19 Hours was the total time I stayed awake ytd. Woke up early for some tennis and basketball (both live), then watched the replay of ArsenalTV Friday Night. Didn't manage to finish the session though coz too much distraction. Haha! Only got to the first 10mins of the Fans Forum and was taken away to Soccer AM. That took me 3hrs alone, so pretty much the whole afternoon. 8pm was the when it ended, and that was also the time of the preview show for the EPL matches at Football Ch on Starhub. The first game was at 8.45pm. Went through a haul of 3 consecutive matches which ended with ARSENAL WINNING 2-0 OVER WEST HAM b4 switching over to Nadal's Semi Final match. All those Live. Phew.
Back to the ARSENAL game. Another difficult win too. Who said the run-ins would be easy?! Why can't Arsenal just get one easy game to handle and just score for fun? One is all I asked. West Ham went into the game thinking about their next game against Wolves, so pretty much its Arsenal there to win it comfortably. Had the best start when Denilson scored in the 5th minute of the game, but they didn't follow it up with more goals. They were on the back foot until Vermaelen got sent off for straight red. It was harsh in my opinion and my only worry was he will miss the next 3 games! For some reason I wasn't worried with this game at all. It would go either way. Either we lose the game or keep it 1-0 and win it. It helped ALOT when Almunia saved the penalty. His only job for the night as goalkeeper and he did very well with was that save. It proved vital.
Arsenal came out alot stronger and committed. They were 1 man down but they played really well. Zola, West Ham manager, brought on attacking players and really played for a win. For awhile West Ham held possession and kept Arsenal under pressure. You could sense the tension in the room as me and bro watched on. We didn't say a word during that period. Fortunately they held well and were able to create a few chances too. None resulted in goals though, but up came Cesc when he won a penalty for Arsenal. He was so cool and calm throughout the whole penalty procedure. I could barely watch. He shot left as Robert Green dived to his left. 2-0. you could sense the relieve in the stadium too! I was definitely relieved and the tension was gone. ANOTHER hard fought and well deserved victory indeed.
Throughout the 2nd half I was worried about Vermaelen's suspension. Some people say its 3 match ban, some say 1 match ban. I went to The FA website rules and saw it was a 1 match ban. Hopefully it stays 1 match. Playing away at Birmingham is not easy though. They have 1 of the best home record so far in this season. Arsenal fans also worry about the Barcelona CL match 4 days later. Vermaelen will be able to play that game but the problem is Sol Campbell. Obviously if both fit, he will be picked ahead of Silvestre. The problem us Sol may not be able to paly 2 games in 1 week. If he plays at Birmingham, he may not recover in time for Barcelona. I wun be surprise if Song plays alongside Sol at Birmingham. I'd rather have him along Sol then Silvestre. You need at least 1 quick defender in the pairing.
Whatever it is, I suppose Arsene Wenger will take 1 game at a time and he probably knows best at who to pick. Birmingham is going to be tough, just hope Arsenal can start well and maintain that level throughout. The team did well in the 2nd half and special mention goes to Clichy with his hard-working and solid display at left-back both offensive and defensive, Eboue too always look a threat whenever he ran at oppositions, Song who did so well in his defensive midfield position in 1st half and filled in well with Sol from the 2nd half onwards, Denilson for the goal and interception of ball from opposition when needed, Almunia definitely for the penalty save, Captain Cesc for the composure from spot kick and his leadership in creating plays up front. Even Sol did well to cope with Carlton Cole and the other West Ham players... Hopefully the players can carry this huge momentum and finish off the remaining 7 games in style, by hook or by crook.
Finished off with Nadal's match who seemed to be in cruise control after winning 1st set, but he completely lost his concentration and lost 1 game with too many errors. Third set was close with neither side able to break. As the games in 3rd set began to accumulate on both sides, I had a growing feeling that Nadal would lose, especially if it went to a tie-break. Somehow that woman's 6th sense kicked in and as soon as it went into tie-break, I knew he was gonna lose. And indeed, he deflated in that tie-break and totally lost the plot. Ljubicic did well to hold until 6-6 for tie breaker and he probably sensed that he could win it. He was the more calmer player and played so well for those crucial points. Nadal had a chance to finish the game in 2nd set but it was too late. This was his best chance at winning a trophy with most of the top seeds now gone out. If he had won, he would have faced Roddick in the Finals. Still a good opportunity to win. It didn't happen for him though. Fortunately he had another final to take care of, and that's the Doubles Final. He and partner Marc Lopez were facing the World No. 1 pairing of Nestor and Zimonjic! No one expected Nadal and Lopez this far because they came in as Wild Card. They don't even have a solid ranking to boast of!
Naturally the pressure is on the no. 1 to win, but woah did the spanish pairing took them by surprise! Nadal was so solid in his serves, Lopez also did well in serve despite losing 1 game point in first set. The crowd were on Nadal's side too! Fortunately for him, being so famous in his Singles career had helped him gain more recognition than even the World no. 1 doubles pair. The whole crowd were cheering and rooting for Nadal and Lopez the whole time!! Of course when you have people like Nadal on the other side of court, you have to worry. Nestor/Zimonjic weren't able to contain Nadal's power shots and lost in 2 straight sets. What a way to comeback for Nadal! He has won Doubles trophy before so its not new to him. somehow good Singles players always seem to do well in Doubles too. Kudos and congrats to him and Lopez!!
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