On the night of 4th Feb 2009, arguably the world's most popular footballer ever to lived, in the form of David Beckham played in Ibrox Stadium, the home of Scottish powerhouse, Glasgow Rangers. Don't agree he is the world's most popular footballer? Even my mum knows who is David Beckham la. Haha.. Although mum doesn't watch football, I think she knows at least 3 players.. Beckham, Ronaldo(the no.9 one) and Michael Owen. Shyt Keong, you better buckle up ur football knowledge soon, else u suck. Hahaha..
Anyways, I was lucky enough to see him play in the very stadium that he was playing in, and breathe the same air as he was breathing. LOL.. Im not the only one who's ecstatic that Beckham was playing. The other 47000++ ppl who attended were too. That was proved when the announcer announced his name, and he got the biggest cheer. Not only that, these 47000 ppl were the ones who braved the crazily freezing temperatures in order to watch him play. Tiny bits of crushed ice were falling from the skies at the time of the match. Well, I wore 4 layers of clothes and 3 layers for the legs plus 2 socks. Pavements and walkways were lathered with ice all over. Not only that, tickets cost 25 pounds, equivalent to 60++ BND! Anyways, not as exp when compared to the Old Trafford one.
Well on arrival at entrance, I was told by the security guard to throw my water bottle away. LOL! Walao.. Uncle, mafan la lu punya Ibrox! Even Old Trafford allowed me to bring my bottles and bags in leh! Oh well, I sat near one of the corner kick spots. Well close but not that close. Seat was in the last row actually, thus couldn't see the other end clearly when the action is over there. Oh well, but not bad actually. Last row means you can exit anytime you want, plus, there was a roof over the last few rows thus, much warmer I guess. Well, honestly it was still cold. My strategy against the cold worked for my body n legs, but not my feet. My feet went numb! I remember the not-very-pleasant-walking back to the subway, how comfortable I felt.
We arrived around 20+ mins before the match started I guess. I remembered "Beckham Beckham" shouts at that time. And there I see, the man in action. Hitting balls around with Ronaldinho. It was warmup time, accompanied by very loud music to pump up the players I guess..
Becks in warmup
Welcome to Ibrox!
View from my sitting area, notice the lowered roof/ceiling..
Not long after, the players disappear into the locker rooms. Suddenly, the chorus of the popular Tina Turner "Simply the best" song was played and the crowd erupted. Thought what happened, well, it was the cue for the players to come out!
Players lineup
The home team's starting 11 -- I onlyrecognize 2 players! HAHAHA
The away team's starting 11 -- Here, loudest cheer went to who else?
Ready?
The players went to their own halves. Ball in the middle, whistle blew, music stopped. Start of match..
More Becks in action..
To be honest, the first half was disappointing. I was certainly expecting more from a side like AC Milan. Their starting 11 was very strong somemore.
Ronaldinho tried to entertain the crowd with a bit of his trademark 'Make-the-defender-look-silly' passes and flicks to partial success at most. Its a bit sad to be honest. I am sensing the downfall of the once-very-awesome Ronaldinho. He seemed to make his passes a bit more slowly then ideal, from what I see. What happens is, defenders regroup, and then its back to square one, i.e. Reset play or defend. He played for around nearly 70 minutes before being substituted by Seedorf. He had some bright spots from the game thou which included a on-target freekick and a wonderful pass which set up Inzaghi in the first half (He missed thou)
Beckham, whoa.. performed okay at most. He did do some of his trademark pinpoint long passes to the oos and aahhs of the crowd (me included). But I thought he looked a bit tired. You could see him panting, hands on his waist and not running as much. But of course, once again, he got the loudest cheer, I remember when he took the first corner for AC Milan. The Rangers supporters certainly loved him. But, he was substituted abruptly during halftime. I was a bit disappointed to not see him in the starting 11 during the 2nd half.
Sheva was very mediocre. Ever since he went to Chelsea, I think he went downhill from there on. Tonight was no different. Inzaghi, the Italian legend, was mediocre too. There were a no. of passes threaded to him from Becks and the others, setting him up in front of goal, but he either missed the ball completely or had a poor first touch. 2 of the Ex-Gooners featured too.. Senderos was not bad. Another ex-Gooner, Flamini, was not bad too.. Had a couple of good tackles. Pirlo the captain of the night, was kinda mediocre too. In all, Milan weren't playing up to their potential in the first half.
Rangers kept counter-attacking in the first half. Edu was playing well, and so was Mendes. Rangers were actually missing some of their regulars in the starting 11 , in Ferguson and Boyd..
The Rangers Mascot dancing and posing for the cams during halftime..
The second half started with the coming on of Seedorf, Jantuslovki(I dunno how to spell his name) and also Ferguson(the Scottish legend for Rangers).. Seedorf certainly looked bright. He did a couple of good tricks, n damn does he has super fast reaction. He's quick! But that ain't all the substitutions. The night was not over yet. The whole place was still anticipating for that one man to come on. That one man who is rated to be over 100-million pounds in transfer value. None other than..
A lil hard to spot eh.. Kaka! The Rangers fans were
shouting his name, wanting him to come on..
Around 70 mins( if I ain't wrong) Kaka and Pato came on. Oh Oh..
The whole complexion of the game changed from there on.. Sheva and Ronaldinho out.. An influx of pace now.
But suddenly, after a minor mixup from the Milan defenders...
Rangers scored!!
As expected, the fans went nuts!
I was really wondering whether a major major MAJOR upset was in the balance with over 20++ mins left on the clock. Milan weren't doing well so far somemore.. How how?
No worries, a few mins later.. A through pass from a Milan player set no.22 aka Kaka free. Kaka slashes into the box, does a quick pass. After some deflection, Pato strikes n ball ends up in the back of the net. I actually let out a small shout, when they scored! LOL.. I have certainly forgotten where was I sitting at. The home crowd area! My gawd! If I was in the middle rows, I might certainly have been bashed by em already. LOL.. Phew.. hahhaa.. It was sad actually. Milan's support was so lil! When the goal was scored, the whole stadium stayed quiet. No shouting or whatever. Walao..
Action begins..
Now Milan seems to have step up a gear or two. Better passes and movement. But then, ball finds itself on the feet of Kaka.. Hoho.. What else, he runs, holds off the challenge of a defender, strike from the edge of the box. GOAL.. LOL.. Its amazing how he did it. The Rangers defenders were certainly no match for him. Now I know why ppl rate him so highly. He single-handedly changed the course of the game that night!
Milan up!
Kaka taking a corner..
Well, since there was around 10 mins left on the clock. I thought nah, it is over! Rangers gonna lose this one. Suddenly, the crowd seemed to get excited over something. Everyone was looking over at the players bench area. LOL.. What is happening oh? I wondered.. LOL.. I looked properly, ah.. a player coming on. So what? I see the No.9. Oh.. Kris Boyd. Rangers top scorer! Should be an utterly popular player for the club. The support of the crowd for him was whoa! Everyone was standing cheering.. Lol..
Something is bound to happen, I feel. Then from a Rangers attack, after some nice technique by one of the Rangers players, a through ball threaded, a beautiful sidefoot shot by a Rangers player, GOAL! Crowd erupted! However it wasnt their hero, Kris Boyd thou'. It was a leftback if I aint wrong in the form of Sasa Papac..
That was the last goal of the match, thus the match ended at 2 -2..
The final result
The long queue to the subway station. Its nuts!
We ended up walking to the next nearby subway station
Rangers Megastore located outside the stadium
Overall, it was just an average match, in terms of entertainment. The atmosphere was kinda lacking to be honest. Definitely, cannot be compared to Old Trafford one. The fans there sing nearly every club song throughout the match plus there is no needfor speakers to initiate them to sing, like this one. They know when to start singing and all that. But, of course, Old Trafford is nearly twice as big as this place, so certainly understood. Btw, I am still an Arsenal fan. I am just talking about the wonderful atmosphere that Old Trafford has. It was a good experience nonetheless.. =)
(As usual for any bday posts, pics stolen from FB, hope you do not mind lol)
Becks in warmup
Welcome to Ibrox!
View from my sitting area, notice the lowered roof/ceiling..
Players lineup
The home team's starting 11 -- I onlyrecognize 2 players! HAHAHA
The away team's starting 11 -- Here, loudest cheer went to who else?
Ready?
The Rangers Mascot dancing and posing for the cams during halftime..
A lil hard to spot eh.. Kaka! The Rangers fans were
Rangers scored!!
Action begins..
Milan up!
Kaka taking a corner..
The final result
The long queue to the subway station. Its nuts!
Rangers Megastore located outside the stadium
+
Copied directly from his blog..
Ohh, btw Arsenal is a football club if u still happen to be lost.. oops
Drained~~
Gasp!~ Mc Grady!
"Wah.. Ref trying to do the 'Statue of Liberty' pose ah? " 
Ah Ping wana hold hands with the guy in white!
"Drink 100 Plus!" ad
Result of "Just do it" + "Drink 100 Plus!" haha
Us all.. Dunno where's Wei thou'
Taken when baru tiba
Black clouds coming..
Wah.. ganas jua
Without her, no food
Assuming the 'guy' referred is me
Ahh, should be correct lah! HAHA!
Besides 'the Penguin', Mermaids can get blur too
Then suddenly! All gone..
Look right.. Also nothing
Bye bye black clouds
Notice the different colours in the sea.
Maybe my best pic for the day
Whoa, this big thing weren't around a few years back
Mana lu orang?
Ohh, there..
There
and there
End of day
