Chelsea vs Newcastle United - Dec 3, 2012

This is St. James Park! The banners around the ground read 'Gary Speed - LEGEND'.

The commentary box expects a draw. And the Game is on. Lovenkrands instead of a suspended Gutierrez. Romeu keeps his place ahead of Obi Mikel.

Terry blocks what would have been a splendid cross. Ramires takes a good run to give it back to Coloccini.

Luiz gets a yellow. A couple of yards away from being a penalty. RTaylor's freekick met by the Chelsea wall.

9': Guthrie advanced threateningly only to be stopped by Terry.

9' RTaylor passes his second freekick of the day to Cech's hands.

10': STaylor heads a ball to safety. Chelsea look positive.

11': Drogba is ^OFFSIDE^.

So far, everything is very awesome.

12': NUFans stand up for the 11th minute. Gary Speed.

13': Ba pulled off a nice trick. Wasted later on.

13': Cabaye 's attempted tackle on DanSturr leads to a Penalty. Lampard misses what would have been his eighth goal against NUFC. In fact, KRUL freakin' SAVES it.

16': Sturridge hits the post. He looks very, very dangerous right now.

17': The balls goes into no man's land and wait, why is Luiz there??!

St James' Park sold out for the first time this season, it seems. I expect more sold out games in the following weeks.

20': The commentator feels Sturridge nearly found the goal. I disagree. It was never going there.

22': Brilliant work by Mata to pass to Sturridge. Krul saves.

Ryan Taylor is missing Jonas for sure. He's almost lost. Not sure if Pardew would sub Lovenkrands or RTaylor later on but surely one of the two!

23': Sturridge - side netting. You know. The usual. He is a box of energy, that lad.

24': First AWESOME effort from #NUFC. Brilliant cross from SuperCabaye to Lovenkrands. To Ba. Flicked. Saved by Cech. Only just.

Perch looks ready to come on. Not sure if #NUFC can hold on without Coloccini (thigh injury?)...

Yes. Subbed. Perch looks more scared than excited.

30': BRILLIANT cross from Mata to Drogba. Even more brilliant defending from RTaylor.

34': He's intelligent, this Krul.

35' Demba Ba heads onto the post! RTaylor takes a wide shot! Eventful minute for NUFC.

36': Nice tackle from Cabaye. Many brilliant moments in this match. Rest of the game's been quite flat.

38': That's a Chelsea throw in? LEads to a headed goal for Drogba... Set up by Mata.

Damn, damn, damn.
Hopeful that this will turn the Newcastle magic on. Missing so far.

41' Sturridge denied for the third time today by Krul.

Newcastle's defence looks very ordinary without the Captain. Newcastle's saviour can only be their attacking element now. SuperCabaye, Lovenkrands, Goal Machine Ba - DO something!

44' Four blue shirts surround Ba everytime he gets the ball at his feet.

Two added minutes.

47' Newcastle gain a corner. Can something happen?

Chelsea 1 - 0 Newcastle HT.

All those people on TV say, if Luiz's rubgby-ing was an offence to the ref - which it was - it should have been a red card. Not sure.

I feel RTaylor's not fast enough to contain Sturridge. Apart from that, Ryan's been cool. How fast is Santon?
My First half review would be that #NUFC midfield just isn't doing enough and the defence is getting it all in its face. Coloccini made it look easy initially, but we see now that it isn't. Buck up, guys!

Not going to update for Second half. Want to watch and scream for NUFC. Chelsea always do well when I try live updates.

-
Yes I'm near an awesome Television set.

Champions League draw 2011-12

An Allianz arena finals in the offing. I sure as hell hope Bayern make it to that game this year. Getting Vidal would have almost confirmed it, but let's see.

Group A
FC Bayern München (GER)
Villarreal CF (ESP)
Manchester City FC (ENG)
SSC Napoli (ITA)

Group A is tough, yes, but I'm over 90% sure that Bayern and City can see Villareal off. Napoli, on the other hand, is screwed.

Group B
FC Internazionale Milano (ITA)
PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)
LOSC Lille Métropole (FRA)
Trabzonspor AŞ (TUR)

Inter's playgroup, and Lille's best chance in the past few years. Lille vs Moscow should be interesting!

Group C
Manchester United FC (ENG)
SL Benfica (POR)
FC Basel 1893 (SUI)
FC Oţelul Galaţi (ROU)

Benfica may give it their all but ManU can safely top the group here. More like practice for the big rounds.

Group D
Real Madrid CF (ESP)
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA)
AFC Ajax (NED)
GNK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)

An improved Dinamo is all set to be destroyed by the other three. Lyon - Madrid has seen some awesome matchups in the recent years but I expect Madrid to safely keep Lyon at bay. Ajax, probably one of the fastest teams in fray, still has very few chances of causing upsets. It'd be awesome to see what they can do to Lyon.

Group E
Chelsea FC (ENG)
Valencia CF (ESP)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen (GER)
KRC Genk (BEL)

While Chelsea can be expected to scrape through to the next round, it is most difficult to score 12 in this group. Valencia and Leverkusen will fight it out for the second spot. Leverkusen without their best player from last year might fall short, but I expect much from their Arsenal-ish side. Their problem, however, would be Valencia's equal strength.

Group F
Arsenal FC (ENG)
Olympique de Marseille (FRA)
Olympiacos FC (GRE)
Borussia Dortmund (GER)

I expect a lot from Dortmund this year, despite losing the most influential Sahin from their fairytale season. They are the biggest threat to Marseille's progress. With the Greeks expected to raise their walls and earn some draws, it would be crucial for the other teams to win against Olympiakos. Arsenal don't look very promising, but surely they should progress from this group?

Group G
FC Porto (POR)
FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
FC Zenit St Petersburg (RUS)
APOEL FC (CYP)

To me, this is the most competitive group out of the eight with any of Porto, Shakhtar or Zenit capable of topping the group. Porto's weakness would come from the travelling and the other teams' local game concentration - or the lack of it. With Zenit's home advantage lost against Shakhtar, I expect Zenit to drop crucial points there. Given all this, Shakhtar should get into the next stage and I expect Porto to continue their progress from last season. Needless to mention, APOEL doesn't stand a chance, but can make a difference like Olympiakos.

Group H
FC Barcelona (ESP)
AC Milan (ITA)
FC BATE Borisov (BLR)
FC Viktoria Plzeň (CZE)

The Barca - Milan ties would be awesome to watch, but no surprises on who're progressing from this group, are there?

3+ Rounds

Met the daily target yesterday. 3+ rounds. Should keep that up at 4 rounds for the next few days.

Run, Forrest! Run!

Second day on the ground. Could easily cover more ground than the day before. Completed 2 rounds of slow jogging / fast walking (~750 metres) followed by about 500m of ground coverage in a micro game of football. Remembered the good old days when I did all this to warm up.

Should cover 3 to 4 rounds tomorrow.

Here's hoping whoever reads this eggs me on to keep running!


PS: I am not a complete 0 / 100 in the game. Let's say I'm at 0.01/100 now. Should start with that once I can run without getting into a breathing frenzy!