England Fields One of The Strongest Teams In GermanyA glance at the England's team sheet should be intimidating for everyone other than the very best teams attending this summer's World Cup finals. It is a team stacked with world-class performers. In defense, John Terry of Chelsea is a colossus. The midfield is rammed with top-drawer talent.
Frank Lampard, also of
Chelsea, was voted the
world's second best player last season. The
third best was
Steven Gerrard, after he dragged his club side,
Liverpool, from mediocrity to a Champions League victory.
David Beckham of Real Madrid, at his best, remains a force of nature. In attack,
Michael Owen remains one of the
world's deadliest goal poachers.
However, the team
cannot contemplate victory in Germany
without the
jewel in their crown -
Wayne Rooney.Every team with a shot to win in Germany will have one great player who can rise above the rest and elevate their team beyond the reach of their competitors. Potentially,
Ronaldinho can do it for
Brazil,
Thierry Henry can do it for
France and
Juan Roman Riquelme can do it for
Argentina. A look at the World Cup history books shows there's always one outstanding player who deserves to hold the World Cup a little longer than his teammates. It was
Ronaldo in 2002,
Zidane in 1998.
Maradona in 1986 and
Pele in 1970. Can
Rooney be
that man for
England?
England certainly
thinks so. After a particularly barnstorming performance last year, the traditionally cool Sven Goran Eriksson - the Swedish coach of England - got overexcited and compared Rooney to the Brazilian legend, Pele. Of course, any comparison to Pele seems ridiculous but Rooney's attributes suggest that such talk isn't completely gaga.
The 20 year-old has
extraordinary power and strength, able to hold off the burliest of defenders. His
skill and
touch on the
ball is
unquestioned, his
finishing and
passing superb. But it's his soccer brain that is a wonder to watch - just like hyper-talented quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Payton Manning - Rooney picks passes, sees plays unfold and executes them and he picks up positions and space with an unnatural ease. This ability marks out the very good players from the great - and Rooney has it. In effect, England's hopes
rely on a fit and on-fire
Wayne Rooney. Anything below that, and England's progress is likely to end as it always does, somewhere in the later stages of the competition to a superior team - often on penalties.
So England has the quality personnel required for the World Cup battle, but having a load of individual superstars does not make a team - as the galacticos of Real Madrid have shown in recent years. There remains a
question as to whether
England's players are too good to play together.
That might sound counter-intuitive, but the problem is epitomised in the centre of England's midfield and the case of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard. It's undoubted that these two players - captains and the outstanding player of their respective club teams - are the two best central midfielders in England. But both play an
attacking role and against quality opposition the centre of midfield needs a solely defensive-minded player. Both Lampard and Gerrard can make a tackle or ten - but you need a guy who's willing to sacrifice any dream of playing football
to sit in that defensive position and be an enforcer. It may mean that the crowd won't sing your name, but you'll be your manager's favourite player. With the
abilities of Lampard and Gerrard -- and probably their
egos -- it's still
unclear if either can
demote themselves to this role, and as a result, it's unclear if they can play together.
If that's a problem that seems solvable, England's major weakness over the last decade has been not having a left-sided midfielder who could actually kick the ball with his left foot. At the moment, the super-skilful Joe Cole is filling the position, but he's right-footed, and the feeling remains that without a left-footer, the midfield will remain unbalanced. And there are major question marks over
David Beckham. Will his
ego and
past glories allow him to become
more disciplined and
stick to his position on the right of midfield? Is his decline real or just reported?
England's lackluster performances in its World Cup qualifying group has not answered these questions. They won the group at a canter because they were simply too good for the likes of Poland, Austria and Wales. But they still managed to lose to Northern Ireland, 1-0 -- a humiliating result. However, since then England beat a terrific Argentina side, 3-2, in a pulsating friendly match in Geneva. The team is mocked in the English press as being as dull as their Swedish coach. The reality is that England is unpredictable, and can produce the sublime and the ridiculous in equal measure.
So can England win the World Cup? Yes. And their position as
second-favorites behind
Brazil is
warranted and
realistic. Whether England actually
wins depends on the undoubted talent of their
players gelling into one unit, and
one young man -
Wayne Rooney - setting the world's biggest stage alight.
Today is the day I got my
salary. This indicates tt today is my
LAST DAY ! by3by3 to distributing flyers. haha. Initially, i am suppose to start work at 12pm today. BUDDEN. u noe me lahh. 4eva late n cnt wake up. zh u lucky man. My hp is in the slient mode. haha. =) so two slackers, rch far east at
2+ pm. I think we took only
one quarter of our time doing our work. the rest of the time we r busy
shopping , eating or resting. LOL. after 1hr plus, we wanted to get some rest so we leave the bridge. On the way down the escalator, we saw
joyce, jasmine,ivan n another guy i dunno his name. MWHAHA. all i noe is they are
GESS ppl. =) I was quite shocked & unprepared lah. becoz today i wear the pink top quite
ugly lah. haha. so a bit
gan jiong. LOL. so both of us went inside far east to shop for a few hrs. I bought a pair of
shoe $25.90. ok lahh. quite stupid of me to mention the price. haha. Nt only tt . i get a nice
necklace 4 myself. OFFER mah.haha. so we spent a few hrs inside far east. feeling quite gulity n uneasy we went back to tt bridge n start to give out flyers again. Most of the time, we two are dazing or stoning thr. haha. after a while we decided to surrender n went back to far east. N we start EATING. haha. the
Ou ah mee sua. frm shilin.. whaoo. so nice. while we two were eating , we saw
Ivan n dehao. wahseh. they stood in frnt of us n start to tok to us. at tt point of time i really
stunned. hmm. it has been a realli
LONG time since i tok to them.. =) i am glad tt they approach us in a rather warm n frenly manner tt make me not so awkward. =) so we start toking. hmm. everyone looks the same. jus tt dehao is looking more
beng-ish. n ivan has more
style. haha. =) I think they wun get to read my blog . haha. if they did, to ivan..
Continue to pursue ur dreams in singing. bt i will not buy ur album. HAHA. jkin lah. Thx for stopping by to tok to us. I realli appreciate tt. =)
That's make my day. =) i am a easily contented gal. ya. N zh n i finally manage to contact mai. stupid gal. avoid who huh? switch off ur hp ahh!! tell me more when we see each other soon eh? I am once again
happy after toking to mai. haha. dunno whr. SEE.
i am so easily contented. =) tml got to do gp le. sianz.sch starting le. boo. y so fast? all the fun seems to be stopping at this instant. Going back to sch again. gonna start the routine all over agn. study.eat.slack.test.exam. this is sick. =S
BUT. for ppl that makes my day. I will pull through becoz of u all =) hehe.

this is my pay.but quite a small sum=) haha. i am still HAPPY!!!!!

WAH PIANG. u see. i look so gentle in this shirt. trying to imitate my idol FANN WONG =Pp haha.

WAH.so elegant. i will come back n buy this when i am older. ok? i am still young. haha.

zh will kill me if i post this photo. die liao. haha. coz we say one act si wen, another one act like siao siao one. LOL. haha.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
NOW HALF TIME. OMG. TML still have to wake up early. Got to rch bugis at 12pm. BUT!!! Guess wad ? I am still awake now. haha. HALF TIME LAH.
Korea vs switzerland. haha. at
23min. senderos No 4 scored !!! now the score is
1-0... OH no.
I support KOREA. ~~~
today the korea players seem to be in close contact with their opponents. haha. they held their hand and hug their waist. haha. BUDDEN. I still support korea. PLS score in the 2nd half. wah die liao. tml i sure v slpy. bt i dun care.
WORLD CUP MAN. haha. Both player No4 of switzerland are injured. ok lah. only minor injuries. haha. jus now after senderos score, I saw
"tears of blood" of his face.. haha. I tot he drew it onto his face b4hand. haha. soon, I realise his nose thr is bleeding. see lah. who ask u the nose so sharp. who ask u to use header n goal. haha. den the korean player no4 oso bleeding, ard the eyes area. he is wearing a showercap-like net to hold the cotton wool. haha. the match is starting soon. PLS LAH. korea score lah. =S gan jiong. okok. back to the match. =P
exciting.OH YA. today i went to far east thr to distribute flyers. OH MY. thr is a
shuai ge tt zh n me have been looking out 4. he study in
queenstown sec laz time. accordin to zh he is frm the
bball team. haha. he took the same bus as her laz time. we saw him the
2nd time at far east le.
super shuai. haha. wah piang. if zh inform me earlier, i would have got his email add. den cn add him on frenster. den set up a fan club. hahaaaaaa. ok lah. he is so shuai.
WANTED BY US. PLEASE APPEAR AT FAR EAST AGAIN. wahaha. bt he was wif a
gal. hope tt gal nt his gf. lata the gf kill us. haha. =PP
AIYAA. the
match start liao...haha..
I HAVE TO GO LE...
KOREA KOREA KOREA.JIAYOUU.
I cnt get my fingers off the keyboard nowadays. haha. Blogging has become a temptation that has to be overcome by me. haha.=P I am late. suppose to meet zh for work at 12.50pm at bugis. But i woke up at 12.30pm when she called my hp. HAHA. If she dint call, I think she will wait until rot at bugis le. haha. Got to work again.=) My specs just spoiled ystd. The screw went loose. Right now, I got to bring it back to the optical shop b4 going to bugis. boo. LAZY LAH. continue blogging at night bahh.. =) wait for me to be back for work OK? LOL.
HAPPY BDAE KARO SWEET 7'teen. Hope u enjoy ur big dae wif the one u LOVE =) !!!KOKHOW. If u get to read this.. HAHA. HAPPY BDAE=) Hope u cn become shuai-er & shuai-er. taller n taller. HEHE. =))
Friday, June 23, 2006

Today was siok's big day,her bdae . The celebration ends up well. In the end, she went off with her bf. =) I think this is the greatest bdae present for this little gal. Two of them are having some problems b4 tt but after today, I hope everything will be put behind them. I feel realli touched and envy her 4 tt. Actually, I dread celebrating my birthday because of some bad experiences in the past. In a few days time, will be my bdae. I hope that day will nva come. haha. weird? I think the best bdae celebration is to be with ur love ones. The time may be short but the happiness u get in return is beyond words. For me, I think my wish will never come true. SO. Wishes are just empty promises, they are neither realistic nor real. Right now, I feel so empty. Probably because I knew that what I want for my birthday is far beyond my reach. SIok, if u get to read this.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY. =) U r a fortunate gal u noe? sweet 17'teen. I realise that for the 1st time, I am totally not keen to celebrate my bdae. All i hope for is ........................
something that will not come true anymore.
=(
Thursday, June 22, 2006
The holiday is coming to an end. ARGH. I HAVE SUCH A HEAVY WORKLOAD MAN.
GP SUX. thousand words essay??? are u trying to murder me? Went back to school today for chem lecture, the lecturer just rattled on & on for like 2 hrs n 7 mins. But I cnt figure out what she was trying to teach. I was kept busy wif 1.ting magazine. (seventeen) As usual, a chem teacher approached me n asked me to keep quiet so as not to disturb others.
As if got people listening to the lecturer LAH! LOL After the "waste my time" lecture , I chiong to the mrt stat. saw munch on the train bt he alighted at JE. Leaving behind me and his fren who spoke fluent english wif slang. OH MY. I find it so hard to communicative wif him =S haha. met zh at buona vista. we went to bugis-icon, where we had to work AGAIN. sianzz. As usual we were entertained by taking pics on the MRT & listening to the MP3. [should be Mp4] wadeva lah.. haha.
guess who is who? obviously the one in orange shirt is me lah. I dint noe tt my hair is so long. I guess it is time for a haircut weee..=) N we rch BUGIS. We start our routine again by distributing cash vouchers. I dun understand why some people so scare of us. AS IF I WILL EAT U UP. GIVE U CASH VOUCHERS LEH. Can HUMANS stop being so paranoid. After tt, we went to slack-eat lunch.drink bubble tea. The flyers are too heavy to be carried ard. So we sat down to drink our bubble tea.Oh ya. we took a lot of stupid pics at the hotel toilet after i went to change my clothes. The weather was SO DAMN hot. so zhouhui tt stupid gal =) haha. decided to give up. she wan to slack .so we went to bugis street n shop. BUDDEN. i was distributing the flyers while shopping while she is carrying our "baby" (the packet of flyers) . We went to try onto some dress at Bugis junction. zh said she feel like she is trying onto a sarong. LOL. Both of us squeeze inside one changing room=P i tried a white dress =) that was nice. bt i wun BUY. haha. at 1st we tot we will be mting kelvin.hankai for sakae sushi. me.zh n hankai met up already DEN kelvin called n told us tt his manager need him urgently, so he cnt make it. me & zh was like "wah lao ehhh". haha. bt nvm. three of us went to esplanade the outdoor hawker n makan loh. On the way thr, i kept paiseh-ing them by making too much noise n shouting beckham's name. haa. crazy over him since the 2nd match by England. In the end, only hankai eat lah. LOL. After tt, we went to carrefour to buy my sushi. N i took picture wif beckham's addidas AD the poster. MWHAHA.I made my way home after tt. While zh go n meet her TS. =) hope she had a enjoyable journey home. haha. I ate the sushi on the bus. AND NOW. I am experiencing a awful headache. oh my. I suspect the sushi that I ate earlier on. haha. Well.. another day jus gone by like tt. My future seem so bleak. gonna watch the tv till midnite again."yu le bai fen bai" =) tml having lecture again. ohh my godd..SAVE ME.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
My 1st blog entry..
the time now is 12.34am. 21 june.
thanx dear siok for creating this blog for me.
hehe=)
i noe nth at all.
all i see is square boxes. i took very long to figure out what is happening here. haha. All of a sudden i feel like blogging.There are so MUCH things happening in my life. My life and my precious youth wun be wasted. so i blog. hahahaha. bt i cnt tahan my lousy english.
Hope i can improve on my language=)
20june2006 I went to the griller with siok n my very dear sis-teck. at 1st, me only mting teck at 6.15pm. coz i wana watch "yu le bai fen bai" (hosted by xiao zhu n xiao S) .. budden, siok called me n wanted me to accpy her at town. i asked her to come down to tiong instead. n we two cute n pretty ladies( hahahaha. dun kill me ahh) met at 5pm instead. we went to tiong park n tok. red ants everywhere. N there is a young couple.. wear until so formal and nice. yet they come to tiong Bahru park to date. OMG. haha. N siok said she like the park!!! OMG. haha. my sec sch _GAN ENG SENG SCH_ is just next to the park. i think i am too used to the park already=)
Siok n me went to mt teck at tiong mac. We saw ian. N he said i laugh & tok v loud. well i noe=)
he heard my voice from a distance away whahahaha.
den three of us-me teck siok went to griller. we sat at the outdoor dining area. The scenery was nice. so romantic.. wif all those candles n lights. haha.=)
we had fun. toking and laughing. taking pictures. n di xiaoing the poor waiter. overall. we made a lot of noise. OK LAH. is I made a lot of noise. LOL.=)
teck said i grew fatter le. betta.. laz time like cn break easily... haha.. wahhaha..
i rmb wad zhouhui told me i am "fit-fat" nw. fit n fat. wah piang zzz. ahhaa
it was a fun day. i am glad tt siok become happier after tt =) smile gal=) guys are NOTHING AT ALL ok???
as for teck, my very good sister..u nva fail to bring joy to me=) meet up soon yah?
hope i will have the time to meet u then.. getting busy!!! =)
GRILLER ROX.
SIOK ROX.
TECK ROX.
EVE ROX =)
my 1st entry...
hehe
eve-