Norwegian Wood

well, an easy win in the champions league, but the two injuries might be worrisome. scholes came off on a stretcher at about 15min and seemed to hurt his knee. rooney got a knock also. let’s hope they are no long-term damage done.

good to see berbatov scored twice, even his performance before the goals were definitely not worth his price. rooney opened the score in the first half, and with energetic ronaldo starting, aab stands no chance.

in the group, villarreal grabbed a win over celtic, so we should be expecting a good fight from celtic next game.

2008-09-30 Tuesday
@Aalborg Stadion

United 3, AaB 0

AAB: Zaza; Olfers, Pedersen, Bogelund, Beauchamp (Caca 38); Johansson, Risgard, Curth, Enevoldsen; Saganowski, Augustinussen.

UNITED: Van der Sar; Rafael (Brown 66), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; O’Shea, Scholes (Giggs 16), Ronaldo, Nani; Rooney (Tevez 59), Berbatov.
Scorers: Rooney (22), Berbatov (55,79)

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espn soccernet

sept 20th:
frisbee, oval, 1h
pulse, warm-up, 30min

sept 21st:
normal run, rail trail-cootes, 7k, 50min

sept 22nd:
frisbee, oval 1h

sept 23rd:
slow run, rail trail, 5k, 30min

sept 25th:
pulse, arms & chest, 1h
frisbee, oval, 1h

sept 27th:
basketball, 1.5h. felt good after haven’t touch the ball for so long.

first win at home. hopefully we can keep the momentum going.

ronaldo’s back in the starting lineup, and contributed one penalty goal and one assist. the penalty seemed to be harsh, but nevertheless it helped united to get the lead well deserved. saf benched rooney. it was understandable considering rooney’s sub-par performance, but the forward pair berbatov and tevez couldn’t click. it’s pretty obvious that berbatov still needs sometime to be familiar with united’s system, and right now we should just keep the lineup last year, starting tevez and rooney. now i finally realize how unbelievable last year that tevez fit united’s style in such a seamless fashion.

i’m a big believer of stability, so i’m glad to see fletcher and park both kept their positions in the starting lineup. with carrick sidelined and hargreaves struggling with his fitness, fletcher is a good pick in the middle with his tireless effort, even though he maybe lack surgery passing. anderson performed well in the middle-week carling cup match with possebon, and park is a natural choise after his goal at chelsea game. considering giggs and scholes’s age, saf had to be careful not to overuse veterans and keep them flesh for the important matches.  i’d like to see saf gives nani more chances to shine, like what he did to ronaldo two or three seasons ago. nani seems to be the future of united’s left winger.

watched the game between chelsea and stoke city. chelsea had a comfortable win. their two full-back ashely cole and bosingwa are good and constantly attacked into opponents’ penalty box, but in the middle, it seemed a little bit lack of creativity. both lampard and ballack are too workman-like, and i think they really miss deco. this chelsea team is pretty good; i have to say they are the biggest threat to united’s repeat so far.

we have a middle-week champions league match coming up. we are away vs aalborg. it seems to be a must-win game for united since we drew the first game at home. also, the fourth round draw of carling cup saw united to face queens park rangers (qpr) at home.

2008-09-27 Saturday
@Old Traffold

United 2, Bolton 0

United: Van der Sar; Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo (Nani 80), Fletcher, Anderson (Scholes 71), Park; Tevez (Rooney 71), Berbatov
Scorers: Ronaldo (pen, 60), Rooney (78)

Bolton: Jaaskelainen; Steinsson, Cahill, A O’Brien, Samuel; Davies, Muamba, McCann, Nolan, Gardner (Smolarek 73); Elmander (Vaz Te 67)

united official
espn soccernet
score video

这周老板回国开会, 要我帮忙带三节课. 上的是四年级的电动力学, 用的Griffiths的书. Grinffiths的那本电动书是写得不错, 解释很是清楚明白, 当年看comps的时候我就看的这本书. 但从国内书的角度来看, 有点容易了, 数学用得不够. 其实大学上课用的俞永强的书很是不错, 精简扎实, 100多页, 该说的都说了, 可惜当初学的时候没感觉, 后来看了jackson才觉得电动的书实在太难写.

上课讲静电学的东西, 主要还是介绍概念, 引入电势, 电势能, 电容之类的, 感觉给四年级的学生上有点浅了. 不过对于我正好, 讲起来比较容易一点. 上课基本上没什么问题, 现在英语讲得还行, 就是有时候吐词不是很清楚, 声音有点小, 不过正好是10来人的小课, 关系不大. 第一节课的时候倒三角那个符号突然就不记得怎么说了, 下课了后问nick才想起来是gradient, 嘿嘿…

脚伤终于好点了, 虽然还有点疼, 但跑步没什么问题了. 上个星期天下午在办公室呆着, 困得不行了, 回家开着电视看意甲, 躺着就睡着了. 一觉醒来, 头昏脑涨的, 总之就是觉得不爽. 看外面天气不错, 出去跑了个7k, 回来后感觉舒坦多了. 上周还有两场飞盘比赛, 输赢各一场, 还不错.

好不容易把回去的飞机票给买了. 原来打算顺道去dadao那里玩玩的, 但dadao也不确定在不在, 想想算了, 以后有的是机会. 随后就把美国签证给取消了. 后来订机票, 加航实在是黑, 比走美国的机票要贵700-800块钱, 唉, 早知道就去混个美国签证了. 没办法, 只好将就加航了, 1840的机票, 去年回去的时候还只要1500的… 圣诞的飞机回去, 1月18号回来. 原来计划过年的, 后来看一来大年三十是25号, 晚了点; 二来后来又有ta了, 所以还是不好请假太久.

昨晚在家, 看美国的总统辩论. 没什么太大意思, 对obama感觉还行, mccain老是喜欢倚老卖老, 不停强调自己有经验. 前不久在网上看到61位诺贝尔奖得主发了公开信支持obama, 主要是bush削减科研经费太厉害了, mccain如果上台的话估计还会更厉害, 没钱的话, 像物理这种基础的研究很难办.

ronaldo is given a starting position as he is slowly recovering his fitness. also nani, anderson, giggs and tevez are all getting some playtime since missed last week’s premier game. possebon was injured pretty bad after a horror tackle from pogatetz which resulted him to be sent off. let’s hope the injury is not serious.

update: possebon didn’t have a leg fracture, which is a somewhat good news i guess.

2008-09-23 Tuesday
@Old Traffold

United 3, Middlesbrough 1

United: Amos; R. Da Silva, Vidic, Brown, O’Shea; Nani, Possebon (Gibson 72), Anderson, Giggs (Manucho 84), Ronaldo (Tevez, 61); Welbeck
Scorers: Ronaldo (25), Giggs (79), Nani (90)

Middlesbrough: Jones; Hoyte, Wheater, Pogatetz, Taylor; Downing, Digard (Biggott 72), O’Neal, Shawky (Johnson 46); Aliadiere, Alves (Emnes 85)
Scorer: Johnson (54)
Red Card: Pogatetz (66)

united official
epsn soccernet

united are still looking for their second win, after more than one month of play.

the game between chelsea and united is a good one, unfortunately two weeks in a row, united can’t hold the lead. saf preferred a more balanced 442 format, with rooney and berbatov in front and left tevez on the bench. united had a very good start, controlled most of the possession and deservedly went ahead with a fabulous united’s style goal. it started with a typical evra’s charge forward, and he passed the ball to berbatov near the middle field. berbatov’s one touch pass was followed by a brilliant direct ball from rooney to send evra free. with a little bit body-check with bosingwa, evra took control of the ball in the penalty box and passed the ball to the middle. berbatov and rooney made a cross running in and it was berbatov who got the shot on goal. cech did what cech always do, blocked the shot. then there came park, who always has the instinct to be the right place at the right time. park got the bounced ball and slotted it into the net.

clearly united was the better team in the first half-hour, but chelsea slowly came back. our middle-field is not as strong as before, especially on the right. hargreaves clearly didn’t play to his potential, and saf opted him on the right and fletcher in the middle. i guess brown still had some lingering problem, so neville was the right-back and evans was given a big chance to pair with ferdinand. evans was solid but old captain seemed old and rusty. van der sarr was forced to came off after a malouda challenge.

after chelsea introduced drogba, united was forced to defend most of the time. we had anelka to thank as he missed two golden chances for chelsea. but eventually chelsea got the equilizer. rooney still wasn’t himself, gave away a free-kick with a blunt charge to ashley cole. mikel sent the ball near the net and kalou was left alone to nod the ball into the net. from the replay, it was berbatov standing too behind to break the off-side trap.

ronaldo was introduced at 55th minute. his quickness was a plus but there seems no communication between berbatov and ronaldo. clearly rooney-berbatov combination didn’t work well in the second half and i don’t know why saf left tevez on the bench for the whole game, as argentinian always performs well in a big match.

after five fixtures, united still only have 5 points with one more game to play. arsenal took the lead with 12 points, followed by chelsea and liverpool.

2008-09-21 Sunday
@Stamford Bridge

United 1, Chelsea 1

United: Van der Sar (Kuszczak 32); Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Fletcher, Hargreaves, Scholes (Ronaldo 55), Park (O’Shea 75); Rooney, Berbatov.
Scorer: Park (18)

Chelsea: Cech; Bosingwa, Terry, Carvalho (Alex 13), A.Cole; J.Cole, Ballack (Kalou 74), Mikel, Lampard, Malouda (Drogba 46); Anelka.
Scorer: Kalou (80)

united official
espn soccernet

上个周末中秋节, 去中国店随便买了点月饼吃. 八月十五那天下雨, 晚上刮巨大的风, 但过了11点后风雨平息, 月亮出来了. 以前也许说过, 这次再次证明, 加拿大的月亮确实比原来在老家看到的大, 这应该是有什么地理上的原因, 想了半天没想明白.

这周大部分时间都在推导diblock copolymer的stress公式, 感觉数学还是比较弱, 特别是关于张量和泛函分析的地方, 很多地方都看不太明白. 看来还得下点功夫把基本概念翻一遍. 上次说的没搞明白的地方, 用stress来分析的话好像有点戏, 但因为没有现成的公式, 我就把已有的关于diblock copolymer和homopolymer的推广了一下. 从结果看好像还是有点不对, 下周应该仔细再把公式推一遍…

周四系里的bbq. 今年不知道为什么改了地方, 从一直的dundas driving park挪到了bayfront park. 风景是比较优美, 就在湖边, 但因为都九月底了, 黄昏的湖风吹得凉飕飕的. bbq的sausage烤得倒是味道十足, 一口气吃了两个.

脚伤也终于好得差不多了, 虽然还有点隐隐的疼, 但n久没动实在是闷死了. 今天跑去玩飞盘, 新赛季的第一场比赛, 秋光明媚, 在草地上跑跑的感觉真好. 下周应该能够继续跑步了… 下周还要帮老板带三节本科生的课, 都是早上九点半的, 又得早起了…

明天上午曼联对切尔西, 希望能看场好比赛.

five matches since the new season started, only one win. that’s as bad as you can get. in the middle-week champions league match, united was forced to a 0-0 draw with villarreal. saf should be very concerned.

rooney had another sub-par game, again, and without carrick in the middle (i really think carrick maybe the most important player in the middle, even more than scholes), neither hargreaves or anderson can toughen our middle-field. only good news: ronaldo is back! but i still think united shouldn’t be a one-man team. evans also had a good match as middle-back.

next match is away vs chelsea. if united lose again, we will be 9 points drifted from the top. even strong as united’s second half, that’s still a huge gap to fill. hopefully we can manage a good match, and honestly, a draw will be a good result with such a bad form we are having now.

2008-09-17 Wednesday
@Old Traffold

United 0, Villareal 0

UNITED: Van der Sar; Neville, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Park (Ronaldo 62), Fletcher, Hargreaves(Anderson 62), Nani; Tevez (Giggs 81), Rooney.

VILLARREAL: D Lopez; A Lopez, Edmilson, Rodriguez, Capdevila; Eguren, Cani (Cazorla 46), Fernandez, Godin, Pires (Ibagaza 68); Franco (Llorente 77)

united official
espn soccernet

郁闷, 因为脚伤休息了好一阵子, 手一直痒痒的. 今天同学叫了去打球, 终于可以活动活动了, 半场还没打两个球, 就把脚给崴了. 看来年纪大了, 太久没动, 热身还是很重要的. ft, 又得休息一周了. 明天的terry fox肯定是去不成了.

united lost to liverpool in this week’s premier match. how could this happen? lost to a liverpool team without both gerrard and torres in the starting lineup.

even with tevez scored the first goal at just 3rd minute, united couldn’t hold the lead. brown’s own goal and babel’s second half winner gave liverpool boss benitez’s first win over united.  rooney was playing the right middle role, which definitely not his best place. saf still has to figure out how to arrange rooney-tevez-berbatov lineup. in my opinion, if we can’t control the middle field with three players, then 433 format is not a good bet.

don’t know why, now i really have a bad feeling about this season. let’s just hope it will not become true.

2008-09-13 Saturday
@Anfield

United 1, Liverpool 2

LIVERPOOL: Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio; Benayoun (Gerrard 68), Alonso, Mascherano (Hyypia 87), Riera (Babel 71); Kuyt, Keane.
Scorers: Brown (26, og), Babel (77)

UNITED: Van der Sar; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Carrick (Giggs 46), Anderson (Nani 78), Scholes (Hargreaves 66); Berbatov, Rooney, Tevez.
Scorer: Tevez (3)

united official
epsn soccernet