₦airaland Forum

Some people think life is white
Some people think life is black
We all know that life is
Black and White
Forza Juve
La Vecchia Signora
Campionato lo scudetto
La scudetti anni 28

I've been a Juve supporter going on 20 years now!

I am tired of people seeing what they want to see when they read my articles!

I AM NOT AN ARSENAL FAN!

It will be stale by then!

Sorry but none of the African teams are making it through. We are no longer in the days of African teams being surprise packages! No beef, this is cold analysis:

Group C: Argentina-Ivory Coast-Serbia & Montenegro-Holland

Argentina and Italy are my tips to win this World Cup with Brazil a close second. My reasons for that conclusion will be dealt with later, but now let us concentrate on the Elephants. Looking at those draws must make horrible reading for any Elephants fan who really knows his football. What do the Elephants have to throw at an Argentina that contains the likes of Riquelme, Veron (he is back in form in case y'all don't know), Messi and Mascherano? Does anyone here in his right mind think that the Ivorian defence will be able to cope in a match that the midfield has already been lost? I don't think so. Ditto Holland. The only thing that the Ivorians might have against the Dutch is the fact that the current Dutch team is relatively inexperienced at the WC level, but did you follow them in qualifying? Had you done that then you'd realise that this team is deadly!
Serbia and Montenegro have always been dark horses, and it shocks me that people aren't even mentioning them. Did you know that the biggest loss in World Cup history was by Zaire (an African team) to Yugoslavia? Yugoslavia is the country that has officially changed their name to Serbia & Montenegro...

Verdict: Poor Elephants. 4th in group.


Group D: Mexico-Iran-Angola-Portugal

First things first, I am still very bitter about Nigeria's infinite fu[i].[/i]ck up in allowing these geezers sneak into the WC ahead of our good selves. But then maybe it was necessary so we learn a thing or two about how to crush small teams when they need to be crushed. Did anyone watch the Rwanda-Angola match? Rwanda had Angola under the cosh for long periods of that game and it was just an act of God (whatever that means) that made Angola go through. Someone should challenge me on that one! Mexico are perennial 2nd rounders in the WC, and it is not beans that they were seeded ahead of Portugal and Holland! I see them going through. Portugal are coached by Big Phil and do have a talented squad. The rest as they say is history...

Verdict: Angola and Iran to decide on who will prop up the group when they play.


Group E: Italy-Ghana-USA-Czech

Let's face it, barring any unforseen circumstances, and based purely on current form, Italy is topping this group. Here we have a team of young, hungry and talented players who have some good experience blended in with them and a great coach in Lippi. Did you watch Holland-Italy? The Czechs are touch and go true, but the Americans whether we like it or not have actually come of age in the beautiful game. What do Ghana have? FIFA Fair Play awardee Essien? Let's remember that he is over-rated. Or is it Juve reject Appiah? Did you see how Pirlo owned him in the 2 Milan-Fernabache UCL games? Let's get real here: on the day of Italy-Ghana, every Ghanaian will to a man scream rape!

Verdict: Ghana might just nick 3rd place, but they won't go through.


Group G: France-Switzerland-Korea-Togo

This isn't Senegal 2002, the French unlike in 2002 when Zidane and co had just 2 weeks between the end of the season and the start of the WC to rest and prepare will have a month! Togo unlike Senegal 2002 do not have all players playing in France and camping together once a week in preparation for the World Cup. Switzerland went to Hell and got a result against Turkey. Korea were 3rd (or was it 4th?) in the last WC and do play some sexy football.

Verdict: Togo enjoys the party and comes home bottom of the group.


Group H: Spain-Ukraine-Tunisia-Saudi Arabia

The problem with Tunisia is that it is full of Tunisians! Tunisia are the perennial under-acheivers of African football. Check the records! So if y'all want to bring in the argument of Spain being perennial underacheivers, the same applies to the Tunisians. But on the flip side of the coin, I think that of the teams going to the mundial from this continent, they actually have the bset chance of progressing, that is if they can manage a result against either the Spaniards or the Ukrainians. Saudi Arabia is at the worst case scenario a point for everyone in the group, so qualifying from that group might end up being a case of how well you beat the Saudis. Roger Lemmere over to you.

Verdict: I won't stick my neck on this one, but I think they could just get into the 2nd round!


Note that as far as I am concerned though, Africa starts and stops in Nigeria, so I will not be supporting any of these teams at the World Cup. Ti amo Italia.

Akolawole:
I'm not suprised at all.
CHXTA
I've replied u VERY WELL in your post of yesterday's match.
Prior to Yesterday's match, Virtually all United Kingdom Analysts predicted Chelsea's fall, they were shattered to see the Champions Roaring as usual.
This morning, they are singing a different tune, they say Barcelona is beatable.
We are still going to meet Arsenal again and ......

Yet to see any reply...

Everyone knows that!

It's been a while since I played into these parts, but I hope that I'll be back for a while (if Seun doesn't annoy me again that is)...

Who the hell is this sage fellow?

I think it's safe to say that three mistakes cost Arsenal the game yesterday. Two of them were blindingly obvious, one of the them was a small mistake but very costly.

Mistake 1 (very ovbious): After about 20 minutes, just after Thierry Henry had hit the post, Freddie Ljungberg played in Robin van Persie and he finished quite clinically to make it '1-0' to Arsenal. However, for some reason the linesman disallowed the goal for offside. There is no disputing the fact that Henry was offisde but he did not touch the ball, the pass was not made to him and the goal should have stood. It should have been 1-0 Arsenal but soon it was the other way around.

Mistake 2 (tiny mistake): Kolo Toure allowed Arjen Robben to get away from him for just second but that's all a player of his pace needs when he's being played onside by Sol Campbell. He raced through and scored off the post to make it 1-0 to Chelsea when it should have been 1-0 Arsenal.

Mistake 3 (very ovbious): The ball came across the pitch and Lauren tried to take it down but only succeeded in playing the ball into the path of Joe Cole. He still had Sol Campbell to beat but he didn't have to do much to make Campbell look silly and finish with a left foot curler low past Jens Lehmann. From 2-0 down there was never any chance of coming back against a team as defensive as Chelsea and the three points were always destined for West London.

What a shame!

For me there is no question that van Persie's disallowed goal was the pivotal moment. Arsenal had weathered Chelsea's early storm, Henry had hit the post a minute or two before and then they scored a perfectly good goal which meant Chelsea would have had to come out and play instead of scoring themselves and then sitting back and showing everyone - AGAIN - how strong they are defensively. It was a really poor decision by the linesman and it cost Arsenal the game. Arsene Wenger was not at all happy, making a comment that could land him in hot water with the FA. He said "We scored a regular goal but the referee made a very bad decision. I associate the referee and linesmen in the same team - the Chelsea team."

Not long after that football's ambassador for fair play, Michael Essien, knocked out one of Lauren's front teeth with a straight arm while fending off the ball. For me the replays were inconclusive, maybe I need to see them again, but given his form he was lucky to escape with a yellow card. Moaning-ho said Arsenal were picking on him because of past events where he has tried really hard to break somebody's (Hamman for those who don't know) leg and said Philippe Senderos should have been sent off twice (?) which would be an achievement even for Rob Styles. Robin van Persie was booked for bouncing the ball in an agressive manner and it really does show the terrible disparity between mild indiscipline and dangerous, violent play. Why should bouncing the ball merit the same punishment as knocking somebody's teeth out?

In the second half Arsenal huffed and puffed but didn't create very much. Henry was very quiet, Cech made a good save from Lauren and with about 20 minutes to go they brought on Pires and Bergkamp for the ineffectual Ljungberg, and Alexander Hleb who looked promising but still without enough end product. A couple of minutes later Chelsea scored their second after Lauren's error and that was game over.

Arsenal needed big performances from the likes of Henry and Campbell and unfortunately they didn't get it. Henry, his shot against the post apart, was really quiet while Sol continues to be a terrible worry. He was beaten to a header by Joe Cole (up there with Drogba for ugliness), for God's sake, and at one point took a free kick with his left foot, skidding the ball straight to a Chelsea player. He's right footed! What the hell was he thinking? I know that Arsenal have too many kids playing and that they lack experience but it's the experience that's letting them down this season not the kids and Campbell is one of the main culprits. He never even got close to Joe Cole for Chelsea's second goal. Lots of people were talking about the duel between Drogba and Senderos but Big Phil defended like Tony Adams. He made everything difficult for Drogba and maybe he skirted the edge of yellow cards and so on but he was there every single time. His tackle on Robben just at the start of the second half reminded me of Steve Bould from back in the day!

Elsewhere Lehmann played well again, Fabregas and Flamini did okay in a midfield against two sly cunts and Fat Frank, Hleb was ok, Ljunberg anonymous, van Persie was good but playing on the left and Henry was quiet again. It seems like Arsenal played a 4-5-1 but I really would have preferred Wenger to play a good old 4-4-2. Despite the bad luck they had it's fairly obvious again that this Arsenal squad needs some strengthening come January because without it the 4th place needed to get into the CL qualifying rounds could be out of reach.

Finally, let's talk about Jose Mourinho. At the final whistle he disappeared down the tunnel and didn't even have the basic decency and manners to shake hands with Arsene Wenger. Lots of managers have problems with each other, can't stand each other, can't abide the methods/face/sight of their rival, but to a man they always have enough manners to shake the hand of their rival. For crying out loud even Lord Fergie and AW shake hands! Not Mourinho though. He's as ill-mannered, as arrogant, as childish as they come and for a manager of a team to come to Highbury and not have the consideration to shake hands with his opposite number says everything about Chelsea and the way they have come to be at the top of the English game. They're owned by a cunt, managed by a cunt, supported by cunts and staffed by cunts. I am praying that Barcelona rape them in the Champions League. Afterwards Mourinho said "Do you think that's important for the game? I don't think it is important for the game. What is important is 90 minutes of football on the pitch."

A fairly pathetic attempt to take away from the fact that he couldn't have put aside whatever his feelings are about AW for 2 seconds in order to shake his hand. Classless. And what's more, if you or I had all the money in the world to sign whatever players we wanted - and make no mistake that those are the resources Mourinho has available to him - I'm pretty sure we'd try and build a great team which played great football. No matter what Chelsea win they will never be regarded as a great team because of the negative football they play. That might sound rich coming from a Juventus fan, but at least Juve never paid top dollar in order to bore fans to death. We'd never have been compared to a 94 vintage Barcelona (which we have been!), and this Chelsea side will never even be compared to anything pretty! Defensive, negative, dour, without beauty - just like their coach. His paranoid ramblings about Arsenal's plot to get Essien sent off really makes you wonder about what world he lives in. He really does think everyone is out to get him and always has an excuse for his bad manners.

Anyway, that horrible cunt apart the fact remains that Arsenal have lost 3 in a row, lost their home record, failed to score for 3 games and sit 8th in the table at Christmas time behind the obvious teams as well as Wigan, Man City and Spurs. Arsene Wenger says "We have to show our strength now and come back, and finish as close as possible to the top team."

Amen to that. You've got to make them show their strength though, Arsene, and you've got to bring in the new players needed in January to make you strong enough again. I am backing you against another team that throws money all over the place: Madrid!

This thread makes for really sick reading!

How can you possibly contemplate a Chelsea minus Essien over 2 legs with a 34 year old Makelele, a Fat Frank and no Tiago or Smertin or Parker to back up for the missing Essien outplaying and defeating a Barcelona that (injuries permitting) will field Ronnie, Deco and Messi with Marquez behind them?

Even if Chelsea do manage to scale that, there will be either Lyon with Tiago(!), Diarra, Pedretti and above all Juninho Pernambucano waiting for them, lest we forget that in the competition remain Bayern, and Milan.

Let's be fair do you sincerly believe that Mourinho in terms of tactical nouse can match Benitez? And you have to accept that Liverpool are on form now!

Then there is la vecchia signora coached by the Grandmaster himself with a midfield containing il Puma and Paddy!

Used to use both depending on what kind of site I was building, but I haven't done any coding or site design in at least 6 months now...

Why in God's name did you change the title? This is the kind of thing that gets me really pissed off!

ManScum-Ch€£$k¥: A review...

Well, after beating Ch€£$k¥ in what was a really tight and tension-soaked affair at Old Trafford, Fergie will feel he's done enough to get the hounds off his scent for a while (albeit a little while we hope...). A great result for ManScum, but an even greater result for Arse-nal which will see their record preserved for at least another season.

Moaning-ho looked completely at a loss today, and he even managed to counter his best move when he removed Del Horno for Chinedu Onwuka (for those who do not know, that is Carlton Cole). This totally unbalanced his team which, up to that point, had looked like they were going to recover. (Shey I don dey yarn since say Moaning-ho no get tactical nous?)

Also, the endless long balls looking for Drogba and the lanky Onwuka proved largely ineffective as they all ended up somewhere outside the ManScum box, allowing the defenders to make robust challenges to get them away. Had these balls had a bit more penetration, they'd have caused some more problems.

Shaun Wright-Phillips looked completely out-of-sorts and is clearly lacking match fitness. There were none of the trademark mazey runs down the right flank which made him such a hot property last season (why in God's name did he go to Ch€£$k¥?). He only managed one shot on goal which was probably drifting wide before it was stopped by Van Der Sar.

van "hijo de puta" Nastilroy (no be me give am the name o! Ask Paddy Vieira http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/sport/sport1.shtml) blew the best ManScum chance of the second half, skying the ball from ten yards after having been neatly set up by Fletcher.

Overall though, a good performance from ManScum. They closed Ch€£$k¥ down rapidly, and gave the Blue scum no chance to dwell on the ball or think up attacks. Apart from a period in the middle of the second half (an inordinately long one at that) when Ch€£$k¥ dominated and looked like scoring, I'd say the scum had things under control.

Well, after it all, I can confidently say that my quarrel with Manchester United which has been raging for 6 1/2 years is finally over! No more calling them Man..., it is now Manchester United!

Finally, the end of the argument as to whether Frankie Lamps is better than Zidane (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mb606/F2241566?thread=1316714). Well, I can only go on...

Where are all you misguided souls now? All of you who dared sully the name of the legend Zinedine Zidane by mentioning it in the same sentence as Frank Lampard? Did you catch the Man Utd v. Ch€£$k¥ game? Anyone who did will realise one thing: Lampard is not and will never be good enough to lick Zidane's boots in front of Wembley before an England match.

Faced with a rather combative striker-turned-midfielder! in Alan Smith, Lampard faded as the game went on. His deficiencies became more and more glaring and fataly exposed.

1) Lampard has only two styles of passing: short to Essien or Makelele, or long hunting for Drogba. Niether of these proved to be the formula to unlock a rather stubborn Man Utd defence.

2) Lampard cannot hit a dead ball. Of the several freekicks he took, not one troubled Van Der Sar. I'll bet all the Man Utd players on wall duty needed ice after the match.

3) Lampard turns on the ball with all the grace of an overloaded supertanker.

4) Lampard only looks good when Drogba manages to knock a ball down for him to hit (while it is in motion of course) and with Drogba expertly marshalled by a combination of Silvestre and Ferdinand (I was shocked!), there were no such scraps for Lampard to feed on.

5) Lampard does not possess the quality or class needed to motivate a losing team facing equal opposition.

Amen!

Is this better than Google?

Just discovered Clusty - it keeps delivering better search results than Google. Its based on combining search engine results and sorting them into folders. Check it out.

Cause for celebration for all Nigerians and Nigerian friends out there...

For the first time in living memory, Nigeria has actually not been listed as one of the 5 most corrupt countries on earth.

Read here

Isn't that great? I am still not exactly a fan of Uncle Sege, but let's be fair, this is acknowledgement that his policies are actually having an effect!

Some people can only think short term and that is why we need inteligent, football minded folk to reorganize our football. We need discipline, commitment and dedication from the players. If they are not willing to be positive pieces to the puzzle then they should be discarded regardless of talent. If only CCC had the balls to axe Okocha sooner maybe he would have been able to reign in some of the players that defied all rules.

Today, I think it is obvious that Okocha's indiscipline hurt us more than his talent helped us during this campaign. For those who are willing to give Mikel Obi every latitude as he continues down his current chosen path- beware. A dedicated, disciplined and average footballer is always better for team play than a primadona. Lawal has proven this for over a decade now.

If Mikel does not get his act together then he should be axed from the National team until he is ready to conform and earn his place. This is why Cameroon have been able to achieve what they have and we continue to meander. We have not had the organization and coach that puts the team ahead of any player regardless of status and until we do that, we will continue to suffer.

In the mean time, I understand the need to find a scape goat on which all our problems can be heaped on. Kill Christian Chukwu!

...that we will qualify for Germany 2006, and here are 20 reasons why:

[1] For the first time since their draw with Nigeria, Rwanda are fielding their full squad

[2] Since Roger Palmgren took over as coach, the Wasps have not lost at home. He has made it clear that there is no way his team will lose this game

[3] Looking at both teams, Rwanda is by far the better squad

[4] Rwanda has sorted out all its bonus problems and their players are fully focused for the game. They know that if they win this game, they will climb up the Fifa rankings and get seeded for Ghana 2008

[5] Rwanda are so committed to preventing any mago-mago that they have moved their players to a remote training camp where no Angolans can reach them and offer the players bribes

[6] Caf has noticed that Angola is hoping to sneak in through the back door so have appointed their best referee to handle the match

[7] With all the international focus, Rwanda's players know that thisis their opportunity to impress and bag lucrative contracts in Europe. With coaches like Mouriniho and Queiroz in town, most of Rwanda's players have begun nursing hopes of joining Chelsea and Man U

[8] With Jimmy Gatete playing, you are guaranteed goals. Nigeria and Ghana can attest to his ability

[9] Cosafa wanted to muscle in and ensure that at least one East African country qualifies but Rwanda does not want Angola to be the first country from the region to go to the mundial. After their good showing in Tunisia 2004, Rwanda consider themselves better

[10] Most of Rwanda's players play for the army team APR. As we all know, thousands of Rwandan soldiers were massacered in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the Angolan Army when they cla
shed there.

[11] The gate fees have been slashed, meaning that the stadium will become a cauldrom

[12] Angola's players have been put under too much pressure. Imagine being visited by the ruling party, led by its secretary general

[13] Rwanda's players know they will not leave there alive if they lose that match

[14] Roger Palmgren, their coach is a very ambitious man. This is his last match in charge and he wants to obtain a favourable result that will get him a good job elsewhere

[15] If you saw the Rwanda vs Nigeria game, you will know that the Wasps can easily beat Angola. Nigeria were lucky to get away with a draw in that game

[16] Do you know that Rwanda is currently ranked 24th in Africa. Come Ghana 2008, the top 25 teams get seeded. If Rwanda lose, they risk not being seeded and facing someone like Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia or Ivory Coast in a head to head qualification game

[17] Rwanda know that a victory will keep them in 24th position at the very least. These boys enjoyed going to Tunisia 2004 and want to be in Ghana in 2008

[18] I have not seen anything to suggest Angola can beat Rwanda in Kigali. Is this not the same team that could not beat anyone else on the road?

[19] Do you know that Jimmy Gatete once had trials with AA Ghenk but was let go after he got injured? Do you not think he will want to use this opportunity to get a European contract?

[20] You just need to read Rwandan newspapers to see how seriously they are taking this game. No one goes to the stadium to lose a game!

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Light travels faster than sound, that is why some people appear smart until you hear them speak.
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Don't steal. The government hates competition.
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Some people think life is black,
Some people think its white,
We all know its black and white
FORZA JUVE!!!
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Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver
The other is gold
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Fight crime, shoot back.

Have you ever wondered what exactly goes on in Redmond (and all the other locations they have offices)?? It's not often you hear about what goes on at Microsoft, so I found this story quite amusing.

Microsoft Windows Officially Broken
David Richards & WSJ - Tuesday, 27 September 2005
Windows was broken and Microsoft has admitted it. In an unprecedented attempt to explain its Longhorn problems and how it abandoned its traditional way of working, the normally secretive software giant has given unparalleled access to The Wall Street Journal, even revealing how Vice President Jim Allchin, personally broke the bad news to Bill Gates.

[url=http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB112743680328349448,00.html]Original Source from Google Cache[/url]

Clean Mirror of the Original Source

[url=http://www.smartofficenews.com.au/Computing/Platforms_And_Applications?article=/Computing/Platforms%20And%20Applications/News/E5T7U6H8]Rest of Article[/url]
===

Speaking of broken, the article is too with some paragraphs repeating unexpectedly and such. But a good read all the same.

I'm amazed by how disorganized the whole thing is (or was). You would think that for such a huge company, what they would value the most is process quality, not a rush to ship code. But isn't it interesting that they are adopting the Unix model now? Small units, each of which does only one thing but does it well, and they can be connected together.

In light of all this, do you think they will ship a better product now? The software company with the biggest resources on the planet (bar maybe IBM and a couple of others).. I guess we'll find out sometime in 200..6?...7?

I need help. I was just told that my cholesterol levels are unnaturally high for someone my age, and that I need to change my diet.

Can someone draw up a chart for me?

obong:
whatever source you get your laws fro, there is no sane country in the world where the population is governed by two seperate laws. That makes it two seperate countries. We may be different but some things, such as law, must remain be the same. having a different set of laws based on religion is more divisive than calls for a fair sharing of the nation's wealth

Tell that to the British. They wrote our first constitution.

3.2. My only problem with KDE is that it is resource hungry...

The case of the Niger Delta is pathetic.

Superba responsio!

CimonJorr I owe you a drink! https://juventuz.com/forum/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

Here as an example, clearly shows that our constitution provides for the fact that there is a significant number of Nigerians who subscribe to Sharia as first law, not Canon Law. And let's face it, the civil judiciary is descended from Canon Law.

See, the constitution as a document recognises our differences, and seeks to take care of those differences, not to divide us, which sad to say is what those Niger Delta youths seek.

obong:
don't you think the poor image given by the sharia conflicts is just as damaging. It scares away investment in any area outside of oil, further deeping our dependency on oil.

Once again, mischief. The people who make the most noise about Sharia are those who have something to gain from the commotion that such noise creates. Saudi Arabia as an example is a country where Sharia is practiced everywhere, but they get all the required investments...

Iran on the other hand gets a lot of bad press.

Sharia is not the issue at all people. It is not.

Actually, the sharia in enshrined in The Constitution. Just that our people are applying it in a mischievous manner...

Answer to the question posed at the beginning <snip>: [B]YES[/B]!

I had bought a lot of [gifts] for my babe at the time (did the shopping on Saturday, February 12, forgotten what I bought though).

Sunday, February 13, 2000. Nigeria-Cameroon, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos...

Monday, February 24, 2000. Frances calls me (I am depressed mind you), and says: "Remember today is val's day, forget about yesterday, it is only a game!" That was the end of the relationship...

I have since moved on from the rabid football fan that I once was, but...

It is X my friend.

Meantime, hot off the wires: the British High Commission in Abuja has been receiving petitions from a lot of Nigerians to keep the man in Britain...

Flat panels are generally good for internet browsing because on the average they render text better than CRTs, but when it comes to movies, my analogy will be this: you can enjoy The Sound of Music to the fullest on an LCD, but won't like the action sequences of The Matrix on the same monitor.

An unbiased comparison of LCDs and CRTs can be found here.

Meantime, in Nigeria prices are in the N9k to 15k range for CRTs, and N24k to 55k range for LCDs. Never seen an actual TFT on display.

You want a flat panel monitor that is really sound? Go for a TFT monitor, not LCD. Unless of course your usage is restricted to word processing...

If you are a gamer then I suggest you stick to CRT.