13 Mar 2006(Mon)

March 10, 2006: Well done to the Verdy fans for their unwavering support during the Asian Champions League match against Ulsan the other night.

It was an impressive performance, not just to keep singing with defeat inevitable but to actually to stay awake for the entire 90 minutes!

Wasn't it a poor spectacle?

This is supposed to be Asia's equivalent of the UEFA Champions League, but it's light years away, isn't it?

Funnily enough, I awoke very early, by accident, on the morning of the Verdy-Ulsan match.

It can't have been excitement or tension about the upcoming "thriller" at Kokuritsu that woke me long before the alarm clock was due to go off. It must have been something else...

Instinctively, I turned on TV...and was rewarded immediately by seeing Ronaldinho's fantastic goal against Chelsea.

The colour, the spectacle, the atmosphere...will Asia's Champions League ever come close to matching that?

Let's face it, these matches are pretty grim viewing, and I often wonder why I've bothered making the journey to the game when I could be at home doing something useful, such as washing the dishes.

I suppose it's the prospect of seeing a team play from another country that "entices" me there, if that's the right word to use.

But what often happens in these games, in Japan at least, is that the home team is way too strong or that the visiting team employs every trick in the book of gamesmanship to try and stop the Japanese team from playing.

Either way, the result is often a farce, with low quality football from a visiting team or a match almost impossible to watch due to the blatant cheating and time-wasting of the opposition.

On Wednesday, for example, the Koreans fell to the ground at every opportunity, and their fall was often accompanied by a pathetic "scream" of pain. I'd like to have seen some TV replays of the alleged fouls, because there looked to be minimum contact on a few occasions, if any contact at all.

And when a visiting team goes ahead, of course, the theatrics and play-acting gets even worse.

It's bad in this part of the world, but even worse in west Asia. The favourite trick over there is for the goalkeeper to pretend he is injured, and stay down after every corner, free kick or challenge. With the goalkeeper rolling around and his teammates putting pressure on the referee and the opposition to stop the game, the charade continues through to the final whistle.

I remember Palestine doing this against Japan at the Asian Games in Pusan, Korea, in 2002, as they tried to keep the scoreline at 0-0 as long as possible. Only when Japan eventually took the lead in the second half did Palestine even attempt to play football, as they now had to actually score a goal to equalise...something they had clearly never worked on in training!

Verdy 0, Ulsan 2, in front of 4,436 fans, which is not a bad attendance when compared to the levels of support in Korea.

Anyone heading to Ulsan for the second leg on May 3, apart from Ramos and the boys?

I think I'll stay in and do the dishes!

ends