[Telegram Chat] - "DA CUKUP LAH!"

Singapore claimed its first World Cup Qualifiers point with this draw

This post will wrap up the largely euphoric sentiment following our 2-2 draw with China on the 21st of March at Kallang.

One can sympathise with the players for their joy when Jacob Mahler levelled the game, especially after a tumultuous period under Takayuki Nishigaya, the former coach. It was like a huge relief, finally being able to breathe properly.

Although Nishigaya's successor, Tsutomu Ogura, was quick to express his displeasure at that celebration, which resulted in one of the corner flags being damaged in the process, during the post-match assessment after his first game in charge.

In his opinion, the former Japan assistant coach felt the celebration was premature while the game was still ongoing.

Encouraging start for Coach Ogura (left)

I am sure the same message was relayed to the team immediately after the game in the dressing room.

I am not sure if this result can be compared with that famous goalless draw with Japan years ago that had praises for the unexpected result sung for days, in my opinion, on an exaggerated scale.

The good thing is, that most of us seem to be level-headed this time around, probably because we all know we still have a long way to go before we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

- 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎'𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒍 -