Commonwealth Games 2010

just want to have a blog entry that is about the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi, India starting this Sunday. So far, every media report coming out from there has been bad.

poor living conditions, collapsed bridge, unfinished projects, stray animals, above all, safety and terrorism.

at first my impression is that, here we go again. but media always wants the world to think only one side of the story. personally, i think theres much more than that. Yes. i dont deny corruption and under table money happened when they are dishing out the projects. After all, they are still a developing country and is generally still suffering from poverty. $$ to them is everything. But if the world committee were to put the world's best sportsmen and women under threat and try to give the world a good impression of India, i feel that is wrong move. There should be lotsa of assistance for them. Projects completion dates can be known months or even years ahead if managed well and if the committee had provided extra support and information. Things wouldnt have been so bad. But as one my friend says " they talked their way through everything " hmmmm... (who doesnt)

hopefully, as much as I think they games wont be as successful. I hope the safety of the competitors and general public should be put as number 1. Terrorism should never had taken place in this world and should never have a chance for the terrorists to display their acts. The last thing I want to see is another live TV sports show being put under the threat.

Who knows, it might be good. Never though S.Africa would be able to host the world cup but they did it for the beautiful game, less the vuvuzulas. irritating instruments.

it will be a sports filled weekend

Saturday - AFL Grand Final take 2 (Collingwood vs St Kildas)

Sunday - NRL Grand Final (St George Illawara Dragons vs Sydney Roosters)

Sunday - Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

and the usual Europe Soccer leagues

show me the money!!!

in the sporting world nowadays, what's the purpose of a contract?

is meaningless because if someone wants to leave, he can just walk out or the other club will bid at ridiculous fees to get him/her.

anyway, EPL has started and the big teams have made a good start. Blackpool got 4 goals and conceded none for their first game. hope they can keep it up which I have some doubts after what happened with Burnley last season.

njoy~ the season

by the way, i still think the NRL is rigged... $$ runs the game.. that's what I believe

World Cup 2010

what a shame! I realise I didnt record a post on the conclusion of South Africa World Cup 2010 after more than 2 weeks since the final.

A pretty good final I must say in terms of technicality. Spain plays with possession. You can't destroy a team without having possession of the ball. Holland and Germany on the other hand, were disappointments, who played so well before they played Spain. Holland especially, they played ugly to unsettle Spain, hoping to get a lucky goal and pack their defence. If they had played their beautiful soccer, what a final it would have been.

But I think soccer is going the way Spain is going. Little goals but a lot of passing. Not as exciting for a spectator looking for last minute goals and end to end action. Disappointment but that's what happens when so much money is at stake. Is not the coach who is the only one running the show now. Hopefull, EPL will still provide us with some excitement.

Some highlights of the World Cup

1. Irritating vuvuzulas

2. Disappointment for Cristiano Ronaldo & Wayne Rooney

3. Germany 4 goals demoliation of Australia, England & Argentina

4. Great goals by Forlan, van Bronckhurst & Tshabalala

5. The Octopus - unbeaten - same as New Zealand who was the only team that is unbeaten in the tournament.

6. Great performance for Forlan, considering that he was a failure at Man Utd who went on to win the Golden Ball award for SA WC 2010.

7. Spain 1-0 wins

8. Lack of Penalty Shoot-Outs

9. Lack of Goals

10. France's Disgrace

11. Englands disallowed goal against Germany

12. Waka Waka - Wavin' Flag

another 4 years to the next world cup in Brazil. time flies. and hopefully we get a better soccer games in the next few months when all the respective leagues kick off

GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

Round 2 matches are completed with quite a lot of goals scored starting with Forlan's spectacular strike against the South Africans and ending with an wonderful individual goal from David Villa against Honduras.

Special mention to the Kiwis again and the 7-0 score between Portugal and North Korea.

Brazil, Argentina and Holland have qualified with 2 wins from 2 games. Kaka's sending off was probably a blessing in disguise for him to rest for the knock out stages.

Favourites Spain are still in danger of a early flight home should they lose to Chile in the next round.

Germany might lose out to the Aussies for the 2nd place if they lose to Ghana. Greece might still have a chance if they were to beat Argentina????
England might be the first big gun to be knocked out (not considering France) if they lose/draw with Slovenia

been sneezing since the whole day yesterday when denise, derrick, darian went to Featherdale and Blue Mountains for a tour. The weather was like a freezing and no matter how many layers we wore, it never seems to be enough.

tried to watch as many matches for the World Cup as possible. but I just couldnt. I just couldnt have that much energy after only the first night. Guess I will have to choose from 1 out of 2 matches from the 12 midnight and 4.30am games.

goals are not easy to come by so far. I guess because the techicality of the game is so high at the moment that is it not easy to break down the opponent's defence, until last night game where the Aussies conceded 4 goals and a red card to Germany.

England is a disappointment, not able to fire as much with Rooney. Few surprises with Korea and South Africa all performing well. Argentina were impressive although it didnt show in the number of goals scored.

Crowds are not as enthusiastic as they were in the past world cup. Stadiums are not full. Maybe we'll wait till tonight to see the Netherlands take on the Danish with the stadium fill with the Orange Army.

Tipping gone pretty well if I go with small bets. Correct bets were Korea, Ghana and Argentina. Yes, Denise got one too with Korea to win for first half. Bets were group A did not go too well.

today's the queen's birthday, lucky for me, got an extra day to revitalise before going back to a full team tomorrow.

Happy Monthsary to Us on 12th June Saturday! our 101 months together!!

South Africa 1 - 1 Mexico.

RSA started cautious but grew in confidence as the match went. Mexico is not as a good as I thought it would be with a mix of old and young players. Two awesome goals, especially the one by Tshabalala that took the lead from SA.

I predicted 2-1 to either side. Only a last minute one-on-one that hit the upright denied the correct prediction. We'll see how the next one go. only 40 mins to go.

starting to love the event, but I don't think I'll be able to keep up with it.

the stage is set and is time to kick off the 2010 World Cup.

1st match up will be between the hosts South Africa against Mexico at 12 midnight AEST.

2nd match will be between Uruguay and France at 4am AEST.

quick tips for the games

I expect a 2-1 scoreline for the first match. Will either go South Africa's or Mexico's way. For a safe bet, try > 2.5 goals.

second match I will predict an upset win for Uruguay who will just edge out France by 1 goal.

couple of stats for the the tournament if you havent already know

1) All host countries so far manage to get through to the second round. (bear that in mind when you are trying to write South Africa off Group A.

2) No European teams have ever won a World Cup staged outside Europe. (Spain is the favourite this time though, but odds are pretty low because this is also the first time that the tournament is being held in Africa.

anyway, time to enjoy and for the next month, there will be one word that unites the world

GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!

4 more working days. before the weekend.

really can't wait. been really excited, but I think those excitement will die down once the tournament gets underway.

I'm organising a tip-e-winner competition. I guess because my notice was pretty late, everyone else has put money in other competition and will give mine a miss. Nevertheless, I'll play with what I've got.

Work has also come in. slowly. bit by bit. and we are getting our staff back as well, which means more manpower and labour resources. Goodies.

I realise I like the drive to Hunter Valley. Its a long drive, but I feel good. and feel kinda of refresh.

and NRL, State of Origin. erm. i rather not talked about it. disgraceful. both QLD and NSW. The adminstrators and personnel choosing the teams should be sacked once and for all.

the week is going to be so s...l...o...w but I will get through it.

23 is just a special number and is turning up everywhere at the moment

Why? because 32 teams in the world cup finals will need to submit their final 23 players to enter the competition. see how 2 and 3 form such important numbers?

anyway on the down side, few surprises on the players that will missed out on this year's competition

- Theo Walcott - his name is all over preview magazines as England's young gun to watch but we won't get to see him for this world cup, unless some players come out injured.

- Michael Ballack, Javier Zanetti, Estebio Cambiasso, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, David Beckham and Ronaldinho are some of the old players that we will not see anymore in World Cup matches.

Imagine Cristano Ronaldo, Messi or Rooney gets injured before the World Cup. Woo. That will be interesting, you never know, some one may break his toe bones or "metatarsal" again.

9 days to go for the big match. 9 days before Derrick and Darian arrive in Sydney. Can't wait!

somehow, i feel some of the NRL games are fixed. personal opinions.

sometimes the team that are favourites will lose by quite a big margin. unexpected results chalks up every 2 weeks.

some may argue that that is the nature of the game. depending on momentum and who starts the game stronger etc. But again, with the pay they are getting and the huge betting market for it, i suspect that sometimes only 10 players (out of 13) are playing for the team.

up to you to decide, but that's my personal opinion once again.

btw, side track, I'll try to do a bit of analysis for each and every game for the world cup. hopefully i can keep it up. meanwhile, take care and 14 days to go!

D is for disappointed and disgraceful.

with all the hype for the new south wales team to do well for the Origin 1 2010. They flunked it.

Gidley should not be there. Kimmorley as well. Not sure what is going on within the team but the selection panel ought to change. drastically.

they will blame it on the weather. but when queensland were on the backfoot for the first 20 mins, nsw didnt take advantage. when the blues were on the backfoot, qld ran them over everywhere. No urgency, half back didnt do anything useful. Hayne and Tahu were more interested in muscling out the opponents. Brains not Brawns.

Anyway, looks like they are going to lose another series. Until they remove the panel and that Daley guy. The future does not look bright.

World Cup 2010

im getting pretty excited whenever this event comes along. Who doesnt?

Australia is fortunate enough to have the matches covered all free to view, Singapore, not so lucky, special package for residential and commercial viewing just for this event and it is not cheap, which is unjust.

Im back Argentina to win it this year. Only thing holding me back is that Maradona is coaching them. It has a strong squad, as always, but you never know. England might be the surprise package but they always fail in the last stage. Spain and Brazil are the countries to watch out so are North Korea and the African Nations. Australia? nahz. I dont think they will be doing well this time round. we shall see.

20 days to go. Sleepless nightz. HDTV prepared. WooHoo!

Spot On

Man Utd 3 -1. Correct score.

Appreciate to Denise for struggling through the match on TV w/o commentary.

Melbourne Storm won as well.

I can't say that I'm on a losing streak. Just bad and impulse judgement.

Man Utd Crashes Out

After a wonderful first half display, Manchester United crashes out of the quarter finals to Bayern Munich this morning AEST.

Stunned by their performance in the first half, well gamble with Darren Gibson (as usual for Sir Alex) and Nani, what a breathless display. Nothing seems to be able to stop him. Credits to Antonio Valencia as well. and Rooney, just being on the field already has its effects on his opponents.

3-0 up with 3 minutes to go half time break before Olic step up once again (he did it in the last minute for the first leg) to score the all important 1st half goal for Bayern Munich. I'm sure if it stood at 3-0 at half time, Man Utd will pack up their defence and there will not be enough time for the Germans to get the important away goals.

You learn from experience I guess, Rafael, too eager to impress and too eager to make an impression, got 2 yellow cards and got sent off. With a man down, there's always chances to exploit the defence. Final score was 3-2 to Man Utd. But Bayern won the first leg 2-1 means they go through on away goals.

Not sure why I'm so attached to this club. Never seen them live before, the only player I saw before was Dwight Yorke when he was in Sydney. But I kinda of feel a bit down. Haha. Silly. But I still feel a bit unjust that after such a wonderful performance, they couldn't finish the Germans off. Well, is only sport and there's always next year. There will be a winner and a loser. By the looks of it, Man Utd will only be the Carling Cup winners for this season. Fingers crossed for the league premiership.

source: www.manutd.com

just when I blog I'm on a losing streak.
west tigers won! and I was spot on for the 1st tryscorer. Lote!
maybe is denise.

i'm gonna try on soccer for the weekend
West Ham vs Stoke - take West Ham -1/4
Wolves vs Everton - take Wolves +1/2
Deportivo La Coruna - take Deportivo -1/4

good luck!

NRL tipping for Round 3 (from Denise this week)

Tigers vs Eels
Dragon vs Cowboys
Panthers vs Storm
Sea Eagles vs Knights
Titans vs Raiders
Broncos vs Warriors
Bulldogs vs Roosters
Sharks vs Rabbitohs

Hot Tips for Round 3
Tigers to win $2.40
Newcastle to win by 1-12 $3.75
Maybe - Panthers to win $2.10

tips for this weekend 20th march

Hull +0.25 (Portsmouth 3 - 2 Hull City) (@@)
Man City -0.25 (Fulham 1 - 2 Man City) ($$)
Tenerife +0.25 Draw (Xerez won 2-1)(@@)
Twente+0.5 Draw (PSV-Twente Drew 1-1)($$)

I'll see how I'll go.
GoodLuck

2/4 for this week.
Lost again on the Hot Tip for NRL. Broncos lost to Raiders.
0/2

Footy Tipping Round 2

Tips for round 2.

Hot Tip for this round

Broncos!

I might have a soft spot for Roosters to upset the Tigers.

Good luck

	Round 2: 20-23 March 2009
Kick Off	Home	Away
Fri 8:35pm	Rabbitohs
Fri 7:35pm		Bulldogs
Sat 7:30pm	Warriors
Sat 7:30pm		Storm
Sat 8:30pm	Cowboys
Sun 2:00pm	Eels
Sun 3:00pm	Roosters
Mon 7:00pm		Broncos

Sevilla got upset. If not I'll jackpot again.

Well done Inter for knocking out Chelsea. Roman, you've just joined Real Madrid to be losers. Good news is, there's always next year.

Let's have some tips for tomorrow's morning matches

Barcelona by 1 or 2 goals

Bordeaux by 1 or 2 goals

Safer Bet with Bordeaux and recommend to a multi with a Newcastle Win.

cheers