singapore soccer growing?

"BUTO!"

"Teng Teng Teng Teng Teng, teng teng teng teng(drum beat), BUTO!" Well,i 've been to Kallang to watch us play against Malaysia and Thailand during the past week. No doubt the excitement is there when you see a crowd of 55,000 including the young and the old, mats, minnahs, bengs and lians all having a common aim that is to cheer for the home team. Cheer or jeer, it just makes you feel good. The Lions never let us down, the cheering and jeering which made us lose our voices was worth.

I mean how often do you get to attend a local match with an overflowing crowd? You can only see such crowd in EPL but to experience it was really great. It made me felt like an Old Trafford to be kinda atmosphere. Fantastic crowd. Like almost the whole singapore was there cause i bumped into quite a few people. You won't believe the kinda people who are there. There are secondary school girls, market aunties, angmohs.

"EH, BOTAK!"

The Malaysia game showed the fighting spirit that Raddy instilled in his team. Penalty shoot out was nail biting experience but thanks to Lionel, we can all be finally relieved. Singapore always got plenty of clear chances to kill of the game but tend to waste it.

Thailand game was a close fight too. Initially, i thought that the thai's high tempo game will trouble singapore's defence. Our back four have great aerial ability so the set pieces don't really threaten much. Fortunately, our standards could match the thai's and once again we have much clearer chances. Whn alam shah scored his 10th goal of the tournament, you could hear the Kallang Roar. Everyone went mad, dancing with the flag. That's the kinda passion you always like to see in fans as a football lover. After the thai equalised, singapore never gave up fighting as they know that a win is crucial at home before travelling to Bangkok in the next tie. Towards the end of the game at 70+ mins, a controversial penalty was awarded to singapore. Shi jiayi delivered the freekick into the box where alam shah fell to the ground from a 50-50 challenge. The thais were extremely furious and decided to walk off the pitch. They practically wasted extra 15mins trying to talk to the officials about the decision.

"PILAPONG, THONG CHAI TONG SONG PONG..."

Decision made was a lousy one but it's final. The Thai defender probably had 1% contact with alam shah but no way thats a penalty to me. Since the decision was made, the ref had to stand firm on it. He can't possibly say no i think it's not, let's continue. He'll definitely lose all respect and authority in the game. Mustafic stepped and blasted it into the top right corner sending the fans into frenzy again. Thai can say that we are lucky for all they want but to us it's the results that matter! I hope that Singapore can finish their job and bring back the cup.