Showing posts with label The Netherlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Netherlands. Show all posts

Thursday, 15 July 2010

sdrawkcaB

It's been a while. A long, long while. Almost a month, I believe.

This shall be another long one. I'll try and keep it short, but I don't think I can. Too much material to cover. It will also be in reverse order. Just because it's easier to do.

So yeah, as anticipated, I just failed Financial Accounting. On the upside, I did surprisingly well in everything else. So really, I did better than expected. Still doesn't ease the hurt though. I think it'll truly hurt when I tell my parents and see their disappointment all over again.

Prior to that, I was exulted to watch Spain beat The Netherlands. My two favourite teams (Netherlands, ex-favourite) duking it out for the cup. And Fabregas with the assist for the winning goal as well. Fairly average final, for a fairly average World Cup. Good stuff though. Only comes once every four years, enjoy it. Just hope they don't bring vuvuzelas next time. Seriously the most annoying things ever.

Prior to that, I went on a roadtrip to Torquay with eight other buds. Apparently I'm not supposed to talk about drunken exploits, so I'll just stick with the clean stuff.

Getting there was most definitely not half the fun. It was a nightmare. Ray was swearing at everybody, I was trying to make sure the car in front didn't get too far ahead, and the car behind didn't get too far behind. The car in front loved speeding, the car behind refused to go faster than 60 km/h. Life is hard in the middle.

Yeah, anyway. Good times mostly. Unhappy about some things, but nothing too sinister. Thoroughly enjoyed watching football not by myself for once.

And I think that's about it. I'm now going to cry in a corner. Good night.

Word of the Day: Backwards

Monday, 14 June 2010

Le Coupe du Monde

So, like, I'm all done with exams. Man, it was exhausting. I'm 99% sure I failed Accounting, and I'm trying to work out how to work around it.

The hardest part was telling my parents. They reacted surprisingly well to it (well, I only told mother). Once that was over, it was alright. I wouldn't say their opinions are the only ones that matter, but they're definitely up there.

So I've been mentally beating myself up, and resolving to work a lot harder. I guess I'm just frustrated that I'll have to go through that living hell again. Ah well. What's done is done.

I've now moved on to vegging in front of the television.

"What? You don't watch TV!" I hear you exclaim.

Let me clarify that.

I watch Man vs Wild, Flight of the Conchords, and football.

The reason for my vegging is because of the latter.

Yes, after four years of waiting, the World Cup is back. Yes, I watched Australia lose this morning. It was embarrassing, to be honest. I don't know what happened to the Australia of four years ago. We had more fire back then. I'm afraid to say it, but I don't see us getting out of the group stages.

That red card against Cahill was very harsh. He was pulling out of the tackle, and hit the guy with his thigh. Surely a yellow would've been more than enough. Stupid card-happy ref.

Other matches...hmm. Let's do a list.

South Africa 1 : Mexico 1
Surprisingly impressive. Both were trying to go for each other's throats, and played some great attacking football. A very enjoyable opening game, marred slightly by the fact that South Africa almost won but didn't.

England 1 : USA 1
Another draw, this one much, much less entertaining, apart from England keeper Robert Green throwing the ball into his own net. Didn't help that I missed the Gerrard goal that happened in, like, the first five seconds of play.

Australia 0 : Germany 4
The less said about this game the better I think. Australia were lacking in attack, lacking in defense, were missing star players, getting sliced apart by the German machine, and generally doing a really good impression of fish milling around in a bowl of water. Fish that were completely out of their depth. I don't think anybody played well. Lucas Neill was calling non-existent offsides. The offside trap was clearly not working, because they were continually failing to pick up the man who was not offside making the run from deep. Fairly rudimentary schoolboy errors, like not playing the ref's whistle, like Neill and his shadow offside call. Yeah. That's about it really.

Netherlands 2 : 0 Denmark
Was really, really looking forward to this one because a) it's the Netherlands and b) it was an early game, and I really needed one just then, because I am slightly tired from having a total of eight hours sleep over two nights. Anyway, what a game. Certainly didn't disappoint. The movement, passing and vision of the Dutch team is just magnificent. What a joy to watch. Their ball control is also sublime. The way they play is a thing of beauty. They may just be my next favourite outside-of-Australia team, the top one being Spain. I'm still trying to decide whether to buy a Spain jersey or Australia. Perhaps both, perhaps neither. Perhaps I need more money. It's just that, if Spain win this cup, it will be the crowning moment for one of the greatest, if not the greatest, national football sides of all time. I mean, Fabregas and Torres are on the bench for them. That says enough.


And that's mostly it for now. Watched a bit of Greece vs South Korea, got bored so kept playing monopoly.

Just to finish, a comment about the match ball. The scientists and whatnot who designed/engineered/lovingly handcrafted these balls are coming out and defending it, saying things such as "it flies the straightest out of any ball" and "the players just aren't used to it yet." They use these as defences and justifications for why players are complaining about it.

I don't know about you, but I have never heard this many players complain about a World Cup match ball. At the end of the day, if the players, who have spent the better part of their lives playing this sport, say that it doesn't feel right, no matter how perfectly round the ball is, or how aerodynamically awesome it is, the fact remains that the players don't enjoy using it, and engineers and such cannot claim that technological perfection in a ball equates to something exactly the same as balls that these guys have been using since they've been kicking balls.

I also don't understand why they have to keep changing the ball. It's not exactly like loads of people were demanding a massive overhaul of the football. Clearly the ones they use every day are just fine. Maybe their imperfections are what makes them a true football. In a sense, they're used to their imperfections, and have already adjusted to them. What does the new ball add anyway, apart from an alarmingly high frequency of over-hit passes, and ridiculous keeper fumbles? What's it's purpose? Greater speed? Because that's the only thing I can see it maybe doing better in.

Anyway, sleep beckons. Got a big day of buying stuff tomorrow.

Word of the Day: World Cup

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

Post-exams...again

It's a sobering thought, but this "post-exam period" will be the first of many. In many ways, these exams actually matter more than the one's during high school, save the VCE ones.

I could leave it at that, and say that I've updated due to popular demand, but I'm a nice guy, so I'll write some more.

During this after-exam period, I have been gravitating between sitting around at home playing brainless games (The Sims Unleashed, hell yeah) and going out and spending too much money.

Just on that money business, I visited Crown Casino last Friday for a quick liaison with Lady Luck. This was my first time, as you can tell by my making it a blog post. As you (hopefully) know, Lady Luck is unbeatable at casinos, especially on pokies. I really didn't want to, but I blew a massive fifteen bucks on pokies. My original plan was to spend $50 in $10 increments on blackjack, but the lowest bid was 50. So I played pokies. Even though I knew I had no chance of winning. After blowing all of 15 bucks, the 15 dollar blackjack tables opened. I'm a dapper hand at blackjack, so I though I'd take the dealer on. I laid down 15 bucks. I think I got like a 17 or something. The dealer went bust. Then mum was like "Let's scram!" The dealer pretty much cracked up. I was gonna go another one, purely because luck was with me, but mum said just keep the luck and you'll be fine.

Euro 08. It's been pretty bad for my fantasy team so far. I doubt it'll get much better. Big names underperforming, idiot managers screwing around, and random teams winning. It hasn't been pretty. I'm supporting Spain, by the way, and have done for the whole tournament. In between raging about why the Spanish coach isn't playing Fabregas and wondering why on Earth Italy can't defend and why the hell Cronaldo and Torres don't score, I managed to watch one game. The Netherlands vs France. Although it wasn't really a game to remember (unlike Arsenal vs Liverpool, second leg of Champions League), I witnessed the perfection of Dutchness. They're a great team. It's a shame they got knocked out. I would have loved to watch Spain vs Holland for the finals.

In other football news, it turns out that the Arsenal jersey IS the one that it was rumoured to be. Now I'll have to get it. Stupid Nike. I figured out why they don't care about what they release. Because they know idiots like me will get it regardless.

I'm looking for a new job, by the way. This one's giving me the irrates. A lot of work for very little return. Give us a heads up if you've got anything to recommend. No-one seems to want to hire my services, and I understand that. It's me.

Word of the day: Hola