I WAS among the many who watched the Manchester United-Malaysia football match at Bukit Jalil last Saturday. I think the Malaysian boys did us proud that night and I found myself rooting for our national team despite being a Manchester United supporter.
What disappointed me though was the attitude of the Malaysian spectators. Not cheering for the national team is one thing but to boo them is quite another. Countless times, when a Malaysian player misplaced a pass, the stadium would start ringing with boos and taunts for the players to “balik lah”. When our two-goal hero Amri Yahyah was substituted, only a handful of spectators stood up to applaud him off.
Many of them didn’t even recognise who was the one who dragged Malaysia back into the game. Even our national team coach Rajagopal said he was disappointed with the lack of support for our players.
The same happened when the Malaysian players applauded the crowd after the match. The ovation granted to our players was relatively minuscule compared to that when the United team sat down for a warm-down.
Of course, I realise Manchester United are the main draw here, but this is our country for crying out loud! We see letters in The Star all the time criticising the national team but when they finally do us proud, where is the support?
Are Malaysians not patriotic enough to put country before club – a foreign club 6,000 miles away at that?
No comments:
Post a Comment