Ugly Devils

The 2009/10 EPL season is about to start in August. I am sad to know that Nike has picked such an awful design for the Red Devil's home strip!

Putting a big V above the AIG logo is just tasteless..... Even as a supported of Manchester United, I would never buy the replica for the upcoming season.

Heart Break At Anfield

Manchester United took the lead at the 3rd minute through a beautiful pass from Berbatov to Tevez to shock Liverpool at Anfield stadium.

Then came the bizarre own goal from Wes Brown - a deflected shot went across the United goal, keeper Edwin Van De Sar came off his line to palm the ball away, only to see it come off defender Wes Brown to his own net. Football pundits claimed that Van De Sar should not have come out for the ball but I think it was just unlucky of him.

From that time onwards, United played poorly and Liverpool dominated the mid-field, especially after mid-fielder Michael Carrick limped off with an ankle injury and was replaced by Ryan Giggs after half time. United were still playing catching up despite the score being 1-1.

The score was level until Ryan Giggs (the oldest player in the team) made a mistake at the corner line at United's half. He wanted to shield the ball to let it go out of bounds but did not see Liverpool's Mascherano coming from behind to poke away the ball to substitute Ryan Babel, who made no mistake by putting the ball through a couple of United defenders to the top corner of the net. To add insult to injury, United defender Nemanja Vidic was sent off for a second bookable offence - elbowing an opponent during an aeriel duel for the ball.

My prediction of the 2-1 score was correct, except it was Liverpool 2-1 United. I also got one of the scorers correct, Carlos Tevez for United.

To sum it up, it was just an unconvincing display from United. I am especially disappointed at United's new signing Berbatov who just faded away from the game after the first half. The champions United will have a lot to work on before this coming Wednesday's UEFA Champions League group game vs. Villareal (Spain) and next Sunday's game at Stamford Bridge against rivals Chelsea.

I will just go to sleep after venting my frustrations & disappointment on this post!

Finally! AORA TV!

In my previous post I wrote about the frustrations for not being able to watch live EPL matches on TV. On Sunday I finally subscribed to AORA TV.

I had to wait for the installer to come from 2pm until 4pm because the guy was caught up in another job. He informed me that since AORA TV started on 29 Aug 2008 until now, Palembang area only has 10 subscribers. I am sure all of them only installed AORA TV just to watch live EPL matches.

I will be reducing my ASTRO channels to include only Discovery, NatGeo, CNN, BBC news, Star World, AXN, E! and the movie channels (Star Movies, HBO & Cinemax). The subscription of AORA TV that has only 12 channels together with the reduced ASTRO channels above will cost my approximately RM135/month vs. the previous amount of RM94/month. An extra RM41/month of extra expenses hopefully would be able to give me sufficient entertainment!

I also had to live with 2 satellite dishes - one facing east and the other facing west in 2 separate locations!

Anticipating Live EPL Matches

As mentioned in my previous post, one of the only entertainment I have in Palembang is watching live EPL (English Premier League) football matches on TV.

Due to the broadcasting rights problems of my satellite TV provider, I have missed the opening matches since the EPL started on 16 Aug 2008. My current ASTRO channels do not have any live matches nor EPL highlights like last year and this is truly a disappointment until I had to reevaluate whether I need to continue to subscribe to ASTRO.

From what I heard, AORA TV (the only official EPL broadcaster in Indonesia at the moment) is a spin off from ASTRO Indonesia. This is because of problems between the 2 ASTRO companies in Malaysia and Indonesia fighting for the broadcasting rights.

When I called the contractor about installation details for AORA TV, the person informed me to wait until September 5, 2008 because ASTRO Indonesia will be making an announcement to determine whether ASTRO will continue to air live EPL matches for the 2008/2009 season or AORA TV will have their exclusive rights. SEPTEMBER 5, 2008 will be remembered as one CRITICAL DATE to determine whether I should cut down on my current ASTRO channels and subscribe to AORA TV.....