England - Sweden

All England matches in this world cup are only available on astro. Unless England makes it to the semis, then we would see them on TV. When I say TV, I mean TV1, TV2 and NTV7. The culprit behind this was Ananda Krishnan, major shareholder of Maxis and Astro. Maxis is the main sponsor of the live telecast world cup 2006. To increase the Astro subscriber, all England matches are available only on Astro. Kinda good business strategy, right?(cos most of the football fans in Malaysia are England supporter) End of the day, it only benefits all the mamak stalls.

I thought few would turn out for the England-Sweden match last night since it was at 3am. I was wrong, the whole mamak restaurant is full of football fans (it seems that everyone have “holiday” the next day). There are also quite a number of girls. I’m not sure they are watching football or David Beckham, anyway it creates great atmosphere with a full house of fans. After all, there are some girls out there who know more about football than any guys.

I saw a girl in Rooney’s jersey. Too bad, I left my England’s jersey at hometown, else I will wear it. There’s also a guy in Sweden’s jersey. This is the first time I see someone in a Sweden’s jersey.

During the second half, when Ashley cole failed to clear the ball off the line and Sweden get their equalizer making the score line 1-1, I was trying to be funny by asking my friend, “Who scored? Who scored?” Then someone behind me shouted “Rio Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand Berjaya menjaringkan……”(Maxis 3G ad) we then burst into laughter.

England draw with Sweden in the end. This means that England’s embarrassing record of not beating Sweden for 38 years continues. Eriksson will leave after the world cup. This means that he will never be able to beat his own country as England’s coach.