My 2010 World Cup Diary - Day 21

So far, my coverage of the FIFA 2010 World Cup was done regularly in my facebook account until Day 17 when my dear VIP decided to play a trick on me by changing my password & I can't access my facebook account. Actually, it was a good move as indeed, I'm probably spending too much time on facebook. So I spend few days away from facebook but still did follow the world cup. Had expected goalless draw between Japan & Paraguay and it really turn out to be a goalless game which Paraguay won on penalties. The payout for zero goal is 8. The Japanese surprised me in this tournament and more than held their own against the defensive Paraguayans. In the other game, I had expected a draw game and bought HT/FT bets with good odds for either side but it didn't work out, my 2nd loss in this year WC. David Villa 4th goal of the tournament ensure Spain a quarter-final berth. The Portugese leftback impress me though and had a very good game.

That was old news for the past few days. Today is the start of the quarter-final stage where the Netherlands will play mighty Brazil. Was @ the centre of hope yesterday and saw the odds for those win/draw/lose bet weren't good. Decided to play the higher odds bet such as HT/FT. My gut feeling tell me the Dutch-Brazilian encounter should be settle by 90mins and somebody should be leading at half-time. Wanted to buy Holland (HT) and Brazil (FT) but I think I mark the wrong tab and it turned out that I bought Brazil (HT) and Holland (FT). This mean I had to hope Brazil will lead at half-time while the Dutch need to secure a win by 90mins in order to win it for me. This is the ticket that I bought:




Being really kiasu, I decided to also buy Holland (HT) and Brazil (FT) just to make sure that my original intended bet was also placed with the centre of hope. In this way, I'm well-covered whether Holland or Brazil win. But it is really a long shot for me and the Dutch too as they attempt to defy history to beat the Brazilians. One of my former buddy who's a big Dutch fan even advice me via sms that Brazil has no weakness in the team. I replied his sms that football is not about theory, the Dutch can win. Just trying to justify my bet.

Once again, Chong Pang CC was the venue where I caught the game together with Yongquan. At 9pm, there was already a long queue, awaiting to get the entry stamp on our hands. I was bringing my grandpa to see a doctor @ Chong Pang and hence, was early for the stamp. Yongquan came later and the queue was long & we performed some magic before gaining entry into the live telecast venue. During queuing, I notice quite a few fellows wearing Brazilian jerseys. When inside the hall, there's was a Dutch jersey guy with Bergkamp words on his jersey. I shouted, Come On Brazil ! I need them to score an early goal to lead at half-time. Brazil did it through a very simple goal by Robinho, courtesy of some very bad defending by Holland. Yongquan was blaming the Blackburn Dutch defender Andre Ooijer who was a last minute replacement for a dutch defender called Mathijsen. Actually, I never notice this lad Mathijsen during my observation of the Dutch team. I think they're the most boring team in the world cup. For me, Robinho goal was a mistake in positioning by John Hetinga, not Ooijer. Nevertheless, it was 1-0 at half-time and I'm on track with my ht/ft bet with highest payout odds of 34 times. The Dutch didn't really threaten in the first half. Somehow, I feel Dutch will equalise in the 2nd half but not too sure if they can win it because Brazil looks very slick in their passing and counterattack.

The 2nd half was very exciting as Dutch equalized early with an own goal by Brazilian player Felipe Melo. Wesley Sneijder, imho, the best dutch player added a 2nd goal midway through the 2nd half. I jumped in jubilation together with the Chong Pang crowd, who are now supporting the dutch. Melo later got red-carded by the very polite Japanese referee who has a reasonably good game though I feel he is too polite. Also impressive 2nd half performance by dutchman Gregory van der Wiel. Melo did a stupid step on Robben. Brazil was down to 10 men. After that, it was all Dutch and they could have scored a 3rd goal in injury time but silly Hunterlaar and Robben wasted the golden chance as they were 2 on 1 with Julio Cesar, the Brazilian goalkeeper. That was the last piece of action and the final whistle blew seconds later. It make me $160 richer today with my bet yielding a return of $170 for a meagre $5. It was a blessing in disguise as I had marked wrongly on the scoresheet.

Hope the extra money can be put to good use in my final attempt to rescue the stray cat from AVA death sentence. I happen to run into a stray cat being trapped by Panasonic factory today during my customer meeting. Wanted to get it out but it was collected by AVA before I could do so. Tried with multiple phonecalls with their personnel but no success. Will try again on Monday.

Need to listen to Waka Waka..thinking of catching the next game Ghana vs Uruguay. My gut feeling is Uruguay will make it through but I heard the great Nelson Mandela will be there to support Ghana. His impact may be significant for the Africans.

b