UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL

My dear blog readers,

Now it's time for the MATCH OF THE YEAR... again, my MAN UTD will entertain the blues, minus the Special One off course. and this time, it's the UEFA Champions League Final. This is a HUGE game and significant one too for several reasons :

1) If Ryan Giggs plays in this match, he will be the United player with the MOST APPEARANCE, surpassing even the grear Sir Bobby Charlton. Currently with 758 appearances, even a 1-minute cameo introduction of Giggsy will make him top of the all-time list in the Old Trafford history books.

2) 1st time an all-English final. NEVER before 2 English teams are pitted together in a final of EUROPE's premier football competition.

The above list can go on and on but not to bore my blog readers, I'll tell you the story of what had happened in the year 1999 when United lifted the title.

May 26 1999 : Actually, I was on a holiday trip with my family in South Africa. We departed KL several days before the final. Spent few nights in Cape Town before heading east to a place called Port Elizabeth (PE). The drive to PE was a very long one. We stopped about 3-quarter way to PE and spent a night (26 May 1999) at my father friend's country home in the Crags.

I tell u.. their country home was superb, but I was not really interested to write about the house here, at least not now. I'm more interested to write about what happened that night.

Once we reached the house, I straight away enquired about tha availability of a TV set, for a start. Yes, there was one, in the family hall off course. Next question, will there be a live match on telly that night? After some frantic searching in the daily newspaper, YES there was a live telecast of the greatest match of Man Utd in European football history that night. YES3x....

Me and my bro, Ridzuan were asked to occupy the room that is situated 'below' the house (the house was on hilly slope). But to get into that room, we need to access through the lawn (the room was not accessible through the main living hall/dining etc). Pls dont ask me why it was designed that way.

OK, back to the story. SInce the match was scheduled at mid-night South Africa time, we had to 'sneak' into the main house in order to watch the game. The wife was polite enough to lend us the key to the house so that we could watch the game on tv. Before midnight, me and my bro went inside the house fr our secluded room and managed to watch the game.

FYI, my bro is not football-fanatic like me, so he was sort of 'terpaksa' coz nak tido sorang2 dalam bilik pun takut. Binatang buas pun ada kat hutan keliling in their house !!).

Then the match started.

5 mins - Bayern were ahead. I was dissappointed. I could not scream coz everyone would hear and I cant swear/shout/cheer, obviously 4 the same reason.

92mins, sheringham scored the equaliser... I managed to refrain myself from leaping into the air.... coz the game still not won yet...

93mins - solskjaer, the baby-faced assassin, scored the winner in the 3rd minute of injury time. Could not contain anymore, jumped in joy and landed on the timber flooring that yielded a squeeky sound and for sure, everyone in the house can hear, even if they were sleeeping... ooopss, sorry mate...

the next morning, the news spread even be4 i even woke up. the news are :

1) Man u won the champions league
2) I jumped so hard that I actually woke up everyone that night !!!

the moral of the story is... kalau nak gi holiday tu, elakkanlah masa2 penting dalam kalender bola sepak dunia....

till we meet again in my next blog, wassalam...