The Amsterdam Disaster

Well, here I am. After promising to write something on the World Cup, another football tournament grabbed my attention and I've decided to report on the LG Amsterdam Tournament, especially the 2 matches that ruined United's season start. Mind you, that day was a complete footballing package.

Having bought the match tickets (that’s 2 matches for 1 ticket y'know) for a healthy 45 euros, we set off for Amsterdam on the Saturday in early August. The fact that we left The Hague guessing whether Rooney and Scholes would be eligible to play in the evening provided a lot of excitement throughout the day. How Rooney could get sent off (a straight red at that) for a yellow card offence at the most, during United's opener in the tournament the evening before v Porto is beyond me. Luckily United won that match 3-1 and with Inter playing stalemate with Ajax on the Friday, United needed only a draw to ensure victory in this meaningless pre-season gig.

We arrived in Amsterdam just in-time for the annual gay pride march in the city. The canals were clogged and the streets noisy. After a short trip to The Noon and filled up our blueberry supplies, we set off for the ArenA shortly after 5pm. Having bought a crap match programme before finding our seats, I was quite surprised on the number of people filling up the joint. LG's constant commercial bombardment prior to the match has paid dividence. With the Dutch crowed in buoyant mood, we were entertained to Inter v Porto.

The first match was certainly a curtain raiser. I was truly impressed by Inter who fielded Adriano and Martins together the majority of their star players albeit without the high profile signing of Vieira. The Italians raced to a 2-0 lead within 30 mins with the Chilean David Pizarro opening the scoring and Martins doubling the score line after the half hour mark. The fact that the Portuguese knocked the Dutch out of the World Cup in an unfashionable manner, encouraged most of the neutrals to route for Inter. With Martins adding another goal to make the score 3-0 shortly before the break, it was a relief to see Porto clench 2 goals back before the end of the match. The eve catching acrobatics of Porto's second goal (haven’t got a clue who scored that one) was one of the highlights of the first match together with Porto's new Brazilian sensation, Anderson.

After 90 minutes of footy and 15 minutes of finding a place to light a spliff, United took to the field without Rooney nor Scholes. Fergie was feeling lucky and youthful by giving starts for Simpson, Evans, Martin, Miller, Rossi and Richardson with Wes Brown leading the defence and Giggsy taking the team out against Ajax. The home crowd have been cheering on Klaas Huntelaar everytime he appeared on the screen before the match and have been rewarded with Huntelaar's inclusion in the starting lineup. Alas, there was no reunion bewteen Jip Jaap Stam with Ferguson as the former was left out from the squad due to an injury.

It was only a few minutes into the match when Carrick, United's overpriced summer signing, broke down after a challenge sometime around the 20 minute mark. From that point on, Lord Ferg seemed to lose interest in the tournament altogether and started to slow the tempo of the match down before introducing more reserves after the scores being 0-0 at half time. The most influential player on the pitch must have been Giggs as he struck the post a couple of times before the break from well taken set-pieces. It was the Welshman who provided the only goal of the game in the second half with a free kick taken just to the left hand side on the edge of the penalty box. His free kick ricoched against the woodwork and behind the goal line. Playing back in his home town, van der Sar also produced some fine form by saving Huntelaar's penalty early in the second half. The match ended with a victory for United in the Amsterdam Tournament yet with Scholes and Rooney banned for 3 matches whilst Carrick and Ferdinand were ruled out for at least a couple of weeks (Rio injured his ankle in a training session prior to kick off) it seemed like a heavy price to pay. With Carrick coming out on crutches to receive the medals, it was a sad sad sight to endure. After the players have paid tribute to the traveling fans and after hearing Huntelaar being named 'man of the match' (to ironic cheers from the Dutch crowd) we set off back to Amsterdam Centraal in an over packed metro.

The journey back provided us with the icing on the cake to what has become an eventful football day. Quite typically we ended up in a carriage chock-a-block full of loud, drunk, stoned and irate United fans. For some reason or another a fight broke out between a couple of Ajax hot heads which spread into a lot of pushing, banging, shouting and strangling which finally involved the drunken English. Being almost squelched to death between all the agro, I was relieved when the Ajax fans decided to sod it and exit at the closest metro station. For the return journey, the Red Army were singing their hearts out to what is hopefully the first of at least one more trophy before the end of the season.

summertime blues

After my long silence from 'the Lud', I'm back to announce more silences. The weather has simply been simply too hot for me to rack my brains into writing something worthwhile. Thus, the next time I post (sometime soon I hope) 'the Lud' will include the World Cup postmortem, some PE and life by the North Sea

Throughts

My thoughts are with the people of Jogjakarta who suffered a horrid earthquake earlier today

The D.A.I.S.Y. age

Having been brought to the attention of good rap last year as a result of a friend's visit, I've always wanted to write on this genre for ages. More specifically, I wanted to write something about rap's golden age. Old skool they say it. And one of the best to write on would be De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising.

The reason for that is because this album represents all the things I like about hip hop as I never was particularly interested in the genre due to consant bombardment from the mainstream media on wankers such as 50 cent et al. Although De La Soul's debut album doesn't really brings us the party feel of ol' skool rap, it does feature a very cheery feel with extremely clever lyrics (with a large dose of comedy and irony) and not the doom and gloom of gangsta rap of the 90's. It also has all the cool elements of scatching, impressive sampling, funk, psychadellia and most of all, wit. Although the album clearly shouts peace and love (a novelty in rap), it also discusses drug use (do not use, De La Soul say), ghetto life (but of course) and sex amongst others (the album does boast 24 tracks). All these factors justify 3 Feet High and Rising's billing as Rap's Sgt. Peppers. It's success with the critics upon its release in 1989 also proves succesfull hip-hop doesn't always have to rely on topics like hoes, pimps, guns and loads and loads of dosh.

So there you are, hip-hop at its best with all the essential ingridients of scratching, sampling, clever wordplay, comedy, and being from New York.

Quote from United Rant

Haven't made my mind up on Ferguson's antics yet but I just have to quote this passage from United Rant by The Editor as food for thought:

Has the world gone insane? Correction, has Fergie gone insane? Not just a little mad either. We're talking about the bouncing off the walls, frothing at the mouth, tied down, straight jacket wearing, valium for breakfast, several sandwiches short of the full picnic utterly fucking demented kind of insane. Because if the reports in today's press - and as predicted by Redissue two weeks ago - are true then Fergie must have joined the nut-club big time.

Consider the evidence. Fergie takes United's top goalscorer, with 150 goals in 200 games, first drops him then treats him with utter contempt, as good as throwing him out of the club. Maybe Fergie doesn't rate the player anymore - that's fair enough. But at least he's got a great strategy for selling the striker at the highest price, to a non-rival club, and bringing in a top class replacement, right? Wrong!

In fact the truth is this. Ferguson has no strategy for dealing with the Ruud situation whatsoever, bar getting him out of the club. Leighton, McGrath, Ince, Kanchelskis, Stam, Beckham, welcome your newest club member. Face, there's nose. Goodbye.

That United may well be in a position where they can only sell to Chelsea is quite ludicrous. But that is exactly what will happen should Ruud decide that the London club is the best option. And why wouldn't he... better wages, more trophies, and a manager who commands the respect of his players. The striker won't move to Lyon just because Fergie wants to use him as a make weight in a deal for Mahamadou Diarra. Why should he?

The frustrating thing about the situation is that United will almost certainly find themselves worse off come the summer's end. Strikers in van Nistelrooy's class are a rare breed, commanding massive transfer fees and attracting the interest of more successful, richer clubs than United. The kind of fee that is unlikely to be put Ferguson's way anytime soon that's for sure. So with Ruud on the way out, and the penny finally having dropped regarding the midfield, the team will be a striker light come August.

Arse Whinger

I don't usually write about football matters outside the mighty reds and England. Yet I'm compelled to comment on Arsenal's wednesday defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League Final. I found it such a shame that Arsenal's resiliance to hold Barca at a 1-0 scorline with only 10 men was damaged heavily by their manager and captain's brainless comments that the ref supported Barcelona and how king Henry was poorly treated by Barca defenders throughout the match. Audaciously, he still managed to call the Barca players 'women' for their 'diving' antics. Henry might be a phenomenal player but he's talking absolout bollocks there. His manager falls under that category as well.

If anyone should complain it should be the Barcelona players. They scored a perfectly good goal which was dissalowed and Lehmann the Arse goalkeeper sent off. Then Eboue set out to break van Bronchorst's leg with a dangerous high tackle. Not to mention his superb dive to earn Arsenal the freekick which lead to Campbell's goal.

I suppose Henry's and Wenger's comments helped me deminish all respect for Arse's squad for their achievements in this year's Champions League and go back to hating them as I always have done.

Thank God for Talking Heads

Having read J K's write up on The Name of the Band is Talking Heads, I naturally felt the urge to purchase a copy myself. For 20 euros, I must say I just bought a gem. This extended live collection is superb for first time listeners and I must say that the live version of their songs are certainly more exciting from the studio versions.

It really does go through the band's musical stages perfectly as the collection starts of with their live performances between 77 and 79. This first CD, or should I say CD1, clearly shows their new wave roots and you can clearly see why Talking Heads have left their legacy on today's indie scene. Going through their repertoire from their first 2 albums, the Heads sound like a very good Franz Ferdinand mixed with Roxy Music's glam and weird vocals.

Yet it is CD2 which shows Talking Heads quality. As the album progresses, their musical style becomes more and more sophisticated and external elements are brought in such as funk, soul, African music and a little psychadellia for good measure. While CD1 showed the band in their minimalist and dancy selves, the second disc could be mistakened for a Funkadelic and Roxy Music collaboration gig.