Driver's blues
Friday, 4.July.2008 · Comments? · Permalink (862)
I feel like such a bastard. I was driving to work after doing a morning session of voice-acting, when a cyclist overtook me on the right (he undertook me), and then swerved out in front of me to overtake a badly-parked lorry. It was a very dangerous manoeveure, and I almost hit him. I beeped, and in typical road-rage fashion, gestured my discontent (I didn't swear or give him the finger or anything, though). He didn't like this and stopped to talk to me. Then what I said came out like a threat and it's bugging me. I said: "You can't do that or I'll run you over." What I meant was: "Don't swerve out in front of me like that because I might not have time to react and accidentally run you over." Instead it sounded like "Do that again and I'll flatten you on purpose!" Poor bloke. I feel so guilty.
That coffee smell
Tuesday, 1.July.2008 · Comments? · Permalink (861)
I've had the good sense to write about Cafeína here recently. The return was none too soon, and once again, it's a privilege to be a part of that funky weblog.
As I wrote in my opening article for this reborn web behemoth, the web has seriously changed over the last three years we've been off the air. There's Youtube, Facebook, hi5, Flickr, etc., etc., all the high-bandwidth, bells-and-whistles paraphernalia of Web two-point-oh. Cafeína has a serious duty of bringing back wholesome weblogging to the masses (if you've come here for wholesome blogging, you're barking up the wrong tree, chum).
Frankly, on further reflection, I blame the proliferation of blogspot craplogs on the initial demise of Cafeína. Imagine pouring out your heart and soul to make beautiful, silken prose, while idiot politicians and half-wit teens steal all the thunder with boring tidbits of pseudo-intellectual prattle. All of a sudden it went sour. People found that blogging was hard work, and stopped reading other people's blogs and devoted themselves instead to the activity of racking up as many friends as was figuratively possible on all the social network sites. For my part, I pathetically followed suit. It was an extremely low point in my life, I was depressed and feeling like a waste of cosmic matter, so I followed the herd into mind-numbing idiocy.
Thanks for resurrecting Cafeína, Ed. :::
60km south
Monday, 23.June.2008 · Comments? · Permalink (860)
A non-football/Euro 2008 related post? Yes, slightly. Let me just say I wasn't expecting Spain to pass.
Today I went down to Aveiro, a shoreside city some sixty or so kilometres south of where I live. It's called by some "The Venice of Portugal" due to its canals.
Wow! One canal and three gondola-like thingies and it's Venice! No, seriously, it's called that because it is extremely beautiful down near the canals, and I highly recommend a walk along the waterside on a sunny day.
Anyways, you can also find a lot of shops and cafés selling "soft eggs", a local delicacy. It's a thin membrane of the same stuff catholic communion hosts are made out of, with a filling of extremely sweet egg-derived cream.
Moving on, the really interesting stuff happened outside Aveiro, a few kilometres north, near the town of Estarreja.
Look at the red-clad mannequin's tits! Compare them to the other mannequins boobs! What is this shop owner thinking? Where did he get it? The level of porno-funkiness is augmented by the fact its nipples are painted (might be hard to see due to the crappiness of my phone's camera, but I guarantee, their a healthy pink), in contrast to normal mannequins that have flesh-coloured nipples. I deduce the gigantic tits were meant to be on display. Well, they certainly are here.
A blast from the past, akin to "Spitting on the floor is forbidden" (still to be seen inside a Porto downtown building - lobbing gigantic nodules of phlegm in public is still a huge problem in Portugal), this here sign, reads something like "No Begging", accompanied by the corresponding Legal Reference that makes this binding. This was a huge social problem up to about ten years ago, though it still exists today. :::
Uitgang*
Sunday, 22.June.2008 · Comments? · Permalink (859)
Holland 1-3 Russia (aet)
0-1 Pavlyuchenko 56'
1-1 Van Nistelrooy 86'
1-2 Torbinsky 112'
1-3 Arshavin 116'
Are you surprised? Well you shouldn't be. Even though Russia lost 4-1 to Spain in the opening round, you could tell they had good collective football. Add Arshavin, who was suspended, and you have an excellent demolishing team. They showed betterment against Greece, and their true potential against Sweden. Holland, on the other hand, followed Portugal and Croatia's lead, and ejaculated prematurely in the group stage, and had no football mojo left for the quarter-finals. A word of appreciation to Van Der Sar, who's probably ended his international career today. His defending was brilliant, he's a world-class goalie and, like Portugal's Deco, if anyone deserved to be in the semi-finals, it was him.
As for today's match, I will really be surprised if Spain wins, I really will. I reckon they'll do their thing and crap themselves when they see the italian jersey.
I hope for a Russia V Turkey in the final. Two teams who have nothing to lose since they've already come much farther than they'd imagined. It'd be a riveting game, with the Turkish morale and grit versus the Russian's collective game and talent. An Italy V Germany would be old-school boring.
*Exit in Dutch :::
Asia Minor strikes back
Saturday, 21.June.2008 · Comments? · Permalink (858)
Croatia 1-1 Turkey (aet)
1-0 Klasnic 119'
1-1 Semih 120'+2
Penalties:
Croatia 1-3 Turkey
I didn't see the regular 90' of this game, but extra time was a bit boring. The players were knackered, though I must say that Turkey looked better on the whole, though Croatian midfielder Modric is a spectacular player. Then the dramatic finale. Something I'll tell my kids about and boast I actually saw it live on telly. The Turks have shown two things this tournament: First, their indomitable will to win, no matter what the odds. Second, that little bit of hard-fought luck, which they deserved. The luck of champions?
The equaliser broke Croatia. I knew they'd lost even before the shoot-out started. Everyone looked crushed and defeated, having let victory slip from their grasp in the last seconds.
So both the Group A and Group B winners go home. Just goes to show that scraping past in the group stages can be a boon. To my mind, recent history proves that winning a Group stage is trivial. And overcoming last-minute drama, like Buffon's penalty-save against Romania or the near-entirety of Turkey's campaign, can give a team a moral-boost in no short order. The Turks are ready for anything that comes their way, because this Euro has spat them in the face, and they wiped it off and spat back twice as hard. Italy were on the brink of elimination, and fought their way back. The Final: Italy-Turkey (I love being spectacularly wrong in footy tournaments). :::
Thanks a lot, Scolari. Now fuck off and never come back
Friday, 20.June.2008 · Comments? · Permalink (857)
Portugal 2-3 Germany
0-1 Schweinsteiger 22'
0-2 Klose 26'
1-2 Nuno Gomes
1-3 Ballack
2-3 Postiga
Let's be honest. From a statistical point of view, Portugal played better, had better chances on goal and generally deserved to win. A more in-depth analysis shows how the Germans were more efficient and Portugal made fatal mistakes:
- The Germans had 4 shots on target. 3 resulted in goals.
- In all three goals, there were serious defensive blunders on the part of the Portuguese.
- Paulo Ferreira, yesterday played out of position by Scolari on the left, was dismal.
- Ricardo is a shit-cocksucking motherfucker of a bad keeper. He was called on to intervene 4 times, he blundered in 3 of them.
I hate Scolari at the front of the national squad, I'm glad he's out of here and I wish him all the worst at Chelsea. I don't understand what kind of instructions he gave the players (or lack of instructions) that led to the gargantuan defensive mistakes of yesterday. Didn't Portugal train and practise defending German set-pieces? Scolari's biggest cock-up over the years was continually fielding Ricardo the chicken goalie, who inspires as much confidence in goal as a Stevie Wonder would at the helm of a Jumbo jet. Ricardo's antics are lengthy and numerous, yet still he finds his way onto a national squad that is supposedly comprised of Portugal's finest players. Scolari is said to have engendered a spirit of trust and confidence in the squad by fielding the same starting eleven players again and again, despite their form being good or bad or them even playing at their clubs. I'd like to see him try that at Chelsea, let's see how he'll fare. :::
до свидания!*
Wednesday, 18.June.2008 · Comments? · Permalink (856)
Russia 2-0 Sweden
1-0 Pavlyuchenko 24'
2-0 Arshavin 50'
And so the big penis-shaped country goes black, while the huge Eurasia-spanning region turns grassy green. The Russians seem to have learned from their cock-ups against Spain and delivered a demolishing performance tonight. I still stand by what I said before, that Zhirkov is the only true world-class player (gone are the days of Mostovoi and Alenichev), but the rest aren't awful either. Hiddink really can deliver and whatever he said to his players after their defeat with Spain really worked. Russia's great attacking moves where the real eye-catcher, with perfect passing and excellent advancing of the midfielders in both goals. The defending was much more clear-sighted, though Ibrahimovic's bad (injured?) state was a great help. Sweden's experience availed them naught, and players like Hansson and Svensson are nails in any team's coffin. So it's Holland V Russia, which, if Russia's attitude and form continue, should be a great game of footy.
Greece 1-2 Spain
1-0 Charisteas 42'
1-1 De La Red 61'
1-2 Guiza 88'
I'm surprised that Spain's bench-warmers won this one, though I didn't see the game. Greece's horrible play seemingly continues to afflict them, and I suspect even Austria or Poland could've had them.
*Goodbye in Russian :::
Jag tycker om
Wednesday, 18.June.2008 · Comments (1) · Permalink (855)
On the subject of forecasts, here's my idiotic gaze into a possible outcome for the entire tournament:
Even though Mr.Shithead Scolari will try to make a hash of things, Portugal will beat Germany, then beat Croatia in the semis (who eliminated the Turks). Italy will thrash Spain, and nudge past Russia (who shockingly eliminated Holland), and meet Portugal in the final. Then Italy will win, because, like the Greeks and the French, they always beat Portugal.
I know it may sound chauvinistic of me to say "Portugal will make the final", I wouldn't believe it myself if not for the quality of the players. Portugal has been on the steady rise to great performance at the national team level ever since Carlos Queiroz took the U-21 Portugal twice to World Cup victory in 1989 and 1991. The habit and mentality of winning was instilled, not just to the participants, but to many players by example. Antonio Oliveira did a good job in Euro 96, but Artur Jorge failed to follow through by not even qualifying for WC 98. In Euro 2000, the coach, Humberto Coelho, was like Scolari. He sucked terribly, but was very lucky. Most people disagree with me and say he was a great coach, but I never understood why, if he was so good, did he only unsuccessfully coach Morocco, South Korea and Tunisia since? Portugal's dismal performance in WC 2002 prompted a scape-goat, and Oliveira was the one chosen. Saying it wasn't all Oliveira's fault is a heresy in Portugal, but because he had been a successful FC Porto player and coach, everyone will say I defend him because I'm a Porto fan, so I'll skip this one.
Then came Scolari. Scolari was World Champion with Brazil in 2002, and brazilians tend to revere him for this, going to the point of saying Brazil played fabulous football in that tournament, though any impartial observer will agree that Brazil was very boring to watch in that World Cup. Scolari won because he always plays it safe, he had top notch players in their prime (Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Ronaldinho and a reborn Fat Ronaldo who wasn't yet so chubby), and had help from the ref when he needed it (against Turkey and Belgium).
Scolari is a dung-heap of a coach, and Portugal's success is more thanks to the appearance and profusion of lots of good players all around top European clubs. Once he's gone, Portugal will continue to win (and Chelsea will play shitty football and lose until Scolari gets fired) and the myth that Scolari is good may go away. :::
Today's games are comprised of a repeat of Group A's scenario. Two teams will have nothing more than their prestige on the line, while the other two battle it out in a winner-takes-all deathmatch.
Yesterday's previsions were brilliantly wrong, so let me continue in that tone!
Spain's B-team will lose out to Greece. Since the usual starting eleven's level of quality is lowered by the presence of craptards like Sergio Ramos and Puyol, there's no one on the bench, save Fabregas, who'd make it onto the squad of a proper national team. The Greeks might actually play more offensively, in order to rid themselves of their horrendous, greekenaccio-style fame. Final result: Greece 2-0 Spain.
Sweden has Ibrahimovic, Larsson and Ljungberg, but they also have Isaakson, Linderoth and Nilsson. Russia only has Zhirkov as the truly great player, but their young and fast, even if their defensive posture isn't fabulous. But Russia have Guus Hiddink, and as I've said before, he has a knack for this sort of thing.
I like both these teams, Sweden because it's a fab country, and Russia because of their team's nice attitude on the pitch. This one's going to be close, that's why I left these two countries yellow in last article's map. Forecast: 1-1 draw, followed by Platini's pathetic penalty showdown. Russia nudge through, after Ibrahimovic misses his shot. :::
Last update: 04.July.2008 - 10:11 GMT
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