A Gooner Eagerly Waits... With A Yugoslavian Egg Tart

With the preseason underway i can't wait to see the gunners back in action again. The new signings will be no doubt be proven a coup or a flop as the season progress. Looking at the squad i find the team quite complete to mount a decent title challenge. No doubt many cry for out and out wingers and more so on the left, and i hope Arsene Wenger brings back Mexican wonder kid Carlos Vela back from loan sooner than later. I believe then the squad depth will be sufficient. The fact that there is no longer a super star player mentality lingering around the dressing room and on the pitch brings a bit of comfort. It should be well balanced now, and it certainly helps that the fact that most of the players are young would mean that they can be more patient when they are rotated and that is what is needed to challenge on all fronts. The example could be seen at Man United where Heinze's frustrations is leading him to the exit of Old Trafford.

The lads are a year older now and the year spent together can only do good. In a season where many would see them as in "transition" they managed to reach the Carling Cup Finals, whipping Liverpool and Tottenham and out playing a multi-million dollar pound squad of Chelsea in the Finals before succumbing to the eventual experience and class of Chelsea.

Although last season ended in disappointment by our own standards, there were many happy moments as a gooner and i hope there will be more this season especially with silverware a part of it. I would relish seeing more of this :


Man Utd players trying not to lose their heads














Ah yes, a double over Man United in the league, that was nice, and among the other top 3 teams we only lost to Liverpool in the league once and drew twice to Chelsea which was not bad too although we should have won both games which made it really frustrating to watch. We lost to many points to the teams we should not however and that is something we also need to look at this season.


Going into the new season being already written off is a nice change however as that is how the gunners always worked best and managed to spring numerous surprises as the youngsters did last season. I really hope all the signs pointing to the Gunners winning some silverware this season will be proven true. The beginning is always filled with so much excitement, hope and enthusiasm. Lets just hope that this would be the season that the Gunners start to reap the benefit of the youth policy.

Ah yes, another Wenger classic after the Barnet friendly game with the reporters when asked about Reyes and his imminent departure from Arsenal. Telling Sky Sports News Reporters that he thinks Reyes will go as there is no way He can keep an unhappy player at Arsenal, he then cheekily added :

"Despite the global warming England is still not warm enough for him."

He took another cheeky shot at the reporters when pressed with the question about his future at the club. After stating that he has always shown his commitment to his contract and to the club he added:

"I will come out at the right moment...maybe when you don't ask me the question."

Brilliant , nothing like some French humor to annoy some journalists. They should try some of this Yugoslavian Tart.

Malaysian Paintball Official Circuit (MPOC) 07 Season - 3rd Leg : Penang Cup

So like i was saying earlier, with our current group of players the Gunners can spring some surprises this season. In a good way i hope. Signing Eduardo Da Silva will... wait. im suppose to be talking about paintball...

Right, the Penang Cup was my 2nd paintball tournament, playing for team Monkey Bone Misfits. The first (07 Season 2nd Leg) was held in Xtion Paintball at Bukit Jalil where we finished at 10th place bringing it 8th place in overall ranking in the season. 1st Leg ended in disappointment as MBM got knocked out in 2nd round. Despite winning 8 out of 10, drawing 1 and losing the other in the prelims in decent form, we could not maintain the momentum and consistency on the 2nd day and crashed out.

The Amateur/Novice Division (or Division 3) in the Penang Cup starts with 10 games in the preliminary rounds out of which the top 12 teams will qualify into the quarter finals in 3 Groups of 4 teams. The teams that top each group (3 teams) and the best 2nd team in all groups (1 team) will then compete in the semi-finals where games are played best of 3 leading to the finals where it is also played best of 3.

Coming off the 2nd Leg i had a better idea of what to expect physically and mentally and came better prepared to anticipate anything that was thrown at me namely paintballs, heat, prawns and so on. The day before the tournament (friday) we walked the field and pretended to formulate brilliant strategies that will send the shivers down the competition. This would include hugging the bunkers (the inflated thing that shields you from the onslaught of pellets) like this:

"We'll win by diplomacy and show
our peaceful intentions by hugging
the bunker like this"

Yes, We Monkey Bone Misfits employ the most fearsomely confusing tactics ever imagined by our competition. Ask paintballer what they make of this picture. They'll never find out what we're planning to do. Neither will they understand our complex codes yelled across the field during the game. Lets see what you make of "Lok Lok" and "Ham Chim Peng". They'll never know what hit em before it's too late.

Part of our fearsomely confusing tactics is our preparation before the day of the tournament. Yes, we do have more up our sleeve besides hugging bunkers and pretending to take pictures of the bunker positions when we are taking pictures of the grass. (Ha! bet you didn't figure out that one either) That night before the tournament, we retreated to our secret spot where we stuff ourselves with what will fuel us for the tournament the next day- Prawns, and 3 kilos of it.


3 Kilos of Prawny Goodness
Needless to say, on the first day of the tournament we blew away our competition winning all 7 games for that day with 3 more to go on the next day for the preliminary round. Our fearsomely confusing tactics proved way too confusing for our opponents to bother putting up a fight against us.

Day 2 of the competition however was where we had a point to prove. It did not start as well as we'd hope for with a defeat in a game we should won. Perhaps we did not eat enough prawns to last the 2nd day. We were determined to break the jinx of not doing well in the 2nd day and came out firing on all fronts taking the final 2 games of the preliminary round by the scruff of the neck and twisting it, pulling the skin out like you would to the prawn and chew! chew! and... uh...

So we made it into the quarter finals where we were pitted against the current ranked #2 team in the rankings on their home ground. We played them in the preliminary round and managed to win against the odds and once again we proved that it was not by fluke. We lost the 2nd game of the quarter finals against another team in the group but came back to win convincingly against the 3rd team in a game where defeat would have sent us packing. We've made semi-finals, a goal set by our captain for this tournament. At the end of the game for quarter finals when we knew we qualified for semis we went crazy. Such is the passion displayed by the members of MBM most noticeably Adam who beat his chest and screamed in a language of his home planet which displays the utter most joy at our achievement. (ok, he did not beat his chest but he did scream for joy)

We were pitted in the semis against a team of fellow friends, members of the consortium which is made up of 3 teams with MBM included. Both teams gave their all and it was a close match, the first going to PMB (team Pink Mini Bus), we came back to take the 2nd game and the last was the longest of the 3 games with lots of intensity and in the end, PMB prevailed and made finals while we had to settle for 3rd/4th placing. MBM played and gave all they could. Surprisingly the 3rd/4th placing game pitted us against another team of friends from the consortium as well. It was a close match too and we managed to win clinching 3rd place in the tournament. So for the first time in my life this was how i got my hands on my first medal in paintball, a first podium finish and hopefully the first of the many that will come.


Team Monkey Bone Misfits 2007 From left:

Adam(Player-Back), Jon(Player-Front), Atifi(Player-Back), Simon(Player-Front), Cavin(Player-Mid), Brian (Technical Crew), Amir (Player-Mid/Front), Paul (MPOC director), Mark (MBM Captain-Back)

Some pictures :

Xing Kai "Exkay/Prawn King" showing how it's done. Check out the mountain load of prawn heads. It's genocide i tell you.









"Band of brothers" from left- Jon, Adam, Mark, Amir(At the back), Xing Kai (Exkay), Simon.









Team Monkey Bone Misfits
From left-Amir, Atifi, Cavin, Simon (Still biting the banner from the podium till now), Mark, Jon, Adam.









4th Leg (There are 5 legs in a season) will be held in Xtion Paintball, Bukit Jalil National Stadium on 25th and 26th of August. Come support us! Or support the blogger by giving him sugar and lots of it on that day. Or money funds, funds will be good too.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Prawns

So began a journey into blogging or rather now a horrendous task of typing out words onto the screen which i usually only reserve for assignments. Yikes, what have i gotten myself into now? I think i have quite a fair bit to put into writing, i guess i will put them in reserve and then later field them in Carling Cup, and perhaps some may provide decent cover for the coming season in the League. Then i will sell my best player to Barcelona and go on to win a Quadruple. Sounds like a plan. Expect players like reflections, randomness, paintball and football to feature here.



Coverage of my 2nd Paintball tournament coming up from the state of Prawnang Penang about 2 weeks back. Meanwhile, any complaints or flaming feel free to take a number from the complaint box as pictured below. Enjoy!





















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