Story by Christy Ong. Pictures by Teo Zhijia and Lai Jun Wei.
National Stadium, Monday, July 28, 2008 – It was good to be back in the National Stadium again. Despite all the controversy about the re-opening of the National Stadium, what better venue is there to host Brazil, the five-time World Cup champions to play against our very own Singapore Selection?
It was the thrill of seeing the legendary Brazil team that drew me to the game. After all, 33,650 people were willing to fork out good money just to see the Brazilians in action. Compare the ticket prices of this game ($120 for grandstand, $60/$30 for adults and $15 dollars for 2000 under-16 students) to an S-League ticket ($5-$6 for adults and free admission to $2 for students); there is as much as a 2400% difference. And yet how many people are actually willing to pay for an S-League ticket?
Basically, I got worried about how much support our Singapore Selection squad was going to get. With trepidation, I went out in search of various fans to interview just before the game itself. However, it looked as though my fears were unfounded about the lack of support for Singapore as soon as I spotted The Singapore Lions Supporter Club. The committee members of Singapore Lions Supporter Club Sunny Lee, Yana Lee and Musbah were extremely warm and enthusiastic and greeted us with rousing Singapore cheers (which never stopped until the end of the match.)
The Singapore Lions Supporter Club believed that captain Indra Sahdan, as well as Alexandar Duric, would definitely be able to score against the footballing giants Brazil, with Indra Sahdan scoring against Manchester United previously. Sunny Lee wanted to thank the organizers, saying, “It is a great opportunity for the Singapore players to be able to play against the Brazilians.” When asked for a comment on the foreign players included in the line-up, Yana Lee responded, "There are quite a few injured national players and the foreign players are there to fill up the gap."
They also showed their appreciation for Coach Raddy Avramovic by saying that he was a great coach and only he had brought Singapore to great heights by making it past the third round of World Cup qualifiers.
On the contrary, the Brazillian supporters weren’t half as supportive of Coach Dunga, who deemed that he is “not so good”. We caught up with Debora, who spent 4000 Reais (approximately $3464.34) to fly down from Brazil to Singapore just to catch this match. She enjoyed Singapore and thinks that Singapore is “very very nice”. Unfortunately, she didn’t think as highly of the Singapore Selection, believing that they would be thrashed 10-0.
We spotted a trio of Singaporeans all decked out in the Brazilian jerseys at the grandstand. We found out that Rose, Lydia and Fizzy have been supporting Brazil since they were very young. They had specially paid $120 in order to spot their favorite players up close. When asked who they think would score first and score the most goals, they unanimously replied “Pato!” Although they were obviously die-hard Brazilian fans, when asked to name a few Singapore players, they promptly replied “Lionel Lewis” and “Indra Sahdan”. When pressed about whether they would actually support Singapore deep down as Singaporeans, they answered, albeit reluctantly, yes they would, but "deep, deep down".
We also caught up with the future of the sporting scene – the youths. They were in for a treat, with tickets only at $15 for 2,000 of them. “We predict the score to be 4-0 with Anderson scoring the first goal. Singapore are good in South-east Asia or even Asia, but not good globally. If they do score, it wouldn't be more than one and likely scorer will be Khairul Amri. As for man of the match, it will be Lionel Lewis,” concluded the five Primary Six students, Faaiz, Riduan, Shaik Farisha, Shuyuri and Llnam Bin Jamal. We interviewed two brothers Lincoln, 11 and Brandon Chen, 9 who attended the game, remarkably without the company of their parents, and they had opposing views. Lincoln supports Singapore and thought that Singapore would put up a good fight whereas Brandon insisted that Ronaldinho and Anderson would spoil Singapore’s party.
Indeed, I had conflicting views myself too.
I have been fascinated by Brazilian soccer since the 1998 World Cup. Yes, I was still a little girl then and did not appreciate my dad waking me up in the wee hours of the morning just to watch the World Cup Finals. Still, it wasn’t long before I was dazzled by the beautiful style of samba football. On the other hand, I have virtually no inkling of the Singapore Lions and S-League apart from reading about them in papers.
It was the first time I got to see both teams in action live.
Although Brazil was the team that I had spent time watching, I realized that when it comes to the crunch, I still supported Singapore more. I yelped in anticipation whenever the Singapore team got the ball and was desperately hoping for a goal from Singapore. It was simply not the same with Brazil. Yes, they had their brilliant moments that left me gasping but they were just beautiful, nothing more. Only the Singapore team was able to pump up my adrenaline and made me cheer. And I guess this is what being a Singaporean is about.
The Singapore Selection may have lost today and no one may have thought that it was even possible for them to win but they played with passion. Yes, perhaps it's an illusion but they convinced me that one day Singapore football would really be able to make it big. For now what they really need is simply just Singaporeans' support.
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singapore requested brazil to giv chance? lol
Wonderful story, Christy! And that bit about “approximately $3464.34” – too funny. 🙂
thank you dazz and singaporesportsfan for your encouraging comments!
and hey singaporesportsfan, apparently at least one of the players (I can’t remember which one) is already a Singapore citizen. Like what the The Singapore Lions Supporter Club says, I believe that the foreigners are there to fill a void – there are quite a few injured national players.
Well, but I guess anything could be possible.
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The Singapore team did not wear the Singapore flag but the FAS logo. Therefore they were representing the football association and this is not a national team. Hence the term Singapore Selection.
Back when Singapore were playing in the Malaysia Cup, they too did not wear the state flag. The team included non-Singaporeans.
In all probability, FAS just wanted to field as strong a team as possible and the coach would have wanted that too. After all, it is Brazil. And we are helping them out by providing a rigorous opposition for their preparations.
BTW, nice personal account, Christy.
And nice pics by Les and the Redsports team
Here’s a question: does anyone know why we fielded a Singapore Select side instead of a full Lions team?
Was it a condition laid down by the organisers or the FAS (to showcase the S-League)?
Was it to scout Kenji Arai, Valery Hiak and Miroslav Latiek for potential citizenship?
None of the newspapers probed this point, which I felt was a real pity. It would have been good to know.
Singapore really worked hard and losing 3-0 to world beaters brazil ain’t much of an embarassment , nice work christy.
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