MyRAWKites Rocking It! Photo © Pei Ru.

On the back of another sloppy midweek draw, Liverpool will certainly have their eyes set on a better result against Bolton this weekend. Let’s show the team our undying support and cheer the Reds on for a repeat of what we got to see against Spurs.

MyRAWK will be having a live viewing for this game so come join us at Royal Oak, Jaya One for the 11PM kick-off on Saturday! For those in Melaka, join our fellow MyRAWKites at Taragon Restaurant, Lorong Hang Jebat.

PS, Royal Oak makes awesome chips!

Map to Jaya One

Taragon Restaurant FB Group

Kuyt scores 2! Relief At Last For Rafa?

The built-up to the match was increased ten-folds by the British media preying for Rafa’s head especially with rumours that Guus Hiddink and even The Special One, Jose Mourinho purportedly interested and in line to take over once the manager’s seat is vacant. Further pressure was piled on Rafa especially when the book-makers reduced the odds of Rafa getting the sack immediately should Liverpool fail to beat Spurs. Never before has a Liverpool manager been sacked in mid-season and the Kopites wasn’t going to nothing about it and let it happen. The hardcore Kopites, on seeing the injustice brought on their beloved Rafa instead, came out in full force to show their ‘Scouse Solidarity’ for Rafa, his background team as well as with the players as they arrived at Anfield for the match. This was probably the right tonic needed for the players.

It was a surprise line-up from Rafa as it read:-
Reina, Carragher (captain), Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Insua, Lucas, Mascherano, Riera, Degen, Aquilani and Kuyt.

Old ‘arry Redknapp could not have asked for a ‘weaker’ line-up especially without Gerrard, Torres, Agger, Benayoun and Johnson. The main surprise was that Kuyt was going to be the man up front with Aquilani in the hole whilst Degen and Riera will provide support by coming in deep from the opposite end. Some of the journalist might have been quietly confident about writing an obituary for Senor Rafa and probably already half way through the main text anyway.

Instead, the Kop had rocked loud and clear and it was reminiscent of a European Cup tie rather than a mundane BPL league match but it did not matter as the Scouse Solidarity was there to support Rafa and the players. Anfield was abuzz with the support for the players. Even Steven Gerrard who is currently out with injured hamstring was in the stands boy it must have been an unusual experience for the Captain Gerrard who would usually be in the field instead of enjoying this spectacle on the stands. It probably reinforced that his decision to stay was the correct in view of his clarification that there was no bust-up with Rafa and that he’d be in Anfield for a long time.

A quick team huddle in the pitch before kick-off and already the commentators were rubbing their hands gleefully in hope that the night would end with Rafa’s head on the floor. They were in for a big surprise ……

The team played with a new fervour not seen in Rafa’s team this season (except maybe the Man Utd game & 1^st half of Arsenal game). The team played with gutso and believe that belie their position of 4 points behind Spurs and several rungs below them.

In a rare show of nerves, Pepe dropped a low cross from the left and needed to react quickly to recover as Defoe was lurking. Immediately, Pepe pumped the ball upfront for Kuyt who chested the ball down to the on-rushing Aquilani who took the ball on his stride before releasing it gently to setup Kuyt for his shot on to goal to beat the despairing dive of Gomes for Liverpool’s first goal on the 6^th minute. Aquilani was hurt as he played to setup Kuyt’s goal when Dawson tackled from behind and took Aquilani’s ankle. Aquilani required treatment for the tackle and Dawson was unpunished for his misdeed. Kuyt’s goal. Anfield were at fever pitch now and every player in Red had an extra spring to their step and movement and the believe returned to the team with each and every pass.

From one of the corners, Kyrgiakos and Crouch tussled for the ball and there were plenty of shirt pulling but fortunately for Liverpool, Howard Webb did not see it that way and Crouch was adjudged to have fouled Kyrgiakos instead.

The 2^nd half was more exciting as Spurs had to pour men forward to look for an equalizer but the Liverpool back four held firm and limited Spurs to few shots from outside the penalty box. Kyrgiakos had another slip-up when he under hit a pass to Pepe Reina with Defoe lurking and somehow managed dispossess Pepe and drive the ball over the line but fortunately, the linesman gave an offside as Defoe was coming back from an offside position.

In the 2^nd half, the returning Reira could have doubled the lead for us but just a fraction too high and the header rebounded off Gomes’ crossbar and Spurs were able to clear to safety. Reira also showed what the team had missed from him as his delivery from crosses and set-pieces were dangerous as it was driven in with pace and swerve and had Gomes flapping a few times.

Degen showed that he can also play on the wings and have the appetite for BPL games as he got stuck in and getting an earful from Carragher in the process. Degen’s speed caused issues for Spurs as he was continually hacked down by the Spurs midfield and defenders.

Degen, Kuyt and Kyrgiakos had wasted some good chances when they rushed their shots and wasted them. The crowd had begun to worry about another late sting in the tail as the second goal was not forthcoming eventhough we were the better team and creating various chances.

Aquilani also played his heart out and most times were spent helping out the midfield to check the Spurs attack and he showed some nice touches and some ‘hollywood’ spray passes which unfortunately Kuyt was too slow to respond to. Aquilani was subbed (on the 79^th minute by Ngog) and you could see he was knackered and left the pitch to a standing ovation from an appreciative Anfield crowd.

Shortly after replacing Aquilani, Ngog created a chance for himself in the penalty box with some clever piece of footballing skill and managed to forced a save from Gomes. The Spurs defenders had a tough time coping with Ngog’s speed and clever skills in the short time that he was in the game. During injury time, Bassong chopped down Ngog when the latter was about to go 1 vs 1 against Gomes. Penalty duties were undertaken by Kuyt but he had to re-take it a second time after infringement by Lucas. Kuyt made no mistake from the re-take and made the 3 points safe and a glorious night for the supporters.

Kyrgiakos was massive in the middle of defence as was Skrtel who managed to keep Defoe checked throughout the game. Carragher was leading by example when he chased a lost cause and somehow managed to win a penalty which got the crowd going again. Even Degen had a good game on the right and was like a speeding demon on the right wing – if only he had the confidence to take the shot, he could have had a goal to his name.

The team will now have several extra days to recover before the Wolves game at Molinuex to keep the momentum going by getting another 3 points. Let’s hope that Rafa and his staff can maintain his winning streak as we face a  tough February 2010 with Bolton, Everton and Arsenal fixtures.

Will Tan,

* Editor’s Note: Sorry for the late posting! As most have known, we stumbled to a draw at Molinuex and Spurs are now in front at 4th place by 3 points. All the good work done, has gone to waste with our inept display – half the team went asleep in the late kick-off game on Wednesday morning and didn’t turn up for the game. We were lucky the defenders did though. Krygiakos played a blinder to give us only our 4th clean-sheet of the season.

Syam On His Way To Scoring MyRAWK's Opener. Pic By Pei Ru

MyRAWK’s 10th Garden Social League game in the 09/10 season was played under a hot and humid afternoon on the  GIS field in Sri Hartamas. This was a must win game for us as we run the risk of dropping from 6th all the way to the bottom of the league should we loose.  With the recent luckless run of 2 straight defeats, we were determined to break the loosing streak and get our season back on line – top 4 position is our aim.

The match started with both teams playing rather cautiously to test out each other’s game plan with the ball being played between both teams’ midfield area. As the match progress, both sides begun to find their feet and started to attack each other. DJ were dangerous with  their accurate long passing and free kicks. Fortunately for us, our defensive line was up for the challenge and managed to mitigate their attacks with a well marshaled back line led by Aaron. DJ nearly had an opportunity to open the scoring but their forward was stop right before he took a shot in the penalty box by Jon who managed cut him off and shadow him shoulder to shoulder away from the ball. The forward fell but the ref waved play on and deemed the challenge legal . However, DJ did took the lead half way through the 1st third after a defensive mixed up between Ryan Lai and Steven while dealing with a corner kick, gifted them an own goal.  They could have doubled their lead and if not for some poor finishing when their forwards got into dangerous positions.  Jon, the right back gave everyone a scare while challenging for a 50-50 ball after he had got passed 2 opponents but played the ball a touch too far when he tried to taken on the third. A loud clash of leg was heard, but he escape unhurt and won the ball. The 1st third ended with both team struggling in the late afternoon heat and with MyRAWK a goal down.

The 2nd third started with MyRAWK working hard to look for the equaliser. We used our speed down the flank through Syam and Syaz  take on DJ’s defender and drag them wide to create space for our strikers – Allan Loh and Allan Lee.  10 minutes in, Syam managed to beat 2 defenders on the right before unleashing a fierce shot that was slightly deflected by their defender pass the wrong footed keeper. 1-1 and it’s game on! We pressed hard for a second goal but was caught out when DJ’s midfielder floated a beautiful ball over our defenders who had momentarily lost focus and discipline, to their fast running striker. Ryan Lai, our keeper was beaten with a low drive to his far post in a one-on-one situation. Minutes later, Hans managed to caught the DJ keeper off the line when he lobbed the ball over him while attempting to cross the ball into the 6 yard box from the right, outside the penalty box. The match came alive with both teams working hard to score the next goal to retake the lead again.  DJ was the closes to scoring when our keeper was forced to make a diving save to deflect a shot away deep into the 2nd third, and luckily our defenders were on hand to help clear the ball away.

We could sense that DJ is tiring and struggling, so we sent in all our fast runners to run at their defense. Khai, now playing as a forward was working hard to hustle their defenders and could have scored 2 if not for their keeper who managed to make 2 finger tip saves to deny him . DJ was also working hard, trying to look for their 3 goal to go in front again. But they were caught out when our midfield won the ball and sent in a perfect through ball to Allan Loh who dully took on their defenders before unleashing a low powerful shot to beat the keeper at his far post – off the upright! It’s now 2-3 and we are finally in front! Knowing our tendencies to loose our focus before the end of a game and conceding silly last minute goals, we reorganised ourselves to be more defensive with the midfield dropping deep to cover DJ’s attacks. They nearly had an opportunity when Aaron was penalised for a high foot – in the box! Luckily the  ref gave a direct free kick instead of a penalty. In the ensuing melee, our defenders managed to clear the ball to a waiting Allan Loh who was perfectly positioned on the half way line to counter attack DJ. He took the ball pass their last man and placed it perfectly between the legs of the charging keeper to score MyRAWK’s 4th goal of the match. The match ended 2-4 to MyRAWK.

We are now on 13 points and in 5th position, level with 4th placed Predators who are ahead on goal difference.  Our next opponents will be Barcode who stunned us with a 5-1 victory against us in our 4th game in the league. We will be looking for revenge and a good result against them who have been struggling lately with 3 straight defeats. Knowing how tricky they are, we will not be taking anything for granted this time round.  However, the grudge match will have to wait till next week as the game will be postponed due to the Thaipusam and Federal Territory Day celebrations over the weekend.  Until then, enjoy coming long weekend and have a safe trip to those who are going outstation.

Allan Loh Bearing Down Towards Midah's Goal! Pic By Pei Ru.

In what was a hugely disappointing and shocking result, MyRAWK fell to our second straight defeat after the Garden Social League resumed from a month long “winter” break. Having previously won against Midah – the bottom positioned side, we were quietly confident of a good result as the team had grew by leaps and bound after 3 full months of playing together. Faith, lady luck and the gods of football had other plans for us.

With virtually a full squad to choose from, bar our utility man, Mike who was away on an overseas trip, Captain Adrian sent out a side with ample of speed and determination. From the kick-off, we controlled the game and was using our pace upfront to great effect. A perfect through ball sent Mufleh charging towards goal, only for the defender to bring him down in the peno box. Some how, the ref waved played on even though the tackler got no where near the ball.

Numerous chances came our way but somehow we missed them all.  Sitters were missed, posts were hit and certain goals were saved of the line by the finger tips of Midah’s keeper. The moment we dreaded the most came when in only their second serious attack of the 1st third, Midah scored with a long range shot from outside our peno box. Ryan Lai, our keeper dived to his right to stop the shot but unfortunately the ball bounced just in front of him and went over his out stretch  hands. Just before the break, Oscar attempted a spectacular half volley after he caught hold of the ball from a corner but his fierce shot flew wide off the goal.

The 2nd third started as the first, MyRAWK controlled the proceeding and was hell-bent on scoring the equaliser and more goals to win the game. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side and we continued to miss chances after chances. Allan Lee was left frustrated as he missed numerous sitters that only need a slight touch to head into goal.  Allan Loh hit the post with a header. Jaz and Syam had chances to score but some how with luck deserting them, all had their shots saved, blocked or just went a whisker wide.

It was all the same again in the last third of the game. Midah was fully pinned back and frantically trying to defend their slim one goal lead. MyRAWK managed to open up their defenses numerous time, only for last ditch tackles and blocks to deny us the goals. With time running out, the boys got frustrated and the challenges got more robust – Bai was booked  for excessive body contact. At virtually the last attack of the game, Rizal was left unmarked on the near post and managed to sneak in a shot across goal that was heading in, until the keeper somehow managed to tip the ball wide.

We have now dropped a spot to 6th on the league table and is equal on points with Predator and Midah and will be playing bottom-side DJ this Sunday. MyRAWK can ill afford to loose this match as we need to ensure our goal of achieving a top-4 finish is achieved. Let’s hope that lady luck and the gods of football will be on our side this time and we can score a few goals this time round.

LFC = Frustrated Inc.

It is the beginning of the end of Rafa Benitez as Manager of Liverpool Football Club if the media and pundits (sadly, included a host of former players!!!) are to be believed. Sure, the team played their heart out but team did not win.

Plenty of rumours around that Gerrard will be sold for GBP30million!!! But seriously, GBP30million? It’ll only buy Gerrard’s toes and his pinky at best ….. Also rumour mills are that Rafa have had a spat with Gerrard as well as the fact that Rafa have lost the dressing room ….. I recall much earlier certain pundit (more like former player) who said this but if that was so, how come the players are still playing their hearts out during matches? Oh! By the way, Gerrard was in the stadium during the match. I’m beginning to feel like Rafa is Leonidas.

Plenty in the media also ignored the support for Rafa during the game when the traveling Kop was showing it support by backing him and singing his name. Media agenda? Deffo!!!

Rafa started with Carra (on right back role), Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Insua on the backline. Aurelio and Degen (Yes, you don’t need reading glass yet!!) on the wings with Kuyt in the hole behind Ngog.

Anyhow, it wasn’t a pretty game and the defenders on both sides were the real match winners as both sets dug deep to prevent a goal although Stoke could easily have been penalized twice for tripping on Lucas (Yes!! It was Lucas in the opposition penalty area …once in the first half and once at the end of 2^nd half). Lucas only won himself a yellow card for purported diving in the first half, unfortunately. Maybe this is the price we pay for the Ngog diving incident last year which we picked up a point but others will think this is the payback, Karma!

Even when Kyrgiakos scored his first scrappy goal (he’s got the best goal per minute amongst our backline!!! Whee!!!), we never played with confidence although to be fair, Aquilani and Maxi were both on the bench. The former is probably saved for Spurs on Wednesday night (after playing consecutively for a few matches) whilst the latter is not match fit yet and still not able to speak English with his new team mates. Maxi did come into the match late whilst Aquilani come on in 85^th minute.

After going one goal down Stoke piled on the pressure and we giving away cheap … sorry, the referee kept giving away cheap fouls to Stoke for them to bombard the Liverpool penalty box. There were plenty of questionable decisions by the referee but let’s not go there – it’s the same referee which sent of Carragher and Degen in the same match a few months ago, ‘nuff said. Oh! By the way, the ref gave five (5) minutes of injury time …. maybe he thought that he was at Old Trafford!! Anyone who saw the match knew that it was not possible to have such a long injury time add on.

Stoke’s equalizer came in extra time during a corner and we were punished as Carragher (playing right back and positioned at the far post) were sucked into a cross that was coming into Reina’s six yard box but were back-headed to Huth who were unmarked and Huth duly tapped into an empty net.

Normally, a team will which succumbed to such a late equalizer would have gave up but credit to the Liverpool players on the pitch, they were not doing so. Instead in one last attack Aurelio sent in a deliciously swerving cross for Kuyt to arrive late into the penalty box and though Kuyt did managed to get good contact on it, the ball came off the post and bounced to safety for a draw which could have been costly for Liverpool at the end of the campaign.

Notwithstanding our draw with Stoke, the other results surprisingly (whether fortunately or not, depends on your views) were that Man City had lost to Everton (thank you Moyes!! Can’t believe I said it!), Spurs drew at home against Hull whilst the Hammers drew with MON’s Villans! So, we’re still in it for the 4^th place but we need to beat Spurs on Wednesday night’s match at Anfield and continue to pick up our form in the league.

-Will Tan-

MyRAWK is please to announce that the our Garden Social League team has entered into a sponsorship deal with MyKitZone.com. We will be wearing our new jerseys bearing the logo of MyKitZone.com for all our remaining 09/10 GSL matches and beyond. A big thank you to Mr. Aaron Wong for helping us secure the sponsorship.

More info on MyKitZone.com
“MyKitZone is a registered partnership and its principal business would be sale of official Sporting ID NNs and patches. We currently have stocked the present EPL NNs (white) so those interested can get them from us and of course items will be expanded in the next few weeks. All details such as prices, delivery, etc will be updated therein.

Other future services that are currently in the pipeline include getting the heat press machine by mid 2010. With this, we may then also offer printing services at our future premise (by end 2010) or by post. More details will be released once this phase of our expansion is completed and done.

We are not into the business of making a fast buck, all our products are authentic from licensed suppliers. We are just passionate jersey/kit collectors, and we’d like to offer another alternative to all jersey enthusiasts out there to locate and purchase namesets to further enhance the aesthetic value of their prized jerseys/kits.”

After a long hiatus due to the late kick-offs and holiday season, MyRAWK’s live match is back with a vengence! We will be gathering for the away match against Stoke City at Royal Oak, Jaya One in PJ. Gathering will start from 8pm onward on Saturday, 16th January. Alternatively, if you’re in Malacca, you can also join our new chapter there that will be gathering at Taragon Restarant, Lorong Hang Jebat.

With the recent negativity surrounding the club, no thanks to the turmoil and drama with the team’s performance and all the politics in the background, it’s time for us to show our love and support for the club. Let’s back the boys to put all of that behind and play their hearts out. We need them to perform up to their usual standards to ensure we achieve the crucial top four finish.

So come join in the MyRAWK gang and cheer them on! Be there or be square! Click on the links below for information and instruction on how to get to the venues.

Are you RED enough?

Map to Jaya One

Taragon Restaurant FB Group

-MyRAWK-

Zhun getting stuck in! Picture By Pei Ru

MyRAWK played the Garden Social League leader,  Farm in our 8th game on Sunday at a rather stinky DBKL field at Brickfield. In our previous few matches against them prior to this, we have been soundly beaten with an average of 3 goals winning margin. Irregardless, we we quietly confident of nicking the game or at-least getting a draw in this match.

Things started pretty badly for both team the moment we were at the pitch, we realised that it was in pretty  bad shaped – muddy and stinky!  The management had allowed games to go on under heavy rain conditions and the turf was teared up pretty badly, exposing mud and earth underneath that smelled like cow dung! There was a lot of unhappy faces pitch side!

The match started with pretty much MyRAWK controlling the game and tempo. We were winning the midfield battle and attacking non-stop for the first 5 minutes. However, FARM counter-attacked us and caught us on the break with a high defensive line and scored the opener – it was only the 2nd time they managed to attack us in the early exchanges. We got stucked in and continued to challenged for the 50-50 and 2nd balls. Our strong play resulted in Bai scoring the equaliser on the 15th minute through a low drive that the keeper fumbled over the line.

Unfortunately, it all went down hill for us as Farm had found a chink in our armour – they had fast running forwards and wingers against our slower high defensive line. We caved in to their speed and conceded 3 goals in the last 10 minutes. All of us were asking, how on earth did we go 4-1 down in the 1st third that we were controlling. We got really frustrated and worked up. Our keeper, Ryan was dumbfounded as he hardly had anything to do except picking the ball up from the back of the net after he was left with 4 one-on-one situations that resulted in the 4 goals.

We reorganised the team and brought in a faster defender, Ray to counter the speed of FARM and it worked in the 2nd third. We also brought in our fast running forwards – Allan Loh and Syaz to give the Farm defence a new problem to deal with.  All the changes resulted in us winning a penalty through Syaz who harassed the opponent’s left back into handling the ball in the box after chasing him down our right flank. Captain Adrian, dully broke the penalty kick jinx and slotted the ball home pass the keeper into the lower right corner. Our self belief grew as we sense a shock result is in the cards.  We kept working hard to control the midfield and got into a few scoring positions only for the pitch condition to screw up our shots or our forwards felled into Farm’s off-side trap.

In the final third, we went all out to grab the 2 goals to at-least draw the match. We played with 3 center-backs and put an extra man upfront to pick up long balls from the back. By now, we’re basically camped in the FARM half.  Allan Loh managed to pick up a beautifully floated ball from our midfield and charged towards the FARM goal, before putting in a drive that beat their keeper on the near post. It’s now 4-3, with about 10 minutes to go. Jonno hit a fierce drive that beat the keeper but missed the top corner by a whisker 5 minutes later. We could sense the chance to draw level and continued to pile the pressure on FARM. Kelvin, now playing as center-forward instead of his usual center-back role,  got into a good goal scoring position but with lady luck not on his side, he fired the ball past the upright. Just before the final whistle, we got a free kick from just outside the penalty box but the resulting kick was cleared by the defenders and that was it. Final score: 4-3 and MyRAWK’s 4th loss in the league.

Irregardless of the disappointing loss, we actually played one of our best game. Team spirit was strong and we never gave up. We got more physical and definitely showed our opponents we’re not “soft” anymore.  However, this new found physical prowess came with 2 injuries to our no.7 Oscar and our new center-back, Ray. We are beginning to play as a team and really start to communicate with each other. Harsh words were exchanged in the heat of the battle but it was all good as it showed that we are playing hard and fighting.  3-points lost but we gained better team and fighting spirit which will be priceless come end of the season. Well done boys! Now let’s repeat the same performance against Midah this weekend!

Liverpool’s game against Tottenham originally scheduled for tonight has been postponed to a later date due to the inclement weather conditions. Although the pitch condition is playable, the vicinity of the stadium is icy and unsafe for travelling fans. The Red’s next game is against Reading in the FA Cup replay.

On the transfer front, unsettled leftback Dossena will be moving to Napoli for 4.25m Euros, while Voronin will be headed to Dinamo Moscow.