YESTERDAY, I was reading a sport news with interesting on local newspaper. It was about AFF Suzuki Cup 2012 grouping news that was conducted on Bangkok. The competition was rated as a highest level footballing competition within the region. There are two groups so called A and B. Each group has 3 teams each and left one empty place for qualifiers. Surprisingly, my country is not inside the drawing and understand that we have to pass through qualification round together with other low ranking 4 nations. Noted auto qualifiers are Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Philippine. Those nations need to enter qualification round are Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei and East Timor.
What this news make me think is we're always proud of our football quality in past time. Some sport journalist still writing to recall the golden days our former generation has enjoyed in Asian level. In fact, we are not declining in just sport sector, but all round. Our people seem forgot to understand current level of our football. They including me still assuming our country is football mad nation and has enormous footballing talent to compete in region. However, the realistic is that our world ranking has been declining for few decades and current standing is in the bottom half. We can't deny that we are no longer footballing power house in Asean region now. This AFF Suzuki cup draw give us a good gauge to measure our level of football quality.
In past, at national level, we always beat Philippine team, different is only goal score. We still at least think our football is better than Philippine. We seem forgot to survey what our neighboring nations are doing to improve their sport level. We seem thinking the quality of sport remain unchanged for years. It show us wrong when we see our MNL team KBZ was beaten by Philippine team Spark in RHB Singapore Cup 2012 quarter final. I went and watch the match live with the prospect of winning the game. We underestimate opponent as it come from Philippine that we believe lower quality in football. We were totally wrong when we witness the match playing. Our players were beaten by physical as well as pace. Perhaps our supporters win in term of voice we support our team. If we want to improve our football quality, we have to understand the cause of problem. First we have to judge our present level. Then improve from there. We cannot afford to misjudge present level if we want to go further. Otherwise, our people will be much look like staying in the dream.
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