Rubber Chicken’s Dojo

it turns out that the great jari litmanen is still alive and still playing football at the age of 38. overnight he helped his finland team clinically dismantle hapless wales, 2 – 0, at cardiff’s millenium stadium. it was litmanen of old as he picked out pinpoint pass after pass, holding the welsh defense at bay. he set up jonaton johanson’s first goal after some neat work. ex-sheffield wednesday striker, shefqi kuqi, scored the second to finish the game as a contest.

the win pushes the finnish above the welsh for third in the group behind leaders, germany, and the second-placed russians. i’d really like to see finland make it into the world cup just so jari can finally play in a major international tournament before he retires. but it’s going to be a hard slog.

 

 

from soccernet.com: Finland’s Birmingham-born boss Stuart Baxter hailed his side’s victory and the performance of veteran midfielder Litmanen.”Jari was outstanding, he is in the process of re-inventing himself at 38. He may not be able to do the runs he used to a few years ago, but he can still pass the ball and he dominated the game.”He is an amazing person. He has been a great servant to Finnish football, a great player.”

no shit, baxter…

second game of the year was a bit exciting. against only ten men, we jumped out to an early three goal lead. after half time, raceview pegged one back after some pretty shitty defensive work. i came on after a rest and restored the three goal cushion with a neatly taken header. see diagram:

i won the ball on the right wing before centring it to the midfielder, who passed (blue lines = passing) it on to the opposite wing. meanwhile, i had run down the side (red lines = running), cutting in behind the defense for the chipped cross. a neatly dispatched header couldn’t be stopped. my celebration began.

some interesting photos came out of tonga this weekend as an underwater volcano erupted near an island. the main story can be found here, and some pics:

i was reading on of henry rollins’ dispatches that he’d been watching quite a famous korean movie, tae guk gi, or ‘the brotherhood. it’s a film about brothers caught on opposite sides of the korean war, how they struggle to live and come to terms with their separation and eventual reunion. rollins called it “incredibly intense, moving in parts” and would have been “mind blowing to see on the big screen”. it’s nice to know that henry and i are of the same opinion. it is a very good movie. maybe henry could just ask me to lend him the dvd next time…

sheffield wednesday slogged through to a dour scoreless draw with playoff hopefuls, swansea, overnight. injuries to key players sean mcallister and francis jeffers put a dampener on a match not really worth writing about.

the draw moves the owls into 12th again. this whole yo-yo thing is a weekly occurance that should soon end. the teams with the same points as us have at most two games in hand. that should mean they will pass us a the next few matches. it also means a finish at about 13th or 14th.

just another day at work with tests, sunburn, noise and violent people with scissors trying to slice others’ throats. sports trials started and i am lambasted with misfits and smart-mouths. a brief respite allows me to catch my breath but not long enough to gather my thoughts. an ever-present tiredness makes my thoughts slow. if feels like i’m moving through molasses.  my stepping between scissors wielding maniac and his intended victims makes me rethink what the hell i’m doing here. even the drive home is hard. i heard from some friends from far away. it was nice to know i was in their thoughts, even for the briefest of moments. i’m one more step towards total mind control.

i’m 32 today

i was looking through some of my stuff, blog/pics and found that i didn’t put any shots of the beong eun sa  from the korean trip with dave. i remember that i was pretty sick that week but it was the only chance we were going to get. so we climbed up the back of the statue and sat for about 45mins in the freezing wind, shooting and talking. we got some good photos with a torch too… i’ll have to see if dave has a copy of the one i did.

i must admit i’ve been lazy with the personal blogging. but with a heavy schedule and no time for rest, by the time i sit in front of the computer with any inkling of an idea, the will to type is lost. i’m also torn professionally too; like typing anything about school. i know i don’t mention names but if i say anything untoward about work, and it gets back to superiors, then it’s my arse. the dojo has degenerated into a sheffield wednesday/sharks/picture blog. and to me, that sux ass…

for once it was sheffield wednesday scoring a late goal to get a result as they drew with watford. francis jeffers scored a penalty six minutes into injury time. six minutes! marcus tudgay had opened the scoring for the owls before an own goal by mark beevers and a goal from jobi mcanuff had put the hornets into the lead. jeffers’ goal saved the day for wednesday.

the draw leaves the owls in 13th, tied on 50 points with two other teams.