Official...

...Gooner

mad redo1 attended the first Arsenal FC Supporters Malaysia Annual General Meeting at the Kelab Golf Negara Subang last night. Thus now he is an official member of the supporters' club which could be traced back to 1999 when fellow Gooners got together to watch their team playing an end of the season friendly match against Malaysia at the Nasional Stadium.


Those who gathered at the Sunway Resort Hotel in the afternoon prior to the match then began organizing get-togethers to watch Arsenal matches and from there it went from strength to strength even not in an official manner.

mad redo1 however could only join the viewing party on rare occasions due to logistics.

Then this group of began seriously to get the club registered with the Registrar of Society and as a result of that the first AGM was successfully held last.

Congratulations to those who were elected as office bearers and may you serve with honour, integrity and dignity.


...

The Wheels of Life...

...The Down.

When you find out that there is something lacking in your surroundings, as a human being with a functioning brain you will try your best to complete the picture. After the success of the Darul Iman League, mad redo1 had planned for another event.

As the requirement for the Darul Iman League team to have at least a 'C' Licensed Coach at the helm could not be enforced due to the lack of numbers, thus it is a logical step to produce more local coaches with the qualification.

So, we came to the next project on mad redo1's calendar. The 'Basic Course for Coaches' conducted by an instructor from the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). It was a short course over four days and by the time the registration closed there were a strong list of 23 names of aspiring coaches.

Or, that was what he thought.

The morning of the course saw just eight participants arrived and registered with the Secretariat. The embarrassment was enormous to say the least. By the time the first lecture started, there were only 13 and for the practical session the next morning there were just ten.

The instructor had no other choice but to cancel the whole thing.

However, the cancellation does not mean it will be the end of the Coaching Courses in Terengganu but merely serves as a wake-up call for mad redo1 that there are a lot to be done to make sure it will be a success next time around and the number of qualified coaches in Terengganu will increase in order to help the development of football in the state.

Come on mad redo1!

...

The Wheels of Life...

...The Up.

mad redo1 was one happy man after the Darul Iman League 2009 reached its conclusion on Wednesday, 12-08-2009. Kuala Terengganu 'A' defeated Besut 3-0 in a closely fought contest which was decided in the capital's team favour after the team from north of Terengganu began to tire.

Why I was so happy. Because the tournament saw the return of proper state league football in Terengganu. For a number of years now a number of tournaments had been held which saw similar meetings between districts in Terengganu but it was not really organised by the Terengganu Football Association.

But this year, the association with the assistance from the state government launched the Darul Iman League which was launched on 02-07-2009. Since then 27 matches had been played at various venues around Terengganu with the culmination of the final match above.

What I really hope is that it would not be just a one season tournament but will be continued as a perpetual event that will help unearth football talents and serve as practice grounds for those involved in the sports.

Will mad redo1 be blogging about the 2010 edition? He hopes he will.

...

The Last Bites...

..in July.

The Darul Iman League 2009 saw mad redo1 travelling up and down the state of Terengganu, overseeing the technical aspects of the competition on match-days. Today he was down to his favourite town, Dungun where the home side took on the team from the capital ciry, Kuala Terengganu 'B' at Padang Dewan Merdeka.

This venue used to be known as 'Padang Zink Merah' or loosely translated as the Red Zinc Field; due to the red coloured zinc used as the wall to the pitch. This was where important football matches were played in Dungun such as the final of the Inter-Schools football competition. mad redo1 played quite a few times there when he representing his school during his younger days.

The wall had since been taken down and it is open to the public.

The match itself was a closely fought one but the visitors hit the home team with two quick goals inside the first three minutes. Dungun managed to reduce the deficit in the last minute of the first half. Both goalkeepers did not concede any goal in the second half as the capital team recorded their first win of the season and opened up the race for the semi-final places between them, Dungun, Setiu and Hulu Terengganu.

Linda and the AKSes tagged along this time but of course they preferred to go somewhere else than being stuck at pitchside with mad redo1. After the match was over I found out that they and a friend of Linda have gone to a beach cafe in Paka.

So, after a twenty minutes drive mad redo1 arrived at 'BITES' which was located just a shout away from the Residence Inn, a popular hotel in Paka. The owner of the cafe is another friend of Linda, a sweet and beautiful lady who goes by the name Min.

The ladies (mothers and daughters) already had their share of 'tucker' thus leaving mad redo1 having to eat alone. But Berg, showing she shares the same gene pool of food lovers in mad redo1, ordered a bowl of 'Mee Jawa' to accompany his daddy's Chicken Chop. Before mad redo1's arrival they already had a bowl of 'Assam Laksa' and Nina had Spicy Lamb.

The portion of the chicken was quite generous though mad redo1 found the sauce a bit too little for his liking as he prefers to have his chicken chop 'drowning' in the sauce. But the taste of the sauce was spot-on. The bowl of 'mee jawa' quickly made its way around the table and despite the thick sauce it was still enjoyable.

Then as we were about to leave BITES, Min handed the AKSes 'Ais-Krim Goreng' which the 'Quarelling Duo' finished in no time at all.

It was another enjoyable day and mad redo1 hopes there will be more in the Independent Month of August.


...

D-Day...

...in Kuala Terengganu.

Following the collapse of the roof structure at the RM300 million Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak, Terengganu football teams have no choice but to go back playing at the old Sultan Ismail Nasirudin Shah.

The stadium which has seen so many memories in the past, went into a small re-construction when the steel structure supporting part of the stands were removed for safety reasons. This reduced the capacity of the stadium from 20,000 to around 15,000.

The Football Association of Malaysia have provisionally approved the usage of Sultan Ismail Nasirudin Shah Stadium as the home ground for both Terengganu and T-Team during their Malaysian League campaign for this season and most probably next season too.

However, there have been a number of complaints in regards of the state of the pitch and also the flood-lights which according to certain quarters do not meet the required standards. In addition to that, the stadium pitch also has seen a number of non-football activities being held there.

There was the Search 'Di Awan Biru' concert and recently an equine event, The Sultan's Cup pre-launching ceremony was held there. The latter especially would take a heavy toll on the already bad pitch.

This has prompted the Kuala Terengganu City Council to carry out improvement works on the stadium by replacing the bulbs of the floodlights, patching up certain areas of the pitch and re-installing the security fences around the ground.

Whether these actions would satisfy FAM technical delegates will be known after their visit to the stadium on Sunday.

For the sake of football in Terengganu, mad redo1 hopes they will.

...

Surprised...

...I Was Not.

I was on my way to the office when calls and text messages started to come in on my handphone conveying the same message: SULTAN MIZAN STADIUM COLLAPSE!

When the first call came in I thought it was referring to current work being carried out at the Sultan Ismail Nasirudin Shah Stadium. However when more and more messages coming in then I decided it was best to check it out myself.

On the Sulltan Mahmud Bridge the wailing of the siren a police car more or less confirmed something bad had taken place. Perhaps it was still quite early as the traffic was smooth all the way to the Gong Badak Sports Complex.

As I approached the area I could see from a far the extent of the damage. The whole structure was still intact except for the roof which now has been reduced to an unrecognizable heap of steel and concrete. The crowd was getting bigger as news began the get around about the unfortunate event.

At the time the police line was still quite near to the stadium and the crowd was able to get quite close to the stadium. As I began to walk away after taking a few shots of the place, the Civil Defence Team personnel began to set up a new line to ensure the public would not be exposed to any danger.

The funny thing about the whole event was that it WAS NOT UNEXPECTED.

A year ago during the construction of the stadium the roof had collapsed once but it was not widely reported since there was no life lost and it would be a very bad publicity to the state which was about to host the SUKMA Games.

One interesting thing was an engineer who was involved in the construction of the Indoor Stadium advised me that if I have the choice, do not sit at the grandstand. It was something that immediately came to my mind upon seeing the extent of the damage.

This event certainly triggered a number events. As for mad redo1 it means a number of things that has to be done pronto in order to find a new home for the Turtles before the Super League resume on 16 June with a match against kL PLUS.

The best of luck to me then.

...

Blown Away...

...at Anfield.

Going back ten years ago to the month of May, Arsenal fans congregated on the away section at Anfield to watch The Gunners taking on defending champions Liverpool in a match that will decide the destination of the First Division title.

Two Scots were at the helm of both teams, Kenny Dalglish for Liverpool while Arsenal were coached by George Graham. Both were legends at their respective clubs during their playing days.

Liverpool were the favourites and they needed to draw or in the worst case scenario, just a single goal defeat which seemed very unlikely as they were unbeaten in front of the Kop all season long.

Alan Smith glancing header from a free-kick put Arsenal ahead. However it seemed Liverpool will settle for the 1-0 defeat as it meant they would be crowned champions again. Steve McMahon famously indicated they were just one minute away from achieving that objective.

However, with just moments to spare Arsenal managed to break down another Liverpool attack and John Lukic threw the ball to Lee Dixon who played it directly into Liverpool's half. Smith laid the ball into Michael Thomas's path, aided by a deflection suddenly found himself with just Bruce Grobelaar to beat.

He kept his cool and prodded the ball past the goalkeeper and as the ball hit the back of the net, Thomas just lost control in wild celebrations with his team-mates.

That morning, I aced my economics paper.

Then yesterday another thrilling match was played between the two with Liverpool needing to win in order to push Manure all the way for the Premier League title.

True to script, the home side banged on Lukasz Fabianski's goal throughout the first half but to no joy. The young Polish goalkeeper who had a match to forget against Chelski on Saturday displayed the reason why Arsene Wenger brought him to the Emirates in the first place.

Then against the run of play Arsenal took the lead. Andrei Arshavin finished smartly as the Gunners capitalised on an error by Javier Mascherano and went off the pitch at half-time one goal to the good.

Unlike their predecessors in 1989, the current Arsenal defence are more vulnerable and against Liverpool there was always the possibility of them conceding.

True enough, ten minutes into the second half the home side was already leading 2-1. At that time I did not see us coming back but Arshavin certainly proved me wrong.

 Calm and composed he drilled home the equaliser after Fabio Aurelio gifted him with the chance in the 67th minute. As it was previously, the lead did not last long and a well taken goal by Torres five minutes later brought the score level again.

I thought the match will end all square but when Fabianski's punch found Walcott, whose pace brought him into the Liverpool area, I thought we could find ourselves winning the match. The England youngster found Arshavin whose left foot shot showed the quality that he posseses as the Russian beat Pepe Reina for the fourth time in that match.

But when it was announced that there would be five minutes of added time, I knew that we would concede again. Sadly, I was right but it was such a match that a draw was the right result for me.

How I wish our local football could be at that level.


...