Owen Madaeen's Blog

After Germany’s demolishing of Australia, everyone expected them to get maximum points in the group stages and even slapped the hot favorites tag on them. But a team of Serbians thrashed the Germans in a thrilling encounter to prove that Germany aren’t as great as the first match showed.

The first noticeable moment was when Klose got his 2^nd yellow card and got his marching orders by the referee – who in fact was a little bit harsh-, after a minute Serbia took advantage of that red card as Krasic picked up a nice pass by his team mate and crossed the ball, Zigic headed the ball to Jovanovic who sent the ball to the net right in front of Neuer..

In the second half, the Germans couldn’t get a hold of their nerves, it was showed by Podolski’s wasteful finishing, – and of course Low’s constant screaming and kicking –  letting him shoot the penalty was a huge mistake as he failed to score in many opportunities, he should’ve been substituted before the penalty, I cant say its entirely his mistake but he must have done better at this game.

The German coach played all the 3 cards and tried to overload a solid Serbian defense, in some moments leaving only 2 men behind, if Serbia tried harder in the counter attacks they would’ve scored at least on 2 occasions. They did create 3 amazing chances to score, hitting the woodwork 2 times and shooting high of the target once.

The most vital part of the Serbia defense was Krasic, who stormed the right flank, giving the German defense all sorts of problems, and of course we mustn’t forget the tower called Zigic (2.02M) who gave Krasic the license to wipe in crosses to the opponent’s box.

After playing with 10 men since the middle of the first half, exhaustion was clear on the German’s faces, as I said before Serbia should’ve done better on the counter attacks, if the germans had gotten lucky the Serbians will feel sorry for not taking their chances.

now Germany and Serbia are even on points, 3 points each but germany has a +3 goals difference, their next match will be desisive against Ghana – which is a solid side – while Serbia’s encounter against Australia is almost guaranteed. Both teams – germany and Serbia that is – will try their best to get maximum points in order to avoid England in the 1^st knockout round

Man of the Match: Krasic

Flop of the Match: Podolski

We’ve been eagerly waiting for this year to come since Italy’s triumph in 2006. Its true there are some worries because its in south Africa, however the first 2 days went great and smooth – except for a referee decision – and I really hope the tournament can keep up like this till the 11^th of July, When Johannesburg will host the final. Everyone’s waiting for a cracking tournament; will it be the tournament everyone is wishing for?

Spain and Brazil are the most favorites to win the title; the other leading forces are England, Germany, Italy, Holland, Argentina, Portugal and France.

Below is my opinion on each of those teams, I’m a bit pessimistic but if you’re pessimistic you’re either right or pleasantly surprised.

Spain: Spain are the best team at the moment, they play the most fabulous football, simply magical, however the complacency against smaller teams and the pressure to perform against bigger teams will be their worst enemy, the favorites tag is too heavy to carry for a squad who isn’t used to winning major tournaments, therefore their manager should try his most to overcome those mental obstacles and hopefully lead Spain to reach their full potential.

Brazil: When is Brazil not favorites to win? They have a squad mixed between superstars and wonder kids who can do magic in the tournament, unlike Spain, brazil are used to the weight of the favorites tag and it wont effect them as much as Spain, don’t expect the magical smooth football you usually see them play as their manager prefers a more disciplined defensive approach.

England: England has always failed to reach their potential in the world cup, always going in hot favorites and then struggling in attempt to perform as expected and most of the time they fail, however this year the Italian disciplinary Fabio Capello is managing them and now you can notice how they believe in themselves and play like a team. Will that actually do any deference this year?

Germany: The Germans have a good squad, but luck isn’t on their side as injuries struck them badly, most noticeable is Michael Ballack’s injury, add to that the suicide of their goalkeeper in the last season. In general they are expected to do well, but they will have to work extra hard to reach the final stages.

Italy: I’m one of this team’s fans, a true follower of the Italian league (Serie A) and I’ve been following the team’s news for a long time. Unfortunately our chances of becoming world champions again are slim, thanks to many contributing factors with lippi’s selection being the most devastating one. The squad lacks creativity needed to form attacks, the most creative attackers weren’t called because of political reasons, and now the Italian squad has the worst set of forwards in the history of the world cup. Add to that the aging defense they have, Italy must try their best to prove to the world they’re still the school of defense, though probably this wont happen.

Argentina: When it comes to the world cup, Argentina always got enormous talent, but incapable managers, 2002, 2006 and now 2010 the Argentineans will be missed early thanks to the fail they call managers. Maradona is a legend as a player but as a manager question marks has been raised on his squad selection and tactics, as the team needed a miracle to qualify for the world cup, with the defense being their weakest area due to their defender’s lack of pace, it will take another miracle for Argentina to win this world cup.

Holland: The Dutch squad includes many of the world’s most creative attackers, the only thing they lack is the finishing touches to their attacks as they don’t have a world class finisher.

Portugal: I wasn’t really following Portugal but I know that they have the same problem as Holland for ages; they are a creative side without a player to apply the finish.

France: France will be a fail in this world cup, the team qualified thanks to a huge error from the referee to allow Henry’s handball to stand, if it wasn’t for that decision Ireland will be in the world cup now, and they deserved that honor in the qualification stages. Since Zidane’s retirement in 2006 France has been frustrating to watch, with the most obvious example is their early exit from Euro 2008.

I hope you have a good time watching this world cup, it only comes once every four years so be sure you enjoyed this tournament to the maximum.

I still remember the days when I was 10 and had nothing to do; I usually opened the TV and scrolled through the channels to see what’s on. Every time I saw a song I think of how stupid grown ups are to waste their time listening to this junk. When I saw the anchor man I change the channel at once, I keep searching till I finally find spacetoon, then I spend hours watching those cartoons. Back then I was thinking it’s just a way to waste my time, but recently I discovered the fact that those cartoon characters still play a role in my life.

Conan, superman, batman, Looney tones, Romeo’s blue skies, the digimond heroes, and the list is too long, each of them helped me develop and each of them taught me at least one thing or one good manner, curiosity, helping the poor, risking yourself for your friends, determination, strength, bravery, cleverness, nobleness, this is another very long list, a few months back I downloaded one of those cartoon series, after I watched it I was stunned by how I still act the same way the heroes in the cartoon act and how I define people using people from those cartoons. I’m very grateful I had the chance to see those cartoons in such age. And I’m really disappointed many of today’s kids don’t even know Spacetoon.

If you compare the role models those kids have with the role models we had when we were young, you’ll notice the huge difference, instead of wanting to be like one of those heroes, they want to be like wrestlers and action movies stars. Who kick and hit the bad guy and disrespect anyone and look mysterious all the time. That’s what’s happening with my brother and his classmates at least, that’s when I got the cartoon series and watched it with my brother.

Growing up without a mental standard to reach or certain missions to accomplish is a real problem, those cartoons taught us – or at least tried to – how to think, how to act, how to live, what’s acceptable and what’s not, what roles people in our lives play, what to do and when to do it. I can’t consider this guy capable of doing that to today’s kids.

Its true parents are there and big brothers are there, but most kids would rather choose from people they see on TV, mainly because parents mostly play the commander role or just the supplier’s role, leaving the kids searching for other role models to be their target.

There aren’t many choices to choose from in this case, and it’s almost impossible to ban those shows from TV, Parents can interact with their children more but at least one of the parents has to be the “commander” and neither of the parents would like to be that person while the other parent is being the role model, or of course you can offer this kind of shows to your child, and watch it with him, my brother didn’t want to watch the series I got but when I offered to watch with him he was really excited, you can delete certain channels from your TV as well but that’s a difficult choice to make.

I still remember the last days of the summer and the start of school, first I – like most guys – tried to re-discover your school uniform, then failing to discover where your bag is, getting a bag large enough to suit all the books then throw them in. staying awake all night because “you woke up in the afternoon”. And next morning you’ll a mental fight with your brain on whether you should wake up now or a few minutes later before finally defeating it and waking up.

Later when you arrive, you look for your buddies then have a small talk which always starts with “hey how was the holiday?” “Fine, and yours?” “It was fine too…” then actually talking about a real subject for a couple of minutes before the bell rings indicating its time to line up.  After lining up you’ll meet classmates you knew before and this you don’t take it further than the 3 lines I mentioned above because you and him aren’t really friends, just classmates. then the same thing will happen when the teacher who claims he came to “see you guys!” before he stands in the middle and silences everyone in the line-up so we can get ready for the principle’s speech.

Then everyone tries to listen to that speech before not caring anymore after they discover it’s the same old speech they heard since they joined school, no gum, no cell phones, no going to the bathroom in the middle of class…etc. afterwards you will be delighted that you no longer have to be quite and pretend to listen to that speech because its time to go to class, little you know that you’re going to a room to spend 6 hours doing stuff ranging from searching for the notebook you chose for the subject to listening to a lecture about something supposed to be the base you form your future on.

You wont find it that depressing because the same story happened to you since you went to the 1^st grade, then you were learning how to live life and you thought this is how life should be lived instead of spending your day playing with your friends and letting your curiosity be your leader and main reason for gaining knowledge because nothing teaches you how to live your life, assisted by your relatives and logic. Indeed a source of pure information is needed but not if it takes 1\4 of each day and 5\7 of each week.

How will a child’s hunger for knowledge survive this harassment all this time? After a while you’ll notice that this boy no longer asks you thousands of questions a day, or plays with his friends or even read a story. All thanks to a system called school. Its true most teachers try making it as much tolerable as possible, but that just doesn’t cut it, not with every rule forcing you to sit down and shut up, therefore killing your creativity and flamboyant acts. Every kid will shut up because of fear from punishment, but every creative flamboyant kid will not listen at all, you’re just wasting teachers’ time, kids’ time and talent and parents money. I cant imagine how a teacher stays enthusiastic to teach after he sees what he’s doing – that is if he is really smart enough to notice.

After the first few grades, school has successfully ruined everything that student could’ve accomplished unless he’s really determined and solid inside, which is a rare case. If you think about it for a minute, you will notice that every successful man was determined and solid enough to climb through those difficulties.

Hopefully a new system for creative kids will be created, it already exists but it’s not good enough or convincing enough for parents to put their children in, especially because when they graduate no respected university will accept them as students – another story of how the world takes the hard worker’s side – maybe one day we’ll see an improvement on this concerning those schools’ reputation and hopefully this will be fixed soon.