Prelude: Blogger, her husband and friends had gone to watch the Reds thrash Malaysia XI the day before at Bukit Jalil Stadium.
We returned to Singapore at around 2pm after a non-stop 4-hour drive from Midvalley. Needless to say, we were extremely pooped and I was unsure if we should even drop by Bishan to catch a glimpse of the squad. We didn’t have any tickets but had this crazy idea of gate crashing or paying someone handsomely for the training passes. After a bit of coaxing from the husband, I garnered whatever strength I have left and headed to the northern part of Singapore.
Things got off to a shaky start, when we missed the turn into the stadium car park (I blame Google Maps). That’s nothing. Upon arrival, we asked around if we could purchase the admission tickets, but were told that they were only given to Standard Chartered staff. Major bummer! Nevertheless, hubby and I decided to stick around, and managed to find a sweet spot where we figured the team bus will stop. We would have been contented snapping photos of the lads (this was the exhaustion throwing in the towel).
My head turned to the left, and lo and behold, saw a dear friend who is an ardent Liverpool supporter. Yelled across the usual “Long time no see”, “Bo jio!” (The Singapore slang of “why didn’t you ask me along?”). Idzwan found out we didn’t have tickets and after a brief catch-up, he went in to take his seat. Head turned to the left again, and this time round, a middle-aged woman was announcing out loud if anyone wanted free passes, as she and her companion are not interested to watch the training session (WTF?!?). Before I could react, she gave them to a nearby couple, and I immediately conceded that there would be no chance of us going to watch Liverpool today.
Felt a pat on my left shoulder, turned around and Idzwan was flashing 2 pieces of red flyers in front of me. “Hey, I happen to have 2 extra passes, so you owe me now!”. Without hesitation, I snatched them, hugged him and punched my hand in the air, like as if I struck lottery. OMG…what are the odds!?! So in we went into the stadium, and immediately found seats above the dressing room.
It felt like we were at Melwood, watching Liverpool players train. They stretched, ran around the pitch twice, did shuttle runs, goalies did their own warm-ups at the goal post opposite where we are. Ian Rush came out to watch. Crowd was upbeat, but not too rowdy. At one point, it became a rather quiet affair, almost too eerily silent for comfort. There was a heckler amongst the supporters, and his main target was Jonjo Shelvey. Can’t imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for the youngster, hearing his name being cheered almost every 5 minutes. Daniel Ayala got a “Como Estas” from the heckler. Claire from LFCTV was not spared either: “Claire, we miss you…2 years is a long time!” – a reference to Liverpool’s last visit to the Lion City in 2009.
The lads took turn taking shots and Andy Carroll couldn’t seem to get the ball at the back of the net, and this frustrates some fans, because out of nowhere, somebody shouted “Andy, you’re shiet!” Maxi and Kuyt had no problems netting goals; Martin Kelly acknowledged the crowd when he scored. A couple of observations: when training began, some players (Maxi, Insua, Meireles, etc) formed their own clique to juggle the ball amongst themselves. Aquilani looked like an outcast with his head hung low most of time and giving off the outcast vibes (perhaps because nobody speaks Italian?). Crowd favourites are Dani Agger (ladies love him), Kuyt (always acknowledging the fans) and of course, Jonjo Shelvey! Was a priceless experience overall, even though I cannot help but feel let down by Stevie G! Twice already, Stevie…when can I watch you up close in person!?! Photos coming soon.
Conclusion: Blogger hopes to get lucky and pull off the same “gate crashing” manoeuvres if she ever visits Anfield in the near future.
