On Wednesday, 31 Jan, I was lucky to watch the ASEAN Football Championship Final 1st leg (former called Tiger Cup) featuring Singapore vs Thailand in our National Stadium. I was early to buy the tickets on Monday morning to catch this match live at the stadium.
In the past, I watched Singapore Team playing in the Malaysia Cup and also Tiger Cup on the Television, so this is my 1st time watching soccer match live at our National Stadium, but it is also the last time, since this 34 year old National Stadium (operated in 1973) will be demolished in July 2007 to make way for the new sports hub which will have a new Stadium with retractable roof & having the same seating capacity of 55,000 by 2010.
I was there at the National Stadium with my sec school classmate to watch this live match today. When we reached the stadium at around 7+pm, we already saw a sea of red-shirt Singapore supporters. Haha. As we were late, so we could only managed to find the seats by the corner of the stadium, but the angle was still good for viewing. Hehe.
This time round, Singapore Team is wearing the Blue Jersey instead of the traditional red one, since they have a new sponsor. (So dont be mistaken). In the 1st half of the match, our Singapore Team managed to take the lead by a goal contributed by Noh Alam Shah in the 17th min. At that time, we were cheering in joy and celebrating the goal with the popular “Kallang Wave” :) The atmosphere at the stadium was great and one can only experience it at the stadium itself. Really man!! However, the Thailand team equalized the score by Pipat Thonkanya just after the break.
As I though it was going to be a draw for the match at around 80th min, a dramatic incident happened 3 min later. The Malaysian Referee actually awarded a penalty kick in Singapore’s favour for a questionable challenge between Niweat and Alam Shah in the Thai’s Penalty Box. This caused the Thai team to be angry about it and protesting about the challenge, but the Referee remained with the decision of having the penalty kick.
At this moment, Thai coach instructed his players to walk off the pitch and stay at the sideline for a timeout of 15 min in protesting against the referee’s decision. Funny. This is my first time, watching such a situation in soccer history where a soccer team walked off just like that for a timeout. This is not Basketball leh. Hahaha. All the Singapore supporters all stand up at this moment to witness what the dramatic scene will happen next and waiting for the penalty kick to be taken. After the 15 min delay, the Thai team finally decided to carry on the game, which allowed the Singapore Team to score the Penalty kick goal after that by Mustafic Fahrudin. At this moment, all the Singapore supporters all jumped up in joy for the celebration.
The game ended in with a 2-1 win for Singapore in the final 90min. All the Singapore supporters will quite happen with the result, as Singapore will have a 1 goal advantage when they have their 2nd leg final at Bangkok on 4th feb. I do hope that the Singapore team can win the 2nd leg final to get the 3rd title for this tournament.
Beside the match, there was actually a funny malay uncle sitting beside me, he was 1 of the jokers and he entertained most of us for most of the time. Some of the comments, he mentioned during the match include, “Break the Thai player’s leg/neck”, “squeeze the Thai player”, “Referee Kayu”, “Give the Malaysian referee a red card lah”, “Referee go home sleep” and “Referee wearing pirated watch” for not blowing the final whistle. Ha. Damn Funny. Laugh until mad. :)
Below is the URL for the whole article on the report of the match.
http://www.fas.org.sg/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=2395
In the past, I watched Singapore Team playing in the Malaysia Cup and also Tiger Cup on the Television, so this is my 1st time watching soccer match live at our National Stadium, but it is also the last time, since this 34 year old National Stadium (operated in 1973) will be demolished in July 2007 to make way for the new sports hub which will have a new Stadium with retractable roof & having the same seating capacity of 55,000 by 2010.
I was there at the National Stadium with my sec school classmate to watch this live match today. When we reached the stadium at around 7+pm, we already saw a sea of red-shirt Singapore supporters. Haha. As we were late, so we could only managed to find the seats by the corner of the stadium, but the angle was still good for viewing. Hehe.
This time round, Singapore Team is wearing the Blue Jersey instead of the traditional red one, since they have a new sponsor. (So dont be mistaken). In the 1st half of the match, our Singapore Team managed to take the lead by a goal contributed by Noh Alam Shah in the 17th min. At that time, we were cheering in joy and celebrating the goal with the popular “Kallang Wave” :) The atmosphere at the stadium was great and one can only experience it at the stadium itself. Really man!! However, the Thailand team equalized the score by Pipat Thonkanya just after the break.
As I though it was going to be a draw for the match at around 80th min, a dramatic incident happened 3 min later. The Malaysian Referee actually awarded a penalty kick in Singapore’s favour for a questionable challenge between Niweat and Alam Shah in the Thai’s Penalty Box. This caused the Thai team to be angry about it and protesting about the challenge, but the Referee remained with the decision of having the penalty kick.
At this moment, Thai coach instructed his players to walk off the pitch and stay at the sideline for a timeout of 15 min in protesting against the referee’s decision. Funny. This is my first time, watching such a situation in soccer history where a soccer team walked off just like that for a timeout. This is not Basketball leh. Hahaha. All the Singapore supporters all stand up at this moment to witness what the dramatic scene will happen next and waiting for the penalty kick to be taken. After the 15 min delay, the Thai team finally decided to carry on the game, which allowed the Singapore Team to score the Penalty kick goal after that by Mustafic Fahrudin. At this moment, all the Singapore supporters all jumped up in joy for the celebration.
The game ended in with a 2-1 win for Singapore in the final 90min. All the Singapore supporters will quite happen with the result, as Singapore will have a 1 goal advantage when they have their 2nd leg final at Bangkok on 4th feb. I do hope that the Singapore team can win the 2nd leg final to get the 3rd title for this tournament.
Beside the match, there was actually a funny malay uncle sitting beside me, he was 1 of the jokers and he entertained most of us for most of the time. Some of the comments, he mentioned during the match include, “Break the Thai player’s leg/neck”, “squeeze the Thai player”, “Referee Kayu”, “Give the Malaysian referee a red card lah”, “Referee go home sleep” and “Referee wearing pirated watch” for not blowing the final whistle. Ha. Damn Funny. Laugh until mad. :)
Below is the URL for the whole article on the report of the match.
http://www.fas.org.sg/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=2395
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