Tuesday, June 27, 2006

World Cup: three second-round knockouts

The Holland-Portugal match is a shame on football. They are doing everything except playing football: kicking players, diving, rolling on the ground pretending to be injured, stealing the ball that should be given back to the other side, or simply fighting. People say the referee is crazy. I disagree. Obviously he made some wrong decisions, just as all other referees we have seen in this World Cup; but if the players are crazily fouling, there is not much you can do other than crazily giving away cards. In fact, I think he is too lenient, he should give away more cards. (Perhaps both teams should be disqualified and then England go straight into the semi-final...)

The Italy-Australia match is decided by a, well, dive again. When can they use instant-replay or other technologies to aid referee decisions? Until then, there is no way to stop players diving or acting. And stop the "wrong decisions by referee are part of the game" nonsense: so correct decisions are not part of the game? Diving, acting, fighting are part of the game?

And I just don't understand what the Swiss are doing. So they decided to play 120 minutes defensive football to hold onto a 0-0, which they did successfully, but didn't practice penalties? The first team ever to go out without conceding a goal... and refuse to kick in all 3 penalties...

Friday, June 23, 2006

World Cup: 有今生冇來世

正如某講波佬所講,今屆世界盃真係「有今生冇來世」。大量球證錯判本來就司空見慣,冇乜特別,但今次特多一場八張黃牌,三張紅牌等,更在同一場賽事出現「三黃一紅」,「入球前一刻吹雞完場」,「禁區內欖球式防守合法化」等,令人嘆為觀止。

我認為歸根究底都係因為 FIFA,每屆世界盃前都「公佈」一 d「嚴打」項目,(平時就唔理架咩?) 令 d 球證無所適從...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

meeting week

This is the week of meetings. In each such meeting, most of the teaching staff gather together for several hours, and at any point in time, 90% of people have absolutely no idea about the module or person being discussed. As usual, there are endless discussions about arbitrary adjustments of some numbers. Even worse, different people seem to be supplied with different versions of spreadsheets full of numbers, adding more confusion to what we are really talking about...

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

World Cup: all teams appeared

話咁快三十二隊都出晒場了,今屆又有咩睇呢:

1) 英格蘭到目前為止都仲有d 運行,繼熱身賽後再有對方幫佢入波,同組另一場仲要和埋。(不過千里達確係打得好好。)

2) 我一向都好鄙視南韓主辦賽事嘅「所作所為」,好想睇佢地今次點死,不過抽到咁嘅組,又遇著咁「強」嘅法國,話唔定又首名出線了。

3) 五隊非洲球隊幾乎全部輸晒。佢地最大嘅問題係根本就唔多想贏,行行企企咁,完全唔似輸緊,你唔知仲以為佢地兩球在手。

4) 大部份強隊都表現不錯或至少三分在手,十六強起應有頗多大戰...

Friday, June 09, 2006

World Cup 2006 kick-off

去年今日,我糊裡糊塗來了這裡 interview,如果唔係,我今日就唔會係到同大家講呢番說話... (請默哀一分鐘...)

So, today is the World Cup opener. Isn't it always the defending champion play the first game? Why the host this time?

First two rounds of group games start at 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 pm... reasonably convenient time. The 5:00pm game means I have to get off work a little bit earlier...

Germany and Costa Rica together played a very entertaining game. I mean, with defence like this from both teams, attackers can wander around anywhere they like, without worrying how to get past defenders or avoid offsides.