Tackles, balls and Seaman - The footie thread

[John Daniels]

I'm not sure if anyone of you have read columns of Aki Riihilahti. His club is Crystal Palace.

Here is one for you, if you care to read.




Why I'm right to dare to dream
By Aki Riihilahti

?TO PLAY IN THE Premiership. To be No 6 for Finland. To be a good professional.? Why not? I might as well set my first three goals ridiculously high.

It is December 2003. I am lying in a hospital. My beloved club, Crystal Palace, are second last in the old first division. I have hardly played at all and when I have, I?ve been a waste of space. As a result, I?ve also been bombed from the national team. To highlight the insult, my leg has just been operated on. There are very few, if any, people who come to visit me, even fewer who still have faith in me or my career as a footballer. My new goals may sound like I?m still high from the anaesthetic.

Today, it?s not even a year from me being on crutches. We have just got our first win in the Premiership. I?ve started all the World Cup qualification games for Finland and we are leading our group. I?ve been a good professional. Everything has happened quicker than I could ever have wished for. A personal fairytale? Yes and no.

It is not a proper Cinderella story, but even smaller scale fairytales start from somewhere. My story was all triggered by the injury. Sometimes you need adversity to reinvent yourself. I realised I didn?t know what I wanted and didn?t want what I was getting. I was trying to force myself to stay on a path that was actually leading nowhere. I had been hypnotised by the struggle so I had stopped dreaming, setting goals and learning. When you stay still, you start to rot. I was stinking.

?Be quicker. Improve your passing quality. Have control and see the options beforehand. Dare.? These are the things I?ve always known that I was lacking. Still I hadn?t done enough to improve them. It?s pure stupidity. It?s like realising it is raining but still not sheltering under the tree. I was soaking wet with my own ignorance. If you do what you have always done, you get what you have always got. So I simply had to fix these things between myself and my goals.

Now I had goals and I had a plan. However, wanting something doesn?t automatically give you it. You actually have to go out there and start doing it. Gym was and still is filled every morning by my not-so-fast-feet and getting-quicker-feet. I wanted to pass like Zidane but often I was still John Smith, who kicked the ball over the wall in the advert. Have it!

I started from the beginning. No short cuts. I had to be honest with myself. Sometimes I had to dare to have a stinker. It was a learning process and it is still going on. All the extra work meant also that I had to leave out something else. So it was goodbye to some hobbies, some friends and television. It was hard. I soon realised, though, that it was not a sacrifice, it was an investment.

People often try to knock down other people?s dreams because they are too afraid to live their own. Luckily, Crystal Palace is a very progressive football club, we have a management team that not only encourage people to set goals ? they demand it.

Before every game we have to set individual goals and team goals. We have mission statements, set standards and dreams. That is a very essential part of what we are. It is a good place to be. It gives meaning to what you are doing. I?ve been lucky to be surrounded by people who are encouraging me to fly. I have deleted from my life the ones who want me to stay on the ground.

I?m not trying to blow my own trumpet here. I?m very much an unfinished and average piece of work. I have still often had problems, but I also have succeeded more often. All of my goals are still in process.

I have not tried to lecture anyone in this column either, I write this in a hope that maybe at least a person starts dreaming again. Just setting goals gives you a good chance. It?s the law of attraction. Things start to search for each other subconsciously. I know there are always going to be some adversity and problems. Why not call them opportunities or challenges? You can only fail if you stop trying. I know for sure I will never again stop setting goals and having dreams. I want to base my everyday life on it.

Actually most of my goals are not about football. And the best part is not achieving something, but who you become in the process. It is a very peaceful feeling knowing you are on your own meaningful path. I think you can only know where you are at present if you know where you want to go and how to get there.

What are your goals? I bet most people can?t answer the question. They might have vague dreams, but not a clear picture of what they really want. The problem of this world is that people accept whatever they receive. I know you might not achieve all the goals and dreams you set: I still can?t cook and haven?t got a girlfriend. So what? I bet you?d still congratulate yourself for the effort. The world is full of unused potential and I would rather crash and burn in trying to live my dreams than not dare to go after them at all.

?To make myself and Crystal Palace established Premiership quality. To be a good professional.?

These are my three new goals. They are easy compared to the other 97 about my private life. I have set myself destinations. I have a map. I might not travel there the shortest way. But I will get there. I hope you do as well.

Copyright Times Newspapers

[Danny Top Hat]

It's just a very one sided argument you put across.

Well, obviously.? I am perfectly capable of criticising Arsenal, but of course I complain with them when I feel that we had a hard time.? Everyone else does it when we've had the good luck.  Pompey fans are still moaning about the Pires penalty, and Fulham whined like little puppies when we played them earlier in the season.? Nobody minds when they complain though, cause they're underdogs.

He's a not a bad player, hardly quality though, infact he's admittited himself he hasn't played his best football international or european level

Well, along with Campbell, Rooney and Lampard he was generally considered to be one of England's best players in Euro 2004, and he's one of the few Arsenal players who has been playing well in the Champions League lately.? He used to be very flawed, but he's improved hugely.

Ruud will probably get a 3 match ban because of his challange. Redknapp made a terrible tackle recently, and got away with it

He didn't "get away with it" so much - it's just the team they were playing against didn't wanna make an issue of it because they accepted that he wasn't a dirty player.? Arsenal do not accept that Ruud isn't a dirty player.? It's not like we're the only team who's ever asked the FA to review a tackle, just like we're not the only team to ever complain about bad refereeing decisions.

I guess people just pay more attention when you're a bigger club.

Yeah, I think that's pretty much it.



On a different topic, what does everyone think about the West Ham fans hitting Kezman with a coin?? I hope they get it shiiiitttt loads of trouble for it - i'm really suprised the papers aren't making it into a bigger deal.

[axl_rose_700]

Danny, the press aren't making a bigger deal of it because it's West Ham and the press love West Ham, if it had been Leeds or Millwall fans, among others, the press would have gone spare!

[Chris Misfit]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/preston/3966523.stm

Healy plays on sunday against Wigan!

PS - Does/did anyone watch Fottie Focus on BBC1. They keep showing the Healy goal against Austria. Better than Henrys against Man UTD a few years back (the flick, turn, volley)? It's pretty similar. Keeper looked like he was gonna cry!

[Tj]

I am absolutely gutted for Saints fans. The south coast would be a damn happy place to be if Saints had beaten Arsenal on the same day as Pompey beating Man Utd. I'm not a fan of any of those four clubs, but I live between Portsmouth and Southampton, and I think I'd feel the happiness vibes!

[Chris Misfit]

I reckon they should of had a penalty at the end. Was as much as penalty as Bergkamps was.

My team drew today!

[Tj]

I haven't seen any of the highlights so I can't say. And my team (swindon) drew today too. Pretty gutted, to be honest. We went 1-0 down, scored 3 goals in 9 minutes (similar to the way we won our last match), and then let in another two 

Who's your team? I guess I'd know if I followed this thread closely...but I don't, lol.

edited to add: Fuck me, am I tired. I'm going to bed before I start feeling sick as well. Strictly speaking, t's 3am, but it feels like 4am, because the clocks went back an hour. Ah, I'm going to die before I get to bed.

[MadmanDan]

I'm getting sick and tired of ManUtd's complete lack of consistency!!! I'm sad to say this,but they have no chance to win the Premiership this season.Champions League,maybe

[Izzy]

Ah, Liverpool never fail to frustrate - ?14 mill Cisse won't play again this season - and when he did play he was crap, money wasted? Well prob not, because we'd have bought some crap in his place

I notice Diouf scored for Bolton today - 2 more goals and he equals he's tally of 3 with Liverpool.....

[Chris Misfit]

Who's your team?

Ballymena United.

[Miz]

Ah, Liverpool never fail to frustrate - ?14 mill Cisse won't play again this season - and when he did play he was crap, money wasted? Well prob not, because we'd have bought some crap in his place

That was pretty sick though what happened to him.  I don't know who fouled him, but did he even get booked?  From where I was sitting, it looked like a deliberate foul, and there was no intention of going for the ball.  And as a result, Cisse's leg snapped in half.  That blackburn player should be banned for a long time.  Tosser.

[Izzy]

Ah, Liverpool never fail to frustrate - ?14 mill Cisse won't play again this season - and when he did play he was crap, money wasted? Well prob not, because we'd have bought some crap in his place

That was pretty sick though what happened to him.? I don't know who fouled him, but did he even get booked?? From where I was sitting, it looked like a deliberate foul, and there was no intention of going for the ball.? And as a result, Cisse's leg snapped in half.? That blackburn player should be banned for a long time.? Tosser.

Last season at Ewood park they broke Carragher and Baros's legs, just the luck of the draw? Its slightly dubious to me....

[axl_rose_700]

Leeds Burnley tonight, don't know why but I'm feeling a big win for Leeds tonight!!

[badapple81]

Oh my god..

My older brother (like me, massive Aston Villa fan), just became a Dad.. and named his son Spencer.. middle name 'Villan'.. that is no joke!

[axl_rose_700]

Leeds Burnley tonight, don't know why but I'm feeling a big win for Leeds tonight!!

Shows what I know!! lol

[Danny Top Hat]

Does anyone know of some tasteless website where I can see footage of the Cisse tackle?

Hehe, Eurosport desrcibed Cygan as the 'Own Goal King'.

[Izzy]

Does anyone know of some tasteless website where I can see footage of the Cisse tackle?

Why would u want to see that? U ain't got some weird fetish for this kind of stuff have u?

[Chris Misfit]

David Healy!

[axl_rose_700]

David Healy!

 

Good win for Leeds yesterday!!!!!!!!!  Really pleased to see Healy score!

[MadmanDan]

And yet another draw for ManUtd...But it could be worse,I could be a Liverpool fan