Football spanning all ages

2nd year Anniversary of our football team, and behold, still active as ever, playing amongst ourselves, challenging neighbourhood teams and even participating in a league.......

Who would have guessed a little over 2 years ago that the team, my neighbours and me formed, would still be that alive and kicking. People come, people go, but the hardcore nucleus of the team is still there, kicking about on our beloved little field of ours behind our houses.

I don't necessarily considery myself 'old' already, especially looking at near retirees giving their utmost best in our tropical climate is ceratinly not a given.

And guess again, who won the annual trophy, yeah right, a team mixed up of youngsters/middle aged and a true 'war' veteran.......

Too bad though that we didn't manage to life the trophy this time 'round, after having reached the final, and cruelly losing out in the deciding penalty shoot-outs, but never say never......

Mark your calendar, this time next year we'll be Champions again :)

Man United experience in Macau

Manchester United.........

The club that football freaks (soccer that is)....either worship, adore....or loathe....

Fact is that ManU has been tremendously successfull since the end of last century and relentlessly continue to stomp their mark on the game of football as we know it today,......ruthlessly efficient, setting benchmarks for other teams to equal........

Having nurtured and brought forward many world class players like Cantona, Beckham, Christiano Ronaldo, Keane, just to name a few......it is no surprise that the club has garnered such a tremendous worldwide following,......proof of which are the full capacity crowd they attract at their home and away games and on their yearly overseas tour stints.......

Read my last year's posting regarding their stop here in Kuala Lumpur......

http://yuenslair.blogspot.com/2009/07/red-devils-in-town.html

In the corridors of the Venetian, Macau was an outlet that caught our eyes......."Manchester United Experience"/cum fan shop......

Let me first state for the record that my family and me included are definitely NOT Manchester United fans......quite the opposite.......but a free entrance ticket was provided with our hotel booking, and heck.......since it was "gratuit"......let's pay it a visit and see for ourselves what it is about........

Must admit, hats off,........one gets immersed in the MU's culture, some interactive titbits for the lesser mortals like us, and once being through this MU experience at their Theatre of Dreams.......we were more inclined to part with our hardearned cash in their overprized fan shop........definitely not, in their (MU) dreams that is.........

Smart way of doing business though, exploiting and expanding their presence in the regions of the Far East........thumbs up to the MU marketing buffoons

Induction to the Inner Circle

Cravings,.......

Some peeps are addicted to foul smelling cigarettes, some possess an insatiable thirst for anything that contains cocoa, e.g chocolates.... (it's rumoured to be an aphrodisiac, yeah....right).

And quite a number are addicted to a legalized substance, called alcohol.......

What's the proverb again, "better the lesser evil, than the...." ? Something like that :p

A football club member celebrated his birthday and invited us, the football club, to attend his "B-bash".

It all started innocently enough, eating snacks, sharing a good laugh amongst ourselves, having a few beers.........'till someone came up with a luminous idea to switch to something 'stronger'......

Doh, something stronger somebody said??!?!, as a few dudes of ours were barely harnessing a baby moustache, it was then decided to mix it up with Coke.......as to dilute the strong effects of the liquor in question........

And to enhance the bonding of the club m8's more intense, it was decided upon by the 'wise' elders that the impromptu make-shift liquor bottle be passed around........

Instead of sharing and smoking the peace pipe, the dudes passed around the 'bottle', inducting the 'youngsters' into the 'Inner Circle'.........true team building!!!

Red Devils in town

Manchester United was in town, and boy oh boy........football loving peeps here went totally berserk at the prospect of watching their idols up close.

Manchester United (MU) played a game against the Malaysian national squad on Saturday, July 18th 2009, as part of their pre-season warm-up Asian tour........with stops in Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea and China......

As the game was heavily advertized on all media, the 85.000 available tickets were snapped up in a blink of an eye.........and nope, this dude here wasn't intending to attend........I ain't sporting MU colours, never in this life time........

MU came, saw, and conquered Malaysia, albeit conceding 2 goals.............and were planning to resume their tour with their next stop, Indonesia.........

But terrorist activities, in Jakarta, sadly resulting in the loss of innocent lives, have required MU to cancel their Indonesian leg of their tour...........and as a bonus for the Malaysian populace, an additional game was scheduled...........

An ordinary Monday, with just 1 day in between the the scheduled and unexpected additional game ....., it was a bit too much to ask for the ordinary crowd to shell out their cash again to see this game.....

A few football teamm8's and me grabbed this chance with both hands and off we went to Bukit Jalil, National Stadium........

True enough, been to several stadiums in my life, and heard that the Nou Camp, San Siro in Europe are considered the walhalla's.......in terms of seating...(80 to 90k+), but this Malaysian stadium is able to pack up to 85.000......a mega-stadium indeed.

Even though prices were slashed for this impromptu game, attendance figures never went beyond 30.000 in my estimate and thus the game was played........

Suffice to say that MU made its superiority felt, and within 13 minutes it was 2-0 in favour of the Red Devils............, that was also the final score,.......could have been more, but heck, at least they had the courtesy to let Malaysia play along a bit........

The crowd obviously cheered for whatever in MU jerseys/colors appeared on the pitch (including the training staff) but undoubtedly the loudest cheers where for the Malaysian team.........too bad the Malaysian team couldn't emulate their heroics of 2 days ago as their fitness wasn't up to par I'd suspect and thus were quickly finished off before the game really properly started......

Reds beat Blues....(that's the away kit for the Malaysian squad, a bit strange......visitors get to wear their home kit, ........rolling out the red carpet for the Red Devils I'd dare say, literally.......)

Cursed jersey?

Nonoo......get this straight, I am not an EPL (English Premier League) fan and I do not support any English club........but there is no escape from the bombardment of EPL games on our conscious through all the media here in Asia.

And as a result of this media frenzy, practically every football fan has chosen sides, be it as a ManU fan, Chelsea fan, Liverpool fan.....or whatever.....

So far I have stood my ground and haven't been tempted to switch colours........my heart was Club Brugge (FC Bruges), and still is to this very day......oh yes, for the peeps who don't know what team Club Brugge are.....it's a Belgian team m8.

Ofcourse you might be wondering why I am sporting the 'Hammers', West Ham jersey whilst playing football at our residential club..........doh, long story...........

As it happens to be, in law's family business is tied up with the 'Hammers' and my dear, little sister-in-law was so considerate and nice to bring back a jersey for me.......at least that's what she told me on the phone...........

Cool, I get a genuine jersey for free. Thanks sis!!! Mucha gracias!!!

Great was our surprise when she deposited not only 1 jersey, but 3 jerseys on our doorstep.........eeeeeuuuhhh..........aaah, I see, one for daddy Yuen, one for mummy Yuen and one for daughter Yuen .......

And the biggest surprise of the lot was a huge bathrobe.......can the three of us fit in it? :p

Ofcourse, proud as a peacock, couldn't resist to try it out on the field, during a friendly match. Did it bring luck? Ermmmmmm............no, lost 5-6..............a few goals that I should have saved, went inexplicably behind into the netting.........very odd indeed.

Hope this jersey ain't cursed 'cos else this jersey will wind up in the closet for a very, very long time indeed.

Veterans field day

First year anniversary............

Who would have guessed that our football team would still be around after one year.

Thanks to the continued efforts of the captain and quite a few player/volunteers, the FC is still alive and kicking like a newborn.

And to celebrate its anniversary, it was decided upon resonating consensus that we should hold something grand. A bit of brainstorming and budgetting resulted in a 2-day birthday bash proposal.

Heck, 2 days to celebrate a birthday?!? Yep, 1st day or rather eve itself was a karaoke/buffet party.................a way to get the stomachs filled with food and booze.................a perfect excuse to get the spirits lifted.................and the following day would be a 1-day tournament involving all FC members and their entourage.

The smart men (and boys) amongst us, skipped the boozefested karaoke party, opting to play with a fresh head on the following day........but that didn't stop the dudes at the karaoke event to apply the brakes, on the contrary.......veteran drinkers showed the young kids how to drink properly......and I'm not talking about drinking slowly.....quite the opposite.

And no, .....it didn't turn out to be Sodom & Gomorra,......you wish.....

The mini-tournament itself was a joyous event on a splendid, shiny day. Ladies and volunteers amply helped out with taking snapshots and providing F&B. Leaving the players concentrate on their ....erm...footballing duties.

And surprisingly the men in their 'golden' years won the coveted challenger Cup.........and to rub further salt on the wound, our froggy (yes, he is from France and don't know whether he eats snails though......) veteran, Sylvio Cerbino, became the ultimate topscorer with 5 goals in 3 matches, resulting in him picking up the Golden Boot award.

So that means the 'vets' outdrink and outplay the younger generation........another proof that experience counts!!!

We're game for more birthday parties like this in years to come...........