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.