Running into the 12th season
I was at the 4D booth the other day. Saw the S-league poster. It was screaming… New season… in its 12th season. It was like…wow. It seems like yesterday when Singapore “left” the Malaysia Cup scene.
Anyway, I was thinking… has the standard of Singapore soccer improved by leaps and bounds? Another thought came to my mind…the vision for the national football team to qualify for World Cup 2010. It used to be Goal 2010, then Vision 2010….. the goal posts keep shifting. We are in 2007 now, it is just 3 years away from the realisation of this dream.
Quite simply, before we reach that stage, we probably have got to beat the likes of Japan, Korea, Australia or those Middle Eastern countries… on a regular basis to be Asian soccer kingpins. Apparently, we are not.
Coming back to the S-league. I am another sceptic observer. I confess… I have never gone to the stadiums to watch one single match. On the telly, yah, just a few minutes, before I switch channels.
At times, I wonder…are we able to lure better foreign players to our S-league? There are lots of great foreigners on the wrong side of 30. Youri Jjorkaeff, Teddy Sheringham, Kazu Miura, Edgar Davids, Hidetoshi Nakata, Christophe Dugarry, Dion Dublin, Stan Collymore, Roberto Baggio, Robert Prosinecki, Romario, Davor Suker, etc. My wish list can go on and on. Is it really impossible for such players to grace our football fields?
Whenever I watch the Asian Football Show on cable, I can’t help but feel that the S-league is a lower standard and poorer cousin to the J-league or K-league.
Actually not all the foreign players in Singapore were crappy. I remember players like Paulic Goran, Sixten Bostrom and the gem, Kimmo Tarkkio back then. They were pretty good. The good old days was when Farrer Park Dynamos and Farrer Park United dominated the local football scene.
Anyway, I was thinking… has the standard of Singapore soccer improved by leaps and bounds? Another thought came to my mind…the vision for the national football team to qualify for World Cup 2010. It used to be Goal 2010, then Vision 2010….. the goal posts keep shifting. We are in 2007 now, it is just 3 years away from the realisation of this dream.
Quite simply, before we reach that stage, we probably have got to beat the likes of Japan, Korea, Australia or those Middle Eastern countries… on a regular basis to be Asian soccer kingpins. Apparently, we are not.
Coming back to the S-league. I am another sceptic observer. I confess… I have never gone to the stadiums to watch one single match. On the telly, yah, just a few minutes, before I switch channels.
At times, I wonder…are we able to lure better foreign players to our S-league? There are lots of great foreigners on the wrong side of 30. Youri Jjorkaeff, Teddy Sheringham, Kazu Miura, Edgar Davids, Hidetoshi Nakata, Christophe Dugarry, Dion Dublin, Stan Collymore, Roberto Baggio, Robert Prosinecki, Romario, Davor Suker, etc. My wish list can go on and on. Is it really impossible for such players to grace our football fields?
Whenever I watch the Asian Football Show on cable, I can’t help but feel that the S-league is a lower standard and poorer cousin to the J-league or K-league.
Actually not all the foreign players in Singapore were crappy. I remember players like Paulic Goran, Sixten Bostrom and the gem, Kimmo Tarkkio back then. They were pretty good. The good old days was when Farrer Park Dynamos and Farrer Park United dominated the local football scene.
posted by The Quiet Stone at 12:45 PM
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