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Showing posts from December, 2015

[Annual Review] - Was "HE" There on 28th of November 2015?

I hope that guy, who dropped me an email on the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2012 to chide me for not covering the Malaysian League, did turn up for the game on the  28th of November at the Jalan Besar Stadium (JBS). If he did, I am not sure how he felt now when he expressed his disappointment in me in that email for not witnessing a "saviour" in the form of a newly formed team - LionsXII that were set to be the "next conqueror" after making "our Great Return to Malaysian football" which he opined was "better than any S-League game" he saw. The KGS is gone - a symbol of Lions XII's MSL involvement I would only say I made that decision without any regret and am glad I did, as I merely adhere to what "Uncle" Choo Seng Quee envisaged a long time ago when he said playing in the Malaysia Cup will not see improvement in our game when we are facing their state teams using our national team that we should be aiming for the pi

Making Up For The Lost Time

"This was for me the hardest night of international football in my career. The two players on my side were like horses, running up and down, and I didn't expect that (Almawas) was that fast, or that (Al Shibbli) was that good." Those words expressed in the papers by defender Shakir Hamzah after Singapore's 2-1 defeat to Syria last month came as a shock to me. "I didn't expect ... was that fast, or that ... was that good." were those keywords tersely summarized by the 23-year-old on both Mahmoud Almawas and Alaa Al Shibbli who rugged him that night at Kallang. Shakir Hamzah (right) got it past Japan's Keisuke Honda (4) Moreover, it wasn't the first time we faced the Syrians whom we narrowly lost to weeks ago on the road which was why I was taken aback by those quotes. To be honest, I would never anticipate thoughts like "didn't expect ... was that fast ... was that good" to be said after an international competitive