Football

It's football night, tonight. Malaysia versus Singapore at Bukit Jalil. There was a long traffic jam on Seremban-KL highway this evening. The jam started immediately after the Sg Besi toll. Huh! I wanted to watch, but the kids wanted me to help them with their homework, so no football.

Football is always no 1 sports in Malaysia. Whenever there is football on TV, whether it involves Malaysian team or the English premier league or any international games, the coffee house and the Mamak restaurants will be full of people, especially by young guys.

Last Saturday, on the way back from my niece's house, my kids were hungry. We thought of stopping at the Mamak restaurant at Seksyen 15 for dinner, but when we reached there all the restaurants were packed with people staring at the big TV. Some of the restaurant projected it on the projector. I guess it is more fun to watch with friends at the shop than watching at home. Tak oommppphhhhlahhh.......

I bet, it the same tonight for those restaurants. It will be full of people watching the games. It must be a good business. Nobody will sit for ninety minutes without ordering anything. 

By the way, we lost to Singapore. Drew 1-1 with Singapore tonight, and lost 5 - 3 in Singapore last Saturday. Anyway Harimau Malaya, you had tried your best. Good luck in your next game.

Learn about them and believe in them and you will not be disappointed!

Did you watch last night game between Brazil and Nederland? Who did you support? Most of the people I know support Brazil. In fact there has been discussion in my office that Brazil will advanced to final and meet Argentina. Nobody really talk about Nederland. The only person that I know who has been supporting Nederland from day 1 is my 10 year old son, Amir.

He has put his faith in Nederland and has not change his mind eventhough people surround him told him that Nederland will not make it to semi-final. In the last night game, he sat quitely watching the game when Nederland was 1 goal behind and praying and hoping Nederland will score. When Nederland scored the equaliser, he was ecstatic, throwing the pillow that he was holding but did not jump or shout. He was jumping and shouting when Nederland scored the second goal,and looked at me, wriggling his eyebrow, with a look like "Now do you believe me?". I just smile when he did that and when the referee blew the final whistle, he was so excited and cannot sleep. I have to threaten him that if he do not go to his room, no more football for him.

I guess I did learn something from my son. He shows me that we should stick with what we believe. Learn about your team so that you can talk proudly about the team, the player and the track record. That what he did.

For me, I felt disappointed with Brazil but I still have Germany or Spain. Let see whether either one of the team can advance to semi final. Now I need to go and get Nederland's jersey for Amir.

My favorite teams and World Cup.

It is England versus Germany at 10pm tonight and I am rooting for the Germans. Not that I don't like England but there are so many England supporters in my office and as someone who likes to do the opposite, I loudly declared my support for the German in front of my office mate and bought German jersey.

Well now the World Cup is in the last 16, I was hoping that at least one of the Asian representative will make it to round of 8. Since Korea already lost to Uruguay, it only left with Japan to carry Asian hope to the next round. Eventhough Korea lost yesterday, they went down with their head held high. They fight until the end and that is the spirit that we look for.

I didn't support USA even though my brother in law and my niece are American. If they met Portugal or Chile, I might support them but unfortunately, they were up against Ghana and as a sole representative of African Nation, I support Ghana. At least we have one from Africa continent in the next round.

Who else do I want to see in the next round? Well, I want the following team to be in the quarterfinals. They are Brazil, Argentina, German, Spain, Holland (since my son is the big fan of Holland), Japan, Ghana and Uruguay.

Let see whether the teams I support will be in the next round. Pray! Pray! Pray so they will move to round of 8.

p/s This is the update on last night match. Germany thrashed England 4-1 and advanced to the next round. I was very happy. However the game might ended differently if Frank Lampard's goal was considered in by the match officials. I guess fate is not with England side. Anyway congrats to the young Germans and they will be meeting Argentina in the quarterfinal. Whoever win will be okay with me as both are my favorite teams.

Football, World Cup and Me

I like football. I have been a football fan since I was 15 and I was Manchester United, Liverpool and Notingham Forest fan. There were many great players during that era such as Kenny Dalgish from Liverpool. From supporting the English League, I slowly follow the World Cup. My first World Cup that I followed was in 1982.

I was on semester break with my sister. The world cup was held during Ramadhan time and both of us stayed up late to watch the game before our sahur. There were so many great teams and my favorite teams during that 1982 World cup were Brazil, Germany, Holland and England while my favorite players were Zico, Falcao, Socrates from Brazil, Michel Platini from France, Karl-Heinz Ruminigge from Germany and few others. I can still remembered when Brazil was defeated by Italy, I cried. I cried for few days and until today, I cannot accept Italy eventhough my son likes Italy.

As I grow older my enthusiasm for football decrease and only this year, I feel like watching football again. Maybe most of my office mates are male and they discuss football in front of me. So for this year World Cup, my favorite teams are Brazil, Argentina, Spain, German, England and France. Unfortunately for France, they were knocked out in the first round and thanks to the players attitude.

As part of celebrating the football festival, my department had a birthday party with a football theme. The cake has a football pitch, goal post, players and ball. We were asked to wear our favorite team jersey. So what did I wear? A black German Jersey and it was the envy of everybody because that jersey is pretty with gold and red stripes.

So, do you like football and which team do you support? Share with me.