; the little -details- xXx

 woah.

that was a rush, man! 3-2 to the visitors--although admittedly, first half would go to bayern, with all their goals (klose 12', 17' and ribery 34') coming then, and second half went to lyon, for trying really hard through govou and benzema. the match would of course go to zippy franck ribery, who was hotter than hot in this match, and supported by bastian schweinsteiger at the other side, they were Lyon-slayers! michael rensing deserved a mention too for barricading his net after letting two in, pulling out all the stops to prevent the equaliser until the final whistle was blown. 

still, this "shifting the gear down" needs to stop--they lost a comfortable lead after slowing down just as when lyon finally found their stride (what did claude puel say to them in half time?) but the one touch football was really pleasing to the eye--klinsmann's vowed to change bayern's style of play to that of top english clubs (arsenal? xD) and it's well on the way. 

luca toni still needs to try harder. sigh. his luck's still a little bit down. but klose on the other end... 5 goals in 6 CL matches last i kept track of him! and this win marks bayern's 15th unbeaten match in all competitions in a row. lyon on the other hand... the moral looks like it's going to free fall like crazy, and what with no good news has yet to come out of l'hopital d'olympique lyonnais... puel would have to hope for a christmas miracle to pull the team to a win (although they're still currently at the top of the ligue 1 table).

what started out as a seemingly lousy season under jurgen klinsmann is fast proving itself wrong. christmas break's coming, and boy do i hope that next year, bayern would keep up this dazzling form of theirs (we're now tied with Hoffenheim for the league table! not bad for a club which started their seasons at the tenth place, huh?). 

don't you call yourself a real soccer player until you wear this:


hey, franck ribery does; so should you!

and oh yeah, happy thanksgiving and all that--i'm countin' down the days i get to actually be in a country that celebrates this pilgrim holiday with the turkey and the mashed potato and the pumpkin pie.

---------------------

anyway, the chiang mai's trip has been cancelled thanks to the volatile political situation there--aka turmoil--and in the interest of our--the students--safety. i've been expecting this since... actually, since i found out about the trip--my parents have been apprehensive since they've heard about it and my sister and my cousin, who are supposed to go to thailand with their school too already have their trips cancelled since the situation escalated there like a month or so ago.

still, i've been looking forward to it a lot (from the christmas gift exchange, to potential roomate bickering, to plain ol' fun listening to scientists, and real fun travellin' in a new city). sigh.

anyway, star worlds aired season 6 finale of friends yesterday and urgh, that episode--which is courtney cox's and matthew perry's favorite, by the way--still gets to me.

I thought that it mattered what I said or where I said it. Then I realized the only thing that matters is that you, that you make me happier than I ever thought I could be and if you let me I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you feel the same way

*sniif*

okay, going back to swooning over yoann gourcuff and his zidane-sque deja vu moments during the match against chelsea yesterday. ahhh, him and diarra totally give Ligue 1 face as chelsea can only manage a draw against a side they trashed 4-0 before and unlike arsenal and united they aren't qualified yet!

10 december: bayern munich vs olympique lyonnais. stade de gerland. since both sides are already qualified anyway, this is just a match to determine who'll top group f. but still...

i can't waiiiittttttt!

I'm a happy happy bayern fan right now; and an even happier Miro Klose fan! Said striker scored two and set Luca Toni's maiden goal in "a galore of missed opportunities" and helped Bayern to get a 3-0 win and clinched qualification.

Lyon didn't get raped by Fiorentina despite having key players now regulars in Hôpital de Lyon; Fiorentina couldn't even take advantage of the fact that Lyon's defense isn't made up of first team players (Reveillere has officially joined others like Pjanic in said hospital) and instead Makoun and 'course, Big Benz happily scored one each to help Lyon clinch qualification with a 2-1 win.

Arsenal. Sigh. After getting owned by Aston Villa and Man City, all the Gunners can get is a 1-0 win thanks to a late Bendtner strike. What the hell has happened to this team, I seriously dunno; currently, I'm just hoping we can actually stay in the Big Four now...

Whoops. Orchestra now xD (Oh, the joy of Livejournal mobile...)

condolences to jennifer hudson. it's a painful wake up call to all of us that even those above us aren't still out of reach from bad guys and their guns.

(john lennon).

and condolences to juande ramos. he mighta been a great coach if he hasn't inherited such a screwed up tottenham with unsettled players (berbatov. keane. defoe) and club board whose knowledge of football extends as far as the ball is round (then again, this is starting to become a really worrying trend for almost all EPL clubs, isn't it?). harry redknapp's been hired a few hours ago or so to replace him in the hope that tottenham might actually turn their bad luck around. well, tottenham's currently leading bolton 1-0 right now and ohmygosh are they actually going to win a match?

(maybe ramos' really been their bad luck card all along!)

arsenal's currently playing west ham as i'm speaking--stil 0-0! (eh, where's diaby?) and no, i'm not watching at all--my brother is :P and guess what guess what? bayern won again! yay! a 4-2 win over previously fifth placed wolfsburg (no time to check the table yet) despite being 0-2 down in the first half thanks to...

franck ribery! mark van bommel (captaincaptaincaptain)! tim borrowski! aannddd schweini!

(i don't know if i miscount or anything but borrowski or schweini should be top-scorer for bayern right now--yeah, i think tim is, isn't he?)

(and mark's really turning his game around ever since that period of time he spent warming the bench--he came back a different captain. wow, jurgen klinsmann really knows how to handle people--well, in this case).

lyon drew again: 0-0. still leading the table but the winless streak has now been extended to three.

tminus-8 days to daniel craig, playstation 3 and sleeeeppppppppppppp.

mama mia. here we go again.

You see? I didn't watch yesterday's Champions League matches due to obvious reasons (exams are comiinnnggg) and then all my three teams play their best!

Arsenal was a five-star team--hints of which they showed during the second half of the Everton game last weekend--who handed Fenerbahce their first home European defeat in three years. 6 goals were scored by the team, compared to one by the Turkish giant--admittedly, one is an own goal from Mikael Silvestre, but Abou Diaby, Emmanuel Adebayor, Theo Walcott, Alexandre Song, and here's another piece of good news: Aaron Ramsey were there to hand Luis Aragones his butt.


Bayern produced probably their best performance under Jurgen Klinsmann yet with Miroslav Klose nicking another goal as early as the fourth minute and Bastian Schweinsteiger and Ze Roberto adding more goals to their already impressive form. Fiorentina, whose domestic form is as sad as Bayern's, has now gone on three matches without a single win despite being a heavy favorite at the start of CL.

Pretty happy day for me after I found out about the results this morning--plus the fact that today's the last day of school! And oh yeah, the year 6s were graduating today. I wonder how our school would be like without them? They've always been the ones bringing most of the trophies to school and stuff--and to me, they're probably the most capable people to take up leadership positions in the school. Whewt, how time flies--the next thing I know, our batch may be the senior batch and the ones standing up there to be waved farewell upon!

Gotta get back to studying. Urgh. Let me just put some gratitious Juninho picture (because I covered him with Karim up there), a grinning Arsene Wenger, and a Miro shot (because he's sexy).

Bayern finally won a game against Karlushe--captain van Bommel finally came off the bench, Luca Toni's still misfiring, but Miroslav Klose is there to save Bayern some blushes and coach Klinsmann can have a huge sigh of relief.

Finally a second goal for Bayern for this season from Miro--the look on his face was one of pure ecstasy, and he finally did that trademarked flip he hadn't done in ages--and landed solid on his butt. Owch.



He's limping--oh gosh, I hope he'd be fine.

Similarly, Arsenal finally won a game against Everton despite looking massively unimpressive especially in the first half, no thanks to Theo Walcott, van Persie, Samir Nasri and of course, Cesc Fabregas (please, pleaseplease cut your hair. Lionel Messi has done it; Fernando Torres has done it; Cesc, such style is so out of date!). There has been news about Fabregas wanting to move back to Barcelona, and if Arsenal still can't achieve anything ever since that FA cup back in 2005, I don't blame him. But Cesc is seriously our talisman--I shudder to think about what would happen if he leaves.

Somebody please do something about the goal-scoring-problem. I don't understand how such a team that can look so beautiful and offensive in the midfield can be muted in front of the goal like that--anyone who sees Arsenal play would obviously wonder if the players are goal-phobic. Do they lack the confidence to power up a shot home? Or they're just massively unselfish and/or they are friends with the opponent goalkeeper or pity him somehow and shot attempts tend to be so half-heartedly done. We get points from winning, we win by scoring, and there would be no goal scoring if no one seems to be brave enough to try their hands in goal scoring!

Lyon drew against Lille 2-2. This extends their non-winning streak to two matches. Well, they were actually 0-2 down, and they fought back, which seems to be their character lately (losing behind before finally trying their best--urgh, worrying). Thanks to an own goal, and Fabio Grosso (he'sbackhe'sbackhe'sback!), Lyon's still at the top of the league.

Anyway, my mom finally succeeded in dragging me to watch Mama Mia! today. I loved the musical, I love ABBA, and I pretty much enjoyed the movie. It's one of those movies that require you to put your brains at the doorstep since there are some random moments in the script which isn't that well written, but yeah--the songs, the breathtaking beauty of the Greek island the movie was set in, and Pierce Brosnan did it for me. Talking 'bout Pierce Brosnan--he is fucking hot even when he's so old and greying and fat. Hottest James Bond ever, well, maybe on par with Daniel Craig, but he's definitely still uncannily charming and hot despite being like half a century old!

Greece is so on my Europe trip map. :D I hope our graduation ceremony wouldn't be on December like how the current year 6's is--get it over with and done quickly, and then zoom!--I'm off!

(Actually, I still kinda wonder how I'd get by backpacking in Europe across like five-six different countries if I can only speak English and maybe a little French?)

ohmigooossshhhh high school musical 3 is coming, i sooooo want to watch it! so exciting, man! definitely event of the year for me!

not.

1. Lyon's neon yellow jerseys are very, very bright. It made me think of my biology revision, 'cause it made me think of the highlighters which I use in my revisions.

2. Game as lively as the neon yellow + white jersey combo on the field. At least until around the twentieth minute it was, with both sides testing each other--and then all frikkin' streaming links i try fail on me...

3. I HATE STREAMING and I HATE THE FACT THAT I'M SUPPOSED TO WATCH THIS STREAMED. 

4. Giving up now. Stupid Sopcast streaming is now showing soap operas instead of the match and all justinTVs streams fail on me. I need a frikkin' credit card next time--so I can watch the real proper streaming one in UEFA.com, and burn 8 US bucks from my pocket.

5. Arsenal's leading 3-0 now (Ben AffleckVan Persie + 2 Adebayor goals). Hah, never did expect them to lose against Porto. Bayern's tied with Lyon at 1-1; Puel has Demichellis to thank with an own goal in the first half (around when my streaming screwed up; I refreshed it to find the score 0-1 and I almost threw the mouse against my monitor--thank God for replays) while Ze Roberto equalised in the 51st minute (I saw only the celebrations--Klinsmann seems frikkin' relieved, thanks to really lousy streaming which shows me like one frame per one minute). Other news include the fact that Berbatov has finally scored in the Man U shirt, making it 2-0 for the Manchester United vs Aalborg game. I know all this because I'm now hanging around the Offside Liveblogging page while trying to decipher the pixels that seem to be suspended in time too long of a time to be a streamed video.

6. I REALLY HATE THE FACT I CAN'T WATCH THIS GAME. If I've got a credit card, I can always rewatch it in UEFA.com (for a fee, 'course)... I really hate the fact that I still need to pay watching real exciting football when I paid so frikkin' much to have a handful of channels apparently dedicated to it? Thanks a lot, EPL dominance--the only thing they showing right now is Arsenal's trashing of Porto--maybe if I bother checking I may find the Man U game as well. Oh, Ade just got his hat trick. 4-0 now. Okay, fine, Arsenal is dishing up an exciting match, but they're not the only clubs that can dish exciting matches only. The thing is, the cable would only provide what the market wants, and unfortunately, the market demands EPL CLUBS FTW. Let's see if they would show the Real-Juventus game, or they'd leave it behind in favor of ManU-something and Arsenal-something?

7. Ribery, mah man :D Not yet at his peak, awesome form, but still dangerous--and his presence is already making a huge change in the midfield. The streamings can hardly keep up with his breakneck speed :) urgh, if there's one thing I want to see post match is some Ribery-Benzema <3 at the end, seeing that they were so BFFs in the NT during the Euros. (Berba just made another goal for United, by the way--wow, he's proving me wrong about his expensive lack-of-usefulness).

8. Borrowski coming on for Ribery. Given Tim's form lately, he may actually score a late one here--given how I'm still expecting Benzema to score one. My streaming has utterly failed--it disconnects every five seconds now. Still think it would end in a draw :D uh-oh, wait, Juninho's off for Boumsong--Lyon may seem to go defensive and settle for 1-1 (kinda a gamble; how many people actually believe that Fiorentina wouldn't win against Steaua?--well, it's still 0-0 now, but...)

9. LOL whut I'm actually still attempting to watch the streaming--I guess I'm that desperate to try and watch this game regardless of the lack of quality. Well, at least it makes me use my brains early in the morning to try and keep up with the disfigured, pixellized forms on the screen as well as to try and understand the French commentary. Bayern actually still has that lack of finishing that bothers me, hmmmm... Lots of people criticise Bayern for fielding two over 30 strikers, but it didn't bother me last season when they (well, at least Toni) produced results--but he's forgiven tonight since Lloris made life very difficult for Toni (and Klose, and Oddo, and any other guy that tries to take a shot at the OL goal, actually) last night. Set pieces aren't brilliant as well, although Schweini can find someone like the one he'd just kicked, they usually can't put it away. Unless they do a Demichellis and put it away when they should be the one defending it. Lahm needs to focus more (as usual)--his lapse of concentration almost let to a Benzema goal.

10. Ah, kay that's the final whistle: 1-1! The commentators are now discussing about the game, and duh, they're talking mostly about the excellent Ribery (he is French...)--and whoops, that's it, the broadcasting's cut off. Looks like there'd be no Karim-Franck interactions for me to see. Mehh, Bayern won't be so happy with yet another not-a-victory, but at least it isn't a loss, which they had two times too many these past two weeks. Lyon would be quite thrilled to continued their non-beaten streak even while being away from home (if Bayern doesn't pick it up, they may be in trouble in Stade de Gerland in December), and they're now ahead of Fiorentina on the group ranking by number of goals scored. The unofficial (but generally agreed on) Group of Death is now quite neck to neck this way, I should think:

	P	W	L	D	GF	GC	GD
Bayern	4	1	0	1	2	1	1
Lyon	2	0	0	2	3	3	0
Fiorentina	2	0	0	2	2	2	0
Steaua	1	0	1	1	0	1	-1

11. Need to get 11.484 bucks (I converted it into S$) ready for the next leg Lyon-Bayern game in December.

Of course, such an epic match would probably rank really low in terms of "must-watch" for those of you who are convinced that
EPL is the only football league in the world, but it's your loss if you want to miss a clash between the Bundesliga giant against the League 1 giant.

Fun fact: Lyon's manager Claude Puel used to be teammates with Bayern's manager Jurgen Klinsmann in Monaco. So this is kinda like a highschool reunion, and instead of showing off who's got the bigger car or the prettier wife, they're bringing eleven players on field each to outo each other :)

on Domestic Record So Far

Olympique Lyonnais--6 wins, 1 draw -- VS Toulouse: 3-0 Lorient VS --: 0-0 -- VS Grenoble: 2-0 Saint-Etienne VS--: 0-1 -- VS Nice: 3-2 Le Havre VS--:0-1

Bayern Munich--2 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats -- VS Hamburger SV: 2-2 Borussia Dortmund VS --: 1-1 -- VS Hertha Berlin: 4-1 FC Koln VS--: 0-3 -- VS Werder Bremen: 2-5 Hannover 96 VS --: 1-0

OL VS Fiorentina: 2-2; Bayern VS Steaua Bucharest: 1-0

(And as of an extra stats: Lyon's been the victor for the past 4 encounters it had against German clubs).

Lyon's cruising through their domestic league, while Bayern's undoubtedly going through their worst season as far as anyone can remember.

Players to Watch

OL goalkeeper: Hugo Lloris

7 undefeated games this season so far--and 4 goals conceded. Incredible, incredible talent that Puel found this season and is definitely a worthy successor to Gregory Coupet so far. The 23 year old has already been called up for the French NT, and injects confidence at the back with his great reflexes and seriously unbelievable ability to make amazing saves.

Bayern goalkeeper: Michael Rensing

Already 2 losses in a row-and 10 goals conceded, with Bremen's 5-2 trashing a fortnight ago (some goals were his fault, seriously), but the 24 year old still has the club's backing as Oliver Kahn's next successor (no matter how heavy that legacy is). Also known as one of Germany's next top talent, he was also called up for the Germany NT. But to me, I think the idea of trying to live up to Die Kahn is a bit too... frikkin' stressful and that may actually affect his performance right now.

The Ribery
Previous Ligue 1 topscorer, and current one right now. Karim Benzema was worried about not making it due to a knock in the previous match, but all's well now, and he's all fired up against Bayern now and with Bayern defense being leakier than my air conditioner (what with all the defenders like Lucio and Lahm keep on forgetting that they are frikkin' defenders), he can be their worst nightmare.

Inspiration?

Bayern needs to win this in order to restore confidence in the fans and in themselves. Klinsmann would darn make sure everything go right since Hoeness is all bristling up, and most people are convinced his job's on the line for this one. Annnddd they'd be playing at home.

Lyon needs at least a draw to keep their champions league dream alive, and while the mood in Allianz Arena may be really sour and emo right now, the visitors would be at very, very high spirits, brimming with confidence.

Final words

It may depend on who scores first, well, one more than another--if Lyon scores first, Bayern may suffer from that horrible lack of confidence again and as they pound away in the opponent's half of the field, they may forget to protect their own. If Bayern scores first, it may not matter that much if Lyon keeps this pattern of equalising and scoring late in the game unexpectedly, especially if Bayern's defense--which seriously needs to be improved, preferably via a miracle--is caught by surprise. But in the department of scoring, Bayern may have a little bit of problem--I think Borrowski is like Bayern's best bet if we go by statistics since Toni and Klose are still not on form yet and Podolski suffering from that usual sometimes-invisible ailment again. They do make chances, and they can dominate possession, but they seem to be reluctant to deliver the finishing blow if you watch the last two games they lost.

But pushed in front of the home crowd to try to turn their horrible luck around, Bayern may have a few unexpected aces up their sleeves (eg. Ribery). I won't be surprised if the game ends in a 0-0, or a 1-1 draw after a really exciting match that I unfortunately would have to watch in streaming quality. :D

1. arsenal lost to hull city. HULL CITY. like ohmygod.

2. bayern lost to hannover 96. HANNOVER 96. like ohmygod.

3. CESC FABREGAS--YOU CUT YOUR HAIR RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN! (what, you tryin' to grow your hair like messi--who now looks wayyy hotter with shorter hair?)

4. arsenal's youths play with more flair and passion than the senior squad.

5. KIMI RAIKKONEN WENT OUT. again. no podium yet again since august, no first place since april. title hopes--dashed. it was sooo close--unfortunately he pitted late, and lost out his third place and went to fifth. then--there was that crash. and that shot of him, looking oh so sadly at the track as the race ended from the sides--ahhh, it despairs me too.

6. i can't care less about massa, but the stupid drive through earned him a penalty and pooofff. there goes his race. ferrari won't get no points outta this race. and his lack of points won't help him with his title dream either. with lewis hamilton though, it's a totally different thing. now he should be pretty untouchable, unless some other dramas happened in the remaining GPs. FRICKK NO HAMILTON IS GONNA BE CHAMPION? WHUTTT!

7. FERNANDO ALONSO WAS FIRST. like ohmygod.

8. lol tottenham is 2-0 down against portsmouth. don't you pity a side that's probably spent one of the most in the off season, has quite a famous manager (ramos) and superstars in the form of david bentley, pavluychenko and luka modric?

9. but the f1 race was really nice--i would never appreciate the singapore night skyline this much until i saw it on tv. there was drama, and crashes and unexpected twists and turns (alonso--from 15th in the starting place, to champion. i think he shed some tears up there just now--like i betcha "i still have it, bitches!" is going through his mind). and sebastian vettel--fifth place! ain't too shabby, man!

10. the f1 fever. so many people were watching--my neighbors around me, below me, above me, in the coffee shop, in the restaurant... it's funny because there hasn't been so much interest in the f1 until it arrives in the singaporean shores, and suddenly everyone's so hyped up about it. great marketing there, seriously.

11. seriously hopes david remembers to get me kimi's cap.

I got around 2 hours of sleep last night, thanks to a shitload of procrastinating, Young Avengers, Runaways, Young Avenger/Runaways, a little bit of Tiny Titans, and Geog Elect case study. But I got to watch at least a match live--and two others liveblogged (all the channels were on Sopcast--and I've only got one Sopcast!), and the adrenaline from watching/following these matches kept me high and awake the entire day long.

(So what's new? I realised I screwed up chem test big time, and I was late again. For the 2nd time. Public buses seem to hate me).

Anyway, what can I say? Arsenal, Bayern and Lyon obviously have problems in the finishing departement--in Bayern's case, they need to work on their pass too (I can only say this confidenly of Bayern since theirs was the match I streamed). Superb crosses from Fabregas, attempts from Toulalan and breathtaking dash from Lahm would all go to waste if someone isn't there to properly net the ball in. There are the goods, then there are the bads, and then there are the ugly, during these three matches last night.


It's quite sad once you realised that Bayern could only get a goal in pass the makeshift team Steaua had assembled after its injury crisis. Schweini--I can't help but express admiration in his talent for set pieces this season--launched a free kick that Daniel van Buyten found, and headed it into the net in the 15th minute. The Belgian was excited and every Bayern fan was probably excited for him too--this guy never gives anything less than 120% for Bayern (and yet left to rot in the bench for a handful of games) and he deserved this. Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni (and then Lukas Podolski) tried their hearts out, but alas, they were to be denied as the game remained a 0-1 at the end of 90 minutes. Rensing was tried a few times--he made a few saves, and were mostly luck as Steaua men found their balls hitting the post and/or crossbar and missing the goal by inches. The pace was okay--not as fast as I'd like it to be yet, but most of that drunken-hangover-ish sluggishness is gone, although maybe the team could need more urgency, and more desire to trash the home team.

Miro was injured. Last thing we need is yet another setback to his form which is slowly creeping up. I'd be really disappointed if he miss the game against Werder Bremen this Saturday--but one good thing is that we may see Franck Ribery's season debut. Fingers crossed--for both men.

Hopefully, Bayern would pick up the pace and produce even a better performance with better passing and better finishing as they face Lyon next--and they better produce a heckuva show for me to watch. Speaking about Lyon...

(I don't know if this is normal for a girl of my generation, but I'm currently listening to Boyzone's old hits :O Is it even normal if I think that they look even hotter now even though they're like ancient? 'Cept for Ronan Keating--he looks better younger, when his hair redefined the popular catchphrase "Soft Bouncy Hair!" My God. His hair. It was so enchanting--like magic!)
-------------------------------------
( 3 matches in 1 timeslot = BUSY! )

Well, what can I say?

That "English Dominance" thing that have been happening two times consecutively for the last two years seems to have peeked its nose again this year. Liverpool and Chelsea trash Marseille and Bordeaux 2-1 and 4-0 respectively in what seems to be two games that didn't even make Benitez or Scolari sweat.

(Well, Benitez may have sweat a little since Marseille gained the lead first, but he'd have relaxed when local superhero Steven Gerrard equalised, and made it 2-1 by the first half).

Some people may say "Hey, what the heck, man; it's a competition, the best teams win. And 'sides, English clubs are exciting--they balance out the boring, tactical defensive clubs in CL!" While, yes, it is a competition that more often that not thrills the socks off us fans, it's currently also a sad reflection of the state of club footballs in Europe: the inequality between the EPL and other clubs (yes, even Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter) is growing, and it doesn't seem like it's going to stop soon.

Let's review, shall we?

2006 Champions League Runners Up: Arsenal
2007 Champions League Semi Finalists: Manchester United; Chelsea
2007 Champions League Runners Up: Liverpool
2008 Champions League Semi Finalist: Liverpool
2008 Champions League Runners Up: Chelsea
2008 Champions League Winner: Manchester United

English clubs have won 11 CL cup, on par with clubs from Italy and Spain, but clubs from the latter two leagues never dominate the competition like that--it's like crows flocking together over food (okay, bad analogy).

Success seems to be an exclusive club chartered to not even all English clubs--specifically, four of them (and if Mark Hughes plays his really lucky cards right, maybe it would be five). In human geography, we learnt about why people living in rural areas immigrate to the urban areas, and the reasons can be divided into "push" or "pull" factors. The same concept can be applied to European football.

"Pull" factors

EPL has probably its marketing team to thank for its current extra-super-star status. Brilliantly marketed and packaged to appeal to people of all generations, of all ages, nationality, race, country, gender and more, the revenue from broadcasting--which increases every year despite a global econmic cooldown--may be what separates the English Premier League from local or international leagues. The rise of an international fanbase that is one of the side effects of the international marketing and broacasting only means that there are more people to buy merchandises (and as demand goes up, so will the price). This all translates to money, and if managed properly, it would equate to a greater spending prowess, which is the biggest pull factor a club can ever have.

Money can buy success. A club with greater spending prowess would be able to hire a manager of a higher calibre and attract the best footballers around, as well as retain them. Success (well, most of the time) due to the presence of an excellent (and expensive) management team and players would reinforce another pulling factor, which is the club's reputation.

For example, players whom have been courted by the suddenly-rich Manchester City still do not wish to go to the club despite the club being overrun with a lot of money trees (I heard that money trees grow best in oil) because of its lack of reputation, lack of famous coach and lack of trophies. But if Manchester City manages to attract enough good players to help increase its reputation in the EPL and international arena, more and more players would be interested in signing up with the club.

In geography, we call such processes a "magnifiying effect". A pulling factor can magnify other factors which would only magnify itself and would overall increase its attractiveness to immigrants--in our case, footballers.

What seems to be the most important thing in footballing scenes nowaday is that a good enough reputation can attract those rich billionaires who would only increase the club's treasury fund, and overall attractiveness. Owning sport clubs is the "cool" thing to do among rich people nowadays, for investment and... for fun (it's the ultimate fan thing to do: buy a club if you love them!) While with the outrageous amount of money comes a lot of pouting, unreasonable requests (Roman Abramovich), outrageous requests (the Abu Dhabi group gave Mark Hughes a list of football players they wanted to have when they joined the club--all of themworld class, outrageously expensive players) and horrible attempts at "Play the Manager!" (Mike Ashley), in the end, the Euros and pounds and blank cheques are the ones that really talk the talk in an inceasingly capitalised football scene.

All the above mentioned factors only reinforce and magnify the attractiveness of the English Premier League--more specifically, the Big Four: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. There is only one spot for a top league, and it's currently taken by the EPL, and it doesn't look like it's going to budge anytime soon. If anything, it will just keep going further and further out of reach from the other leagues.

"Push" factors

The most obvious "push" factors that push players out of other leagues and into EPL is their hunger for success, fame and in a few cases (well, honestly, a lot of cases), money. As the football scene is dominated by EPL and their clubs (how many of you used to think that EPL is the only pro football league in the world--or if you still think so? I wouldn't be surprised--honestly, before Football Channel, the only matches that were shown in TV here were EPL and World Cup matches, or the occasional Real Madrid and Barcelona games), other leagues suffer as they cannot compete with the rich billionaires in EPL and their popularity--which brings in the cash. Ironically enough, while EPL and their clubs make football even more popular, they keep the spotlight mostly for themselves.

If there is a magnification effect, then there is a "shrinking effect" at play here. We can say that EPL is growing in expense of the other leagues, and as these leagues only get less dominant and seems to get only "smaller" compared to the EPL clubs, players would only get out in order to "spread their wings". Worst comes to worst, these leagues would become feeder leagues--a fate that the Primera Liga is determinedly fighting, and as far as I know, they are slowly losing (we'll talk again after Real gets CRon)--that is, talented players would first play in these leagues, get all the fans and clubs excited about their potential, and then they move away to play with the big boys. French Ligue 1 and Netherlands' Eredivisie are sadly consigned to this fact. Some leagues may just be an "island league", that is, popular within the country--and that's it (although there are some international fans scattered here and there who are so passionate about them that they'd wake up in the wee hours of the morning and stream lousy quality videos--oh wait, am I talking about myself?). Usually players stay in and hardly any other foreigners come in to play. An example of this is Turkey's Turkcell Super Lig, Germany's Bundesliga, and to a certain extent, Italy's Serie A.

(However, the presence of Brazillian and Argentinian players are as rampant in these leagues as well; so foreigners mean players foreign to the league but not Brazilian and Argentinian, since these two countries are so blessed in talent their players are scattered all over the world).

Consequences

Inequality among leagues and clubs, even in the EPL itself. How many of you want to bet that any other club besides Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal would finish in the top 4? How many of you want to be that English clubs would dominate Champions League again? In the long run, this would only mean that football is getting more and more predictable and less exciting. Gone are the days when Leeds United can actually win the Premiership (well, according to Sam, who's the graduate student helping us in our frog IR, Leeds went bankrupt, and they were reformed under the same name and is currently in "division 200"), or when smaller, less known clubs such as Bayer Leverkusen has a shot of winning the Champions League.

Other clubs are slowly giving up on facing the dreaded EPL clubs due to the perceived image of superiority. Karl Heinz Rummenige, who is the chairman of Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich, has this to say:

“The English are ahead of the rest of Europe. The Bundesliga is a long way behind clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. When you look at the potential they have it will be a surprise if the English don’t dominate as they did last year … I can see Chelsea being very strong. They are one of the big favourites.”


As what some people have said: if English clubs are dominating the CL again, what the heck is the point of watching CL? If I want to watch English clubs squaring off against each other, I would have stick to EPL, wouldn't I? 

Solutions

Currently, this is how the draw for CL works:

(From Wikipedia)

The number of places in the competition depends on the association's rank in the UEFA coefficients table:

• associations ranked 1 to 3 have four positions,
• associations ranked 4 to 6 have three positions,
• associations ranked 7 to 15 have two positions,
• associations ranked 16 or lower have one position.

So this means that England, Italy and Spain are represented by four clubs each, France, Germany and Russia by three clubs each and so on. Michael Platini, president of the UEFA, has recently proposed a really clever solution: just frikkin' limit English clubs' slots to three, duh. Of course, it wasn't met with enthusiasm--most people like getting English football in their diet.

For a fast solution if you like watching competitive, less predictable football that may be inferior compared towards CL, than watch UEFA Cup, which goes to the third ranked, fourth ranked, and in some leagues fifth or sixth ranked clubs to try to get as close as they can to conquering Europe (mid-table clubs).

Well, there is a sort of "backwash effect" coming out from this captalizing of EPL which has resulted in overpriced--anything (even Manchester United's Old Trafford's prawn sandwiches cost more than a seat in certain Bundesliga club games). Some EPL fans have started to cross the borders to watch Bundesliga or Ligue 1 games as they offer as exciting football games (well, at times--and if you know how to choose properly) for a discounted price as compared to EPL games, and they are liking what they see. Not only that, EPL has been under fire lately for alienating their fans (a recent example is Newcastle fans' rebellion against owner Mike Ashley), but Bundesliga is well known to let their fans voice out on the happenings of their beloved clubs. This appeals to many of the alienated, hurt fans in EPL and other leagues as well.

(Another way to shift the spotlight from EPL is if Cristiano Ronaldo--the ultimate gay symbol football superstar ever since Beckham and his Golden Balls--moves to Primera Liga. Then, his massive flock of fans may also swith to PL games).

The slow, but sure increase in popularity of the other leagues may set other motions moving--maybe a Roman Abramovich would swoop down and buy a French, German or other leagues' club, and the magnifying effect would shift away from the EPL and onto other leagues.

Conclusion

Globalization (I like that word) and brilliant marketing plan has helped transform EPL into what it is today--powerful, dominant, and in a league of their own. However, this has resulted in an effect that transforms the football scene in Europe and has adverse effects on other leagues and clubs as the inequality among them grow.

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I haven't watched boybands' video clips in a while (the last being Westlife, I think), and I'm a bit disturbed at how boybands like Westlife, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys and Take That can dance like... well, in that boyband way. I don't know why, it just brings to mind Britney Spears and Madonna, and that just wants to make me laugh or retch.

But I think I'm gonna be into Irish boys for a while. They're cute. They're devout Catholic (Ronan keeps his virginity 'till his wedding day--just like Kaka. That just goes to show that hot guys can do it too!). 'Nuff said.

SHIT SO MUCH WORK TO DO. This is the end of my distressing period after those two tests just now. :D

it's a good week to be an arsenal fan!

after walcott's deserving hat-trick on wednesday, arsenal fans get a taste of another hat trick during arsenal's 4-0 demolition of the blackburn rovers. walcott rounded off his excellent week by an eight minute assist to robben van persie, and after that, emmanuel adebayor took the spotlight.

honestly, i don't really like ade as a person--he's greedy, he's whiny, he's arrogant. just this week there's that scandal about him refusing to get onto the plane for his NT if his president doesn't get onto it with him since he's convinced the plane would crash. but there's no doubt about his ability.


i mulled about writing "SHOW ME THE MONEY NOW, WENGER!", but i think that's a bit too shallow. he's shut up about $$$ for a while now at least.

but in all honesty, i didn't watch the arsenal game because it came on the same time with the bayern game :D my brother watched it for me, screaming updates from the living room as i frustatedly tried to get Sopcast to load (i hate streaming a match--but what the hell can i do if football channel/any other channels do not show bundesliga matches live?)

anyway, it's also a good week to be a bayern fan. after miro klose's hat trick on wednesday, it's luca toni's and lukas podolski's turn to shine as Bayern eases into a first away win of the season--a 3-0 win over FC Koln (FC Cologne in English), which happens to be podolski's beloved hometown club. Cologne has just returned to 1. Bundesliga this season and has been trying to entice prince poldi back to the club, but podolski made his loyalties clear in the match.


toni's obviously back in business with two goals--and an almost hat-trick. the first half was boring, with few chances, but the second half saw bayern pummeling the home defence again and again. michael rensing kept well for bayern, making a few saves (Cologne didn't really attack much). the home team was lucky to keep the goal difference to -3, since bayern saw a lot of wasted chances.


podolski came on as a sub in the second half to ravenous applause, and he didn't take much time to try to dazzle both home and away crowds. his goal came just before the final whistle--a toni cross into the penalty area which he tapped into the goal. the crowd cheered as he lay on the ground for a moment, savoring the moment.

yeah, it was a very emotional moment for everyone.

much as i love miro, i'd really prefer it if klinsmann would start poldi with toni--and then use miro as a super-sub in the 65th minute or something. at least for a while. klinsmann said that there would be a rotation soon (i think he probably meant that schweini would spend more time in the bench to make space for ribery, who's already training with the team after his recovery from his surgery) and there's a chance this might happen. just like what happened with schweinsteiger in Euro 08, maybe a period of being benched would so miro some good--that bench sure has a way of making someone train even harder to prove himself.

(of course, that bench also has the power of making someone sulk a la dimitar berbatov or lukas podolski, but miro's character is like 100000000 times better than berbatov. anyway, i enjoyed knowing the fact that his dream debut was ruined last night by liverpool. couldn't really care about the match since it was between two of my most hated club, but at least the article about sir alex ferguson blaming liverpool fans for his team's loss is hilarious).

i can't believe i digressed from bundesliga to epl just like that. okay, anyway, to complete my hell of a week, there was the lyon-nice game too.

Back in hot, humid Singapore. I swear, when I first breathed Singapore air for the first time in a week, I couldn't breathe. I have a thousand over gorgeous pictures of gorgeous Sydney and Gold Coast over the seven days; now, this was the best holiday of my life (despite that constant nagging guilt about not doing my schoolwork. Urgh. School can haunt you even during holidays.). I'm really thankful that I have the chance to go with my family to enjoy the first week of spring in Australia and to have such a great holiday.

Danke schon, mein Gott!

Apparently, I missed a lot of stuff during the one-week stay in Australia, because internet access is so limited and stuff (read: internet access is expensive there; in the first hotel, we have to pay 55 cents for every half a minute. Can you believe that?) Avril Lavigne should have just finished performing in Singapore (meh; don't care). There's a sneak preview of Harry Potter 6 for a selected few who were sworn to secrecy--but such things never work anyway since spoilers are flooding my LJ Friends page (meh, Remus and Tonks don't get much screen time + my least favorite book in the series. Despite how 'good' it's supposed to be, I'm not hyped up about it at all). Franck Ribery is fit again. Bayern triumphed 4-1 against Hertha Berlin; Klose scored. FINALLY. And oh, there were World Cup qualifications yesterday--and some still going on right now.

And the Bayern Munich vs Mannschaft game, in honor of Oli Kahn. I can't fucking believe I missed that. (Klose scored for Bayern. That's two matches in a row, bitches! And Schweini--awww, Lil' Bastian's all grown up--captained the Germans. And probably gave the best effort in the match) In dire need of this video stream. Seriously.

Oh yeah, and there's that F1 race in Belgium. I wonder how that turned out. Huh. Kimi Raikkonen is turning Miro on me :( no victories over the last four matches and what's with the rumors of that world-champion-turned-nobody Fernando Alonso taking Kimi's place in the Ferrari team next year?!

Oh and Germany, with "typical ruthlessnes and efficiency" triumphed 6-0 against Lichenstein. That's another three points. Klose captained the team again, and Podolski scored twice, and Schweini scored yet another one (guy's really on a roll!). Pity didn't watch this too.

I saw scans of X-Men Legacy, and wtf the artist didn't even bother coloring Gambit's eyes properly. 1. His eyes are not hazel, homme. 2. His scelera is not white either. 3. If you think that by slowly editing Gambit's red-on-black eyes to normal-looking eyes on the comic can prepare us for the horrible lack of effort in special effects/make up in the movies that go into his eyes, you're wrong!

It's 11:05 PM and i'm so tired. Sydney/Gold coast was two hours faster than Singapore--a small number, perhaps, but I was already tired at 8 PM on the plane just now--since it would be 10 in Australia, which is when I usually slept.

Need to wake up early tomorrow to finish homework. Urgh.

SCHOOL. OH NOES.

Things that have made Intan very unhapppy this week:
~Getting Math test results back
~Geog Elect Test
~English Presentation
~Finding out that Ms Lim is not gonna be our mentor next semester
~The fact that she's still averaging 4-5 hours of sleep every day
~Tonnes of homework and projects and tests to study for during holiday--and half of it would be spent in Australia
~Finding out Marko Marin has a girlfriend
~Today's performance

(Second time the same amp failed on me during a performance, and third time--for three performances--something went wrong with the amps. This time it was the plug--and then something about the volume control. Which was weird because yesterday it was loud, and today it was so soft. In the end, everybody was like wtf were you doing there?)

Things that have made Intan very happy this week:
~Didn't fail Chinese too badly
~Chance to play guitar
~Teacher's Day presents: finally an excuse to complete not one, not two, but eight sets of drawing to be framed up as presents.
~A chance to think about how I should appreciate my teachers (I can feel myself becoming more mature).
~Seeing how happy the teachers are today. I've never seen so much raw emotions in adults!
~Going Australia
~ICESKATING today with Aaron, Movin and Janel in that new Kallang Ice Rink.
~By finding out that Marko Marin has a girlfriend, Yang Xuan and I somehow stumble onto a treasure trove... a shitload of topless pictures of the elusive Miroslav Klose, who at least takes his shirt off when swimming.
~HOLIDAY!
~Today's performance

(I thought I'm frikkin' through with performing on stage if this 'curse'--Nic's words--continue, but somehow, a wave of optimism hit me, and I decided that I won't let this stupid curse define what I love doing. One of these days, that amp would not fail me on stage!)

~and oh yeah LYON AND BAYERN DRAWN IN THE SAME CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP OZOMDSFKMNXSDJKNFMXKJM!
while fans from respective teams may look down on the other, i think that each side is strong and formidable, both being regular domestic league champions and CL teams. Puel is gunning for succcess for Lyon in the international stage and right now, Lyon's just looking awesome. Uhm, Bayern... Well, if Bayern finds its form and Lyon keeps its form, 10th December would be a date to remember!

so I guess I'm pretty happy. A little bit.

Mr Kevin's recommended some German rock songs for me, so I'd go look them up. And urgh people who keep telling me that I should buy guitar pedals: I KNOW! Rest assured, I lust after the pedals as much too--it's just that my wallet's not very bloated right now. It's been a never ending battle between my savings and the multi SFX guitar pedal and that Gibson guitar I want (Mr Soh suggested I buy the Robo one that would tune itself automatically since my elec consistently detunes itself).

And I've used up like this semester's savings today on Pastamania, skating and Coffee Beans, being the frugal girl I am.

OHMYGOSH i thought this weekend couldn't get any worse, but...

arsenal lost!

to fulham.

losing is even worse than drawing, so i shall forget all about bayern and bitch with my dad about what went wrong. how could this happen? issit because i was laughing at the liverpool game (which they won. darn you, gerrard) and god decided how i'd like it if my team was in the losing end?

WHY ARE MY FAVORITE TEAMS MERE SHADOWS OF THEMSELVES?!

let's not start on defense. offense--we all know how arsenal is. all passing no goals. and now bayern's getting goal-phobic as well. and the midfield is in shambles--and we can chalk this up because of ribery's absence in bayern and fabregas' absence in arsenal. but does one player make a team? no! it's a frikkin' player game damn it, so the defenders defend, the strikers try to get the ball into the net and the midfielders battle it out in the field to try and pass the ball to the strikers. when i make it sound that way, it seems easy. but when the team doesn't defend/attack as a team and everyone does whatever they want--and even worse, everyone seems so reluctant to take possession/defend that possession, it would make even steve mclaren cry, dammit. hell, even mclaren seems to have managed his team better to almost pose a challenge to arsenal few weeks ago.

i feel like it's been such a frikkin' long time since i watch football happily--because my team is winning. not cursing and with a heavy heart (van bommel! how'd you get yourself red carded now? you're the captain!). but that's why i support lyon i guess, since they demolished grenoble 2-0. now that's a team with no problem attacking--THANKYOU BENZEMA FOR DOING YOUR DUTY AS A STRIKER (you're awesome. love you. always).

and dear claude puel, i would like to see pjanic start more often because he is so cute he seems to be a better fit for juninho's position and if you give him the chance, he'll blossom into a first rate player. he's so flexible, you can change the formation any time, any where by taking out/putting in a striker or a midfielder, and pjanic would just play in the middle or up front, whichever you command. by the way, you're doing a great job as a manager. i was pretty pessimistic about your plan to make the team to play lower down field to improve defense, but since the goals are still coming and the team beautifully offense oriented, i'm shutting up. ohh, it would be even better if you can motivate the team not to get slack and lenient even if they're two goals up--better teams have lost by losing their focus when they celebrate early; football's a 90 minutes game, remember?

too much pessimism is bad for my health, so i'll see whether arsenal and bayern improve before hitting the panic button and getting a fit due to frustation.

ANOTHER DRAW?!

okay fine, bayern doesn't exactly have the easiest first two matches of the season--against hamburg and dortmund--but ya think with luca toni back in they'd be able to ram in more goals.

so, so far bayern's collected two points.

it's okay. it's fine. team's slowly improving and the injured players and those in the olympic would return and oh yeah, everyone's still improving and finding their form. it's just two weeks into the season.

but i hope bayern's got their defense and offense worked up, since i'll be really worried for jurgen klinsmann if they don't (you know how uli hoeness does).

OH I SUCK MY LIFE SUCKS SO BAD KILL ME NOW...

because bayern munich drew with hamburg for the opening game :( it was an exciting game, but i'm a firm believer of getting three points at the first match of the season.

AND THE WORLD HATES ME AHH I WANNA DIE NOW...

because klose didn't put up a good display! i'm so worried for him since it seems as if he's lost his goalscoring edge... every footballer has a curve for their abilities, and now that he's at the wrong edge of 30, i'm afraid he's on the 'concave down' side of the curve (yeah, i've been doing too much calculus!)

and i need to stop squeeing whenever the camera shoots him. i'm gonna lose my voice if i keep this up! (but my gosh, he is just so frikkin' cute!)

one good thing is that i'm five bucks richer, 'cause i bet with my bro that mark van bommel would get a yellow. he doesn't watch much bundesliga, and so he hasn't been acquainted with mark's uhm, passionate flair for the game.

anyway, mark did get a yellow. although after the slow-motion replay, he didn't really deserve it, but that man and his yellow cards--he can make a small house stacking up the ones he's gotten in his career!

IT'S ME AGAINST THE WORLD OH GOD WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED ME...

because arsenal is faring 1-0 as i'm writing this. against west brom. what the hell is that (i will NOT settle for anything less than 3-0!). apart from the 3rd minute goal from nasri (*SQUEEEALLLL SAMIR I LOVE YOU*), arsenal's been playing pretty, but again, lacking that extra push in front of the goal. what's with my favorite teams today? they really seem goal-phobic.

but you know what's cool? that five minute after nasri's goal, i checked his wikipedia page and his goal was already mentioned there. wow.

OH I JUST WANT TO SLIT MY WRIST OR HANG MYSELF AND DIE SINCE NO ONE WILL MISS ME ANYWAY...

urgh. it's so tiring to write emo. it's seriously bad for the soul. i guess it's even more tiring to speak emo. or display emo. those emo people in our school must have a lot of finesse to carry those emo-ness. and even more, since all those are so exaggerated to gain attention anyway.

i think dressing up to school in a clown suit is a much more effective way of attratcing attention. if i'm really emo, i'd rather keep it as another skeleton in my closet--keep it inside myself; being emo, to me, is a weak weak thing and why would i want to display that? although i don't have any closets and even if i do, i'd prefer not to have human skeletal remnants in them--that would really stink up my clothes i should think.

OH WHY AM I SO SO SO ALONE IN THIS WORLD IF I HIDE AWAY NOBODY WOULD FIND ME!

i think i would really suck at writing emo song lyrics. haha.