Singapore Lions Game

According to the Lions website, there were
7000+ fans in attendance.

HEAR THE ROAR!

On Saturday night I got to attend my first Singapore LionsIIX football match (yep, that means soccer game). The 'Twelve' in LionsIIX is a tribute to the fans, recognized at the '12th player' on the team - aw!

I attended the game with my housemate Reshmi (who is a BIG football fan), Karyn & her husband Alex, and their British friends Katie & Mike. And several thousand excited Singaporeans!



The Lions play in the 'Malaysia Super League,' and on this occasion were facing ATM FA, the Malaysian Armed Forces team. It was a really exciting game - lots of action, many yellow cards, some very coordinated chanting on the part of the ATM supporters, and even some booing of the refs! Actually, the booing was even pretty awesome, because it was really fun to see Singaporeans getting really into it! We even learned how to chant 'Referee, you're no good!' in Malay! But mostly there was lots of cheering and support and fun happening - my favorite, grammatically-awkward chant was 'We Want Goal! We Want Goal!' From the start, Singapore came out really strong against the Malaysian team, in a game in which they were not favored to win. So it was really satisfying when Singapore was ahead 2- 0 at the half and finished the game 3-1!

The other part of the game we really enjoyed watching were the fans in front of us - what we assumed to be a little league football team who had come to watch the game. The boys were about 7-8 years old, and they were SO into the game! They were instantly on their feet cheering and jumping up and down after the goals - and even quicker to their feet, gesturing and shouting in frustrating at bad calls. They were so cute - they were mimicking adult reactions so perfectly, we couldn't help but laugh.

Intent on the game.

As we watched them, I also reflected on just how cool it is to me that among these dozen or so boys, there were at least four ethnicities, but that was so clearly not even a factor in their brains - they were just watching the game. After a trying week full of heart-wrenching news from around the world, it did my soul good to see kids having a great time together, giving no thought to how they're different, just focusing on the game and, of course, their game snacks. THAT is what kids should get to do, and I'm glad that Singapore is place that allows that to happen.

ARE YOU KIDDING? BAD CALL REF!!

Singapore Wins!!!!!