Singapore Soccer- The Way Forward

Two new countries have their flags popped up on my blog - the Czech Republic and Jamaica. These are the 81st and 82nd countries. I like it.

For anything to succeed, you need support, you need passionate people all around with drive and dreams and you need the space to do it. Create more spaces for people to play the sports, generate the interest, start them young and get more folks engaged and excited. Build it from the team's wins and it shall be a good start. Douglas Moore did a good job and Barry Whitbread brought home the Tiger Cup with R. Sasikumar's back or backside goal after which we won the Tiger Cup a few times to be the best team in South East Asia. Raddy Avramovic gave us the best ever result when we went to the World Cup Qualifiers' third round.

The two legged triumph over arch rival Malaysia, 5-3 at home and then 1-1 away for a 6-4 aggregate win over the reigning S.E.A. champions is such a time to build on with the return of the Malaysia Cup. Singapore played well but it was same old Singapore when they went down 0-1 in less than a minute when many supporters buttocks have not touched their seats yet but playing well found themselves leading 4-1. I have to say you do not lead 4-1 and let your opponents come back with two goals. Ismail Yunos needs to use his head more when he needlessly got himself red carded when Malaysia was left with 10 men. Most admirably 41 year old Alexander Duric scored to extend the lifeline to take to KL. It is hard to find a player this age who is still so super fit. Amazing! An inspiration to old fogeys.

85,000 Malaysian fans did not cowed us. Rookies goalie Izwan Mahbud and defender Safuwan Baharuddin played out of their skins and went through the baptism of fire with nerves of steel and were magnificent. Duric's back header was crucial for Shi Jiayi to score that important goal so coolly. Fat boy Qiu Li whom I heard a few people calling him played a great game too and almost capped it with a great solo goal when he dribbled past 2 opponents and pushed the ball past two more and running through them and with only the goalkeeper to beat tried to dribble around him but was stopped. However, not only did the Malaysians played rough but the fans' behavior left a sour taste. First, they booed at Singapore's national anthem. This is something no one should do not even for Singapore fans to boo others' national anthem. It was terrible! Now some of them have defaced our national flag. I do believe that most Malaysians are not like that and only that small portion I hope.

Later they threw bottles onto the pitch. I saw them shining laser pointers at Singapore players, even the physio and especially our goalie Izwan obviously trying to blind him. This is ungentlemanly conduct and unsporting behaviour. When the fans dispersed in Singapore there were reported skirmished outside the stadium. I do not advocate violence but what I'm trying to say here is you can easily detected the other ingredient for success - "rivalry!"

In 80s and 90s squash was so popular that squash courts were sprouting everywhere. I used to be a regular at Kampung Java, Kallang, the Civil Service Club at Tessensohn Road and even at the top of the Mandarin Hotel and playing at least once and sometimes twice a week. Those were the days where Zainal Abideen was the undisputed champion and there were other household names and exciting players like Peter Hill, Stewart Ballard, V. Gopal, Jeremy Yeo and lady's champ Mah Li Lian. In 1985 at the world championship in Cairo, we finished sixth overall. In 1991 and 1993 when squash was introduced at the SEA games, we won every gold medal on offer. We saw on TV how Geoff Hunt, Jahangir and Jansher Khan played their wonder squash and rode on the success. Later, we struggled as the sport could not make further impact at senior level and the facilities declined as popularity sagged.

I watched two soccer matches recently involving the School's "C" Division semi-finals and Final. The young players were eager and so were the supporters.

 

In the Final, VS eventually lost 0-1 to Sports School though VS were superior in the first half but the chances were not taken.

Students were waving their school flags. It brought back fond memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If only we could extend the rivalry, support, interest and passion to the national level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Parent supporters were out in numbers and equally vocal. Ex school boys and ex school teachers too.

 

I saw several ex national players. Samsuddin Rahmat was there. So was Nasri Nasir, an ex Singapore captain. Kadir Yahya too as he is the Sports School's coach. With the return to the Malaysia Cup, our recent World Cup qualification to the next round, we unfortunately lack a good stadium to allow more fans to gather. Build from these exciting moments and gather steam. Soccer remains the most exciting game for the masses. Let us march on! Why not sell some merchandise to support local soccer? Mugs, scarfs, kits, jerseys, etc. I can help the FAS design them if they want. Once when I attended a fund-raising golf tournament for a S-League soccer club and during dinner time where they gave up prizes for lucky draws a winner wore a Chelsea jersey to receive his prize and the MC said: "Alamak bro! Chelsea, EPL? Kena sai lah - S. League, S-League!"

The timing is good that we will be celebrating our National Day on 9 August. On our 46th birthday I wish all Singaporeans and Singapore in every sphere good health, peace, happiness and prosperity! Majulah Singapura!

They brought drums and musical instruments like we used to except better and made lots of noise. VS won 2-1 against Hong Kah and Sports School won the other tie 3-1.

So there you have it - passion, support, space, success, reach out to the masses and start them young. When players are passionate they play for the love of the game not just for the money. Passionate fans support their teams be it S-League club team or the national team. Give them support in many ways. Build and open up more spaces to let people participate and play. Start all players young with a sound system. Keep the Lion City Cup teams together and hope that Fandi's sons will represent Singapore some day. Get more ex international soccer players to be involved for they have been there done that. Experience is invaluable.

As for the foreign legion, there will always be two sides to the coin. Uruguay who gave a good showing in the last World Cup and winner of the current Copa America fielded all home grown players like Maxi Pereira, Sebastian Coates, Diego Lugano, Alvaro Pereira, Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan but when France won the World Cup they have many who were given French citizenship. Even Japan has a Brazilian and Portugal has Deco who was Brazilian, etc. What is important is that such foreign players want to live in Singapore and want to be Singaporeans and when they wear national colours, they go all out with pride to play for us. So, please treat them like our own.