Yesterday was System Administrator Appreciation Day! As someone who works in a team that builds products for IT Pros and sys admins, Happy “Your” Day to all sys admins out there.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/073010-system-admin-day.html?hpg1=bn
A young Liverpool side beat FK Rabotnicki today 0-2. Roy went with a 4-3-3 with Milan Jovanovic playing out wide and David Ngog in the middle up front. That worked out pretty well for Ngog as he scored a nice season-opening double. I don’t think Ngog is even close to sensational, but if he’s capable of netting 10-15 goals this season, that’s surely handy and something I’ll take.
I was happy to see Aqua, Lucas and Spearing in the middle doing well. Spearing seems handy as well.
Next post – getting lots of goals from lots of players – something to hope for?
I wonder what Roy Hodgson is thinking right now. Right…now. It’s Thursday, July 29th, around 7:40am in Skopje, Macedonia where Roy and a largely inexperienced Reds side find themselves preparing for the Europa League qualifier game against FK Rabotnicki.
As he himself stated, this is a tough game; tougher still since this is his first competitive fixture having taken over as the Reds boss just under a month ago, and with as many as 10 of the senior players missing.
I don’t want to use the word depleted to describe the squad – that’s far from the truth. I’ve read everywhere that the squad is inexperienced, which is largely true. But take a closer look at the players who’ve made the trip, and I don’t think it’s all gloom and doom.
Here’s my take on who should start:
In goal is Diego Cavalieri, who is the first choice keeper in the absence of Pepe Reina (who I hope returns not as tired as the rest since he didn’t actually play in Spain’s world cup winning campaign). In defense, I think Roy should go with three at the back, with Kyrgiakos, Skrtel and Agger. Given that Glen Johnson hasn’t made the trip and the club has no leftbacks, a triad of experienced defenders seems like a wise decision to me. In midfield, I’d go with Lucas, Aquilani and Spearing in the middle, with Eccleston and Amoo providing some makeshift width. Perhaps Jovanovic can play again as a left winger as he did against Kaiserslauten. Up front would be David N’Gog, who didn’t impress me much last season, but is probably a better bet than the untested Dalla Valle. Toss in Jonjo Shelvey in the mix as a floating attacker, and I think we have a decent side. Experienced defense, decent enough midfield, and (hopefully) a bold, youthful and adventurous offense.
Personally I’m itching to see Shelvey and Jovanovic in action. Joe Cole will be very interesting to see as well (especially how he partners up with Gerrard), but let’s be honest – he’s a known quantity. Flashes of brilliance, but periods of dark. But that time will come…one thing at a time.
A number of interesting things happened in between my last post and this one. I turned 25, I realized that when doctors have no clue what to say, they say “let’s get an MRI”, Spain finally won a World Cup and Paul was right after all. But the one thing that has been the most interesting is the news that broke out today.
I woke up to my usual ritual of going to soccernet.com first thing in the morning only to be greeted by a photo of Joe Cole’s tongue and the headline “Cole agrees Liverpool move”.
This is really good news for us. It appears as if we’ve agreed to pay him about 90k per week, but given that he cost us nothing to buy, that doesn’t seem like such a bad deal. Stepping back a bit, this actually has all the markings of a fantastic business deal – Yossi goes to Chelsea, Liverpool get 5 million and Joe Cole.
Now while I don’t know who the brain is behind this, but I’m secretly hoping it’s Roy Hodgson. If it is, then for the optimists, it should only be seen as a small demonstration of what a very shrewd manager can accomplish with almost no resources.
I personally liked Yossi – I thought he was a very good player and brought a little extra spark to the offense very time he was on the pitch. Sadly, that didn’t happen too often. Yossi’s time at Liverpool was very formulaic – he would start on the bench, come on and make a big impact (score or set one up), get oozes of praises from Rafa who’d say “this is what Yossi can do for us” and give all the signs that he’d start the next game, but only to relegate him right back to the bench. No wonder Yossi was frustrated.
But I’m more excited about Joe Cole. I have to admit, I dreaded seeing him on the pitch playing in Chelsea’s blue against Liverpool – it always felt like he could ruin it for us. He had an injury-plagued time in London, but he did show all the signs of greatness every time he played.
They say footballers peak at 28. I’m really hoping this is true.
Welcome, Joe.
So the latest word is that Roy Hodgson is set to become Liverpool’s manager. I personally would have loved to see the King take the helm again, but I don’t have a reaction to Hodgson like I would have to Ericsson either. So it’s not all bad.
Hodgson has definitely worked wonders in Fulham last season. He took a rather so-so side to the finals of the Europa League where they lost out to a Diego Forlan inspired Atletico Madrid (the side who beat Liverpool).
The big question is, of course, whether he will be able to convince Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres to stay. Looks like Mascherano and Benayoun are set to leave come what may. Masch is probably going to follow Rafa to Inter (as alluded to by his recent admission that he is learning Italian). Also Arsenal and Birmingham have reportedly shown interest in Ryan Babel, so he may be out as well.
A small bit of mystery remains with Jonjo Shelvy. Is he going to become another one of those acquisitions who never sees the light of day at Anfield? There’s a long list of those, including the late Besian Idrizaj.
Lots to look forward to.
I made a few trips in 2008. Personal and work related, some were spontaneous while some others were well planned. Each trip was a unique experience. However the one trip to Cairo was, in my retrospective analysis, was the most interesting one.
As I boarded my 12 hour non-stop flight from JFK to Cairo, I tried to picture what would await me in the land of the Pharaohs. When it finally hit me that I’m going to Egypt, I began imagining the Pyramids and mummies, richly decorated, demanding admiration and respect. Keeping in mind the fact that the mighty Sahara desert lays claim to much of Egypt’s land, I also imagined a hot arid country with sand lining the side of the streets (surprisingly, much like many cities in South India), people with a chronic frown on their faces and a squint in their eyes as they tried to avoid the blazing sun. “Wow, Africa dude,” Manu had reminded me the week before I left. Yes, I said to myself, it’s Africa. Land of the Africans, elephants, lions and the safari, genocide, the Flower brothers (Andy and Grant), Nelson Mandela, and hyperinflation. And then my father told me that Egypt would resemble a middle-eastern country more so than it would, an African one. Think Doha or Muscat, my father said. So I did.
And so when I landed at Cairo International Airport and stepped off the aircraft and on to the tarmac, I was shocked (and mildly pleased) to be greeted with a pleasant 20 degrees and a country that resembled more than anything else I had imagined, home.
I spent a week in Egypt. Aside from making trips to the Intercontinental hotel for my conference, I spent some quality time going around the bustling and crowded city. I made the obligatory trip to the Pyramids in Giza, indulged in huge quantities of rich hummus and spent more time in a thirty year old rattling Peugeot taxi than in my hotel room. Locally known as Al Qahirah, the city is Africa’s largest, with a population of over 17 million. Looking at an areal shot of the city, amidst the denseness of brick and mortar, one can clearly see the Nile river drawing the line of life, destiny and everything in between. Cairo struck me as a city that mirrors Bombay [sic] in many ways. It’s crowded, indisciplined, and most of all, people simply don’t have time to stop and smile. They just step on your foot and continue on their way.
The Egyptians, I concluded at the end of the week, seem to be a people caught between Westernization, taking forced pride in a rich and illustrious culture that has left behind much of what sustains their economy today, and who they really are.
Decisions made by former presidents Gamal Abdul Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and the current president Hosni Mubarak have resulted in Pizza Hut, KFC, Nike and Hyundai. Etisalat proudly boasts of its 3.75G service offering. The Cairo Stadium still echoes the sound of fans cheering as the national football team lifted their consecutive African Cup of Nations. Branding is everywhere.
And yet, the Egyptians appear immensely proud of their illustrious history. However, I am convinced that while the Egyptian is grateful for the rich culture left behind, much of this comes from a survivalistic necessity to be so. The Egyptian today has little else to use to hold your interest other than the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings and Memphis. That’s right, there is no oil. While present day Egypt aches to be culturally closer to it’s middle-eastern allies in terms of Islamic practices, Egypt is also faced with a strong need to hold on to the thousand year old pagan history, little of which influences the life of a present day Egyptian. The pride that the Egyptian seems to take in this culture and its impact on his day to day life seem at odds, so much so that one feels like singling out the materialistic profit that the Egyptian stands to make through this as the only reason why he even bothers associating himself with this culture.
My thoughts are by no means intended to cast a negative light on the city or the country. I loved Cairo. I would definitely want to go there again.
