Education Minister waives SPM for U-19 players

The FA of Malaysia (FAM) have extended their well-regard appreciation to Education Minister Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein for stepping in to resolve the issues of the eight players involved in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U19 qualifiers in November.

Dato’ Azzuddin Ahmad, the general secretary of the FAM said that the national body is highly appreciative of the cooperation from the Education Ministry in allowing the players to represent the country and provide leeway for them to do so.

“There is no greater honour than to representing one’s country and we at the FAM are just glad that the matter has been resolved,” said Dato’ Azzuddin.

“The Education Ministry has proven that it is serious about helping sportsmen excel in their field and I extend our deepest appreciation to the Minister for making such an allowance to the players.

“I know that with the news filtering through that they will be able to represent the country, it will put them to try even harder in the qualifiers.”

At the centre of the issue was the change in dates for the AFC U19 qualifiers has forced eight players in the squad not being able to attend the meet scheduled to be held in Luizao, China on 6th – 18th Nov, 2007 due to the SPM examinations.

The eight players concerned are Shafizah Hafizi, Yushairi Che Saad, Mohd Syahid Zaidan, Mohd Nazrin Baharuddin, K. Sarthiya, K. Gurusamy, Ahmad Aminuddin Shahahruddin and Bashrol Abu Bakar.

However, Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin announced yesterday that the eight players concerned will be allowed to go to China and need not sit for the SPM examinations as required where they will still get their SPM certificates through other means.

Through a system known as Agrotat, the Examinations Board will take into account at the players’ academic achievement before the SPM examinations as well as how they fared during the trials SPM examinations held by their schools.

After the tournament in China is over, the eight players will be required to sit for a General Aptitude test conducted by the Examinations Board to assess their capabilities before deciding on their grades.

This method of testing is not new and where it has been used in other countries like New Zealand and Scotland.

For the qualifiers, Malaysian have been placed in Group F against China, DPR Korea, Singapore, Macau and Timor Leste.

(Courtesy: www.fam.org.my)

Looks like the Trial SPM examinations will be more like the actual SPM examinations for these 8 kids.

Liverpool in crisis? Oh dont be daft.

Its the common misconception that Liverpool are beginning to falter, after a promising start to the season. The commentators and columnist and every other know-it-all football critic have rained countless attacks against Rafa’s rotation policy, pinpointing that as the reason for the current state of Liverpool FC.

All i can say, is don’t be daft, especially you Steve McBacon a.k.a Macca of ESPN Star Sports here in Asia. He’s a regular rotation policy basher.

Liverpool currently lie 4th in the table, 4 points adrift of leaders Arsenal but with a game in hand on the 2nd and 3rd place teams from Manchester. Thats wonderful news for any Liverpool fan. Liverpool are STILL unbeaten in the league, and have played more away games (4) and less home games (3) than the other top 3 teams. Those are the facts, and that still makes for pretty reading.

But i can just hear em knowitalls, screaming about the Derby game, of how Liverpool played vibrant attacking passing football that completely whitewashed the Rams. They probably argue about why Liverpool haven’t played like that since, and how Rafa’s rotation has broken the momentum.

Lets look at the facts now eh? Firstly, before the 6-0 thumping Liverpool gave to Derby, the Ram already got thumped 4-0 by Spurs. If thats not enough, Derby recently got thumped again 5-0 by Arsenal. Now, with all due respect to Derby, but they didnt’ really make it that difficult for the top teams to THUMP them. I shall stop my debunking of the Derby ‘argument’, as its just baseless, and in the process , have drastically overused the word ‘thumped’.

Anything thing which i find quite surprising, especially in light of last weeks 1-nil win against Wigan, is how Liverpool are always criticized when they play badly and win 1-0. If Chelsea or Man Yoo grind out a 1-nil win, its all about “the players really dug in and faught for the results” or “the team battled hard to get all 3 points”

But if Liverpool ever play badly and win a game….well, you know what happens next.

Personally, i’m not counting out Liverpool for the title. If they win their one game in hand, they will leapfrog the Manchester teams into second place, so plenty to play for, and its going to be a very intriguing season for Liverpool fans all over the world.

Sven’s City playing like potential champions

Led by the magical, enigmatic Elano, Man City were a class above Newcastle United, as they convincingly won 3-1. The Toon side played well, and against any other side, may have come away with a point. Obefemi Martin scored a gem of a goal, further reinforcing the belief that he is a scorer of great goals, not a great goal scorer.

Overall, the Man City team played well. The one touch passing and movement was a joy for fans and neutrals alike. It would be hard to pick out any player from that starting 11 who didn’t play well. Hamann showed he still has much to offer as he constantly cut out most Newcastle attacks, Richards and Dunne were immense again, while Petrov was a constant threat down the left wing.

But the glue that binded all that together was Elano. And he capped it off with a awesome freekick.

Could he be Man City’s own Eric Cantona?

Benitez looks at ‘bigger picture’ in rotation row

Fernando Torres has only been a Liverpool player for three months, yet he has already learned not to attempt to second guess the team selection of manager Rafael Benitez.

Four days after scoring his first hat-trick in a Liverpool shirt during the 4-2 Carling Cup victory at Reading, the Spanish forward will have to wait until 1.55pm today before discovering whether he has done enough to retain his place when Benitez pins his starting eleven on the board for the Premier League encounter with Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium.

Torres, the £26.5m summer signing from Atletico Madrid, has made a seamless transition to life in the Premiership having previously spent his entire career in La Liga, but the club’s record signing is not safe from Benitez’s tinkering.

Benitez is understood to be preparing for Torres to partner Dirk Kuyt this afternoon, but having omitted the 23-year-old from his team against Birmingham City last Saturday, when Steve Bruce’s team emerged from Anfield with a 0-0 draw, nothing can be taken for granted.

Last Saturday’s team selection, strongly criticised by supporters, appeared to backfire with Liverpool failing to score for a second successive league game. But Benitez insists that he has no regrets over his decision and that it was a statement of Liverpool’s intent this season.

Benitez said: “As a manager, you need to see the bigger picture and think about the whole season. If we need to use our big names in every game at Anfield against teams like Birmingham, then maybe we won’t be good enough to win trophies at the end of the season. If you say to me that I would have had to play Torres to be capable of beating Birmingham, then I’d say that we couldn’t win the league.

“Sometimes I will make mistakes, but I was 100 per cent sure it wasn’t a mistake not to play Torres against Birmingham. Kuyt and [Andriy] Voronin had been playing well, and at home at Anfield against Birmingham, I thought we had enough to win.

“Why are we talking about Torres now and weren’t when Kuyt and Voronin were scoring in the Champions League? The answer is because we were winning those games. We’re only talking about Torres not playing because we drew with Portsmouth and Birmingham.”

Unbeaten so far this season, Liverpool have made their best start since Benitez’s arrival from Valencia three years ago. Although Liverpool have finished strongly in each of their last three seasons, which two Champions League Finals and an FA Cup win underline, Benitez’s reluctance to play a settled team in the early months has not helped the club’s league form.

The Spaniard appears to have found the correct blend this year, but he insists that April and May, and not August and September, are the months that matter.

Benitez said: “I’ve done the same for seven years now and we’ve been winning trophies. The last 10 games of the season are probably the most important and you won’t win anything if your players aren’t physically ready.

“Torres can play 20 or 30 games in a row without any problem, but he won’t be at the same level in the last few months of the season when we hope to be playing for trophies.

“We’ve played a final at the end of each season I’ve been here. Why? Because we’ve had a big squad without maybe as many bigger players as we have now, and were going into games with fresh legs. That proves that the system can work.”

(Courtesy: sports.independent.co.uk)

The pyrotechnical area is not for me, says the new Keane

The list of things that irritate Roy Keane is already lengthy but on the eve of today’s duel with his former Manchester United team-mate Mark Hughes, Sunderland’s manager has revealed a new pet grouse.

“Some managers keep losing their rag on the sidelines and some are doing it for effect – just to be spotted themselves,” explained Keane. “That is not a road I want to go down. It’s a habit some managers have got into, but I have made a conscious effort not to be ranting and raving on the sidelines. It’s a waste of time which saps you of energy and means you can’t get a clear focus on the game. And doing it would probably have put me in an early grave.”

Accordingly, managers who jump up and down so much that they might as well be on technical area trampolines now rank alongside footballers in thrall to the demands of their wags, or those who insist on collecting opponents’ shirts, as objects of Keane’s gloriously withering disdain.

If this might strike those referees regularly abused by a once ultra-aggressive midfielder as somewhat hypocritical, the fact is that maturity has exerted a transforming effect on the Irishman. “I don’t find it difficult to appear detached, I’m not trying to be someone I’m not,” he said. “But if I’m going to lose my rag I want to do it in the privacy of our own dressing room.”

Moreover Keane believes managers should observe a code of sportsmanship. “I look at other benches but I’m not one for jumping up and down and trying to get opposition players booked,” he said. “You see enough of that around, managers appealing against every decision. I’m not going to lose my rag about a throw-in on the halfway line.

“When I see other managers doing that I think, ‘If you’re going to lose it, at least lose it for a major decision, a penalty or a sending-off’. And even then, I think losing it is a waste of time. If you’re ranting and raving on the sidelines about refereeing decisions you lose focus on the game.”

In any case, Keane knows from experience that many players remain oblivious to touchline hysterics. “As a player I never took too much notice of what the manager was saying or doing once I was on the pitch,” he recalled.

As a spectator at Ewood Park watching Blackburn’s home defeat by Portsmouth last Sunday he did, however, take considerable notice of Hughes’s technical area demeanour. “For a 20-minute spell on Sunday I thought Sparky was the ball boy. He was chasing balls and getting quick throw-ins,” said Keane with a mischief-suffused smile.

Although he and Hughes were never real friends and have had “no contact whatsoever” since their paths diverged, Keane has happy memories of nights spent drinking with the former centre-forward. “I had some good sessions with Sparky,” he recalled. “I could tell you a few stories about Sparky but I’m sure he can tell one or two about me, too. I feel very lucky to have played with him, because he was a top, top player, but the nature of football is such that when people move on, you don’t really keep in touch with them.”

Many people, Sir Alex Ferguson included, were startled when Hughes became a manager but Keane was not among them. “I wouldn’t say I was shocked,” he said. “Sparky was always the quiet one in the United dressing room but he was always taking things in. He’s proving to be a top manager and it’s a good challenge for me to pit my wits against him. I’m looking forward to it.”

Keano’s methods

The gum-chew

Who needs words? Keane is now able to convey the full spectrum of human emotions via subtle variations in the speed of his gum-chew. Ranges from really fast (absolutely furious) to very fast (boiling mad) to quite fast (stewing with indignation)

The wax statue

Mastered the art of the match-long motionless loom, from either seated or standing position. Known to pass entire 90 minutes without blinking. Willing to spend long periods of either half silently staring the wrong way just to make his point

The I’m-watching-you

A single finger raised chillingly to the side of the eye. Tests show this can boost a player’s performance by up to 180%. May be combined with threatening “think-about-it” temple-tap

(Courtesy: football.guardian.co.uk)

Overseas plans for Malaysian U-16 team, AGAIN!!

There are big plans being formulated for the national Under-16 team based in Bukit Jalil Sports School following their recent win of the Youth Cup.

The national U16 squad won the Youth Cup – which is really for U19 players – when they beat Kuala Lumpur 1-0 in the final with the only goal of the match coming off Tamil Arasu.

Enroute, they had beaten Selangor 4-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals.

“Of course, it feels good to win the title but the truth is that we did not set out to put this team together to win the crown – the whole objective for these young players to play in a league several years their senior was more for exposure and experience,”
said head coach Ong Kim Swee.

The jubilant U-16 squad

“But for these players to win the title showed just how much of a progress they have made in these months where they have learned to stick to tactical discipline and also understanding game plan where for them to do it at this young age give promise for the future.

“The effort does not come from any one person alone but a whole cooperation of hardwork from Aminuddin (Hussin, head of FAM youth coaching), Robert (Alberts, the FAM Technical Director) and also the unwavering support from Institute Sains Negera (National Science Institute, specifically from its director Dr. Ramlan Aziz).”

Kim Swee said that the U16 lads will be reporting for camp next week before they unveil plans for the future development of this squad which is likely to include a trip to Brickendobury, England.

He said that the team will now need more quality matches to make sure that they are kept together for future assignments.

“The team will need more training and higher quality matches where I feel that if they can be kept together from now on, then Malaysia will have a ready pool of youngsters able to understand the needs of the modern game,” added Kim Swee.

(Courtesy: www.fam.org.my)

Why does the FAM need to go all the way to ENGLAND to play high quality matches? Is it not possible to go to other Asian countries that play high quality football like South Korea, Japan, Iran or heck, even Vietnam and Singapore? Bloody hell, even Iraq play awesome football.

WENGER: English game losing soul

Arsene Wenger has admitted serious fears for the future of English football.

The Arsenal manager believes the domestic game in England is in danger of being severely damaged by mass media coverage and new club ownership.

Arsenal are themselves reported to be the takeover target of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov and Wenger insists the increasingly business orientated ownership of English clubs is another damaging factor.

“English football is losing his soul,” Wenger told The Sun. “Fans are the keeper of our football.

“But the first signs of danger are there to see. Stadiums are starting to empty, TV channels and radio stations are overcrowded with football.

“There is a kind of overdose looming.

“Suddenly the English model has gone from owner-supporters to owner-businessman.

“The danger wasn’t there yesterday but it’s there today. Of course you can have business integrated into the sport while still respecting the values of football.

“However perhaps it is time for people to worry.”

(Courtesy: www.football365.com)

Frankly speaking, i think Wenger has a point, but its not as though these clubs had a choice in going down the foreign business ownership road. No no my readers. There is ONE person to blame for this, and he is that very expressionless Russion billionaire up at Chelsea.

As soon as he came into EPL, everything changed. Suddenly the prices of players became inflated. Wages inflated. Chelsea could buy anyone and everyone, and were above everything as they tapped up the best talent on the planet. Abrahimovich’s coming was like an asteroid hitting the planet. Everything’s went crazy and now that the dust has settled, clubs have realised they need to get money from somewhere to compete.

Rafa wants Torres protection talk, not rotation talk

Rafa Benitez insists English football needs to clamp down on the heavy handed approach to Fernando Torres.

The Liverpool manager has been angered by the rough treatment dished out to Torres in the Reds’ midweek Carling Cup victory over Reading.

Torres scored a hat-trick in Liverpool’s 4-2 victory over the Royals, but Benitez’s striking ace was on the receiving end of some robust challenges from Reading centre-backs Michael Duberry and Andre Bikey.

Recent football discussion has been on the subject of Torres’ constant rotation from the Liverpool starting XI, but Benitez is adamant attention must turn to protection of the Premier League’s stars.

“What puzzles me is why people are talking all the time about Torres when he plays, when they should surely be talking about how we can protect him when he plays,” said Benitez.

“There was lots of talk about how Torres coped so well with the kicking he received, but why aren’t people saying that kicking was wrong.

“I’m surprised people aren’t talking about the need to protect players of quality because if we want to see exciting matches with real quality for the fans then we must ensure the quality players are allowed to play, and not kicked out of it.

“With Torres defenders feel they have to stop him by kicking him and it’s up to the officials to stop that.

“I won’t comment on the referee at Reading, but you could see yourself. He (Torres) was kicked badly in the first minute, it was a challenge that could have kept him out for a month.”

(Courtesy: www.football365.com)

Injured Ricardinho tells Cisse: I´m suing

Besiktas’s Brazilian midfielder Ricardinho announced Thursday his intention to sue Marseille’s Djibril Cisse for a tackle that has left him facing two months on the sidelines.

Ricardinho was taken off in the 44th minute in last week’s Champions League opening group tie at the Velodrome after Cisse’s 25th minute tackle which resulted in a freekick for the Turkish side.

And in Friday’s edition of France Football magazine the Brazilian claims the France international wilfully set about to injure him.

“Because of my injury I can’t play for two months and so I won’t be paid. Cisse wanted to injure me and he succeeded. But I’m going to take legal action against him.”

The 31-year-old added: “The Marseille players played like butchers. They noticed that I was the playmaker and they did everything to take me out and Cisse succeeded.”

Besiktas coach Ertugrul Saglam also maintained Marseille, who won the game 2-0, had overstepped the mark.

“There was a World Cup rugby match a few days before in Marseille, they must have confused the rules,” he said.

(Courtesy: www.soccerway.com)

Real Madrid overcome battling Betis to regain top spot

Real Madrid maintained their unbeaten record and returned to the top of La Liga after a 2-0 win over Real Betis but they made hard work of despatching the side from Seville on Thursday.

The reigning Spanish champions’ captain Raul Gonzalez finally broke the deadlock from the penalty spot after 66 minutes following a foul on him by Betis midfielder David Rivas.

Brazilian international Julio Baptista then got Real’s second five minutes from time but the scoreline flattered the reigning Spanish champions with lowly Betis hitting the woodwork no less than three times during the game.

Real started well and had by far the best of the first half hour, and a clear majority of the possession, but gradually Betis worked their way back into the game.

Edu and Mark Gonzalez both had good opportunities to score just before David Rivas sent a header against the post six minutes before the break.

The close shaves meant Madrid left the field at the break with whistles from the Real faithful ringing in their ears and the jeers from their ever-critical fans continued well into the second period until Raul opened the scoring.

Madrid rode their luck once again late in the game when Betis threw everything at them in search of an equaliser.

Firstly Rafael Sobis’s free kick skimmed off the cross bar after 75 minutes and Mark Gonzalez then hit the post just a minute later.

The hosts’ nerves finally calmed when second half substitute Baptista, who had only been on the field five minutes, hammered home his first goal of the season from the edge of the area.

The victory means that Real Madrid have 13 points from their five matches and a one point lead over Villarreal and Valencia, who are second and third respectively and split by goal difference after both teams won on Wednesday.

By contrast, at the other end of the table, Betis are third from bottom and still looking for their first win this season with only two points to their name.

Villarreal had an impressive 2-0 win at Racing Santander with goals from Turkish international Nihat Kahveci and their American-born Italian striker Guiseppe Rossi.

Valencia laboured to a 2-1 win over struggling Getafe but notched up their fourth successive win with first half goals from Spanish internationals David Silva and David Villa before Braulio Nobrega got one back for Getafe late in the game.

Unbeaten Barcelona are one point further back in fourth after inflicting a 4-1 thrashing on Real Zaragoza later on Wednesday.

All the goals in Barca’s Nou Camp stadium came in the first half, with their Argentine international winger Lionel Messi finding the net after just five minutes although Zaragoza’s Alberto Zapater equalised four minutes later.

However, the 2006 European champions quickly got back into their stride and Messi took barely a minute before he sent a cross from Deco into the back of the net to give Barca the lead again.

Andres Iniesta and Rafa Marquez added more goals before the break before the Catalan club stepped off the gas in the second half.

“I didn’t see anything negative about this team,” said Barca coach Frank Rijkaard after the game, responding to public and media criticism about him and his team.

However, Rijkaard might possibly concede that summer signing Thierry Henry once again had a below-par game, a fact which even the excellence of his team mates couldn’t hide.

The Frenchman squandering several chances, including two late in the game, which would have added to the Catalan club’s tally.

(Courtesy: www.soccerway.com)