Instead of working out at the body combat class, I decided to bring the girlF to the National Stadium to watch Singapore take on the Uzbekistan for the third round of World Cup 2010 Asia Qualifying match. The latter turned up to be much worse.
I think the Football Association of Singapore owes the Singaporean fans that turned up at the National Stadium a big apology for what some of us had to go through.
There should be more than ten thousand fans who heeded the call of the FAS and the Lions to be their twelve player off the field. However, about a quarter of that number, ended up outside the turnstile, waiting to get the tickets to enter the stadium. There was absolutely NO organisation of any sorts to cater to the crowd.
When we reached the East gate around 7.30pm, there were already a mass of people queueing from the turnstile, all the way down the steps to the gates at the ground. When I asked one of the ushers what’s going on – he could only shake his shoulders and waved us in. There were no mobile railings along the elevated walk way leading to the gates to guide the crowd. So you can imagine the mass of people cutting queues and trying to squeeze into the narrow walkway at the turnstile.
By the time we managed to get the tickets, it was already 8.15pm and not more than five minutes after we got a seat, it was half time.
Boy were we pissed.
If the FAS wants the fans to support the Lions, at least have the decency to provide proper support for the crowd to get their tickets. Especially when it is on a Monday, where most people can only turn up after work. There weren’t sufficient ushers to guide the crowd, nor were there railings to control the flow of the crowd. It was utter chaos.
(A rare moment of joy for the Lions – Reuters)
While waiting amongst the crowd, we heard cheers from the Stadium and eager beavers with friends at home, called back to check the scores. 2-1, followed by 2-2 – the goals were relayed to everyone. Hey we thought, maybe there’s hope.
But when we creep past the turnstile, walked up the steps and enter the stadium, we were greeted by a 2-5 scoreline.
I can’t judge whether the visitors really lived up to their FIFA World ranking to overwhelm us, or the Lions played badly. I wished it was the former.
BUT thanks to the lousy organisation by the FAS, I have absolutely NO IDEA!
As for the second half, being three goals up, there were obvious slowing down of the tempo by the Uzbeks which made the Lions look good. But true to form, the Lions show lack of technique, lack of vision and lack of aggression. There were no tenacious pressuring football back when we were in the Malaysia League, nor were there any cohesive play among the players. The only goal scored was due to the individual skill of our new foreign import Qui Li who hit a scorching shot that rebounded off the cross bar for a tap in by John Wilkinson. While the Uzbeks casually stroke the ball around the Lions, scored two goals and still manage to indulge in some unsportingly play-acting.
3-7. I don’t think we ever conceded this many goals ever. Historic day indeed!
One thing I don’t understand is – why is Precious Emuejeraye still a Singapore Lion even though he is slow and looks like a lumbering elephant in the centre of defence? Being such a tall fella, he could still lose out on a header that led to Uzbek’s sixth goal.
So after three matches we have only three points out of nine and still faces Uzbekistan away in a couple of days time and then Saudi Arabia at home before ending the competition against Lebanon away.
The match against Saudi Arabia should end any hope of Singapore moving beyond and also finally mark the debacle of the National Stadium still being in used even though she had her farewell-cum-closure concert last year.
Funny quote of the day by the Lions coach, Radojko Avramovic, after the match:
We couldn’t cope… We must improve our team. This game showed us a lot we didn’t know.
Wait – it took you this long, after a historic thrashing to realise we have not progressed beyond the ASEAN football standard? Winning the Tiger Cup meant nothing on the world stage. Look. Even our soccer cheer has not developed beyond the traditional – “bor bor, bor-bor-bor BUTOH!”.
Related posts:
{ 1 trackback }