Finns anyone?

Roy Hodgson was appointed as Fulham manager.
The only thing I know about him is that
he is a very experienced coach and
he recently almost led Finland to Euro 2008 finals.
Good luck, Roy.
You'll have my backing until you let me down.

I don't really mind you bringing some Finns.
How about Jussi J or Hyypia or Tainio or Koppinen
or Vayrynen or Forssell... but no Enckelman, please.
Or Finn?

Rams to the slaughter

Not really.

Derby 1-2 Liverpool

After the Fulham game I watched this.

Dean Leacock and Eddie Lewis(aka American Beckham) played for Derby.
I've never seen Lewis playing for Fulham
but I think Deano played some decent games in place of Finn.
Finn came back from injury and had to take care of Lewis.
Very interesting, it seemed.














Finn might not be 100% fit but I think he had a so-so game
(I'm demanding as far as Finn is concerned)
and Liverpool somehow got three points.
Lewis took a very good free kick to score the equaliser.
I could catch a glimpse of (American) Beckham.

I feel for the Derby fans.
In the second half, Derby showed the spirit which we lacked.
They showed a desire to win and fought for a win which they almost nicked.
I applaud the players and their fans.
If only our Fulham ...

Now we play Birmingham on Saturday.
Who will score?
Can we score?
Of course we can. I'm sorry, Maik.

Sorry

I was wrong.
We didn't go up.

Spurs 5-1 Fulham

Where were spirit and effort?
No desire to win?
We are not just good enough?

Baird and returning Volzy were terrorised by Steeeed
and he is in the Skysports' team of the week.
How fulhamish...
I hope Junior will be fit for the Birmingham game.

A very merry Christmas

To you all.

Come on you Whites!

Spirit and effort

Fulham 1-1 Wigan

As I couldn't watch the game online,
I listened to the commentary by Gentleman Jim.
He feels the same as me (you all know)
and he says "Oh, no!" in the depressed voice
when we concede goals
before describing how it happens.
I heard it in 70th minutes.

All right, we conceded again.
From his commentaries I thought we improved
and had a good game.
Under a caretaker manager and being in the bottom three,
the lads have to feel the urgency and have to perform.

Then came 78th minutes.
Clint scored.
I felt Gentleman Jim was almost weeping like me.
His voice was trembling
and I was really really happy to have a commentator like him with us.

It's a shame to get only a point against Wigan.
But if I believe what Ray Lew said(no reason why I doubt)
there were spirit and effort.
We are 17th now and we will only go up.

LS was sacked

At least one step forward, I hope.

Ray Lew and Billy McKinlay will be in charge for the tomorrow's game.
I really want to see our Super Whites play an attractive passing football again.
Who will be our saviour?
For another few days I will be having butterflies...

Wigan game is a must-win game
and I desperately hope our players to show their desire and determination.
I'll get behind the lads like all the Fulham supporters as always
and the lads have to realise that.




Just a reminder...

CL last 16
Full draw:

Celtic v Barcelona
Lyon v Manchester United
Schalke v Porto
Liverpool v Inter Milan
Roma v Real Madrid
Arsenal v AC Milan
Olympiakos v Chelsea
Fenerbahce v Sevilla

(Ties to be played on 19/20 February and 4/5 March)

Lucky Scum...

Dream on, Milucra!

John Collins resigned as Hibs manager.
I heard that Jean Tigana was at Craven Cottage the other day
and so was Lee Clark.
JT, JC and Clarkie...what a fantastic management team!
Sorry, I'm just dreaming.

I have to go now and
I'm not sure if I can concentrate on work.

And can anyone explain about this, please?





(around 9:30 this morning)

deflected in off...or

"Deflection" is a fairly familiar word
for Japanese football fans
because Japanese commentators often use the word
in their commentaries.
They might have said
"Lampard no shoot wa Carragher ni atatte deflection shimashita"
when they saw the goal by the Scum's captain.
But they would have been too polite to say
"How many deflected goals has he scored this season? "
"Most of them, I think"
Unlucky Carra and Itandje...
But not unlucky you Crouch!
That was not what most Reds fans wanted from your long legs.
Did Mr.Benitez think they could win
with the team he selected against the strong Blues side
or he just give up?
It is only the Carling Cup some might say
but it would have been the only winnable silverware this season.

OK I don't really care about it.
I'm just worried about Finn's injury.
It didn't seem to be so serious when N'Zogbia stamped on his shin.
Or it might be a different injury or Manager is thinking something.
We all know he thinks a lot...

By the way I found this example in my dictionary.
"deflect from one's duties"

...no golden sky

Fulham 0-1 Newcastle

Improved performance from our Mighty Whites.
Well done, lads!

...the above was what I was writing around 80 minutes.

But now I am so disappointed that I can't say anything meaningful.
(OK, I know I don't say anything meaningful anytime.)
Junior was having a good game but one rash challenge ruined his 19th birthday.
Penalty kick by Barton of all people...(I really hate him)
in the added time...
It may be a cruel lesson for him but for Fulham it could be crucial.
If only our attacking players could (should) have scored this and that...
At least we deserved a draw.

Now we are in the relegation zone.
What will LS do? Or Uncle Mo...
Last few seasons (from 2002 I mean) I never had been worried about the relegation this much.
I don't have a faith in LS, it seems...

But how cruel football is...

At the end of a storm...

Everton 3-0 Fulham

I don't want to talk about the match.
I'll just give a big applause to those who travelled to Merseyside in the pouring rain.
I could hear their voices.
But their journey back home must have been miserable...

Now the Fulham game was over around 2AM here in Japan
and the Reading v Liverpool game started soon after that.
I thought that Finn could comfort me but lo and behold!
He wasn't playing and even wasn't on the bench.
I knew he had a calf injury but was it that serious?
Or was he rested for the CL game?
Nobody gave me a slightest idea about it.
Nobody cares about him.
"All right then" I thought,"I don't care as long as they win"
...you all know the result.

Reading 3-1 Liverpool

I went to bed about 4AM and woke up 7AM to go to work.
What a terrible night(or morning) it was...

These are my wishes, Mr.Santa Claus.


courtesy of Runo
http://nuno-runo.blogspot.com/


Fit Super MaC.
Fit Bully (glad to see him with the team yesterday).
Fit Volzy.
Some wins.
Decent manager.
Passion, determination and commitment from our players.
At least one medal and a decent manager for Finn.


And unlucky Maik...
Antti is in the Sky's team of the weekend.
How is it like to be a goalkeeper, I wonder?
A very interesting article by Aki Liihilahti (ex Crystal Palace midfielder)
about a goalkeeper. Worth a read.

Well done!

Antti.

He made some fantastic saves to make the scoreline look decent.

ManUre 2-0 Fulham

I think Junior had a good game and so did Aaron.
I forgot that Murphy was a great player for Liverpool.
He reminded me that last night(this early morning, actually).
If only he could score... and Kuqi, you should have scored!

Their two goals were avoidable. I didn't want to see the soft goals.
And especially by that cheat of all people!
I don't mind a goal by Rooney or even Saha but not that c**t.
I was really pleased that the crap,
sorry Mr.Ref gave him a yellow card for diving instead of sending off Antti.
Sir Purplenose moaned about it but everybody can see
that the cheat tried to get a penalty and didn't jump over our precious keeper.
We played some neat football but no real threat in the final third.
Deja vu?
Where will we get points from?
I don't know. I just hope...

Draw kings

Fulham 2-2 Blackburn Rovers

Why can't we win?
Why did we throw away a win yet again?
Because of a crap ref, Lawrie?

I'm not sure if I appreciate Lawrie Sanchez.
As you all know that I'm a newbie as a football fan, but I am sometimes dubious of his team selection, subs and even his new players.
Of course under Cookie, I've felt the same but at least I really liked his purchase.
I often felt Cookie read my mind and bought the players(Bonnissel, Super MaC, Antti, Bully,
Simon Davies, Tony).
I know that at every club players come and go and I've become to like new players and support them as ours, so I don't know why it's not the same this time.
I was happy when I knew Aaron joined but other than that...
Please prove me wrong lads and I'll eat humble pie!
One thing for sure, I really don't like Kamara's goal celebration ...good goal, though.

--------------

Reserves 3-0 Portsmouth

It's nice to see Volzy back and Smertin also played. (match report)
I'm wondering why LS doesn't play Alex in the first team.
2 goals from Wayne Brown, 19 years old midfielder, one for the future I hope.

His nickname is Browny.
He must be a hard tackler...

The end is so predictable

...so says Peter Perrett


Spain 1-0 Northern Ireland
Cheats 0-0 Finland
England 2-3 Croatia

It's a shame that NI and Finland couldn't qualify.
Great performance from Jaaskelainen
and I really, really hate Portuguese footballers.
England...well... sorry.
Anyway a few manager's jobs are available now.
I hope FAI will choose a good, experienced one this time.



By the way, the very unpredictable thing happened.
Peter Perrett reformed his legendary(and my favourite) band the Only Ones.
While I had been worried about football things,
he had survived another drug addict and already played several gigs.
I've found it just in time as they'll come to Japan next April.
Peter is a Spurs fan and if I can meet him
I don't think I can resist reminding him of the great comeback by Fulham in 2002.








no peace for the wicked...


Bring on Savage!

Boring international break

In a way.

Finn and his teammates have nothing to do on Wednesday.

But I'm very excited about Northern Ireland's prospects to qualify for Euro 2008.
I know that to win against Spain would be a big task
but they have a record-breaking goal scorer
and a decent goalkeeper.
They seem to have improved under LS and Maik Taylor says they are still improving.
And he has no plan to retire!
Maik in goal in somewhere in Switzerland,Austria or South Africa...fantastic.

How about Finland?
Away against (cheating)Portugal...well...
Shefki's goal and unscathed Antti would be nice.
But we all know something unpredictable will happen in football matches.
I eagerly want to see that cheat(you know who)crying.

We've got a right back

I found Steve Finnan in 2002 when he played for Ireland
at the World Cup finals in Japan.
I didn't know about football then (and still don't know well)
but he impressed me a lot.
Thanks to Inamoto, we Japanese could watch every Fulham game on TV during his stay with the Whites.
Finn invited me to ride the Fulham roller coaster
and I became a Fulham fan.

How gutted I was when he was sold to Liverpool ...
I can't say I really like Liverpool but I can't help caring about them because of Finn.
You may understand how frustrating it is to care about them!
But at least their fans made a chant for him, at last.








This doll was made by a friend of mine Runo the dollmaker.
Lovely, isn't it.