drinks, nasi lemak, curry puff.. drinks, nasi lemak, curry puff..

Singapore 2-2 Indonesia: Champions advance
SINGAPORE, January 17 (Asean Football Championship) - Defending champions Singapore advanced to the semi-finals of the Asean Football Championship after holding Indonesia to a tense 2-2 draw at the National Stadium on Wednesday. (source: ESPNsoccernet)

more on that later..

school ended at 1230pm today. headed home for lunch and revisions on management accounting module.. and then packed my stuff and set off for the national stadium.

stopped by 7-eleven for some sweets, half-willing the lady across the counter to hurry my transaction, half-fearing that i would miss the number 10 bus..

boarded after like a ten minute wait.. turn off. only to be further irked when met by the driver's reply when i asked.. national stadium duo jio (how long to reach there)? "hard to say lah! got jam long lah.. no jam..". i couldn't be bothered with the rest of his statement.. i was asking how long it would roughly take to get to the stadium and he tells me about jams (cos' i wanted to confirm streetdirectory.com's estimate of 35 minutes).

went up, took a seat and took out by leadership training work to complete and then moved up front to be nearer the tv mobile screens. the arena was on. nothing really exciting they were debating about.. read a little of the bible and soon found the bus stuck in the jam that the bus driver was talking about along tanjong pagar railway station.. soon cleared it, got off and found myself with a spring in my step as i made my way towards the National Stadium.

timothy, whom i was meeting, was also stuck in a jam somewhere along the ecp.. hah. and i thought i was late.. bought some gallery tickets but was disappointed to find out that the Lions die-hard supporter fan club, who i usually seat with, were in the grandstand section. think they feared the lion mascot might get wet.. not me. nor timothy. we were there to brave the rain and cheer on the Lions. so it was raining.. drizzling actually, but this dude who was sitting in front of me, had his umbrella open.. no one watched singapore football with their umbrellas open. even with the rain pouring down. during the malaysia cup days, people would curse at you AND your open umbrella.

so we took the lead through a well-struck Alam Shah penalty and then Precious, oh Precious!! No i'm not rueing the fact we soon conceded a goal.. i'm irate at the fact that the authorities gave Nigerian-born Precious Emuejeraye fast-tracked citizenship and stumped by Raddy's preference of not-so-Precious over Baihakki Khaizan. Precious made many many many many mistakes during the match. i really think malaysia's got a good chance against us next week in the semis if precious plays. this slow, clumsy, bumbling 1.8+m giant of a man really cannot play football.

add to that, the thai referee's seeming preference and siding of the indonesian side added to my woes as halftime approached. every slight contact, the ref blew for indonesia. flicked a few yellows in singapore's faces but let off the indonesians. sick, that tom yam man.

anyway, i was looking forward to dinner at half time. dinner was a 3 buck nasi lemak, which i absolutely love.. and a 2 buck cuppa coke which was a rip off.. the fragant and "loose" nasi lemak i wolfed down as the Lions took their break.. shouts of Singapore, Singapore rang out from the stalls outside the stands of the stadium.. i suspect some minor scuffles between singaporeans and indonesians..

second half and indra put us ahead, again! don't know how it went in.. but it did.. then singapore nearly self-destructed when they allowed a soft equaliser 4 minutes later.. overall, singapore allowed indonesia the freedom and space to play their passing game.. and many times during the match, we could have conceded a third.. mind you, with Precious in there as well.. my heart was certainly in my mouth each time the ball got near him..

clock ticked away and i remember Timothy and I counting down with TWENTY minutes still to go.. that was how bad singapore was playing.. i told him, "this could be the last time we're watching a match here if singapore continues to play badly.."

anyway, fast forward and the ref finally blew for the final whistle after what seemed like 4-5 minutes of injury time. strains of "Ole, ole" rang throughout the stands.. what capped it for me was our seeing off of our opponents and their fans with "Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye! Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye!"

met zayed, daniel and mark at the match. they claimed farand was there as well..

contemplated dapao-ing a nasi lemak for breakfast tomorrow but decided against it.. bought a curry puff outside the stadium for a mere buck. that was worth it. loved the pastry and the chilli sauce.. it was certainly good.

as Tim and I made our way towards the busstop for number 10, I quipped, "Hey! We'll be back at the stadium for one more match. And one more nasi lemak. And one more curry puff." maybe 2 nasi lemaks & 3 curry puffs. :P but no coke. if i can help it.

next saturday, singapore vs malaysia 2nd leg 8pm.

now, where's my singapore flag?