I went to watch the Asian Cup game between Malaysia and China in (we lost 1-5) at Bukit Jalil. Here are some of my thoughts after the match…
Publicity
I have read an article from a foreign journalist about his (I assumed) experience in KL… he mentioned that he saw lots of billboards everywhere in the city, but saw nothing about the Asian Cup; he had a feeling that he was at the wrong city for the games… I guess some Malaysians shared the same sentiment too, I know I do.
I can’t recall the organizer taking aggressive methods in pulling the crowd and selling the tickets, or to promote the event. I felt that the Malaysian organizers are taking the event too lightly… for goodness sake, it is one of the largest sporting event in Asia, the world (or at least lots of Asians) are watching the competition; it is a good chance to show how good we are in hosting a major sporting event, or how bad instead.
The Crowd
I think there was around 30,000 people in the stadium watching the game; not really a proud figure (couldn’t fill half of the stadium), but still better than what I expected.
Most of the crowd were well behaved, kudos for that… there were some crooks who threw water bottles to the field though, luckily no one was hurt.
One thing that I think Malaysians need to learn is to respect other’s national anthem. It’s fine to jeer, boo or even curse the opponent during the match… but when a national anthem is played, we should at least have the courtesy to keep quiet.
The Match
Malaysia is thrashed, as expected. I was hoping that they could keep the deficit to 2 goals, but our national team ended losing 1-5 instead. I am not too disappointed though… I kinda accepted the fact that Malaysian football is in a pathetic stage in recent years.
Most of the other fans didn’t share my thinking obviously… there was a point that some Malaysian supporters chanted “China, China” and cheered for the opposition instead. You could imagine how frustrated they were with our players to push them into supporting the opposition.
Luckily we managed to get a consolation goal, the crowd celebrated as if we won the match… Malaysians are easily pleased aren’t we?
[Visit my personal blog to see some photos (14 images) of the event and other extras]