Singapore vs Malaysia

Went to the national stadium last night to catch the match between Singapore and Malaysia. The last time I was at the stadium, it was with vikram, pasta ian and sue, and it was quite hilarious watching pasta ian joining the singapore fans in boo-ing the indonesian team, before we romped to a 2-1 victory in the 2005 finals.

Last night, the whole motley bunch included abraham, ainsley, daniel, and abraham's primary 6 brother johannon (I think that is how his name is spelt). Christopher and his bourgeois gang were at the more expensive grandstand, while I think clement the observor was in the air-conditioned pressroom. It was quite strange that I also bump into dr rappa and his honors students in the stadium.

We almost couldn't make it to the stadium, as most of the tickets were sold out by Thursday afternoon. Not that I did a lot of legwork to get the tickets, ainsley was the one who did most of the running around. In the end, I did some web research and told him that his only chance of getting tickets is to go to this 4D shop in Bukit Batok. He was a bit afraid that the police will catch him for underaged 4D betting, and I reassured him that it will not happen, although i was crossing my fingers that pastor joe (his dad) won't find him there.

It was a really good atmosphere in the stadium, with the feet stomping and the Kallang wave. And there was the universal football whistle which goes something like this "bi bi bibibi bibi bibi [feel in the gap]" Usually people will probably chant 'Goal Goal!' or 'England!' in [feel in the gap]. But because our opponent is Malaysia, and they understand Malay, the whole stadium chanted 'Budoh!', which is roughly translated as 'backside!'. I didn't really know a lot of Singaporean players, besides China winger Shi Jiayi, Serbian midfielder Mustafic Fahrudin, African defender Precious Emuejeraye and English defender Daniel Bennett. Ok ok... I do know there were some Singaporeans in the Singapore team, such as Lionel Lewis and Indra Sahdan.

Actually, I didn't think they play that well, as compared to the nimble and quick Malaysians. I think Precious literally 'stood out' for his performance. He is really the biggest guy in the game, and there was one time when the crowd broke into laughter in the way he twist and turn around, and any malaysians that tried to take him down simply rebounded and fell to the ground. He was also the one who sent this super 30 meter pile driver into the goalpost, which the keeper saved, but caused him to have multiple backache injuries subsequently. Everytime the goalie went down to the floor and required medical attention for his backache, the whole stadium would boo him for time wasting. There was also this bald left winger who was quite maligned. From our side of the stadium, we kept shouting 'Botak!' everytime he touches the ball. Heard from Chris that it was the same story at the other end of the stadium, when the teams switched sides. Daniel (who is botak), felt a bit sorry for him.

So we won 6-5 on penalties. The Singapore leg for the finals is this coming wednesday. I can't make it though. Oh well. I better start typing my thesis soon!