Media Bias

Just watched Merseyside Derby match of Premier League between Everton and Liverpool. Not a great match, quite boring with little or no spark in what so called rivalry of the city. Liverpool won the match 2-0 courtesy of an own goal from Yobo and a rebound from Kuyt. It is a result which will please all Liverpudlians, although they might not be proud of the way the victory achieved itself. I myself is one of them.

Everton did play well and the scoreline indeed doesn’t reflect the performance on the pitch. But hey, a victory is a victory, 3 points. Getting fed up with what the media says, especially for those pundits who are acting like they are the experts who know a club inside out.

On match preview : “I fancy Everton to win this”.

In half time review, when Everton was trailing 0-1, : “I still fancy Everton to win it”.

In full time review : “Liverpool didn’t deserve to win! I still think they will miss out from the top four”

Gosh!!! What is wrong with you pundits??? Yes, Liverpool didn’t play well, but as much as I know, this also happened to other teams. But somehow the treatment is way too bluntly different, particularly for Chelsea and Manchester United. It always go like this.

Match preview : “Chelsea / Man United will win this one comfortably”

Half Time Review : “Not a good performance, but they got so much quality in the team, they will add more goals in the second half”

Full Time Review : “Not a great performance, but a good 3 points. This is a sign of team capable of winning the Premier League. Still manage to bag 3 points when not playing well”

 

Be fair please Media!

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2009 Football Summer Transfer

Transfer window is always greeted with great enthusiasm from football fans all over the world. Not surprising. A successful club which is challenging for the trophy for sure will have a group of good players and transfer window provides the opportunity to strengthen the squad to sail through the entire season.

So here we are at the end of the 2009 summer transfer! No last minute big name signing as in last year when Manchester City sensationally captured Robinho. Real Madrid and Manchester City are two clubs dominating the big signing this summer. Seems like there’s no restriction in their transfer budget as hundred million of pounds are splashed to get the player they want. But do they make a clever signing?

For me personally, the top 3 shrewdest signing in this summer window is as follow:

1. Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona to Inter Milan)

What Barcelona was thinking when they sanctioned the transfer of Samuel Eto’o plus staggering 46 Millions Euro is completely beyond my imagination. Well, perhaps Eto’o is perceived as the disruption of the team which for sure needs to be pulled out. But getting Eto’o and that huge sum of money at the same time? What a bargain! I must say that this is the most clever transfer of the summer!

2. Wesley Sneijder (Real Madrid to Inter Milan)

Inter again made a clever deal by taking Sneijder from Madrid for just 15 Millions Euro. I’m wondering why Premier League Big-4 Team didn’t make an approach for him (or I didn’t know about it?). 15 Million quid is cheap for a player like Sneijder especially when you know that Luis Antonio Valencia costs you 17 Million pounds!

3. Michael Owen (Newcastle to Manchester United)

Well, Michael Owen might have passed his peak, but getting him for “free” plus “pay as you play” clause is a good business. As a Liverpool fan, I’m puzzled why Rafa decided to miss out on him. Free transfer, no huge bill of wages, and potential commercial value from selling shirt on his name! If I were Rafa, I’d be very happy to take him even though just as a bench warmer as what he is currently performing!

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Resurgent Reds Challenging For The Title

14 March 2009 will be remembered as one of the most remarkable days in the history of Liverpool Football Club for sure as they humiliated defending champion Manchester United 4-1 at what is called “Theater Of The Dream”, their own turf, having trailed 0-1. Having defeated Real Madrid 4-0 earlier in the second leg of first knock out round of Champions League, the victory came as moral booster to the squad. On their day, they can beat anybody. But the problem is that how they can sustain this kind of performance to go all the way to clinch the Premier League trophy.

The biggest problem with Liverpool Football Club is consistency. On their best day, they can thrash Madrid, scoring 4 goals for fun (if it had not been Casillas in the goal, the score line would have been bigger), they can inflict the worst home defeat for Manchester United in so many years, scoring 4 goals past Edwin VanderSar who just recently broke the record of minutes not conceded, but on other day, they struggled against the likes of Wigan, Hull City, Fulham, Middlesbrough and West Ham.

The sign of the champion is consistency in getting results, even though the squad is not playing well, as shown by numerous 1-0 victory by Chelsea and Manchester United in the past couple of years. The team should get good result against other big-4 team as well. Well, Liverpool Football Club might not win the league this season, but yesterday result, first win against Manchester United under Rafa Benitez’s helm was priceless. To do double against Chelsea and Manchester United this season is massive. Liverpool’s problem in the past couple of years was bad results against other big-4. But his very season, they struggle against lesser teams. Well, if this could be solved, then I reckon Liverpool would be a major force in the competition for the title. They have certainly improved a lot under Benitez.

Of course when speaking about consistency, we should take a look at the squad depth as well. Liverpool first 11 is strong, but the depth of squad is not comparable against Manchester United and Chelsea, in which you can have multi million pound rated Berbatov, Tevez, Nani, Anelka on the bench. Torres and Gerrard is the backbone of the team. I do hope that in the coming summer, Liverpool can get a clinical striker (Aguero or Villa), a pacy right winger (Ribery), and a versatile right full back (Daniel Alves alike) to complete the squad. Well, hopefully..

To all Manchester United fans : Liverpool might not win the league this season (well, that’s how you consoled yourself in dealing with yesterday’s blow), but the result was massive and priceless. You may win the title again, but watch out the resurgent Reds.. Hopefully Liverpool can continue the challenge and you indeed need to be worried about the force of Liverpool Football Club. 🙂

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King Rafa Rules Australia..

Just when you think Mighty Roger Federer moves a step closer to equal Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles, here comes the spoiler, Rafael Nadal Parera! The 22-year old Spanish showed another classy performance by edging out Federer in 5-set : 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3),  3-6, 6-2 in 4 hours 23 minutes. Not only stretching his record over arch rival to all time 13-6, the win also earns him the sixth time career grand slam title, following last year Wimbledon, and four consecutive years of Roland Garros triumph since 2005.

What Nadal has achieved in age of 22 is phenomenal. While the tennis world has long predicted the emergence of this tennis prodigy some years back, I think pundits didn’t expect that it would be in such a short time, not when Roger Federer seemed unstoppable by dominating the ATP tour in 2004-2006 and considering that Roger, born 1981, still considerably young.

As comparison, Nadal won the first Grand Slam at French Open 2005 (19 years old) and clinched the world number one in October 2008 (22 years old). Roger Federer, on the other hand won the first Grand Slam at Wimbledon 2003 (22 years old) and topped the world ranking in February 2004 (23 years old). It seems that the rivalry between these two players is set to continue, promising an exciting times ahead for professional men tennis competition. The rising of other young tennis player such as Jo Wilfred Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Novak Djokovic further adds fuel to this for sure.

The strength of Nadal in particular is his powerhorse stamina. Having defeated compatriot Verdasco in more than 5 hours and despite having one day less rest compared to Federer, he showed no sign of fatigue at all in the Final match! Well well, it seems that the only way to stop Nadal is by not making unforced errors and pushing him to make errors. Easier said than done! :p

Federer is likely to surpass Sampras’ record, but I reckon Nadal will go further, and set more records, provided that he doesn’t suffer any serious injuries along his career ahead.

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Bronze Medal for Maria Kristin!

Sometimes the result comes from the least unexpected. This is exactly what happened in Indonesia participation in Beijing Olympics. Just moment ago, Maria Kristin Yulianti clinched the bronze medal for Indonesia after overcoming Chinese powerhorse Lu Lan in three-set game : 11-21, 21-13, 21-15. Phew.. Anyone predicted this result ? I bet no.. Who would have predicted Indonesia will get the bronze medal given the supremacy of Chinese Girls who have dominated the world of women badminton over the years? Not when Maria Kristin is only ranked 21 in the world, 19 places below her opponent.

Watch the match in TVRI, and must admit that the first set is really easy for Lu.  Maria seems to start slowly, given the impression that Lu is going to stroll to an easy win. But things change in second set when Maria turns to dictate Lu. Tense in third set after Maria stretches her lead to 10 points yet to be reduced to just 4. Finally Maria finds the touch to end the game! A remarkable achievement.

Well done Maria! Keep going! Bring home the gold in 4 years time. Your achievement is far better than our male single players! For PBSI official up there. You should take a look at this! Please do not treat our female badminton players as step-children. Please give them chance to compete overseas to enrich their experience, not only just focusing on male players.

Three bronzes in hand now. Still in contention for Gold in Mixed Doubles and Men Doubles. I’m predicting gold in mixed doubles and silver in Men Doubles.. But I’m more than happy to be wrong. Who knows they can bring home 2 golds!

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Distorting Information?

Into fifth days of Olympics, one routine I do everyday (or twice a day) is checking on official olympic website to have some updates, medal tally, record breaking, as well as Indonesian athletes’ progress. Apart from this, I also check my personal email in Yahoo! by which I usually type http://www.yahoo.com in the address bar of my browser, followed by clicking the email icon. Today, I find an interesting and amusing thing. Distorting or misleading information ?

Look at this screen scrap from Yahoo!

Anything wrong with the above ? Not really.. Just notice that the way they present the information is slightly different from previous days.

A moment later, I visited official website of Olympics, and this is what I saw.

haha… Gotcha! See the difference ?

I don’t know why Yahoo! is changing the way the information is presented. I remember yesterday and days before, they showed the # Gold medal instead of total medal (including silver and bronze). Maybe they want to “save US face” or in Chinese “Ai Mian Zi?” given the fact that each day the Chinese are getting further and further away?

Maybe, some might argue that this is not distorting information, since US is indeed clinching 21 medals to date. But for me, it’s just funny. If you want to stick to # total medal, you should have done it since the first day. Strange, isn’t it ? Never have I heard that sport competition is decided by total number of medals.

Your view ?

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One World One Dream..

The world biggest sport party : Olympics kicked off just two days ago on auspicious time of 08.08.08 – 08:08 PM in Beijing, China. All eight, the most popular number for Chinese people due to the similar pronounciation as in “wealth”.

I happen to miss the opening ceremony screened live by our very old TVRI (shame on private TV stations) due to culinary hunting at Festival Jajanan Bango :-p.  When nearly all the medias report how spectacular the opening ceremony was, I just couldn’t keep myself from browsing the internet to look for the pictures and was really “wowed” by what I saw.

These are some pictures taken from the opening ceremony (from Yahoo!)
Stunning Bird Nest Stadium

Inside the Stadium : Opening Ceremony

Olympic Flame

Fireworks

Simply awesome and beautiful. How I wish I was inside the stadium to see the opening ceremony. It was mentioned that the rich 5,000 years of Chinese history was brought into one night show. It got to be spectacular. Gotta search on YouTube later!

One World One Dream is the theme. Simple yet powerful. The event will be held till August 24 which can’t surely be missed by fanatic sport fans all over the world.

For the competition itself, I’m cheering for the Chinese team to take on the overall champion. While United States is so strong particularly in Swimming and Athletics, I think the Chinese have all it takes to edge the Uncle Sam. Shooting, Gymnastics, and Badminton have a pretty good chance of medal overhaul for the Chinese. Not to mention diving and table tennis.

As for Indonesia Team, it’s not that I’m not nationalist. Although I’m also cheering for Indonesian gold, realistically speaking I think we need to work extremely hard to clinch the gold medal. The chance is there but in front of home crowd, it’d be quite a challenge for our athlete.

The biggest chance will almost certainly come from weightlifting and badminton. I think Indonesia team have a pretty good chance in three events, Weightlifting male 56 kg through Eko Yuli Irawan, Badminton Mixed Doubles (Flandy Limpele/Vita Marissa & Nova Widianto / Vita Marissa) and Badminton Men’s Doubles (Markis Kido / Hendra Setiawan). I’m predicting three golds at most for Indonesia. One gold is okay, two gold is a bonus, three gold is fantastic! No gold ? Under achieved !

For olympics update, visit official Beijing Olympics 2008 website here

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