i doubt there will ever come a worst time then before playing the hardest game in your group to experiment with a new formation. Somehow, our best friend Steve McClaren decided that this was it. he will change the time around, and have it play a system that nobody else plays regularly for their club.
england deserved to lose. definately, no two ways about it. 2 - 0 would even seem a tad too lenient on them. towards the end i was hoping for a couple more croatia goals so as to make them wake up their ideas. everybody was out of sorts. most of the time, the ball was played inside england's own area, with all the diagonal passing between the 3 centerbacks. why is that so? there's no free players available up front. no way forward. so we'll just have to play the ball among ourselves and the keeper.
talking about playing the ball with the keeper, the 2nd goal sure was caused by playing with the keeper. the goal reminded me of stan collymore's goal for liverpool against blackburn. worth a laugh. not if you're paul robinson.
let's dissect england's starting lineup.
Paul Robinson had a good game, making a number of crucial saves, but it was his 2 mistakes that caused the 2 goals. he was caught off his line for the 1st goal, and probably lost abit of concentration for the 2nd goal.
If anybody, Ashley Cole would probably come out from this game unscathe.. he run his hearts out and provided both in attack and defense. Gary Neville looked lost in his role as a wingback. more often then not getting caught out of position.
The 3 centerbacks were all taking strolls in the park. all made very very basic mistakes, wreaking havoc for england themselves. it might be the effect of one each from liverpool, man utd and chelsea. nobody covered for the other, none knew wat the other was doing. atrocious.
The 3 midfielders were all fighting losing battles. Lampard totally squashed the myth of him not being able to play well with Gerrard. he just can't play well at all... All of them were not able to adapt to the new system and were all over the place. Not one of them took control of the midfield but were all just letting Croatia steamroll pass them. They seem to be missing a certain Steven Gerrard. Carrick, like in his previous england match, was just like a passing passenger.. although he showed glimpse of his passing talent, 2 nice passes in 90mins just doesn't quite cut it for me.
Rooney and Crouch. Can't really blame them that much. there were totally no support whatsoever for them at all. Rooney had to drop deep many many times to collect the ball to start a move for himself.
Knowing this new system by england, croatia just packed the midfield. whenever england wants to attack, they had no wingers. Neville showed that he has to work with a winger, and Cole was totally blocked off. The midfield was just too compact for england. no width to speak off. Hence giving the croatian defense a simple job of just concentrate on the middle.
Moving onto the substituitions made by McClaren, it leaves me to wonder what he was thinking at that moment. He brought on Richardsen and Wright Phillps. 2 wingers thus converting to the old system. but he took Crouch off. So now, you're gonna attack from the wings and start putting in crosses. But u're taking off you sole target man and leaving 2 players no taller then 1.80m up front for people to aim at. very logical Steve.
The players playing for England are not getting all the games they should be getting. Crouch, Richardsen, Wright Phillips and Defoe are all not playing regularly for their respective clubs. So who's fault issit that england lost? We just have to wait and see where the blame gets shifted to.
there are alot of things that i haven't been doing for a long long time. maybe it's a change of lifestyle. but for many of them i believe it's good as it lets me spend less money. something which is of a rare commodity nowadays for me.
it all started in primary school. visiting the arcarde. well, in primary school. it was not that much of the main thing. my friends and i used to meet up in the weekends for movies, although not often, usually to celebrate somebody's birthday or to commemorate the end of the exams. there was not much primary school kids could do back then. shopping was certainly not hip for a group of guys 11 going on to 12 yrs old.lan gaming shops were not even in existence back then. so all we had were fast food chains, and there were only macs, kfc and the occasionally burger kings here and there..
so what could we do? movies. and we all know how we would not get the best timings for movies. it involves waiting an hour or two for the movie to begin. and there was no better way to waste that time away then in the arcade. daytona was all in the rage back then. mind you, not daytona 2, but the Original Daytona itself. so the few of us would throw our money into the machine and bang/crash the shit out of one another. you were not considered cool if you could not do the gear shifting drift at the last sharp corner of the novice track. another neat trick would be to drive into the pit stop and avoid stopping for pitting! some people used that as a short cut, but the number of times i tried it, i ended up coming out lagging behind the others. not that much of a short cut to me...
time crisis and virtual cop were two damn 'happening' games. knowing when and where the next foe would appear would make u the envy of others. aiming and shooting berserkly at the screen does not bring your cool-o-meter up another notch. acting cool was the name of the game. being able to use up all ur bullets and reloading (which requires you to shoot outside the screen for virtual cop, or step on the pedal for time crisis) fast was where you are able to level up ur cool-o-meter. you can also consider house of zombie in the same category as time crisis, but house of zombie requires alot of mindless gunpressing. it was way too tiring for my little fingers back then.
there were also other games like street fighter and king of fighters. but these were not as interactive as the rest i've mentioned. video games were really one of the best activities for guys. other then sports, going to each other's house to play video games was also a top favourite on my list back then. these doesn't really involve spending too much money, also sometimes we might get a very good treat from our friend's parents. hours will just fly by without us realising and the next thing we know, we'll all be calling our parents to pick us up wherever we are. yes, the good old days where you can just call home and a car will come arriving to pick you up.
so moving on to secondary school. suddenly we find that visiting the arcade was for little boys and that we're already too old for that. there was a bowling rage that actually went on for awhile in lower sec. and it was not cheap. each game was $2 for throwing the balls into the drain. and somehow, my friends loved to go to the one at pasir ris, which is now known as downtown east. imagine the time taken to travel each time. god knows wat i was thinking.
so what else can we do to waste our time while waiting for the irritating movie to start in one to two hours time? fret not, you can always go and play pool. suddenly everyone was playing it. and you have to be able to play it to be 'in' as well. and of cos now there are girls around as well. so you'll have to be good so as to impress them. pool wasn't exactly very cheap. i remember being charged $7 or more for an hour. and it was so fun that we all did not even bother to watch movie anymore. pool was where you can level you ur cool-o-meter now. i still remember a period of time where every weekend was spent at the pool parlour. each time even up to 4 to 5 hours. so hours and hours were put into it. and finally one day.. someone introduced something else. billiard. it was a much harder kind of pool. which included a bigger table, more rules, smaller balls, smaller holes, which eventually meant longer games. and the thing about billiard was that you could actually change the way you play it to actually gamble. so it meant more and more money.
as time passed, another rage was slowing forming. and it was to bring back the euphoria that i enjoyed as a kid. playing video games. now there's even a term for it. it's gaming. and online gaming shops are popping up everywhere to cash in on the Lan Gaming craze. Counter Strike battles were going on everywhere... from proper gaming shops and even to pool/billiard parlours joining in the fun as well as they had equipped computers in their shops for people to play Counter Strike. this came at a bad time for me and also my friends. this was at Sec 4 and O lvls prelims were just round the corner. the situation was not helped by the fact that half my class were playing Counter Strike and that we could easily organise trips down to the gaming shop just a few bus stops away from the school. but the Counter Strike sessions were the best that i've ever had. was pure fun. no other words to describe it. hours would zoom pass and studying seemed to be the last thing on my mind.
i fucked up my O lvl prelims... but the rest.. is history as they say.. visiting the arcade, pool or billiard parlours, being able to play Counter Strike are all rarity nowadays i can say. anyone up for it?
2. "Hey, are you busy?" or "Are you doing something?" ~ two phrases guys open with to stop from stammering on the phone.
3. Guys may be flirting around all day but before they go to sleep, they always think about the girl they truly care about.
4. Before they call, guys try to plan out a little about what they're gonna say so there aren't awkward pauses, but once he's on the phone he forgets it all and makes it up as he goes.
5. Guys go crazy over a girl's smile.
6. Guys will do anything just to get you to notice him.
7. Guys hate it when you talk about your ex-boyfriend or ex love-interest. Unless they're goin for the let-her-complain-to-you-and-then-have-her-realize- how-wonderful-and-nice-you-are method.
8. A guy who likes you wants to be the only guy you talk to.
9. Boyfriends need to be reassured often that they're still loved.
10. Don't talk about your guy friends to your boyfriend.
11. Guys get jealous easily.
12. Guys are more emotional than they'd like people to think.
13. Giving a guy a hanging message like "You know what?!..uh...nevermind.." would make him jump to a conclusion that is far from what you are thinking. And he'll assume he did something wrong and he'll obsess about it trying to figure it out.
14. Guys are good flatterers when courting but they usually stammer when they talk to a girl they really like.
15. Guys hate asking parents for money to buy girls presents. So they come up with ideas like saving their lunch money for a week. But it never works because guys are always hungry so they end up asking the parents for money anyway.
16. Girls are guys' weaknesses.
17. Guys are very open about themselves.
18. It's good to test a guy first before you trust him. But don't let him wait too long.
19. Your best friend, whom your boyfriend seeks help from about his problems with you may end up being admired by your boyfriend.
20. If a guy tells you about his problems, he just needs someone to listen to him. You don't need to give advice.
21. A usual act that proves that the guy likes you is when he teases you.
22. Guys love you more than you love them if they are serious in your relationships.
23. Guys will brag about anything.
24. Guys use words like hot or cute to describe girls. They rarely use beautiful. If a guy uses that, he likes you.
25. Guys think WAY too much. One small thing a girl does, even if she doesn't notice it can make the guy think about it for hours, trying to figure out what it meant.
26. Guys seek for advice from girls not other guys. Because most guys think alike, so if one guy's confused, then we're all confused.
27. Any guy could write out a rulebook or advice book for flirting, but no guy can write out a book about relationships.
28. Try to be as straightforward as possible.
29. A guy has to experience rejection, because if he's too-good-never-been-busted, never been in love and hurt, he won't be mature and grown up.
30. If the guy does something stupid in front of the girl, he will think about it for the next couple days or until the next time he spends time with the girl.
31. No matter how much guys talk about asses and boobs, personality is key.
32. Guys learn from experience not from the romance books that girls read and take as their basis of experience.
33. Guys worry about the thin line between being compassionate and being whipped.
34. If a guy looks unusually calm and laid back, he's probably faking it and is spazzing inside.
35. When a guy says he is going crazy about the girl, he really is. Guys rarely say that.
36. When a guy asks you to leave him alone, he's just actually saying, "Please come and listen to me."
37. Guys don't really have final decisions.
38. If a guy starts to talk seriously, listen to him. It doesn't happen that often, so when it does, you know something's up.
39. If your best guy friend seems to avoid you or is never around when you're with your boyfriend, he's probably jealous and likes you.
40. When a guy looks at you for longer than a second, he's definitely thinking something.
41. Guys like femininity not feebleness.
42. Guys don't like girls who punch harder than they do.
43. A guy has more problems than you can see with your naked eyes.
44. Don't be a snob. Guys can be intimidated and give up easily.
45. Everything in moderation. Put on makeup, wear perfume. Just not too much.
46. Guys talk about girls more than girls talk about guys.
47. Guys hate rejection, but they hate being led on even more.
48. Guys really think that girls are strange and have unpredictable decisions and are MAD confusing but somehow are drawn even more to them.
49. A guy would give his left nut to be able to read a girl's mind for a day.
50. No guy can handle all his problems by his own. He's just too stubborn to admit it
51. Not all guys are assholes. Just because ONE is a jackass doesnt mean he represents ALL.
