The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Summer football or summer of football Posted: 01 Jul 2011 05:52 PM PDT JULY 2 — First it was the UEFA Euro Under-21 Championships, then the Fifa Under-17 World Cup, followed by the on-going Fifa Women's World Cup and from this morning, it is the Copa America. Having watched, and still watching, most of the matches, the Women's WC has possibly caught the eye more than most. The Euro U-21 was too sterile apart from the Spanish team. The teams were too mechanical and the players very robotic, making it difficult to really want to jump off the sofa. The lack of flair, apart from the Spanish, certainly does not bode well for the future of European football. The French U-17 squad have also caught the eye and certainly are the team to beat after digging deep to defeat a very impressive Ivory Coast side. Somehow, the African teams just struggle to get to terms with being more professional in closing games down. And while all the boys are showing their inadequacies, the ladies are producing some very sound technique and tactics. There is a grace to their passing and their tactical behaviour is very impressive. The play has been of a very high tempo with every team playing attacking football. This has certainly been a refreshing change after watching some very dour English Premier League action this past season in England. On the subject of England, their ladies show more imagination in their play and good tactics too. They play a 4-2-3-1 formation and very well too. All credit to their coach Hope Powell who has the girls playing with a freedom of expression without abandoning the principles of the game. While the women are proving their mettle, the world-class professionals in the men's game from South America, the best of whom ply their trade in Europe, will commence their quadrennial championship in Buenos Aires, with hosts Argentina taking on Bolivia this morning (8.45am, live on Astro SuperSport, Channel 811). If Cristiano Ronaldo went to South Africa WC2010 as the player under the most pressure, it is now Leo Messi who wears that tag. Still, it is quite shocking to read everywhere that it is a make-or-break tournament for Messi. His class is apparent and no matter what happens to Argentina, Messi will still be the greatest player in the world today. True, Messi has more responsibility than most to ensure success for the Argentines but it must never be forgotten that football is a team game and while Messi will inspire, the other players too have to do their bit. The time has come for Argentina's star players to show that they are a strong group and will need to sacrifice some flair to build a platform for Messi to take them to new heights. On the home front, our national team did not play particularly well against Taiwan midweek in the first step of their hopeful Road to Brazil 2014. However, the Harimau boys should take inspiration from the result that now puts the Taiwanese under pressure for the return leg in Taipeh tomorrow night (7pm, live on TV2). There were too many partnerships that did not work on Wednesday night and perhaps a counter-attacking 4-2-3-1 formation could be key to Malaysia's progress. The time has perhaps come for Shakir Shaari to start alongside holding midfielder Amar Rohidan to provide composure in front of the back four. The attacking trio of S. Kunalan, skipper Safiq Rahim and Amirulhadi Zainal can and will provide dynamic running from midfield, both with or without the ball. The return of Norsharul Idlan Talaha is important but this is a situation for a fast direct-running striker to get behind the Taiwanese defence with Badrol Bakhtiar coming to mind. Playing on the counter-attack, the need for a targetman to hold up the ball is less. It is going to be difficult but not impossible in Taiwan and we should look forward to the next round and Singapore. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 01 Jul 2011 05:37 PM PDT JULY 2 — One of the great pleasures of being a movie addict is what I call the thrill of the hunt, of catching that latest hot ticket as early as possible. It's Wednesday, June 29, 2011 as I'm writing this, which is opening day for "Transformers 3: Dark Of The Moon", and I've just got home after a thrilling half day of trying to catch the movie in the cinema. There were some midnight preview screenings of the movie last night, but since I'm the type who goes to bed before midnight, I don't think I'll be able to stay up that late to watch a movie, even if it's one of the Transformers movies. So my plan for today was to finish all my work as early as possible, then attend a short meeting at 1.30pm in Petaling Jaya, and afterwards make a dash to 1 Utama to catch the movie. 1 Utama turned out to be a no-go for me as the mall was surprisingly packed with people so I didn't even want to waste time and go line up for tickets there. I then made my way to Tropicana City Mall, as the place is normally not packed at all during weekdays, but to my surprise screenings for "Transformers 3" were sold out there, even for the 2.30pm show, on a normal, non-school holiday weekday. Yikes! I did think of giving up and trying again early the next morning, but my excitement simply could not be contained so I decided to try my luck at a more obscure place, which is MBO Cinemas in Galaxy Ampang, a place I found to be much less busy compared to other cinemas, and getting hot tickets early there has been relatively easy in my past experience. Sure enough, there was a line, but definitely not as long as in other cinemas and I finally managed to get myself a ticket for the movie, with a nice seat right in the centre too. Still, the cinema was really unusually packed for this hour of the day there, so my hunch that this is probably the hottest ticket of the summer movie season is proving to be true after all. After months anxiously waiting to watch the latest instalment of one of my favourite blockbuster franchises ever, when the lights in the cinema finally dimmed, I was truly ready and willing to swallow whatever Mr Michael Bay was going to throw my way this time around. When it comes to the Transformers movies, I've never been ashamed to say that I've enjoyed the first two instalments immensely. As a kid who grew up watching the Transformers cartoon series and animated movie on TV, watching that first Transformers movie evoked a Star Wars-like sense of wonder in me. It was just beautiful watching my childhood hero Optimus Prime brought to almost real life, thanks to the wonders of CGI. And even if the second Transformers movie was a wee bit too loud and the non-stop action began to feel like a chore, the moment when Optimus Prime died pierced my heart in exactly the same way when Optimus Prime died in the Transformers animated movie. So it's pretty safe to say that when it comes to the Transformers movies, I'm like a kid in a candy store. After finishing the latest movie though, unfortunately I have to say that "Transformers 3" is hands down the weakest movie in the whole trilogy, and quite a disappointment. Say whatever you want about the first two, at the very least their stories made some sense within the logic of the films. The formula is always the same — stop the Decepticons from accomplishing whatever their mission is (getting their hands on the Cube in the first one, and draining the Sun in the second one), which at the same time also means saving Earth as well. But at least in the first two movies, the plot and incidents move quite logically, and even if there are some holes, they're of the type that you're willing to overlook as they're not distracting enough. Also, there's always Megan Fox to distract you. This time around though, the movie gets it wrong in all the wrong places. This is probably the "slowest" Transformers movie yet, with probably only a third (or less) of the movie devoted to robots bashing each other. It might be okay to slow things down and concentrate on the "story" if the story is involving. But the initially interesting premise that the whole 1960s space race was a response to an alien craft crash landing on the moon soon degenerates into an almost incomprehensible and never convincing "bring Cybertron to Earth" plot. Without much to root for (oh, how I miss you Megan Fox), the whole film just becomes a mechanical chore of getting from point A to point B without much of the robot-bashing excitement that got us drooling in the first place. Michael Bay has said that this will be the last Transformers movie, so it's a shame that it's going out with a whimper. It's still going to make tons of money at the box office, I'm sure, but the whole saga deserves a much better ending than this. This being Hollywood though, you can never discount a reboot in the future. Till we meet again my robot friends, transform and roll out! * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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