Global Warming: Step It Up!

Check this out. It’s pretty cool, and it’s an amazing effort to remind everyone living on this planet Earth on this very issue, global warming.

The FA Cup: MAN UTD vs. PORTSMOUTH

Coming off from a loss at Arsenal, I expect United will go all out against Portsmouth this evening in the FA Cup 4th round. Expect Solskjaer to play up front along with changes at goalie with Kusczak coming in for van der Sar. It would be interesting to see who would be given an day off at front, would it be Rooney or Larsson? My guess is that it would be Rooney as the long awaited goal has came last week, which was the reason why Ferguson kept playing him since the festive programme.

I expect Scholes and Carrick to drive the midfield once again, with there’s probability that Brown might come in for either Ferdinand or Gary Neville and Heinze coming in for Evra at the left back. Ji-Sung Park might be coming in for Giggs while I don’t think Ferguson would take any chance resting Ronaldo, who was taken out on the last minute of the Arsenal game, of which they scored the winning from the breakdown of the left side of Manchester United (where Evra looked so awkard playing in front of Heinze).

mindcubes’ longtail: United will be in for a real challenge from Portsmouth, but the sell-out crowd at Old Trafford do make it a difference as the 12th man for Sir Alex’s team. It’ll be over by the time the referee started the second half as United will improve on their finishing touch to capitalize on their high tempo game, especially on the first 20 minutes of the game. UNITED 4 – PORTSMOUTH 0

What’s Wrong with Manchester United?

The last three away form has been pretty bad for United, losing 0-1 at Upton Park to West Ham, throwing up two leads at St.James’ Park for a 2-2 draw, and the latest classics, losing 1-2 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on the last minute of the injury time, courtesy of who else other than Thierry Henry.  3 of the 4 opponent’s goals came in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Do they get tired?  Or they simply trying to protect their lead and forget how to play the Manchester United way of football?  My 2 cents is that defense won a game, and the defense are just under too much pressure to still go forwards event though after they’ve taken a lead, and it’s obvious when looking at how often Gary Neville and Evra needs to running back and forth for the whole game.  Then it came to realize, how come Sir Alex doesn’t want to utilize both Heinze and Wes Brown on the last quarter of the match?  Brown has shown some sharpness lately, and Heinze’s fighting spirit would be awesome for the team, although Evra produced much more flair and tricks compared with Heinze.  But we’re now talking about holding on to a lead when United is taking control of the match.

If United has managed to just taken 3 draws out of the 3 games, they would’ve been 10 instead of 6 points above Chelsea.  Buying Hargreaves might give United a superb advantage on the middle as Hargreaves played in the frame of a battling Gattuso while Carrick is more like Andrea Pirlo, although that is given Hargreaves will play as good as before he got this injury.

As a lifelong United fan, I’m worried, but rather in a positive term, concerned about not being able to capitalize on many opportunity to really send a warning signal to Chelsea before some of their big players gained confidence, namely Shevchenko, the coming back Terry, and the brave Cech.  The title race is still wide open, and United can only count on themselves not making the same mistake over and over again if they were to be crowned the Premiership title for the first time in 3 years –something that’s not too common at Old Trafford.

NFL Playoffs: NE Patriots @ SD Chargers

This will be hell of a game and I can hardly wait for this! Brady, Bellichick, everyone has learnt the hard lesson to not discounting them when the game is not over yet. When you thought they’ve been down, or rather you’ve beaten them, they’ll be back when it matters. The NY Jets learnt it the hard way last week.

This week though it’ll be a little different as Chargers is the hottest team in the league now, MVP in LT, amazing defense led by Merriman, all of these courtesy of the late John Butler’s vision, executed now by his best buddy AJ Smith in the GM role. There’s a touching story on NFL.com on how amazing Butler’s work ethics and his lifelong friendship with Smith. It was a testament to Butler’s vision and quality that a 1-15 Chargers (fresh in my mind when I made the frequent trips to the Qualcomm Stadium to watch them getting beaten badly by my beloved Broncos) was turned around into a winning franchise by this guy’s vision and talent scouting amazing ability, although he’ll definitely said it was a team effort. On this memoir itself, I could find myself rooting for the Chargers (for the first time in my life).

But back to the reality of the game itself, I have doubt in Rivers’ ability in a huge playoff game on stake, especially against Brady. Added to that, Schottenheimer’s poor records in playoff, it seems like the Chargers is meeting a wrong team just when their time seems to finally come. At the end of the day though, I guess it’s a turnover’s game. If the Chargers could force Brady to make many hurries and hence, force bad throws that led to interceptions –exactly just like what the Broncos did last season, the Chargers will wear the Patriots’ defense out with LT at his best. It’ll be a tough battle, but I do think the Patriots’ has dealt with way too many adversities to come into this stage, and overcoming those away from home might not bring the best of out the Brady’s bunch.

mindcubes’ long tail: NE @ SD : 25 – 28 (OT)

Beckham to MLS (Your Views)

Almost everyone in the football (or soccer as what the Americans said) world is talking about David Beckham’s move to American’s MLS –that is Major League Soccer– team, LA Galaxy from the Galaticos, Real Madrid.  Well, it’s a shocking move –well, not if you look at it from the entertainment side rather than pure athletics competition.  Literally though the team’s name sounds the same

One thing that I don’t really get is though why would everyone make it such a big thing?  Was it because of its deal (128 million pounds in 5 years, that is closed to 50 million USD per year), that’s bigger than what Michael Jordan earned during his few last seasons at Bulls when he was running at a season by season contract at 25 million USD.  Or was it because he’s coming to “minor” football league (in the eyes of European)?  Or was it simply because he is David Beckham?

What’s your views?

To me though the deal is insane, the MLS seems to forget what happened to the old US Soccer League where the likes of Cruyff, Pele tried to promote the sport, but it all came to one thing, bankruptcy.  It’s a good thing in the eyes of many American soccer players, but to fans who’s been living and following sports in America, I won’t trade the NFL for some sort of football just because Beckham has arrived.  There are way too many good European matches to watch and be crazy about.

One thing I can be pretty sure of though, the US will grow even stronger in women soccer.  Watch out Mia Hamm!!

Manchester United – Aston Villa (Round 2)

It’s round two of United vs. Villa at Old Trafford after last week United’s 2-1 victorious over Martin O’Neill’s team. Expect Larsson to start alongside Rooney at the front again, with van der Sar, Scholes, Gary Neville, Giggs and Vidic back into the first eleven. It’ll be another tight game for United with the key lies in midfield. If Scholes and Carrick can control the tempo and United could get an early lead, it’ll be over by the time United score the second goal. However, if the defense slipped and Villa scored a shocking goal, it’ll be a long day for United.

I believe though United with Larsson in sparkling form and Vidic coming back to partner Ferdinand at the center of the defense would be able to get a full 3 points after slipping-up at St. James’ Park a couple weeks ago.

mindcubes’ longtail: UNITED 2 – VILLA 0 (Ronaldo, Larsson)

SFA to Launch Legal Action Against Smith

This is pretty interesting, Scottish Football Association (SFA) is preparing to launch a legal action against its own national team coach, Walter Smith, after Smith apparently has joined the Glasgow Rangers one day after SFA rejected his proposed move back to the club he managed for 12 years before departing in 1998.

This is quite disappointing especially that the Scotland national team has done so well in their preparation for Euro 2008 (with their impressive over France 1-0) and I do believe Smith could bring this blend of youth and experience team into something meaningful for the Scottish fans.

Too bad, for whatever reason this thing has come into this state with just a few weeks away from the crucial Euro 2008 qualification matches ahead. Who knows though maybe he can stay within these two jobs just like what Guus Hiddink did with PSV Eindhoven and the Australia national team setup during the WorldCup 2006 qualifications.

iPhone … OH YEAH!!!

It’s official. Apple has introduced iPhone and it was an awesome keynote (as usual) from Jobs at the MacWorld. He began by stating that “today is the day that I’ve waiting for 2 and half years”, quoting how lucky one was to be able to work on and invent products that redefine people’s life, and how Apple is able to come up with not one, but a number of them. Starting with the Mac in the 80s, iPod in 2001, and now with iPhone in 2007. That was a cool introduction where he continued by introducing three products: widescreen iPod, a phone (with huge cheers), and an internet communications tool … all of them in ONE device, the iPhone.

Check out the keynote here.

A couple of really awesome features are the picture enlargement/shrinkage just by using your fingers motion and how Safari is able to perform as a full-featured browser, with the iPhone able to automatically detect and render the web pages when user flips the iPhone to landscape or portrait. The multi-tasking ability is pretty impressive where you could send an email with a photo attachment to your friend DURING a phone conversation. Add that with a desktop capability widgets (the whole thing is powered by OS X)  and the ability to pick and choose list of voicemails to listen to, this is definitely a killer device.

One amazing quote that Jobs mentioned at the end of the keynote (where he quoted from the great Gretzky) is “I don’t skate to where the puck has been, but to where it will be”. Apple will always be innovating and I guess that is what makes this company so special, in so many ways.

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Disappointing United Held by Magpies

It was a game where United could’ve scored 5 goals on another day. Two goal-line clearances, a couple of crossbar strikes, a number of saves, a few other misses, and United ended up with only a point from a 2-2 draw at St.James’ Park. As disappointing as it was, that day belonged to the 19 years old Edgar who played at the left back, shutting down Ronaldo, before he switched flanks with Giggs, and what to cap a home debut other than scoring an equalizer against a mammoth team like United.

I agree though with Ferguson that it’s all credit to the Toon’s troops who played with high spirits closing down every movement of each of United player. The only thing I thought Ferguson should’ve done is bringing on Carrick at the hour after the tempo was slowing down and United players started letting Newcastle dictated the tempo, albeit the 12th man in the Magpies crowd was magnificent throughout the night. It was also questionable why Solskjaer who is in terrific form lately and is a clinical finisher, was not on the bench, leaving United with Rooney as the only striker with Saha injured midway through the first half.

2 points dropped, United need to be careful of their own defensive unit as once the transfer market opens in January, expect Chelsea to shore up their leaky defense with some big names, such as Sol Campbell. It’s a 7 points advantage now, and it’s all up to the United squad to show their characters fighting for the title that seems closer within reach this year than anytime in the last 3 years.

Manchester United @ Newcastle United

In a little over an hour, Manchester United will be playing Newcastle United at St.James’ Park for their first campaign in 2007, having been 6 points clear of Chelsea at the summit of the Premiership. Throughout the year, United has shown the type of resiliency and persistence that has been lacked of in recent years. The emergence of Vidic at the back along with the maturing Ferdinand added a composed United back-line along with the always reliable Gary Neville and the emergence of Evra competing with Heinze at the left back.

The return of Scholes at the midfield adds the type of vision and the ability to change the course of the game with a tackle or a long pass along with the arrival of Carrick who has been playing pretty well at the anchor position, breaking tackles and sending in long balls.

With Ronaldo playing at his best form of his life, he makes a good case for Player of the Year, and along with Saha, who has been able to fill-in the shoes of the departed van Nistelrooy, United attack hasn’t looked so orchestrated in so many years, with Giggs playing one of the best year of his career.

van der Sar at the back has been the answer to Ferguson to the long tem problem after Schmeichel left, and the 36-years old Dutchman look as composed as ever, albeit he is a totally different personality with that of Peter Schmeichel.

That all above, with the exception of Neville who was out of injured, would probably the first 11 that Ferguson will name for this tricky encounter with the Magpies. Expect tough battle in midfield with possibly 4-5-1 formation, United needs to be at their best controlling the tempo and taking an early lead to settle into the game.

mindubes’ long tail: NEWCASTLE UTD 0 – MANCHESTER UTD 2