Future of Singapore Football

While I may not have watched the full match of the U15s Singapore football team take on Newcastle United's youth side and only half of the U16s take on Flamengo, the results from both matches and the way both the U15s and U16s showed great determination and fighting spirit is something that can reignite Singaporeans passion and support for local players. In the old days, players such as Dollah Kassim and Quah Kim Song had Singaporeans screaming their hearts out in support but nowadays, local football fever seems to have disappeared and the national team has been experiencing many problems, some of which resulted in the entire team being dropped from the national side recently. This is the result of a steady decline in the standard of local football so much until a recent video of young 10-year old American boys in a match resulted in a comment that the standard of the boys was the standard of the S-League. While I may not entirely agree with that comment, it shows just how poorly Singaporeans, or at least residents of Singapore, rate local football.
However, the recent success of the U16s, otherwise known as "The Cubs" in the Youth Olympic Games and the results the U15s and U16s have produced so far in the Canon City Lion Cup shows that Singapore football does have a hope after fall. The Singapore team, in all three occasions, were up against bigger, stronger and technically better opponents but they managed victory twice (U16s 4-3 Montenegro and U15s 4-3 Newcastle United) and one draw (U16s 1-1 Flamengo). While it was clear that the Singapore boys may not have the best technical ability as mentioned earlier, the fighting spirit was evident in all three matches. Half the battle is won when you believe that you can win and hence, I am looking forward to the time when these young boys grow up and don national colours as "The Lions" and I believe that when they do, Singapore's passion for local football will be reignited and the famous Kallang Roar will be heard once again.