375. GOODBYE 2011 HELLO 2012

Another year has just ended as we welcome the year 2012 with new hope and new aspirations with proper planning and execution to reach new frontiers.

The final hours of 2011 was not that pleasant especially watching on TV, Manchester United, my favourite soccer team, getting beaten by a young Blackburn Rovers team at Old Trafford in the EPL.

To make matters worst, I was watching the game on TV through my sore eyes!

Nonetheless, It proved that the EPL is full of surprises, exciting and joy to watch.

On an odd day even a basement team with many young players and a veteran striker could still produced a five star defensive display and through sporadic raids scored three goals... and the mighty champion went out smoking on home soil.

To Blackburn and Steve Kean, well done!

The year 2011 though recorded many historic and memorable moments in my life and I pray that 2012 will be more eventful and productive for all of us...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL LIMAU TAMBUN READERS AND VISITORS

351. THE THRILLING DECIDER AND THE WINNER…IS MAN U, OF COURSE

Half time: 2-0 Full time: 2-1

It was not supposed to come this far for Man U to clinch the title but as usual football is such an intriguing and passionate game, the suspense had to creep in and dragged the championship to be decided by this crunching match with Chelsea, the defending champion.

I looked forward to watch this decider especially after last week's defeat by Arsenal left Man United with only three-point advantage over Chelsea.

The starting eleven on both side threw some surprises with Park Ji Sung being preferred to Nani and Kalou's inclusion kept Torres on the bench.

Wow, what a dream start. A wonder first goal on 36^th second by Hernandez from a Park Ji Sung pass was pure magic. Man U was one up against Chelsea even before I finished my first cup of warm water.

Sir Alex Ferguson must have drilled hard into the players heads for them to come out roaring like tigers.

A Wayne Rooney's strike on the 7^th minute was just excellent but was deflected by Cech. That would have been a wonderful second goal. Alas, it was not meant to be.

It was all Man U stamping its authority on the field with Chelsea still to find its footing.

Frustration must have crept in by then for Ivanovic to launch a reckless tackle on Rooney on the 12^th minute earning him a yellow card. Man United was just pure brilliant.

Rooney shot again on the 14^th minute but just missed the left post.

Chelsea hit back on the 19th minute with a shot by Kalou but was deflected by the alert Van Der Sar.

Park on target crashing a powerful shot on 22nd minute but was blocked by Cech. It could have easily been three goals if not for the superb performance by Peter Cech as the Chelsea custodian.

Giggs then made a sublimed cross into the goal area which was met perfectly by a header from Vidic resulting in the marvelous 2^nd goal.

The scene in the stadium was sheer ecstasy.

Despite Man U dominance, Chelsea managed to spring a few sporadic attacks including a header by Kalou which was tipped over by Van der Sar on the 25th minute.

The first half definitely belonged to Man United with Giggs, a towering figure in the centre of the field.

The second half started with three changes. Chelsea brought in Ramirez for Obi Michel and Alex coming in for Luiz. Evans replaced John O’Shea on the Man U side.

The introduction of Alex and Ramirez definitely brought some urgency for Chelsea. The game seemed to tilt in favour of Chelsea with more possession, penetration and purpose.

Van Der Sar was excellent as usual shutting out many attempts by Chelsea.

Torres was introduced on the 61st min replacing Kalou to add more bite upfront but he was rather ineffective.

The game was stretched at times with Ramires taking charge in midfield while Man U dilly dallying in the middle of park.

Minute 65 saw a miscue from Alex but Hernandez failed to capitalize.

Frank Lampard put life back for Chelsea with a fortunate goal on the 68th minute.

The temperature immediately went up a few notch with Man U in sixes.

Ryan Giggs, the ever reliable workhorse rallied back to take control in midfield and allowed Man U to preserve the score till the last minute.

Vidic, Ferdinand and Van der Sar marshalled the Man U defense solidly at the back.

As Howard Webb blew the final whistle on the 94th minute even Sir Bobby Charton was seen clapping elated by the win.

Sir Alex Ferguson too a bow acknowledging the crowd's support knowing that another point next week against Blackburn would bring the EPL championship back to Old Trafford for the record 19^th time.

Full time statistics indicated that Man U was the better team of the day.

As Man U players trooped out smiling and hugging each other, Man U crowd rejoicing, a Chelsea fan was seen nail-biting mourning the comprehensive loss...

303. HISTORY IN THE MAKING...

Keeping awake on two successive nights was a daunting task. Eventually between frequent blinks and big yawns, managed to catch the goals that counted.

Holland and Spain booked their places in the Final of the World Cup after tough battles. Both teams have never won the World Cup although Holland has appeared twice in 1974 and 1978 but came out second best on both occasions. Whichever team wins, a new name will be engraved on the Cup. Both teams are equally skillful and excellent, capable of being a worthy winner.

What interest me though are the performances of some club rejects early in the season. Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben proved that they are world class players despite Real Madrid dumping them. Sneijder finding his footing in Inter Milan and Robben excelled in Bayern Munich. Both met in the European Cup final where Inter and Sneijder triumphed.

Sneijder and Robben are equally instrumental in placing Holland into the final. A total of seven goals were scored between them. I have always admired Sneijder operating intelligently in the middle of the park with his accurate distribution, clever positioning and ability to shoot from distance.

Arjen Robben is a very skilful and 'delicate' player. I might find his theatrical antics on the field at times distasteful but in the modern world of soccer every shred of skill is always an advantage.

As for Germany, much has been said about the foresight of the German Football Association and the shrewd strategy of the team coach, Joachim Loew in placing trust in youth which have paid dividends handsomely. The values of these little known players like Muller, Jerome Boateng, Sami Kedhira and Mesut Ozil have shot rocketed sky high.

The Bundesliga has again proved to be a good nursery of future stars ready to blitz the world soccer and probably may eclipse the path of Rooney, Ronaldo and Messi.

Unfortunately, in the game where it counted the most, the young German guns just could not raised their game against the experienced Spanish side. Without the drive of influential Muller, the team succumbed to Spain losing by the single fabulous headed goal of Puyol.

The encounter in World Cup 2010 final between two great soccer nations of Holland and Spain professing attractive attacking soccer is something to savior. Perhaps Torres who has been prowess at Liverpool can finally ignite and avoid being labelled a World Cup outcast.

Fans are expecting this final game could surpass the epic encounter of 1974 between Holland and Germany; the clash between Johan Cruff, Johan Neeskens and Resenbrink on the Dutch side against Beckenbauer, Breitner and Gerd Muller on the German side.  

I believe the outcome of the game will be determined by the battle of Sneijder and Robben on the Dutch side and Villa and Puyol on the Spanish side. If Sneijder and company can muscle their way and dictate the flow of the game, Holland can finally exorcised being labelled as a bridesmaid and lay claim on the elusive Cup.

To Holland and Spain, have a good and clean game.

May the best triumph...

302.BETWEEN SKILLS, TEAMWORK, PLAY ACTING, HANDS AND UPSETS...

Four quarterfinal matches played to the highest quality. There were upsets, disappointments, youth brilliance, superb play acting and foul hands that determined the destiny of teams finally placing Holland, Germany, Spain from Europe and Uruguay from Latin American to compete for the two places in the final.

Such was the intensity of the competition of a game called soccer that was supposed to be played with both feet and head eventually ended in the frustration of the whole of Africa because stinking hands were used to deny Ghana from a semi final place in the World Cup due to an Uruguayan striker who decided both his hands were better served to prevent a certain winning goal for Ghana.

I was fascinated by the performance of Ghana, Africa's sole representative in the quarterfinals. Their silky skills and the fluidity of their game was sheer delight to watch. With Michael Essien missing from the squad, not much hope was given to the Ghana team yet the players were undeterred and played like African warriors. 

The blend of youth in Asamoah Gyan, Jonathan Mensah, Ayew and Kevin Prince Boateng and the experience of Sulley Muntari carried the African hope very well into the dying seconds of the quarterfinal match only to be denied what would have been the winning goal by the hands of Suarez. So cruel!

To be fair, I thought the referee should have allowed that goal and let Ghana took their rightful place in the semi final. Alas, soccer is not about fairness but about moving forward to make the game much more exciting to watch in the future. 

The match between Holland and Brazil managed to prove a point which I have noticed all along the tournament. Soccer is now one of the best places to perfect players acting skills. There were plenty of play acting executed perfectly that many players could easily walk into Hollywood or Bollywood to start acting careers when they finally hang their soccer boots. Such was the perfect play acting displays of some players that at moments, I felt like watching good Tamil movies.

Nonetheless, Holland was magnificent, coming back from a goal down to turn the table on Brazil. Sneijder was just phenomenal and I would love to see Sir Alex Ferguson bringing him over to Man United to bolster the average midfield. Well, just a wishful thinking...

The youthful German team again proved that with a proper youth development programme, a world beating team could be produced.  MÜller, Ozil, Boateng and Khedira were full of steam and plenty of skills.

In Neuer, Germany has a pair of safe hands to man the goal for many years to come.

Philip Lahm at 26 years old proved to be a very able captain leading by example. 

A four-goals present to Australia, another four-goals gift to England and yet another four more goals memento to Argentina  are real generous gifts indeed from the German youthful team spearheaded at the front by the master sharpshooter Miroslav Klose. 

Even, Chancellor Merkel was up and jumping with joy at the magical display of her German team.

The Argentine performance was plain mediocre. Messi, the world footballer of the year, after so much hype, like Rooney ended as World Cup flop, registering a zero goal throughout the tournament.

Diego Maradona, with all his skills and experiences as a player could only watched in despair from the sidelines.

Spain, one of the pre-tournament favourites, after the early stutter, managed to live up to the expectation. David Villa who is now the tournament top scorer is really outstanding.

The other Spanish players except for Xavi are still finding their mark to reproduce their clubs performances.

Fernando Torres in particular, is a real disappointment. He needs to pull up his socks fast to avoid being in the same World Cup rubbish bin as Messi and Rooney.

Simply love to see Uruguay and Germany in the final. Nothing would be more interesting that to watch a clash between Europe and Latin America.

Still, a repeat of 1974 final between Germany and Holland would not be too bad after all.

299. THE MANY FACES OF THE WORLD CUP...

Fourteen teams have booked their places for the knockout stage of the World Cup leaving the last two places to be decided between Switzerland, Spain and Chile. 

The colourful soccer tournament have produced many upsets and along the way an array of interesting faces of fans, players, officials and managers. These are moments that have been captured for memories.

Faces of despair

The agony of pain

 sadness and frustration...

and the thrills of joy.