The last time I had stepped into the National Stadium to catch some soccer action was when Manchester United (glory glory Man United!) and Liverpool deigned to honour us with their holy presence two to three years back. And the last time I actually saw a match featuring our very own Lions in the National Stadium was when Singapore was still playing in the Malaysia Cup, Fandi Ahmad was single and bicycle-kicking away and Lim Tong Hai was vilified for his own goal in the SEA Games. Yes, it was that long ago.

On a warm and breezy Sunday, I dug out an old red tee which had been acting as my pyjamas for many moons now, shook it out and pulled it on. Yes, it was the Tiger Cup finals at the National Stadium and how could I resist going? For once, we had a chance of actually winning something and I was not going to sit it out at home.

So off we went at 5.30pm, all togged out in red and carrying packets of KFC. And boy, were we glad we went. The whole stadium was a sea of red and the mood was faintly reminiscent of National Day. It’s really hard to sit still and just wait for the match to start because there were claps to clap and the Kallang Wave to do. The whole atmosphere was just electrifying.

And by 7.30pm kickoff time, everyone was sitting on the edges of the bleachers, all ready and raring to go.

It must have been a really long time since I caught a live match because after Indra had scored the first goal, my first reaction was, Eh, where’s the replay?

Thankfully, the rest of the 55,000 strong crowd reacted faster than me. The whole stadium erupted into a cacophony of cheers and yells and claps instantaneously, and everyone jumped to their feet and pumped their fists into the air. Three Malay ah-peks sitting in front of us dissolved into peals of delighted laughter and proceeded to toss into the air confetti torn from newspapers. It felt like a carnival, a festive celebration, a meeting of hearts and souls across a common ground.

The rest of the match went pretty much the same way, except that the crowd got ruder and ruder as the referee seemingly made more and more blunders. The foghorn and whistles were sounded, followed by chants of a-very-rude-word and “referee kayu

And we won.
5 - 2 on aggregate, an unbelievable scoreline.
An unbelievable night.
Thank you, Lions, for putting up such a brave fight, despite the many conspiracy theories.
And for making me eat humble pie for having made fun of you and your lofty 2010 goal.

Picture from the boyfriend

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