in HK, he was never my cup of tea. Time to do more homework, Mark!
The next segment was "my private corner" in which he sang songs with a "jazz" touch. Among them, my favourite was "I am actually hurted". Ivana's melody was simply beautiful.
The last part was the long-awaited "classics". When I heard him singing one hit song after another one (every one was could-recognise-within-the-first-two-music-bars, and could-follow-singing-without-losing-a-bit level hit song), I couldn't help thinking, "Wow! I know the word classic is overrated and outdated, but all these songs ARE real CLASSICS!!!" And when he repeated all those 90' dance moves from his "Marlboro Red Hot Hits" on stage, it just brought back all the memory from the good old days (when cigarette company can still sponsor music adv on TV). He ended the show at 11:25pm and we were all happy. A 3-hours-10-minutes excellent performance by arguably the best singers of my generation, how could I not satsified?

Lastly, just want to share three incidents happened last night to illustrate that there's a lot of jerks in HK. (1) A young lady sitting one row in front of me kept recording Jacky's performance by her DV-recorder. She was first warned by a staff, which she ignored and continued her recording. Then a senior security officer came and tried to confiscate her recorder. Of course she refused and argued with the officer feverishly without showing a trace of regret. I knew she and her friend was throwing those classic "there're other people doing it, why don't you pick them, why pick me!" argument simply from watching their body language. The whole scene was a shame to witness. (2) Since our seat was in the first row of our section, we had to cut into the long queue (all the way back to the top of the stadium) to reach the corridor and left. When I jammed into the queue ahead of a young girl, his boyfriend behind her yelled some unpolite words at us. It shocked me at first; then I yelled him back a few words out of reflex; he yelled me back louder (of course); and fianlly I gathered myself, stopped the yelling and left with MW for good. Since when did young people in HK become so provocative/impulsive? We were living in a really dangerous place. I was literally concerned. (3) When we reached the main corridor, we stood there to watch the end-credit of the show. A staff told us we couldn't stand and block the corridor, so we walked to the sitting area and kept watching. The staff followed and told us we couldn't stay there either and had to leave the stadium. I couldn't hold my calm anymore (just came off from the "queue incident" just one minute ago) and rudely dismissed him with one sentence, "the show hasn't finished yet". He left us for good without a word. Yeah, at the end of the day, I was the biggest jerk in the eye of him.

All these things just left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I was sorry to Jacky that I let these little things spoiled my memories of his wonderful performance.

2011-04-17T11:30:00.009+08:00

Time flies. Here's my own annual NBA playoff prediction:

Eastern Conference:

(1) Chicago Bulls vs (8) Indiana Pacers: I don't know why people like to say how this Chicago team is inexperienced to playoff basketball and they haven't won anything yet. To me, I am more than happy to pick the team with the (very likely) MVP (and I have watched too many Rose's highlights in the last few weeks, he is awesome). Bulls in five.

(4) Orlando Magic vs (5) Atlanta Hawks: The most likely sweep due to Hawk's uninspired way of playing down the stretch. An Orlando sweep.

(2) Miami Heat vs (7) Philadelphia 76ers: Should be a walk-over for the Heat although 76ers will keep every game close. Heat in five.

(3) Boston Celtics vs (6) New York Knicks: The most exciting series in the East in term of star power. I pick Celtics becuase of its depth. Celtics in six.

Western Conference:

(1) San Antonio Spurs vs (8) Memphis Grizzlies: Grizzlies is a dangerous 8th seed team on paper, but Spurs is so battle-proven that I can't see an upset here. Spurs in six.

(4) Oklahoma City Thunder vs (5) Denver Nuggets: I like Durant and I love his team more after the Perkins' trade. Thunder in five.

(2) Los Angeles Lakers vs (7) New Orleans Hornets: It can easily be a Lakers sweep, but I have to give Hornets one game for my respect to CP3. Lakers in five.

(3) Dallas Mavericks vs (6) Portland Trail Blazers: The toughest call in the 1st round. I pick the Mavericks because I think Nowitzki has suffered too much in the last few years, but this one will be really close. Mavericks in seven.

For the conference semis, it is as loaded as it gets. Bulls-Magic, Heat-Celtics, Spurs-Thunder, Lakers-Mavericks, just four fantastic matchups. It can easily be four seven games series in which all four home teams win Game 7 at home. But here's my pick: Bulls over Magic in seven (becuase I still don't trust Dwight Howard's O in clutch time); Celtics over Heat in six (with the assumption that Shaq will be back in time to destroy the Heat from inside and the Celtics have no chance to beat the Heat in Game 7 at Miami); Spurs over Thunder in seven (the most difficult pick for me, I hate to see Thunder go but I just want to enjoy the last dance of Duncan as long as possible); Lakers over Mavericks in seven (because Lakers is more talented, and they have home court advantage).

For the conference final, Bulls over Celtics in six because I think Celtics' old warriors will run out of gas after two tough series; Spurs over Lakers in seven with Timmy brings us some throw-back magic against the Lakers!

Lastly, I pick the Spurs to win it all in the NBA Final. One last dance and the perfect finale for the greatest power forward in the history of the game, Tim Duncan.

(I know it's too sentimental to be true, but it's my prediction, right?)

P.S. I finish my draft pick on paper before the Bulls-Pacers game last night, then I wake up this morning and find out a Hawks upset against the Magic in Game 1. It immediately shoots down my Magic sweep prediction... Can't say it's a good sign. Then I remember Magic is the second most uninspired team in the playoff and have no go-to guy in clutch time... I already look like a fool by picking a sweep from them. Hope I won't look like a bigger fool in June.

2011-04-12T17:00:00.001+08:00

Premier League Game 32:

Liverpool vs Manchester City 3:0

It's the second time in this season that I catch the result before I watch the game (replay).

All blame to Monday midnight game-time; and all blame to Cable TV news!

I call it a sweet revenge for us. We lost 0:3 at City's home and now we pay back with a nice 3:0 victory at Anfield.

Just a few comment on this game. Firstly, Carroll opened his scoring account (a double!) for us and he was a beast in the box! His partnership with Suarez is budding fast and it gives us high hope for the next season and beyond. Secondly, Suarez may easily be the player who hit the most post since his arrival to the premier league (if this stat exists). It just shows how eager he want to score. He has no fear to shoot and he shoots well. If he keeps it going, good thing will come. Thirdly, I like the way we scored our second goal last night. This sort of attacks-in-wave is a joy to watch. The problem is, we can only perform it once in a few games while MU players are routinely doing it plays after plays in one single game. That's why they are now atop of the table and we are sitting at 6th. There's a big gap to fill, but I hope we can do it in the future!

Point: 48; Rank: 6th

2011-04-09T23:30:00.007+08:00

We watch Eason's mini-concert in ATV tonight. He sang the new songs from his latest two EPs and the show was great. I'm glad that ATV has the right to show it because I don't think TVB will ever bother to release a 1-hour music show at the prime time of Saturday night. (TVB is doing everything they can to ruin HK "dying" music industry in the last two years, but that's another story. How come they can still hand out plastic music awards year after year?)

Eason sang his new song "bitter gourd" in the show and his performance just takes our breath away. He sucessfully sings us into the song, and we are deeply touched by his emotion.

MW's first response after the song, "Wow! This song is perfect for Eason, no one can sing it better than him." And I can't agree more.

During the song, I keep on asking myself one question: Who'll you rather have? Hacken, who guarantees you a solid 90 in every performance; or Eason, who may give you some really bad moments (how about the DUO concerts?), but on any given night, he may give you an once-in-a-lifetime moment, a out-of-the-chart 120 % performance likes this? (I am reading Bill Simmon's "The Book Of Basketball" recently, so this sort of who's over who argument just keep on running in my head.) Honestly, I don't have the answer.

This question leads to another question: Which one is better? Khalil's all-new-arrangement live; or Eason's original-but-all-emotion live? I agree that it's not fair to use an one-timer to compare, and I don't have an answer to that either. But Eason's demonstration at least proves that sometimes "less is more", if you are deep enough. Sounds like Shaolin's kung fu to me.

As a fan of music, actually I don't care about the answers, I only long for more magic moment likes this.

2011-04-03T17:30:00.004+08:00

Premier League Game 31:

West Bromwich Albion vs Liverpool 2:1

I would call it a sweet revenge for then-Liverpool-and-now-WBA-manager Hodgson and I hoped he enjoyed it. Personally I didn't enjoy the game very much because we played poorly last night.

Some old problems came back last night (any relation to the presence of Hodgson???), liked poor ball movement, Lucas being Lucas, poor passing, Kyrgiakos's mistakes, disorganised O, took the lead then gave it away... Wasn't it how we played when we had nothing to play for? I hoped not. And one thing that really pissed me off was the whole "let's-skip-the-midfield-and-kick-the-ball-up-for-Carroll-because-we-have-Carroll-now" strategy!!! This basically destroyed the whole 7+9 premise. Kenny, please found a way to fix it. We're better than this.

The only bright spot of the night? Suarez's endless trial (and came so close) in scoring a goal for us. I liked this kid.

Point: 45; Rank: 6th

P.S. Besides our game, I want to write a bit about the big picture today.

First, here's my account of what happened two weeks earlier: Manchester United (down 1 man) somehow beat Bolton 1:0 due to a Jaaskelainen's blunder at 88th minute, while Arsenal could only force a 2:2 draw with WBA becuase of (of course) an Almunia's blunder!

Then, here's the scoreline from last night (half time result in brackets): West Ham vs Manchester United 2:4 (2:0); Stoke vs Chelsea 1:1 (1:1); Wigan vs Hotspur 0:0 (0:0); Arsenal vs Blackburn Rovers 0:0 (0:0).

In just two rounds (of league game) since Arsenal catched Manchester United (on points dropped), Manchester United has extended the lead back to 4 points with two gutty wins. (It just reminded me of how they came from behind and beat Aston Villa 3-2 in the title run-in two seasons ago.) It seems that their players always get the job done in big games. They may not have the best players on paper, but they always find a way to win. They just have the winning mentality. I have to tip my hat to them.

I believe the title race is over and Manchester United will be the league champion. They will beat us and be the winningest team in England.

I hate to say it, but really, "well done, Fergie!"

2011-03-21T19:00:00.004+08:00

Premier League Game 30:

Sunderland vs Liverpool 0:2

A good away win for us. A good bound back after the Europa exit. Although Sunderland had more possession, but our D held well and our counter-attack was effective. Overall, a well-deserved win.

We were lucky to get the first penalty (Spearing was fouled outside the box) in which Kuyt calmly nailed it (his forth goals in two games) in first half, then another piece of magic from Suarez sealed the win in second half. He gathered the ball at the byline, advanced along it and somehow blasted the ball pass GK from the tightest angle possible for our second goal. Another "WOW" moment from our new No. 7! He couldn't stop in surprising me!

My main focus in this game was definitely the 7+9 combo. My assessment? Although 9 wasn't in good form and they still need time to develop their chemistry, I already love them and I believe they are the perfect partner and will become one of the best frontline in the football world in the coming future.

Lastly, I was glad to see Agger coming back to the squad. I missed him and the team needed him.

Rank: 45; Rank: 6th

2011-03-18T18:16:00.008+08:00

And then there was none.

We were knocked out from the Europa League after a goalless draw with Braga last night. As a result, it is now official that we will once again finish the season without a trophy.

Can't say I'm surprised. I've prepared for the worse.

Of course, we still have a place for next year's European game to fight for. We are now sitting at 6th place, six points behind 5th place Hotspur (and they has a game in hand); and nine points behing 4th place Chelsea (and they also has a game in hand). Frankly, I must say the chance is pretty slim.

On the other hand, even we end up winning the berth for Europa Legaue, what good will it bring to us? More soul-less away games in some unknown Eastern Europe countries on Thursday nights? More Thursday-Saturday killer schedule? Seriously, besides the income from the competition, I bet we are better off without them. I believe we can make the extra rest time as our advantage over other contenders to fight for domestic glory next season. Anyway, our squad is not deep enough to play for so many games.

Nevertheless, I'm not used to ending the season so early (in the middle of March) and I don't like this emptyness feeling. I hope that I won't get used to it.

2011-03-07T10:32:00.012+08:00

Premier League Game 29:

Liverpool vs Manchester United 3:1

To be frank, I sorted of fancy our chance before the match (ok, before every match), but a 3-1 demolition of the league leader MU? Not even in my wildest dream...

We were energetic, determined, and lively right from the beginning. We moved the ball forward with neat passing and good running. And we were treated with a moment of sheer magic at 34th minute by our new No. 7, in which he gathered the ball in the left side of the box; zipped through Rafael, Carrick and Brown in "Messi-ish" way to reach the byline; then rolled the ball past Van der Sar and gave Kuyt the closest tap-in in his career.

I was overwhelmed by this magical moment. Suarez, in just his forth game for us, had already captured my heart. Everytime he got the ball, I anticipated something special from him and the sky was the limit. I hadn't experience this kind of excitement from a player since Torres' first season. I started to understand how Barcelona fans felt when they watched their dream team played.

We kept on pushing after the lead and good thing happened. The second goal came (from the most unexpected way) when Nani wrongly headed (from a Suzrez's cross) back the ball to allow an easy header by Kuyt from close range.

Kuyt then completed his hat-trick by another close range tap-in when Van der Sar couldn't parried away Suarez's freekick at 65th minute. A hat-trick from Kuyt? Was I dreaming?

When the game was in hand, Dalglish gave Carroll his long-awaited debut at 74th minute. He came in and won a few header handily. I liked his aerial prowess and already had high hope on this new 7-9 combo.

Gerrard came back from injury to start the game last night. He employed a deeper role in the midfield and left the offensive duty to the in-form Meireles. He was still searching for his form and this kind of holding role was a good fit for him at this moment. And the best thing was that we didn't miss him too much in the offensive end. Of course, we still loved his energy; leadership; determination and power-shot, but our life didn't hang on him alone anymore. One of the main reason we underperformed was the over-dependence to number 8 and 9. After a few shakeup in the roster, suddenly we could won game without Gerrard and Torres, and this might actually be our first step towards revival.

I didn't want to be picky on such a joyful day, but I couldn't help to point out that Lucas and Maxi were clearly our weakest link.

Lastly, this victory was liked a belated birthday present to King Kenny and he definitely loved it very much!

Point: 42; Rank: 6th

2011-02-28T11:23:00.006+08:00

Premier League Game 28:

West Ham United vs Liverpool 3:1

We came home late last night and missed the first half of the game because we were attending Uncle Wah's ceremony in Victoria Park. He's our Hero. R.I.P.

On the way home, I had the following exchange with MW:

Me: 'I don't know whether I shall watch the second half of not... Maybe I shall wait till tomorrow to watch the replay.'

MW: 'Why?'

Me: 'If I turn on the TV and find out we are leading, then it's very likely that I have missed the better part of the game; only if I find out we are even or losing, then I can truly enjoy watching it.'

MW: 'Even they are leading at half time, the opponent can rally back and you get game to watch!'

Me: '...'

So I went home and watched the second half. And the "Football God" must have heard our conservation, because he granted my wish with a 0-2 hole when I turned on the TV.

And I knew I was wrong right away. I couldn't enjoy the game because I forgot that THIS team wasn't good enough to rally from any deficit (not in away game, at least). At the end, this hole was simply too deep to climb.

I didn't know the D in first half, but I could say out loud that the D in second half was a mess! West Ham players found more than enough space up front and created many chances to extend the lead. Suarez and Johnson was the only bright spots for us in the front. Together they created the only goal for us and gave me a glimpse of hope which was later shattered when Skrtel clumsily allowed Cole to ran around him and beat Reina (who failed to guard the near post) to score the third goal for West Ham at the end of the match.

Our away woe came back and our dream of top-four finish was pretty much over after this game. And we had our big guest (MU) waiting at Anfield next Sunday. Let's hope King Kenny will find a way to lift us back on track for the big fight!

Point: 39; Rank: 6th

P.S. I am not an Arsenal fan although I like Wenger and their football style. (How can I be? I still remember Michael Thomas' stunner! I just don't hate them as much as MU.) But losing the Carling Cup to Birmingham City in this way? I can feel your pain, Gunners fans. I really do.

2011-02-13T16:00:00.004+08:00

Premier League Game 27:

Liverpool vs Wigan Athletic 1:1

This match just showed us how thing had changed in a month time. If the same result happened under Hodgson one month ago, fans would be yelling to fire the manager; but under King Kenny, we just stayed calm and looked forward to the next match. Life was unfair, right?

The main reason that I was fine with the result was that the team played good enough to win. I found many positive things from the game and I could proudly say that we were unfortunate to drop two points last night.

We played offensive football with good morale and positive attitude. Meireles gave us the dream start by scoring his fifth goal in six matches. Although Wigan got one back (off-side???) in the second half, we tried our best to push forward and nearly won the game at the end. We were showing good progress on the pitch. Of course, the single most prominent positive was the performance of our new No. 7.

Suarez made his long-awaited first start for us. And I was very impressed. I liked him immediately. He was a quick, skillful, and clever kid. He was everywhere up-front and brought energy to our offense. Liked other South American player, his had good dribbing and passing skill and we definitely needed this individualism to break tight defense in the future. He was smart and knew all the tricks to win free-kick (but not to the extend of flopping). He also had good finishing touch, and was unlucky last night to hit the post twice. If either one went in, we got our five straight victories.

I know I'm thinking way too far ahead, but Suarez just reminds me of another Liverpool legend (also a No. 7): Peter Beardsley.

So we now have Beardsley (Suarez) and Barnes (Johnson), isn't it good karma?

I am looking forwards to the partnership between him and Carroll. Will it be the perfect combination of 7+9?

Piont: 39; Rank: 6th

2011-02-07T21:00:00.011+08:00

Premier League Game 26:

Chelsea vs Liverpool 0:1

Sometimes thing happened to make people wonder about the karma/fate thing. The first game Torres played for his new club Chelsea was against us, his former club. Life was cruel, right?

Of course Torres took all the spotlight before the match, but who could expect him being the first one to leave the game without making any impact? For the real star in this game? I had to hand it to our Carragher.

He made a surprise return to the squad and he strengthen our defense right away with his leadership and experience. It's not coincidence that we ran into a bad spell of losing 12 goals in 6 games soon after his injury, which made him the early candidate of our MVP this season. (And I had to confess, I already hate myself in typing the last two sentences. And Carragher for MVP simply showed you how horrible our season was so far.)

Dalglish played 3 central defenders to counteract Chelsea "fearful" frontline trio of Torres/ Drogba/ Anelka, and it worked beautifully. Genius Kenny! The partnership of Torres and Drogba with Anelka playing behind them didn't work for Ancelotti last night. Torres had a few half chances (included a gift pass from Maxi) and couldn't convert them, he looked tensed and uncertain on pitch. Seemed that a change of scenary couldn't boost up his form instantly. And that £50m price tag would haunt him for a long long time. Was he mentally tough enough to shoulder it? That's the one big question hanging over many Chelsea fans right now...

With our new 5-4-1 (Kuyt as lone striker) neutralizing Chelsea frontline and playing evenly with them in the mifield, we had the best chance in the first half, only Maxi managed to hit the crossbar from an extremely close range (less than 6 yards). I still couldn't figure out how he could miss this.

Chance was scarce for both sides in the second half, but our red-hot Meireles found the perfect spot at perfect time (a misunderstanding between Cech and Ivanovic) again to score his 4 goals in 5 matches. Unbelievable!

Chelsea tried to rally back but couldn't threaten us till the end. I recognised the all-too-familiar frustrating look on the faces of their players, and I knew it's not their day. We nearly extend the lead by counter-attack and settled for a deserved 1-0 win at the end.

Although we won the game, I still wanted to pick on Lucas's performance. I knew many "expert" said that he had improved a lot in the past two seasons, but in my "layman" opinion, he was still the weakest link in our team. He was too prone to turnover (either by holding the ball too long or making risky pass for opponent to intercept) and too impulsive to commit stupid foul in danger area. Everytime he got the ball in our backyard, I started to worry that he might do something foolish... Would someone in the right mind please remove him from our squad, please?!

If you told me we would get a home-away victory against Chelsea before this season started, I would think deep about our chance and try to talk myself into it; but if you told me the same thing during the season (right before the first Chelsea game), I would say you're crazy. And that's the most amazing thing in sport, you never know what you got on any given day.

Point: 38; Rank: 6th

2011-02-06T23:55:00.004+08:00

Premier League Game 25:

Liverpool vs Stoke City 2:0

It's a busy week (Singapore trip in the CNY), I could only finish watching this match after the trip (and just before the Chelsea game), so I'd keep it short.

I was a bit worried at the beginning when I saw the lineup with Kuyt as the lone striker (I repeat, Kuyt was never a striker/forward anymore, NEVER! HE COULDN"T SCORE!!!). Bad memories from Benitez's era kept flashing back in my mind (all the goal-less draws in the 4-6-0 formation).

I was glad that thing turned out differently in King Kenny's hand.

It's a good win for us. Three in a row. Wow!

Meireles was clearly on fire in recent games. Three goals in four matches. He always appear in the right spot at the right time to score.

And I was happy for Suarez (a sub) to get his first goal for the club in his debut. A wonderful feat. I liked his style since I always admire skillful forward.

At the end, no Torres, no problem.

See you tonight, Torres.

Point: 35; Rank: 7th (+ve g.d. finally)

2011-02-01T11:40:00.007+08:00

The last few days went liked a blur to me. Transfer deadline was never so exciting to me before.

Things really heated up and went fast in the past few days: First, we were way short of Ajax's asking price for Suarez last week and we had the Saturday deadline to beat; then we got Suarez for £22.7m over the weekend; then news of Chelsea's first and second bid for Torres broke out but the price was way too low to make us worry; then Torres' buy-out price of £50m was revealed and Torres had filed a transfer request (rejected by the club) and thing suddenly got serious (and the thought of losing him appeared in my mind for the first time); Carroll's bid came out of nowhere last night; and the last thing I knew before I slept was we got Carroll for a then-British transfer record £35 million; I wake up this morning and the first thing I learn that we have sold Torres to Chelsea for a British transfer record £50m soon after the Carroll's deal. What a night!

In summary, we pay £7.7m to replace Torres with Suarez and Carroll. If you count in the money we got from the Babel sale (£6m), we have basically paid nothing to change our new frontline. Is it an upgrade from what we got? Here's my verdict: I like the price of Suarez (it's reasonable), and I think Carroll's price tag is too high (for such a young unproven talent), and I'm surprised by Chelsea's offer for Torres (£50m? For a out-of-form-for-nearly-two-seasons-Torres? Come on!). Ultimately, how much we pay for Carroll depends on how far Chelsea is willing to pay for Torres. Also, we needed a striker for the second half of the season after Torres left and it's extremely difficult to get one before the transfer deadline. With all these factors in mind, I feel more comfortable with Carroll's price. It's a good business move by our new boss John W Henry. He showed that he was committed to the club and wouldn't shy to make bold move last night. I really like that.

For my take on Torres' departure, I know it's inevitable at the bottom of my heart but I just don't want to admit it. (Looking back, all the signs were there: he didn't come out to clear the rumor last summer; his persistently poor physical form; his moody mental outlook throughout this season... His heart just wasn't here, and for quite some time.) Of course I don't want him to leave as a fan because he is such an amazing player to watch when he's on and I always want the best player to be with us. However, the problem is that the day when he's on has become very rare this season and he doesn't look like the same electrifying player anymore. Maybe it's all mental and he will resume greatness after the change of scenery, but at least the best days of him in a Liverpool shirt is over (and that's the single strongest reason why we should sell him knowing that he doesn't want to stay with us). To be frank, I'm amused that we can still get such a good price for him at this juncture. I secretly approve the deal and think we have stolen something from Chelsea here.

So, farewell Torres and thank you for the ride.

And, welcome Suarez and Carroll! You'll never walk alone!

2011-01-27T23:38:00.005+08:00

Premier League Game 24:

Liverpool vs Fulham 1:0

A big confession: it's the first game this season that I knew the result before I watched the game.

All blame to Cable TV News! And because of that, I just scanned through the recorded game in 10 minutes. Therefore, this one would be really short.

I just gave my impression here: (1) We were lucky to win this one, we didn't play well and Fulham played decent enough to get a draw. (2) Torres disallowed goal was ON-side. (3) We had back-to-back wins! (4) I forgot to mention it in the last post, but Glen Johnson's new hair-cut made him a John Barnes look-alike to me. The funny part? He had switched to play in the left side like Barnes under Dalglish! Could I regard it as a good karma for the team?

Point: 32; Rank: 7th (the highest place so far)

2011-01-23T10:07:00.006+08:00

Premier League Game 23:

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Liverpool 0:3

We lost to Wolves at Anfield early this season, one of our most humiliating loss in the season. This was our time for revenge.

However, since we had lost five straight away games before this one and we had only one away win in eleven trails so far, I didn't dare to say I had a ton of confident coming into this game.

The lowly Wolves played like their name (a beast) right from the beginning. Their aggressive and physical play coupled with the suboptimal ground condition certainly made us worked hard to fight for possession. We gradually settled down, picked up the pace, and started using the pass-and-run game to control the game. To me, the single biggest improvement under Dalglish (from the team standpoint) was our ball passing/keeping ability. Once the guys started moving the ball well, offense followed.

The first goal finally came when Poulsen made a rare creative pass breaking an off-side trap to reach Meireles who calmly passed to Torres for the easy finish. This was the third time in a row that we scored first in a game (another good trend under Dalglish), in the first time we lost 1-2 at the end; in the second time we came back from 1-2 down to force a draw; we were finally able to extend the lead in our third trail, by a gravity-defying jaw-dropping trick-shot from Meireles, no less. Frankly, not until then could I finally feel comfortable about our situation. Torres scored his second of the night from close range in stoppage time for the final result.

Finally, King Kenny got his first win under the belt. Hopefully it's the first of many to come.

Point: 29; Rank 10th

2011-01-17T18:57:00.008+08:00

Premier League Game 22:

Liverpool vs Everton 2:2

It's the first home game in Dalglish's second stint with us. And Dalglish's last game with us in his first stint was also against Everton, wasn't fate an interesting thing (esp when that game also ended up a draw)?

In the first half, we played our best football in quite a long time. We were more aggressive, fast and adventurous on the pitch. Our ball movement was more fluent and we created quite a few chances. Whether it's the magic of Dalglish or because we're playing at home, I didn't know. But one thing really stood out after his return was the improved form/confidence of Torres. He played lively in the first half and only the far post could deny him from scoring a goal. At the end, we had to settle with a 1-0 lead (Meireles scored his first goal for us after Kuyt double efforts were both denied by an outstanding Howard).

I was in good mood after the first half and went to enjoy a warm shower in this cold weather. However, everything changed when I came back to the game. We were already down 1-2 with just seven minutes into the second half.

Oh, my! Not again!!! How many times in this season had we scored first but couldn't came out with a win??? (Five: Arsenal 1-1; Sunderland 2-2; Wigan 1-1; Hotspur 1-2; and last week's Blackpool 1-2) This's the single worst trend of our team this season. Good team only built on lead, never gave away them. We liked those lower-tier team who was lucky enough to steal the first goal early in the game, then couldn't stop the contender from fighting back to tie/win the game. Wait... we were exactly a lower-tier team in the table! We were just fulfilling our role here, marvellous...

And this lower-tier team was lucky enough in this derby to get the chance to tie the game from the spot, and Kuyt calmly kicked it in. With it, we got the first league point for King Kenny.

Our overall performance was better than last game, we were making baby steps (especially in the offensive side). Of course, there's still a long way to go before we can proudly said that we had finally turned the corner. And I believed that we could do it in the hand of the King.

Point: 26; Rank: 13th (still 4 points away from relegation zone)

2011-01-13T15:59:00.004+08:00

Premier League Game 21:

Blackpool vs Liverpool 2:1

I watched it with high hope before the game. I was excited right from the beginning. But I was disappointed at the end.

Another loss. Sigh...

To me, the only bright spot was Torres finally scored again (a thunder-striker at the top of the net). And because he did it so early (3rd minute), it gave me the false impression/hope that everything has actually changed with Dalglish in the helm.

Of course, once I saw Blackpool players started dominating the game, I knew it's only my over-reaction as a fan.

At the end, nothing really changed after the change. At least, not so fast.

We still couldn't win in away game; the D was still sloppy; G. Johnson was still G. Johnson (even in the left side); the O was still sluggish; and we still gave up too many possession...

Dunno why, but it seemed that our players couldn't pass and control the ball well. I often saw player passed the ball out of position or player couldn't handle the pass properly. This kind of little error just disrupted the flow of our offense. Was it a technical problem or psychological issue? Afterall, they were professional footballer who got paid for money we could only dream of! It's just unacceptable to me. Hope Dalglish could notice this problem and correct it in the training groud.

In Dalglish, I trusted.

Point: 25; Rank: 13th

2011-01-10T21:22:00.004+08:00

FA Cup Round 3:

Manchester United vs Liverpool 1:0

First of all, Hodgson left the team before this game. I felt sorry for him.

Then came the King, Kenny Dalglish took over the job till the end of the season. It's a strange feeling to me because Dalglish was the manager of Liverpool when I first supported the team back in the 80'! And all the good memories during his reign (the good old days) was the main reason why I was so hooked on to the team and supported them through thick and thin for more than 20 years till today... (To me, fan was a life-time commitment.)

Kenny, welcome back after all these years!

He immediately faced a tough task in his first game back: FA Cup tie; against old rival Fergie's MU; at Old Trafford.

The first starting lineup from Dalglish was interesting. There's three changes in the back four (Kelly, Agger and Aurelio) and I particularly welcomed the first two. He played five midfielders (Gerrard, Meireles, Maxi, Lucas and Kuyt) and Torres was the lone striker (I never regarded Kuyt as a forward, I just couldn't...). It's more like the 4-5-1 in Bentiez era, which was a rational decision in view of the circumstance.

However, before Dalglish could even sit comfortably on the bench, we were down 0-1. The decision to award a penalty was a bit harsh in my opinion, but that's football and the team had to move on. We tried to fight back and the match was pretty even after the penalty until Gerrard's red card. This time I had no opposition to ref's decision except he still had the choice to give a yellow?

So, we were down 1 (goal) and down 1 (player) going back to the dressing room at half time. I wondered what Dalglish would talk to the players in that 15 minutes, but obviously he said something inspiring because the team came out determined and energetic.

I liked their positive attitude and admired their work-rate and effort in the second half. However, we had to face the reality that our opponent was a deep, experienced and talented team which knew how to finish the game. They applied more pressure and tried to kill us off but we somehow (Reina made 5 consecutive saves at one point) able to keep our slim chance alive. We kept on fighting and fighting but we simply didn't have the strenght to create any decent chance, and we lost 0-1 at the end.

Any loss was disappointing. At least I could see one good thing in this game, which was our fighting spirit. If they can bring this spirit to the next league game, good thing may actually happen!

2011-01-09T18:23:00.001+08:00

Top 10 song in 2010:

1) 無人之境--陳奕迅: I like the arrangement (the lingering feeling hidden inside the song), and I love Y's lyrics, especially the word "want" in "我信與你繼續亂纏難再有發展但我想跟你亂纏", just beautiful.

2) 寂寞是最無敵--陸永@農夫: The only song that I can remember all the lyrics (and it's a RAP song just tell you how much I love it) in 2010. Period.

3) 無忘花--林二汶: The most lovely melody in 2010. And Eman just reminds me how good a singer she is in this song.

4) 一轉身卻天亮了--Rubberband: The best arrangement of the year! I always move my body when I hear the intro! This guys can really play but I still think the voice of their lead vocal is too feminine.

5) 陀飛輪--陳奕迅: I love it the first time I hear it, but its ranking keeps sliding down with time. I think the arrangement is too flat.

6) 吹摯友--C君@農夫 featuring 方大同: I love the interaction between C君 and Khalil. But if I tell you its inclusion has nothing to do with Khalil, you'll probably say 離晒譜我已被接駁到...

7) 兩人行--李克勤: I like and echo what Eric Kwok says about this song, "it's a song with attitude."

8) 有沒有--韋禮安: One guitar, one voice; so simple, so nice.

9) 超人不會飛--周杰倫: I always like this kind of Jay-style song. And his concert was the best I watched in 2010.

10) 24--農夫: To be frank, it's another tough year to select my top 10 and I need to search real hard to pick the tenth song. The fact that there's no new cantonese album for Kay, Ivana, HOCC, Anthony Wong, and no album for Khalil explains everything. The music market in HK was really bad in 2010. Let's hope thing will turn around in 2011. Unexpectedly, FAMA released two solid albums last year, so they got the edge for the tenth place in my top 10.

Best album in 2010: 奇蹟--農夫 (among them, I like 6 Wing's album more), Time flies--陳奕迅 (too bad it's only an EP), 罪人--李克勤

Best singer in 2010: 李克勤 (beat hoarse-voice-Eason handily), 林二汶 (in the absence of Ivana and Kay), 農夫 (good in both quantity and quality)

2011-01-06T21:27:00.005+08:00

Premier League Game 20:

Blackburn Rovers vs Liverpool 3:1

(Another away loss and obviously we built nothing from last week stoppage-time-rally.)

I don't know thing will go bad like this. And after twenty post-game reports for so many awful football games, I start running out of word to write about...

I was bored in writing the same old stuffs again and again: shaky D, disorganised O, frustated Torres, useless Ngog, lacked of confidence and poor form, always lose in away games... The problem list were endless.

And they topped themselves again last night.

The D was worse than a joke. The poor positioning between G. Johnson and Kyrgiakos led to the first goal; Kyrgiakos' slow reaction let Benjani got passed him with a fake and turn to score the second gaol; Skrtel somehow allowed Hoilett to get pass him at the corner and G. Johnson was slow to stop him from making a cross to Benjani to score his second goal and made it 3-0. To be frank, these scenes were a bit nasty to watch as a fan.

As every away games this season, the O was anemic. Gerrard striked one back at 81th minute and he nearly got us back to 2-3 if he didn't miss the penalty at 85th minute. And the last sentence was literally all our O could offer for the entire match. Pathetic.

I can't help but feel sorry for Hodgson. I know that majority of fans want him to leave. But to me, he is never the only one to blame (and I seldom gave harsh comment on him in this blog). He may be too conservative, sometime over-defensive (esp. in away games), and his in-game response is a bit slow. But at least, he is never as egotistic, stubborn and selfish as Benitez. I never understand why many fans still fond of Benitez and think that it's wrong to fire him (and some may even want him back). I know he has brought us the Champions League trophy and a runner-up finish in the Premier League, but I also remember how his ego (the R. Keane saga) and conservative approach (I can never forget his ultra-conservative 4-6-0 formation) has costed our chance to win the Premier League. To me, I always believe the players themselves are the main reason for our poor result this season. I may probably never know the reason for their collective under-performance but many of them really looked lost on the pitch. Unless the main reason is that Hodgson has lost their respect and trust so they intentionally played poorly in order to expel him, I don't think Hodgson is our biggest problem. Of course, I know from the team owner's standpoint, firing the manager is the easiest (you only need to fire one person) and cheapest (all players are under luxurious contract) way to make a "change" in this kind of crisis.

Point: 25; Rank: 12th (and only 4 points from the relegation zone)

2011-01-02T22:39:00.007+08:00

Premier League Game 19:

Liverpool vs Bolton Wanderers 2:1

Maybe it's destiny that life is tough for Reds fans.

After the mid-week disaster, what's waiting for us last night was a nerve-racking; nail-biting; come-from-behind; stoppage-time-tap-in victory.

Overall performance was better than last game (but it's pretty hard to play worse than that), our offense finally woke up in the second half and we dominated the game. Although I believed there're still a lot of room for improvement.

Bad things: (1) Torres performance was still far from his top form, and he was trying to overdo things on the pitch right now, which was not a good thing for him and the team. (2) The D still sucked. Glen Johnson was back to his old self again. (3) We were lucky that the ref missed the penalty call for Bolton (handball) late in the game. (4) The first half.

Good things: (1) Torres scored a wonderful goal. The touch was still there. (2) Joe Cole (finally) scored his first league goal for the team after half a season. We definitely needed his creativity in the middle to spark our anemic offense. (3) Gerrard was fit again. He played lively last night with two great crosses. (4) The second half.

Point: 25; Rank: 9th

2010-12-30T21:32:00.008+08:00

Premier League Game 18:

Liverpool vs Wolverhampton Wanderers 0:1

It had been more than two weeks since we played our last meaningful game. Time really flied. However, there's thing that won't change with time. Liked our poor performance on pitch. It even got worse with time.

We lost to the last-place Wolves 0-1 last night. At home. Deservedly.

Oh my... This one really hurted, even more than the Blackpool home defeat.

Our D was horrible last night. Skrtel and Kyrgiakos clumsily allowed Ebanks-Blake's through-ball to squeeze between them to reach Ward and beat Reina for the game winner. And the fact that Glen Johnson was our best defender in the game spoke volume of how bad our D was last night.

Our O was also horrible. I liked the decision to play 4-4-2, but there's no partnership between Torres and Ngog for two straight games. We lost the midfield battle badly although Gerrard was back. And we created nothing in the offensive end. Torres played poorly once again. He looked (I didn't want to say it but...) disinterested at times. I started to believe that the chance of keeping him after this season was getting lower and lower...

Our manager was clueless. If not, why he took out Ngog for Babel when we needed more fire-power? I felt sorry for Ngog because he was clearly one of the better offensive player on the pitch last night. It made me wonder did the players still believe Hodgson?

At last, we have finished all the games in 2010. It is possibly the worst football year to me as a Reds fan. However, I can't fight off the feeling "the worst is yet to come" in me... I really hope that I am wrong this time.

Point: 22; Rank: 12th

2010-12-30T13:07:00.013+08:00

We watched Andy Lau's concert last night. His concert was the experience for ultimate fandom because Andy was the ultimate idol.

When I was looking for material to write in this blog during the show, suddenly an idea striked me, I should write about Andy himself instead of his concert this time. And I liked this idea immediately.

So, let's talk about Andy.

For the record, my ranking for the "four big sky king" is: Jacky, Andy, Leon, Aaron. The only reason Andy can finish second is that he's cool. To me, everything he did in his entire career is about being cool. He is the coolest artist in his generation. Period. (OK, probably second to Lesile, but don't you agree that Lesile is a bit too sentimental and fragile?)

Andy is never a particularly good singer to me although his "forever lonely" is one of my all-time favourite song. Back then, I always think that Jacky was robbed when Andy got all the TVB's most popular male singer awards. Andy is never a particularly good actor to me either. Back then, I thought that he stole the best actor in HK film award because of his fame and seniority. In short, (back then) he was an overrated singer and actor in my opinion. And I still stand by it today.

Nevertheless, he stays atop in the entertainment business year after year after year and never look back. His longevity is the most amazing element in his career. How can he achieve that? The answer is simple, his diligence and professionalism.

Yes, he is never as talented as Jacky or Tony. But he is arguably the most hardworking artist in the business. And he keeps the same level of intensity after all these years. I remembered watching his concert in 2008 and was stunned by how demanding his performance was at that time. ("He doesn't need to do this! He's Andy Lau! He can just stand out, sings a few songs and everyone will be happy!") Andy finally earns my respect. It's really impossible to hate him after all the hard work for so many years. I have to tip my hat to him.

As a result, he get my nod for the title of "the most sucessful local artist in my generation" after thirty years of A-list status (in popularity standpoint) in singing AND acting career, and I truly believe that no one can top that. Not even Jacky (only singing, little acting); Eason (ditto); Tony (only acting, little singing); or Lesile (career too short).

To me, that's my ultimate compliment for Andy.

Three things stood out from his concert last night: The laser effect (stunningly cool); his 6-pack abdominal muscle (at this age... are you kidding me?); and the complicated stage effect (and the fireworks). On the other hand, two things really bothered me: I couldn't see the band (it was hidden under the stage); and I didn't hear Andy saying any credit to the band. Just didn't feel right to me.

We had Twins as our special guest (and luckily we also had at 17 as well in encore) last night and I still can't get over it right now. It's the first time I heard their live performance (and I hope it was also the last time) and I was glad that it happened this way (just one song, minimize the torture). Because now I earn the right to say that they SUCK. They were singing their famous song "girl school boy student" and still sucked the big time. G's performance was historically bad that I refused to give a grade (because I could barely hear her voice, could I give an "abs"?). S managed to get a pass for her K-room performance. These two girls just never improve.

I didn't know why Andy invited them (any secret deal with Mr Sheep?), but it seemed that he didn't want any piece of them because he only chatted with them briefly before rushing to back-stage! Also, Twins were the only guests who didn't sing the assigned song "bright star". Might be Andy know their ability and didn't want them to ruin the song. I thought it's a good call (they couldn't decently sing their own song, how could they handle a new song?). Twins didn't deserve to sing "bright star" because they were not a true "super-star"!

Fortunately, we had at 17 as our "redemption" guest in encore. And this erased all the bitter taste left in my mouth to end an entertaining night.

2010-12-12T21:31:00.011+08:00

Premier League Game 17:

Newcastle United vs Liverpool 3:1

Dunno why, seemed that we had many late games this season. This one started at 1:30am last night and I had the privilege to watch the game in my bedroom... and liked most of our game this season, we played so bad that I felt asleep after first half...

We were down 0-1 when I went to bed, and lost 1-3 at the end.

Another away loss. And until we start winning away games, I don't think we have turned any corner yet.

Our away performance is simply awful. Last night was just another sample to consolidate this notion.

The lineup was decent. Hodgson played 4-4-2 with Torres paired with Ngog upfront, which was a good sign to me. How wrong was I! There was no chemistry between them throughout the whole game. Torres turned back to his pre-Chelsea-double self. He looked lost; frustrated; angry; and disinterested on the pitch. Most importantly, he gave me the impression that he didn't enjoy the game much. What's really happening to him? I can't help but relate him to Eason's voice, but is it possible that the best era of Torres has already been over?

We were lucky to tie the game early in the second half with a deflected goal by Kuyt. The timing was perfect, and I expected the boys to fight back and control the game from there (it's what good team did, right?). However, nothing really happened and we never took over the game.

Our D was a mess last night. We were destroyed by Carroll. He won nearly all the header and scored the last goal when our D gave him too many spaces/time to aim the strike.

We faded as a team against Newcastle physical play. It's a common problem when we faced the so-called lower-tier teams in away games. We didn't have the right mindset going into the game. We couldn't play the stylish attacking football like the other first-rank team to break down the physical D, and we were not willing/able to play the physcial football to fight for a point. Therefore, we just got stuck in the middle and played poorly in all these away games.

I think it's time for the team and the fans to accept the fact that we are a middle-table team right now. With that in mind, last night game wouldn't be a shock at all. The home team won in a middle-table game made every sense to me, right?

Point: 22, Rank: 9th (falls back to negative g.d. again...)

2010-12-07T17:44:00.006+08:00

Premier League Game 16:

Liverpool vs Aston Villa 3:0

This game featured the return of Houllier. To be frank, I was never a big fan of him (even in the 3-trophies season) because of his conservative approach. Looking back, it seemed I was never a fan of any manager since (how about) Dalglish... Is it a problem of me or something else?

This was a Monday night game, so we knew the deal, another fast-forward viewing this afternoon. This one is a blur to me, because I finish it in 15 minutes, and the game literally finishes after 16 minutes (when Ngog and Babel made it 2-0).

I am shocked when I find out there's no Torres in the starting lineup. Does he get injuried again? I am relieved when I find out that he got a day off only because his wife was in labour. Best wishes to him and his family!

No Carragher; no Gerrard; and no Torres, no problem this time.

Meireles and Maxi started to show their potential in midfield and suddenly we are facing the question of where to fit in Joe Cole and Gerrard when they come back from injury?

And we have played 4-4-2 for three games in a row and the result is quite promising. It's a good sign to me. Keep it up and trust the players, Hodgson!

Lastly, let me congratulate Reina for his 100th clean sheet (in 198th league matches), what a feat! You're my hero!

Point: 22, Rank 8th (and finally, we have a positive goal diff.)

2010-12-01T23:02:00.005+08:00

Ivana x Khalil x Sodagreen LIVE!

Frankly, this is the most anticipated 903Live ever, to me.

The only reason is the casting. Likes a dream comes true.

Seriously, I enjoyed the night but I was a bit disappointed.

For two reasons. First, Khalil's performance was clearly affected by his recent pneumothorax. Second, their song selection was really unusual to common fans like me. Many songs (especially the English songs) were unheard of. I had to admit that, at times, I felt a bit bored.

Performance-wise, Sodagreen (青峰) (what a wonderful/lovely voice!) > Ivana (the later the stronger) > Khalil (obviously not in top form). Khalil ranked last was an expected result before the show (even without the pneumothorax incident), and he didn't need to feel bad for it in such an "all-star" cast.

The highlight of the show must be the duet time. 月亮說 by Ivana+青峰 was the first highlight (their voices were so matched!), and 紅豆 by Khalil/償還 by 青峰 (a perfect mismatch?) was definitely the second. (The biggest surprise of the night must be 青峰's cantonese, so cute!) I also liked "my favourite things" by Ivana+Khalil and "heal the world" by Khalil+青峰.

Lastly, the sound system of the show was still subpar (a fundamental problem of the venue?). However with all these good voices, the overall vocal performance was still one of the best in recent years (only second to the all-time-best Khalil x Hins LIVE).

2010-11-29T17:03:00.006+08:00

Premier League Game 15:

Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool 2:1

It's true that sometimes a loss may feel better than a win. And last night tough loss at White Hart Lane was definitely one of them. I enjoyed the game very much although it did leave a bitter taste in mouth at the end.

Hotspur was the team that replaced our place in the Champions League this season. They proved that they were no fluke by beating Inter Milan en route to the knockout phase of the Champions League. They also rallied from 0-2 to beat Arsenal 3-2 at Emirates last week. They were loaded with young talents who were skillful and speedy (Bale, Lennon, Modric, and Defoe) and had the best wing offense in the league. They were playing fast, aggressive and attacking football. They were exciting to watach. In short, they were the team I admired and loved to follow.

And Liverpool matched them quite evenly last night. That's the major reason I was happy about. The game was fast and open, and both sides had chances to score. We took the lead by a lucky goal from Skrtel in the box in the first half. We then wasted two golden opportunities (one by Maxi and one by Torres) to extend the lead before half time. Hotspur came at us in the second half and we immediately felt the pressure. Their created chances after chances, and we barely held on. They had a missed penalty and a ball cleared at the white line (by Meireles). They kept on coming and finally got the equaliser by a Skrtel own goal (from Modric's cross after he breezed through three defenders to enter the penalty area). Both team didn't stop from here and were both looking for the winner. At the end, Hotspur got the last laught when Lennon ran past Konchesky with ease and beat Reina to make it 2-1 in stoppage time.

Although I think we deserved to get a point from the game with the way we played, we have to live with the result now. To me, the most important thing is that we can be consistent and maintain this high level of playing (esp the offense) in the future. If we can do that, I believe good thing (and point) will come.

Point: 19, Rank: 10th

2010-11-21T17:36:00.003+08:00

Premier League Game 14:

Liverpool vs West Ham United 3:0

We were not in good shape recently. We had two poor away efforts in a row and our captin was injuried in national duty. Therefore, playing the team at the bottom of table at home didn't feel like a walkover to me before the game.

Although it turned out to be a easy walkover for us (I had the luxary to sleep after half time), I won't jump to the conclusion that we had turn any corner this time. It was because the opponent was simply too weak. West Ham was definitely the worst team in the league and they derserved to sit at the bottom of the table right now. I learned from this game that the easiest way to improve performance was playing against a much weaker team! But we all knew that it didn't mean anything in term of team progress and development. Let's wait till this Sunday to see where we were really heading to when we faced the up-and-coming Hotspur (who just rallied from 0-2 deficit and beat Arsenal 3-2 last night) at White Hart Lane.

Having said that, there're still two things I liked about: Firstly, welcomed back, G. Johnson. And secondly, Hodgson finally started Ngog alongside Torres, and I really welcomed this trial.

By the way, Chelsea lost 0-1 to Birmingham last night and it's the third losses in their past four matches. In hindsight, their poor run of results really diminished the magnitude of our victory against them. No wonder we played two awful mathes afterwards, we really hadn't turn the corner yet...

Point: 19, Rank: 9th

P.S. The fact that we are only 9 points behind co-leader Chelsea and MU; and only 3 points behind fifth place Bolton just show the tightness of the Premier League this season. Anything can happen in this league. I haven't given up all the hope for a top four finish yet. (I must be crazy.)

2010-11-14T10:50:00.008+08:00

Premier League Game 13:

Stoke City vs Liverpool 2:0

At the end, the team proved that I was too naive and the corner was too big to turn around last night.

Another big let-down.

It's really a deja vu. Since the second half of the Chelsea game, we have played awful football for 5 straight halfs.

We lost possession too easily; we were always one step slower; we had no coordination; our players basically rushed to give away the ball in midfield and passed it to nowhere; our strikers couldn't hold anything up-front; and we couldn't keep the ball to organise our offense...

We failed take over the match and create any decent chance after Hodgson threw in Ngog and Babel. And with the way we played, I suspected we could never score a goal even if we threw 10 strikers to the pitch...

Just pathetic.

I hate to type this, but it's so true. We were worse than Stoke City in every aspect of the game. We were deserved to lose.

Lesson to learn? Never say "we have turned the corner" again.

Point: 16, Rank 11th (Another disappointing stat in the table is the negative goal diff., we are at -4 now and it looks like a big mountain to climb.)

2010-11-11T19:25:00.002+08:00

Premier League Game 12:

Wigan Athletic vs Liverpool 1:1

The first mid-week express of the season.

I don't like this express stuff very much because the game is too late for me. I can't watch it live most of the time (maybe unless the opponent is one of the "big four").

Of course, this game is no different. I recorded it last night and watch it this morning.

I will do it (post-game report) fast this time because, I watch it fast(-ward) this morning.

The game itself is a big disappointment to me. We got a high-profile win (over Chelsea) after a long slump just 3 days ago and many people (myself included) were saying we had finally turned the corner. Then comes this "anti-statement" game. We have a bright start with Torres scores his third goals in four days time (from Gerrard through pass and a quick finish, he is getting close to his top form). However, everything spirals downward from there. Wigan takes over the game and we are restricted in our own half to defend. We lose possession way too easy and Wigan's winger causes a lot of trouble in both flanks. They finally equalise the game in second half and we are lucky to force a draw at the end (although Gerrard may win it for us if his shoot isn't denied by the crossbar). A really poor performance for our boys.

This game reminds me of the dark ages before (4 straight losses) and after (5 winless games) the MU victory (Torres scored a stunning goal in that game too) last season.

Deja vu? Of course, I hope not.

And let's hope the team will prove me wrong with a win against Stoke City in the coming weekend.

Point: 16, Rank: 9th

2010-11-08T20:39:00.003+08:00

Premier League Game 11:

Liverpool vs Chelsea 2:0

What a bounce!

Frankly, I thought before the game that a draw was the best we could get against the champion. I had dreamed about a win.

Then I wittnessed the wildest dream in this season.

We played with urgency and intensity right from the beginning. Kuyt returned from injury and immediately proved his value by chipping a pass over Terry to Torres. Torres gathered the pass in one touch then fired the ball past Cech to give us the lead early in the game.

We kept on pushing and dominated the first half. We played literally our best first half of the season. And Torres doubled our lead just before half time, this time by an even better goal.

He first got the pass from Meireles at left flank, then cut inside and curled the ball through Ivanovic and Terry to the far post and scored.

Simply an unbelievable strike by an unbelievable striker.

El Nino was, officially, back!

(Let's me apologized to Torres here: I should never ever doubt your talent, heart, commitment, mentality and work ethics. Of course you were not Owen. I was really sorry. Please don't leave us after this season.)

Chelsea fought back in the second half with the introduction of Drogba. Our back four held strongly and Reina produced a few fine saves (one hit the crossbar) to keep a clean sheet at the end. Maxi had a great chance to make it 3-0 but Cech denied him.

Overall, a good game and a great night for the fans and the new boss.

Point: 15, Rank: 9th (in the top half of the table for the first time this season!)

P.S. I don't really care about jinx or whatsoever, I just want to say that after all these waiting and empty promises (from Rafa last year), I believe we have finally turned the corner. I really hope that we are heading to the right direction with the new boss. We will never walk alone.

2010-11-04T23:10:00.006+08:00

After all those years, Dayo finally arrives HK Coliseum.

I was a bit worried before the show because I thought the venus was too big for standup. And the fact that he hosted a four-sided stage just made me more nervous about the outcome. Afterall standup is all about interaction with the crowd, and I have wittnessed disaster (aka FAMA) in the past in which the energy from the performer could barely past through row 16 on the floor.

Another reason for my anxiety is the topic. I'm never a fan of sequel. I basically don't want to hear Dayo making fun of entertainment gossip all night long. I want to hear his trademark: a darker; deeper; and thoughtful standup.

After the show, I was exhausted and my jaw was aching. The show was fantastic. One of the best in recent years for Dayo (at least in term of instant response).

I was wrong on nearly everything! Dayo simply owned the crowd and his presence was bigger than ever in a larger venue. The crowd just loved him! Considering his stamina (the number of audience of 8 shows in Coliseum is more than 30 shows in the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, you do the math.) and box-office response, I don't think he will return to the old home anymore.

For the content, I wrongly under-estimated Dayo once again. He nearly never talked about entertainment gossip (rarely mentioned any artist's name) but he did his best yet again by making fun of himself. He used his own tragic acting career to illustrate life. It was very funny on site, but yet again, it was pretty sad when you came home and thought about it again.

Classic Dayo standup. I always ask for second and third viewing.

His last gag "咩得,未咩囉!" simply concluded the show for us: most of us probably could never fulfill our dream due to various constraint in life, having said that, we should tried our best to fulfill our potential in what life brought us. In his case, although he couldn't be a sucessful actor, he still ended up the greatest standup performer in HK.

2010-11-03T13:18:00.012+08:00

After six fantastic seasons, "Lost" finally ended.

We started our annual October-"Lost"-marathon last week and finished the series finale last night.

Wow, what a ending!

After we turned off the DVD player, we were satisfied; relieved and touched.

I loved the story, the mythology, the tension, the music and most importantly, the emotion between the characters.

Three scenes stood out in the final season: (1) Jin and Sun finally reunited (since... the end of season four!?); (2) Jin and Sun died (holding hands) together in the submarine; (3) Sawyer and Juliet met and "remembered" at the vending machines in the "flash-sideway" (and those familiar dialogues between them...).

To me, that's the reason why it's worthwhile to follow this show for 6 years. These scenes were just beautiful. They were so emotional, touching and heart-warming. They nearly got me (especially the third scene).

I could understand that many fans might feel betrayed because there're so many unanswered questions from the show. To me, the producers had already done a pretty good job. Because in my opinion, "Lost" was always about the characters (and not the mysteries). If not, why bother to make all those "flash-back/forward/sideway"?

Throughout the whole final season, one big question stands out: what is the "flash-sideway"? Is it alternate reality? Is it parallel universe? Are they in a different timeline? Is it afterlife? WHAT IS IT???

At the end, we knew that the whole "flash-sideway" was indeed a purgatory for all the lost souls to reconnect and to "move on" together. Personally, I liked this idea and it certainly deepen my interest to review the whole "flash-sideway" once again. Probably in the near future.

Everytime when I think of the fact that there'll be no more TV-marathon-week next Autumn, I feel kind of sad. I really miss those late-sleep nights.

2010-11-01T22:17:00.004+08:00

Premier League Game 10:
Bolton Wanderers vs Liverpool 0:1
We finally picked up the first away win (in 5 trails) this season.
Although it's not in a beautiful way, a win was a win.
Frankly, the game itself was pretty ugly to watch. Both teams played intense but boring football with very few chances created. The game looked like to be another goalless draw until Torres' back-heeled pass found Maxi in the box to score at 86th minute to break the deadlock! And this goal was good enough to pull us out of the relegation zone.
A few comment on the game:
1) When will Torres be in form again? His slump is so long that recovery seems to take forever! When will we start considering the possibility of never (aka Owen II)? This Christmas, or next Easter? If so, can we lucky enough to offload him to a dump owner (aka Man. City) for £30m?
2) Since when did Kyrgiakos become the most lethal weapon of our offense? He's always a threat in the set piece now!
3) It's quite obvious that 4-5-1 doesn't work with an ineffective Torres, so why not trying 4-4-2 with Ngog to spread the floor when we face second-tier team (ok, I admit that we are a second-tier team right now) at home? Worth trying it, Hodgson.
Point: 12, Rank: 13th

2010-10-28T19:05:00.024+08:00

Grasshopper 25.

We have anticipated this concert since HOCC's last October (with Grasshopper as the guests). Because we all know these guys are nuts and their concert will be a big party.

One thing I don't feel right about their come-back (since 2005) is that they can't even produce one new album after four straight comeback concerts (only one single for each concert). Does this "lack of" production imply the lack of passion in doing music? We all know doing tour is much much more profit-making than making new song/album. And frankly, they have done little to stop people from labeling them "eat old asset".

Until now. Surprisingly, they do something in this concert trying to prove everyone wrong.

We saw the concert last night.

They started the concert with a half-hour long medley, which was a bit too long (the whole segment) and too short (each song) to us. We even felt a bit bored midway through the medley and secretly hope that some of our favourite songs didn't appear in it (so we might have a chance to hear the full version). Not a good fit for opening, more liked a concert finale to me.

Then they went to the second part, in which they sang 25 straight "other people" songs! Wow, I never expect anything liked that. No matter of the response, I still respected their courage and spirit.

I pretty enjoyed this rundown because firstly I was not their die-hard fan (so I won't long for their hit songs); and secondly I was a big fan of "other people" song all along. I liked many of their selections, some was a bonus to me (馬路天使, 歲月無聲, and my personal favourite 我懷念的), and I particularly loved the segment of 紅/情誡/無人之境, matched their style perfectly.

They finally sang their great hits in the third/final part of the concert. The fans had been waiting for this moments all night long and they went nuts when all those familiar melody went off (永遠愛著你 with "human-wave backup" was the best example)! Among all the big hits, I liked the 半點心 (dance beat version) most.

Our special guests appeared in encore time: The Big Four! (I had a feeling before the concert that The Big Four would be our guests. Bingo!) They talked a lot; played a while and sang a bit, but nobody really cared what they did because everyone was in party mood already!

Lastly, they ended the party on a high note with their biggest hit "忘情森巴舞"!!!

Two in-show observations: (1) Grasshopper proved that 1+1+1 more than 1 was good enough because audience didn't expect 1+1+1=3 in group vocal. And that's the exact reason why I hate Twins so much, becuase they were the living-proof of 1+1 less than 1. (2) Grasshopper was getting old and they didn't dance so much in this concert. Ok, they moved a lot; and there's many dancers around them, but they didn't actually dance much. I was fine with it considering their age. However, this observation markly raised my interest to see Aaron's next concert because he might be the last great dancing singer in Hong Kong.

One last reminder to ourselves: if we liked the singer, we should buy $480 seats next time. The experience was totally different from seat at the mountain top!

2010-10-25T10:53:00.002+08:00

Premier League Game 9:
Liverpool vs Blackburn Rovers 2:1
Finally, we played like a team.
Finally, we played with passion and urgency.
Finally, we had wing plays because Maxi and Joe came back to life.
Finally, we passed the ball forwards instead of sideway.
Finally, we created chances.
Finally, we scored.
Finally, Torres scored.
Finally and most importantly, we played watchable football.
Hopefully, we can keep it up and really turn the corner!
Point: 9, Rank: 18th

2010-10-18T18:54:00.004+08:00

Permier League Game 8:

Everton vs Liverpool 0:2

I missed the first half of the game, but honestly I didn't miss much because the team basically didn't create many thing in the whole game!

As a whole, the team was in a mess. The players looked disorganised, clueless, helpless and even lifeless on the pitch. Every week we think they have played their worst football, then they play worse in the next game.

What's wrong with the team? The quality of play is far worse than the player's true ability. Lack of confidence? Psychological crisis? Poor training method? Strategical mistake? I have no idea.

In the meantime, we have to trust the manager to steer this sinking ship back on track. In Hodgson, I trust (right now).

Just a few observational comments for the manager: 1) Why play 4-5-1 with Torres alone when it's clear that he was not in form and we had NO wing play to support him? 2) Why start Torres when he is clearly not fit, why not give him a break to resume form, why risk him for further injury? 3) Where's Joe Cole? What has he done beside the red card in the first game?

The new boss was at Goodison Park last night and it wasn't a wonderful day on the pitch for him to see. And I think he knows now how big a challenge he is facing in the future.

Point: 6, Rank: 19th

2010-10-11T20:31:00.023+08:00

We watched Miriam's concert last night.

Before the show, there's numerous negative feedback in the net. As usual, I neglected them all.

After the show, my verdict was it's worth the money for our seat price ($180/person). And it's a touching and emotional night for both the singer and the fans.

The first thing came to my mind was that the stage was too simple, to an extent that it made people wondered was there any budget problem in this concert? After our experience in Jay's concert, this one was unacceptably primitive to me. And it just reminded me why I hated 4 sided stage in the first place.

The second thing I noticed was that Miriam's singing was better than I expected (as least for most of the slow tempo songs). Of course, her voice couldn't impress me liked Ivana but she at least got the job done.

Many people criticised her song selection and rundown, and I didn't think it's a fair judgement. I understood why some people didn't like it because there's so many "golden songs" she omitted. But I guessed one could never win all, right? I liked that she chose many songs from the "Capital Artist" era, and I could feel that the effort she put in preparing the rundown (at least it had more heart than Sammi). Of course, I had to state that the stage effect was a bit minimal, budget problem again?

The worst part of the night was definitely the dance/rock sequence... She ran out of gas and sang horribly. I couldn't tolerate it.

The most disappointing moment of the night was definitely the guest segment. Ladies and gentlemen, our special guest tonight is... the most popular male singer in the Asia-Pacific region... Lam Fung!!! Oh... it sucked. Miriam and Fung had zero interaction on stage and it's obviously a commerical break for their upcoming movie. I hated it. The only positive I could find was it gave me the first/final chance to hear Fung's live so people couldn't say I wasn't objective anymore. And I was sorry to announce that his "sister" was boring liked hell. A total nightmare to me.

My favourite part of the night was the "to all the boys I loved - 5 cents heel" sequence. PMPS introduced the "lost twins" to each other on the stage, a wise move.

Didn't know why, I couldn't fight off the feeling that this concert might be the last one (in Hong Kong Coliseum) in her career. Afterall, we all knew how pregnancy killed the career of a female artist. The feeling grew bigger than ever in the encore period. She simply didn't want to leave the stage and sang a couple of "non-rehearsed" songs (including lyrics-from-iphone-"peter pan" with Jason!). The crowd fed off her emotion and together sang the "little stars" to her, very touching and heart-warming, a priceless moment to me.

Will I see her concert next time? Good question. I'll consider sitting at the mountain top again if she can make it to the Coliseum next time.

2010-10-06T23:50:00.009+08:00

At the end, everything ever happened, happened for a reason.

I first noticed MLB in year 2001, when a big guy named Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs to makde history in that year. I have to confess that the team first caught my eye back then was the New York Yankees (in the 2001 World Series). But I soon realised that they were the "evil empire" who liked to trump everyone else with big paychecks, thus quickly shifted my interest away from it. Instead, I started to follow the team which was constantly bullied by the Yankees, the Boston Red Sox. Part of the reason I picked them was my "support the underdog" mentality, and part of it was influenced by a die-hard Red Sox fan, "The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons. One of the most prominent feature about the Red Sox was their 86-years championship drought. I remembered Simmons once wrote that he feared his dad might die without wittnessing even one Red Sox championship in his lifetime. And I found the resonance right away. I even felt that my situation (only a 10+ years drought and I have witnessed Liverpool winning the league more than once) wasn't that bad when compared to them.

Then came year 2004, then came the improbable rally in the ALCS against the mighty Yankees (the "choke"), then came the sweep of the Cardinals in the WS, then came the end of the 86-years drought. (Bill Simmoms even wrote the book "Now I Can Die in Peace" to celebrate the feat.) Then came their second championship in 2007.

Suddenly, they had wom more titles than rival NY Yankees (2:1) in the past ten years.

I was never a fan of Red Sox, and I probably won't be a fan of any MLB club. But I always support the Red Sox when they face the Yankees. I kind of liked some of their players (Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia). And I will keep an eye on the team when I check MLB news.

However, I never know who's the boss of the Boston Red Sox. Not until today.

I just learn from Soccernet that Red Sox's boss John W Henry's New England Sports Ventures (NESV) is the leading candidtae to be the new owner of Liverpool.

My first thought is that if this guy can find a way to end a 86-years long drought, a 20 years-

long drought certainly is no big deal to him, right?

He gives me the impression (from my following of the Red Sox) that he knows how to run a sport club and he aims at winning title. My only concern is that can he translate his management philosophy (in American sports) sucessfully into the soccer business?

I hope for the best.

2010-10-04T12:05:00.005+08:00

Premier League Game 7:

Liverpool vs Blackpool 1:2

A shocker.

The first half was lifeless, a torture to the fan. And we were deserved to be down 0-2. The team played better in the second half, still came up short at the end.

Torres' injury (I had lost track of when the last time he was healthy...) early in the game certinaly didn't help the situation. Our defense was a mess (no real left back again, but ironically most the damage recently was from right side). I wondered how could Glen Johnson still play for the national team, hadn't Capello done his homework? The Joe Cole experiment was a disaster so far. The left side offense was missing. And Gerrard showed sign of give-up (physical fatigue, mental drain?) at the end of the match.

If we can lose to a new promotion team at home, where else can we gather the points?

Honestly, I don't expect anything like this.

I think I have prepared for the worst (for what I wrote last week). And the truth is, I have no idea what the worst can be.

At least, gets less than a point per game (after seven matches) and drops into the relegation zone definitely doesn't appear on the checklist of my worst-case scenario.

I keep on asking myself why shall I torture myself like this week in and week out? Why do I keep on writing this sort of depressing report after every dismal game? Why do I spend two hours a week to watch a team playing crap? Do I have tendency to self-harm? Am I depressed? Am I suicidal?

Losing game is not that hard to take for me. But watching them play in such a poor standard for such a long time is really depressing. After seven matches, we haven't played a full 90-minutes game of solid football, not even once. That's what killing me.

I think about stopping this post-game report thing because I start to worry that this may be a jinx to the team... Of course I know it isn't true, but I can't help thinking...

That's how crzay I am... The team is driving me crazy...

Point: 6, Rank: 18th

P.S. 6th October is coming fast, I have a fantasy that the team is playing mind game to the boss and once they leave, the team will rebound...

P.S.2 After the game, I watched Arsenal got beaten by Chelsea 0-2 (despite a strong second half) to end a sad night of football. Why I always pick the losing side to support? I told Slow that supporting the underdog was not good to health. Poor me.

2010-09-27T22:39:00.013+08:00

Anthony Wong x HOCC x Jan Lamb Live Concert!

Firstly, I had to mention that this might be the easiest one to get ticket among all 903Lives I had attended. Did it imply anything? Lack of star power in this one, or all credit card holders gunning for the next one (Khalil X Ivana X Sodagreen)?

Anyway, the hall was packed (903 always find a way) and the atmosphere was hot.

All three performers passed the "standup test" straight away, in the first segment. And the crowd went nuts for the whole night.

As usual, 903Live was all about side-cuts, new arrangements, other-people songs and cross-overs. And of course, there would be hits and misses. But with Anthony and HOCC on stage, I thought we were in good hands.

Some of the hits: Anthony's "private collection"(wow!), "for you" (wow-wow!!), and HOCC's しるし (touching). Misses included Jan's "living is so good" (the saxophone got all the attention), and Jan x Anthony's "little prince" (this up-tempo version ruined the song).

Of course, who could forget Jan x Anthony's "bad romance", it simply brought the house down.

The stage was simple, and I particularly liked the big digital banner which flashed slogans and symbols. Nothing complicated but it clearly spread the message to the crowd.

One interesting aspect about the show was the inclusion of social-orientated songs. Jan's brand new mandarin song "tour guide ar chun" (that's really funny!) was definitely a highlight. They also sang "next century we play again" to pay tribute to the hostages in the Philippine incidence. Amazingly, they sang one of my favourite "who invents working?", a big surprise!

One big pitfall of the show was the poor sounding. The background music at times was too loud to hear what the singers sang! I couldn't help comparing them to Khalil x Hins 903Live last year. That night was really special in term of live performance, probably the best in my experience.

2010-09-26T23:45:00.000+08:00

Premier League Game 6:

Liverpool vs Sunderland 2:2

What a bad week!

An embarrassing loss (in penalty) to League Two team Northampton Town in the Carling Cup in the mid-week was followed by a draw against Sunderland in the weekend. The worse thing was, both games were played in Anfield.

I didn't watch the Carling Cup game but our second unit was expected to beat a League two team considering our players' much higher market value and wage. And the loss, in penalty shootout, at home was still a shocking news to me.

And for the game last night, we continued our slump (and it seemed getting lower every week) by showing another poor effort on the pitch.

We still hadn't found our form, rhythm and stride. Although we got a lucky break early in the game (Kuyt's goal) at 5th minute, we couldn't follow the momentum and failed to dominate the game afterwards. Instead, we played passionless and uninspired football in the remaining of first half. Sunderland settled down and fought back, even took a 2-1 lead (by Bent's double) early in the second half.

Honestly, I only felt numb at that time. The team was so bad for so long that I couldn't be hurted anymore. I just felt sad for the player and I really believed Torres and Gerrard should leave if we continued to play liked this.

As usual, the team rebounded and pushed forward. Although they couldn't create many chance (the offense was nowhere), Gerrard once again be the saviour and headed us the equalizer to force a draw.

6 points in 6 matches. If we went a whole season in this rate, we might end up in the League Championship next season...

Point: 6, Rank: 15th

P.S. The consolation prize in this weekend was that all the original "big four" lost points together (Manchester United and us drew; Arsenal and Chelsea lost). What a feat!

2010-09-20T21:47:00.002+08:00

A few random thoughts on Jay's Concert last night.

(1) The price ($280x2@ row 31) was value for money. The whole production was first-class. It's the closest thing to a MJ/Madonna-level concert I have ever experienced. The stage, the background video, the dancers, the visual effect, the sounding,

(2) It's the first time we watched his Live performanace, and learned that Jay could sing. Liked Khalil, he was a human musical instrument with excellent musical sense. He knew his song inside out and liked to improvise it with new lyrics. I loved musical genius.

(3) His "beat-box" skill was good and he clearly enjoyed it very much.

(4) There's a open-light "encore" last night. Jay came out in blue jeans with the dancers (all in street clothes), sang one last fast song which I couldn't name, then shouted "go home and sleep!" and left the stage. The crowd was crazy afterwards, they didn't leave and continued to shout "encore!". The stadium staff had to play the "all the performance is done and please leave the stadium" broadcast repeatedly to presaude the crowd leaving. What a scene.

2010-09-20T17:40:00.022+08:00

Premier League Game 5:

Manchester United vs Liverpool 3:2

What a thriller!

Although we were on the losing side, I couldn't complain much although we almost escaped with a draw.

I sorted of like our starting squad and formation at first glance. We had a real left back in Konchesky; Joe Cole was back; Meireles was starter; 4-5-1 seemed to be a fit in Old Trafford; Torres had everything to prove; and most importantly, no Lucas in sight.

However, we continued our poor (early season) form to play horribly in the first half and were lucky enough to be only a goal down (from Berbatov's header with Torres stood helplessly behind him) heading to the dressing room at half time. Reina looked distracted at times; Nani caused all sorts of trouble to Konchesky; Maxi and Joe Cole were both invisible; Poulsen lost more possession than won at the back (he needed time to adjust to the pace of the game); Gerrard played too deep to be effective; we were outplayed though we outnumbered them in the midfield; and Torres... who's Torres?

We started to push forward in the second half and regained some possession. Then came Berbatov's "can you believe that?" overhead-kick goal!!! (Wow! I couldn't stop myself from clapping hand for this goal at home.) Amazingly, we mounted our comeback after the goal. Joe Cole gave his best through-pass of the game to Torres at 64th minute, and Torres earned a penalty for us, in which Gerrard calmly converted to make it 2-1. Torres then earned a free-kick six minutes later and Gerrard scored once again to tie the game! Gerrard was so elated after the goal that he rushed to the corner and did the kissy camera trick again! All the fond memory (from 14-3-2009) came back to me! I really thought that we might actually come away with a draw at that time, but Manchester United regained control of the game and Berbatov completed his hat-trick with a header over poor Carragher at 84th minute.

Some might say we were unlucky to lose a point with 6 minutes left, but I must admit that we probably didn't deserve any point considering our poor performance (one stat: two shots on goal resulted into two goals, explained everything). It might easily be a rout.

Another classic for these rivals, although I might enjoy it more if we were the winning side.

Point: 5, Rank: 16th

P.S. To be frank, I don't forsee writing report for Liverpool game will be this tough. Watching the team play uninspiring/boring/dreadful football week in and week out is already painful to me, and trying to squeeze something to write about afterwards is taking a toll on me. It's depressing. Man!

P.S.2 What's more depressing than the loss is the latest news about Tom Hicks mounting a desperate attempt to regain sole control of the club with a new refinancing deal. Before the news, the worst-case scenario to me is mid-table finish (+/- point reduction if administration is needed); no signing in January; no trophy this season; no European football next season; and thing will go well next summer under the new owner. However, the new reinancing deal by Hicks means more debt; higher interest payments; no money for new players and stadium; and higher asking price for the sale in the next two years at least (depends on the deal). Let's hope the board can find a way to block this evil attempt!

2010-09-13T10:30:00.002+08:00

Premier League Game 4:
Birmingham vs Liverpool 0:0

On Satursday night, when I witnessed MU (well done Everton, the stoppage time goals was my highnight of this weekend!), MC, and Hotspurs all dropped points against lower-tier teams, I was secretly cheering for the Reds to make a good jump up the table. How naive I was. We were fortunate enough for not dropping down the table last night at Birmingham.

Another poor effort game. (I started to get used to it.)

Another boring draw. (Seemed that we have become the specialist in 0-0 draw...)

After four games, we had scored two goals only. And frankly, we had only played one decent half (the second half against Arsenal), at most.

Without Reina's super-reflexes, we might leave home with our second loss of this season.

Not much could be said about a game in which we were clearly outplayed in every aspect.

Except... when will our wing play started? When will Johnson remember his defensive duty? When will Maxi/Jovanovic find his role/position on the pitch? When will Poulsen adapt the pace of Premier League? When will Torres find his form? When will Gerrard find his best position for the team? When will Lucas lose his starting job?

All questions, and even Hodgson doesn't have any answer.

The only positive thing for me was when Meireles made his debut to replace Lucas in 76th minute, I saw a glimpse of hope from him. Let's hope I didn't see wrong.

Or else, I have to believe this will be another long and painful season for all Liverpool fans.

Point: 5, Rank: 13th

2010-08-31T16:25:00.009+08:00

Premier League Game 3:

Liverpool vs West Bromwich Albion 1:0

To me, it's a reality check, that we are not a contender.

At least, not this team, not this year.

To me, contender is team that beat third-tier/second-tier team with ease; gut out tough win against second-tier team on an off day; and play a tight game against fellow contenders.

They may lose (even the mighty Barcelona lost one and drew six in last season!), but a few draws/losses against good teams won't hurt their title chance as much as silly draws/losses against weak teams. And that's the main reason why we lost the title to MU in the 08/09 campaign (despite we got 4-2-0 result against the other "big four").

In short, they ALWAYS beat the beatable team.

That's what Chelsea/MU/Arsenal/Barcelona/RM can, and what we can't.

That's why we're pretender but not contender.

Last night, we faced a third-tier team (WBA), at home, and in a pretty much must-win situation (only 1 points from the first two matches, already 5 points behind Chelsea). If we were a contender, we should demolish WBA in style; led 2-0 at half time; and I should go to sleep with a peaceful mind after we led 3-0 at 60th minute... Instead, we gave another uninspiring outing. WBA played even with us for most of the game; our offense was predictable and sluggish; there's still no wing play; Lucas AND Poulsen (not a good debut to me) were no Mascherano; Jovanovic was invisible in two straight games (so was his replacement Maxi); and it looked like we were heading for another silly draw at home... until Torres saved the day at 65th minute. His clinical volley just outside the penalty box (a feed from Kuyt) just showed his quality and class. A wonderful goal from a born-striker, and his form is improving in every game. I can't imagine life without him.

So we ended up getting our first victory of the season. An embarrassing win, but still a win. I will take it whatsoever.

The most exciting moment of the night was when Darren Bent scored the stoppage time penalty and helped Sunderland to beat Man. City 1-0. And this explained a lot.

(Both Spurs and MC, our main rivals for the Champions League place, lost 0-1 this weekend. Maybe they are both pretenders. Now all three of us are stuck with 4 points. Wow!)

What a weird match-day.

Point: 4, Rank: 13th

2010-08-24T11:34:00.016+08:00

Premier League Game 2:

Manchester City vs Liverpool 3:0

All summer long, people said Man. City was the extreme contrast to us. They were the big spender and we were broke. They were expected to fight for the top four/title and we were expected to play for Europa place. They were trying to buy Torres and we were expected to sell him. They were forced to sell players because the squad was too full and we had difficulty to fill quality players in our bench. They would only get better and we would likely get worse. Oh, I forgot to mention, they were the team Barry chose over us last summer (and we ended up with the on-loan Aquilani)!

Before the game, I kinda liked the timing (2nd game of the season) of this matchup because I thought all the new players in Man. City needed more time to mash together... and how wrong I was!

We were outplayed by Man. City right from the start, they simply controlled the whole match and was obviously one class above us. Their two "wronged-foot" wingers Adam Johnson (right) and James Milner (left) brought all sort of trouble to us all night long, especially the lively Johnson in right wing. Agger (shifted to left back again) wasn't himself last night (still not recovered from his head concussion last week?), and I wondered wasn't it time for Hodgson to played the neutral left back? The combinatino of Johnson and Milner in the right side resulted in a cross which led to Barry's goal.

Lucas started (oh my!) last night and it's one of the reason why we lost the midfield battle so badly. Gerrard couldn't do everything by himself. And the 442 formation with Ngog + Torres up front lacked chemistry (no time to develop?) and Torres was still far from top form (although he was improving). We lost the midfield battle, lost possession, lacked wing attack (never had the right players for years), and hadn't create many chances. We did have a short spell of good possession after down 0-2, but Joe Hart once again was the hero for Man. City by making a brilliant double saves (first Ngog then Torres) to deny our best chance. Adam Johnson then won a penalty for the home team in which Tevez calmly scored to make a 3-0.

A rout which showed the difference between two teams right now.

Some homework for Hodgson:
(1) Fill the big hole in left back. Please.
(2) 442 or 451?

(3) Lucas or Poulsen if no Mascherano? Or both?

(4) Any wing play?

(5) Any new striker as Torres backup or we stick with Ngog?

(6) Where to put Cole and Gerrad?

I only know this morning that Mascherano went on strike last night (after learning a Barcelona bid was on the table). To me, he really crossed the line this time. I understand his frustration (in hoping to play elsewhere) but he has to know he is still under a contract (and need to respect it as a pro)! Going on strike is liked absence from duty! The whole issue just showes the player's selfishness and arrogance, he always think he's bigger than the club. I hate that and wish him good luck in where-ever he'll play. The bottom line is the club can't sell cheap becuase of the player's action, and I believe Hodgson will pull it straight for us.

Another bit of news I want to talk about is the loan deal of Aquilani to Juventus (and a reported buy-out option at 16m euro). Personally I don't understand the rationale behind this deal, isn't this the season everyone expect him to be finally fit and shows his value? Don't we in desperate need of midfield creativity and isn't he the player who has this particuar skill? Why couldn't the club give him some time to impress us (in a position we really need some help) after investing so much money in already? Don't they want a chance to get some dividend back? Is he really that bad in training? I don't know. At the end, this loan deal may be the ultimate insult to our ex-manager Benitez. I didn't like that deal last year and I don't like this deal either. Let's hope we don't lose much on him at the end of the trade.

Point: 1, Rank: 17th

2010-08-16T16:22:00.016+08:00

Our 10/11 season kicked off last night. Before then, I want to write a brief season preview first.

After the most chaotic summer for Liverpool in decade in which we encountered the departure of Benitez (I loved it), arrival of Hodgson (ok), staying of Gerrard and Torres (great!), Joe Cole free transfer shocker (frankly, I doubted it), numerous small signings (no money no talk in this crazy market, hope we got some bargin this time), and the ever-lasting take-over rumors (yuk!)... I really don't know what to expect for the new season, except keep on supporting the only club I have supported since my teenage.

I understand why most experts have written us off in their top four selection: poor result last season, the rise of Man. City, new manager, unresolved finanical problem, unsettle players... But I just want to point out one fact: that this squad is not much (or one Alonso) different from the one in 08/09 season in which we only lost two matches all season and finished 2nd place. If Torres and Gerrard can stay healthy, will it be the season that determine our true colour?

As a fan, maybe I am a bit optimistic here. But I really believe we can aim at the top four finish this season as the first step, then the new owner steps in and builds something great from this. On the other hand, liked I said before, I have prepared for the worst. Luckily, our condition after the summer aren't that bad in my opinion. At least, we have a new manager who seems to be quite practical and reasonable; Torres and Gerrard are staying (for this season at least); and we actually buy more than sell in this summer! Therefore, I am cautiously positive about the new season and let's hope for the best!

To show my determination to go through thick and thin with the club, I try to do something new this season: watch their game as much as possible and write a post-game report for every game I watch (and finish it before the next game). Here we go.

Premier League Game 1:

Liverpool vs Arsenal 1:1

The season opener always bring excitement to the fans because there's always hope in the first game.

Although we continued our bad trend (from last season) of losing lead late in the game, due to a Reina's blunder this time, I still rated the overall performance a good pass. Considering that we were down one man for the whole second half against a title contender, a draw was already a pretty good result for me.

And the happiest thing was that I found the long-lost competitive mentality and upbeat spirit from the facial expression of the players. Throughout the game (even down one man), I could felt that they were not afraid and they were trying hard to win the ball game.

(Of course, Joe Cole might be trying too hard...)

The first half was a wash, either team played cautiously (until Joe Cole's harsh tackle at the wrong time and place). At the start of the second half, Ngog's near post strike suddely gave us a lead (although I thought Almunia could do better in this one)! What impressed me most was the boys didn't just sit back after the lead, and they actually created a few chances to extend the lead! Wenger then introduced Walcott and Rosicky to apply pressure to us and Reina made a couple of fine saves. I was starting to believe we might gut out a victory but Arsenal got their rewards at the end. Gerrard had the last chance to win it but his free-kick was parried by Almunia.

Another good news was Torres came in and played 15 minutes for us, and he looked to be fitter than what we saw in the World Cup. Hope he will regain top form soon. We need him to perform well this season to stand any chance for a top four finish.

After one match, I am still optimistic for the new season and let's hope we can get something in Manchester next week.

Point: 1, Rank: 8th

2010-08-12T17:06:00.031+08:00

My Summer Movie Triple Combo:

Toy Story 3.

Pixar's unbeaten streak continues, and this time they hit the jack pot in box office too.

After 11 years (Toy Story 2 in 1999), the Pixar people finally come up with a good story to bring the gang back (Woody & Buzz and co.) one more time.

As usual, the story is beautiful, touching and entertaining. The opening (toy playing) sequence and the "great escape" from the daycare centre sequence are both extremely funny.

Of course, who can forget the two touching sequences: The incinerator scene (where the gangs hold hands together before facing the seems-inevitable end before the claw crane operated by the three-eyes green aliens saves the day! And it reminds me why the aliens love the claw crane, it's because they were picked up by the claw crane to become Andy's toy in Toy Story!), and the "Andy's last play with the toys" scene (I admit that I feel a bit sore over my eye in this one).

It can easily be the movie of the year in many other year, but sorry, not this year.

And it's all becuase of the following movie I want to write about.

Inception.

A masterpiece from one of the master in movie directing of our generation. Christopher Nolan is officially my favourite director right now.

After the ultra-successful "The Dark Knight", Nolan brings us one of the most original non-Pixar blockboster since... maybe "The Matrix" (in 1999)? This story is like a maze, complicated, but addictive. The script is well written, and extremely comprehensive. The cinematography and editing is innovative and splendid. The casting is superb (Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur and Ellen Page's Ariadne are my favourite) and the acting is solid. Of course, the most amazing thing is that Nolan can present this complicated new concept (dream in dream in dream, all the kicks, limbo, totem... go figure) to the mass audience in such an entertaining and easy-to-digest way, simply superb story-telling and directing skills.

Of course, the million-dollar question must be: Is Cobb in a dream or the reality at the end?

Frankly, my first reaction in the cinema was, "Oh! He is still in a dream. So sad..." If not, why does Cobb's father-in-law know when/where to pick him up in the airport? Why do his kids look exactly the same (age, clothes, location, motion) from his memory/dream? Also, the whole scene is liked a dream come true to me...

On the other hand, MW tends to believe they are in the real world at the end, and Cobb will live happily forever with his kids... i.e. a happy ending.

I have a feeling that this kind of open-ending interpretation depends much on one's personality. Optimist will lean towards the happy ending, while pessimist will think it's too good to be true.

Of course, there're numerous theories flying in the internet for the real answer. Among them, the master/therapist theory is my favourite: Ariadne, not Cobb, was the head shrink. She had been hired by Cobb’s father-in-law/master, Miles to cure him of his guilt complex. According to this theory, Cobb, inmate # 528491 (the number that Fischer gives as the password to his father’s safe, and the number of the hotel rooms) of a mental asylum, held himself responsible for his wife, Mal’s death and Miles sent his favourite student to lead the Inception and plant the idea in Cobb’s head that his dream wife is dead and he should move on. Such a romantic theory.

However, I believe the most likely theory is the ring theory: Cobb always wear the wedding ring in the dream; and never in reality. And he doesn't wear any ring when he comes home at the end. Moreover, according to the end credit, Nolan actually has casted two pairs of children to play Cobb's children at two different ages! To me, this little details trump everything because things don't come by random in a Nolan's movie, therefore I agree that we are having a happy ending here.

Of course, I can't agree more on the audience theroy: yeah, we are all being incepted by you, Nolan.

And you know what? We are all thankful for that.

Love in a puff (志明與春嬌).

I am a fan of Pang Ho Cheung, probably more for book-writer Pang than director Pang. I have (nearly) all of his books and have many of his movie DVDs. But I stop collecting his movie DVD since "Exodus" (出埃及記) because he has gone too far on the artistic side (after the critically acclaimed "Isabella") and forgotten the entertainment side of a movie (and he is not Wong Kar Wai, not at all). I haven't watched his movie in cinema since "AV", and I also missed this one because I wasn't interested in Miriam Yeung's acting. However, many people loved this and the box-office rebounded after a fair opening, so I rented the DVD to see how good it is.

And yeah, this one is the vintage Pang. The care-free, funny, and somewhat dirty Pang is back. I like it, but not love it. I like its style, a simple story with lots of little details; but I can't feel something deep in the relationship, I like the acting of Shawn Yue; but I don't fancy the overacting of Miriam Yeung, I like most of the jokes (especially "pretend Japenses/Korean" sequence and "forth six, fifth six, sixth six" sequence) and the mockumentary segments; but I can't shake off the hollow feeling in the whole story, I like the catch in "in 55!w !", but deep down, it's like Pang's most other movie, smart and cunning but not emotionally profound enough to touch people's heart. Pang's movie is always a funny pastime but never a stunning masterpiece.

Just want to highlight 3 segments to explain my thought:

(1) The first scene when Shawn and Miriam flirts with each other (the bridge walk) makes me think of "Before Sunrise". Of course, it's not fair to compare them. Shawn and Miriam are having only random chat with no substance inside.

(2) The "floating plastic bag" sequence is obviously a stolen idea from the Oscar winning "American Beauty". Period. I reckon not many fans of Pang have come across this (and so he hope). But sorry Pang, I recognise it and don't like it at all.

(3) I noticed the "ufo" right in the first time and my first reaction was, 'urgh... another stolen idea, this time from "My Sassy Gril", hate it.' Then I do some research and learn that Pang uses this "ufo" scene to illustrate that love (likes "ufo") itself may not be so difficult to find, most of the time we simply don't look hard enough to notice it. This "second" interpretation certainly makes this movie more appealing to me.

2010-07-15T20:03:00.002+08:00

We watched the Octave 柯迪夫 musical last night.

Here's some quick comments:

(1) Ivana's (talking) tone changed a lot in the drama. I hardly recognised her. She looked like Miss HK "思琦姐" from my seat (long distance). And I didn't know that her legs were so slim (even with the help of all those high-heel shoes). Suddenly, she was so marketable with the new outlook!

(2) Hins' high pitch vocal was simply awesome, and the fact that he performed this night in and night out was just unbelievable! He sang way better than his own concert earlier this year.

(3) All the other actors, as expected, acted great; but out of my expectation, they also sang great! In term of acting skills, Ivana and Hins were ok but not professional.

(4) Just a footnote: I saw Fiona Sit and "the voice"s during intermission. Fiona was tall on her high-heel shoes.

(5) After tonight experience, we will buy more expensive seats when we watch musical next time.

2010-07-12T18:40:00.030+08:00

Just came back from Italy yesterday and watched the WC Final at home last night.

After a tough week of watching the quarterfinals and semifinals in Italy (no night games in the quarters because there's only one game per day in the main channel; poor and small TV quality in the hotels; uncertain information about the public viewing venue; italian commentary; the only good thing was the play-time), I found the 32' LCD TV my favourite device in my home and it couldn't be worse to hear familiar cantonese commentary (from channel 64).

Just some quick recap from the knock-out round. I missed four games due to the trip: Paraguay-Japan (in airport), Spain-Portugal (on flight), Uraguay-Ghana (no show on TV), and Uraguay-Germany (in airport). I experienced the horrible quarterfinal curse again (also in WC06) with 3 misses (Brazil, Ghana and Argentina) and fortunately Spain advanced. Brazil played poorly in the second half (while Holland didn't play particularly good), Germany just exposed Argentina's (and Maradona's) incompetence to the world (the obsession in playing small-ball finally hit the tall wall; never develop an effective system; all-forwards offense wasn't a good offense if no one except Messi willing to pull the string; too much individualism but no teamwork; the refusal to use Milito; poor defense esp. the right flank), the ultra-exciting penalty sequence in Spain-Paraguay game (miss-make-retake-miss), and Spain's "passing clinic" against Germany in the semi-final (which reminded me the joy of watching football). Of course, who could forget all those referees' mistakes? I would regard 27th June as the darkest day in the history of WC (Lampard's disallowed goal killed off England's momentum while Tevez's off-sided goal dug a hole too deep for Mexico to recover). And the fact that FIFA still refuse to employ technology into the game is a shame, simply undefendable. "We have to accept that human error is part of the game" is one of the stupidest quote in the history of humanity.

The final, as usual, was intense but not spectacular. And because of Holland, this one was rough, really rough. They tried to repeat Inter Milan's feat of beating Barcelona (aka. Spain) by playing tough and physical football. Their dirty/destructive style topped a notch in the final, trying to neutralize Spain's fluent ball movement and disrupt their rhythm at all cost. It sorted of work at the beginning with all those terrible fouls from the Dutch (De Jong's chest-high tackle to Alonso and Van Bommel's "subtle-dirty-tricks-that-never-got-caught" combo were the highlights). Referee Webb had a tough assignment last night. He didn't want to become the focus of the match by dismissing any Dutch players early in the game (that's why De Jong was off the hook), but he had to keep the match fair and protect the Spainish players from all the hostile tackles. So he kept whistling on every fouls and pulling one yellow card after another (and two for Heitinga resulted in a red one in OT). Holland's physical playing style tuned down a bit after nearly their entire team was booked (except GK, Sneijder and Kuyt), and Spain "Barca-style" passing game dominated the possesion but failed to create any threat. Instead, the best chances in regulation were both belonged to Robben, in which his two breakaways were both denied by Casillas. Spain piled up the pressure and created scoring chances in OT. They were finally rewarded with an Iniesta's winning goal 4 minutes before the end! Spain was the World and European Champion! And they certainly deserved it. They proved to us that, at the end, skill still trump everything.

I was happy with the result. Although I only got one right in the final four, at least I got the eventual winner right! Not a bad result for me.

Some random comments in this WC before handing out the awards:

1) Germany was clearly the most surprising team in the tournament. They are the team to watch out in 2014.

2) If someone told me that Messi, Torres, Rooney, C. Ronaldo, and Drogba would score 2 goals COMBINED for the tournament, I would say he was crazy. Seemed that I was the crazy one.

3) The fact that New Zealand was the only unbeaten team in the whole tournment was fascinating.

4) And the fact that the finalists from last WC (Italy and France) both went out in the group stage was even more unthinkable. The French might wish Henry's hand-ball didn't happen and they lost to Republic of Ireland in the Europe qualifying playoff.

5) There's the first WC in years (maybe since 1990) that I couldn't think of (at least) one player who really rule that WC (86' Maradona, 90' ???, 94' Baggio/Romario, 98' Zidane/Ronaldo, 02' Ronaldo in 3R, and 06' Zidane). Forlan certainly had his moment and scored some great goals, but he hadn't dominated the game like the greats in the past; Villa was great too, but Spain will always be rememberd as a team rather than a single star. At the end, "Paul the octopus" and its 100% record might be the best representative of this WC in many people's mind, and that statement alone spoke volume on the overall quality of this WC... And Nash was right, WC gave us the most dramatic football once every four year. But for the best football? It's not even close anymore.

Best team: Spain (the double champion!)

Best match: The overall quality of the game was disappointing in this WC, thus it's a bit difficult to select three worthy candidates in this category.

(1) Slovakia-Italy 3-2: To me, the most exciting moment of this WC must be the second half (esp. the last 20 minutes) of this game. Anytime a traditional strong team went into desperate mode was a treat for the audience. And being one of the biggest upset in this WC definitely made it more memorable.

(2) Spain-Germany 1-0: Technically, it's the best game in this WC. Spain showed the world what's the right way to play football (and win).

(3) Netherlands-Uruguay 3-2: A semifianl with five goals in which two of them were great strikes certainly helped the ranking.

Best goal:

(1) Van Bronckhorst (Netherlands 3-2 Uruguay, 1st goal for Netherlands): The best long-strike of this WC. Just unbelievable.

(2) Maicon (Brazil 2-1 North Korea, 1st goal for Brazil): A wonderful goal from the tightest angle! With the help of "super-slow" motion replay, we could marvel how the ball made a turn in the near post to beat the helpless keeper.

(3) Villa (Spain 2-0 Honduras, 1st goal for Spain): Excellent solo effort from one of the top scorer of this WC.

Best 11:

GK: Casillas-Spain (the save of the tournament against Robben in the Final send him ahead of Paraguay's keeper Villar)

D: Carlos Salcido-Mexico (I have no idea in this one, so I copy it from Soccernet "best XI"), Ryan Nelsen-New Zealand (ditto), Puyol-Spain (the Man of Spain), Maicon-Brazil (the ideal right back)

M: Van Bommel-Holland (although I don't like him personally, his foul-without-got-caught specialty is a gem for defensive midfielder), Sneijder-Holland (a breakout year for him), Xavi-Spain (engine of the champion)

F: Villa-Spain (the best scorer in the world right now, and the world will know him more when he play for Barcelona next season), Forlan-Uruguay (he always remind me of those Greek God, strong and handsome), Robben-Holland (everybody know what he'll do in the right wing: cut to middle and shoot, but nobody can stop him in last season)

09/10 Season Review:

Inter Milan did the unthinkable, by beating Barcelona in a two-legs semifinal, became the first treble winner in the history of Italian football. They showed the world (and sadly, Holland) the protocol to beat Spain (oh sorry, I mean Barcelona): defense came first and started right from the midfield; didn't mind giving up possession but sat back and absorbed as much attack as possible; crowded the midfield with fast and strong players; denied Xavi at all cost; didn't lose free kick within 30 yards; quick and efficient counterattack led by someone who knew how to finish; and a bit of luck (the help of volcanic ash). Although I don't like him, but I have to tip my head to Mourinho for getting the job done. Let's see what he can do with the Real Madrid next season. Can he beat Barcelona for the season-long league title?

For the domestic side, all four top leagues needed to wait till the last round to decide the champions. Chelsea dethroned Manchested United (by 1 point) and Hotspur broke the "big four monpoly" since 04/05 season (while Liverpool dropped to 7th place). Barcelona, despite losing in the Champions League, held the challenge from Real Madrid till the end (by 3 points) with a record breaking 99 league points (31-6-1). Inter Milan also edged Roma in the last round (by 2 points) while Bayern Munich enjoyed the largest winning margin of 5 points against Schalke 04.

Best team: Barcelona (although they lost to Mourinho's treble winner Inter Milan, they were still regarded as the best because they showed us one could win trophy by playing pass-run; skillful; attacking small-ball)

Best 11:

GK: Reina-Liverpool (my MVP of Liverpool)

D: Zanetti-Inter Milan (who neutralized Messi as best as it could in the quarterfinal of Champions League), Vidic-Manchester United, Lucio-Inter Milan, Maicon-Inter Milan

M: Messi-Barcelona, Xavi-Barcelona, Essien-Chelsea, Robben-Bayern Munich (the saviour of Bayern, and who could forget his wonder volley which completed the improbable two-goals rally to knock out the mighty Manchester United?)

F: Milito-Inter Milan (he scored the winning goals in the final of Coppa Italia; the last/clinching match of Serie A; and the final of Champions League for Inter Milan, basically won the treble all by himself), Drogba-Chelsea (a monster)

Favourite team: Liverpool (I've prepared for the worse next season)

Favourite player: Messi-Barcelona (his quartet against Arsenal sealed the "best player" deal, simply the biggest personal performance of the season), Torres-Liverpool (when he was not injuried, he scored), Xavi-Barcelona (the passer), Iniesta-Barcelona (the magician), Ronaldinho (he's back!), Benayoun-Liverpool (my favourite Liverpool player in last season)

2010-06-22T17:04:00.009+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 11

Chile vs Switzerland 1-0

Spain vs Honduras 2-0

Both matches were one-sided "Spear vs Shield" games.

Switzerland was limited by an early red card, while Honduras was overmatched by the determined Spain.

And at the end, offensive football won both games.

Chile played quick, lively, and agressive football even before the red card. But their strikers couldn't find the net until 75th minute (part was poor finishing and part was good goalkeeping).

Now they know a draw with Spain in the last match is enough for them to advance from the group stage. And I have to say this Chile team is dangerous.

Don't know why, South American teams perform way better than European teams in this tournament so far. Is there really a hemispherial perference in WC?

Spain beat Honduras handily (as expected). Villa missed a penalty (and his hat-trick) by an inch and his solo effort in the first goal was sensational.

Torres started (but couldn't finish) the game. He wasted a couple of easy chances and was only half of himself. He was slow and sluggish on the field and he looked not in sync with his teammates most of the game. Not a good scene for his supporters.

(Don't know why, I always have this kind of not-in-sync feeling in Torres and Fabregas... some sort of league discrimination inside the Spain camp?)

At the end, Spain got their first win and now will face a Chile showdown in the final group match. If they win, they can top the group and may avoid a date with the mighty Brazil in the round of 16.

And then the second round was done.

A quick recap and some predictions:

1) Contenders: Brazil, Argentina

2) Pretenders: France, Italy, England, Portugal (a bit personal here)

3) France was done, and their off-field scandal was simply off the chart.

4) The only good thing in Italy's draw (with New Zealand) was that they made England's draw (with Algeria) a lot more acceptable/tolerable to me. At least, Algeria didn't have any amateur player. (Adidas should hired the New Zealand team for the new "impossible is nothing" ad.: jobless player could play in the national team and get a draw with the world champion! What an inspiring story!)

5) Germany loss was a shock to me. And now we have four traditional giants (England, Germany, Italy, and Spain) fighting for survival in their last group matches. (I don't count France, because they are literally eliminated in my opinion.) What a treat for all the soccer fans.

6) Even though Argentina beat South Korea 4-1, I still believed Maradona would regret his indifferent treatment on Diego Milito; and though Portugal crashed North Korea 7-0, I still believed the scoreline was a big overstatement.

2010-06-21T19:44:00.002+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 10

Brazil vs Ivory Coast 3-1

I picked Brazil to win, but I didn't forsee such a walkover.

The first goal by Fabiano was a blast, the second was a double-handball, and the third came from a setup by Kaka.

A tricky day for him. Two assists was nothing new, but he also got two yellow cards resulting a send off which was rare to him.

So, there'll be no Kaka in the final match, not a big deal to Brazil, but good news for Portugal.

Drogba socred an uncontested header at the end for his first (maybe last?) goal in this tournament.

And this was the second time (in two games) that Brazil's defendors lost their focus after a big lead. Dunga has to do something about this.

2010-06-20T17:09:00.005+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 9
Japan vs Netherlands 0-1
An ugly win by the Dutch. Japan played good enough to earn a draw.
But a Sneijder's powerful strike was the difference and Netherlands became the first team to advance to the knockout stage.
P.S. I am shocked to learn that Babel is indeed sitting comfortably on the Netherlands bench. What's their coach thinking? Hasn't he watched any Liverpool games in the last three years?

2010-06-19T19:02:00.002+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 8

England vs Algeria 0-0

Oh my. What a shame.

Another boring goalless classic by the Three Lions.

As a fan, I have watched so many of them.

England put on a dreadful performance last night. They were out-ran/out-numbered/out-smarted/out-played/out-everything by Algeria in the game. It's lucky that they came out in one piece.

They never controlled the midfield, and they lost every lose-ball. They never dictated the pace and were always one step slower. The O was so bad that they couldn't even pass the ball well. Heskey showed his true colour (and age) while Rooney was invisible once again. The Gerrard-Lampard problem returned and adding Barry just worsen the situation. Lennon (and sub. Wright-Philips) was lifeless in the right side, while they simply gave up the left side totally. Most of the time, the players looked tensed and tired.

In short, that's quite a mess.

I didn't expcet such a horrible display before the game. On second thought, considered that two starters (James and Heskey) last night had trouble securing club place in the coming season, we couldn't say we weren't warned beforehand. This fact told us the whole story: the talents just weren't enough.

Let's face it, the EPL may be the best league in the world, the national team clearly isn't. The flooding of foreign talents just killed the growth of local players.

England now need a victory to advance but Slovenia isn't a punchbag. Let's hope Capello can somehow lift the players' morale and form for the next game.

2010-06-18T23:50:00.010+08:00

My 09/10 NBA season review.

This season proves that regular season is meaningless (just ask LBJ, Dirk, Howard, and Carter). The most important thing is peaking in May.

At the end of the day, it's the same old story: Lakers vs Celtics Act II.

An epic Final in term of history, rivalry, star power, and rating.

And it delivered, sort of (at least it went all the way to Game 7). These two teams were that tight.

Some memorable moments and quick thoughts from the Final:

1) Ray Gun's history-making 3 points shooting performance in first half of G2 AND his historical poor shooting performance in the next 5 games (19/62, 4/28 3-pts).

2) Kobe's 19-points explosion in 3Q of G5 (38 pts for the game)! The most MJ-ish final performance in years... happened in a loss. Maybe it's the defining game that KB was no MJ. MJ's team seemed never lose in this type of situation, he would will his team for a win (by, who know, maybe scoring 50 points?).

3) Game 7 was tight, dramatic but not great. Lakers survived a poor shooting night from KB (6-24 fg) with the help from Gasol and Artest. Celtics led through three quarters and simply shooted themselves out down the stretch. KB got his second straight final MVP by default (I hated that) and the Lakers will go for a three-peat next season.

Best 5: Howard (Is there any low-post game in him?), James (The biggest soap opera in this summer begins), Durant (The scoring machine), Nash (The assist king), Kobe (Only one ring from catching Mike, but never the legacy)

Favourite team: Phoenix Suns (The Basketball God must hate Canada, if not, how can he allow Nash not playing in a single Final game?)

Favourite players: Durant - Thunder (I finally have a young player to follow who I like right from the beginning), D. Will - Jazz (Enjoyed a solid year and took the best PG label from CP3), Rondo - Celtics (A physical freak and a joy to watch, if he starts making the 15-18 footers... wow!), TD - Spurs, Nash - Suns, Hill - Suns (Welcome to the playoff conf. semi/conf. final! You deserve it!), Wade - Heat, Rose - Bulls (Suddenly, we may eneter the era of PG)

Favourite Series: Suns swept Spurs in conf. semi. (Nash's sweet revenge), Lakers beat Suns 4-2 in conf. final (Nearly every playoff ended up with the Suns losing and ppl asking "what if?", the latest edition was "what if Ron-Ron didn't tip-in???"), and Celtics beat Cavs 4-2 in conf. semi. (What happened to James in Game 5?)

2010-06-18T20:23:00.007+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 7

Argentina vs South Korea 4-1

Wow! The first serious contender of the tournament finally showed up last night.

They showed brilliant individual talents and destroyed South Korea in this rout.

Tevez, rather than Messi, was the engine of the offense while Higuain was the finisher up front. Though all his goals were close range put-in, he had to be in the right place at the right time, right? This hat trick literally sealed the deal in the top scorer award.

The fourth goal had the best setup (Messi's magical thro' pass plus Aguero's sensational cross) among all goals in the tournament so far.

Just one hiccup here, Argentina fans. I remember Argentina became the biggest favourite after their demolition of Serbia (6-0) in exactly their SECOND match, and they crashed out in the quarter because of some stupid decisions by their coach.

Any bad kama here? I hope not.

France vs Mexico 0-2

Mexico's victory made me a genius.

This France team was so discordant and dysfunctional that one might wonder was it the punishment for robbing Ireland's finals place (by Henry's hand-ball)?

Big payback time for France.

2010-06-17T18:43:00.006+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 6

Spain vs Switzerland 0-1

It was probably the biggest upset in my own WC memories (since 1986).

This game really reminded me of Barcelona vs Inter Milan in the champions league semi.

Spain enjoyed most of the possession; created enough chances to win; and even hit the crossbar once (Alonso's strike), but somehow still lost the match on a Swiss break-away goal.

Of course, the forwards (Villa and substitute Torres) should have done better than this. They were horrible last night.

Torres' facial expression (mental outlook) wasn't right during the game. Was he not totally recovered yet? Or was he frustrated of his future in Liverpool?

The only good thing about this defeat is that a matchup of Spain vs Brazil in the round of 16 is no longer a dream (if Spain finish second and Brazil top their group) and I won't miss it if it really happens (because it will play on the night before I leave HK).

So the first round is over and all 32 teams show up (ok, a few contender haven't really showed up yet). Here's some quick comments of the first round:

1) The first round is boring like hell. Way too few goals (25 goals in 16 games). Remind me of 90' WC, not a good sign.

2) Many traditionally "strong" teams play poorly in the first round. The top seeds (I pick France instead of South Africa) are pathetically 4W3D1L in the first round. Not a good news for the gamblers.

3) All those mid-night games viewing really show the effect of aging. The watch-till-four-and-wake-up-at-seven-for-a-week days are officially over. I am now entering the watch-first-half-and-record-second-half stage of life. (I only survived the England game and felt asleep after half time in the France/Brazil games in the first round, an all-time record low. The overall poor quality of football didn't help the situation.) I love my DVD recorder.

4) France (and Domenech) suck the big time. The top spot of this group is up for everyone grasp.

5) There's still some homework for Maradona to do (esp. the role of forwards).

6) This Brazil team is not exciting to watch. But the other three teams are not good enough to threaten them.

7) Portugal (and C7) are done. Mark my word.

8) Spain will bound back in second round, but they need a healthy Torres to go deep.

2010-06-17T15:06:00.007+08:00

FAMA Live.

My passion/expectation for the show was gradually dying down, probably due to the inappropriately lack of promotion and poor box-office performance (for a sinlge show, sigh...).

(Wasn't it really tough to sell tickets these days? Everytime I saw empty seats in the stadium, I wondered how much "water" in the sale for Kay's seven shows.)

And my instinct was right, the show was quite a letdown to me.

The main reason? I would say wrong venue.

Like Hins and Kay, they didn't belong to the HK Coliseum. They couldn't handle "this".

As a rapper/standup comedian (ameatuer), they needed interaction with the crowd and fed from their energy. However, they could only involve the crowd from the first 15 rows... Beyond that, the crowd were remote and detached (and we were in row 30+).

Another problem was that I found it's quite tiring/boring to listen three rap songs in a row, especially when they changed nearly all the background music (a respectful attempt but...) and we (people from the mountain) could barely hear what they sang. I felt like sitting in a disco full of noisy repetative heavy-base music. I didn't enjoy it, at all.

Lastly, at least I brought home with this gag in their standup: "最理想正常兒童高度". Peace.

2010-06-16T14:00:00.004+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 5

Ivory Coast vs Portugal 0-0

A typical "big-thunder-little-rain" game. Couldn't say I forsee this outcome.

Ivory Coast controlled the match, their players were fast, strong and skillful, but the football IQ and finishing was horrible.

C7 had one good strike (hit the post) early in the game, but his team vanished with him soon after that shot.

Of course, liked tax and death, C7's diving was a must-watch event in the game. And the new "super-slow-motion" camera was definitely his nemesis because it exposed every details of his cheat sequence to audience all over the world.

Brazil vs North Korea 2-1

I said that this Brazil team didn't excite me on paper. After I watched them played in this game, my first impression was just solidified.

Too many individualism; too many workman rather than magician; Kaka not in form; D wasn't tight (Lucio was sleepwalking on the field to allow the North Korea's goal)...

Although they still managed to score two wonderful goals. (I particularly liked Robinho's killer pass in the second goal.)

However, I have high expectation for every Brazil team in every WC.

2010-06-15T18:49:00.006+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 3&4
Serbia vs Ghana 0-1
Japan vs Cameroon 1-0

The overall quality of football in the first four days is, frankly, quite disappointing.

All but one match (Germany 4-0) so far had produced more than two goals. Most matches were not intense nor exciting. There's not a single memorable goal except two GK's blunders...

Maybe it's due to the weather; maybe it's due to the attitude; maybe it's due to the football; maybe it's due to the tiredness after a long season; or maybe it's due to the defensive mindset...

I have only watched two matches in the past two days, and really there's not much to say.

Just want to write down one interesting remark here: One client told me before the WC that after his in-depth deduction (from historical data), the champion of this WC must be Germany. And he is the same person who told me (before champions league's semi) that Inter Milan and Bryan Munich would beat Barcelona and Lyon respectively and met in the final (also due to deduction from historical data: team that beat Chelsea/MU always enter the final)! And Germany got the most impressive victory so far in the tournament...

Let's see will history repeat itself this time...

2010-06-13T18:37:00.006+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 2

A typical WC match-day.

3 matches. 2 favourites (Argentina and England).

Lots of drama.

Just not enough goal.

South Korea vs Greece 2-0

Haven't watched the match (working). Heard that South Korea played with shadow of the 02' team who shocked the world.

Great run by Park Ji-Sung (watch from replay).

Great win for South Korea.

Argentina vs Nigeria 1-0

Good point: 1) Messi showed flashes of greatness. He was in good form. 2) They got the win.

Bad point: 1) The pace after their early goal was untolerably slow. 2) Their D didn't particularly impress me. This game could easily be a draw if Nigeria had better finishing. 3) The O was disorganised and inefficient with too little team-work and unclear role for Messi/Higuain/Tevez. 4) Higuain was not his Real Madrid self. 5) Why no champions league winner Diego Milito in the starting lineup?

England vs USA 1-1

Everyone know I am a harsh critic when it comes to England soccer team. However, I think they played ok last night despite many ppl said they played rubbish. To me, their offensive flow was smooth and they cleverly used all the width of the field to create chances. Lennon and Johnson were casuing all sort of troubles in the right side. Gerrard and Lampard finally knew how to play with each other. Heskey turned back the clock with a big assist to Gerrard, although he should have done better in that one-on-one chance in the second half. On the other hand, Rooney had a quiet night but the real problem was the lack of left side player after the injury of Milner. Wright-Phillips (right foot) couldn't went deep and made a cross in the left. Hope the return of Barry can help them in the future.

During the game, I told MW that the weakest link in this England team was their GK. Green then made me a genius with his horrible blunder before half time. And if you go through the list of backup GK, you will understand how big a problem Capello is facing here.

In Capello, we trust.

2010-06-12T18:45:00.002+08:00

World Cup 2010 Blog Day 1

Here we go again.

To me, World Cup is always the biggest and most exciting sport event. Nothing even come close. Sixty-something matches in a month to watch is mind blowing. And only WC matches can keep me out of my bed night in and night out to watch all those mid-night games... (I get used to record all the mid-night match and watch it next morning now, even the Champions League final this year.) Of course, I feel my age with all these mid-night games. And I can really felt it last night in the France-Uruguay game, a boring 0-0 classic (a French Specialty). I felt asleep at half time...

I did the impossible in 06 WC by writing a blog nearly on every match day. I can't repeat the accomplishment this time because of the Italy trip (from the last two matches in the quarters through the semis). I will try my best to write as much as I can.

South Africa vs Mexico 1-1

An intense and fun-to-watch match overall. Both team created enough chances to win but the finishing wasn't there. Dos Santos' jerky movement reminded me of "Ronaldinho", a joy to watch.

France vs Uruguay 0-0

I can't comment much since I was only half-awake in the first half and slept in the second.

What I can say is chemistry-wise, this France team may probably be the worst I have seen in years. The players looked liked they didn't trust each other and they didn't like to play for their coach (which was totally understandable given their coach was Domenech). It reminded me how all those talented Holland team had self-destructed in the past WCs. I can see a repeat of 02' nightmare for them.

Four teams were all square up after first round. Anything can happen in the next two round.

2010-06-11T21:12:00.003+08:00

It's about time to write my 2010 WC prediction.
I have to echo what Steve Nash said, "WC gave us the most dramatic soccer but not the finest soccer, Champions League gave us the highest level of soccer."
Can't agree more. (Especially after looking at the mounting injury list before the tournament.)
Once every 4 years; fighting for the country; right after a long hard season; one game knock-out; penalty shootout; win or go home; one bad break/bad call/bad foul can change the result of a match... Adding all these make predicting WC one of the dumbest thing to do in the world.
But I like to do the impossible. Just can't help myself.
Here's we go:

A few predictions before the Semi:
1) I don't like the chance of France, at all. BTW, I pretty like Mexico.
2) England can't ask for a better draw. They have a express lane through the semi.
3) The real "group of death" is group D, not a single easy out. But Germany can still come out intact.
4) I secretly like the chance of Denmark in group E, especially if Robben can't recover in time.
5) Italy is simply too old.
6) The notion of Group H being the "group of death" is not legitimate.
7) I hate Portugal. I enjoy watching Brazil outplay Portugal and knock them out in the last match of the group stage. I root Brazil and Ivory Coast to come out from this group.
8) I pick Torres then Messi as the tournament's top scorer.
9) I would like to see one African team going deep, but I don't see any of them to go beyond the quarters.
10) I pray that there won't be another striker strike like 2006.

Final Four:
England - Favourite draw, easy path thro' semi, red hot Rooney, Capello as coach... The weakest link is GK and defense. "I wish I know how to quit you..."
Spain - The best team in the last two years. Have proven their mental toughness by winning the Euro 08. If Xavi plays well, they will win it all. Period.
Argentina - I don't think Maradona will screw them up. Frankly, what can he do to be worse than Pekerman? I think they can go deep with Messi, arguably the best player in the world right now.
Brazil - 1) I don't like this Brazil team on paper, this maybe the least exciting Brazil national team I have ever seen. 2) I doubt Kaka's form. 3) I don't trust Robinho and Fabiano. 4) I believe Dunga will blame himself for not bringing Ronaldinho to South Africa. 5) Having said that, I still can't talk myself out of picking them in the final four.
Remark: I know my pick is too predictable. But I just can't think of a better choice to sneak in. Although deep down I know this prediction is too good to be true...

Final:
England vs Spain - Yeah, I pick England beat Brazil (again!) and Xavi schools Messi for an European final again. And I pick Spain to win it all due to better talent level. Torres will breeze through the defense like he do in EPL and score the winning goal for Spain!

I remember that I was 0-4 in last WC prediction. Hope I can do better this time!
Let's play soccer! Enjoy the games!!!

2010-05-10T01:50:00.026+08:00

At last, this disappointing season finally comes to an end tonight.

And it's only fitting that our last match of the season is a scoreless draw against an already-relegated team Hull.

The match basically sums up our season: can't score against lower-tier team, can't beat them, drop point in away games (only one away win in 2010), no effective offensive system, poor and disorganised defense, Aquilani can't finish the whole game, Babel, Lucas, no-striker-formation, no creativity in midfield, can't score without Torres, Gerrard in subpar form, can't break sit-back defense, can't score anyway...

We have been playing lethargic, uninspiring, and sometimes boring football all season long.

No wonder we finish the league at 7th place and will be playing in Europa instead of Champions League next season.

To me as a fan, it's a horrible season. I always say I don't mind losing match, but I really hate it when we played terribly. And I have to confess that we were painful to watch at times (most of the time, actually) this seaeson.

The offense never get it going partly because of Torres' recurrent injuries, but mainly because we never establish an effective offensive system.

Here's the basic blueprint of our O: pass the ball sideway but not forward, keep possession without really threatening to score (against lower-tier team), depend too much on individual brilliance (mostly Torres) rather than team work, and overall poor finishing (except Torres).

The commonest sequence (with Torres on the pitch) was players made numerous sideway passing around the midline until one midfielder/defender thought that's enough, and kicked the ball up front, praying that Torres could somehow find a way to win the ball and score.

Most of the players (Gerrard included) were playing mid-table instead of contender-caliber football this season. In my opinion, only four players were playing consistently at a world-class level this season: Reina (our team MVP, he was the main reason we still have European football to play for next season), Benayoun (the only midfielder in our team who can create offense by himself, especially in one-on-one situatino), Mascherano (world-class workrate, engine at the back), and Torres (another injury-plagued season, but still managed to score 18 goals in 22 league games). Unfortunately for us, a few regular players were obviously not even up to Premier League standard: Insua (lack of speed, height, workrate, tackle skill..., practically everything as an effective R back), Babel (do I need to say anything more?), and Lucas (even though he played better than the first two players, his damage to the team was the greatest due to his ever-lasting playing time on the field).

Having said that, the discrepancy in the performance/ranking between this and last season was inconceivably large considering the team was largely the same except the Alonso/Aquilani switch. Maybe the players were showing their true colour, maybe the talents were simply not enough, maybe last season was actually an over-achievement, and the reality hit us hard this season. Or maybe the manager hasn't done his homework.

I am still waiting Rafa to fulfill his "I will quit if we can't quality for Champions League" promise. In the meantime, I have some big questions for the manager: 1) What's the rationale behind your usage of Aquilani (he was really too fragile for Premier League, or you were not brave enough to admit the mistake that he was overpriced?). 2) Where's the O? Did you have offense drill in practice with the players? 3) Where's the backup plan for Torres? 4) Why did you treat Lucas like your own son? 5) Last but not least, when will you leave, Rafa?

Of course I know Rafa is only a problem but not the problem, and firing him doesn't mean we can challenge the title straight away next season. However, I think we need a fresh start and changing the manager maybe a reasonable first step for us.

What'll happen next? (Do we still have a future?) I have no idea. But I have prepared for the worst (OK, except a bankruptcy leading to relegation): a lengthy and painful selling process; stick to Anfield with new stadium nowhere in sight; Gerrard/Torres fire-sale; no big signing; no title challenge/champions league football for the next 5-10 years; fade out from the "big four" discussion... In one sentence, there'll be many "Fulham-ish" mediocre seasons to come.

Frankly, I have come to term for all these. I always regard fans from small clubs like Wigan/Hull City the model of fandom because they support their club through thick and thin. They show up and cheer in every match even thought their club are never contender and usually playing to avoid relegation. They show us what loyalty is. They are the REAL fans. And I am looking forwards for the challenge. Of being a REAL fan.

And you know what? I think I am ready.

2010-04-07T15:27:00.010+08:00

Eason Redemption.

I'm glad that I have paid that "little yellow cow" $850 to get the tickets.

Eason's last show is definitely a must-see event for music fans, because he is the only singer in HK who literally doesn't care about the time/penalty and will sing until HE feel enough.

At the end of the night, he encored 17 songs and finished the night for good at 12:50am.

(Wow, that's a personal record for him and us!)

Overall, it was a good show. Eason's vocal was back to 80% (only the highest note is missing and occasional horaseness in soft tone). He was very energetic and passionate on the stage. I loved his performance in the "grown-man-interest-series", particularly "tourbillon" (Ho Ping's piano version was simply superb) and "salon", in which he outsang the studio version by a mile. One bonus to me was the return of "doesn't come and doesn't go", I was touched although he didn't sing perfectly. Also, the never-stop-jaming "always with me" just showed us how Eason and the band enjoyed playing music together. Easily one of my favourite moment of the night. All these moments reminded me why we all addicted to Eason's LIVE!

For official record, here's the song list in encore, with some comments:

1. 歌頌 (1st encore)

2. PG家長指引

3. 那一夜有沒有說

4. 反高潮 (much better than my first show, though still not perfect, maybe the best Eason era was really behind us...)

5. 一絲不掛 (2nd encore after a 7 minutes break, then he showed up wearing the "time flies" head consume, big surprise!)

6. 單車 (3rd encore)

7. 等

8. 天下無雙

9. 幸福摩天輪

10. 我什麼都沒有 (with his guitar)

11. K歌之王 (Anthony Sun's paino version)

12. 抱擁這分鐘 (Jun's guitar jam!)

13. The end of world (和音唱)

14. 我的世界末日

15. 每一個明天 (a little heartwarming chat with his little daughter)

16. 明年今日

17. Everytime we say goodbye (4th encore, the band had already left and many audience were leaving too, then he came out wearing pajamas and sandal to sing this little goodbye song to the fans, a wonderful finale to a great night)

2010-03-25T11:55:00.007+08:00

It wasn't meant to be like this.

Eason Chan's DUO was meant to be a great show... initially.

It had them all: intrigued song selection, thoughtful rundown, artistic stage design, dramatic on-stage effect, "best in town" band crew, and passionate singer. The only thing it lacked was a better than average vocal performance.

(One audience shouted "everything's back!" after a few songs and Eason just laughed at it, because everyone knew his voice was at best 40% of his normal self only.)

The range of his modal voice was restricted (only the middle range was preserved). And his falsetto voice was so bad (that I rather him skipping all the high notes). He couldn't sing anything decent without forcing/shouting it but he didn't have the gas to force it all the way. Therefore, he basically muttered through the first half then shouted out the second half of every song.

To me, that's not singing. That's torturing, to both his vocal cord and our ear drums.

Becuase of it, the show (which had the potential to be great) was ruined.

To be honest, I was sad and disappointed. I came with high hope, but he failed to deliver. I thought it didn't worth its ticket price. (Shouts of "return water" echoed in my heart...)

I knew it's bad luck for him (and us) that he's sick before the concert, and we shouldn't blame him for such an accident. But on deeper thought, I believed he couldn't escape all the responsiblity afterall. Because as a fan who monitor his performance in the past year, I knew his voice was in really bad shape for many months already (maybe since his H3M promotion period, I still couldn't shake off the horrible memory of him singing "don't come and don't go" in the PolyU mini-concert back then), and he just didn't have time to rest his voice, and the fact that he smoked didn't help the situation. All these were manageable issues and he had the responsiblity to take care of them before the concert since he was a pro, but obviously he failed in this part (just listened his performance in the music award ceremonies in January this year). I suspected how well his vocal was before the concert and this "flu" might actually give him a graceful way out this time.

(So Eason, I believed the audience had every right to be pissed off by your poor performance. Because you didn't get the job done this time.)

There's a legitimate chance that the best era of Eason has been over.

It wasn't meant to be like this.

Let's hope he can fight the "flu" and revive his voice before the last show to prove me wrong.

I still have high hope (I have spend $850 for two tickets of his last show...).

2010-03-15T22:43:00.005+08:00

Some random notes on "Big Four Live" last night.

1) That's a concert for the "post-70" liked us. (Even their name echoed the most iconic title "four big sky king" in 90' HK pop music industry.)

2) It filled with all the golden oldies of our generation: most noticeably "fire-heat-move-feel-lalala", "lingering game", "love you", "more kiss more sorrow heart", "true true false false". Once the intro music started, the stadium erupted, they're that classic.

3) Of course, who could forget the instant classic "soccer kid ballad version"?

4) One pitfall was the lack of crossover among themselves. Maybe they didn't have time to prepare it, although Dicky spend much time to write the stuff for the talk show.

5) And tonight's guests Glasshoper just brought the house down. (Glasshoper, we will be here in Oct this year. You get my word.) And the "expected" second encore (with Glasshoper) was a perfect climax of the night.

2010-03-09T23:30:00.002+08:00

I believe it's about time, to write them all in one piece.

Afterall, I haven't written a single word about it since November last year.

Time really flies and things change since then.

We were ousted in the Champions League (in group stage), FA Cup, League Cup, and literally the Premier League (had we ever in the race this season?). We were fighting for the fourth place with Hotspur, Man City, and Villa all season long and we had lost more points than all of them at this critical time of the season. The only good news was that we were still playing in the Europa League. And the strangest thing of all is... Rafa is still in the helm (maybe it's not a surprise at all since everyone know our US boss don't have money to fire him).

My mood hit record low after the 0-1 loss at Wigan last night. The performance on the pitch was unwatchable. The offense was a mess and they couldn't even hit on target for once in the whole match! What made me depressed was the attitude and effort of the players. All players except Torres, Mascherano and Reina showed no passion and competitive desire on the pitch. To me, it just looked like that they didn't care. At the time, I had a strong feeling that Rafa had lost his players. They didn't play for him anymore.

Not only the players, I don't trust him also. Just a few questions for him:

1) I know I don't know how the players perform in the training and I can't keep an eye on their latest form, but at least I know what I saw on the pitch. Lucas is simply not good enough. Period. I don't care how well he performs in the training, I have thrity-something-real-matches sample to prove that he is not up to his job. Rafa, why keep starting him in nearly every fxxking match?

2) What's the point of spending £20m to buy our 18th player (I won't spend that much to hire a part time player)? What's the logic behind playing Aquilani or not? Was he being outplayed by Lucas in the training ground? Rafa, if that were true, you shoud at least have the gut to admit your mistake (of overpayig him) and show it on the pitch to stop all our false hope. At least we get some minutes of service for all the money we spend.

3) When will the players develop their own offense system?

4) Do you know Inusa is a joke every time he walks on the pitch? Don't tell me he can shut down Torres on the training groud.

5) I have heard enough of your "turn the corner/focus on the next match" post-match comment. I want to tell you that we are closing to the point when the next match may not have meaning anymore...

6) We all know the boss have no money to fire you, Rafa. But I really want to know will you keep your word and quit the job if we can't make the top four at the end?

I am looking forwards to that moment.

Yeah, I have turn the corner and admit that a top four finish is out of reach for us.

I just hope that you can keep your word, Rafa.

2010-02-13T22:00:00.003+08:00

I didn't plan to write anything about Hins concert when I walked out the stadium last night, because I didn't have much to say.

But I gathered enough stuffs to share after our brief discussion on our way home.

Here's we go:

1) It's really difficult to sell concert tickets nowadays after I learn that even Hins can't get a full house for only four shows. And this makes me wonder how many tickets in Kay's concert last year (seven shows) were given out by the sponsors?

2) We shall avoid watching the first show in the future. There's many little mistakes throughout the night, and the sound system was the worst among them. We had difficulty to hear Hins' vocal in many occasions, which was very annoying and frustrating.

3) The rundown was a bit boring to non-fan liked us (another problem for the first show). Compare to Ivana's concert in which many songs were also an unknown to us, we could still enjoy a great show because of Ivana's wonderful voice alone. Again, the bad sound system spoiled the night for Hins and us.

4) After we went home and listened the "Khalil X Hins LIVE recording" MD, I concluded that Hins/Ivana/Khalil thrilled in the smaller 3-sided arena rather than the bigger 4-sided stadium. A smaller stage could let them focus solely on music and nothing else. No need to wander around the stage to face all audience from 4 sides within one song and no need to shake hands in between a song... Unless they were Eason @ Get A Life, who didn't give a damn to the audience for the whole show, a freaking great show.

5) There were too many guests (three!). No Ivana no problem, because we had Khalil!!! My highlight of the show.

6) Lastly, our most memorable moment of the show: 遇見.

Sorry Hins, you have to earn our tickets next time. Addoil!

2010-01-16T23:55:00.022+08:00

Once the HKRIA (Univeral, Warner, Sony, and EMI) decided to go to war against TVB, I know I don't want to miss the ceremony.

I want to witness how ugly it can be.

And we are all witnesses tonight.

People say it's a joke. To me, it is worse than a bad joke. Here's the reason:

1) Top 10 Songs Award: What a list! This is the most unrecognizable list of all time, at least to me. I don't know six of them, I'm only familiar with two songs (on the record: 金剛經&搜神記). My only complaint is the big omission of "月亮說". No way this one can't get in in such a depleted field (while Joey has two).

2) All songs except 給自己的信, which I first caught in the 903 award ceremony, in the most-popular-fill-in-the-blank-song-award categories (including duet/advertisement/cover-version/Mandarin) are unheard of before tonight. Again, maybe that's my problem only.

3) That's lead to one of my little idea recently: In this era of information explosion/piracy routinization, most of the youngsters nowaday probably listen to much more music than me back then (the only way I could listen to all the songs from an ablum except buying it was rent it in the good old days). However, why I have the feeling that the more they listen, the less they appreciate? Why they pay more focus on the quantity (more music) rather than the quality (better music)? Maybe it's because they don't need to pay, thus they don't have any expectation/demand on the product.

4) I believe I'm probably still a big customer of this dying msuic business (frankly, who still buy CD nowadays, huh???), but I also sense that the gap between me and the market is getting bigger in recent years. Hmm... so everyone know how doomed HK music business is right now.

5) MC Tsang says "wow, that's the whole family!" after singers from Egg sweep the most popular cover-version song award. My first personal highlight of the night.

6) Some fans from the floor shout "Mr." before the announcement of the gold award of most popular group. Too bad TVB don't have the 5-seconds-delay-in-live-boardcasting-policy to mute that shout. Another personal highlight.

7) Lam Fung winning the "Asian male" award is the biggest shocker of the night, a no-brainer. Actually this may rank as the biggest shocker in the history of music award ceremony in Hong Kong. Lam's on stage performance is by far the biggest challenge to his acting career: how to express all these emotions (shocked/unexpected/terrified/anxious/worried/delighted/excited) at the same time? On second thought, maybe it's his final audition (from TVB) for next year's "best actor" award. And I give him a pass tonight.

8) My prediction from last year: in 2015, TVB "most popular male singer" is Bosco; "most popular male singer in Asia" is Lam Fung; "most popular female singer" is "dancing" Shan; "most popular female singer in Asia" is "reductil" Yan; and the "song of the year" belongs to Ms. 囧. After tonight, my joke is getting a big step closer to reality. I truely believe TVB can somehow gut this out, maybe before 2015. They show everyone in HK that they can tonight. I hate myself for making that prediction, it's a really bad joke.

9) I remember me saying that the window of winning the "most popular male singer" award for Leo is closing fast two year ago. And now Leo has won two years in a row and is destined to win two to three more until Bosco/Lam Fung takes over. Thing really changes fast in the world of entertainment business.

10) I expect a big night for Joey, but frankly, who will expect a 7-0 sweep (against Eason)? Isn't it a bit over the top? It's beyond "making horse", it's TVB showing off their mighty power to all of us! If you were TVB, how can you let Eason wins the "media award" without even showing up in your own award ceremony? Don't you think it's a disgrace? Aren't you one of the media?

11) At the end of the night, I think tonight result is by far the strongest proof of media "calling result" in music ceremony (of course, I am not so naive to think that TVB is the only one to do so...). I can never understand the rationale behind "no show no award". Is there any credibility left for all these award ceremony after tonight? Thank TVB for their live demonstration.

In conclusion, the whole show (I can't use the word "ceremony" anymore) is an ultimate insult to the already dying HK music industry.

Is there any respect to music? It's just a battleplace for HKRIA and TVB to play "show-hand"!

After tonight, the chance of them repairing their relationship in the near future is pretty slim. And hopefully, this war may lead to the end of the "TVB monopoly of HK singers" era.

Personally, I support any mean to break TVB's monpoly.

Keep on fighting!

2010-01-03T21:31:00.002+08:00

For the record, my top 10 songs in 2009.
1) 還有什麼可以送給你--陳奕迅: I know I have a love story inside me for this song and I will write it somewhere in the future. Here's my promise.
2) I'm Sorry--王菀之: The sweetest voice in the sweetest song of the year. I want to dissolve into molecules everytime I hear this song.
3) 雨過天陰--謝安琪: After all those ups and downs, I am proud that Kay still holds strong and survives.
4) 信者得愛--鄭秀文 feat. MC仁: Can't fight off the urge to shake the body when I hear the intro.
5) 不來也不去--陳奕迅: Just love the lyric.
6) 她扔了根火柴--王菀之: Wow! I couldn't recognise this Vintage Ivana the first time I heard this song.
7) 距離--陳綺貞: The vocal in the chorus is so youthful.
8) 二十四城記--李克勤: The latest addition to the ever-growing list of Hacken's 滄海遺珠. What a shame to his record label.
9) 搜神記--容祖兒: Once in a while, Joey's song can sneak into my top 10 list. I'm not that anti-egg afterall.
10) 各站停靠--蘇打綠: More likes a poem than a song. The feel is just awesome.

Best album in 2009:
1) On Wings Of Time--王菀之: One of the best album of all-time. There are twelve songs; seven melodies; and three languages in the album. The most amazing thing is that I didn't realise it (five pair of songs with same melody) in my first few days of listening. The arrangements are simply amazing.
2) H3M--陳奕迅: Can easily finish first in any given year, but has to settle for a tough second behind Ivana this time.
3) Slowness--謝安琪: This is my favourite album to play when I'm driving. So relaxing.

Best singer in 2009:
Eason, Ivana, Sodagreen.

2009-12-30T23:04:00.006+08:00

We watch the Avatar in IMAX 3D (@iSquare) today.

I admit that this is a movie that should be watched in the IMAX theatre.

And I agree that James Cameron have really made a huge breakthrough in the history of movie making.

This movie is a historical milestone.

(With better equipped home theatre/Blue-ray disc looming, 3D is the future of movie.)

The filmmaker creates a whole new world in front of the audiences and the new technology (IMAX + 3D) executes it to near-perfection to give us a virtual reality of a CG world.

The only pitfall is when the real (human Jake) meets the unreal (Navi Neytiri).

(It's a good thing that they still have room for improvement.)

Of course, James movie is never focus on visual only. He always has a story to tell.

(Looking at his track record in imdb, I then realize that he must be the most sucessful director in term of box office. He has directed only a handful of movies and he rarely missed.)

And this one is an epic. War, racism, alein, love, ecology, and high-technology. They have it all.

However, I am not touched by the story.

(I don't know why, the same happened in Titanic.)

(Oh my, that means I will probably not be a fan of the two biggest box office hits of all-time. What a pity.)

I kind of like the concept of "the planet has its own life and everything/one is interconnected", and I find the idea of "bonding with the animal" fascinating. But there are bits that I don't like including the "inspiring speech" which is annoyingly common in Hollywood blockbuster, and the sex in the wild (I am never a fan of those animal mating scene in discovery channel).

Maybe the whole story is too predictable to me. Afterall, minority fighting their life to protect their belongings from majority is nothing innovative, huh?

Also, aren't there too many similarities between Avatar and Hayao Miyazaki's movies? Isn't it too obvious?

Having said that, I think Avatar worths its high ticket price and I still regard it as a must-see movie in this year.

2009-12-28T22:58:00.016+08:00

SamMi Love Mi Concert. (The final product of her "Faith, Hope and Love project".)

If not for Slow, I probably would never see a Sammi concert. It's because I was never a fan of her to begin with... actually I was kind of a Sammi hater back then. (The reason? I was a big fan of Faye; I never regard her as a great singer; and I didn't admire her trendiness.)

So, it's the first time I came to a concert as a anti-fan. (I was neutral with Gigi.) It's likely to be the last because I am way over the age of being a big fan/anti-fan anymore... ok, Taxi Chan may have a slim chance but he may probably never make it (have concert in HK stadium) anyway, so whatever...

Here's my feeling for the night.

Good things first. Sammi sang really good. It always surprise me when I first heard those 90' female singers (not named Faye/Sandy) sang live in concert nowadays and found out they could actually sing! Another example was Sally Yip few years ago. The lesson to learn was never underestimate those 90' divas, they must be good enough to survive till now.

And Sammi could really dance! I didn't realise until after the concert that she might have more dance "hit" songs than anyone in HK not named Aaron. I hated to admit it, but she might be the only female singer in Hong Kong that could sing, dance and act right now. And I hated to admit it more that she might be the last one.

This show reminded me a lot of the 90' concerts (yeah, the era of "four big sky king"). There was a lot of fireworks (maybe the most, and it started right from the first song), many dancers (and they appeared more than once), 4-side stage (I hated that), special guest (and I loved that!), and they even had a long-lost sponsor segment (I was speechless...). A typical big budget HK style concert in the 90'. And it was fitting for a 90' singer like Sammi. She belonged there.

Normally I didn't like the guest segment, but not this time. Considering that I went in as an anti-fan, the guest segment might be the only thing I could cheer about the whole night. Hacken's appearence was definitely a big bonus to me, and my highlight of the show!

Next, it's time for criticism.

I didn't like the rundown of the show. The flow was too fragmented and disorganised. There's not much connection between each song (except the 長恨歌-I will survive combo).

The total number of songs was way too little. There's too much talking between each songs resulted in a lot of interruption. I knew it was also a habit of the 90' concert but I thought it's a bad one. If concerts in 00' (e.g. Eason/HOCC/Kay/Khalil/Ivana...) were like listening to people singing in the K-room (stop the crap, just skip the outro and play the next song!!!), hers was like listening to a radio music show in the 90' (DJs always talk crap between songs...). Presonally, I preferred her singing than talking.

Lastly, some memorable moments of the night: I was thrilled when she sang the oldie "how doll sees the world"; I liked she sang/danced "believer gets love (featuring MC Yan)" which just rocked the stadium; and I liked she came out to encore "eternal beauty" with the lighths on.

At the end, this anti-fan had a enjoyable night. I was more than satifsied. Good show!

2009-11-18T23:57:00.000+08:00

We watch the "2012" today.
Considering the track-record of its director Roland Emmerich (ID4, The Day After Tomorrow), I kind of expect what's coming in the movie.
And at the end of the movie, I find out that something has never changed.
"Landmark Demolition", "Big Americalism", "People President", "Enlightening Speech", and "Ordinary Hero"... Everything is there, always there.
Frankly, I am not a fan of Roland, his style is not my cup of tea. I knew it way back when I watched ID4. But I still watched "The Day After Tomorrow" for the sake of Hollywood Blockbuster, although I didn't particularly liked it.
And I don't like "2012" neither.
First of all, the visuals are way over the top to me. I feel like watching a PS3 adventure game demo in many of the action sequences. They are just too complex/complicated to be real. However, the CG effect in some "non CG focus" scenes is below standard. Overall, the visuals are disappointing for me.
Secondly, the theme/content (the end of the mankind) of the movie is too depressing/horrifying to us (Slow even tells me "don't bring me to watch this kind of movie next time" in the middle of the movie). I am never a fan of disaster movie, let alone catastrophe of this kind of magnitude! What make it more scary is that they make it so real this time! Shouldn't the "World Government" start doing the similar things (keep everything secret from public, rescue plan, gene selection...) right now? (Or, maybe everything have already been proceeded since time is running short...) This just make the whole movie experience less enjoyable. It's too hopeless for ordinary people like us who will never get a chance to board the rescue ship.
Lastly, I am fine with all those "Big Americalism" moments (I just laugh at them), but I really don't like all the subtle traces that look down on our Chinese nation.

2009-11-05T20:46:00.000+08:00

Maybe it's really the end of it.

Lyon tied the game in stoppage time last night. And this goal literally ended our chance in the Champions League.

We can't control our own future now.

About the game, I have nothing to complain this time.

With all the injuries, we were already fielding our best lineup available (no Johnson, Gerrard, Riera) and Torres was clearly nursing his own injury. Nevertheless, we played our heart out and created more chances than the host. Voronin missed our best chance in the first half. And we kept the pressure in the second half until substitute Babel hit a wonder strike to break the tie with seven minutes to go. We tried to hang on but Lopez's goal ruined all the effort.

Strangely, I didn't feel too sad when Lopez scored. I was a bit disappointed, but not devastated. Maybe I was expecting this kind of result deep down.

Maybe I knew it was supposed to be ended like this with such a weaken squad.

Thinking on the positive side, maybe now we can focus on the FA cup.

I think with a healthy Gerrard/Torres, we still can win a trophy this season.

2009-11-04T23:45:00.006+08:00

Just like last year, the new season of Lost DVD pumped out of nowhere in late October. Of course, we picked it up right away and spend the next week watching it.

Once again, what a thrilling/addicting television experience!

We end up staying at home and watch the last 5 episodes today.

Complete satisfaction.

Season V is all about "time travel". And we have already gotten the clue at the end of last season. Can't say we are not prepared.

Overall, this season is great. We really enjoy it.

What amazes me is that there're so many story threads/ plot details concealing in the past seasons (some even since Season I)!

This guys really know what they are doing right from the very beginning.

There's a short slump in the middle when Jack and Co. just came back to the island hanging around in the Dharma village without any purpose... However, everything changed when Sayid shooted the 12-years-old Ben. Wow!

Then came the first rule of the whole time travel thing: whatever happended, happened. (Also, dead is dead.)

Just after that, Daniel Faraday reappeared and told Jack and Co. that they (human) were the "variables" and thus might change the future!

What!? Jack was going to detonate a hydrogen bomb in order to erase everything happened in the last three years (five seasons)?

Are you kidding me?

And they let the bomb exploded to end this exciting season.

A perfect cliffhanger.

(Also, Jacob finally showed up for the first time and then died in the same episode, the season finale. Really crazy stuff...)

I have absolutely no idea where/when will it be at the first scene of the Season VI.

Does the bomb erase everything? Or does it create everything?

What's Jacob and his nemesis? Who's in Locke? Who's coming? Where/When's Jack and Co.?

Looking forawrds to October next year.

2009-11-01T11:23:00.004+08:00

Typical Reds.

Everytime we think there's hope, here come another blow.

A 1-3 loss to Fulham.

How much longer can I tolerate this kind of mental torture?

Let's face it, we are simply not deep/good enough.

Without Gerrard and Torres, we are just a second tier team which will even struggle to keep the top four place in the league.

(Our third best player is Benayoun. But frankly, do you really believe he can be a regular midfielder in Chelsea/Arsenal/MU? And I doubt wheather Lucas can hold a regular slot in midlfield for City/Villa/Hotspur/Everton, our main rivals for the fourth place?)

And I am too scared to think what'll happen if Gerrard/Torres leave us in the future...

We will face Lyon in France this week to determine our fate in the Champions League. Anything less than a win is probably pointless.

Will the miracle happen again? Will the unpredictable become predictable?

I don't even want to guess this time.

2009-10-26T18:08:00.002+08:00

Four straight losses; 6 points behind leader Chelsea already; fringe of elimination in the Champions League; Gerrard re-injuried; Torres just came back from injury...

And Manchester United were coming to town...

Can't say it's the perfect time...

Everyone thought it would be an walkover for MU, and were already talking about Rafa's resignation (and Mourinho's coming?!).

Honestly, me included.

However, everyone forgot this was Liverpool, the most unpredictable team in the league (to an extent that a result like this was somehow predictable in afterthought...)

Every time we hit bottom, we bounced back.

A 2-0 victory against the champion. What a nice comeback!

Rafa made a gamble on starting a "not-top-fit" Torres, and it really paid off.

His first goal was a classic.

It's the combination of speed, power, balance, and shooting skills. The way how he dispatched a full speed Ferdinand, gathered himself then smashed a thunder into the roof of the net against a full-stretched Van der Sar was just unbelievable.

How many strikers in the world right now can score a goal likes that? I can only come up with a really short list: C7, Drogba, Eto, and maybe Ibra/Rooney (with a big ?).

Torres is definitely one of the top 5 striker in the world. Period.

Considering that he was only 80% fit last night, what's the ceiling for a top-fit Torres?

Don't forget his second-best moment last night was a defensive header to deny Berbatov in the box. He contributed at both end of the pitch.

I expect him to shine in the World Cup next year.

As a Liverpool fan, it has been a pretty long time without anything to cheer for... I really enjoyed last night.

While all the other contenders except Chelsea lost points in the past weekend (MU and Hotspur lost; Arsenal, Man City, and Villa all drew), we are suddenly closing the gap in the league table.

Maybe... just a big maybe... we still have a chance here.

Think positive.

2009-10-21T23:26:00.005+08:00

We led Lyon at the break. Needless to say, we then sat back and let them rallied in the second half to beat us 2-1 at Anfield.

After three group games in the Champions League, we are sitting comfortably at 3rd place with 3 points with two away games in the next three games.

We literally have to win all three games to have a chance to advance.

With the Lyon game only two weeks from now, we are in a great danger to miss the knock-out stage for the first times in "who-know-how-many" years...

And considering our position in the league, we are also in danger of not finishing in the top four and miss the Champions League next season.
We change from contender to pretender.
The only bright spot in last night game was our new right-back Martin Kelly. But he got injuried when he tried to prevent the first goal.

Marvelous.

So, we are now one step closer to my dream.Can we complete it on Sunday?

2009-10-18T22:12:00.005+08:00

After our big win over Hull, we lost three straight matches (0-1 Fiorentina, 0-2 Chelsea, 0-1 Sunderland).

Can't say I don't expect it. (I still remember how miserable life was back in Jan/Feb this year after our big win over Newcastle last Christmas).

There's no easy life as a Liverpool fan.

What's killing me is the way we lost.

We couldn't even score a single goal in the last three losses.

I didn't watch the Fiorentina game, but I saw we rarely threatened in the Chelsea game, and I didn't want to talk about the Sunderland game...

Without Torres and Gerrard, we had nothing.

Wasn't it the identical miserable situation we faced in Jan/Feb early this year? Deja vu.

Why Rafa couldn't find a way to prevent it in the whole summer?
Why he didn't sign a quality backup striker in the summer?
Didn't he seize the complete control over transfer policy (there is no Rick Parry to blame this time)?

Why the secondary players of MU/Chelsea/Arsenal could (at least) usually get the job done while ours were liked never?

Why he signed a £20m Aquilani (to replace Alonso) who might start kicking the ball after we lost all title hope/crashed out of the Champions League (don't tell me you don't know his injury, he PASSED the medical exam before joining us...)? Did he sign Aquilani to prepare for the Europal League next season?

Why he still couldn't develop a efficient offensive system for the team after five years?

Why our goals were more relied on individual brilliance rather than team system?

Why he still couldn't find the best position for our captain Gerrard?

Why Lucas was always in the starting lineup and seemed never been substituted? (I don't think any other elite team will let him be the regular midfielder, he is not up to standard to even be a substitution in an elite team! Does it imply we are not an elite team anymore?)

Why he liked to play the 4-6-0?

Why Babel and Ngog was still here?
Why Robbie Keane was not here?

Why Carragher was always here (although he was back to his old form this season)?
Why...?

I can ask till the next match day, the list is endless...

I have a dream. If we lose the next two matches (Lyon, MU), will Rafa be fired?
This is the most buring question for me at this moment.