Sunday, January 28, 2007
ONWARD SINGAPORE!Yesterday was truly a 'soccer day' for me. First, I played field soccer for the first time in months when I joined Aloysius (Sheila's bf) and his pals for a kickabout at the Tanglin field. This was followed by a mad rush to the Singapore National Stadium with Cathy, Sheila and Aloysius for our national team's ASEAN Football Championship Semi-Final second leg derby clash with arch-rivals Malaysia. Finally I made it all the way home just in time to catch United beat Portsmouth 2-1 in the FA Cup.
Sounds like a bit of overdose of football eh? lol. Well, there has never been too much of football for me. Though I may be a bit less die-hard about it nowadays, I am still an avid fan and nothing fascinates me more than the beautiful sport--the universal and true international language amongst every race and country.
Having started watching soccer from the days of the Malaysia Cup back in the early 1990's, it is a bit surprising that I have not been to any of the matches live during the Lions' golden era, a team then littered with star players and household names such as Fandi Ahmad, Abbas Saad, Malek Awab, David Lee, Khadir Yahya etc. The only 2 times I have watched our National team play at the national stadium were against opposition from the premier league (losing to Nottingham Forest 1-3 in 1995, and the 1-8 trashing by Manchester United in 2001). So it was indeed that this was the first time I could consider myself a patriotic supporter of our country in a tense match.
Although witnessed by a partisan home crowd long forgotten since the Malaysia Cup days, the match itself was still very scrappy, with not much value in terms of trickery or skill. In fact, what happened on the terraces was of greater interest and to a certain extent, cause for more concern. The traditional jibes and mockery between our fans and opposition supporters quickly turned the atmosphere into a hostile one and there was a period where food items, cardboards, posters, cigarette lighters, and even drinks were hurled at each other. One such incident involving a flying umbrella launched by an angry Malaysian supporter left Aloysius with a cut on his hand whilst trying to parry it away from other Singaporean fans. Thank goodness for Singaporean police then, for when they realized what was going on, security was stepped up in our area threefold.
In the end, after a gruelling 1-1 draw (2-2 on aggregate) Singapore sneaked past our rivals via a tense 5-4 penalty shootout. This sparked wild celebrations amongst the supporters, an unforgettable scene for someone who has been to very few live matches to consider himself an avid soccer fan.
I will try to upload the highlights from the game via embedded wmv soon when I successfully figure it out!
yeongest 10:46 pm