Group of D, Group of Death?
Traditionally, an intrigue will pop up every 2 years. Namely the group of death. It can be any group, perhaps even more than just one. FIFA have always been a bunch of sick bastards in this area, ditto for UEFA. I mean, how can you have such a trend on a consistent basis? Apart from the biannual cold hard truth, I also mentioned in my last post that Group C is a potential group of death which no one would expect otherwise. We have 2 defensively stout teams in the form of Ukraine (the unknown one) and Northern Ireland (the on form one) apart from the group favourites in the form of Germany (the sexy one) and Poland (the choking one). As Arsène "the smartest bloke in the dressing room" Wenger would have attested quite unhappily, it's far easier for Tony "Pulis say 'freeze!'"Pulis to freeze a technically superior team in the same way it's quite easy for Ryan "no, not you Ryan Ng" Shawcross to do a horror tackle on Aaron "not Gordon" Ramsey.
To Ryan Ng: You owe me more than just a mere Euro and twenty cents.
So what about this group then? Is it deemed as a group of death?
Let me just say the answer is no. Group D is more likely the kind of group you see in A and B. This is due to no teams boasting the form of Northern Ireland in the first place. At most, I will only say the Czechs and Turks are the relative wild cards like Ukraine. In football, they say the ball is round. Which means it's still possible for the Czechs and Turks to spring a surprise. But as a group, the chances of a group of death here isn't high.
So which team will be getting my analysis treatment?
La Furia Roja
The media can be a very fickle lover. In fact, the presence of media should teach us what NOT to do as a boyfriend/girlfriend. You think Singaporean guys are poor boyfriends? You think Singaporean girls are too pragmatic to be reliable? Go ask the Spanish, go think again.
When La Furia Roja vented its crimson fury on the hardcore Taegeuk Warriors, great things were being predicted. When lowly Georgia pulled off a 1-0 shock, Vicente "not del Basque" del Bosque was mercilessly crucified like a criminal guilty of treason. You can try debating your point against mine. If I keep silent, it doesn't mean you're right. If I can prove you wrong, it means the evidence will be on the pitch. Let me stress home agin the fact that silence may easily translate to "I can't be bothered with your logic because you can't be bothered with mine in the first place".
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| The good thing about being myself is that I tend to act like a cat more than a Singaporean dog. My apologies if any of my fellow Singaporean happens to keep a cat and that it's black. |
Things to look out for
A lot may have been said about La Furia Roja's problem upfront. Let me also say that great individuals like José "O Especial" Mourinho and Sir A.Fergie will never think and talk like the media. It's very easy for TNP to say La Furia Roja needs to fix the firing line, but it's also very damn easy for me to point out that...
1. The Taegeuk Warriors are much higher ranked as a team than Georgia. In fact, I'm not even sure whether the footballers of Singapore are really better than Georgia, let alone either half of the Korean people.
2. The Taegeuk Warriors have came a long way since 대한민국 accidentally made Everton famous.
Tbh, I'd be far more worried if I'm a Spanish and my beloved local talents actually lost 1-0 to South Korea as well.
So is it strictly a blip? Will del Bosque pull off a La Gran Remontada in the same way Pep had done so against Porto? Will El Zorro himself pull off a La Gran Escape in the same way Barcelona really did so against AC Milan when the late Tito Vilanova was still alive?
The first match will go a long way in shutting up the media. Or feeding the media for that matter. Against the Republic of Slavic Pride, there cannot be a screw up. As a team, the Czechs are more defensively fragile than the Ottoman Turks. In other words, a loss against the Czechs will be a sign of come hither to the marauding Ottoman Turks. In Carlito's own words...
The greatest threat to the Third Spanish Conquest?
Croatia. Period. How La Furia Roja will fare against another nation of Slavs may not be enough to derail their path to the Third Spanish Conquest, but it will give blokes like Gary "I'm no Dr Phil" Neville, Jamie "my old man ain't made Mark Ronson a Grammy winner" Carragher, and even Ian "where is my hamster Ronaldo?" Holloway plenty to talk abotu in the next 4 years, if not 2 years at least. In Luka "wa si lin laopeh" Modrić, the cavalrymen of Vatreni have the license to blaze a trail from the midfield till the final 3rd.
What about La Furia Roja then?
Appreciating football is like appreciating your girlfriend. It doesn't matter whether she's local or a foreigner. It doesn't matter whether she's rich, beautiful, and intelligent or not. It doesn't matter whether she's a ward nurse, doctor, dietician, or a radiographer. Definitely it doesn't matter whether she's born in the year of my beloved Boro's Great Comeback under Bruce "the Incredible Bloke" Rioch.
If technical aesthetics is a parallel to physical attractiveness, then the inner beauty in every girl, woman, and lady (local or a foreigner) is the parallel to what makes your beloved football team work.
While I'm not that shameless to associate La Furia Roja with Penélope "La Antílope" Cruz, it must be stated that the inner beauty of La Señorita Roja lies in this amigo.
The English Premier League may be the most entertaining league right now, but La Primera División is arguably where the best dough is. The best part of the deal? Not only do we have Andrés "El Gigante" Iniesta and the trollolol face, we also have... well, this.
Whether it truly sucks to be El Dinero remains a question for the next season. Let's talk big about El Gigante himself.
2 years ago, La Furia Roja experienced the fury of the Spanish people. From Madrid to Seville, from Valencia to Singapore, it doesn't matter where you are. If you're Spanish, it means your nationality actually reflects the name of La Furia Roja in a twisted way. Diego "neither a Maradona nor Rui" Costa was woefully ineffective bar winning a penalty against a Dutch team high on a Robben-van Persie therapy. He was booed by the crowd, booed off from the pitch, and quite effectively booed off from Brazil. I pity this bloke, but I don't believe he's the right man for La Furia Roja on a major hindsight. Totally uncomfortable in getting the ball via a pass on the ground, he's much more of a Steven "not Lim" Fletcher than David "not a Villan" Villa. A little wonder why he's mercilessly barracked like Steven "not Fletcher" Lim himself (note: Just don't ask me whether his amigos from Catalunya actually declared an unofficial "national" holiday in remembrance of 2014).
The only consolation for La Furia Roja was basically what I saw in Iniesta's performance. The team may had fallen woefully short, but I saw a glimpse of what he can do if deployed properly. As the only guy I noticed who did something decent with the ball, Iniesta was drifting between the midfield and firing line. He may have lost that kind of pace which tortured Les Gunners N years ago (that was during Frank "not de Boer" Rijkaard' era where the concept of a false 9 scoring like an orthodox 9 remained relatively an alien concept). Yet, he retained a decent semblance of mobility, his passing ability has never waned. His technique remains as graceful as a katana worked by Masamune, his vision ever as keen like a blade forged by Muramasa. Yet...
Even the sharpest blade requires a hand to wield it
In the history of mankind, capable individuals were deemed capable for a very good reason: They happened to be on the right side. Every able retainer needed an able master, a capable strategist deserved nothing less than an equally capable liege. In the history of Korea, there's a reason why Silla was able to unify a realm mired in inner conflict and the threat of external invasion from the Chinese. In the history of Japan, there's a reason why Maeda Keiji became a household name. In the histroy of China, there's a reason why Liu Bei had to visit Zhuge Liang instead of the other way round. Sun Ce and Sun Quan had Zhou Yu, Cao Cao had Guo Jia. See where this is going?
The same goes for Iniesta as well. He needs a strategy with himself as the fulcrum. In fact, that's the reason why Barcelona has been a regional and global powerhouse. It's not about Messi the player, but rather Messi the fulcrum. I've already seen with my own eyes the only thing El Zorro did right 2 years ago. Will he go one step better and start winning competitive matches on a consistent basis? Will La Furia Roja go ten steps better and complete the Third Spanish Conquest?
And lastly, the part which every straight guy is waiting for...
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| Tereza Fajksová (Czech Republic) |
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| Beren Saat (Turkey) |
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| Iva Saric (Croatia) |
P.S: If this post falls woefully short like La Furia Roja of 2014, please be assured that hearing my parents quarrelling over switching on an extra light for my sake has gotten on my nerves. My state of myopia is anything but good all the while. Then there's the fact my family is anything but well off. Welfare of their son plus money issues have a way of setting a genius off his rocker at times. So far so good, my bank account is currently less than 5K SGD, I actually told my parents they might as well hope that I can get a rich girlfriend. Period.
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