Malaysia 1-5 China. No elaboration required. New Straits Times made it even clear on their back page: Thailand 1-1 Iraq, Vietnam 2-0 UAE, Indonesia 2-1 Bahrain, and our scoreline as the headline.
I've been severely lacking sufficient dose of football since the European season ended. Argentina and Brazil seem to be displaying a fine show at Copa America, unfortunately for me, the matches are played during my office hours, I can't skip work during my practical just to watch football unless my bosses are doing that, too.
I thought Asian Cup should be a good platform for me to finally watch some local football. This should be our version of Euro Cup or Copa or African Nations' Cup. As much as we follow foreign scenes, we should keep track of our own, too.
Thailand and Vietnam got off to flyers, Thailand holding 2004 Olympics semifinalist Iraq to a draw, Vietnam got one better by beating Gulf Cup champions 2-0. After their turn, it is Indonesia and Malaysia to prove the worth of hosts.
Indonesia paid tribute to their crowd support of 65000 with an emphatic 2-1 victory over Bahrain. Remember, the team they beat is only inches away to their maiden trip to Germany at the 2006 World Cup. Unfortunately, the lost out on the 32nd spot to Trinidad and Tobago.
After all three hosts snatch points in their opening game when all of them were expected much less than that, the pressure is on Malaysia to justify their automatic qualification as joint hosts.
Well, I don't need to decribe how the match goes. The tiny things apart from the result is what I want to talk about.
I watched with my friends, and as we watch the match, they were blaming Malaysians in general for the empty stadium. The attendance, the cheers and support from Bukit Jalil is of stark contrast of the previous match in Gelora Bung Karno. Assuming the whole Asia is watching, it is a shame how unsupportive we are to our national team. Venezuela may say their main sports is not football, but even they can pack stadiums fuller than us.
Can I blame Malaysians for being unsupportive? Why not I blame myself? That's what I said to my friends. You shouldn't blame other people for not being at the stadium. You should ask yourself, why are you not there? Yes, we are undergoing practical, tomorrow is a working day, we are hundreds of kilometres away, but so do millions of other Malaysians. Everyone can give an excuse why they are not at Bukit Jalil, but do people who watch the TV would consider that? They will only see an empty stadium, and wondering "Don't Malaysians support their own team?".
The tactics may be wrong, our players may be not physically, technically competent enough with their opponents. NST said our fans continue to suffer. Or do we? We don't give a damn about how Malaysia performs in Asian Cup. We never felt like "If I'm at the stadium, at least I can make myself heard, and if Malaysia still loses, at least I've done my part supporting the team." And to be honest, it is a shame that I'm part of it. I support Liverpool with my heart, and sometimes I hope I can do that too to our local team, but it simply doesn't come out from the heart.
It is a loop that will probably go on forever - Malaysian football lacks quality, so they lack support, so they lack fundings to improve the quality, so they quality will never be improved. Another parallel loop is that the fans keep blaming the players and the coach for lack of enthusiasm and decent tactics, while the association will blame the 'fans' for not being a fan at all, thus no gate receipts and no improvement.
Celcom said we are a football mad nation. Well, it seems that we will always be a customer, and never a provider.
I've been severely lacking sufficient dose of football since the European season ended. Argentina and Brazil seem to be displaying a fine show at Copa America, unfortunately for me, the matches are played during my office hours, I can't skip work during my practical just to watch football unless my bosses are doing that, too.
I thought Asian Cup should be a good platform for me to finally watch some local football. This should be our version of Euro Cup or Copa or African Nations' Cup. As much as we follow foreign scenes, we should keep track of our own, too.
Thailand and Vietnam got off to flyers, Thailand holding 2004 Olympics semifinalist Iraq to a draw, Vietnam got one better by beating Gulf Cup champions 2-0. After their turn, it is Indonesia and Malaysia to prove the worth of hosts.
Indonesia paid tribute to their crowd support of 65000 with an emphatic 2-1 victory over Bahrain. Remember, the team they beat is only inches away to their maiden trip to Germany at the 2006 World Cup. Unfortunately, the lost out on the 32nd spot to Trinidad and Tobago.
After all three hosts snatch points in their opening game when all of them were expected much less than that, the pressure is on Malaysia to justify their automatic qualification as joint hosts.
Well, I don't need to decribe how the match goes. The tiny things apart from the result is what I want to talk about.
I watched with my friends, and as we watch the match, they were blaming Malaysians in general for the empty stadium. The attendance, the cheers and support from Bukit Jalil is of stark contrast of the previous match in Gelora Bung Karno. Assuming the whole Asia is watching, it is a shame how unsupportive we are to our national team. Venezuela may say their main sports is not football, but even they can pack stadiums fuller than us.
Can I blame Malaysians for being unsupportive? Why not I blame myself? That's what I said to my friends. You shouldn't blame other people for not being at the stadium. You should ask yourself, why are you not there? Yes, we are undergoing practical, tomorrow is a working day, we are hundreds of kilometres away, but so do millions of other Malaysians. Everyone can give an excuse why they are not at Bukit Jalil, but do people who watch the TV would consider that? They will only see an empty stadium, and wondering "Don't Malaysians support their own team?".
The tactics may be wrong, our players may be not physically, technically competent enough with their opponents. NST said our fans continue to suffer. Or do we? We don't give a damn about how Malaysia performs in Asian Cup. We never felt like "If I'm at the stadium, at least I can make myself heard, and if Malaysia still loses, at least I've done my part supporting the team." And to be honest, it is a shame that I'm part of it. I support Liverpool with my heart, and sometimes I hope I can do that too to our local team, but it simply doesn't come out from the heart.
It is a loop that will probably go on forever - Malaysian football lacks quality, so they lack support, so they lack fundings to improve the quality, so they quality will never be improved. Another parallel loop is that the fans keep blaming the players and the coach for lack of enthusiasm and decent tactics, while the association will blame the 'fans' for not being a fan at all, thus no gate receipts and no improvement.
Celcom said we are a football mad nation. Well, it seems that we will always be a customer, and never a provider.
No comments:
Post a Comment