Lions @ Vivocity The Plaza

Lions Victory Celebration @ Vivocity the Plaza (10/02/2007) The Lions were at Vivocity for their victory celebration. Gan and I went there to see them, and to celebrate with the lads, and we went home happy. I, however, had three missions for the day. Mission #1: Princess Princess, Princess. I shan't tell you who she is, she knows, I know, some people know. Well, she wants to leech my entire cartoon collection starting with the Justice League Season 1 DVD! Ha, and so I met her at Vivo, just as the Lions arrived. We chatted for a while, before I sent her to the MRT station and returned to the tentage area. Mission #1 accomplished. Mission #2: Raddy I failed to get Raddy's autograph at the airport the other day. Well, I MANAGED TO GET IT at the celebration! Plus the man himself obliged for a photograph, and here you go, I took a picture with the national team coach! I've never really bothered about the coaches but Raddy is different. His tactics and strategies have really changed the Singapore team. With his autograph and photo, Mission #2 is accomplished. Mission #3: Lions Another aim of the day was to get a pic with at least five of the players. Along and Mustafic weren't around due to Tampines Rover's friendly match in Bangkok. Fazrul and Dickson weren't there too, damn! I can't complete the poster without them, and I just realised I don't have Masrezwan's too! Several players were mobbed by the girls, mainly Lionel, Baihakki, Khairul and Ridhuan. I failed to take one with Aide though I was happy enough to have a picture with Mani, cos it's his last international tournament, and we will never see him in national colours again. I tried to avoid Geylang United players as far as possible, cos Geylang is like, in Bedok, and I see these players so often. Lionel Lewis (18). The 2004 tournament's MVP award winner. Our No.1 choice keeper. Indra Sahdan (10). A proven goalscorer for the national team. Shi Jia Yi (7). Top midfielder who shares the same number as me! Precious Emuejeraye (21). He appears to be a tall and imposing defender on the pitch but is actually a very soft-spoken guy. And finally, S Subramani (14), one of the players I've idolised since 1998's Tiger Cup. Have a happy retirement from international football. =) Special Mission: ASEAN Cup! After our frenzy autograph and photo-taking session, I spotted an FAS staff at the corner of the stage allowing fans to take pictures with the ASEAN Cup itself! And so that ends my extended mission report for Saturday 10th Feburary 2007. Of all the pictures taken, my only regret is not taking a picture with Princess. hahahahaha.

ASEAN Cup Fever

Ok, this is gonna be a very long post. ASEAN Cup Fever lasted all the way from beginning of January and it's still on now, even though we had won the cup more than a week ago! I've been watching the delayed telecasts on TV since the start of the tournament, drawing with Vietnam, Indonesia, and thrashing Laos 11-0, and also the live telecast of the first leg of the semi-final with Malaysia, which we drew 1-1. SINGAPORE VS MALAYSIA (27/01/2007) ASEAN Football Championship 2007 Semi-final 2nd Leg National Stadium, Singapore Then comes the 2nd leg, played at home at Kallang. This one definitely must watch, so we went down to the National Stadium. Could be the last ever competitive match played there, and the lads were greeted to a bloody strong 55k full house crowd which bellowed at the Malaysian team and their 100 plus fans. At the end of the match, with a fantastic equaliser from Ridhuan, we brought the game into extra-time and eventually a penalty shootout. It was the 1st time I've seen a shoot-out live, obviously the tension was there, especially on the Singapore players. Fantastic save from Lionel and YES, we are into the finals, winning 5-4 in the shootout. SINGAPORE VS THAILAND (31/03/2007) ASEAN Football Championship 2007 Final 1st Leg National Stadium, Singapore 4 days later it was back to Kallang again for the finals. This time we had very good weather for the game, and check out this Thai mascot I photographed outside Kallang MRT before the game. Wah, this guy is excellent man! If only SG had such passionate fans! Captain Aide Iskandar was back for this match. It was a rough match, with the Thais falling at every soft tackle. Where's the sportsmanship man! When Along slot one in in the early minutes of the game, the 55k crowd went ecstatic! Later on in the game Thailand equalised, and in the 82nd minute the damned Thai team walked out of the game after a controversial penalty was awarded to us. F*** you lousy sportsmen! It was 15 minutes of jeering till they finally came back on and were destroyed by Mustafic Fahrudin's powerful top corner penalty. We went back home that night with a good result to carry over to Bangkok. THAILAND VS SINGAPORE (4/2/2007) ASEAN Football Championship 2007 Final 2nd Leg Supachalasai Stadium, Bangkok If not for the furious tension erupting from the earlier 1st leg match, I would have travelled to Bangkok to back our lads! Singapore's play was choppy at certain points, but gotta thank Raddy for bringing the lads this far. Indra was out due to an injury sustained during training, and was replaced by Shahril Ishak. Dickson started for this match, but was replaced by Khairul Amri in the later half of the game. Singapore did not play very well in Bangkok, and we were down 1-0 early in the game, which put teh Thais on level terms with us by aggregate. Again, the Thais continued with their rough tackles and play-acting, especially their forward, 7. Datsakorn Thonglao. F*** that retard Datsakorn. He lacks sportsmanship, and there were many moments he should have been sent off, like that push against Ridhuan, and the headbutt against Khairul Amri. Thailand had an excellent open chance which was cleared by Geylang United captain Noh Rahman. DAMN you're a hero man. A moment later, a wonder strike by Khairul Amri put Singapore ahead 3-2 by aggregate, silencing the 30k strong Supachalasai Stadium. The lads carried this score till the end, and Singapore had once again defended the ASEAN champions title! It was also a fitting retirement from national football for defender S Subramani. TEAM SINGAPORE RETURNS (5/2/2007) Changi International Airport, Singapore It was a Monday. Not many people were at the airport, just over a 100-plus fans welcoming back the Lions, most probably due to the weekday. I got out the Lion insignia poster they gave during the Malaysia match, and brought it along to the match with the intention of getting it signed by the Lions team. Lionel was the first to sign on the poster, and the last was our MVP, Along! I missed out Fazrul and Dickson's. Both of them 'zao' very quickly after coming out from the Arrival Hall. Mani signing on my poster. This is the poster after the airport welcome. I managed to add Raddy's in at the Vivo celebration.