Saturday, August 17, 2013

Great Start from Arsenal!

 It is the perfect start from Arsenal! Laurent Koscielny got sent off, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gibbs, and Sagna all got injured. Great! Our defence will be completely destroyed in the next game since we do not have many defenders left in our squad. Such a good way to start. How can we lose against Aston Villa? Two freaking penalties!! How is that even possible? Oh Arsenal it is so heartbreaking to support you. Every time it turns out to be like this. We had a bad start last season as well, I think we should try to collect some points at the first place not when we are already out of the title race. This is what happens when we fail to buy Luiz Gustavo, Luis Suarez, Higuain, and all the star players who were linked to Arsenal. I am really tired of supporting Arsenal, but I do not want to support another club because Arsenal is my favourite club. Lets wait for Arsene Wenger to show some magic go us. Please.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Luiz Gustavo staying at Wolfsburg.

 This is ridiculous. Luiz Gustavo is not coming to Arsenal. How many players did Arsenal miss in the transfer market this summer? Everybody, except for the French striker. Higuain, Luis Suarez, and Luiz Gustavo. Do they even have a plan B to this situation? I hope they have one, but currently it does not seem like they have a plan B. Even Arsene Wenger admitted that they need to add some players to their team since they have a lot of matches next season. How are they going to survive the 2013/14 season without any squad improvements? No trophies again? OK, no titles, but how about the UEFA Champions League spot? Are we going to be able to play in the Champions League in the 2014/15 season? This is so ludicrous of Arsenal. I cannot believe it. Arsenal won't be able to win any trophies next season even if all players are on top form. Other teams have already finished their job to prepare for the next season, and Arsenal just bought one young player. As an Arsenal fan myself, I am extremely disappointed by Arsenal. I will now lower my expectation. We do not need any star players, but can we please at least buy some players? Just buying some decent players will help us a lot rather than buying young players again and again. There is no reason for us to qualify for the Champions League if we are never going to win the tournament. I really want to see Arsenal being such a beast team winning against teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

My first Youtube video on Gareth Bale!




 This is my first compilation of Gareth Bale's best skills, goals, dribbling, shots, etc. 

 Hope you enjoy it!


Music : CeeëX (/FunKCX) - Distance





Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Luis Suarez denies saying he wants to stay at Liverpool!




 Luis Suarez denied saying he wants to stay at Liverpool! Now Arsenal has a better chance of buying him. I really hope him to join Arsenal and play in the UEFA Champions League for us. Honestly I do not really care whether Luiz Gustavo joins us since we have a lot of central midfielders in our squad such as Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, and Santi Cazorla. However, we need a striker, and I mentioned this a countless times. Liverpool should face the reality and sell Suarez, then they could buy players for their team.


 However, I am a bit disappointed to those reporters and newspapers who like to spread false information. Arsenal fans are currently very impatient about the transfer and they only want 'facts' from the newspaper. Rumours just make us exhausted, just like the reporter who spread the rumour that Luis Suarez would like to stay at Liverpool. And then the next day it turns out to be false by Luis Suarez himself. Is this like a show to humiliate the fans? There have always been a lot of false rumours during the transfer market, but now I am tired of those false information. I want to see an official that says Luis Suarez has moved to Arsenal. 

Luis Suarez is remaining at Liverpool?!



 I cannot believe it. How can Suarez do this to us? Surely he said he wants to play in the UEFA Champions League, and to achieve that goal he was going to move to Arsenal. Higuain and Suarez both turned down the deal for Arsenal, and now they have failed to buy any star player to improve the squad. Luiz Gustavo? Yes, he can definitely boost our squad, but he is not the player we want. We want a beast striker. A great striker who can score at least 30 goals during the season just like Robin Van Persie. Sanogo is too young for us, he cannot score a lot of goals. We need to win at least one title in the 2013/14 season, and it looks like it is going to be a very difficult task once again.




 I think I should just give up, if Arsenal fails to buy Luiz Gustavo. The club should spend their money in order to compete against teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City. I mentioned in another post that I understand Arsene Wenger buying young players who have potential because it is a great way to buy players in a cheap price and then sell them when they become top stars. However, Arsenal does not seem to care about the present. We need players to play for the next season, but they always buy players who can play well in the 2015/16 season. This does not make any sense.


 Arsenal should really be enthusiastic in buying players and try to make some big deals that will surprise us. It has been a long time since Arsenal won a trophy, and I think Arsenal should make a change this time before the transfer market closes. The fans are now impatient and they would not wait for the team to develop young players. 

 Please Arsenal, let's make some changes this season.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Play Simple Football. Part 3 : Dribbling & Shooting

 Most of the time in a football game, it is better for you to pass the ball rather than dribbling, because it is more effective and easier. However, there are times when you have no teammates around you, and you need to dribble past defenders by yourself. This happens frequently in front of the goal. In this case, dribbling is a good choice unless you have a really bad dribbling technique. This is why you need to have a good dribbling technique other than good control and passing. Try to use simple body feints rather than fancy skills. Body feints are the most effective and simplest way to humiliate the defender. (Read this article) However, you do need to remember that dribbling all the way up to the goal is not a good choice. You have to be able to pass or shoot at the right time.



 Control, passing, and dribbling are all important elements of football, but they cannot let you score goals. In order to score goals, you have to shoot the ball. If you have a great shooting technique like Cristiano Ronaldo (read this article about long shots), try shooting from distance. Get rid of the idea that you need to get closer to the goal in order to score goals. Never be afraid to shoot from distance, even players like Cristiano Ronaldo do not score goals every single time. Use your teammates or dribble past defenders by yourself to create space, and once you have that space to shoot the ball, do not hesitate and take that long shot. 

 Remember, always play simple football.

                                                                                           - Play Simple Football. The End.

Play Simple Football. Part 2 : Passing

 Football is not an individual sport, it is a team sport. Therefore, once you have mastered control, now you need to know how to play with your teammates. In order to use your teammates, you need to know how to pass, but first understand that not every pass needs to be a killer pass. This is the part that I made a huge mistake on. Whenever I played football, I constantly told my teammates to make runs so that I can give the killer pass to them. This might work in a 5 aside game, but in a proper 11 aside match, it does not work all the time. You need to build up the play to get closer to the goal, and it is almost impossible to completely destroy the defence with one pass unless your Xavi Hernandez. Even Xavi Hernandez does not give killer passes to his teammates every time. He tries to build up the play first, and then when he sees the opportunity, he unleashes the killer pass.



 What I mean by 'build up' play is that you do not need to go forward every time. Sometimes you need to retreat backwards and then organize your play. Make sure your teammates are in the right position, and the team is on good shape to attack again. If you understand how to pass the ball like this, your team will be able to score goals easily against teams that never retreat. Therefore, you do not always need to look for the perfect pass, just pass the easy ball to your teammate, and slowly build up the play with possession. If you get used to this play, the pressure on you to make that 'good' pass will go away from you, and you will be able to play football with more confidence and intelligence.

Play Simple Football. Part 1 : Control

 Just an year ago, playing football made me very stressful. I thought I was a decent player, but when I started to play in the league, I did not know when to dribble, pass, and shoot. It felt like as if I was betrayed by my best friend. My favourite sport and hobby turned out to be very stressful for me. So after a few months, I stopped playing in the league, and just played with my friends, trying to get rid of the pressure. While I was away from football, I asked for some advice from my friend, who was playing in the top league in Singapore. His advice was simple. "Control the ball and then pass it to your teammate." When I heard this advice, I was very confused. I did not know what he meant, so I tried to watch how professional footballers play. I focused especially on Andres Iniesta, because he is not the strongest or the fastest player, but he is considered as the best midfielder in the world. Watching him play was so fun and astonishing at the same time. His play was very intelligent, but also very simple. Just like the advice from my friend. From there, I started to understand how to play football 'properly', and realised that I was playing like a complete beginner who only knows how to dribble past defenders. After the enlightenment in my mind, I felt pretty confident to play football. 


 However, simple does not equal easy. It is never easy to control the ball and pass it at the right time. To master control, I practiced juggling everyday, which also helped me find my sweet spot to shoot the ball with power and accuracy. (read this article about juggling) After a lot of practicing, I am now able to juggle over 300 times, and I feel totally confident with the ball. Now that I almost mastered control, it makes me easier to look up and give the right pass at the right timing. Most of my friends do not know the importance of control, and never practice juggling. Therefore, they find it hard to control high balls or balls with speed. This is the reason why simple does not mean easy.

 Playing simple football is important, and the first step is to master control.


Arsenal Transfer : Luiz Gustavo!





 It looked like as if Arsenal was not going buy any star players in the summer transfer market, but finally they are close to completing the £14m transfer for Bayern Munich midfielder Luiz Gustavo. The brazilian did not have a lot of opportunities to play for Bayern Munich since the team has a lot of central midfielders who are much better than Luiz Gustavo, such as Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez. Even worse for the brazilian, Bayern Munich bought Thiago Alcantra from FC Barcelona who is another central midfielder. Therefore, Luiz Gustavo could only make 16 starts in the 2012/13 season. Arsenal's attempt to buy Luiz Gustavo makes us happy as we were a bit worried that we might end up buying nobody except for buying the 20-year-old French striker Yaya Sanogo on a free transfer. Actually, I am still a bit worried with this deal because the deal is not completed yet. Just about a month ago, Arsenal was close to signing Higuain but eventually failed to buy him. I really hope this would not happen again to Arsenal. Also, even though Arsenal buys Luiz Gustavo, we still need a great striker who can score a lot of goals for us. Currently Luis Suarez is the striker who is linked with Arsenal, but Liverpool looks like they are never going to let Luis Suarez move. However, Luis Suarez wants to move since he cannot play in the UEFA Champions League in the 2013/14 season, and he thinks a player like him should play for the Champions League. Liverpool did not even qualify for the Europa League next season, which makes it even worse for Luis Suarez. If Luis Suarez and Luiz Gustavo join Arsenal's squad, Arsenal will be much closer to the Premier League and the Champions League title.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

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How to become a better Footballer

 If you want to be a better footballer than you are now, the first thing to do is to get more control of the ball. The best way to master control is juggling. Juggling needs to practiced everyday, and try not to be interested in fancy skills that players like Neymar use. It is important to use both foot and try to stay in the same position when you are juggling. Here is a good video for you to learn how to juggle the ball in the correct way.




  If you juggle the ball with the 'sweet spot', your juggling will be stable and it will help you get more control of the ball. Everybody has their own sweet spot when they juggle, and you should find your own sweet spot. If you can at least juggle 100 times without letting the ball bounce on the ground, it means you gained almost perfect control of the ball and at this point it can also help you with other skills in football. First, when you dribble the ball, the ball would be much closer to your feet and you would be able to change directions quickly. Secondly, since you have found your sweet spot while juggling, shooting will be a lot more powerful and accurate. It is not easy to juggle the ball over 100 times, and you need to practice everyday. It is definitely very difficult, but if you practice hard enough, you will find yourself juggling over 300 times. I hope you could develop your skills by juggling, and become a better footballer.  :)

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Effective Dribbling by Lionel Messi




 Players like Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo tend to use skills to humiliate defenders. If you are a master of skills like these players, there is no worry when you face defenders. However, not all players are talented to use skills during a match against professional defenders. Using skills look fancy, but sometimes players miss the timing to pass or shoot the ball while skilling. Also, good defenders are not humiliated easily by skills. Therefore, most players rather pass the ball to their teammates than attempting to skill defenders. Lionel Messi is different. He developed his own method of humiliating defenders. He just uses body feints to fake the defender and sprint pass them. By adding his phenomenal speed, his dribbling technique is by far the most effective way to destroy the defence. It is impossible to forget the Champions League semi-final when Lionel Messi dribbled past 5 Real Madrid defenders and scored. The technique looks quite simple, but actually your balance should be great, and it takes some time to master the technique because it is not easy to use it during a match. Also, other than dribbling, Messi is smart enough to use his teammates, and he is capable of scoring goals whenever there is an opportunity. Lionel Messi's play does not look fancy or skillful because he only uses the fastest, simplest, and the most effective way to score goals. It looks easy, but as I mentioned above, it is very difficult. This is why Lionel Messi is considered as the best football player in the world.

Zinedine Zidane.. The Orchestra




 People who watched Zinedine Zidane play say his match is like an orchestra led by him. He is the Maestro in football. If Messi and Ronaldo are great goal scorers who know how to win the game, I think Zidane knew the beauty of football and tried to show that to the world. The video above just shows the skills that Zidane used, but you will find out that this video is simply more than that. I do not really know how to explain Zinedine Zidane, but I do know that he was more than just a footballer..

Arsenal 2013/14



 It looks like Arsenal's pre-season tour is going on successfully, and most players are on top form. However, it also looks like it is going to be another summer with no signings except for another unknown, young player. I am an Arsenal fan, and I like Arsene Wenger's philosophy of buying young players who have potential rather than buying expensive star players. However, I think this season is the time for Arsenal to spend some money to win at least one title. I hope Arsenal to reach the semi final of the UEFA Champions League in the 2013/14 season. To achieve this goal, Arsenal needs to improve their squad with a new star player. Theo Walcott, Oxlade Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, and Santi Cazorla are all good players who can play in a high level of football, but compared to the great players who play for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, and Borrusia Dortmund, it is difficult for Arsenal to win against these teams without a beast player, especially a striker. Last season Arsenal bought Olivier Giroud in the transfer market, but Giroud failed to adapt to the Premier League disappointing the fans. Hopefully, Suarez said he wants to move to Arsenal since he wants to play in the Champions League, but the bad news is that Liverpool is never going to let Suarez move anywhere, especially Arsenal. If Arsenal can add a great striker like Suarez in their squad, their 2013/14 season will be great, and finally they will get some trophies in to their trophy room.

Gareth Bale and the Champions League


 In the 2012/13 season, Gareth Bale has done an amazing job for Tottenham Hotspur, and still they have failed to join the UEFA Champions League next season. There is no choice for Gareth Bale now, he has to move to a new team. He has done his best in Tottenham, and proved the world that he is a world class player. However, he cannot play in the Champions League, and a player like him should play in the Champions League. There is no guarantee that he is going to do the same for Tottenham next season and Tottenham might fail to join the Champions League again next season. Gareth Bale has to move to a team who has qualified for the UEFA Champions League, he needs better teammates who can help him score more goals. He might be the next Ronaldo or even the first Gareth Bale who scores more goals than Ronaldo. Robin Van Persie moved to Manchester United and won the league title, also winning the top scorer title. Robin Van Persie also scored 30 goals for Arsenal just before he moved to Arsenal, and Gareth Bale should move as well since Gareth Bale has much more potential to become a great player. It is a great pleasure for us to watch Gareth Bale playing in the Champions League scoring amazing goals. Fortunately, Gareth Bale seems to be linked with Real Madrid, but the problem is his price. He is way too expensive in the transfer market, which makes it harder for other clubs to buy him. Also, Tottenham Hotspur looks like as if they are never going to sell Gareth Bale. He needs his left foot to play in a higher level of football, and his potential will explode.

Friday, August 9, 2013

FIFA 14 is coming.


 The release date of FIFA 14 is down to one month. It is definitely exciting, but it seems like there are no more revolutionary upgrades. As seen in the gameplay, FIFA 14 and FIFA 13 look almost the same. This is pretty disappointing, because for the past few years, EA and KONAMI fought against each other to make the best football game in the world. When ps2 was the best console, PES definitely won the battle against FIFA, and I think they were pretty satisfied with their game, expecting to win the next battle when the ps3 is released. However, EA worked very hard on the ps3, xbox360 version of FIFA, and KONAMI lost their pace to catch up with EA. After EA released FIFA 12, the battle seemed over. Now, EA is the one who is satisfied with their game making only small changes for the next series. FIFA 13 and FIFA 14 is about the same except for some new features and changes made.

 Even though there are only some changes made for FIFA 14, there are still significant improvements in the game. First, in Ultimate Team, finally you can search players by their name. It was very difficult for us to search for a player in the previous series, and this change is significant. Also, the career mode has changed a lot, it looks more like Ultimate Team now, but EA made sure it is better than the previous versions and the customers are satisfied and excited to play career mode rather than Ultimate Team. While Ultimate Team was all about collecting coins, career mode gives you an experience of buying young players and developing your own squad without considering chemistry.

 I do not really expect the ps3, xbox360 version of FIFA to be good. However, what makes me excited is the ps4, xbox one version of FIFA. I hope there will be a significant change on the graphics and systems, but I do not expect too much. Anyway, the fact is that I am going to buy FIFA 14 whether it is the pc or the ps4 version, because I love football.

Cristiano Ronaldo and his Long Shots

 People always compare Cristiano Ronaldo with Lionel Messi, and most people think Lionel Messi is a better player than Ronaldo as Messi can score more goals and he has a better career than Ronaldo. Of course, this is the truth. However, Cristiano Ronaldo likes to take risks while Lionel Messi does not. Lionel Messi likes to play with his teammates trying to get closer to the goal as possible. Cristiano Ronaldo also does that most of the time, but he often tries to take some long shots from far way out. He is using the simplest idea in football. If the ball is in the back of the net, it is a goal, so if you think about it, you do not necessarily need to pass and dribble towards the goal. Just shoot, and this is Cristiano Ronaldo's idea when he takes long shots.




 As you can see, these long shots are 'legendary', just like the title. His technique is fabulous, his shot dips in front of the goal and makes the goalkeeper dumbfounded. People try to imitate his so called knuckle ball technique as it is the most effective free kick/long shot technique known. Obviously he does not score goals like these in every match. He makes mistakes and sometimes the ball just goes wide, and makes his teammates frustrated because sometimes he just shoots when it is the timing to pass the ball. However, it is important that Ronaldo 'tries', since most players do not even try to score long shots. This is the reason why Ronaldo is capable of scoring beautiful goals shown in the video. Most importantly, when these incredible long shots are scored, it makes 'us' enjoy the beauty of football.