Will the REAL Malaysian team please stand up?
I wonder how many family feuds took place on Sunday night, what with the "let's find another chance to show the bigwigs how little faith we have in Malaysia's sports" extravaganza (MyTeam vs. Malaysia), and of course, the selection night to find the next artiste for mass Malay audiences to be sheepherded into worshipping (and let's make the corporations lots of money from merchandizing and suckerizing, shall we?) - the next Akademi Fantasia batch.
Now this is not about to slam AF. Damn I'd be asking for a public lynching if I was to dispute the "world"-ness that is Mawi (shame on me if I was to suggest he go head to head with stars from other singing competitions and be judged on vocal and stage prowess alone - oh no no no, we need mass votes from feverish hysterical fans showing us that yes, he is the afdal choice, the RIGHT choice).
But I digress.
This is about football. Now I never really showed my excitement for footie. The local leagues are yawn-worthy, the English/European leagues are all over-glamorized money-making machines (look, it's like the F1. If you can buy a better "engine", you can win, right?)....
But the World Cup - well it's not about how many star players you can buy and cram into one team, it's not about their stupid lives outside the pitch, it's not about how popular or cool or what the effing hell they wear to the clubs prior to screwing yet another ample-chested Page Three ho.
It's about glory, honour, respect. Getting the name of your country out there. Where messing up is not about losing some sneaker endorsement deal but loss of faith from your countrymen (and probably getting rotten eggs thrown at you hahaha).
So it's a nice warm up to watch some football fever in Malaysia. And since our local teams can't really generate that kinda hype - we had to manufacture a bunch of amateurs to kick our national team around.
Granted, the Malaysian U-20 won that 2-1 score fairly enough. Theywere more organized, looked more seasoned on the pitch. Then again - they ARE the national team so I wouldn't expect anything less. But for that little measly score? Hardly an ass-whupping I tell ya. And an entire first half of blah-dom? Surely they'd blame it on lack of morale when only ONE section from an entire packed stadium was supporting the boys in yellow.
It might've been a different game if the REAL Malaysian team showed up instead of running across the Causeway under some lame excuse. Come on, why not? Show your power lah! It was their chance to revive the lack of faith in them, the unending complaints, criticisms and backlash against the team that can't even perform well regionally despite the amount of money pumped into the training.
And here comes two guys who decide to scout for talents, put it on TV and have good ol- Shebby take them through the motions. And a three-month old team gave the U-20 (which I heard, isn't too bad actually) a run for the (Government's) money.
Don't blame us if we don't support the local team. Because MyTeam just proved that the right attitude, approach and committment to the sport can give you quality players. That little team is so young but the potential shown on the pitch was definitely national-quality. And the support given on the pitch that night - was totally well-deserved.
Hopefully the Sports Council (or whatever big named-agencies and divisions our Government keeps creating to further distance themselves from issues and delegate to some other fools to take the heat) takes this morale beating as inspiration to finally pick up the pace and give us some respect in the world of sports.
Cos we ain't creating some stupid Malaysian Book of Records category to save YOUR bruised egos.
5:05 PM
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