Whenever I listened to Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over (it was on the airwaves yesterday), it always reminded me that at one time, a snippet of the song was actually used to advertise on travelling to New Zealand on the TV here. I might had never been there yet but, it has a special place in me.
Because, I was almost born there. I almost didn't became a Singaporean by birth. Yes. It's just that my father was on a working trip to New Zealand at that time and my mother accompanied him there. They were already married by then. After my mother learned that she was pregnating me (I had seen photos of the time when they were in New Zealand and my mother's tummy was well, you know), they actually discussed whether they should settle down there or return back to Singapore after my father's work was done. They decided to come back given their relatives are all in Singapore.
I only knew about it when I was nine. Ever since I learned that New Zealand is rugby-crazy, I had wondered what if life has turned out differently for me had I was born there. Not a football fan but a rugby fan instead. The Rugby World Cup last year in France...I cannot say that I never tried to understand the rules of the sport (I even asked my father about it but he only remembered a handful of the rules given his former secondary school did had a rugby team). I even tried to watch a few of those matches (it was on the pay-TV then).
So whenever the country's name is mentioned anywhere in the news, I will smile quietly that I was almost born there. The weekend in football has to be mainly all about the European leg of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. But around late Saturday afternoon, one news definitely got my attention. This - New Zealand seal top spot with win. In football, New Zealand is part of the Oceania group and yesterday, they had sealed the top spot with a 3-1 win over New Caledonia in Noumea. This means that...they advance to a two-leg playoff against the fifth-placed team from the Asian preliminaries late next year for a place in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Also, it secured an automatic spot in next year's Confederations Cup, which will also be played in South Africa. The last time New Zealand ever appear in a World Cup tournament was in 1982.
Originally, Australia was also part of the Oceania group. But after the 2006 World Cup, they moved to the Asian zone in search of better competition and direct entry. So after the Aussies left the group, New Zealand is the next 'major' power. What does this have to do with me? Yours truly, who could have almost been born a Kiwi was somehow strangely, was swelling with happiness that New Zealand could be creating history in football. For a moment, I had forgotten where my football loyalties lie. Smack.
Back to Earth. Well, apart from knowing how do both the national teams I support are doing (England and Germany, that is), I also do take an interest on especially how those who took part Euro 2008 are doing. Italy had to scrap past Cyprus before making it 2-1 at the last minute, Romania went 2-0 to Lithuania. Portugal, under new coach Carlos Queiroz, beat Malta 4-0 away. I was also interested in how England coach Fabio Capello's compatriot Giovanni Trapattoni is doing in his competitive debut for Ireland (a 2-1 win against Georgia in which the match was played in Germany in view of the conflict in Goergia given the match was supposed to be held in the country itself as it's the 'host' country). But actually, I am not sick of watching the highlights to the Austria-France qualifier again and again.
Because that was the real shocker among those part of the UEFA family. 3-1. To Austria! I am not kidding! Definitely power to the underdogs, to the team which was once being laughed at ahead of them co-hosting Euro 2008 with Switzerland before Austria bowing out of the tournament at the group stages (Germany handed them the final nail coffin in the decisive final group match) with some dignity that on any good day, they are able to challenge any side no matter the rankings of their opponents. Many were already surprised that coach Raymond Domenech still survived his job with the French national team after a poor showing at Euro 2008 (bowing out in the group stages with gaining only a point and scoring only a goal). In a match which the Les Bleus should have beat the team which is ranked 101 in the world as according to FIFA and already the French press not amused, the coach remains defiant. So in a way of the round-up of the qualifiers not involving the British and Irish sides, I was not surprised when the headline was this - Vinnese waltz for Austria (the match was held in the Austrian capital of Vienna).
Do I smell a 'war' looming? Looks like Kevin Keegan's departure from Newcastle is probably going to have more disasterous consequences. I know it's going to be nasty already, ousting the fan favourite (Keegan) even. Now, after the club had set the record straight on its relations with Keegan on its official website, it has prompted former manager Kevin Keegan in the tit-for-tat battle. Keegan repeated again that at the time he joined his former club, he would have the final say on player movement in and out of the club. His claims have been supported by the League Managers Association chief executive Richard Bevan.
So...West Ham have narrowed down their list of potential candidates to succeed Alan Curbishley. What is confirmed is that, Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Donadoni appear the frontrunners. Yes, Zola who is now working with the Italy U-21 and is the Chelsea fan favourite during his time with the Blues and the former Italy coach. The fact that both are Italians could increase their chances given that West Ham's director of football Gianluca Nani is a compatriot, and that they would be much happier with the continental-style working relationship. However, Hammers director Mike Lee has not yet ruled out (Croatia coach) Slaven Bilic or (former Getafe coach and former Danish international) Michael Laudrup. The fact that Bilic has been linked to the Hammers job since Curbishley left the club has already angered the Croatian FA given Bilic has said before that he will honour his contract with the national team first. Bilic has said before that if he returns to England (that is when his contract with the Croatian national team ends), it will be to his former club West Ham.
Speaking to BBC radio's Five Live show today, Manchester United chief executive David Gill said he would treat suggestions that Manchester City could table a 135 million pound bid for Cristiano Ronaldo "with a pinch of salt". It was once the case and still is, Ronaldo being closely followed by Real Madrid, who tried but failed during the summer to secure the Portuguese international's signature. Now after cross-city rivals Manchester City has a new rich owner, things are very different. And if there is something I had been concerned about but never saying it in the open, is fearing that with the influx of money coming into the Premier League, what is the state of England's national sport in the future? Call me a football romantic but even in this globalised world we live in, there are some things in football that need to be preserved.
Or else, it will be a real laughing stock. I am already aware of the criticisms of the Premier League. Days ago I was 'rummagging' through my past entries and I came across one I 'wrote' on a year ago on 1 September. The title - Top of the world?. I actually recalled that article once again after reading yesterday that former BBC director-general Greg Dyke told BBC London radio that the Premier League was turning into a farce because of the growing foreign influence in the game. Dyke, who also used to sit on the board of Manchester United when the club won the treble 9in the 1998/99 season) and is currently chairman of League Two (Division Three) Brentford, said he got more pleasure now from watching lower division football. I had already read before that the real drama happens in the lower divisions of English football.
Back in my 1 September 2007 entry, I quoted what was written in the September 1-2 2007 edition in the WeekendTODAY which left me wondering aloud. Back then I was already also following the Bundesliga. In an article in the paper which is called 'Premiership rules, but it's expensive - England's top flight football is a spectacular success, but its powerbrokers must know the competition is not idle': If it becomes too expensive for the fans, will they look elsewhere? If the cost of following the Premiership becomes too great, football fans may start to look beyond the hype, and go for alternatives. The Premiership's powerbrokers should be wary of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Not that I like to end my entry with something 'heavy' (I always try my best to end with something 'light'), this final article I am going to post...does make me wish I don't post my previous entry that 'early'. England's senior players, including David Beckham and John Terry, are attempting to quash any talk of revenge as they prepare for a World Cup qualifier against Croatia in Zagreb on Wednesday that could begin to define the new Fabio Capello era. Not a grudge match of any sort, and David Beckham has said it best - "We have to forget about what has gone on in the past. This is the present and we have to work towards what we want to achieve in this group."
Football (or sort of) thought of the day: There are times when I happened to come across Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway on the airwaves, it reminded me that the song became the reason why it's the title of my blog in the first place. If anyone wonder when do I started this blog, it's on November 2004. Two more months and this blog will be four years old. Back then when I was deciding on the title of my blog, only Kelly Clarkson's song stood out in my head. Over the years the topics I had brought onto here has changed from time to time. From musing my own school and personal life to reactions to events around me like what's on the TV and on the news to now, football. Reading what the former BBC director-general Greg Dyke has to say about the state of the Premier League, it reminded me that I had tried to gauge the situation before. Trying to think way beyond the headlines. Trying to 'breakaway' from the usual frame of thought.
Week of turmoil reveals ugly truth about Premier League football (I know it is fashionably facile to blame Gordon Brown for everything — but was it coincidence that on the very day he announced measures to encourage first-time buyers the Arabs hitherto teetering on the Premier League brink strode in to acquire Manchester City?) (NB: Written by Patrick Barclay)
Is Greg Dyke right? Has the Premier League become a farce? (It’s been easy to laugh at English football over the past week, what with the comings and goings at Manchester City, West Ham United and Newcastle United and then the national team’s depressingly familiar performance in a 2-0 win over Andorra on Saturday. I suspect many fans will find food for thought in the comments of Greg Dyke, the former TV executive and board member at Manchester United, and now chairman of division three club Brentford.)
Jose Mourinho: Fabio Capello will not be dazzled by glare of the media spotlight (I imagine that Fabio Capello may have been pleased to see events unfolding at Manchester City, Newcastle and West Ham last week — not because the stories have done the English game any good — but mostly because it distracted the media from talking about him.)
