Where were you?

Singapore 4 Myanmar 2. The Lions are in the Tiger Cup final. It was a memorable match for everything that was on and off the field, and I guess it would be one of the most enjoyable match that I’ve ever attended. Earlier in the day I was still contemplating whether I should make my way to the National Stadium to watch this match. I honestly wasn’t convinced that the Lions can do the job, but perhaps it was blind faith, I put on my red Manchester United shirt and made my way down to Kallang.

When I reached the stadium, the queue at the turnstiles was long, but thank god it was moving rather quickly, as I managed to get into the stand with a few minutes to spare. The players and the spectators observed a minute of silence, and to be honest, the Singapore section of the crowd observed that minute brilliantly. The match though was a pain to watch, at least for the first hour or so, as the Myanmarese scored two without reply. The whole drama began to unfold when one of the Myanmarese players was sent off, and the Lions made their numerial advantage count. Minutes later, Noh Alam Shah put the ball at the back of the Myanmarese net to send the crowd into raptures. 1-2 down on the night, 5-all on aggregate. Game on.

Then came perhaps the most crucial moment of the match – I think it was in the last minute of normal time – Agu Casmir was cynically hacked down in the penalty box with only the goalie to beat, and the offending Myanmarese received a red card for a professional foul. That decision made the Myanmarese players go berserk as they surrounded the referee to contest the decision. Play was delayed for a long time, much to the fury of the Singapore supporters who were not impressed with the non-gamesmanship by the Myanmarese. One of the Myanmarese players was apparently so mad with the decision that he pushed the referee and kicked mud into his face. He got sent off for his trouble. Silly boy.

Of course the match would have lost much of the excitement if Indra had scored the penalty, so he contrived to hit the post with that, and the match went into extra time. But then again, 11 Singapore players vs 8 Myanmarese and half an hour of extra time to go – there is simply no contest. Indeed, Singapore put 3 more past the Myanmarese goal to secure a 4-2 win. However things went really ugly both on and off the field. On it, the Myanmarese players and officials were lashing out at the Singapore team at every opportunity, throwing water bottles and what not. Off it, the Myanmar supporters apparently could not take the defeat and decided that they will follow their team’s indiscipline by physically challenging Singapore supporters. From where I could see, I saw a fight break out and some Myanmarese supporters were hitting Singaporean fans. Bottles, poles, flags were being thrown at the Singapore section of the spectators. More skirmishes broke out and the police had to step in. I don’t know if anyone was arrested, but the situation really threatened to boil over. On hindsight, I was lucky to be on the other side of the stand.

So in the end, indiscipline caused Myanmar the game, but then again, when you have a team of thugs on the pitch, no matter how good your skills are, you’ll never win. The Lions are in the final – and I sure am looking forward to seeing the match live in person again. The feeling of singing my way out of the stadium with the rest of the fans is really a great one.

Where were you when the Lions finally gave us something to cheer about?