Monday, January 17, 2005

The Night Kallang Stadium Roared Back To Life

The last time I heard the Kallang stadium roar that loud was 11 yrs ago...its been a while and the to hear it again sounded like renewed faith...I experienced every bit of it...and i was really glad i did...

My friend and I got there by around 5.30pm and even then, the whole EAST gallery was almost jam packed...we didn't get to sit right in the middle but rather somewhere near the goalpost...but it didn't really matter...It was a sea of RED... it was like Chinese New Year -but better-...The atmosphere, WOW...i haven't been to a game like that in ages...

I got there almost 2 hours even before the kick-off and people were already excited...chanting, doing the Kallang Wave, making confetti out of newspaper...i loved every single bit of it...I brought my SLR camera but even before kick-off, the batteries decided to die on me...I couldn't even care less...

As i read the newspaper today and looked at the images in the paper, i felt like a proud mother whose son had done excellently in a national exam...i almost wanted to tear and cry...Yesterday's event surpassed my wildest dreams...The shouts and chants reverberated throughout the whole stadium and silenced the Indonesian fans. ... -not that anyone could hear them anyway- (so much for "Bangkit Indonesia")...

Indra Sahdan's goal effectively killed and silenced the Indonesian players ...the pint sized goal scorer did not disappoint the home crowd and sealed in the first goal 6 minutes into the game...everybody got up to their feet and screamed, yelled, cheered and just got crazy...it went beyond boundaries...everyone didn't care whether you were chinese, malay or indian...it just went beyond race...

The second goal, even though it was a penalty, was celebrated as fervently as the former...the conversion of the penalty by Agu Casmir went down as a hard pill to swallow for the Indonesians...It completely wrecked them... and the home crowd was treated to Agu Casmir's somersaults and the crowd went absolutely WILD...

Lionel Lewis' performance last night was absolutely fabulous...he was THE man of the night...he saved so many shots...I can't remember Lionel Lewis ever performing that fabulously...

The prize giving ceremony was excellent and when Capt. Aide Iskandar lifted the trophy, the stadium erupted into cheers and singing Queen's "We Are The Champions"...

Now i have to bid adieu and nurse my hoarse throat, any suggestions?


p.s. : Itimi Dickson needs special mention, he ran like a train that never ran out of steam...brilliant! Congrats again SINGAPORE on their Tiger Cup WiN!


...Fading Into Oblivion...

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