Last Failure At The National Stadium

So Singapore is out of the World Cup 2010. In not so dramatic fashion too. In fact, I found the match a little boring. I was there among the 22 thousand-odd spectators who came to cheer on the home team and Saudi Arabia.

My opinion is that Singapore played badly. Like many office types who don't like taking responsibility for their actions (and thus CC the planet when sending emails - Jack Neo calls in Cover Ca-cheng), the Singapore players played like contact points on a pinball machine. From defender to striker, each would hold on to the ball for less than a second. Maybe they wanted to act out a passing game. But these jokers seemed to be passing without thinking or concern or planning. It was just plain ridiculous to me. We'd pass and pass and pass and lose the ball. This was repeated many times over. From Singapore goalkeeper to Saudi goalkeeper. Goodness. Can't we scrap the whole teamwork crap once in a while and go for personal glory? Everyone remembers Ronaldo, Giggs and Nedved for their fine solo runs that climaxed in wonderful shots at goal. Our players can't handle the glory it seems.

I was hoping the die-hard fans would start chanting "Wake up your idea!".

In the second half, when were one point down, our players seemed less accustomed to the pitch than our Saudi counterparts. Without explaining too much, I got bored 15 minutes in and started to walk around to take picture. Each time the crowd cheered/booed I would flip my gaze back to the pitch to see our keeper save a Saudi attempt, the ref/linesman make a disadvantageous call, or our team make it to the penalty box.

One moment of praise in the 2nd half was when Qiu Li took control and manouvred into the six yard box in a nice, solo attempt at getting on the scoresheet. The crowd went wild at his try and clapped in appreciation even though he failed. That was the kind of play we hoped to see from our Lions. Alas, the final final final final final final final final game at the National Stadium was not one to remember fondly.

Sorry Lions, you suck.

See the rest of my pixes at my Flickr.