Monday, July 4, 2016

M&Ms

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You might not know but
Ever since Indonesia entered F1,
I kept following the tournament.

For the first round or two, it was still for Rio Haryanto of course. You know, karbitans euphoria. But finishing Chinese Grand Prix on week three, when I found out that Nico Rosberg had won 6 GPs in a row, I began to completely un-biased-ly enjoy the show.

It's apparently fun to see the race. Probably less nerve-wrecking than MotoGP where changes in positions can happen in just a matter of seconds. But Formula One has its drama too. I started to realize the true beauty of F1 when they did it in Monte Carlo. When Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo spiced things up the shortest circuit. I remembered the time I screamed to my TV for what I saw, my subconsciousness told me

"Man, you've never been manlier than this before."

Best race I've ever seen so far, in my debut season.
But last night, another one came to my amateur sense.

Austrian Grand Prix

Pic belongs to F1's Official Twitter Account.

Too many things happened yesterday. From Rio Haryanto gained his best position ever -12th place- before an incident put the whole circuit in major rearrangement, to Sebastian Vettel's ironic car breakdown in lap 20s despite the fact that it was his birthday, to Felipe Massa and some other drivers having to leave the race unfinished when entering the last 10 laps.

There are some good news as well. Like Rio's Manor Racing teammate Pascal Wehrlein that finished in 10th place. It was a big stepping stone for a minor team like MRT. In fact, it was their first point ever in the tournament so reaching the end of the race, they were like all hysterical and exaggerated. It was so funny seeing the big drivers took it easy receiving their big wins, while these newcomers celebrated like crazy for a mere last position. But that's no wonder. Because it was, something really big. And hopefully this could make Rio fired up too.

However, the biggest drama, of course, happened during the fight on the last lap. Two Mercedes boys Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were after each other for the first place, resulting in a disappointing collision between them. It was so unfortunate. The crash sent Hamilton to the first place in the podium, but Rosberg had to finish fourth due to some severe damage on his car. On some level people took it as Hamilton's unwillingness to let Rosberg win, so those Germans booed him pretty bad during his podium speech.

Phew.

Now that's the "true beauty" of Formula One I told you about. You got 22 drivers, each of which has the same chance to serve one hell of a great, unexpected performance. The top ones can fall with no further ado, or retire on lap 65 out of 71 -that sucks!- while the underdogs can suddenly be only stones away behind the pole.

So unpredictable. It's like, eating M&Ms off the pouch. You pick one, and whatever color you get, you'll enjoy it anyway because it offers the same damn delicacy.

No preference, no differences in taste.
Anybody can be your main entertainer.

The celebration for first position, and celebration for tenth.
Both pics belong to F1's Official Twitter Account.

Well, Mercedes and Manor.

It's obviously a great weekend for both of them.
But now, can you spot something pretty ironic?

That the one which ended up in the first place, on some level didn't enjoy their victory. Meanwhile the one which ended up in the bottom, celebrated and made it like they won the whole series.

Life's weird sometimes.
Even in the sweetest moments,
It can still go nuts

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Iceberg

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Hello, and welcome to the evening Neverland Sports Network.
I'm Vicky Amin, your smartass host that is actually incapable of talking sports.

Tonight I will be discussing on the ongoing international tournament UEFA Euro 2016, and some little snippets about the participating nation(s). Now let's begin!

Background image belongs to The Guardian.

Off to the first exclusive coverage, we have, of course, the football thingy itself. Now honestly, I missed all the group rounds because boy, I've been really damn busy the last couple of weeks. Doing work. That triple life I live, which I'm not planning to talk about right now. So yea I missed all the group matches, but still I got the updates from my timeline thanks to my fellow football-enthusiasts and George Lineker's talkative tweets.

Then drifting away a bit from sport, but still about Europe—we got the UK's off-EU referendum. Well I'm not the type of a politic lover here, but bite me, this one really fancy my arse. It's just so interesting how it all started, how it all affected the global life, and how it all unveiled many things many people had no idea about -such as how British people didn't even know that they were a part of EU, and how people couldn't differentiate between United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

Now with these two topics, I'd like to narrow it down.
To a simple one phrase, two nouns, three words:

Iceland and Wales


It's crazy how both amateurs performed. Looking back to their participation history in which they neither entered nor qualified, this one, the Euro 2016 series, can be actually considered as their first ever major tournament appearance. And both progressed amazingly throughout the tournament!

Iceland

Has been a bad-arse since the very beginning of the cup. Even long before it. It's funny how this underdog can be a killing hound, biting all other teams. Especially when they defeated England. The momentum was spot-on, as UK just announced their #Brexit and England had to walk out of the tournament as well. People started mocking England for being lost to a team that has "more volcanoes than footballers", whose second coach was a dentist -crazy trivias how could they find these out!?

But after all, Iceland is something worth considering about. Remember, they kicked Netherlands out even before the tournament started so, it's not just mere luck. Tomorrow, they'll be facing the host France. It'll be really alluring if they win the match -and I got a feeling that they'll do- because one, the host will be taken down by a newcomer, and two, the semifinal round of this Euro will be crowded with two amateurs—the other one being

Wales

Oh Wales. Ever since #Brexit broke the internet followed by the fall of England and Northern Ireland, people started making jokes about how both UK as a nation and UK as a collective of football teams exited Europe. They took Wales for granted, assuming that the tiny dragon would also fall respectively.

But now, what do we get? This not-so-popular team just beat one of European's top teams Belgium last night with a surprise victory—even their fans go wild and couldn't believe it. Well why not, they're the last hope for the UK to stay in the competition and prove that they exiting EU didn't affect anything in their football sense.

Well.

Iceland and the last nation yet to Brexit.
If both of them do meet in the final round,
It'll be as colossal as that classic time when
Titanic met the Iceberg


For more fancyarse views about football, log on to www.turntoneverland.com/booger.