it's about time i finally blogged this.

photo credits. FAS, Luqman, Herdi and Freak.

about a week ago, singapore played malaysia in a 2-legged tie in the 2nd Round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. we bagged the home tie 5-3 on the 23rd of July at Jalan Besar and then it was time for the boys to finish the job once and for all in KL, Malaysia on the 28th, the following week.

With about 300 other Singaporeans, I headed up north for the game, setting off on the matchday morning in about a dozen coaches in total. those who didnt travel gathered at Brewerkz to watch the game together.



about 14 or 15 of us from the LATWcrew made the trip with a handful already there in KL the night before. Riding on a 2-goal advantage from the 5-3 win in the first leg, the mood was pretty upbeat and light. a good number of us travelled wearing a non-red shirt, haha bearing in mind all the mortal stuff that's been said and heard in the press and on the web.


cleared customs in both countries without any problems, and mervin handed us the all important match tickets as we went on towards the malaysian capital, having 'pitstops' at 2 or 3 locations.

we picked up the malaysian papers along the way and they carried headlines like "Balas Dendam" (Revenge) and "Kami tidak goyang" (We Shall Not Be Moved). haaaaaaaaah.



and check this infographic out featured in one of the malaysian papers. their singapore line-up prediction was a total mess. haha. shaiful, right legged? safuwan on the left while jumaat takes his place in the middle? HAHAH. that's not all, apparently hariss has been marauding in the wings all this while. oh wait, don't even get me started on the 4-4-2. hahaha. but i guess the icing on the cake was when i read in the article..."they have their Captain, Ismail Yunos suspended in today's game" hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa



we got to KL unscathed and pretty soon, we had the 90,000 capacity Bukit Jalil National Stadium bearing down on the horizon. i must say... it looks better in photos. HEH. i just don't have a thing for stadiums where i can see the concrete underside stands from the outside. like our old Kallang Stadium.



4.30pm. and we finally stepped foot on grounds of Bukit Jalil. but not before having some guys actually CARRYING A CAR to allow space for the coach to park! only in malaysia.


while waiting for everyone from the other coaches to alight and join us, we took photos, mingled with the malaysian crowd. and soaked in the carnival atmosphere.





something we do not see in singapore, merch (be it fake) vendors hawking their goods in the open and under the canvas tents. good stuff!

we made our way to the 'Blue Gate', braving friendly banters and not so friendly gestures from the boys in their red, white and blue (no, not the americans).





turnstiles opened it at around 5.30 (30 mins early) and in we went into the cauldron them malaysians call home. and we were greeted with banners here there having a go at our 'Foreign Talents'. last i checked, they had red passports with our State crest on it. meehhhhh.




dude. how low can you go? messing around with national flags now? and how dare you disgrace it with your SPELLING!



LATWcrew REPRESENT! Alas and me giving them the Malaysians a little reminder. HEH.



the thing about the stadium is that there were so many people blaring their airhorns that it was really hard to hear anything on the other side of the stadium. case in point, we couldn't hear the 'ultras malaya' although they were quite alot of them in their 'curva'. thus of course nobody could hear us too i bet. but heck having the players see a blob of red in a sea of yellow and black is already a huge boost for our them.... maybe.? hahaha

match kicked off at 8.45pm. our boys hauled home a 1-1 draw, enough to see us through to the 3rd Round at the expense of our fiercest rivals. there's no better feeling in the world than that. i'm not going to write much about what happened in the game. the security gaffe, lasers and what not. but heck, after Jiayi slotted in the equaliser, all of us in the stands went nuts. i saw benny in tears, alas with his shirt off and for the next 10 mins till the full time whistle, all 300 of us put the National Day combined-schools choir to shame. HAHHA!

even after the full time whistle, we were holed up in the stadium for a good 1 and 1/2 hours due to safety reasons.

all in all, nobody got hurt, everyone got home safe, big ups to the malaysian police for escorting out of the stadium, into our buses and out into the highway amidst all the abuse and stray UFOs.




P.S : the malaysians wouldnt be too happy if they found out some of us got access to their hallowed pitch after the game! hahaha

MAJULAH!