Ridiculous

So Eduardo gets a two-game ban for 'diving.'

May I just comment a while about how ridiculous this is.

First of all, it barely constituted a dive. I mean, it doesn't even look like he threw himself. He had an open goal. Why would he dive? Maybe he just tripped.

But, of course, it's Arsenal, so UEFA decide that they shouldn't even entertain this notion.

Ok, for argument's sake, let's just suppose that he did actually dive.

Then why, in all these years, why has nobody else been called up? Cronaldo, Drogba, Torres, Messi, should've been banned numerous times. And, ironically, in the second-leg quarter-final Champions League match two season ago, Ryan Babel did a spectacular dive to win Liverpool the game. Where was the ban then? The players that I've mentioned dived much more obviously, and usually in games of far more import than Eduardo diving in what was effectively a match already won. They also dive more frequently.

Why have they picked now, on such an unimportant game, on a not-very-clear-cut dive?

The only conclusion that I can come to is that Arsenal are easy targets. They don't have the same clout that Barca and Chelsea have. They're considered a "small club". The same with Man Utd, except even greater, as Cronaldo is such a big star that nobody dares touch him. Whatever he does is alright, because he scores goals. Eduardo is a nobody. Nobody cares if he gets banned.

The football club are upset, and rightly so. As stated, there has been no protocol followed, no reasons given, and no process followed for the ban.

And, rightly, Arsenal expect it to be applied to everybody.

It's not that fact that Eduardo is banned that has me riled. Arsenal has other strikers, and he's only banned for two Group Stage matches. It's the fact that UEFA choose this obscure and not very clear incident to make an example, the fact that they choose this player, and this club to tell the rest of the world that diving is not on. When they could have chosen one out of about 5 million instances when Ronaldo has dived, they choose to target Eduardo.

The only good thing that I can see coming out of this is that this banning of divers becomes universal and rigorously enforced - on everybody. But, knowing how corrupt and inept and inconsistent both FIFA and UEFA are, this probably won't happen.

Word of the Day: Injustice

Euro 08 Final

And the winner is Spain!

Not that it was entirely unexpected. It leaves me with a disappointed feeling that if I had bet on Spain, I would've won money. But I also know that if I had actually bet on them, they would've lost, so it's all the same in the end.

Enough about my luck (or lack thereof). On about the final.

It was a good final, but I was expecting a scoreline in the vicinity of 3-2 in Spain's favour. Turns out the Germans struggle to get a flowing attacking move together at all, and a moment of pace and brilliance from Torres (the boy has exquisite touch) was enough to separate the two teams with a 1-0 scoreline. Here's the goal:



I was pretty happy about Fabregas getting a run, but not happy about him getting subbed off on 60 minutes. But coaches make strange decisions that us mere mortals cannot comprehend.

Word of the day: Spain

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