MSL is getting hotter!

With AFF trophy in the cabinet, I believe everybody is looking forward to a more exciting Malaysian Super League matches kicking off very soon. And Selangor is very optimist it can become the Malaysia Cup's champion this time, with 5 national players in the roaster.

But Selangors strength very much lies in its history, not in the current players. The stronger team next year should be Negeri Sembilan and Kedah. If T-Team and Terengganu combined into one team, then definitely there is where my bet will go, but as a separate entity, T-Team has the materials but Terengganu has the coach, so I believe T-Team will do a slightly better performance.

Top notch is for N9 and Kedah to rumble. N9 has the coach, materials and a better goalkeeper. Looks like they have covered all avenue to ensure they win titles this year. Whether they already prepared replacement for Ching Hong Aik and Idris Karim, two high work rate players who are already aging, will be the key question. Perhaps Wan Jamak should look to Daudsu as a replacement candidate. Kedah also has the materials, with good attacking, defenders as well as a very good goal keeper, but Ahmad Yusof is still trailing behind Wan Jamak and midfield need beefing up.

Kelantan the current champion, with a lot of new players definitely will have to struggle the learning curve for a few years. So perhaps they can fight for 4th or 5th place.

Another interesting point is finding new talents, young and old. Wish to see more talented Young Tigers making waves in the league. I still think MyTeam deserves another shot!

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.