STAMFORD BRIDGE BREACHED!!

Stamford Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...

Stamford Bridge is falling down..bla bla blabla..

Well, the title says it all i guess. 26th October 2008 was a day that many younger Liverpool fans like myself will cherish for a very very long time. We annihilated Chelsea at their home ground where they were unbeaten for 4 YEARS an 8 MONTHS!!(okay..okay, that was an exaggeration) So , Stamford Bridge is a fotress no more. :)

This match was perhaps the biggest match of the season so far as both teams were locked together on the top of the table, still unbeaten after 8 matches. I usually have my own pre-match ritual. Praying, sitting in a lucky spot in the hall of my house. All those kind of things.My hands tend to get cold during big matches but during this game, i was like a normal warm blooded mammal.Probbably due to the fact that my brother bought a Burger King Set meal just minutes before the kick off...so that sort of warmed me up.

Before the match, i watched the pre-match analysis where football pundits and so called football experts predicted the outcome of the match. It was very negative as each and every one of them said that Liverpool were not good enough, blablabla, didn't have Torres, lack strength in depth, balablabla. Alright, time to prove the doubters wrong.

Ok... Straight to the kickoff. I believe Liverpool started the better of the 2 teams, closing down the Chelsea players that got the ball really quickly. 10 minutes into the game, a lucky break for Liverpool. Xabi Alonso's shot somehow got deflected and beat Petr Cech in goal. YESSSS!!! I didn't really celebrate much when the ball went in. It was too early and Chelsea at home were almost unbeatable. After the goal, Liverpool were just defending for the rest of the 1st half. Chelsea rarely threatened Liverpool but they bossed Liverpool around in terms of ball possesion. My dad was starting to criticise Liverpool ( as he always does during matches) but I just turned a deaf ear at all his criticism.

(Liverpool players celebrating after the rather fortunate goal)

First half over, a great relieve for me. Only 45 minutes left but if Liverpool continued to play like they did at the end of the 1st half, it would be just a matter of time for Chelsea to score. Liverpool came out in the second half with more self believe. Whatever Benitez said to the team must have really worked. Gerrard was at the heart of all Liverpool's moves as usual. Kuyt's work rate was immence, Mascherano was awesome, shadowing all the Chelsea attackers and Carragher was the best of the lot... blocking and tackling. Did I mention, Liverpool didn't even have Fernando Torres for the game that day as he was out with a hamstring injury. Awesome stuff! Who says Liverpool are a 2 man team? Midway through the second half, Xabi Alonso came extremely close to doubling Liverpool's lead. arghhh!!! Hit the post!...great freekick anyway, Petr Cech was rooted to the spot.

With 10 minutes remaining, I was starting to feel nervous. I kept on praying so that Liverpool would hold on for a historic victory. Common!!! With 3 minutes to go, i was actually perspiring as if I was the one running on the field at Stamford Bridge. 1 minute to go, Liverpool were still hanging on to the lead. No mistakes pleaseeee!!

Common ref...blow the damn whistle!!

Preet preeeet preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!! (for those of u who don't know, the refree blows the whistle 3 times to signal the end of the game)YESS~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK GOD!! Victory against Chelsea and at Stamford Bridge too.

Liverpool played really well and I can't remember Pepe Reina having a save to make during the game. Credit to Liverpool's strong defence. After the game, I kept on getting sms's from Liverpool fans and also Man U supporters. Historic moment indeed... CHELSEA'S 86 UNBEATEN STREAK AT HOME is OVER!!

Okay, this time I did upload some pictures of the game:).

So, with Liverpool top of the league after 10 games(still 28 games to play), all was well for the fans who have endured 19 long miserable years without the league title. Who knows, maybe after 19 years, Liverpool might win their 19th league title.

NEXT GAME... Totenham vs Liverpool

~You'll Never Walk Alone~

Personal Milestone

This will be my first ever blog posting, so I figured I would start with something special. Probably one of the very few highlights in KTT.( I guess I have succumbed to peer pressure and finally created my very own blog).Before coming to KTT, I have never touched volleyball.

All of this changed during the fasting month. Normally, i would play football with the Malay guys, but during Ramadhan i had no choice but to play volleyball with all my non- Muslim friends. I have to say, playing volleyball with all of them (mostly tangga 11 residents) ,helped us bond.Anyway..Back to volleyball. The first time I played this game, my hands just couldn't take the impact of the ball. It was red and really painful so I didn’t really enjoy the game at first.The following weeks, i guess all of us got better and we were even playing with the Indian seniors.(we juniors till today have not beaten them).

So, after the Hari Raya holidays, when the Diploma students organised a volleyball competion, Eric had a crazy idea that we all ( relatively still noobs in this sport) created a team. So... we named ourselves Parang Juniors ( after the great and EVIL PAK CIK PARANG).OUR TEAM --->Beh(captain), Eric, me, Selvan , Kelvin, Chua, Shawn, Joel and Prashan.So..

Straight to the action then. Our first game was with some Malay seniors. Our team was quietly confident i guess.Prior to that day, we had thrased those seniors so we all thought it would be easy. Our opponents were first to serve and not long after that, we were trailing 10-0 (there was only one set,the team that reached 21 points won). All of us looked at each other in utter disbelieve. Everyone was making silly mistakes and I guess we were all really nervous. Somehow, we managed to get the serve back at 10-0, but soon lost the point and trailed 13-2. I guess it was all over for us. Surely no way back now. Our opponents soon got quite cocky and were really confident that they would easily win this match.

Can't blame them for thinking that way though, anyone in that position would easily become complacent. This is where the Liverpool comeback spirit came into each and everyone of us that evening. I looked to the side of the court, my goodness; our fans outnumbered our opponent’s fans by 10 to 1 i guess. At least give them something to cheer about ( lol...sounds dramatic). Somehow, our character in the next few points showed and we were definitely not giving up without a fight. At least make them work harder for the victory. We then miraculously caught up to 14-19. Wow!! We do have some chance, Eric and Kelvin were serving well. My serve was not bad either. Beh was great near the net and his setting was awesome. Chua and Selvan found their form at the right time. Suddenly, it was 20-20. YES!!... Our self believe came back. Looking at our opponent’s faces, all of them were just shocked. NEVER EVER LOOK DOWN ON YOUR OPPONENTS!! TAKE THAT!!20 All...so, it was deuce.

I think the first team to reach 23 would win. The seniors got back a point and were leading 21-20. At that point, it was all really tense; all mistakes at that moment would be really costly. We played cautiously. Just letting our opponents make mistakes. Finally, match point. 22-21. WOW!. I can't remember who served. Most probably Eric. When the seniors hit the ball out, we were jumping as if we just won the world cup. I could hear our supporters. Credit to them for not leaving.haha.We didn't shake hands with our opponents that day probably because we were too busy celebrating. I remember Istanbul. The greatest COMEBACK! This would rank close to that.Well, we didn't win the volleyball competition as we lost in the semifinals to Masterbedroom( the Indian seniors team).But, that 1 game, really will be a highlight for most of us in the dull KTT.That’s all for my first post.

I read to much football news and match analysis so pardon me for the very detailed game narration. I don't have pictures at the moment but I will try to take some shots of us playing volleyball. Just for memory's sake. :)