It was a Glory Glory Man United weekend. The sea of red. The sweat. The roar. The jams. The crowd. All of them right at the heart of Malaysia in the Bukit Jalil Stadium. I was feeling excited with eager anticipation when United announced that Malaysia would be their first stop of their Asia Tour.I've been waiting for the very moment when United will return to Southeast Asia to visit Malaysia. The last time they came to Malaysia was way back in 2001. This is big. Wayne and Ryan with their team mates right on Malaysian soil and the chance to watch them in real life instead of the television screen.
My Man United weekend started right from Friday evening. After CG lunch, Reuben and me made plans to head to Bukit Jalil Stadium to watch the United team in training. Last week, I've managed to scout the entrance to enter Bukit Jalil after the Sungai Besi toll but on that Friday itself, I somehow ended up missing the turning junction. Anyways, I made a U-turn and before long, I managed to get myself on the right track. There was already a jam building up at the highway even before I enter into the stadium area. The jam made us reached a little late and United were already training on the field. Even for a normal training session, I could say easily about 20 000 fans turned up. I could practically feel the roar echo from the crowd. Wow, for the first time in my life, I witnessed the Man Utd squad with my own eyes. One of the first few players that I had spotted was van der Sar and Anderson. It's kinda easy to pick out Owen from the squad since he's one of the shortest there. After training, we hanged out a while around the stadium to wait for the jam to subside before we went off. For dinner, we ate at Mines since that's the nearest shopping center to the stadium. I got a last-minute call that I have to replace the drummer on Sunday, so this means that I had to wake up extra early for practice.
At the next morning, I only had a few hours sleep before heading off to church for practice and workshop. After lunch, I headed back to campus to get Reuben. Kevin and Grace are going to the match too but they're going first after dropping Tze. However, I got news from them later that they were stuck at the Sungai Besi toll area since the jam had already stretched all the way over there. I expected it to be so considering that on Friday, training itself can already generate such a bad jam. Reuben promptly called his friend who explained to me the alternate route to get to Bukit Jalil by avoiding the Sungai Besi area. I was going around all circles listening to him at first but thank God, I managed to get the road right at the first time round! We reached Bukit Jalil without any jams at all except for the part when we were around the stadium area. The traffic scene outside the stadium is chaotic. I think the entire traffic police force in KL is being mobilised for this. People were parking at the road side, on the curbs, technological parks and petrol stations. I spotted a few Singaporean cars there and I bet they are feeling "syiok" to park illegally since it is rare and hard for them to do so down south. After squeezing and tussling through the jam, we managed to find the entrance the stadium car park and we parked at the same place we did on Friday. The funny thing is that everyone got too paranoid and panicky that there will be no parking at the stadium. Everyone thinks that they were the only smart ones to avoid parking at the stadium but most of them apparently thought that way and as result, the stadium parking in reality was much more emptier that what it was supposed to be..haha. When I zoomed in to the stadium parking area and parked my car easily, I was 'lol'-ing in my mind on the mass hysteria that was being generated at the outside road.
I wore my season 06/07 Giggs jersey rather than my latest season 07/08 Ronaldo jersey for the match. Convention dictates that one should avoid wearing the jersey of a player that had just transfered over, so I've decided to wear a more respectable shirt instead..haha. So, shame on those that wore Tevez and Ronaldo jerseys on that day! By the time we enter the stadium, it was already almost fully filled already. Finding places to sit was almost impossible. We had actually planned to sit horizontally across the VIP stands but from the looks of it, it's not possible to do so because we can't even find the path to get across to the other side. So we randomly entered the Red Gate which is still RM98 so as to find a way. Just 10 seconds of walking, I heard my name being called and lol, Kevin and Grace were sitting around there! Woah, of all places in the stadium and among the sea of red! I've never expected us to be able to meet up but it's a good coincidence. After thinking awhile, we decided to stay in that area since the view was not too bad. I think to some extent it turned out to be a blessing in disguise coz I don't think it's that clear at our original planned seat. Our new "accidental" place was good in a way that we could actually see van der Sar and the United defenders quite often since they are always staying behind.
The entrance of the players was greeted by a resounding roar from the 85000 capacity crowd. The starting line-up players were van der sar, Evra, Evans, Ferdinand, O' shea, Nani, Anderson, Scholes, Gibson, Rooney and Berbatov. Of all the players, Ferdinand was a pretty obvious figure on the field given his tall height, and John O' Shea is the clearest player from our seating since our position is closest to the right back lane. Rooney opened the scoring for United with a super blast and Nani added the second. Lol, he did his famous acrobatic cartwheel flip celebration on Malaysian soil! It looked like a typical United mow-down routine and the Malaysian team looked like they're gonna get thrashed. However, the whole stadium was silenced when Amri Yahyah did a stunning lob over van der Sar to beat the United keeper. Vds tried to trace back but he was too late to stop Yahya's ball from bouncing into the net to reduce the deficit to 1 goal. Lol..I bet Yahya is not gonna be able to sleep on that night. He had just beaten van der Sar and could perhaps be the only Malaysian to do so! The first half ended with the score of 2-1 in favour of Man Utd.
Second half was much better for our side because it's the side in which United is gonna attack more often. Previously, we had seen a lot on the defenders. Now, we will get to see a little closer on the strikers and midfielders, and especially when they take corners at our side. There was a change of goalkeepers as Ben Foster took the position instead. The Malaysian team showed further that they are a plucky side and are no pushovers. Amri Yahyah punished Ben Foster for slipping up by snatching a second goal to his name. Incredible! The Malaysian team had drawn level at 2-2! Who would have imagined such a scoreline? Malaysia boleh!..lol. The Malaysian in me is feeling proud of the brace but the Man Utd fan in me is feeling embarassed over the conceding of 2 goals. Now, if only the Malaysian players were to play like this in every game. Then we would not have been in the last few in the FIFA rankings. And we will qualify for World Cup 2014..haha.
Fergie then later introduced a series of subs, and one of them was Michael Owen, to the delight of the crowd in the stadium. He did tried a few times to score but it was snuffed out by the defenders. Later in the game, the fans started to chant for Giggsy to be unveiled following unsuccessful attempts by United to score the winner. Around 80 plus minutes, poor handling by the Malaysian keeper gave the opportunity for Owen to pounce on a free ball and his predatory instinct kicks in for him to score the winner for United. Mark this historic moment! Owen's first goal for United was on Malaysian soil and witnessed by 80000 over Malaysians on that day! =D.
The match ended with a 3-2 win in favour of United. It was a barely scraped through match for Man Utd and perhaps the Malaysian humidity and heat is an unfamiliar condition for the Mancunian army to play in. Oh yea, there was a pitch invasion after the Man Utd team went to four corners of the field to thank the fans. A fella just ran towards the players in a hysterical manner, not sure whether that being excessive adoration or incessant insult. I don't know how that guy could get on the pitch because I don't really expect anyone being able to get through the heavy security. However, he certainly got very close to the players and they were all looking at him..lol. Perhaps that is what he wanted all along! All the bouncers immediately sprung into action to restrain him from going any closer. The only thing missing from him being called a streaker is his clothes being off.
Haha..after the match, Reuben and me acted like crazy fanboys when we joined the mob that lined up the street to block the team bus. Haha..the police had to push this whole mob to make way for the team bus. I managed to spot Sir Bobby Charlton sitting at the front of the bus..lol. As usual, after the match, we waited for an hour or so at the stadium grounds before making our way out of Bukit Jalil. For our dinner, we went to meet Erwin at Subang Jaya where we ate at some professional looking mamak stall..lol.
Overall, I would say I'm very pleased indeed with the match even though many would have expected the match to produce more goals. The red atmosphere in the stadium was totally awesome and it's always the case in live football matches. It's something that cannot be reproduced by the television. I've watched my heroes in action on my own homeland soil and yea, one of the memories that I will remember for a long time. Well, United team, till we meet again at Old Trafford in 2010! :)
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