Facebook Fantasy Football

I have been playing Yahoo Games - Fantasy Football for the last season (Year 2008/2009) available at www.yahoo.co.uk and was 4th in the group (with group code name Maradona). Can't wait for the BPL (English Premier League) season to kick start on 16th Aug 2009. Hee. My selection of team has been done By the way, my account name is "Eric The King 7".

Just realised while on my facebook account, that Facebook has also created an application for FB-Fantasy Football based on the BPL. I have also set up an account with them known as "Eric Cantona Shirt 7".

Looks quite cool!


Join me there!

RICH by playing Soccer in Singapore?

Being in a small city country, it has never been a gorgeous and sought-after career to be a professional footballer.

Of course, in the 90s, Singapore was participating in the Malaysian League and was once of the top performing teams. After we pulled out of the Malaysian League, we started our own S-League and have produced couple of exciting players to support our National Team - known as "The Lions".

Few years back, there were plans to catapult "The Lions" towards World Cup 2010 Finalist, but looking at it, it is still JUST A DREAM!

I was reading Soccernet earlier and noticed an article "Man City owner tops British football's rich list". It seems like those players in Britain are earning big bucks with their passion and career associated with Soccer.

Rich List Top 20
1 Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Man City) £15billion
2 Lakshmi Mittal and family (QPR) £12.5bn
3 Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) £7bn
4 Joe Lewis (Tottenham) £2.5bn
5 Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone (QPR) £2.4bn
6 Stanley Kroenke (Arsenal) £2.245bn
7 Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal) £1.5bn
8 Lord Grantchester & the Moores Family (Everton) £1.2bn
8 Dermot Desmond (Celtic) £1.2bn
10 Lord Ashcroft (Watford) £1.1bn
11 Malcolm Glazer and family (Man Utd) £1.1bn
12 Simon Keswick (Cheltenham) £966m
13 Trevor Hemmings (Preston) £900m
14 Mike Ashley (Newcastle) £800m
15 Randy Lerner (Aston Villa) £750m
16 Tom Hicks (Liverpool) £700m
17 The Walker Family (Blackburn) £660m
18 Mohammed Al Fayed (Fulham) £650m
19 Sir David Murray (Rangers) £600m
20 Steve Morgan (Wolves) £400m

Top 20 players: (overall position in the main list in brackets)
1 David Beckham £125m (38)
2 Michael Owen £40m (56=)
3 Wayne Rooney £35m (61)
4 Rio Ferdinand £28m (69=)
5 Robbie Fowler £28m (69=)
6 Sol Campbell £28m (69=)
7 Ryan Giggs £23m (77)
8 Michael Ballack £20m (80=)
8 Frank Lampard £20m (80=)
10 Steven Gerrard £19m (86)
11 Cristiano Ronaldo £18m (87)
12 John Terry £17m (88)
13 Didier Drogba £15m (89)
14 Nicolas Anelka £14m (92=)
15 Damien Duff £14m (92=)
16 Dimitar Berbatov £13m (96=)
17 Ashley and Cheryl Cole £13m (96=)
18 Fernando Torres £13m (96=)
19 = Emile Heskey £12m (100)
20 Gary Neville £11.75m (101)

Wow. Not bad isnt it!!!!

Hmm...i just wonder when soccer players in other countries can earn as much as those in Britain...perhaps, they need to train and ply their trade as close in proximity to Britain to be successful.

PS: Drop me a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Singapore dumped out of Asean 2008 by Vietnam

Hi everyone,

Yesterday i was at the National Stadium to watch the 2008 Asean Cup Semi-Final Leg 2 match between Singapore Lions vs Vietnam.

I bought my tickets one day earlier at the Jalan Besar Stadium and was excited for the sunday match-up. Simple missed those atmospheres at the National Stadium to watch our Lions Roar.

The atmosphere was also good as we make our way in the evening towards the national stadium. There are FREE shuttle bus from Kallang Stadium, but we chose to join the Walking Contingent and march towards the stadium in style..Mood was good..Saw groups of Vietnam fans walking towards the stadium also..luckily no riot no trouble for all.



















(Free Shuttle Bus Service @ Kallang MRT station



















(The Walking Contingent)



















(Finally we have reached the entrance of National Stadium)

Mood was good in stadium and it was close to capacity crowd..think we have about 45,000 fans supporting the Lions..Vietnam only has a small section (less than 1000) of traveling supporters.



















(Near Capacity Crowd)



















(Fans waiting anxiously for the game to start)

National Anthem of Singapore:


Match kicks off with Singapore Lions taking control of possession and launches wave after wave of attacks at the Vietnam Goal...

1st attack by the Lions, and we almost score...


And of course, the Lions were supported with lots of chanting of "butok" towards the Vietnam Team (and fans) as well as our famous "Kallang Waves"..They are AWESOME..The stadium was shaking...



But But,,,the lions just cant seems to penetrate the goal line of Vietnam, so many goals were either saved by the Vietnam goalkeeper or the Lions attackers were just not potent enough in front of goalpost.

And there was just 1 lapse in the second half of the match, that we allow the up and coming Vietnam Top Striker (and maybe this region's best) Vinh to dribble and dazzle past the sleeping defence line of Lions, and pass to him team mate to tap in the Vital GOAL! Lions is out of Asean Cup 2008.



















(Vietnam supporters celebrating the only goal of the game)
























(Image as shown on TODAY papers on 22nd Dec 2008)

Until next time..Lions we will keep you roaring with Kallang Waves!

Manchester United - Champions of England & Europe

Glory Glory Manchester United...

Manchester United (The Red Devils) has once again be crowned as Champions League Champion. And together with this Champions League, they have also conquered their own home league, the Barclays English Premier League (EPL) by beating Chelsea to the crown.

Yes, Red Devils have beaten Chelsea twice - one for the EPL and the other is the Champions League this morning. Chelsea is not that bad to be frank, their squad is very strong, with the whole squad filled with superstars, fuelled by the riches by their russian billionaire owner, Roman Abramovic.

This also proves once again that riches and wealth itself does not instantly create a Championship Team. A strong team is only build over time with a stronf manager/coach that takes times and effort to nurture the team. He has to make sure that all players are not selfish and play for the team. Alex Ferguson, the manager of Red Devils, is certainly good in this area of management. He knows how to prevent his young and promising starlets from too much media cover and disturbancem, as well as re-motivates the older and more experience players to rekindle their touches. He is indeed a master of motivation and inspiration.

I am glad that i bought some chips, and took a taxi at 2am in the wee hours to watch this final in my buddy's house. As he is an anti-Man Utd fan, we really have lots of fun, cheering our "own" team and jeering the opposition whenever they have the ball. But the match is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Chelsea hit the woodwork (aka goalposts) twice during the game, if not Man United might have lost the match. Not to mention the Penalty miss by John Terry (Chelsea's captain) during the Penalty Shootout session.

Well Done Manchester United! Congrats to all Manchester United Fans around the Globe! Do drop me a comment if you one of them reading this humble blogsite of mine.

Truly Inspiring

For those those follow English Premier League (EPL) Soccer, this post will be very familiar to you, especially for those that supports either Manchested United (Red Devils) or Chelsea (Blues).

All eyes are on the last match of the EPL season to see if Man U or Chlesea will clinch the title. I certainly believe Man U will clinch the title, not just because i am a true Man U supporter but the passion and comittment that the whole Man U team is displaying this season.

However, i would like to put my attention to one of Chelsea's player - their 'favourite' son of Stamford Bridge (Chelsea's stadium) - Frank Lampard. During last week's Champion League semin-final game against Liverpool, Frank struck the most poignant and significant goal of his career, driving home an extra-time penalty to help take Chelsea to their 1st ever Champion League Final.

As he wheeled away in celebration, a tearful Lampard sought out his father in the stands, sharing an emotional moment a week after his beloved mother Pat passed away due to pneumonia. Many have not expected him to even play this important game as he was still mourning for his mother, not to mention him taking up the responsibility to take the Penalty shot when one of Chelsea's player was fouled in the penalty box. He could have left that spotkick to his other team mates that have performed so well in such spotkick over last months, but he took up the challenge, the responsibility to score the all important goal.

He was certainly Inspirational and Motivating. He was so committed to his profession and role that must have certainly put his mother at ease towards her journey to heaven.

When the final whistle went, all the chants and thoughts were for Lampard. This are the words from his manager: "Frank is a brave man. He was very close to his mother. What happened to him it was not easy to take this decision to play the match and taking that nerve-cracking spotkick, but he played well and is a little bit happier now."

Frank has certainly did his mum proud and is really a role model - a model that inspire your to be at your best even when the whole world seems crushing down.