January 30, 2007
SINGAPORE
Buying Football Tickets, Featured in the Newspaper (Again)
Last Saturday Singapore won a gripping encounter with their arch rivals, Malaysia, in the semi-finals of the Asean Football Cup (former Tiger Cup). At the end of regular time there was a 1-1 stalemate, and penalty kicks were growing tense as nine consecutive shots found the back of the net. Unfortunately for Malaysia, their last shot was denied by Singapore’s goalkeeper, and Singapore was on its way to the championship.
I went absolutely nuts along with the rest of Singapore. Although it was not the best football I have ever seen - especially since I am used to watching the Arsenal - there was a tangible tension as both sides were fighting for the pride of their home country. The two neighbors are notorious for (how do I word this so that it is politically correct?) not being entirely warm to one another.
Singapore will play Thailand for the championship match on Wednesday, January 31.
This was the course of events that brought me to Jalan Besar stadium on Monday morning to buy 13 tickets for the championship match. This will be the last event held at Singapore’s beloved National Stadium, which is being torn down immediately after the match to make way for a new stadium. It was thus little surprise that all 55,000 seats sold out the first day they went on sale, and it was a good thing I turned up nearly two hours early to join the queue.
I spent the drawn out wait chatting with other fans. They were hardly able to control their excitement over beating Malaysia and the prospect of doing the same against Thailand. Before we knew it, we had a large group formed as people were gathering around to have a laugh with us.
I suppose it was the crowd and the fact that I clearly wasn’t “local” that brought my attention to a journalist. She approached me and conducted an on the spot interview while I put up with being the butt of the jokes for the next fifteen minutes. I must admit I did not think much of this event at the time because I figured she would interview 150 other people in the day. I should have caught on when a photographer snapped pictures of me buying all my tickets, but the cheering of the crowd behind me and the excitement of getting tickets were all I could think about.
I was eating lunch the following afternoon when a group of students approached me and pointed me out on page two of Singapore’s largest newspaper. I popped up like a jack in the box as I couldn’t believe my eyes. I bought a few copies of the paper and by the time I got back to my dorm I noticed all my missed calls and messages. It may not be a billboard that makes me famous this semester, but page two of the newspaper just might!
Quotes from the paper…
“American Fan
One man stood out at the Jalan Besar queue – American Brett Davenport, 20, a foreign exchange student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
He said: ‘All the students in the NTU campus and even in other universities, like NUS and SMU, have been following the championship.’
The mechanical engineering student from Atlanta bought 13 tickets on behalf of his hostel mates, who include a mix of locals and Thai students.
He joked: ‘The Singapore fans will sit on the left, the Thai fans will sit on the right, and I will sit in the middle as the referee!’
**UPDATE** Despite what the newspaper wrote, I would like to clarify for all my Singapore friends out there: I will be cheering Singapore on the entire time (unless Thailand begins winning, of course, in which case "fair weather fan" simply doesn't apply to me).