Preface
It has really been awhile since I have last written and published an article on my blog with the last being in October last year. Before that I have been writing and publishing non-stop for 15 years since 2008. I was not suffering from writer's block. They say running water never grows stale. So I have to move on to other things since the pandemic has ravaged and torn all asunder. No matter how passionate you are about anything, you will find that after an absence for sometime, the engine gets cold and you find it harder to start.
Just too darned busy and being too busy with one thing means one becomes lazy with the others. The law of compensation. A hiatus if you must. Covid made it worse as there was no more travelling since borders were closed and eating locally and overseas were curtailed. So I could not write about these things. In fact, I laid out my travel luggage, sat down and spoke to them - "We are not gonna travel for a few years". They have since become emotional baggage. One of them have a meltdown, the spinner wheels melted.
Something happened that compelled me so start writing to share about a special time and place with some very special people. That was some 46 years ago and beyond. Many of you were still not born. How time has so quickly left us behind. All we could now do is to reminisce.
I was invited to the book launch of 'Uncle Choo Singapore's Greatest Coach" at the SRC at the Padang on 24 March 2023. Such a book about the late legend was long overdue and forty over years too late. We did not build on all those magical years of N. Ganesan, Uncle Choo, our beloved soccer legends, the Kallang Roar and our most ardent soccer fans and their passion and the love of the beautiful game. It was an era where everyone made sacrifices for it to happen and grown men hug each other even as strangers whenever Singapore scored and won a match - regardless of race, language or religion. It united a nation.
Singapore built the National Stadium at Kallang in 1973 when we hosted the SEAP Games (now SEA Games). When N. Ganesan became FAS Chairman and also Team Manager, it was his guts and vision that saw our home games switched from Jalan Besar to Kallang and then he brought in Uncle Choo Seng Quee who in turn brought back some players and trained and built our team of soccer legends. None of them did anything for money and in fact gave freely of their own time and money. It was also Ganesan who started the Lion City Cup U-16 tournament which was later adopted to become the FIFA U-16 World Cup. Here was N. Ganesan with Uncle Choo drinking from the silver cup. Uncle Choo was always in his trademark batik shirt. Two great men in one photo.
My very own soccer interests coincided and peaked from 1974. I went to a soccer crazy school that has strong teams from C to A divisions often playing in finals and our school principal would even close the school so that we could over to Jalan Besar stadium to support the team. I watched my first World Cup in amazement because for the first time we had colour TV and I watched Johann Cruyff, Franz Beckanbauer and the rest. Before it commenced, I watched a documentary "The World At Their Feet" - highlights of the 1970 World Cup. We were also playing soccer every week and even a few times a week. We followed the Malaysia Cup where the rivalry was really intense. Whenever Jalan Besar Stadium was occupied, the National Team trained at our school field next door and I would stay back to watch them.
As students, I would saved up pocket money and ang pow money to buy my favourite soccer magazines - Shoot!, World Star Football and Singapore Soccer where our players were featured including their clubs in the then NFL. We saved up in order to have enough money to purchase tickets to our Malaysia Cup home games at Kallang. Once, two of us got to the stadium and had no money to buy tickets and we had to page for a friend who was already inside to come to the gate to pay for us. On another occasion, all three of us spent all our money on bus fares, food and drinks and after the match we walked home from Kallang through Kolam Ayer to Toa Payoh. We do not even know how many kilometres it was or how long we took to get home. Those days, we had a teacher who taught us science in lower secondary who happened to be in charged of the school C Division football team. After the weekend Malaysia Cup game, he would spend like 20 minutes talking about the game and often mentioned how good Kim Song was and so on. That was why I failed in science and scored a distinction (P1) in sports.
In the 70s, Selangor and Penang were the kingpins of the Malaysia Cup.
Singapore soccer is sadly in the doldrums for years now. Stuck in a puddle of stale water and not flowing like a river. How do we get back to the halcyon days of the 70s? Get another N. Ganesan, another Uncle Choo to build another team of players like our legends of yesteryears. Yes? But where to find? Search me..... Mr. Ganesan and Uncle Choo spent a lot of their own time and money to help players, youngsters and children.
The Book Launch And Dinner
And so I came to dinner and the first familiar face that I met was Lim Teng Sai. As I walked across, he stood up and we had a firm handshake. The first thing that Teng Sai said to me was: "We must thank you again for your write out about our soccer legends. Many folks have read your articles from your blog and it brought back great memories and for those who were not aware, they got to know about us now". Teng Sai was not just an uncompromising defender but he has fine skill set and that was why Pele singled him out and called him the unpolished gem of Singapore soccer when he visited in 1974. He was still a very young player then.
I got to talk to other legends as well. Seen here were Brian Richmond, Jita Singh and Leong Kok Fann. Brian was the DJ at our hottest disco at the time - the Studio M at The Plaza Hotel. We all listened to him on radio especially Gold 90.5 (until recently) and he was also a sports and soccer commentator. He was also a soccer player. Jita was our youngest national team coach at the time and has a midas touch as he helped win the Malaysia Cup again in 1980. Leong Kok Fann was the intelligent and tireless midfielder who ran the engine room and quite often was Man of the Match. He was already a star for CJC and the Combined Schools and he helped CJC win the A division school title.
Rocky Lim Tien Jit was not able to be there that night and yet he rang up Jita from overseas. So Jita held up his phone for me so I could also speak to him. He was that versatile defender who could pay centre-back as well as right-back. As RB, he would gallop like a stallion with his flowing long hair like a stallion's mane on the right wing. I remembered him as the player who went for an overseas study stint in the USA and was away for a few years.
Ho Kwang Hock was in his usual element (photo below). He was my senior in school. Star of our school and Singapore's Combined School team at the time as a swashbuckling striker. He was a very good player but it was difficult to displace Uncle's Choo's Fab Four, yes, four attacking players of Mohamed Noh on the right wing, Dollah Kassim, Quah Kim Song in the middle and S. Rajagopal on the left wing. You would not believe that in those halcyon days, we played with a now unheard of "4-2-4" system.
Defence
Eric Paine and later Edmund Wee in goal, Hasli Ibrahim at right back, Robert Sim as left back (even though I have always suspected Robert to be naturally right-footed and he must have trained really hard with his left foot) to be able to play on the left. Modern full-backs can now play on both sides and also as overlapping wing backs. That was why I believe S. Rajagopal was converted by Uncle as a left winger where his ball skills allowed him to execute delightful in-swingers, banana kicks, dead balls and at times "rabona" crosses. Rabona crosses were hardly a thing those days so you can say he has already done all that "before Cristiano Ronaldo" was born. Samad Allapitchay was the Captain and he was partnered by either Syed Mutalib or Lim Teng Sai.
Midfield
We often played with only two midfielders with Zainal Abidin on the right and M. Kumar on the left. We also have V. Khanisen who was intelligent, tireless and seemed to have three lungs. M. Kumar played like a leech sticking to his opponents fearlessly. Zainal was a maestro and we have a quieter guy who often did not take the limelight in Gulam Mohamed.
Mat Noh was called the Allan Clark of Singapore because he was as stylish and elegant as the England player. Noh had beautiful ball control, delicate feints and great crosses. Dollah was extraordinary and was great with his free kicks and scored one of the most amazing goals in the Malaysia Cup leaving a few defenders and the goalie on their backsides. (I captured that moment in another blog article previously). Kim Song had great pace and acceleration and was our star striker with his goals and Rajagopal with those insane crosses and corner kicks. We must not forget Supersub "Crazy Horse" Nasir Jalil. Craze horse because he ran around like one harassing all opponents.
Robert Sim - the gentleman as always. Our reliable left back. Very honest and clean player, tough as a rock with his tackles and very fit (the other guy behind Robert is his bodyguard and bag carrier. Hahaha).
Ken Loy and his band performing for the night.
Beer time with Robert.
Have not seen Seak Poh Leong for a long time. Poh Leong was a midfielder and Captain of the team before Samad Alapitchay. A very steady, cool player who reads the game well and led by example. I could tell back then his mind was different. When he retired he would later achieved the highest Class A coaching licence from Germany which meant the he could and was licensed to coach any team in the German Bundesliga First Division. Not only was he the first in Singapore to achieve such an accolade but was perhaps the first in this region.
Star striker and quicksilver Quah Kim Song. You will be surprised that in the early 70s, English coach Mike Walker made him play as a sweeper. His diving headed goal won us the Malaysia Cup in 1977 after 12 long years.
I did not meet players like Eric Paine, Edmund Wee, David Lee, Hasli Ibrahim, Zainal Abidin, Syed Mutalib, Samad Alapitchay and S. Rajagopal but I think I saw Samsuddin Rahmat, Roy Krishnan and maybe V. Khanisen too.
Goalkeepers
Singapore was blessed with very good goal-keepers: Lee Bee Seng was a basketballer goalie I think and quite a showman often doing a low somersault after plucking the ball when rushing out from his goal line in one on one situation. I remembered Eric Paine (also my school senior) as a very good, brave and stylish goalie. David Lee was very tall and excellent in cutting out those high crosses and has quite a long goal kick, full of confidence and shouting at his defenders. To me, Edmund Wee was the most talented. He was so good with the ball at his feet that he could play as a striker ( like Manchester City's Ederson). I actually saw him playing as a forward. He would also plucked a ball from the air with one hand during matches when he felt it safe. He was fondly called "Wonder Wee". Hasli Ibrahim has a special scissors tackle that I still haven't seen till these days. Maybe it has been outlawed. Zainal was our midfield supremo. Always unruffled, he would just walked and suddenly switched play and he would send a ball 50m up field to a running Mat Noh and the ball would land at Noh's feet. Syed Mutalib was stout and like a tank. Samad was called our "Rock of Gibraltar". He would sometimes make forays up field. S. Rajagopal was called the Camel as he galloped like one when he patrolled the left flank and often spectacular with his in-swingers, banana kicks and overhead bicycle kicks. He would also do the rabona crosses and a dead ball specialist.
The other heroes who have gone too soon and left us (dearly departed) were Lim Chiew Peng, Arshad Khamis, Dollah Kassim, M. Kumar. Nasir Jalil and Mohamed Noh. How we wish they were here.
The photo below showed: L-R: Edmund Wee, Nasir Jalil, Samad Alapitchay, Hasli Ibrahim, V. Kanisen and Hussein Aljunied. Nasir Jalil was nicknamed Crazy Horse because he ran around like one. He would turn dead dogs tired. It was his all important equalising goal against Penang that enabled Singapore to win. He played for Farrer Park United just like Poh Leong.
Quah Kim Lye (with hat) was there too in his stylo best. Elder brother of Kim Song, Kim Lye was one hell of a player himself in his time, nippy dribbler and quick silver.
Who is more fitting to be MC for the night other than Brian Richmond.
Author of the book Reynold Godwin Pereira with Seak Poh Leong and Teo Hock Seng. We have to thank Mr. Pereira for the book.
Mr. Teo sharing anecdotes of days gone by.
All were glued as Kim Song shared interesting stories (below).
R. Suriamurthi who was such a skilful ball player. He could mesmerize you with a ball at his feet.
Here is the very talented double international - Patrick Wee. Goalkeeper and award winning world class national bowler. His sister Adelene was a Bowling World Champion too.
The band was enjoying themselves.
It was fitting that Choo Seng Quee the man and Uncle Choo as he was affectionately known by all was accorded a night like this to launch a book to remember him. But we were denied meeting those were absent for whatever reasons and those who have gone too soon such as Nasir Jalil, Arshad Khamis, Dollah Kassim, M. Kumar and Mohamed Noh.
Uncle Choo
Uncle Choo was way ahead of his time. A strapping giant of a man with a booming voice. He would often get his trainers to line up balls in a semi-circle an get his players to shoot at goal and as each player ran up to the ball he would bellow: "Timbak!" meaning to shoot. Uncle would often help young players by providing them soccer boots, gears and even food as they could not afford them. He was not only a master tactician, he was a master motivator who could read the minds of his players. He trained hundreds of youth and got nothing in return.
Kim Song related to me that when Singapore played Malaysia in the Pre-World Cup in 1977, Uncle Choo not only master-minded the most unlikely of victories but he had a plan which was hard to believe. You see, Malaysia was an Asian soccer kingpin. I watched them beat South Korea in the Merdeka Cup or other Asian giants in other tournaments. Uncle told his boys that man for man, it will be very hard to match Malaysia who he would expect to dominate possession and the match but he also told them he had a plan and how to win. Singapore has to defend stoutly throughout and not slip behind and then he told Kim Song that he has to get a penalty while putting Mohamed Noh for penalty kick training continuously. Kim Song and the players were shocked when Singapore won 1-0 and the match panned out exactly as Uncle has planned. Singapore defended with with their lives, Kim Song got the penalty and Mohamed Noh scored from the spot kick.
In those days of the 60s and 70s, there were not that many coaching certification in Asia. Uncle Choo did not have one just like Bruce Lee never had a black belt but he was way ahead of his time. There was a young British serviceman who was on the books of Tottenham Hotspurs and he trained under Uncle Choo who taught him much. He said that Uncle would be wanted by many professional clubs in the UK. He was as good or even better.
When you watch live soccer on TV these days in the Premier League or the Champions League, you would see managers and coaches setting up 3 to 5 players to warm up at the sidelines during matches. This is for several reasons - to send a signal to the players on the field that they may be replaced soon if they do not do something more or special, to confuse the opponents as to who they may bring in or who would be taken out. This is also to give any substitute to stake their claim for a place. Uncle Choo was already doing these stuffs those days before anyone else did.
The above photo you could see from the Back (L-R): Hasli Ibrahim, S. Rajagopal, Eric Paine, Quah Kim Song, Mohamed Noh, Syed Mutalib, Samad Allapitchay, Edmund Wee, Robert Sim and Nasir Jalil.
Front (L-R): M. Kumar, Gulam Mohamed, Zainal Abidin, Dollah Kassim, Lim Teng Sai and Lim Tang Boon.
Uncle Choo gave his time and his life for Singapore soccer. Is there ever a greater son of Singapore soccer? Till this day I remember that before anyone had watch our team play he gave a nation not just so much hope but great conviction by proudly and profoundly proclaiming with confidence and boldness and was headlined in the newspapers with a few simple words - "Come Watch Us Play" and "Attack is the best form of defence". Like a magician conjuring rabbits out of a hat, he was our pied piper of Hamelin who magnetized fans like ants returning to their nest which was the grand old dame at Kallang. As JRR Tolkien said - "All that is gold does not glitter". Even our new National Stadium cannot compare to the Grand Old Dame.
The only consolation I have is to occasionally visit the ghosts of yesteryears. The planks from the original National Stadium.
Repurposed as an art installation.
By the road side where even old dogs chasing car wheels were gone.
You can find them here at the URA Centre.
These planks, like us have withstood the passage of time, rain or shine. We weathered together the good and bad times. Time is an illusion.
The other way is to occasionally meet up with some of the remaining legends of the great 70s team that could be contacted and who are now friends. That is why we called it the "Good Old Days".
Thank you Uncle Choo for those great memories and many great moments in time. Talking about passion, you were passion personified. Those were the growing up years and we shall never forget. Au Revoir!
Go get this book!
NB: Special thanks to the author Reynold Godwin Pereira.
You may like to follow the links below from my previous articles on our "Singapore Soccer Legends":
https://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2011/11/singapore-soccer-legends.html
https://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2013/11/singapore-soccer-legends-part-2.html
In it, you will also find other articles about the "Kallang Roar" with drinks, kway chee and curry puff included.
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