Ian On The Red Dot

Last night was the game between Singapore and Uzbekistan. I went to watch the match alone. When I reached there at 7.45pm, this was the sight that awaited me:

I was not to be discouraged and decided to join the queue.

There was great atmosphere among those of us queuing to watch the match. We knew there was little chance of us getting in before half time but we didn’t care. Some people were keeping track of the score by calling or messaging those in the stadium or those watching from home. We cheered when we heard Singapore equalized to make the score 2-2.

I had hope we could pull an upset. I also thought that the stadium must have been packed.

After 30 minutes of queuing, I finally got my ticket. Guess what..the tickets were being sold by young kids. I think that’s so wrong. I know they are earning their keep but somehow it just felt exploitative.

Anyway, when i was walking up to the seats, this was the queue that remained:

When I got in, two things greeted me which left me deeply disappointed. The first was that we were now down 4-2. What happened!!!! I called my Uncle and he told me we let in two soft goals. Then I saw us let in what was a really cheap goal from a corner kick. Sigh.

The second thing that greeted me was the half empty stadium.

Only one side was anywhere near full.

I know I’ve said it many times, but I’ll say it again - I miss the days of the Malaysian Cup and League.

What I don’t get is this. Why were we playing so many long balls that night. I mean, let’s face it, if we want to go to the World Cup Finals, then we must know we will be facing teams with individuals bigger and taller than us. Long balls doesn’t seem to be the optimal strategy against such opponents. Sure, we could hope our players get bigger or maybe, just maybe we could work on another style of play.

Anyway, last night, three English guys sat behind me and made disparaging remarks about the team’s fitness and skills. I felt like turning around to say, “Your England not so much better. They didn’t qualify for Euro”. But I didn’t. I realized why what they said hurt so much was because there was truth in what they said.

We weren’t on par with the players from Uzbekistan in terms of fitness and skill. We also didn’t have the gamemanship that those players had. I mean, come on lah ref, how kayu are you? Those guys can easily muscle any of our players off the ball, but when one of ours touch them a bit, those jokers fall to the ground in the kind of agony that is only warranted if they had been knocked down by a bus.

The performance didn’t even deserve a Golden Globe nomination. It was that bad.

Sigh.

This loss didn’t hurt as bad as the one against Malaysia. Maybe it was because there was a certain resignation that this team was way better. Or maybe I’ve lowered my expectations.

But I think last night, the team had a little bit of fight in them. Despite the soft goals, they did play with a certain amount of pride.

Anyway, I need some help here. Can anyone remember when the Singapore World Cup 2010 initiative was started?