#but also i truly believe that he can able to adapt with new players lineup who'll be playing with him also with a new coach

[gxtzeizm]

nahhhhh atp that team vamos lineup for this upcoming season of mpl malaysia is literally the same lineup for homebois during last season, minus udil....i mean, even coach pabz as well tho what the hell

[bunnyjoyce-blog]

Ideas a Starlight Express cartoon could explore

The following was posted on my DA journal Jan. 6, 2015 and can be found here: https://bunnyjoyce.deviantart.com/journal/Ideas-a-Starlight-Express-cartoon-could-explore-505400224

In the 1990s a lot of PG-13 movies were being turned into G-rated cartoon shows. Ace Ventura, The Mask, Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Jumanji were among the titles that made it to the Saturday-morning lineups here in the States, and many of them were succesful enough to get at least two seasons (Beetlejuice had four!) Though I'm not going to hold my breath for one, I truly believe that adapting a story like Starlight Express to a cartoon series would be successful and even have lots of potential for a serial arc. There are two timeframes the cartoon could take place in -- the events of the show (but expanded) or as a sequel. From my above list of 90s cartoons, I offer Jumanji and Beetlejuice as examples. 

If you haven't seen the film version of Jumanji, the gist of it is that there is a magical (and dangerous) game that conjurs jungle animals that terrorize the local town, and the only way to make them go away is to finish the game. At the start of the story, a boy named Alan gets sucked into the game with his freedom being on the condition that another player rolls a five or eight. Fast forward 28 years, and two kids, Judy and Peter, find the game, start playing and free Alan. From there they work together to finish the game so that everything goes back to normal. What the cartoon did was to expand the events of the movie into three seasons, but there were significant changes. At the beginning of the series, Judy and Peter are sucked into the game, but they are given a clue by Jumanji's crystal ball before they enter its world. They meet Alan, who played the game as a kid and is now a grown up, and at first they think they're stuck there forever, but Judy discovers an object that relates back to the clue the game had given them earlier and figures that fixing it will take them home. At this point, Alan realizes that he never knew about the clues. Judy and Peter are able to leave Jumanji, but they promise to find a way to get Alan out, and the series follows their adventures to do just that. For a sequel show, Beetlejuice was an... interesting one, though very successful. The film was about a married couples recently departed and trying to get a family of three out of their house, but they end up befriending the teenage daughter, Lydia, who is the first human to see them. They summon Beetlejuice to help them, but Beetlejuice's tactics are too violent. From there, the plot follows the living character trying to exorcise the two ghosts, not knowing that it counts as a second death, and in the final show down, everyone is trying to seal away Beetlejuice again to keep him from marrying Lydia. What did the cartoon do? It takes place a year after the events of the movie, but the married ghosts are absent, and Lydia and Beetlejuice are best friends, and the show follows their adventures both in the land of the living and the dead. Four seasons, remember? With this in mind, I can see Starlight Express the TV Series as one of the two scenarios. Ideas for an expansion -- * Instead of one night of racing, it can be stretched into a tournament taking place over the course of a month with elimination races all over the world to narrow the racers down to the best of the best. This would provide a lot of new settings with new problems to introduce the characters to. For example, how would a steamer, a diesel, and an electric fare against each other on the icy rails of Alaska? Or in a desert? Or on a steep mountain grade? Or by a beach during a tropical storm? Or in different countries if need be? (It's a cartoon. International travel doesn't have to follow reality.) These displays of prowess can allow for Rusty to prove himself or doubt himself as his story arc sees fit. * With more races means more deadlines, so one episode can involve CB deliberately getting Rusty lost so that he'll miss a race, thus booting him from the competition altogether. * Electra's and Greaseball's individual motivations for racing can be explored in depth and as well as the back stories of the components and key gang members. * More races means more racers to flesh out the train world. In a society with diesel vs electricity, how does a hybrid electro-diesel engine fit? Or an electric-steam engine? What about maglevs, solar engines, and vacuum trains? What about older cars who enter the race? How does an older lounge car (where passengers once went for entertainment) fare against today's video-game cars? * The mythos of the Starlight Express can be explored more. (We can't forget him. He's the titular character!) Is he a train deity or an old racing legend that made his way into a train baby's lullaby? Does the title of Starlight Express get passed on like the position of Santa Claus in Ernest Saves Christmas, The Santa Clause (with Tim Allen), or Mr. St. Nick (with Kelsey Grammer)? If so, Poppa could be the Starlight incognito gently guiding his successor, Rusty, to achieve his destiny, and the series could follow the tests of not just his physical capabilities, but his character. Will Rusty abandon his partner to win a race? Will Rusty stop to help someone on his way to a race even if it means he'll miss it? If a city full of electric engines has a black out, will Rusty help restore power to the engines who were so mean to him? All his successes and failures will measure whether or not he is worthy to be the next Starlight. * Pearl can also be tested. If she's going to date the Starlight Express eventually, she'll have to prove herself worthy -- and maybe that's where Belle comes in. Maybe the run-down look is just a farce to test Pearl's character, so will Pearl listen to an old sleeper with good, but uncomfortable, advice or to her newer coach friends? Ideas for a sequel -- * The events of the musical could be turned into a one-hour/two-part pilot or a TV movie. Disney's Return of Jafar was this for the spin-off Aladdin series. * Sure, Electra and Greaseball claim they want to be steamers, but they have people in their pasts who might not like this. How will Greaseball's adoring fans take to him converting? Or the Union Pacific? Meanwhile, the "engine of the future" was commissioned by someone to be just that, and that someone might not like their creation making drastic changes. (This shady person could serve as the series' Big Bad if need be.) In either case, Greaseball and Electra may change their mind, and their character arcs may involve whether or not they are "under their own control" as themselves or if changing would be better for them. (Is Greaseball really free if he bows to social pressures? Is Electra's current life really better, or is he just a puppet on electrified strings?) * A sequel can explore the day-to-day life of trains and can take a slice-of-life approach, or it can also explore the repercussions of a steamer winning the world-famous race. How many trains will challenge Rusty to racing when he just wants to focus on his growing relationship with Pearl? How many gold diggers are going to start hitting on him? How hard will it be for him to be refurbished now if most of the repair trucks are pro-diesel? If he finally gets his dream of pulling streamlined coaches, how are the other trains going to treat him at different stations? * CB's fall from his social position can be explored. Can he be rehabilitated? Or will he plunge further into a life of crime? Speaking of crime, railroad police can be introduced as can other train criminals. Will CB join their gang? Will they pull underhanded means to keep him from reforming? Will CB temporarily join, take their loot, and then turn them in to the police so that he can play the hero while keeping the stolen goods? * Railroad museums can be addressed. Are they nice retirement homes or boring places for once active trains to live? * The component loyalties can be explored. Will they still be with Electra if he lost his money? If the TV pilot followed the canon and had some or all the components side with Greaseball during the "Pumping Iron" scene, they might not actually like Electra or are always looking for the next better thing.

[wheelhousehockey-blog1]

The Hot Seats Hot and Getting Hotter 

THE SHOOTERS PERSPECTIVE

View from the Stands Vol. 2.

With the NHL season almost two months old we begin to approach the so-called ‘point of no return’ and as we near American Thanksgiving we begin to get a clearer picture of what the playoffs may look like in April. Historically approximately 78% of teams in a playoff spot by Thursday November 22nd will find themselves preparing for the post season come April. This is the time of year when teams on the outside looking in make their moves to try and creep towards any spots that might become available.  We are still early in the NHL season, but we’ve already seen two teams try and shake things up as the LA Kings relieved John Stevens of his duties after a 4-8-1 start. The Kings have struggled mightily to score goals to start off the season as they’re averaging only 2 goals for per game. The Kings attempted to add some much needed speed to their lineup last week as they made a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins and added Carl Hagelin in exchange for 26 year old Tanner Pearson. Hagelin has yet to find his way to the scoresheet in his first two games with his new teams as both the Kings and Pens try to work their way out of the basement of their respective divisions.  Two days after the Kings named Willie Desjardin interim coach the Blackhawks followed suit and tried to right their own ship by firing Joel Quenneville, who led the team to nine playoff appearances and three Stanley Cups in his ten years with the organization. The Blackhawks then named Jeremy Colliton the 38th head coach in franchise history. Unfortunately for the Hawks they haven’t found new life under their new coach as they’ve started off his tenure going 2-2-2, while scoring 2 or less goals in four of those six games.  Now let’s take a look at some other potential coaches who might find themselves on the hot seat while their organizations try and find a way to fix what ails them. There isn’t an exact science to predicting these sort of things, but numbers speak for themselves and as Josh Donaldson would say like the MLB the NHL “Isn't the try league. This is the get it done league." Might Go  Pittsburgh Penguins - Mike Sullivan  This is an obvious case of what have you done for me lately and when you have a roster that consists of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang you expect results. This season though the Penguins haven’t found much success, and while a lot of these struggles can be attributed to Matt Murray’s GAA of 4.08 and S% of .877, but if things don’t turn around quickly Mike Sullivan could find himself on the outside looking in. Some may point to the two Stanley Cups that Sullivan has brought to Pittsburgh as something that may provide him a bit of a reprieve, but the core of this team isn’t getting any younger and with the window for success on its way down, you’d have to imagine Jim Rutherford is keeping all options open.  Philadelphia Flyers - Dave Hakstol  You can’t completely blame a coach for the struggles of his goaltenders and that might be the only reason Dave Hakstol will end up getting a pass, but from a city that boos Santa Claus you have to understand results are all that matters. In his first and third season Hakstolmanaged to lead the Flyers to the playoffs, but made first round exits in both postseason appearances. Now with the Flyers sitting five points out of the playoffs and Michael Neuvirth continuing to be a brittle as a cracker the Flyers management might be looking to find a spark in some other way. Luckily for Hakstol with both the Rangers and Islanders having surprising starts there might be a chance the Flyers can find themselves back in a playoff spot in the wide-open Metro.  Should Go  Detroit Red Wings - Jeff Blashill  Jeff Blashill was supposed to be the heir apparent to Mike Babcock, the guy who was going to step in and maintain the Red Wings’ playoff streak which stood at 24 years when Blashill took over. Blashill was able to maintain that streak for his first season, but he’s missed the playoffs in both of the last two seasons. The Red Wings sit five points out of a wild card position and six points out of 3rd place in the Atlantic Division. The general consensus in most NHL circles is the Red Wings will end the season in a lottery position and will likely be picking at the top of the 2019 draft, but the next question becomes whether or not Blashill is the guy to lead the future of the Red Wings as they eventually look to return to the postseason.  St. Louis Blues - Mike Yeo (article written before announcement this morning) Mike Yeo might be a victim of his own success after starting his career with the Blues off with a 22-8-2 record it’s all been downhill from there. After trading away Paul Stastny at last years deadline the Blues went out this off season and shored up themselves at center by acquiring Ryan O’Reilly and signing Tyler Bozak. Unfortunately these upgrades haven’t panned out and St. Louis finds themselves in a position where Buffalo owns their first round pick, with top 10 protection. At this juncture the worst case scenario for the Blues might be finishing in that 11-15 position where they miss the playoffs and lose their draft pick. If Yeo can’t find some way to get the most out of this lineup then maybe Doug Armstrong will find someone who can.  Have to Go  Anaheim Ducks - Randy Carlyle  Maybe lightning will strike twice? That was the hope in Anaheim when they decided to bring Randy Carlyle back for a second stint as Ducks’ head coach, but even though he’s experienced some regular season success he hasn’t been able to get the Ducks over the hump. This season has been a real struggle in Anaheim and considering that Corey Perry hasn’t played a single game due to injury that isn’t a surprise. The Ducks are 3-4-3 in their last 10 games but they appear to be fading fast and for a team that some people view as rich defensively they’ve struggled with a -17 goal differential. It’s hard to believe Carlyle has the ability to adapt to today’s NHL and in my opinion it’s only a matter of time before the Ducks show Randy the door...again.  Ottawa Senators - Guy Boucher  Things are bad in Ottawa, how bad? So bad I’m not even going to make a joke about how bad they are. Things at this point probably aren’t as bad on the ice as many fans had thought but the off ice issues have continued. Senators players were recently caught on tape bashing a member of Boucher’s coaching staff and truth be told Boucher himself should be bashing Martin Raymond’s penalty kill units, which are currently sitting 30th in the NHL at 68.8%. Guy Boucher might not be completely to blame as much as you should blame the inept ownership and management, but the players look like, and sound like, they’ve tuned out the coaching staff and if you don’t respect a coach or his systems then he’s already lost the battle. Guy Boucher is living on borrowed time and if it wasn’t for Eugene Melnyk likely not wanting to pay another coach odds are Boucher would already be towing the unemployment line.  Should Already be Gone Edmonton Oilers - Peter Chiarelli & Todd McLellan This doesn’t fall entirely on the coach and even though Todd McLellan deserves to be shown the door a lot of this falls on Peter Chiarelli. It’s not all bad for Chiarelli though as it’s likely he’ll receive some votes for General Manager of the Year for the work he’s done to help rebuild the New York Islanders. The Oilers find themselves in cap trouble already and seem to be wasting what could be the best years of Connor McDavid’s career. How is this McLellan’s fault though you might ask? There have been plenty of times this season when Milan Lucic rides shotgun with McDavid as a warning to other teams not to mess with his star player, which is great in theory, but Lucic has shown with his shooting percentage of 6.5% over the last two seasons that he isn’t going to provide any finish for the best player in the league. McLellan also found himself out coached Saturday night when his Oilers gave up 4 unanswered goals to lose the Battle of Alberta. At this point I even hesitate to call them “his” Oilers as it times it truly seems like this team has tuned out their coach.  Was your team’s coach on the list? Do you agree or disagree? Did I miss someone? I’d love to hear from you.

[tumblngdice]

Peter Bosz’ Reviersport Interview Translated

Lars Pollmann, 1/10/2017

Borussia Dortmund’s head coach Peter Bosz has been on his new job for about three months now. The Dutch manager gave his first newspaper interview to Reviersport this weekend. Here’s a translation of parts of the interview.

Mr. Bosz, you’re sitting here and looking out into the stadium. Have you become accustom to the vista of your new living room?

Can you ever become accustom in the sense of it becoming routine? I don’t think so. I’m in Dortmund for three months now but it seems as though it’s been only three weeks. Everything came about so quickly, I was the coach of Ajax in the summer.

How did you react when BVB’s offer reached you?

That was a very good feeling. Dortmund are one of the two best teams in Germany. When such a big club from one of the most important leagues in Europe asks for you, you’re proud and excited.

But?

No but. I had a very good year at Amsterdam. At the end it was clear to me that I wouldn’t continue at Ajax. We decided that together.

Sounds like you’re very consequent.

I’ve always been that way.

An example: I always wanted to become a professional football player when I was young. That’s why I didn’t commit many sins of one’s youth, alcohol or cigarettes, for example. My friends went clubbing and I was home to get enough sleep. When I was 16 years old I went to Vitesse, turned pro at 17 and played there for three years. But that was before the Bosman ruling. When your contract ran out clubs still had to pay a transfer fee for you.

I found that outrageous.

I wanted to be free after those three years, that was logical for me. Then I negotiated with the president of the club — I never had an agent when I played. He said I could earn more money, I said I didn’t care about that, that I’d rather be able to leave on a free transfer at the end of my contract. He called me crazy.

I voluntarily returned to the amateur ranks and bought myself out of my contract.

What is important to you, then?

Family, friends, friendship, honesty. That I can trust the people I work with. And that they can trust me in return. Living your life is also important. Sure, we have to work very hard, but everyone has to let loose now and then.

That’s tough, but you can learn it.

How did you learn it?

When I was a young coach I thought the days needed to have more than 24 hours. I thought I had to work even at 11 pm, had to talk to this player and prepare that other thing. Today I say: Okay, it’s 11 pm, we’re done now, let’s drink a glass of wine and unwind.

Experience helps knowing when and why you have to do something. And I believe the quality of work gets better this way, as opposed to getting too little sleep constantly and becoming a chased person. We have long days, put in the hours, do all the important work diligently. But when I come home it’s important to me that my wife is there and that we’re together and we can relax.

How do you relax?

Red wine helps (laughs). I spent three years as a professional in France, at Toulon, and there I learnt a lot about French wine culture from my team-mates.

Those experiences teach you a lot. I’m very happy I spent time in France. I’m very happy I saw Japan and played in the Bundesliga, for Hansa Rostock.

Those are interesting stations in a career. Just like my decision to go to Israel as a coach. Everyone asked me: What are you doing now, going to Israel? When you’ve been a coach in the Netherlands you go to Spain, Germany or England, they said.

Why did you do it?

Jordi Cruyff was the sporting director at Tel Aviv at the time and asked me on the phone almost every month if I didn’t want to come.

I always refused until a friend told me: “You’re always saying no to a thing you don’t even now. Why don’t you say: Okay, I’ll take a look first.” I did that.

And when you’re there, it’s fantastic. Tel Aviv is beautiful.

What role did sporting considerations play?

The sporting challenge is always the most important. Just like it is here at Dortmund. I’m trying to soak everything up and strike roots here. I didn’t go to Tel Aviv because the beaches are so pretty. That was a sporting decision.

But I’m also trying to learn the language and soak everything up. The whole life.

You also met Jordi’s dad, the Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, in Tel Aviv.

That’s right. I’ve been a fan of his from my childhood days.

For me and my football philosophy he was very important. I knew at 15 or 16 that I wanted to become a coach. I had all my licenses at 19 already. My friends and I collected everything Cruyff said about football. There was no internet at the time, we bought papers and cut out articles. One friend ended up writing a book about how Johan thought about football, youth football, about offense, defence and organisation. And all that over a span of 20 years. Very, very interesting.

At Ajax I worked with someone who worked as an assistant of Cruyff’s for six years at Barcelona. Before that European final against Sampdoria he had to analyse the opponent and talked about a striker called Gianluca Vialli after his return: “Johan, I’ve never seen someone like that guy, you can’t mark him.” Cruyff said: “Then we won’t mark him. You said he can’t be marked. He’s used to everyone being close to him, he doesn’t know the feeling when nobody does that. We don’t mark him!”

Everyone threw their hands up in despair. Barcelona won 1-0.

Those things interest me.

How often did you meet Cruyff?

I met him once when he was a player at Barcelona. We only shook hands quickly. Later again when I coached Vitesse. I talked to him for 30 minutes and shyly asked whether he had watched my team play.

When he came to Israel and I was able to talk to him for a week it was the greatest thing for me.

That was shortly before his death. How was he doing back then?

I’ve never met a man who was so positive. He had cancer and the treatment visibly took a lot out of him. But he never said he was tired or not doing well.

Are you continuing his idea of “Voetbal total” in the present age?

I believe we have a different opinion in some details. But our philosophies are similar in the sense that we want to play attacking football for the fans. Of course, we want to win. But we also want to entertain the fans. They want to see Messis and Ronaldos, no destroyers like I was one.

We want to inspire the fans. Which teams or players from the past do we all remember? Those that entertained us. And those two worlds — the attractive and the successful — can come together.

I truly believe that.

But it’s more difficult.

That’s true. When you’re trying to play attacking football and make mistakes, the defence is open and it gets dangerous.

So we have to defend well together.

Are you surprised at how incredibly well that’s working in the league so far?

A little, yes. Because for me as a coach who hadn’t been in the Bundesliga over the last few years it wasn’t easy to gauge whether that would work in the Bundesliga.

I believe Pep Guardiola had the same problem in his early days at Bayern. He had his style at Barcelona. But does that work here in the Bundesliga? I didn’t know, I believe he didn’t, either.

But we’re also far from where we want to be.

Might there be a moment when opponents adapt to BVB’s playing style?

That moment is there constantly. It’s a continuous process. We switched up against Real Madrid during the game.

But the principles remain the same: We want to play attacking, brave, attractive football.

Do you need some different, faster players to show that at a higher level in the UEFA Champions League?

We analyse every game for itself. The Real match was totally different to the Tottenham Hotspur match. Against Tottenham we did very, very well but the result was terrible.

I don’t think we deserved this, especially because a good goal wasn’t allowed for us. Tottenham was before our goal twice and scored on both occasions. But against Real the opponent was the better side. Madrid were too good for us in this instance.

Now we have to analyse again: What can we do to win regardless? It’s not about the defenders. We have to defend as a team. If — to bring up a fictitious example — Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doesn’t press well at the front, the opponent can easily string up his buildup play. And when the midfield isn’t compact, our defenders are in trouble. But when we apply pressure on the opponent on the ball it gets tougher.

Everything has something to do with everything.

Dutch coaches such as Rinus Michels were regarded as stubborn and stoic…

I can see that. I can only say about Michels: He was an absolute authority.

When he was the Bondscoach and I played for the national team you had the utmost respect for him. His assistant was Dick Advocaat…

He had the nickname “the Little General”…

(Laughing) When we laughed in training, Advocaat looked at us sternly. He was very structured. Michels was the man to lead team talks. Once he said before a game: “We have to defend!” Then he said: “Where do the best defenders in the world? In Italy! Why are they the best defenders?”

Than Michels explained en detail why that was the case. Impressive!

And you soaked up his words like a sponge?

Yes. I went to my room, took out my notepad and wrote everything down.

Do you still have those notes?

Of course.

Do you still write down your impressions as a coach in a book?

Yes. After our win at Wolfsburg I wrote down my thoughts in that book. What I liked, what didn’t go so well. When we play Wolfsburg again, I take out my book and take a look: How did it go back then? What was the lineup?

The pictures return to me all of a sudden.

Is it some sort of a coaching diary?

Yes, if you want to describe it that way. I also give out grades for my players.

Like in school?

Almost. I give out grades for my players between one and 10. One is bad, 10 is perfect. But I can reveal to you: Nobody has ever got a 10 from me.

Why not?

Everything would have to have been perfect, every pass, every movement, every duel, every shot. That doesn’t exist in football. Mostly the ratings are between five and seven.

How do you lead a team? As a dictator? Or a team worker and someone who understands the players?

You can be both. An authority and all the same someone who understands the players. I speak my players, the management and the sporting director and other directors. But at the end I decide who plays!

Do you take a calm look at everything before you make changes?

Yes. I don’t come to a place and say: Now I’m doing everything differently. When something is good, it can stay that way.

Dortmund is a big club after all. They must have done something really well in the last years. Otherwise BVB wouldn’t be this high up the pecking order. I can’t come in, turn everything upside down and say: Now we’ll do everything the way I want it!

I’m not like that.

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