Round of 16

I must say everyone enjoyed the prelimary round matches of World Cup 2006 except for some boring matches involving boring European teams. It was a lucky birthday for Zidane and Viera as France got just what they needed to advance to R16.

Here's my verict for preliminary round:
Best team: Argentina
Best match: Argentina vs Serbia and Monetenegro
Best team performance (in a single match): Ghana (against Czech Republic)
Most under-performed team: Czech Republic and France
Teams that don't deserved to be in R16: Mexico
Teams that should be in the R16: Korea
Best player: Well, a number of them including Torres, Riquelme, etc... maybe Pimpong (of Ghana)
Player has yet to shine: Ronaldinho, Rooney and I want more from the King Henry!!!

Tonight, the start of R16. If I may revise my earlier prediction for the final, I would say it's between...

Argentina 2, Spain 1

So, where's Brazil and France (as my earlier predicted finalist)?!! They both lost in 1/4 final and R16, respectively, to Spain. Sorry Brazil fans, they just going to make it up to 1/4 final!!

Where are the Scottish?!

Ever wonder what are the Scottish doing during the World Cup? I guess they're watching afternoon matches in pubs, go home and shower (maybe not) and go back to pubs again to watch evening matches...

And am wondering whether they used this tactic during the qualifying! But look at the German's.. their tactic is the simplest yet the most effective!!

Eat, Sleep, Live Football

The fever is here. Finally, after 4-year absent, the World Cup is here again. For us in Malaysia, being 6 hours ahead of Germany, really test the preserverance to balance between football, sleep and works the next day. Daily matches start as early as 9pm and goes on and finish as late as 5am. Bosses will see red, sleepy eyes of their employees and heads gone missing behind desktops. Alternatively, there are repeats but final scores would have been published and peers would have been talking about how beautiful the goals were, etc etc. You just dont want to miss watching those matches live or you'll be left behind for a ride to lunch!! I guess many have applied for annual leave on 10th July, to watch the Final and would any boss dare not to approve?!

The favorite: as everyone is talking about Brazil, can they distancing themselves from the rest of the world by winning its 6th title or would Germany or Italy narrow the gap from Brazil or other countries like Holland or Spain or Portugal win for the first time, keeping the Cup in the continent?!

My favorite... I can't exclude Brazil from my list of World Champion-to-be but my dream final would be the repeat of WC1998: Brazil vs France. And hold your breathe for the King Henry to take center stage, something everyone has never seen happening at the previous two World Cups he played. His agony of losing the final of EUFA Champions League... well, it's pay back time and on the losing side this time around would be everyone else's favorite Ronaldinho.

Final prediction: FRANCE 2 - Brazil 2 (France win on penalty)

060606 - A Birthday to Remember

060606 - A special date surely to be remembered as we celebrated the 60th birthday of a very special person, Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff, the former CEO of PROTON Malaysia. It was indeed a more memorable night when old and not too old friends get together in Lifestyle Lounge, Holiday Villa.

The presence of the one and only Tun Dr Mahathir and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah, made the night even more memorable and meaningful, rather than just the typical cake cutting and karaoke session :-) Tun, in his speech, jokingly reminded Tengku to start acting his age and stop follying around with all his toys, i.e. big bikes, sports cars... Santana I believe is exempted from the list! Anyway, Tun you're still the man!

To Tengku 'The Boss', Happy 60th Birthday. Thanks for all you've given to me since I first know you. You're more than just a Boss to me and to others, too. Wish you many more great achievements ahead. But, I forgot to ask you this, "Is there any specific reason why were you wearing pink shirt to your birthday party?! But I think you look better in the pink shirt than the X-Men suit!!"

Wings at Orange Club

Sunday nights are always the 'stay-at-home' and 'get-ready-for-work' nights in my life. It becomes irrelevant last Sunday, 4th June when I heard the news that Wings are performing and its two of the so many big fans, Cheng and Adeq are planning to go.

Around 2,000 fans (if not more) have already gathered outside Orange Club when we arrived. The show started at around 10.30pm with Wings performing string of fast numbers. I didn't know that they have so many fast numbers as I only knew their slow and handful of not-too-fast songs. *chuckle*

Altogether, they performed 26 songs in about 3 hours. My favorite and I believe the crowds' favorite was "Semalam Yang Hangat", originally sung by Mus. I can say Adeq was the biggest fan among three of us as he could sing almost all songs Wings performed.

Awie was great, the 21-year old band was really great, fans were ever cool and made the nights greater, Cheng and Adeq was the greatest fans for me and it's one of my greatest Sunday nights for quite some time!