2007/02/15
2007/02/10
球迷之死
國家奧運隊在歐洲比賽時打人，內地同胞和香港人反應大有差異，同胞支持國奧隊，在網上留言說甚麼國仇家恨、對方理虧在先，港人就說國奧隊沒有體育精神、未夠專業之類。奶茶怪不想說誰對誰錯，動武當然是不對，但不算甚麼「中國之恥」那麼嚴重，試問足球員打架在哪那個國家沒有? 世界杯決賽施丹都出鐵頭功。撇除道德判斷，奶茶怪從內地同胞與港人普遍的意見分歧，看到一個事實 --內地同胞是國奧隊的球迷，香港人多不是。
無論捧那隊，球迷本身就是不理性的，所以被稱之「迷」，球迷必然是感性地、偏執自大地支持球隊。
香港的球迷快絕種了。賭波要贏錢，要冷靜客觀地分析各球隊，即使你喜歡曼聯，但如果賠率太低，你亦可能買另一方，搏爆冷。這樣，睇波便是兩回事。與朋友閒聊間，知道他們有睇波的，奶茶怪多會問「你捧那隊?」，幾年前，對方大多清楚地、自豪地回答: 「曼聯」「阿仙奴」。現在，答案多是模稜兩可，多是回到說近期哪隊狀態好，久而久之，「你捧那隊?」說起來已感覺好out。
球會不捧，那國家隊、港隊一定要捧了吧? 「我捧巴西」香港人自小就習慣選擇。很多人不承認自己是中國人，甚至不承認自己是香港人，說「中國咁老套」「港人咁自私」。奶茶怪是中國人，是香港人，是中國人之中的香港人。這不是一個宣言，不是一個道德判斷，不能選擇，而是一個資料。就如「我係男人」「我係女人」一樣。捧港隊，捧國家隊亦別無他選，除非唔睇波。
香港人捧皇馬、巴塞，已經是很奇怪，英國、意大利、西班牙球迷本身就沒有選擇的餘地，你是在英國鍚菲長大的，就是捧鍚菲聯的，不會捧曼聯。當然，如果你是在曼徹斯特長大的，你可選擇曼聯或曼城，但這亦很視乎你的家庭傳統，你爸爸是曼城球迷，自小帶你到曼城球場睇波，很自然地你就是曼城的人。不是你「看好哪隊」或「喜歡哪個球星」就捧哪隊的。事實上，曼城本土球迷人數比曼聯多。
球迷愈來愈少，因為港人習慣選擇。
無論捧那隊，球迷本身就是不理性的，所以被稱之「迷」，球迷必然是感性地、偏執自大地支持球隊。
香港的球迷快絕種了。賭波要贏錢，要冷靜客觀地分析各球隊，即使你喜歡曼聯，但如果賠率太低，你亦可能買另一方，搏爆冷。這樣，睇波便是兩回事。與朋友閒聊間，知道他們有睇波的，奶茶怪多會問「你捧那隊?」，幾年前，對方大多清楚地、自豪地回答: 「曼聯」「阿仙奴」。現在，答案多是模稜兩可，多是回到說近期哪隊狀態好，久而久之，「你捧那隊?」說起來已感覺好out。
球會不捧，那國家隊、港隊一定要捧了吧? 「我捧巴西」香港人自小就習慣選擇。很多人不承認自己是中國人，甚至不承認自己是香港人，說「中國咁老套」「港人咁自私」。奶茶怪是中國人，是香港人，是中國人之中的香港人。這不是一個宣言，不是一個道德判斷，不能選擇，而是一個資料。就如「我係男人」「我係女人」一樣。捧港隊，捧國家隊亦別無他選，除非唔睇波。
香港人捧皇馬、巴塞，已經是很奇怪，英國、意大利、西班牙球迷本身就沒有選擇的餘地，你是在英國鍚菲長大的，就是捧鍚菲聯的，不會捧曼聯。當然，如果你是在曼徹斯特長大的，你可選擇曼聯或曼城，但這亦很視乎你的家庭傳統，你爸爸是曼城球迷，自小帶你到曼城球場睇波，很自然地你就是曼城的人。不是你「看好哪隊」或「喜歡哪個球星」就捧哪隊的。事實上，曼城本土球迷人數比曼聯多。
球迷愈來愈少，因為港人習慣選擇。
2006/12/11
Chelsea: Defense is Best Attack
Belgian women's soccer team SK Berlaar had to stomach a 50-1 defeat against rival KV Mechelen a few weeks ago because their goalkeeper skipped the match to attend a music concert instead. KV Mechelen scored their first goal just four seconds into the game. "After half-time, the score was 27-0. But after half-time we were able to recover. We had to stomach only 23 goals and we scored once ourselves, right at the end. They allowed us to score. That was sweet of them," local newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws daily quoted substitute goalkeeper Charlotte Jacobs as saying. i wonder the outcome would be very different if the pop fan was there. Mathematically, SK Berlaar would turn out to be the winner with 1-0 should they have not conceded the 50 goals.
i enjoy watching the defense as much as the attack. Defenders are usually the unsung heroes in a team who work in most of the 90 minutes, closing gaps, blocking, tackling, heading, and setting up offside traps. Forwarders score a goal in the blink of an eye. Still, the defense is of utmost importance as good backers and goalkeepers produce the confidence for every player of the squad.
It was the pair of center backs of Chelsea that first impressed me in 1999 when i started watching English Premiere League. French national team players and 1998 World Cup Champions Marcel Desailly, nicknamed the Rock, and Frank Leboeuf formed a solid wall. The Rock was tough and experienced. Labouf's accurate and decisive tackles were somehow similar to those of the presently serving Ricardo Carvalho. Despite the strong defense, the team as a whole was not yet world-class. It is infamous for the lack of consistency in performance, beating frontrunners including Manchester United in one weekend and losing to lower ranked rivals in the next. Nevertheless, Chelsea managed to finish the 1998/99 season the third in the league.
The then Italian manager Gianluca Vialli was too busy playing on the pitch as a striker, by his own order, to give enough direction for the whole team. He was in the following season replaced by another Italian Claudio Ranieri, who contributed to building the team as it is today.
Under the management of Ranieri, Chelsea didn't go further and stayed around the sixth place most of the time. But the ranking didn't tell the whole story. Ranieri inherited the strong defense force and made it even stronger. He imported from French defender William Gallas and raised up the then teenager John Terry. He also brought in Italian goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini and the now superstar midfielder Frank Lampard.
Terry, now Chelsea's captain, was awarded best player in English Premiere League last season. It has been a decade since a defender got that award. i watched him score the only goal when Chelsea visited Hong Kong a few years ago. No one knew that teenager back then. Terry has recently thanked Desailly and Leboeuf for their inspiration in his early career.
In what later recognized to be one of the most important matches of Chelsea's history, Chelsea defeated Liverpool 2-1 in the last game of the 2002/03 season, which qualified the team to play European Champions League the following season. i saw the broadcast and watched Ken Bates' wife wiped her tears in the celebration in the end of that match, only to figure out why much later. Chelsea was in financial troubles then and looking for a new owner. It was that Champions League qualification that Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich was eyeing when he chose to buy Chelsea from a short list of English teams.
Abramovich hired last summer Jose Mourinho as a new manager and signed more world-class players. Mourinho guided Chelsea to the top of the league last season, ending the decade-long dominance of Manchester United and Arsenal. Many people criticize that the winning was built upon money. The manager's egocentric speech and defensive tactics were also under fire. However, a brief history of Chelsea should have convinced you, i hope, that strong defense is not built overnight. Even though you may maintain that defensive football must be boring, you cannot deny that it works. Now Chelsea runs way ahead in the league table after winning all its first eight games. Football commentators like saying "Attack is best defense". It is time to think of rephrasing the sentence.
Oddly enough, attack is the weak spot of Chelsea. Last season's top scorer was Lampard, the midfielder. The team's striker Didier Drogba has physical strength but his skills cannot compare to Arsenal's Thierry Henry; his opportunistic instinct not standing up to Ruud van Nistelrooy. Because of the lack of attacking force, Chelsea usually wins a match by a narrow 1-0. The consistency helped Chelsea win the League last season.
Warren Buffett once gave such an investment advice: "Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1," stressing the importance to preserving the capital principal. That is right. For every dollar you lose in one stock, you need a dollar of gain from other stocks to offset it. Touch wood, you might end up with a net loss. Play defense is no easy game. It requires years of experience, lots of hard work and consistency. But it pays. By now, SK Berlaar should have found a new goalkeeper, a devoted one.
Abramovich has apparently adopted Buffett's advice, or Chelsea's tactics. It has been reported that the smiley Chelsea boss sold his oil company Sibneft, a move seen to be politically correct, as Russia president Vladimir Putin appears to have decided to crackdown the oligarchs. Fellow-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkhovsky was recently jailed for eight years for tax evasion, and has his assets frozen. It seems that Abramovich parking most of his capital outside his homeland is a way to preserve capital principal, or play defense.
Oct 6, 2005
Copyright Quamnet
i enjoy watching the defense as much as the attack. Defenders are usually the unsung heroes in a team who work in most of the 90 minutes, closing gaps, blocking, tackling, heading, and setting up offside traps. Forwarders score a goal in the blink of an eye. Still, the defense is of utmost importance as good backers and goalkeepers produce the confidence for every player of the squad.
It was the pair of center backs of Chelsea that first impressed me in 1999 when i started watching English Premiere League. French national team players and 1998 World Cup Champions Marcel Desailly, nicknamed the Rock, and Frank Leboeuf formed a solid wall. The Rock was tough and experienced. Labouf's accurate and decisive tackles were somehow similar to those of the presently serving Ricardo Carvalho. Despite the strong defense, the team as a whole was not yet world-class. It is infamous for the lack of consistency in performance, beating frontrunners including Manchester United in one weekend and losing to lower ranked rivals in the next. Nevertheless, Chelsea managed to finish the 1998/99 season the third in the league.
The then Italian manager Gianluca Vialli was too busy playing on the pitch as a striker, by his own order, to give enough direction for the whole team. He was in the following season replaced by another Italian Claudio Ranieri, who contributed to building the team as it is today.
Under the management of Ranieri, Chelsea didn't go further and stayed around the sixth place most of the time. But the ranking didn't tell the whole story. Ranieri inherited the strong defense force and made it even stronger. He imported from French defender William Gallas and raised up the then teenager John Terry. He also brought in Italian goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini and the now superstar midfielder Frank Lampard.
Terry, now Chelsea's captain, was awarded best player in English Premiere League last season. It has been a decade since a defender got that award. i watched him score the only goal when Chelsea visited Hong Kong a few years ago. No one knew that teenager back then. Terry has recently thanked Desailly and Leboeuf for their inspiration in his early career.
In what later recognized to be one of the most important matches of Chelsea's history, Chelsea defeated Liverpool 2-1 in the last game of the 2002/03 season, which qualified the team to play European Champions League the following season. i saw the broadcast and watched Ken Bates' wife wiped her tears in the celebration in the end of that match, only to figure out why much later. Chelsea was in financial troubles then and looking for a new owner. It was that Champions League qualification that Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich was eyeing when he chose to buy Chelsea from a short list of English teams.
Abramovich hired last summer Jose Mourinho as a new manager and signed more world-class players. Mourinho guided Chelsea to the top of the league last season, ending the decade-long dominance of Manchester United and Arsenal. Many people criticize that the winning was built upon money. The manager's egocentric speech and defensive tactics were also under fire. However, a brief history of Chelsea should have convinced you, i hope, that strong defense is not built overnight. Even though you may maintain that defensive football must be boring, you cannot deny that it works. Now Chelsea runs way ahead in the league table after winning all its first eight games. Football commentators like saying "Attack is best defense". It is time to think of rephrasing the sentence.
Oddly enough, attack is the weak spot of Chelsea. Last season's top scorer was Lampard, the midfielder. The team's striker Didier Drogba has physical strength but his skills cannot compare to Arsenal's Thierry Henry; his opportunistic instinct not standing up to Ruud van Nistelrooy. Because of the lack of attacking force, Chelsea usually wins a match by a narrow 1-0. The consistency helped Chelsea win the League last season.
Warren Buffett once gave such an investment advice: "Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1," stressing the importance to preserving the capital principal. That is right. For every dollar you lose in one stock, you need a dollar of gain from other stocks to offset it. Touch wood, you might end up with a net loss. Play defense is no easy game. It requires years of experience, lots of hard work and consistency. But it pays. By now, SK Berlaar should have found a new goalkeeper, a devoted one.
Abramovich has apparently adopted Buffett's advice, or Chelsea's tactics. It has been reported that the smiley Chelsea boss sold his oil company Sibneft, a move seen to be politically correct, as Russia president Vladimir Putin appears to have decided to crackdown the oligarchs. Fellow-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkhovsky was recently jailed for eight years for tax evasion, and has his assets frozen. It seems that Abramovich parking most of his capital outside his homeland is a way to preserve capital principal, or play defense.
Oct 6, 2005
Copyright Quamnet
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