Not almost there yet...

Lucas was not playing and that was a wise one, again you can see how Joe Cole set the pace. Incisive through passes to Torres were the key to both goals, doesnt matter if he didnt even touch the ball, just go chase the ball and let them bring you down and that will lead to goals.

Glen Johnson was terrible, the attacking spoiler. An attacker with a defender mind set, better keep him on the bench. And the worst part was all the defenders didnt challenge for the ball, except for Poulsen. Everybody else was beating around the bush, waiting for the opponent to make mistake. That was why Nani has all the chances to send beautiful balls to Berbatov.

But the dream for top 4 is still far from over. The season still has a long way to go.

Bursting speed

Now we see what Joe Cole can do to Lvpl. His bursting speed can fire up the whole team. This is what Lvpl has been missing since last year, they lack the pace. Moving around slumberly, like you do during window shopping will lead you straight to the wall.

Bursting pace dynamics will create a lot of vertical space that will help penetration and finishing. Add to it Brownian passes, then you'll be playing football like the Harlem Globe Trotters! Nothing difficult about it, just a matter of practice and knowing what you need to do. Else you'll be doing all the stupid things, that again will take you straight to the wall.

Too early to say anything about the match against MU, as MU plays a much faster pace as compared to Steau. But at least, Joe Cole will be fielded and his blazing penetration will help set the pace!

Over staffed?

Continuing from what Benitez left, very much similar to his culture of buying lemons, now Hogdson is doing the same thing. Buying second tier players like Poulsen, Mario Gomez, Konchesky, Meireless and Jovanovic and nobody performs! They are cheap but you are not going to get the result.

Players like Gyan, Soarez and Sneijder who perfectly match Liverpool game plans are doing very well. Imagine if Soarez, Sneijder, Gyan playing along side Torres, Kuyt, Cole, Gerrard, Pacheco & Kelly. What a line up its going to be.

Liverpool still need to do a lot of cleaning up of players who dont match the game plans, like Lucas and of course the some of the newly bought players.

Unless Liverpool pace up their game, breaking the top four barrier is going to be impossible.

Eid Mubarak!

Wishing all muslims all over the world, Eid Mubarak and may Allah let us meet another Ramadan. And today the one month of fasting will be spoilt in just one day!!!

Let's go back to football. When England loss to Germany in South Africa last time, I was very convinced that a few players had sold the team out. Look at the way they won matches agianst Bulgaria and Switzerland with average of 3.5 goals for the 2 matches, and these results convinced me more than ever that somebody took the monies in South Africa.

The penetration was fantastic, very clinical, you dont see anybody playing the ole English game anymore. Go straight into the penalty box, and finish it off! With Joe Hart at his peak, definitely they are going to cruise through these qualifiers with their hands off the wheels!

If you've not watched how Argentina thrashed the World Champion, you will be wondering what the hell happened. The only Spaniards missed the match was Iker Casillas and perhaps Puyol, and the team was upside down! Torres also was not playing but obviously he was in his worse form. Iniesta, Villa, Silva, Xavi, Alonso etc were playing but they just cant stop Messi and his crews from scoring and scoring and scoring and scoring...

That proved that Argentina's knock out in SA was just a terribly bad fluke. The team was nervous because Messi was having flu. And shows how significant the contributions of Casillas to the team.

Lucky this time...

With City gaining pace with Milner's urgency and Tevez working as hard and inspiring as ever, it was a little late for Liverpool to strike the iron. But bouncing back immediately with a relieving win over WBA bought some time for the YWNWAs to review what went wrong that lead to the sloppy win.

Hint no1, penetration was poor. Slowing down during a penetration is never a good option, in any manoevre! Very much like the Argentinians who usually slow down in a penetration, the symptom was clearly seen. And selling of Mascherano and perhaps Lucas would be a good idea. They just cant understand the pace required and it needs to be synchronized. This is where a tactical approach needs to be routined and synchronized so that penetration process can be executed with bursting speed.

Liverpool should learn from Nani and Ji Sung when it comes to penetration. Incision into the penalty box with lightning speed, that's what need to be done. Thats not difficult considering the kind of materials Liverpool has, Kuyt and Cole should be able to do that, just like how Kuyt did it for the goal Torres scored. Dont slow down during penetration, move forward into the penalty box and that dynamic will create a lot of space at the top of penalty box and with good finisher like Torres the chance of scoring a goal will easily be as high as 80%!

Master this trick and Liverpool will be higher up the table.

Strike the iron when its still hot...

Not exactly what it normally means, but if Lvpl were to beat ManCity, perhaps this is the best time, when they are still hot, read when they not hardened yet.

ManCity is still looking for the winning formula and they are still disintegrated, huge gaps in between the players, their pace is still very much like Italians, their moving vectors are still random and Mancini still cant pinpoint the best combination. Beating them tomorrow morning will set Lvpl on the right course towards the league cup.

Just pray for Reyna's focus and stability since I dont think Hodgson going to field Cavalieri. Kuyt can replace Joe Cole and hopefully Torres is match fit.

Tight marking of Tevez is a must, read dont let him strike the ball at all! Cause he can hit the net from 30 meters away with a free shot at goal. Defenders must be decisive read, go for the ball immediately. Dont follow their twist and turn! Like wise 90% winning confidence is at 3 goals, 2 goals would be good enough!

Seriously challenging for the league cup?

I've been complaining about Reyna, I believe this year, its already the third year, and the management still doesnt see his problem. And last night he proved it one more time for everyone to witness it themselves.

Liverpool still can fight for top place provided,
1) Torres plays 30 league games
2) Reyna will not stand between the poles, I am more confident in Cavalieri
3) Swap Mascherano for Wesley Schneider, they can bundle Reyna together with Mascherano
4) Play 2 secs build up
5) Penetration widest at penalty edge
6) 10 shots on target per match, and bouncing header is a must!

And Liverpool will be challenging for the top spot!

ManCity still doesnt get the tempo right

Sweet shopping time is over, and now its time to deliver. And Mancini stuttered on the first day at school. What is wrong with ManCity? With all the superstars, their performance today was far from impressive, perhaps only Joe Hart was superb. Everybody else was, I wish to say "terrible". There were few occasions when the ball was stolen without any challenge, right in front of the player. Whats going on here Mancini? The game pace was wrong.

I've wrote earlier that Italian game plan wouldnt work down well in the EPL. EPL plays tight, high tempo football. There is no time for dreaming. Just stop and pass the ball, get it done in less than 2 secs. The thinking job need to be done before you get the ball. If you hold the ball for more than 3 secs, literally you have just spoilt your opportunity to penetrate the defence line.

To me Mancini is still searching for the winning formula and I dont think he is going to get it in the next few matches.

We are at par with Germany...when it comes to match analysis

I've completed my analysis samples sometime in 2009 and started delivery to my customer in Mar2010, with very much similar level of contents, so I can say that in term of match analysis, we are at par with Germany.

Read the details here.

But for that particular match, I wish to say that England lost because of the bookies. Yes the whole England was betting on England, which saw millions of reasons for the bookies to ensure that they loose. If you dont trust me, you can check out all the goals, JT was nowhere he supposed to be in all four occasions!

Hate to say this...

But I think MU will be back on top of the table at the middle of May next year, or perhaps even months earlier. With their new signings Hernandez and Bebe, even without Welbeck, I dont think winning the league would be a big trouble for them. With Macheda maturing, Rooney and Berbatov, and now Hernandez ready to fill the gap, I bet MU now looks more lethal than Real or even Barcelona.

Ferguson has a very sharp sense when it comes to sensing talents. And the best thing is that he listens to his players, remember when he signed CR? And this time, the recommendation came from Quiroz, but what the heck, he only costs them 7mil pounds. I bet they can easily fetch tripple the price in 3 years time. Just like CR, Ferguson was looking for agility, decisiveness and accuracy. Hernandez got that and if I were Ferguson, if I cant get Hernandez, Soarez would be good.

Compare to Chelsea, they are still dependance of the old horses. If Carlo didnt change anything last season, I can understand that. Why change anything when its not broken? But not this year. This year obviously their paces have deteriorated. Look at JT, tailing forwards until the ball goes into the net. Carvalho is gone to Real, Ashley is next. I dont think Chelsea will finish 2nd this season. And the worst part is that, Cech will not be playing for some time at the beginning of the season, what a good news!

Liverpool has a huge problem with the finishing. Their best hitman can only play 15 games a season and their second best just cant hit the ball straight at goal! And that is a hell of a biiiiiiiiiiiig problem! They can create chances but, there is nobody to slot the ball in. Their defends look promising with Kelly and Pacheco as well as the Brazillian goalie, unless they can solve the scoring issue, they will not be anywhere around 2nd place.

ManCity looks like a team called The Rest of World (playing against World 11). I bet Mancini is having a jolly good time shopping with the Sheik's wealth. Wait until the season starts, then only will he be sweating screaming for results. The team looks promising but Mancini will be making a big mistake if he keeps the Italian game plan for the championship. English league play a very hight tempo football, tight marking and a very long and arduous season. And ManCity needs a safe pair of hands, as safe as Cech's to fight for 2nd place.

Comparing Arsenal to Tottenham, their forwards can do better than Tottie but Fabianski is still not ready for the lead role, even Schwarzer. Gomes is much better than both of them. If the Gunners are serious about challenging MU this season, then they have to find a safer hands to save their challenge.

My call, MU will top the table, with a big gap!

We need the Sultan more...

Based on the outcome of the FAM election, I wish to conclude that we need the Sultan more than he needs football. I wonder why the Queen of England is not on the board of EPL or to be precise at the helm of EPL?

It's the people's mentality that need changes not the sultan's. People love to put the sultan at the helm so that their work will be easy as letters bearing his royal highness signature will never be turned down by any prospective sponsor. But is this good for football? Is this easy money good and can be a lever to raise the standard of the game? Hell no! Why do you need to raise the game when regardless of whether the league's standard is good or bad, the sultan will still get us the money, and he has never failed to do that for the last soooooo many years.

Back to the question of why the Queen is not on board of EPL? Why is the queen not busy finding money for the EPL? The same with the King of Spain, why is he not busy finding money for La Liga? I bet if you ask Her Majesty that question, you are going to get this kind of answer, "Why in the world should I be doing that!". I think the King of Spain also will be giving the same kind of answer.

We have to create a reason for each team to raise their game, else, they will be asking themselves, "why should we raise the game?". The mechanism is easy, raise your game and you will make money. I bet MSL can sell TV rights even to Indonesia, Thailand, China, India channels etc. If the game quality is excellent, everybody would be dying to watch MSL matches.

But the first step, please stop getting easy money. Raise your game for the money!

YWNWA

The new coach is doing a major revamp on the squad, and I believe the way he picks his players, he is going back to English game. Perhaps English game is another option for EPL teams beside Mourinho's style, of course they have to change the penetration approach, no winger crossing from the corner flag please.

The characteristics of an English game are high tempo, tight marking, long passes and the crossings. Roy can keep the pace, but passes need to be shorter so as to counter tight markers, and with the short passes, penetration through the middle with 3 forwards will be very efficient, and forget about the crossings.

As for the finishing, strong decisive forwards will be the icing on the cake. Players like Darrent Bent, Adebayor, Ghana's Gyan should be seriously considered as Kuyt and Joe Cole are two brilliant penetrators from penalty tops are reliable for good penetrations.

Perhaps Mascherano can be off-loaded for the Dutch superhero Wesley Sneijder and perhaps Vyacheslav Malafeev standing between the poles...

About the managers...

Still on the world cup, but this time, its about the managers.

England, there is nothing wrong with Capello. England can win the world cup but first they must ban gambling, else they will never win. Why cant they? Simply because everybody is financing the bookies to buy the players to loose the matches.
How in the world are they going to win it when the bookies have hundreds of millions of pounds to ensure they loose it?

Spain - The best part about Vincente is that he is not hesitant to leave out any lemons, be it Torres, Villa, Silva, you name it. If you are not game fit, you stay on the bench, you deliver and you are going to play all matches. Very decisive and that saved the team in many instances.

Argentina on the other hand, Maradona obviously very dependant of Messi, still fielded him eventhough he was suffering a terrible flu. Ended up, the team played with 10 men. Yo coach, world cup final is a very competitive tourney, no super team can win with 10 men.

Germany - When the team was winning with big margins, Loewe looked like a superstar a German team had never produced before. But if we look carefully, there was nothing new with his brand of football as compare to his predecessor's. Only the executioners are much younger. The problem with the Germans were that they missed out on the human emotional element in developing their game plan. Everybody played as if they were programmed to do this and that, no passion involved! That's the most dominant material missed out from the recipe.

Italy - This is the team that had won most of the tournaments' matches solely based on passion. Everything else was average except their passion. But this time a very passionate oldmen sent packing early, very much like a very passionate 70 years old, who still can be very romantic, but suffering EDS. All the passion in the world wouldnt be able to get that thing up;-)

The problem with not experiencing losing is that you would not be able to taste the bitterness, thus you would not be able to learn to manage to avoid them. And this is for Brazil and Nederland. A safety lost should had worked like antibiotics...

Best player

The award went to Forlan but, I still think Iker Casillas deserves it. Forlan did pretty well with impressive goals but Iker's performance I bet was nothing less. Iker only let in 2 goals in 7 matches, that made possible for Spain to win the world cup with only scoring 8 goals!!!

Only allowed 2 goals, both in the group matches, saved 1 penalty and a few 1 to 1 situations inclusive of the one Arjen Robben missed, which he definitely will never ever forget, showed what a goal keeper Iker has been. You dont get this kind of performance perhaps in every 20 years. Even Buffon needed Italy to score more than 10goals, allowed a penalty en route to winning the final.

I believe the committee had missed out a superstar!

Felicitación a España

Congratulation Spain! And beside Iniesta, Casillas deserves the MVP nothing less. When I made the statement that Nederland defenders will make the tiny lethal mistake, that was because Casillas was in extremely top form, I just cant see him fumble. Very firm, no jitters at all and was making all the right moves.

The Spaniards made all the best build up, very-very short and sharp passes and holding the ball confidently. Excellent penetration by the Spaniards, should be in the textbook for excellent football. Last but not least, "passionate football will do the magic!"

Just another match to go....

For the last one month, we've seen a lot of football, so much that I can skip football for another month right after the final. I believe this is the best world cup I've ever followed, right from the bedroom! But the best team is still Tele Santana's 1982, yet Brazil didnt win the championship for that series. No other team can match the thrill and excitement that team produced. In any other series, we will see compilation of the tournament's top ten of most beautiful goals. But in that particular series, the Teles' boys top ten beautiful goals was more exciting than the whole tournaments' goals!

Just like in previous posting, technique and tactical prowess alone wouldnt be sufficient to become a world champion. And so far the dominant factor to be a champion is still a passionate game. A relentless, brilliant and anybody can score type of performance should sum up "passionate" comprehensively. Both finalists showed same quality when the Dutch played Brazil and when the Spain played Germany. Both have the same dominant quality that can take them to the top. The team that makes that one tiny mistake will be number two and so far base on historical performance, I foresee the Nederland defenders and goalkeeper will make that fatal mistake!

Toyota Story

Toyota recalled hundred of thousands of cars and the shares closed up 0.5%! Thats how Japanese value trustworthy!!!


Troubled Toyota recalls about 92,000 cars in Japan
Beleaguered Toyota Motor Corp. recalls nearly 92,000 vehicles in Japan over engine troubles.

A family pauses in front of the Lexus logo at a Toyota dealership in Tokyo Monday, July 5, 2010. Toyota Motor Corp. started recalling more than 90,000 Lexus and Crown vehicles Monday in Japan over defective engines, the latest setback for the automaker beset with quality problems. Toyota told the Japanese government Monday it was recalling the luxury vehicles for flaws in the valve springs, a crucial engine component, that could make the automobile stall while in motion. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer, On Monday July 5, 2010, 8:38 am EDT
TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota started recalling more than 90,000 luxury Lexus and Crown vehicles Monday in Japan over defective engines -- the latest setback for the automaker beset with quality problems.

Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Paul Nolasco said recalls in overseas markets will follow soon, totaling about 270,000 vehicles globally. That includes: 138,000 vehicles in the U.S., 15,000 in Europe, 10,000 in the Middle East, 6,000 in China, 4,000 in Canada, and 8,000 in other regions.

Toyota told the Japanese government Monday it was recalling 91,903 vehicles for flaws in the valve springs, a crucial engine component, that could make the automobile stall while in motion. "We apologize for inconveniencing our customers. We hope to fix the problem soon," Nolasco said.

The quality problem affecting top-of-the-line products comes as Toyota struggles to move on from massive global recalls that started in October. It already has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles for various problems, including sticking gas pedals, braking software glitches and defective floor mats.

The world's top automaker was fined a record $16.4 million in the United States for responding too slowly when the recall crisis erupted.

The latest woes come on top of a recall last week for 17,000 Lexus hybrids after testing showed fuel can spill during a rear-end crash.

Analysts said Monday's recall did little to instill consumer confidence after Toyota President Akio Toyoda, facing shareholders last month, vowed to improve vehicle quality inspections.

"It is not doing a good job in communicating a message about what exactly it is doing to beef up quality checks," said Shotaro Noguchi, auto analyst with Nomura Securities Co. in Tokyo. "So it is hard for people to believe Toyota is taking the customer's view as it is promising to do."

The company announced the latest quality problems last week. Some 180,000 of the defective automobiles were sold overseas, 138,000 of them in the United States.

No accidents or injuries have been reported because of the defect. About 220 complaints have been reported.

Toyota said it was replacing the valve spring in the recalled vehicles, produced between July 2005 and August 2008 -- Lexus models GS350, GS450h, GS460, IS350, LS460, LS600h, LS600hL and Crown models.

Toyota also faces more than 200 lawsuits in the U.S. tied to accidents involving defective automobiles, the lower resale value of Toyota vehicles, and a drop in its stock value.

The Tokyo market reacted with calm to Toyota's recall news. Toyota shares gained 0.5 percent to finish at 3,035 yen.

There goes a big dream...

And Maradona ended his World Cup managerial challenge in the last 8. Not a bad result for a first time coach. Of course he has all the materials in the world to win the cup, but his weakness is that he is more of a motivator like Benitez rather than a strategist like Mourinho and all the Germans coaches.

His players just didnt know what to do when Germans closed the penetration space with 5 and sometimes 8 defenders. That was hard, and Argies should have done the same at the other end, but most of the time their defenders were left with 3 or 4 the most. With 3 defenders it is impossible to contain the pin point accuracy passes from Ozil, Podolsky and Schweinsteiger. The Germans hit rate was 67%, read, for every 3 shots at goal, 2 will go in. Technically they are very very very competent.

This defensive play was very much similar to the one showed by Brazil, but the Dutch were lucky to get back one earlier and to wrap things up with one from dead ball position. The only goal if the Argies were to score last night was from dead balls. It was just impossible for them to penetrate in the open play.

Technically German was the best team in the world, but like in the last world cup they lost to Italy in the semi because they slowed down the game hoping to go into penalty shoot out. And believe me that was their biggest mistake, Italy took that 10minutes to wrap the game up.

Technically, strong team can give a consistant performance over and over again, but to win a big tournament like world cup where any team can always spring a big surprise, you need another dominant factor, "passion" to stretch the performance further. Just like the match between Nederland and Brazil, a passionate all out game can do miracle.

Well from here onwards, the team that can manage injuries, cards, can solve tactical problems and play passionately can celebrate on the final day.

On 2nd thought...

I've been watching the 2nd goal of England vs Germany for a few times, and I think there is something wrong with John Terry. First, the first goal was due to him misplacing himself, 2nd goal, he was running away from Podolski, 3rd goal and 4th goal, he was nowhere near to the ball! Aint that wierd?

A few months back a bookie told me that you can detect the player who has been paid by detecting the player who, "wherever there is the ball, he will not be there!" And I think John Terry fits that!

So England will never win the world cup as long as Hills and Ladbrokes operate, legally or illegally;-). If we dig deeper, we will find out that the players income tax rate is at 50%!!! They will have to cover it back with some contribution from the bookies.

Ladbrokes and Hill must be ;-) part II

Yes, they are smiling, perhaps until tomorrow or even 11th of July for the biggest ever haul in the W-Cup.

Back to the game, now you can see how sloppy the English defenders are. This is where you need scientific approach to measure where the defenders stand. If you just measure by their pays, obviously they are among the finest in the world, but when you do agility test, you see how easy Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Mueller and gang run pass them. Just like my famous sales pitch, "Coaches always say they played a good game when they win, and they played a bad game when they loose." Really? How can you judge when you have never measure anything? The same with the English defenders, John Terry is excellent, Johnson and Cole are the finest in the world. How do you measure that? By how much they make every week? German is very much advance in this field, and this is why their performance is very stable over so many W-Cups!

First goaless....

This is their first goaless group match since 1978. During the match, I texted my friend saying that Brazil is not going to score a goal if they keep coming that way.
Corner flag penetration is a primitive way of approaching the goal, the English love it so much, that it took an Italian to change that.

That's the different between England under McLaren and the one under Capello. Same players, but with different penetration strategies, England topped its qualifiers. The same with Brazil, a few days before, they looked so convincing but once the Knight is out, they are all misplaced at the right time! So this proves that Dunga is not the strategist, he depends on his players to create the game, the game was not on the drawing board before.

And the outcome will be a showdown between Spain and Portugal, unlucky Spain as obviously Portugal is a more lethal team to play with. Their goal allowed record is excellent, they let in 0 goal in the group matches! Their tight marking and go for every ball approach proved effective with Brazil.

Whatever it is, Argentina is at the top spot in the latest World Cup ranking;-)

Italy is out!

Italy who is always a no hoper at the beginning of any World Cup is out. The only problem with them is that they are a late bloomer, they stabilized very late into the pressure. Teams like Spain, England and Portugal were also a late bloomer, but not as late as Italy. They needed 2 matches and being behind by 2 goals to wake them up. And that is just toooooooo late!

They can play like a champion once they are awake. Both goals showed their penetration skills, composure and experience. But another factor is the goalie. Buffon doesnt easily let balls like that in. But if nothing goes in, I doubt the outfielders are going to play like that.

Bringing out the best of the players right from the first game is the utmost critical factor in managing talents in a short span of championship like this. And so far Maradona is doing just that, and he is doing it like no other manager, hugging every single player after the match, having fun with the players during training, fielding all players to get them warmed up etc. The players really need all these fun & trust so that they can forget about the pressure, focus on having fun on the field and you will see a lot of excellent moves from these players.

Take one match at a time, focus to excel with every pass and you will win!

How about this!

What a fixture! England vs Germany and perhaps Brazil vs Spain as well as Netherland vs Itay as early as G16!

Normally these teams wouldnt be meeting each other as early as G16 as they are supposed to top their groups.

Cards and injuries will be crucial at this stage.

Reliable old horse

Martin Palermo proved a point last night, and that was the reason why Maradona takes him along to South Africa. You can always expect something from him, always at the right place to finish it off. I was hoping Maradona to relief Messi, just to ease his frustration, avoid injury, gather himself and get ready for next round. Heinze was relieved, that was a good one, and Veron and Di Maria were given another chance and Argentina still wins!

The best thing about last night was that they were enjoying the game, kept coming back with more tricks. To win you have to be able to produce everything you got, and to produce everything, you have to enjoy the game, and you will work like magic. So far Maradona understands that to bring out the best out of the players, they need encouragement, understanding, fun, leadership etc. And so far, the teams mood has been very, very ,very positive, no hiccup yet!

Mexico shouldnt be a big problem!

No more jitters....

Regardless of how strong the team is, the first match will always be difficult. The fastest team to stabilize themselves will have a better chance. Beside injuries, cards is another significant factor to manage in order to continuously perform well in this only 7 matches tournament.

Brazil is through to the 2nd round but they will have to play G16 match against perhaps Spain, without KAKA! Cant wait to watch this match. Germany will play the last group match without Klose, and they definitely dont want to lose the match, as it will decide who their next opponent will be, whether USA, England or Slovenia or book the flight home.Cant wait to watch this either.

As for Argentina, no injury, no cards and probably will play Mexico. Mexico will feel honored to be kicked out of the tourney by a great team like Argentina;-)

Spain and Portugal have stabilized their game, and from now onwards we can expect a good performance from these 2 teams, and perhaps England will show their class tomorrow.

The Men In Black...well not anymore

Personally I think its difficult to practice the offside rule, as I've seen many local matches with lousy calls by the referees. But in this world cup, the calls have been very very very accurate, as if they are using some sort of electronic gadgets to measure the offside line. The most impressive one was the judgment on the USA's third goal vs Slovenia, only a quarter of a body afront, but they managed to catch it. Histerically accurate!

But last night there were some sloppy calls, Luis Fabiano hand balled twice for the second goal, and yet the goal was allowed. Kaka didnt do anything serious to deserve a red card, and he'll be out for 2 matches. (I think this is big, Brazil might not be performing normally without him.) But on the overall the match officials calls' were good. Good job!

Germany missed a penalty!

Lineker might have made an overstatement, but for Germany to miss a penalty is like expecting a train to be late in Japan, it would not happen in your lifetime. It just would not happen, believe me! So Podolski must have made history tonight;-)

Hills and Ladbroke must be smiling again...Wang besar, wang besar...

Gary Lineker...

"If you play Germany, you will play a better game, but you'll definitely loose. If you play penalty, definitely you are going to loose." Quoting Andreas Brehme of Germany, quoting Gary Lineker.

From strength to strength

Argentina has improved tremendously from their first match. Jitters disappeared and they are enjoying the game. You wouldnt be able to bring out the best of you unless you are enjoying it. Looks like all the goals were very easily scored, acccurately struck and well placed.

Maradona understands and completely plugged the loop hole, but thats how they normally describe exclusion, "due to injury" will always be the statement to save face. And this line up is the best line up for any match, except for Guti and Demechelis who are too huge to be agile, they are going to have a lot of trouble if they play teams with agile attackers like the South Koreans.

Nevertheless, they are building up the team from strength to strength and they are only going to get better with every match!

Hills & Ladbrokes must be ;-)

With the biggest upset last night, I bet the bookies are still celebrating, imagine the team ranked 1st. lost a match, many must have changed their bets today...

That's world cup. Most of the teams are competitive, with a good coach, their fate can change just like last night.

Who's next? Hope Maradona learned a lot from the first match.

Penetration 101

By now I believe we have seen a lot of football. And the game Brazil vs DPR shows the technical aspect of penetration in all 3 goals.

Rules no1. Never go to the corner flag.
Rules no2. The widest you should go is the edge of the penalty box.
Rule no3. Dont wait there, but run for the ball into the box.
Rule no4. Incision pass should be short, sharp and grounded
Rule no5. Just give your best blast

Portugal failed because they werent trying hard enough through the middle, Ivory Coast tried very hard into the corner flag.

German is very good at this discipline. South Africa is mastering this approach and Argentina failed because Messi didnt have a good partner.

Enjoy world cup!

Clinical Germany, goal shy Japanese

Germany as usual,and very obvious playing to their game plan as if there were maps of where to go to on the field. Very clinical, repeating their effort accurately as if they were programmed to execute the plans. Nothing much to say, the players played to the game plan accurately, but of course they do have their own weaknesses.
No need to put it here, their weaknesses will be obvious when they play teams like South Korea, North Korea or Argentina. Teams of opposite skills and characters.

Japanese managed to score one for the time being, but still the penetration was due to defends error. Like I always stress you shouldnt make a living out of your opponent's errors. You have to improve the repeatabiity, then only you can make a living out of it. They lack the incisive burst like Ji Sung and Messi used to repeat like replays. If they can do this, then they can be a real contender!

On a more relax note, enjoy this...

Hills, Ladbrokes & ...

In my previous writing, I've decribed how bookies can transfer the center of gravity in deciding the winner. In ESPN during the weekend, both of the above told the viewers that if England win the World Cup, the pay out is going to be somewhere around 300mil pound!

So Green's blunder can be seen from a different perspective now...

That's the risk coaches have to take when fielding not so rich goalkeepers, you know like when Brazil 86 fielded Valdir Perez last time...If I were them, I wouldn't mind to pay even 20mil pound to allow a goal;-)

Guess who said this,"Credit default swaps, which aim to protect bondholders against the risk of a default, are dangerous and a “license to kill,” .CDSs should only be allowed if there is an insurable interest, he said." read more here.

I thought as the champion of Open Society, everything goes, and it is the resposibility of the authority to competitively managing the economy, not by regulating any new game. He sounds very much like what we did in 98 remember no naked shorting. Sorry but you are 12 years late. I thought in democracy, the interest of majority should be the priority, not some high net worths.

This kind of lethal error can create a massive damage to economies. And he has no resposibility to his ideas. He can persuade us to accept his ideas, but if it failed, he will not be there even to console us, but finish us off when we are bleeding badly.

Moral of the story, never listen to carnivores like him as well as his side kicks like "Crook"Man etc. because their advises are not insured!

World Cup - Interesting outcomes

After 2 days, so far I have seen some interesting matches. South Africa which qualified as a host, finished lower than 4th place in the African Nation, showed some potential in the match against Mexico who had just won a friendly against Italy a few days earlier. With players like Vela, Dos Santos & Hernandes, nobody gave South Africa a chance. But obviously in second half, we can see that they understand what Carlos Alberto trying to instill and the managed to get a goal, damn a good one. I got the feeling they are going to pass by France unscathe! Their penetration is very Brazil, but need a meaner, tougher forward to finish it off.

South Korea was another excellent show. If you watch how they scored against Italy in 2002, you will realize, that South Korea is already world class. And Ji Sung proved it, hung on to the ball with 3 players challenging him and finished it off neatly. However, they are still playing Asian football, harnessing their speed, but take note both goals originated from defensive error, which something you shouldnt be hanging on for, if you really want to win. You have to have a good penetration repeatability to win!

And that was what Argentina good at. Again and again they burst into shooting range but Messi wasted many curling shots, perhaps lacking power as the goalie was always on time to push the ball out. Argentina penetrations were good but need more participation for better angle to finish it off! That was perhaps Higuain was not working and Di Maria was always nowhere near the ball. In the next match definitely Maradona will field a better line up perhaps can start with Maxi Rodriguez & Milito.

Obviously South Africa, Korea and Argentina is off to the next round!

Now NGO entering the frame...

I never thought NGO in Malaysia would launch any struggle against any sports association in Malaysia, and today I saw one. We have been very responsive off late, but dont just ask people to step down, but better come up with your own more convincing ideas. Else we are going to throw away the expensive lessons we've learned, by mounting a very weak challenge last month.

For me I was not frustrated with the lost, but more with the poor judgement of the head coach who were so confident of beating the Chinese. No matter how you look at the game, even if you look through between your legs, I didnt see any chance of Malaysia winning, perhaps only the 2nd double had a better chance of winning, and will only happen if we got 2 wins in earlier matches. The poor judgement shows that before the match, they didnt know what it takes to beat the Chinese, and that is a BIG problem.

Just like weeks earlier, when the gov announced our Q1 10 GDP result, not that I am not happy with the result, but the fact that Bank Negara's forecast, issued in May10 of 5%++ was totally missed by 100%, made me wonder how can they missed the performance,
1) by 100%
2) even in May, 2 months after cut off period.
Luckily the result was favorable to the economy, imagine if the numbers went south? and Bank Negara only knew about it when the actual result came out in May!

In both cases, the results were not so important, more important were whether the operatives knew what was going on! Obviously they where in the dark until the day! And by then everything was already gone!

Football Match Analysis 101

In our approach of analyzing a football match, the game is breakdown into 5 processes. Namely defends, dead ball, build up, penetration and finishing. Mind you, this is our original approach, other people calls them differently. We'd done some benchmarking on the processes with other teams, mostly from the EPL. From there you can clearly see the differences between our football as compare to the benchmarking subject.

For instance, in the build up process we compare the ball holding time, passing distance, passing achievements etc. The gap as compare to the EPL top notch team, is big, but for the first time we knew the level! Feels like walking on the moon the first time, excellente!

Knowing the gap is important and beside knowing the overall gap, we also have the individual data, so we know who is the hero and who is the culprit...From there we can proceed into improvement program.

So using the same approach we will be able to benchmark the world cup teams, and rate them so we can guess who is better than who. For instance, without this understanding, we wouldnt understand why Capello left out Walcott. But with the data, we can see that he doesnt match the game plan, he is still playing English football, while Capello want them to play his brand of football, which is similar to Mourinho's approach as well as the Brazillian.

Understanding these analysis will make clear of what's happening on the field and we can strive towards improvement. Very soon we will change the team's game level!

Who's gonna win it this time...World Cup 2010

The most important factor in guessing who is going to win the world cup, is perhap understanding how bookies operate. Some people will put in statements like, this team will win because it has a lot of good players, the coach is fantastic, home ground advantage, venue advantage, continent advantage, familiarity with the new ball, etc. But rarely people factor in the bookies factor, which to me carries a lot of weight.

What make me think the significance of this factor is the fact that the favorite rarely wins. Another reason is that the business is getting bigger by tens of billions in this coming championship, therefor rather than skills, team work, excellent managers etc, money will be the fulcrum deciding the champion.

Favorites will not win, because if they win, bookies will make less in this once in four years huge opportunity. Remember 2006, Italy was a no hoper! Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, England were the favorites...damn the bookies made tonnes of monies last time.

This time hot favorites again will be Brazil, because the venue is ooutside Europe, Spain as the reigning European champion, England with beacon of hope manager, Italy as always can come from nowhere. Andddddd my favorite is, Argentina.

Remember, bookies make more when the lest expected happens;-)

You need a crisis to make money you know...

Statistically speaking crisis only happens when the stock market is on the high. Dont believe me? 97 financial crisis happened when SEA stocks were hitting the roof.
Subprime happened when DJ was at dizzying height of 14000m from sea level...And this so called EU fiasco happened when DJ has just rebounded from altimeter of 6000++m to 11,000m++.

I wonder why crisis has never happened when economy is at the low? Ok perhaps they could have happened when the economy was not so good...but the timing was so perfect that made me think that this so called crisis was perfectly timed! Then who will benefit from all of these nonsense?

I bet these people who had missed the boat, when the DJ was at 6000++ last years March are pulling it down so that they can participate. Because this time the rally will be higher than the last time, perhaps up to 16~17000meter range in 2017~2018. So they must participate, else they will miss the boat.

You really need a crisis to make money...

The bigger, the stronger...really?

Some time ago when the idea of a united currency for Europe was mooted out, I smelt something fishy about this whole scheme. The idea was about creating a stronger currency to fend off speculators from abusing the economy of European countries. By having a united currency, a central bank with huge reserves and advanced control mechanism would be able to face off with any manipulator dreaming of big bucks by wrecking havoc the economy.

Systemically, learning from the aftermaths of '97 economic crisis, apples of the same basket tend to get the same treatment once an apple found to be rotten. Regardless of how sound the fundamentals of the country are. This is the fact that was overlooked by Euro countries when they decided to join the union. And the epidemic spread faster, wider and deeper than H1N1 or even the amorous HIV!

I still dont think that having a single currency is the trick to fend off abuse. Actually that was a systematic and economic way of making bigger bucks as well as power. Why do you think UK prefer to keep Sterling rather than Euro? Perhaps because they believe in their own strength, or perhaps most of the speculators are in London...or their strong allies...But pity Germany, a strong economy being sucked into the turmoil for no reason, and being held ransom by it!

The trick is simple, of course to make money, you have to sacrifice a small amount of economic value to gain more, then Iceland was a good target.By the time they finished with Iceland, other countries are already shivering, it's like a finger is already on a domino, ready to push it down. Iceland is an easy target as people like Soros doesnt has to leverage to get the job done. He can do it with his pocket money. Then it snowballed into something bigger, Greece will be perfect. Then with bigger capital you have ammunitions enough to strike a bigger economy, perhaps Portugal. Now it is all set to strike bigger economies.

Now you see, Europe and US is already in their hands. Imagine if they were no Euro...Even if they strucked Iceland, other countries can continue business as usual. Why Germany should be panicked if Iceland, Greece & Portugal got hit financially? No reason right!!!

How did they do it?
1) Support idiots to run for power, ensure they become the PM or president
2) Promote the idea an Economic Union as a strategy to strengthen the countries in critical fields like economy etc. Since the PMs are idiots they buy the idea, without questioning...
3) Get our guy to be the Union's Finance Minister to ensure the scam will go smoothly
4) Demonstrate some benefits of the Union at the beginning of the union - let the currency go up for an instance, demo some strength
5) Start selling the credit, of course in the name of development to these idiot ministers. Of course idiots dont review the agreements, their responsibility is just to sign them.
6) Kick start the turmoil on the easiest target
7) Now we own them
8) Kick start the turmoil on a bigger target
9) Now we own them
10)Keep repeating 8 & 9 until everything is yours;-)

Now they can drive these 2 markets to wherever they want to go, north or south, they are on the wheels. So there really was a rot fish when they mooted the idea. But nevertheless, Islamic finance will be more preferrable in the rebuilding. Just dont miss the chance...

What! Footballlllll!

It was in my wildest dream that oneday I would be doing something related to football for a living, of course watching is excluded! In the 90's, who would want to work in this getting worse by the day industry?

When I was abroad I saw how a simple suggestion improved the team that used to be thrashed by our national team, transformed into a top notch Asian team. I still remember the Dutch coach statement on TV, Hans Ooft said, the problem with the Japanese was their culture, they dont see eye to eye with each other even when they are sending the ball. Sound silly right. But that was what happening to Japan's soccer team then. In 92 they launch J-League with professional managers inclusive of Zico, and who else but Arsene Wenger! And Japan never look back from there on!

The same with our football, we are moving in a roundabout, "Life is like wheel"? Yeah last time when nobody knows what is going on, that statement sounds reasonably prophetic. That happens when you leave your destiny to chances. That's why I really wanted to explore this match analysis frontier.

Everybody knows that we are much lousier than MU right? But do we really know in what aspect that we are so? If the aspects were clear, do we know how many or much lousier we were? NOBODY knows...But we have done a lot of thing, waste a lot of time and burn a lot of money right?

;-) Now I can talk numbers when it comes to football, no more "kedai kopi" talk. Yeah the first in Malaysia!!!!!

Up, up and away!!!

Ringgit was at RM3.17 for a greenback yesterday. Yea we are on our way back to 1997. Remember, we used to be at RM2.50 per greenback! What created this "scramble" for ringgit? Was it a quarter of a point raised? Or was it a better gdp forecast by a foreign house? Obviously it doesnt take a huge sum of money to raise the ringgit.
A credible better forecast will do wonders and in a very short period of time. To have a better forecast, means the gov has to come up with a lesser forecast first, because the keyword here is "a better forecast by a credible foreign house". Hypothetically speaking, will the RM climb this fast only if foreigners come up with a good forecast but without the lesser, average forecast by the gov? I dont think so. The better than expected forecast created the bottleneck for the scramble.

Now you see we dont need a huge interest raise to have a strong currenccy, again hypothetically you can look at Japan's rate to rule out otherwise. Fundamentally speaking, all we need are strong demands, from the monetarists and a new one from our globally operating local companies.

Strong demand from monetarists is not new, so better skip to our GOLC, i.e. Petronas. I believe half of the revenue at Petronas is coming from overseas operations, so perhaps at least half of the (pre tax?) profit also will be coming from outside, and that would be a good demand for our currency. It would be in tens of billions of RM$!!! Unless they dont convert them, so it wouldnt mean anything as US$ can be used widely here, but imagine if they convert them into ringgit...Of course there are other companies that can follow suit. What if EPF, PNB, Khazanah, CIMB repatriate their profits back? That would be another tens of billions of RM (just dont forget to increase your overseas exposure first!)

Just to say, that you dont have to raise the rate so much to have a strong currency.A good forecast will do the job, but a better forecast from the foreigners will boost it further!

Hope they know when to pull the brake...

Why so serious?

Ok since one of our fans claimed that we are so boring then, take this from Wonder Girl!

Only a quarter of a point?

Bank Negara raised it, but only a quarter of a point. I bet monetarist are damn frustrated. What effect can 25 basis points do? I got the feeling its doing nothing to the economy. Perhaps just want to hint to the monetarist that, dont worry, we are on your side. We are not going to be a socialist.

At this rate, they still have another 2 years to go to hit 2 percent, the point of no return, in terms of housing loan rate.

What will the banks do now? Make announcements parallel to the raise? Let's see whether there is a maverick in this new market environment.

Hint:Not to forget that JP Morgan has just strengthened their Treasury team here in KL.

Kill all birds with one stone...

Rising petrol price, inflation, investing overseas, more money inflow etc...what do they have incommon?

Believe it or not, it should be a stronger currency! Relatively higher, fluctuating within a manageable band! But many monetarists prefer interest rates hike rather than this one. Imagine if petrol price climb for another round and our RM stays at the same level, another price hike is inevitable. The worst impact will be the inflation that comes along with it. It can bring down goverments!

How are we going to be a global player if our currency is cheap? Investing in EU, US, Japan or even Singapore will sound ridiculuous. The bankers are complaining of low interest rates would chase away deposits thus disturb their cash flow. But I isnt the mergers into megabanks should be able to take care of this issue? Mergers should be able to reduce operating cost, create better economic of scale thus improve banks profitability.

I really think we should forget about tweaking the interest rates totally, unless they are thinking of knockin it downward! But get ready, oil is on its way up again, very soon!