Am I the only one who actually had a good time at the Brazil v. Singapore football match last night? Maybe it helped that I was sitting right next to the Brazilian noisemakers — the guys on the bongos, playing the samba; the ones screaming every time Ronaldinho touched the ball (and though Brazil did play down the whole match, tooling around a bit with the Singapore Lions, there were still some amazing touches). That part of National Stadium – the upper left-hand corner of the East Gallery – felt alive. But apparently, while I was chatting with the guy who flew in from Malaysia just for the night to see the game, and the Brazilian/Chinese/American who busted out his green and yellow shirt, there were a lot of Singaporeans around the stadium who were also cheering for the away team.

Now, I’m all for national pride (esp. considering National Day is about a week away), but the reaction to Singaporeans cheering on Brazil seems to border on ‘tar-and-feather’ levels. Sure, you should cheer on your home team, but if someone makes a good play, don’t you resign yourself to applaud that, too? I mean, I do — I know how freakin’ hard it is to pull off that mid-level bicycle kick while surrounded by defenders in the 18.

It’s also not like the Brazil/Singapore rivalry is up there with Manchester United/Manchester City. This is the equivalent of your little sister playing your older sister in the backyard – it’s a friendly match. Winner gets a Popsicle. It’s a pre-Olympic game, which doesn’t get much friendlier (case in point: Manchester matches have post-game brawls, while the Olympics have cute, fuzzy mascots handing out souvenir pins).

How often do you get to see a team of Brazil’s calibre in this region? Let alone see how the Lions pull their game together against them? It could have been a massacre — I’d predicted 12-0 in all seriousness. But Singapore keeper Lionel Lewis made some solid saves, the Lions had control of the ball for at least part of the game, and Brazil didn’t embarrass us like they could have. Maybe my standards have dropped because I haven’t seen a great live football game in a while, but I give both teams credit for making my Monday night much, much more entertaining than it would normally be.

Fun facts: Attendance: approx. 33,000; this was the final game at the National Stadium before it’s torn down.

Tags: Brazil, football, Ronaldinho, Singapore Lions

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