A Mesut Özil Appreciation Post

Just because I want to.

For the past few days, Ozi, Bambi, Nemo or whatever name you want to call him has been constantly occupying my mind and heart. This day alone, I have been looking for anything Mesut. Can you imagine that? LOL.

The first time I saw Özil was during Germany NT's game against Spain NT (it wasn't even live, just DL-ed the game). I was a noob back then and was obviously rooting for La Roja but he caught my eyes, or rather his eyes caught my eyes. I can't even properly distinguish a good footballer, basically all I ever did was to ogle at the hotness that La Roja was and to cheer every time they scored. And after the WC, while I involved myself with everything La Roja, the thought of Ozil remained (it was not prominent but still it lingered).

Came his transfer to Real Madrid. Not really into club football that time, but I chanced upon seeing a pic of him holding a RM jersey, and I was like "WHOA. That was the German guy from the WC". And I think from lingering at the outskirts of my mind, he inched closer to my faves. When I was about to buy a RM jersey, I was hoping to buy Ramos' but it was not available. Only CRon, Kaka and Ozil's were.

Marianne bought Kaka's and I bought Ozil's. Though I was a bit sad that I wasn't able to have Ramos's kit, I'm more than happy that I got Ozil's. Seriously. Mesut is undeniably my favorite football player now (oopppps, Cesc's just been replaced). And seeing the praises, testimonials, and love that people have for Ozil made me love him even more.
Now that I know a bit more about football, I tell you, Mesut is a brilliant player (the game against Racing de Santander proved it). He's still young (22) and given a few more years, he'll be one of the best :) Being in a country that you don't even know the language and playing for a team there without even understanding your teammates (Mou said that at first he did not know how to communicate with Ozi since no one spoke German, except for Sami) but still playing impressively is quite a feat right? Plus he's down to earth. That's Ozi for you.

There ya go. A pretty long post isn't it? I have to write this all up or I'd go crazy (I can't spazz to anyone since my friends aren't into football).

On the other hand, Bambi, please please please think about the girls you'll date. I am glad that you and Anna Maria broke up (I can't think of any good adjectives to describe that girl) and that the 'thing' with that Venezuelan woman didn't happen (just concerned =P).

and finally

Buena suerte a los blancos en del Champion's League contra Barcelona! (there goes my beginner Spanish). I hope you'll play all throughout the game, it's really different when you're on the field.

Philippine Football Team: Thoughts and My Pick

**note (7/2011), I do have a different list of faves by now :))

It took a win against Vietnam to turn the Philippines' attention towards football. That first, our country has potential in football as compared to basketball, second that football is an exciting game, and lastly, that ballers are hot. LMAO.

It's a sad thing that we did not advance to the finals, and I have to admit that it broke my heart to see the Azkals give their all out and lose. The odds were all against us (home court advantage, biased referee-ing, etc), still we managed to show them what we were made of, I think given a few years, we can be among the best. Seriously. We just have to train harder and we have to work on our offense, if North Korea can qualify in the World Cup, why can't we?

Football is the most famous sport in the world, yet we are addicted to basketball. I have nothing against basketball, I was once a fan but it's time that we try to switch to a sport where we can excel more. The sad thing is, even our fellow kababayans have little faith in our team, even I was not interested in our football team until the much celebrated win against Vietnam. As I was watching the game yesterday, people around me were telling na Ay, matatalo na yang Pilipinas", they were all saying that, and I told them na hindi pa tapos ang laban.

I have to admit that we still have to learn a lot, especially in our offense, we have to work on our midfield, we have to train our strikers, etc. As for defense, we're doing pretty great, I was amazed at how great they were at defending. And as for our goalie, we undeniably have the best goal keeper. Neil Etheridge deserves all the praises. He has what it takes to be the next Iker Casillas. He's only 20, given the proper training, he can be a well known player globally :)

Enough with my thoughts, I'll give you the list of my favorite players in our football team.

1. Neil Etheridge - You should have seen him. At first, I was not much of a fan, but after seeing him save goals, I was mesmerized. He's a brilliant goalie I'm gonna die (lol, despicable me?!)

2. Christopher Greatwich - idk, but I can't stop myself from looking at him whenever he's on the field :)


3. Rob Gier


4. Anton del Rosario



We definitely have the handsomest players in this side of the globe, no doubt about that. It's enough to be a starting ground for Pinoys to be interested sa football.

Though most of our players are half-half, the fact that they accepted to play for the Philippines and are proud enough to say/recognize that they are Filipinos are more than a proof that they are indeed Pinoys. Hindi naman sa minamaliit ko yung team natin, pero considering how we fare sa football before the Vietnam game (or the few games before that), don't you think na we should be happy na naglalaro pa sila for us? I mean there's no guarantee that we'll even make it to the top, and wala talagang support for them (or minimal lang), gaanong sacrifice na lang yun for our country, right?

And to think na 0-1 yung results ng dalawang game against Indonesia is something. We conceded to them by 1 point in both games, when in fact, tinatambakan lang ng Indonesia yung ibang team.

I am proud of our football team, I was on the verge of crying yesterday because of the unfair calls of the referees. I think that was the first time I got so emotional about a football game, not even Spain NT, Real Madrid, Liverpool or Arsenal games elicited that emotion from me. Siguro it boils down to one point, no one can ever replace the Philippines. Once a Filipino, always a Filipino :) And we should focus more attention in football :D

September, Sernando and Stam.

Oh how I love thee, September.

I remember when I posted:


and then September came.

September 1. I dreamed of SerNando. HAHA. I was shocked! It's a wonder dreaming about Sergio, but Sergio - myself - and Nando together? Epic!


It all started with Nando. He arrived at my place looking for a phone charger. I told him I have one but it's malfunctioning. Then my dream switched to the space outside my house. I was comforting Nando because he recently broke up with his GF, when some drunk football player was approaching. The drunkard was shouting names, and when he shouted Nando's name, I tried to stop Nando from approaching him (and in the process wrapping my arm around him, hahaha), then I heard the drunkard shout Sergio's name, and I was like "OMG, what is Sergio doing here? Why is he here when I am with Nando?!" I instantly looked at Sergio and our eyes met. Then he confronted the drunk man.

I told Nando to not interfere and I left him to stop Sergio. Sergio then was in front of the drunkard, and I tried to tell him to stop 'coz it's useless fighting that type of person, after some hesitation, he followed my advice, but when he was about to turn around, the crazy man attempted to punch him. Know what I did? I intervened between Sergio and the man, and I was punched at the left side of my face, man it hurts so much! What I did next was I run home and locked myself in my room. What I didn't know was that my brother saw what happened, and he told my parents all about it. My mom and dad asked me what happened. And I told them all about it and added, "Ma, Pa' it's alright, at least I got to help the love of my life, I got to be a hero in front of him". HAHAHA.

Noticed what's wrong with myself in my dream? I didn't even wait to see what Sergio's reaction would be after I was punched, I did not even allow myself to be thanked at. And I completely forgot Nando! hahaha. When I woke up, I touched my left cheek instinctively. LOL.

---

September 2

I learned that my crush in one of my classes is a football fan, and not only that, he supports Real Madrid. Okay, I kinda inferred all these conclusions based from my observation.

Two days before, I discovered his full name, his student number. Two days after I discovered his course and that he's a RM fan.

I may sound like a stalker but then he was late for our class. He passed by my side and at first I saw his bag, there was a Real word I read, and then I saw that it's from Adidas, and when I saw the bag fully, it is indeed Real Madrid.

I would have ignored it if his bag was La Furia Roja or some other country who played for FIFA, but then Real freakin' Madrid? Of all the bags he could buy, why that? It may be feasible if it was a merchandise from a team of the Premier League, but a team from La Liga? Wouldn't it signify that he watches football, maybe a big fan of it, he watches La Liga, and he supports Real Madrid and he knows Ronaldo, Kaka, Casillas, and even Sergio.

You might think I'm going gaga over a bag and it's no big deal, but for me it is. How many students from my university and even country, watches football? Moreover, how many of these pips who watches football, watches La Liga and support RM? See see seeeeeeeeeee? My crushing on him intensified ten-folds! LOLz. Plus his surname is LEE. If you know me, you'll have an idea how special the surname LEE is to me.

Last thing, if ever we become close (which will never happen), what will we talk about? Football! Isn't it weird? I'm sure I won't be able to stop talking about Sergio if ever that time comes.


So there you have it September, Sernando and Stam (his first name). SSS. Way to go! I hope I'm in for more surprises this September ;)

Kaka

This picture made my evening (source: kickette)


I may have to consider DL-ing all Brazil's matches during the 2010 worldcup. As in honestly, I'm that close to actually doing that. Kaka is one fine man. He is perfection :) and as my fail Italian knowledge would permit:

lui è molto perfetto ♥. perfezione = Kaka

I'm sure I'll learn more about this man in the weeks to come. And he may even rise higher in my top footballer's list ;)

My first Sergio dream

Can you believe that?

I dreamed about Sergio last night, I would have forgotten about it if only I hadn't come across a page with Sergio Ramos' height on it.

What is it about?

Sergio was in the locker room with some of the players I think, and I was sort of at the door watching them (hahaha), then someone told Sergio to take his shoes off, then he did. After he did that, I approached him to compare our heights, and when I did, I was so disappointed, we have the same height! How disappointing was that? To make sure, I even asked him to turn around, so that we can carefully see our height difference but it was still the same.

What a crazy dream right? Of all the things I can dream of Sergio, why is it something about his height??? LOLz. He's a 6-footer, though I discovered that my younger brother is taller than him (my bro's 6'2 i think), so I do have an idea how tall Sergio is.

Sergio Ramos ♥

First of all, pardon me for the post below (this will be an account of how I came to like Sergio Ramos). I'm doing this post because I do not want to forget how I first saw Ramos and what was my impression of him. Why? I think I'm becoming a huge fan :)

-----------

July 12, 2010.

I was supposed to leave my house at around 9 am because it takes 3 hours time to travel from my house to my dormitory (and I have to be there at 12 and also I have an exam by 2pm).

I was all geared up to leave but at the last moment I turned on the TV in hope of catching a glimpse of the news, so okay basically there wasn't any news that time, so I tried looking at all the channels, and I happened to see a replay of the Final's Match between Spain and the Netherlands.

An hour before that happened, I went online and saw that Spain had one, I never really watched football, and I don't like it because all they ever do was to kick around and scoring was difficult, I was not even interested in the World Cup even if a lot of my friends were crazy about it. When I checked on my FB wall, I noticed that a lof of my friends were including Torres on their status, so I then concluded that the guy must be hot.

Having that thought, I decided to watch a little bit of the game just to see how Torres looked. And the first one that caught my attention was this dude with the long hair and a headband - would you believe that? I was like "what a guy, ang ewan lang ng itsura"

Looking at his back, I thought he might be Torres 'coz he looked good (that was before I saw the headband), however after I saw his face, I said to myself that he is not Torres, I did not even find him handsome, or even cute at all, I find him irritating because the camera always focuses on him (and I was running out of time since my mom was asking me if I'll be leaving). And so because of that guy being frequently shown, I learned that he is Ramos.

And so the game went on, and still there was no sign of Torres, instead what I always saw was Ramos and his headband. The image was kinda growing of me but I ignored it because my only goal was to see Torres before I leave. My mom was getting impatient, asking me if I was leaving, and I told her a few more minutes, she knew about my wish to see Torres and was side commenting on Espanya's players. A few minutes later, I was getting into the game (the thought of seeing Torres being forgotten) but then I knew that I had to leave, and so I did.

Later that afternoon, I was contemplating on the match, and I learned two things: Football is one hell of a game and second: Ramos has made his impact on me.

Two days later, I surfed the net. And you know what I did first? I searched "Sergio Ramos", why? Because its the first name that came to mind (why wouldn't it? it was his name that I always saw during the game), next thing I did was to search for Fernando Torres (I borrowed all the newspapers that one of my roommates has the previous night so that I could familiarize myself with the players.

The thing is, I opened both Ramos and Torres's profiles, but I decided to see Torres' first (I thought that he should be first because I was worrying that people might see me opening Ramos' first). And what did I learn? Torres and I shares the same birthday!!! How awesome is that? It's like we're meant to be, however he's already married, so I decided right then and there to forget him (haha, how cruel).

Then there was Ramos. I opened his profile and at first there was nothing but still there's something (the feeling's weird), and his birthday's also close to mine.

As the days went by, I was starting to think of Ramos constantly, and then I don't know how it happened, but I learned that I already like him.


After seeing him play, the doubtful like transformed into genuine admiration. In any sport, I don't particularly notice defenders, but in case of S.Ramos, I can't ignore his defenses, he's good or great (as far as my noob football eyes are concerned). And from the articles of him I'd read, he's one of the most dedicated and nicest soccer stars around. Really, what more can anyone ask for??

The Treaty Of Tordesillas

The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), a treaty between Spain and Portugal to divide their newly discovered lands outside of Europe, in the process, Spain conquered ME the Philippines.

placed in a new context..

The Treaty of Tordesillas is the competition of Spain and Portugal to win me over, especially between Ramos (Spain) and Ronaldo (Portugal). In this case, Spain won. LMAO. I can dream right?

So what am I being geeky about?
my own history: The first soccer game I watched from beginning to end is the WC game between Spain and Portugal. How awesome can it get? That's a first ;)

The reason why I'm eager to see this game is because of Ramos-Torres-Ronaldo. How exciting can a game be with boys like these on the field? My heart still goes out to Sergio Ramos, no doubt, and to be honest I think my emotions intensified. If you're going to ask me which I'd prefer more: an offensive or a defensive player, I'll go for the defensive one, and I think Ramos is one of the best defenders out there. As in I can't take my eyes off him whenever he's playing (I always focus my attention on his spot).


The picture above made my heart skip! Ramos deflecting Ronaldo. OMG. I don't know a thing about soccer but I think that block (?) was amazing.

I better stop now. :) The thing is, I already love football, a game flies by so fast that you'll yearn for more :D

*PWCS

*Post World Cup Syndrome.

I am experiencing one.

And I'm not even a football fan (up 'til last week, all I'm familiar with is David Beckham).
However, when I was preparing to go to my dorm last Monday, I happened to catch a replay of the finals (bet. Spain and The Netherlands), and I was so mesmerized that I'd rather watch it than leave my house.

Anyways, I'm sure it's not surprising who I sided with: Spain, no doubt. Why? Because of its players. I know. I know how lowly it may sound, but at least I'm telling the truth. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I was kinda curious to know who Torres was ('coz his name's always on my friends' FB stats), and while watching, I was guessing who he is, but I learned later on that he did not play on that game. So then, I saw Ramos, and though I did not find him handsome, I was attracted to his headband (hahaha, I'm such a weirdo) and now, I think I like him best.


And so what I'm practically doing now is downloading matches where Spain played (not all, but most of it), and I read all the newspapers containing FIFA related news. And guess what? I think I'm gonna be a football fan. WEEE, another sport to get addicted to/to follow (I heart sports)

p.s. how I wished I watched the whole World Cup :( on the bright side, the next cup would happen on 2014, I hope I'd be rich then, so I can go see it live xD