Our Euro 2016

Mom could walk better, now.
Started to use the walker lesser and lesser, today was perhaps maybe 2-3 short instances she was with aid, and she did a round in the garden so I guess it's a win, and it is a fried noodles (and fried rice for the night) day indeed; I suppose today is good, and now I've a 15-mins window to blog before tucking her to bed and heading to the mamak in time for the kickoff.

I am looking forward to my first Euro '16 match; I know I know, this is Match Day Number I-Don't-Know but I've periodically kept in tune to the scores whenever I could these few days. What with looking after Mum, fretting over what to cook, and reading King's IT (yeah, I realize I never did got around to reading it) and with the ungodly-hour I reckon I wouldn't be catching that many live games this round. I suppose with this being the first footy major event since Heidi's gone, both my brother and I, we weren't that fired up for it. In the past we were pretty mad-ferrit indeed, I mean, she was the one that'll do the prep work and stuff (trivias, who's who, match schedule posters from the kopitiams, etc) and we'd just pop by the house for the game.

Anyhow, I'm leaving 2 pieces of article (or was it tweets) that I saved off from England's first game the other day; cause it is just dead funny.
Can't credit the sources though, can't remember where I read those from.

"And then there is the England captain Wayne Rooney. If ever there was a set of team-mates who could actually stop him from trying to do too many jobs at once and royally mess them all up, it's his current England ones. He'll have energy in abundance around him and a tidy, no-nonsense operator behind him in Eric Dier. He shouldn't have to clomp around all over the shop trying to put out fires. If he sets himself a limit of crossfield balls and simplifies his passing game he has the ability to stitch things together in midfield perfectly well. But then he may just hear the first whistle, sniff the night air, howl at the moon and go mad."

and the absolute gem after the game:
81 min : The decision to put (Harry) Kane on corners does seem a bit like an ageing guitar band doing a synth album to try to make themselves look cool when they should just stick with guitars. Pretty much summarizes the last wasted decade for Radiohead," writes Liam Murray. How dare you Liam. England are controlling the game well enough since the goal.....Kane is fouled by Glushakov. Kane to take the free-kick. Dier wanders over and whispers something to him. Presumably " I should be taking this. You're not fucking Gareth Bale"

the wonders.

World Cup Ads : All Lined Up

The World Cup starts in a couple of hours time.
Enough with the predictions, the lineups(and call-ups) and "right" theme song (and the #facepalm of the Official Theme Song) the build-up to this year's has been quite intense, especially the viral video campaigns.

I've lost a lengthy blogpost earlier today when auto-save it after reloading the page, I mean, how was such series of unfortunate events possible?
Anyway, the following is my list of The Good & The Bad of this year's World Cup viral videos.

#GALAXY11 by Samsung

i guess i better reserve a slot for The Match: Part 2 














So yeah, Samsung probably spent the most this year. There's loads of videos in the whole campaign (and they even sign-up the whole package with an anthem-like theme song video too!) and with its scheduled releases I guess they are dead serious in getting their branding bit on the map.
#ThumbsUp : blockbuster a-list movie kinda feel, awesome cgi (on-par with yesteryears' video game character animations)
#FacePalm : The Training Video bit where Messi whipped out the S5 to take pics? I mean Come On! I do think it is enough that Beckenbauer's scene with the S5 analyzing the players are enough ain't it? C Ronaldo has a scene with the phone as well and I guess that's fine..but really, Messi have to snap pics to symbolize the enhanced shutter speed and auto focus features of the S5? #rants.
Moving along..

Time Zone by ESPN
Simple & Short, one of my favorites. There's no need to endorse the footie stars in a video, this video generally captures the emotions of the football watching country/community/people around the world. Power to the people!
#ThumbsUp : Engaging, simple & short. Oh and scene 0:13 takes the cake
#FacePalm : nope.

Futbol by KIA

Kia launched a series of videos (3 on last count) featuring Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima. Urm. Yeah, sex beauty sells..?
#ThumbsUp : 3 words sum it up - Futbol, World Cup & Adriana Lima!
#FacePalm : Pretty lame as it does get old whenever someone 'tries' to teach Americans on the difference. Oh well. NEXT!

The Game Before The Game by BEATS (by Dre)


Beats by Dre (or rather iBeats by Dre by Apple?) entry into their first World Cup ad doesn't spring much surprises as they do have some awesome ads highlighting several star athletes for their Hear What You Want campaign. Read some articles about that tagged this video is Out-Nike-ing Nike. hmmm
#ThumbsUp : Chicharito! of course cameos from LeBron James, Nicki Minaj(umm), Lil Wayne, and of course Rio Ferdinand & Thierry Henry. And a nice beat of that song "Jungle" which has been on my playlist ever since. (and the NSFW moment on 3:00)
#FacePalm : Feels a bit more like an MTV eh?


All-Time Greats by Fly Emirates
Emirates being the official airlines for the World Cup this year has certainly produced a gem of a video.
#ThumbsUp : those 2 little plot twists, and the simplicity of the contrast in the footballing generation
#FacePalm : -


Everyone's Invited by Coca Cola
Another official partner for the World Cup 2014, Coca Cola's campaign of inviting people less fortunate to the game has a goody feel to it. A really good video I must say.
#ThumbsUp : nice pace to the video, and the overall message.
#FacePalm : hm, I don't really think anyone sane would chug a bottle of Coke during or after a recreational game eh?

Now Is What You Make It by Pepsi
Pepsi's #FutbolNow campaign for the World Cup (hmm, i better research a bit on why they are not the official drinks/softdrinks/whatever partner for this edition) basically kinda didn't hit the spot for me. Don't get me wrong, the beats are alright, the sampling of Bowie's Heroes is kinda alright, the footie stars featured are okay (an improvement over the yester-decade's plain pointlessness imho) but... there's just a certain bit that's off.
#ThumbsUp : Looks & feel nice. Meh
#FacePalm : are they trying to factor in on the boy looking a bit like Justin Biebs? (albeit a better looking one that is) and practically prancing around after drinking his Pepsi to transform into a douchebag? yeah, that's my facepalm moment Pepsi

okay now let's do the 2 main rivals.

I Am Brazuca by adidas

-
The Dream : All In Or Nothing by adidas

meh

House Match by adidas
Fun.

The Last Game by Nike Football
Pretty much Space Jam meets the-few-recent-Pixar-animations, I'd be hardbent on rating this low on the originality part. But, it is cute in a way.
#ThumbsUp : cameo by Nazario da li Ronaldo (should be correct if memory serves me right) aka the original Ronaldo, and a few funny bits of Neymar selfies, Ibrahimovic's "Zlatan agrees", Ronaldo being a mannequin , yeah definitely fun in watching it years later.
and now for my top 2 favorite videos!

Winner Stays by Nike Football

 #ThumbsUp : Utter fun. Period.

Global Issues by ESPN

#ThumbsUp : 0:07 "You just have to avoid Spain".. chops!

I Believe by ESPN
Global Issues by ESPN


GOL! by McDonald's 


Nice!
(As much as I can't stand McD, but hey this ad is fun. 'nuff said)

Pirlo The Wizard series by JEEP

Man Utd New Kit 11/12

Only the truly great wears this shirt.

New United Home kit revealed and on pre-sale for the launch early June on the web. Boggled the eye of the unsuspecting non-fan; but I guess the collar stripes are alright. Though doing away with the flimsy collars of this recently ended season's kit did a bit of good as the collars never did look good on tv. In the sense of living up to the Cantona-esque role of the simple white collar; that failed.

I'd suspect come launch date there should be a surprise in store; say, all new third kit, or special Euro kit ?
All in all, we'd see how it unfolds in the couple weeks.
As for the time being, United vs Juventus, Neville's testimonial match!

*note - I wonder how soon the pirates would be able to weave their magic this time around, given this minimal change....