STUNNED. oranje rhapsody, our agony.

Last night was a total mess.

I was expecting a great display of the game. Part of the game was fantastic, but the bigger part was heartbreaking. What is wrong with our Azzurri?

I took time sleeping just enough to see the match on TV. Well, I boasted some by telling that I was off to Berne (just to feel the fun of European atmosphere) and got myself wearing Luca Toni's shirt. Thee-hee. Equipped with snacks, Haji Marlboro and drinks while my wife sleeping, I sat in front of telly as if I was at the stands at Stade de Suisse, Berne.

Of der Nederland, one of Europe's powerful teams, I expected a revenge of defeat in Euro 2000 by Italia. Pretty. The best thing is, both coaches, Marco van Basten of Nederland and Roberto Donadoni of Italia were teammates back in AC Milan in late 80s. No time for down memory lane, boys. Pitting their tactical skills and wit, I believed the Azzurri would make progress and should have been alighted with a win.

But that wasn't the case. Totally stunned.

Der Oranje/Nederland were outclassing the world champions with three goals, neat play, effective tactics, sheer skills, accurate passes and total football. Clearly, Italia played below par. Everything seemed serba tak kena. I failed to understand the Italian approach to the game. Most players are considered veteran; some are over 30s, but playing against a team of mostly young lads, another approach would be better than the originally-planned-but-busted 4-3-3 system.

Without capitano Cannavaro out of injury, the defence were quite shaky. Luckily, Andrea Barzagli and Panucci were good, even the great Zambrotta couldn't work effectively. When Fabio Grosso entered, the defence strengthened a little. Grosso should start earlier.

Midfielders were of pure Milanese: Massimo Ambrosini, Gennaro Gattuso and my great Andrea Pirlo. Simone Perrotta should be in starting XI.

Frontliners: Mauro Camoransei, Antonio di Natale, Luca Toni. Camoranesi's poor display so far, and Toni was overlooked.

Italia cannot just rely on Toni to break the net. Toni is good when he's off-guard and I think Del Piero was inspirational. However, Cassano wan't at his best, he needs to work more on team understanding.

Didn't want to say much about the Oranje, as their best game tell.

What did our supremo Donadoni says?

"When we went 1-0 down things got complicated and for the second we were not quick enough to recover our positions after the corner. We looked strong physically and created a few chances but it wasn't our night. I think the Netherlands played as well as we expected them to. We knew they were capable of creating chances and making life difficult for us and that's what they did but we made mistakes and paid for it. It started badly and ended up worse but this is already history and we need to think about the next game against Romania. We need to recover physically and mentally so we can put things right straight away.

If we're not optimistic we should go off on holiday instead of taking the flight to Zurich. The players need to put this defeat behind them, understand the mistakes we've made. As of tomorrow we'll start working on them so they don't happen again. We were naïve at conceding goals on the counterattack. We took a corner and were not attentive enough afterwards. We didn't defend properly. Obviously in the light of this result, we're happy that France and Romania drew. It's to our advantage but also shows that Romania are a team who'll make it difficult for us."

I haven't check out the Italian sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport on their opinions of the game. Emm. Nevermind then, just prepare and head to Zurich with aim to win.

Forza Azzurri!

Pabila Sang Kelembai menjadi raja sehari...

Akhirnya, selamat juga Ahmad Fuad @ Sang Kelembai dan isteri, Shila ke alam perkahwinan. Alhamdulillah. Semoga berbahagia sampai ke akhirat.

Sabtu 7 Jun 2008. Asalnya aku dan isteri nak mengajak kengkawan lain ikut sekali dalam ekspedisi ke Kuala Lipis, rumah si Kelembai ni. Alih-alih kami berdua je. Dahlah bangun lambat pagi tu (pagi Sabtu masa paling best menidurkan diri sebagai ganti tak cukup tidur masa hari bekerja). Sempat pula balik ke Rawang sekejap menghantar barang ke rumah mentua, lepas tu terus pecut ke Negeri Gading Emas (Pahang) kira-kira 210 km dari sini.

Aku sudah membuat persediaan untuk ekspedisi sehari ini. Siapalah aku tanpa peta. Dengan bantuan daripada Ujang, aku dah dapat arah ke sana. Pemanduan ke sana macam biasa je. Kami seronok sambil menyanyi-nyanya. Melepasi terowong Genting Sempah, kami mula melawan hujan lebat. Sampailah lepas bandar Bentong, barulah hujan ditinggalkan. Hmm.

Ujang asks to be picked at Raub bus station, which is our next passing town. Aku pun bagitau Ujang supaya tunggu. Dalam beberapa minit lepas itu Ujang hantar SMS suruh jumpa di Lipis terus kerana Raja Azlan "Oldman" dah datang picking him up. Melepasi bandar Raub yang menarik, aku pun teruskan pemanduan dengan isteriku tertidur di sebelah.

Jam sudah pukul 2 petang. Akhirnya sampailah kami ke bandar Kuala Lipis, tetapi rumah Fuad bukanlah di dalam kawasan bandar. Kampung Berchang, lokasi rumahnya terletak di tepian jalan menuju Gua Musang. Hmm. Jenuh aku menelefon Ujang. Jauh jugaklah kampung ni daripada Lipis. Apabila aku perasan signboard "Kampung Berchang", di sebelah kananku ada sebuah rumah besar dihiasi kanopi perkahwinan. So, inilah dia rumah pengantin.

Kedatangan kami disambut oleh my old roomate, Fadil Braew-Braew. Rupa saling tak berubah, cuma rambut panjang lebat macam gondorowo katanya. Dengan membawa hadiah, kami naik ke rumah dan bertemu dengan pasangan raja sehari ini. Fuad sungguh kacak, Shila pun cantik. Elok benarlah kalian. Kami dijemput makan, dan di sana kami bertemu dengan Ujang, Oldman, dan Ajiem. Si Braew-braew pun duduk makan sekali round lagi dengan kami.

Inilah first time in 3 years aku merasa majlis kenduri kampung sebenar. Takde khidmat katering, semuanya dimasak sendiri. Wahh... terujanya aku. Lama sangat tak merasa suasana kampung macam ni. Best betul. Lauk dan masakan superb. Lepas makan-makan borak segala, we all naik ke rumah nak bergambar dengan pengantin yang dah bertukar persalinan. Laa... baru nak ambik gambar. Takpe lah, asalkan ada. Lama jugaklah kami di atas rumah bersembang. And masa tu jugaklah aku terpandang kakak dia yang masih cantik walaupun beranak dua... aku pernah teruja dengan kakak dia masa zaman matrik 9 tahun lepas. Hohoho.

So, usai semua kami pun bertolak pulang ke Lembah Klang. Ujang dan Ajiem terus ke Kuantan, manakala kami yang lain berkonvoi ke KL. Oldman bercadang nak singgah di Lipis untuk lepak-lepak. Kami OK saja. Bukan main lagi lepak-lepak, minum-minum dan bersiar-siar di bandar Siti Nurhaliza ni sampai ke maghrib. Hmm. Bandar yang menarik di petang hari. I like this place.

So, entah macam mana datang gila kami untuk tidak pulang ke KL. Disebabkan tiada pakaian spare, so kami berdua take some time to shop for some clothes. Macam koboi pulak. Dah isi minyak semua, kami meneruskan perjalanan ke Bukit Tinggi-Colmar lepas Isyak.

Punyalah laju si Oldman ni bawak Tiara dia. Si Braew-Braew pulak berkepul-kepul asap rokok dari Mitsubishi Storm dia. Jalannya kurang lebar, trafiknya sekejap OK sekejap slow, so pepandai la kami buat adegan potong-memotong di jalan raya. Sejam lebih kami camni. Mesej diterima untuk menanti di Hentian Lipur Lentang. Punyalah gelap gelita di situ. Aku lead the way to Bukit Tinggi.

Bukit Tinggi @ Colmar Tropicale ialah sebuah pusat peranginan yang tersorok dicelah-celah hutan. Kawasan tu dibina seperti sebuah perkampungan Perancis di pergunungan Alps, lengkap semuanya. Hmm. Dengarnya macam best, tetapi tak berapa best sangat. Aku dan isteri betul-betul macam orang honeymoon... enjoy jalan-jalan sambil tengok show. Kami kelaparan, maka kami dine kat satu restoran yang mana servisnya lousy tapi hidangannya... superb!

Jam menunjukkan pukul 12 malam. Where to stay for a night? Dengan kegilaan, kami memutuskan untuk menyambung adventure ke Genting Highlands. Tiara dan Myvi diparking di R&R Genting Sempah, so kami ke kota keriangan dengan Storm. Macam orang gila betul. Kami sepakat bermalam satu bilik triple, kongsi duit sekali dengan breakfast di First World Hotel. Ada bilik. Selesa dan seronok. Kami bergilir-gilir mandi dan lepas tu bersiar-siar di sekitar plaza. Sejuk menggigit tapi aku buat tak tau je. Aku kelaparan seperti biasa, so aku dan Oldman membedal wantan mee. Balik bilik terus tidur sampai pagi.

Breakfast terlambat bangun, so cepat-cepat kami turun. Lepak dalam bilik, checking out terus berpesta pora di plaza dengan Starbucks, karaoke dan macam-macam lagi. Seronok betul. Disebabkan Braew-Braew ada kerja, so kami pun turun balik ke Genting Sempah where we miss the junction and make a U-turn at Taman Melati! Punyalah jauh, sian B-B.

So tamatlah adventure yang asalnya meraikan Fuad kahwin menjadi frenzy ride around highlands. Kami berdua kepenatan, pening kepala dan terus balik ke rumah tidur, itu pun selepas aku makan KFC di Kepong...

Again, salam bahagia untuk Ahmad Fuad dan Shila di hari perkahwinan mereka. Tahniah!