FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualifier - Asian Zone: Japan vs. Oman

Japan 3 vs. Oman 0 (FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualifier Asian Zone)

Nakazawa, Okubo and Nakamura scored all the goals in the competition. Nakazawa is still hot in the set piece situations by heading the ball from the corner kick; Okubo did a great job answering Tulio Tanaka’s pass with a smart goal. Nakamura took advantage of Oman’s defense by converting a cross into a sharp low kick. Naohiro Takahara didn’t play that match.

Japan continues to play out their accurate passing and amazing tactical attacks and defenses. Yuji Nakazawa definitely is the man in defense along with goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki. Shunsuke Nakamura delivers great crosses and one of them led to a goal by Okubo set up by Tulio Tanaka.

Oman on the other hand didn’t do that bad but their defense was taken advantage of too much which gives Japan too much chances in return.

After 3 matches - 2 wins against Thailand and Oman and 1 loss against Bahrain - Japan’s performance is convincing enough for them to qualify to the next stage. Bahrain seemed to be the only team to be reckoned with.

It’s nice to watch Asian football once again. This is the first one since the Asian Cup 2007 which took place last summer - Iraq was the champions of that competition beating favourites Saudi Arabia. But the team I really saw play crazy matches was Japan who went out of the tournament with memorable matches against the UAE, Qatar, Vietnam, Australia who have just arrived in the AFC as a strong team and most especially Saudi Arabia which was their fiercest rival in the AFC.

Here’s the video of all the happenings - this time, the commentary language is Japanese… enjoy the commercials in the end as well.

International Friendly: Brazil vs. Canada

Canada 2 vs. Brazil 3 (Friendly Match - May 31, 2008)

I missed this match! But I saw some great potential with the Canadian team with the two goals that they made - one of them was a nice laser shot by De Guzman. Brazil definitely has the better out of this match as they took advantage of the holes from the Canadian defense and breaking the 2-2 tie at the 60th minute keeping the score in favour of the Seleção 3-2 beating the Canucks.

Not a bad performance by Canada. But I hope this will motivate them to improve a lot more for the real deal at this point which is the World Cup 2010 Qualifier on the CONCACAF Zone which they have to go through in order to get in the last 32 teams. Good luck on your matches against Panamá and St. Vincent & the Grenadines!

As for Brazil, congrats! I’m also a fan of the team and I sure hope that they keep up with their mentality of playing the game and of course I hope they’d improve a lot more in the future especially now that they’re counting down for the FIFA World Cup 2014 taking place in their backyards.

Here’s the highlights on the match between Canada and Brazil - I apologize it’s in Spanish.

Football Matches This Week

I missed all football matches yesterday with Toronto FC vs. DC United at BMO Field and the UEFA Champions Cup final between Manchester United vs. Chelsea FC. Though I’m glad to share some videos.

Toronto FC 1 vs. DC United 0
May 21, 2008 (BMO Field, Toronto, Canada)

The early goal by Danny Dichio on the 7th minute was the game winner for The Reds which have brought them to a record of 4-2-2 making them climb up in the Eastern Conference.

DC United had tons of chances including a clear chance from a header by Fred coming from a long cross by Gallardo - the chance was obviously spoiled by Toronto’s Greg Sutton after the shot was blocked and cleared.

TFC didn’t give up from making another chance. Amado Guevara ran in front late in the game clearly seeing an open Dichio which unfortunately didn’t materialize into a chance because of the tight DC defense. Overall, great job by the Reds! Next match is their home match against LA Galaxy who they beat weeks ago. Here’s the video of the highlights.

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Manchester United 1 vs. Chelsea FC 1 (Manchester United wins 6-5 on penalties)
UEFA Champions Final, May 21, 2008 (Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia)

I felt sorry for not being able to see this match but the broadcasters and sportscasters never failed to give me great highlights on this very interesting All English Final in the history of UEFA Champions League history.

Manchester United scored the first goal from an easy header by Cristiano Ronaldo. Chelsea responds later in the match with a chip shot from Frank Lampard which undid the lead of Manchester United in the first half. The match stayed the same until the end of 120 minutes which brought the match into penalties.

I felt so bad when of all the people to miss for Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo had to be the one. Peter Cech was able to find the direction of Ronaldo’s kick and blocked it to put Manchester trailing by one. But Chelsea also had some tough luck when their team captain John Terry - who should have made Chelsea win the shootout - hit the post putting the penalty shootout into sudden death. But in this sudden death, Manchester United was the lucky one after Edwin van der Saar blocked the shot from Chelsea’s Aneika.

Though it was unfortunate for Chelsea to lose the UEFA Champions Cup, the hard part was that they lost Drogba who got a red card late in the game for slapping a Manchester United player.

Cheers to Manchester United! I apologize though for not providing video of the match.

Pangea Day is on Saturday!

To everyone around the world! May 10 is Pangea Day, turn on your TV screens at 1400ET (1800GMT; check your timezones) to watch films from around the world and listen to the most powerful speeches sending forth the message of social change, understanding, diversity and unity to the world through films.

To those who are living in Canada, you can watch the Pangea Day celebrations which will broadcast on CityTV. To those who are living in Asia - especially to my friends in the Philippines - you can watch it on Star World on cable TV. You can even watch it online at www.pangeaday.org.

www.pangeaday.org

MLS: Red Patch Boys Rule!

I couldn’t find a televised clip of the match between Toronto FC and Kansas City Wizards in the past couple of days but I do thank the Red Patch Boys (one of the biggest fan groups of TFC) for uploading the video of their match.

I really love the TFC fans. One of these days I will be in BMO Field helping out our team to win their game through chanting, cheering and throwing streamers.

Here’s the most recent match of the TFC. Enjoy!

Toronto FC vs. Kansas City Wizards (26 April 2008 - BMO Field)

The following clip was taken by the Red Patch Boys.

Here’s a clearer look of Amado Guevara’s second goal coming from a set piece.
This video was taken from the televised broadcast here in Toronto.
Amado Guevara is also best known as “El Lobo”
which is why the video starts with a howl and the picture of a wolf.

Before the Modern Electronic Music

You’re going to enjoy this blog of mine today because it’s bombarded with Youtube videos - 9 videos to be exact. Today, I’m going to talk about something that I always have thought to be amazing, and that is music through electronics. The following images show the two instruments which have survived throughout the history of music along with the Electric Guitar.

Though I detested synthesizers for a large part of my life, I am still amazed by how people were able to find music from electronics, the following two instruments are just some of them. The Moog Synthesizer (pronounced /moug/) and the Theremin (Sounds like a drug to me).

Moog Synthesizer & Theremin

When you listen to video game-like music or maybe bizarre versions of classical pieces in the 1970s which doesn’t have a single note coming acoustically from any instrument from an orchestra - like the one you’re going to encounter on one of the Youtube videos below - you might have stumbled into a music done through Moog Synthesizer. It was developed in the 1960s by Robert Moog. The very first Moog Synthesizer was produced in 1964 and there have been large followers of the instrument which may have been the cause of its continuing existence today despite the steady rise, encroachment and popularity of modern synthesizers which can play any kind of instrument. The Moog unfortunately was not a pioneer analog synthesizer though; but it is much better to have than the old ones invented in the 1920s.

I was able to discover the Moog because of a popular musical piece called “Popcorn” by Gershon Kingsley.

Here’s a documentary video of how it works as well as an interview with the inventor himself Robert Moog. Further info here.

Here are some videos of people playing the Moog Synthesizers.

The next instrument is called “Theremin”. It’s not a drug, but I guess you might consider it one if you couldn’t figure out how to use it and see that there are actually some people who are addicted to it [jokes].

The Theremin is the very first instrument that doesn’t involve touching the instrument itself too much compared to a piano, a guitar or a saxophone. It was developed in the 1920s; it was invented in 1919 by Russian inventor Lev Theremin (now we know where the name came from).

You can find more info here. The antennae produces the pitch while the loop at the side produces the volume of the sound. You basically use it with your two hands. The closer your hand is at the antennae, the higher the pitch you can produce. The farther your hand is at the side loop, the louder the sound you would produce. Some people would do techniques like shaking a bit of their hand closer to the antennae to make a lively sound than a cold note which almost sounds like pointing the microphone directly at the speakers creating a really annoying sound.

Here are a couple of videos on the Theremin. The first is a Documentary from BBC (I started checking out Portishead after watching the doc). The second video shows Samuel Hoffman performing with the Theremin. The video after that shows a band performing Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” using a finger drum machine, 2 theremins (high-pitched & low-pitched), a moog synthesizer, an ordinary electric synthesizer, an electric bass guitar and my favourite: the carpet. The last video shows Lydia Kavina playing “Claire de Lune”.

Monty Python’s SPAMalot

I was able to watch episodes of the “Monty Python” show - which is a smartly hilarious show along with shows like “Mr. Bean”, “The Benny Hill Show” and “Coronation Street” - and I only watched part of the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and I have to say that it’s just hilarious despite how old it is. Now, the musical based on the film comes to Toronto once more through Mirvish - “Monty Python’s SPAMALOT”.

This would be another production that I would like my brother and I to watch when it comes to Canon Theatre on Sept. It’s going to be just as amazing as “Avenue Q” which we will both watch this coming late July.

Here’s a clip from the musical performing one of Monty Python’s most famous songs - “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. Enjoy!

MLS: Toronto FC’s Two Recent Wins

MLS has highlights on almost every game in Youtube and I’d like to share the first two wins of Toronto FC this season. Their first win was against David Beckham’s LA Galaxy and their second was from their home opener match against Real Salt Lake. I apologize for not having the Toronto-Los Angeles game in English - it recorded from a Spanish language TV station in California, and football definitely has a lot more followers from the Latin American and Spanish speaking population of California.

Toronto FC vs. Los Angeles Galaxy (April 13, 2008 - Carson, CA)

Real Salt Lake vs. Toronto FC (April 19, 2008 - BMO Field)

Japan’s Cellphone Technology

Check this one out.

Japanese cellphones are definitely getting a lot crazier with their models and designs.

I’m pretty sure I know the function of the QR Codes - the so-called mosaic-like bar codes which brings you into a “cellphone sized” website when you access it. But I definitely am amazed with the other features that these Japanese cellphones have today. You can use them as a GPS System and have it as an alternate to your credit card or even your cash.

Here in Canada, we do enjoy the progress of cellphones. There are MP3 Cellphones where you can listen to music with your cellphone and you can cut your music for a while when someone’s calling you. There are also these hand held devices called Blackberry which is a palm device/cellphone. Of course all these cellphones can connect to the internet and some cellphones do have photo and video features.

But I bet Japan have already thought of this and they are growing a lot more as time passes by.

(First Video: ~music~ “Feather” by Nujabes)

(Second Video: courtesy of CBC)

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Yet there’s another issue, Japanese obsession with cellphones. For this, I found this video of two Japanese students presenting a project about cellphone obsession within the Japanese society. They interviewed people and made a survey which is good enough to prove their argument. They are speaking English in this video but Japanese in their interviews. It’s nothing to worry about though since we can access the whole video in English either way (some through subtitles).

enjoy…

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Oh Wait! I saw this video about a cell phone sold in Germany.

…it’s just a joke hehehe. Though I like the homosexual meter and how you can detonate it when someone steals the phone from you.

Right Place

I was trying to search for Kosai’s “The Japanese Tradition” when I stumbled to this very interesting short film by Kosai Sekine - which apparently is not in any way related to “The Japanese Tradition”. This short film reminds me of my job at the supermarket facing up all the products English-out. I’m pretty sure that I’m not as clean and orderly as this character. Though the message of the film was something I always kept on giving importance in my life as I move on in my university studies, trying to be fluent in Spanish & Japanese and using my leadership capabilities which was hidden all along before I enrolled in a leadership course. anyways…

Enjoy!

“Right Place” Directed by Kosai Sekine