A 'Kopitiam' Tale

What can you get for $0.80 nowadays? A few sweets, or a few pees in the toilet, a donation for charity sticker? Well, I got myself a cup of thick coffee + a liverpool vs birmingham game + clouds of fresh cigarette + who knows what other 'goodies' I've received

As I was watching the game, it's pretty fun observing the type of people around who were there to contribute to my soccer atmosphere. There were the old 'Ah Peks' drinking pints after pints of beer, with their incessant lighting of cigarettes (thus contributing to the 'fresh' air around), there were the young secondary school kids slurping drinks and eating 'hor fun' for supper, there was a crippled hopping around for a seat with good view, a couple who were there chatting up instead of watching the game, and me, who should instead be studying at home!

It's amazing to me how soccer binds all these people from all different walks of life together. You can almost sense the 'unity' in these spectators as they curse & swear at any players at fault and jumping for joy whenever a beautiful goal is scored. Not only is it in Singapore, all over the world, for the 2 hrs that the game is played, the hearts of the fervent 'football' fans are united as one, praying and cheering hard for the teams that they support to win. It is a phenomenon that is unparallel & not seen in any other games or politics. Just look at World Cup 2002 in Korea. For the period of time, there's no stupid Korean war games and both North & South Korea even managed to come together to support their team! Peace & Football does co-exist afterall.

Yet however, the same games almost always manage to divide people, dividing the minds of males & females, dividing loving couples and dividing the best of friends. Guys love soccer, the power of controlling the game with their feet and scoring the most beautiful and classical goals. Girls don't - in fact, they find it too puzzling about why 22 guys chase after a stupid ball in a 100m X 50m field when the time spent could be better spent with family. How can friendships be easily broken? Just ask good friends who support opposite teams in a football game. Any unhappiness caused by the game can be spilled over to each other and the quarrels unleashed severely strain any good ties formed.

I guess the attractiveness of soccer would lie in its irony and unpredictability. Yes, I came up with this conclusion when Birmingham scored the only goal of the game to beat Liverpool at Anfield in 26 years. How amazing, considering that Liverpool should have gone 4-5 goals up, but in the end, they still lost! The unpredictability is the reason why the game keeps people on their toes (of course with their huge bets and money at stake!) and why people keep following the game day in, day out, month in, month out, year in and year out!

Right now, I can only think of my sleep after the intense match. I think I'm a jinx too. For the 2 games that I've been watching, the favourites lost - Liverpool at the hands of Birmingham and Arsenal to Man U. It happened last year too, when I was betting on matches. I lost my money, my favourite teams lost their matches. At least I've become smarter this time - I am not betting anymore but to enjoy the flow of the games. The teams still lost, but not me... Haha! I'm the winner!