Me, Myself and Red Devil (Part 2)

Wuuuwuuuwuuu...(still sedih and tension ngan kekalahan MU in FA Cup baru2 ni). Seems like the history repeated again. Why..? Coincidently, I first adored MU 15 years ago when we lost to Everton in FA Cup, huhu..! And last time, right after I wrote 'Me, Myself and Red Devil (Part 1)', we lost to the same team, also in FA Cup, only the stage is different, hmmm, minor Deja Vu there. Anyway, our hope to repeat treble season 99 suddenly lost, "thanks" to Sir Alex who gambled on a bunch of youngsters during that big match. (Aku sebenarnyer lebey tension ngan Berbatov, warghhh..!!!)

Ok, enough bout the lost, thats a common thing in football, just admit it with positive minded. (Sebenarnyer, makin pikir main tension, arghh)... Let me continue to share with you why I started to support MU 15 years ago. Last post I stopped at 1st reason and now I give the 2nd reason for that...Secondly, of course because of the reputation of Eric ‘The King’ Cantona. Just ask any senior MU fans out there, who can forget all his spectacular goals during his time with MU? And his famous kungfu kick towards Crystal Palace fan who jeered him after he was dismissed during the game? Whatever positive and negative subjects, Cantona for me was the greatest hero and idol at that time by looking at his caliber and goal scoring instinct with his ‘cool’ collar style! Sadly, he retired from footy quite early for any footballers at the peak stage. The fan’s chant towards him, “Ooh, ahh Cantona” was the nice sound to be remembered.

After that, the other factor maybe because of the rising star of youngsters; Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, Butt, and Neville Brothers who came from MU Academy Class of 92 (except Giggs who was from earlier class). That time, it was great to see Beckham and Giggs passed the ball each other by lobbing the ball from left and right flank which looks so easy to them! Also several long range trademark goals from Scholes and energetic movement from Gary Neville by exchanging position with Beckham at the right side of the field. It’s nice to think that MU had a great backup like all these talents by the time their senior players retired from football. What a great confirmation for future’s success, haha! And of course, 1 of marvelous moment, a Beckham goal against Wimbledon from centre of the field by lobbing the ball past Neil Sullivan who running like a child toward his own goal trying to catch the ball. From that time, most people start thinking that 1 more player is going to achieve his own legendary status at Old Trafford...

And last but not least, honestly, one more major factor was because of my generation factor. I mean, when i was growing up, MU can be considered as the best team in Premier League. Most of my friends at the same or nearly age as me who starting to follow the footy world since primary school were supporting MU rather than other teams. Simply because of the club's reputation and that day's current performance. For example, I believed, most of Malaysian people from earlier generation were Liverpool supporters because at their time in 70's and 80's, that was the golden era of Liverpool. The best example were my uncle, Cik Aput, Abe Dene, Abe Jaha and Abe Amir who all of them are Liverpool fans..! And for me, MU was 1 of the best moment happened in my life since i was kid and from that time, no matter what happened to MU's high and low condition, we are going to support our beloved club. Simply like that.

There were a huge amount of things about my life as an MU supporters, quite impossible to write it all within this blog. My last word, I really cannot imagined my life without supporting Manchester United. Maybe it sounded a little bit 'poyo' or overrated but honestly, it consistently keep cheering me up eventhough when i was down because of something terrible happened in my life. And just a few minutes ago at 5a.m in Malaysian time, MU just beat Portsmouth 2-0 in EPL and again, it cheered me up at least for a moment because today, a lot of things are waiting for me in the office..! Ok, i'm going to sleep now maybe for 1 more hour before going to the office, huhu..! Anyway:

GLORY - GLORY MAN UNITED.!!!

Me, Myself and Red Devil (Part 1)

Tonight, there’ll be an FA Cup Semi Final between Manchester United and Everton. Thinking of that match, I was smiling alone when I realize that I started to support Manchester United also when they faced Everton during 1993/1994 FA Cup Final. At that time, I was in standard 5 in primary school and before Manchester United, the only team I supported was Kedah FC! Because Malaysia league at that time (Liga Semi-Pro) was very competitive and entertaining compare to nowadays in term of quality and level of performance (anyone who didn’t agree with me, I’m sorry). It was so exciting to watch Malaysian league at that time and it even made me didn’t bother about English Premier League or other European leagues and competitions.

Maybe I started seriously to watch international football was during World Cup USA 1994. I bought the Official World Cup Guide Book published by New Straits Times from the bookstore in front of my school (SRK Kota, Kota Bharu) & of course I still remember the player at the cover page was a Colombian star, Carlos Valderrama who had a very unique hairstyle. At that time, my favourite player was Roberto Baggio & sadly, Italy lost to Brazil in the final at the Rosebowl Stadium because he didn’t scored his penalty kick, huhu..! Even without England, for me 1994 edition was the best World Cup tornament I ever experienced in my life..!

Ok, now back to my main intention for writing this post, hehehe. When I started to support MU during that 1993/1994 FA Cup, their reputation was already among the top. However, the league was lead and won by Blackburn which the main factor because of their deadly striker, Alan Shearer. So MU was desperate to win something on that season and their only chance was FA Cup. But, on that final match which broadcasted live in Malaysian tube, (RTM or TV3..?), they didn’t have luck and lost to Everton by 0-1 and I still remember the great performance by Everton’s chubby keeper Neville Southall! But I was getting excited to watch the like of MU players such as Giggs, Sharpe, Cantona, Bruce, Pallister, Keane, Schmeichel, Kanchelskis and Irwin. Although they lost, their style of gameplay was very entertaining to watch.

The next season, the league was dominated by Newcastle which again the main factor because of Alan Shearer who I thought made a British transfer record on that time by moving from Blackburn (he was truly legend!). But when the league was reaching the end, I remember MU caught Newcastle several points (14 points I think) from behind & won the league! That season, I remember that 2 MU players who play the main factor behind the success were Cantona & Ince. At the same time, the young David Beckham, Paul Scholes & Gary Neville also started to catch the eye of the world.

I don’t know but maybe the main reason why I started to like MU at that time was because of their gameplay, style and skills from each player. There were a lot of goals created by the combination of Giggs’s hardwork & skill, Cantona and Andy Cole’s (just came from Newcastle) finishes, Keane and McClairs’s command and Kanchelskis’s running (just mentioned a few names). Also several goals from the tall Steve Bruce and Gary Palister who always scored from the corner kick (just like what Vidic and Ferdinand did today). Those two legends also created a very strong partnership at the back with Dennis Irwin and Paul Parker who later was replaced by the young Gary Neville. The strong fortress created by big Schmeichel also must be remembered beside all the goals scored.

Oopss, MU vs Everton match is about to start. I'll continue again next time. (Lagi pun kalo panjang2 kang koang bosan plak), haha..!

To be continued...

Body of Lies

First time I noticed about Ridley Scott's film was 'Gladiator' about 10 years ago..._He has always been very consistent in my mind as a filmmaker, just take a look at his other masterpieces such as Kingdom of Heaven and American Gangster..._Well, what really i can say about his movie this time..?_Hmmm generally, for me it simply couldn't reach the same level as his previous works..._I think the mistake that killed it for me was my high expectations towards this movie..._I didn't said that this was a bad movie, because it was still entertaining and pounding our heart with a few tense explosion and shooting scenes...

Body of Lies has many good elements and it does not have particularly bad elements..._The problem is we have already seen a lot of movies which expose the same plot, the same controversies and very similar structures and characters...

1st: The Arabian terrorist whose decision and mission makes sense when we see it from his point of view..._2nd: The leader or high range officer of CIA or FBI who give the direction to his agent at foreign country from his complicated high technology room at somewhere around US..._3rd: The agent who has good intentions but questions some of the instruction from his boss..._And of course after watching those kind of stories so many times such as The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs, Rendition and Syriana, I am starting to get a little bit boring of it..!_Maybe if I didn't ever watch those kind of movies and Body of Lies is the 1st movie of that kind i ever watch, i'm gonna give it a great credit..!

Also, all the big exciting scenes are left at the beginning of the movie..._After a couple intense scenes, the movie slows down to become quite boring and repetitious (too much scenes of teleconversation between DiCaprio and Crowe maybe?)

The cast is 1 of a few positive point of Body of Lies..._Beside the director, Ridley Scott, the main factor that made me want to watch this movie because of the combination of DiCaprio and Russel Crowe..._DiCaprio recently always come out with a few heavy action flicks such as Blood Diamond and The Departed which for me was a great performance..._And this time, its good to see that he still maintain that reputation..._same also with Crowe who his reputation cannot be denied although his character in this movie was a little bit boring and not enough challenge for the actor of his class..._1 more positive thing was the visual camera which set up several amazing shots especially with overhead camera angles (satellite view) and beird eye view towards each cities involved in this film...

Overall, Body of Lies was an average movie, and I felt lucky to watch it in DVD instead of watching in cinema..._This is because for me, this movie is quite complicated, the plot is not easy to catch up and you definitely need a chance to pause the movie and thinking for a while..!_But the performances definitely make it worth your while, the surprise performance came from Mark Strong who plays the lead terrorist who DiCaprio must befriend, his performance was the one that stood out to me best..._1 thing i can say: GOOD PERFORMANCES FROM THE ACTORS BUT QUITE DISSAPOINTING THRILLER ALTHOUGH IT STILL WORTH IT TO WATCH..!

My Personal Rating:

6.5 out of 10

Another FAM's BAD decision...

'SELASO lepah', one more embarassing thing happened in Malaysian sport scene..._A chaos between fans of Kelantan and N9..._Outside the Sultan Mohamad IV Stadium, Kota Baru, angry fans burned a police vehicle after Kelantan lost 0-1 to N9 in the first leg of the FA Cup semi-final..._They also set fire to seven other cars, 1 of which belonged to the president of Kelantan's FA, Tan Sri Annuar Musa (errr, i hated him, but in this case i felt sorry for him..!)...

'Kawe ado jugok daghoh kelate' and i felt shameful for Kelantanese fans who involved in that immoral act..._maybe the fans who involved were just quarter of overall crowd..._but, what happened to the fans who were not guilty..?_after this they have to travel to Bukit Jalil to watch Kelantan 'home' match..._pity..._and, how about the student who had his eye blinded during the riot..?

Hmmm, 'sughak kaba ghoyak' the riot started after Kelantan goalkeeper Halim Napi bursted onto N9 player Aidil Zafuan after the match ended..._but why he did that..?_at 1st, when i read the local newspaper during the 1st, 2nd & 3rd days after the tragedy, i felt that Halim Napi was the 1 who must be blamed..._Aidil said, before the fought started, he just told Halim 'main bola bukan kaki' after Halim hardly tackled him...

'Tapi pagi nih pulok kawe baco' Kosmo and Utusan, after 3 days keep silent for that incident, Halim said that Aidil Zafuan lied to media about the 'true story'...._Halim said that Aidil provoked, turned down his dignity and showed the immoral sign to him in front of 20,000 crowd..._he said that Aidil should show some respect to senior player like him..._so, who the one to be blamed here..?

'Gapo hok kawe tok puah ati nyo', is about the short FAM's decision to ban Kelantan from using the Sultan Mohamed IV Stadium in Kota Baru as their home venue for the rest of the season as punishment..._did FAM has investigate the whole incident before issued the sanctions..?_of course not, this was because they just took about a day to fined Kelantan FA..._its true that most of the incident were caused by Kelantanase fans but how about the the one who started it..?_Kelantan were also hit with a RM90,000 fine & ordered to play all their home matches, including youth and age-group tournaments, at a 'NEUTRAL' venue..._what the hell means NEUTRAL..?

'Gapo hok kawe pehe' NEUTRAL' venue means the stadium that is fair located between the two teams who will play the match..._but in this 'NEUTRAL' case, how about the next Kelantan game vs Selangor which will be held at Bukit Jalil..?_ask everybody, which state Bukit Jalil located and they'll answer 'SELANGOR'..!_so, actually Bukit Jalil is also a home grown for Selangor beside Shah Alam Stadium..._is it fair for Kelantan after they are going to lost about rm2million (as a result for cannot earn the ticket profit at Kota Bharu), or to other team in Super League who want to catch up Selangor..?_So, its not just unfair to Kelantan only but also unfair to other team outside Klang Valley..!

'Kesimpule sini nyoh':-

1) FAM did a decision too quickly, they should investigate on Aidil Zafuan also...

2) The sanction and fined issued by FAM was too extreme and at the same time, WEIRD..!

3) Tuan Guru Nik Aziz has spoken, 'jange buat lagi lepah nih, buat malu jah..!' and i hope Kelantanese will follow Tuan Guru's order..!

10 years ago...

After reading a post from 'cino', suddenly, i also realize about how fast time was moving..._Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year...

10 years ago, i was just transferring school from Kelantan to KL after my PMR..._my Kelantanese accent or 'slang' was still 'pekat' even almost every time i talked to my friends in school, they will smiling or laughing among themselves, 'siot jerk'..!

10 years ago at this time, maybe i was doing my school homework to submit during my class tomorrow morning..._or maybe i still 'lepaking' at Jumma, a famous mamak restaurant among my click at Setiawangsa..._and i will be scolded by my father for coming back home late during midnight even tomorrow is a normal school day...
9 years ago at this time, maybe i just came back from tuition at Wangsa Maju with my click..._my mom, Dudi's mom, Bobby's brother, Zack's sister or Gek's father will pick up us by rotation night by night..._and 9 years ago, 1 month from this time (1 May 2000) i involved with motorcycle accident on my way to barbershop, i had fracture from that incident & had to put a cement on my right leg for 1 month, and it was 5 months before SPM..!

8 years ago, maybe i was still doing a closing tasks in McDonalds The Weld, cleaning dishes and mopping the floor..._after that, i'll walk with my friend Hariz from The Weld to KLCC to take LRT to go back to Setiawangsa..._it was about 15 minutes walk through Jalan P.Ramlee and of course i had experienced the environment along that 'Pubs n Discos' area even though i was still young...
7 years ago, i was struggling to finish up my Environmental Design project to present tomorrow morning at my studio in IIUM Matriculation Centre, Petaling Jaya..._or maybe i went out ilegally from my college by climbing the security wall to play 'Diablo' or 'Counter Strike' at nearest Cyber Cafe until morning..!

6 years ago, maybe i was still thinking, is it the "right path" for me to enter the Landscape Architecture course, or should i change to another course..?_thank God, until now it seems like i had choose the "right path", no "turning back" required...

5 years ago, i was getting closer with all fellas in my landscape architecture studio, by noticing that i'm going to be with them for the next 4 years..._Ardi, Gee, Aril, Ipin, Ca'al, Ebal, Abdus, Muizan, Phat, KA, Cemah and Paul, friendship never ends...

4 years ago, i was nearly involved in serious relationship..._bad moment, nice history..!_and 4 years ago also, the most stupid thing happened to me..!_can't afford to remember that moment (everytime that moment jumping into my memory, my head will automatically shaking and thinking how stupid i am..?!), but thank God, it absolutely taught me to be a better man in the future..._i called it an 'ABSOLUTE HIKMAH'...

3 years ago, i entered Aroma Tropics for the 1st time as a student, nice experience with all staffs who taught me a lot of things about this field..._Just want to mentioned the names that already left Aroma: Yorke, Salina, Wadi, Bob, Meor and Kalifah, good luck with your future..._and 3 years ago also, i was preparing to fly to Spain, with Andalucia in our mind..._unforgettable moment in Madrid, Granada, Cordoba, Seville and Toledo..._my point of view of this world had increased dramatically...one day, i'm going to put my leg on those countries again, God knows when...

2 years ago, i was having the last moments as a student in KAED, IIUM..._hmmm, at that time, i felt too boring or 'muak' already to see KAED building everyday for 5 years..._but during my very last days in KAED, suddenly i felt my heart was filled with sorrow and gloomy by thinking that i'm going to leave the building that used to be my second home... :-(

1 year ago, i entered Aroma Tropics for the 2nd time as a staff..._and of course my responsibility was different when i came here 3 years ago as a student...

10 years beautiful colours..._and lost time is never found again..._for me, you can never plan the future by the past....