Just like 2010, 2013 was a southeast Asian year for me, making Kuala Lumpur my home for nine months, and checking Air Asia's website on a weekly basis to “study” their latest offers. One huge difference was that in 2010 I fell into... football hibernation, going just to ONE game in a period of TEN months. Having learned from my mistake, I made sure to make 2013 much-MUCH more football-worth it...
Kota Bharu, Kelantan-Kitchee, AFC Cup, close to kickoff
In May, I made a short trip to the east coast, to “a category of its own” Kota Bharu, the “most Muslim city of Malaysia”, for which someone could say several positive things, and maybe some negative ones as well (depends on your perspective), but one thing no one can deny, not even the city's harshest critics, is that Kota Bharu loves football more than any other city in Malaysia, or, to be more accurate, loves its LOCAL team more than ANY other team in Malaysia is loved by its local city residents.
While football fans in almost the entire country are proud to put on the colors of their favorite English (or Spanish, or Italian) team, in Kota Bharu it's impossible to stand still for more than a minute, at any corner of the city, and not see someone pass by wearing the red and white jersey of local club “Kelantan”. The cherry on top for me, those few days I spent at Kota Bharu, was that I got to watch Dimitris Petratos, a young talented Greek-Australian striker, play with Kelantan, plus, I got to meet an extraordinary Catalan guy, Jordi, who, for his own reasons, made Kota Bharu his home for several months, and was a regular at the local stadium, wearing Kelantan's jersey, and carrying a Catalan flag...
Blue... sea at Shah Alam, in honor of Chelsea
In July, Chelsea visited “us” in Kuala Lumpur, and the way they treated the fans made me start liking them, even though, truth be told, I never felt close to Chelsea before that, they had never made my heart beat fast, not even the years they won trophies. When it came to “treating Malaysian fans” though, the club, everyone in the team, were fantastic, and that earned them many points in my head.
Barcelona and Malaysia come out. Neymar in, Messi... nowhere to be seen
Unfortunately, only the exactly opposite I can say about Barcelona, who also visited “us” in August. Even though I'm a Barcelona fan since the Romario/Stoichkov days, and have stood by them even in rough patches, during below-average seasons, the few days they stayed at Kuala Lumpur the club made me feel sick of them. From the moment they landed, until the moment they left Kuala Lumpur, with just a couple of notable exceptions (Neymar being one of those), they acted in a way that made it TOO obvious that they were there just to grab the money and run...
As for THE biggest disappointment, that was none other than Messi NOT playing, even though no one at the stadium knew why. Later, it turned out that he was slightly injured and Martino didn't want to take any risk, which of course is totally understandable. Still, the fact that no one from the team said anything about Messi NOT going to play, was seen by Malaysians as a sneaky trick to make them buy -expensive- tickets, tickets they might have NOT bought, if they knew Messi wouldn't be playing. At least Neymar did, for 45 minutes, and he was a joy to watch, making the crowd go “ooooooh!” a number of times...
Police officers, trying to push back Persija fans
Next, I got the chance to watch two games at Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia, with the first one being one of the most memorable I have ever watched, not only because of the violence/singing/violence (again)/duration of the match (it finished more than three hours after kick-off, because some hot-headed Persija and Persib fans felt like ripping each other's guts out), but also because of the... surreal feeling of going to the stadium with a Serbian(!) diehard fan of Voždovac(!!), and a few more (Javanese) members of the local Greek-Orthodox community(!!!). For Lord's sake, there are Indonesian Greek-Orthodox Christians in Yogyakarta(!), and we went to a violence-marred football game together, along with a Serbian(!!) who was living there at the time... What were the chances...
Suwon, a little... melodious piece of Argentinian “canchas” in Korea(!)
September was Korea month, got to watch four games, and my most memorable experience was at Suwon, where, just after kick-off, I heard the “ultras” of the local Bluewings sing something that sounded awfully familiar... Amazingly, they had “adopted” tunes that are super popular in Argentinian (mostly, less in other South American countries) stadiums, they had dressed the tunes up with Korean lyrics, BUT, they had kept “campeón” in Spanish. They even had the lyrics on the stadium's big screens, so I could see an endless bunch of those super cute Korean characters, and then, in the middle of that all, a “campeón”, sticking out like a big black fly in the middle of a glass of milk...
Baseball fun at Seoul. Yes, those ARE plastic bags some “Lotte Giants” fans are “wearing”
On November 24, I watched my last (until now) game outside of Greece, a simple friendly game between Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, with the imposing Petronas Towers clearly visible, even at seven kilometers away (as the crow flies). If the on-field action is disheartening, if the cloud is dark, there is -almost- always a silver lining somewhere there for you to spot. On that November night, the... cloud was depressing, but my good company, a few dozen fans singing, and the sight of the majestic Petronas Towers far in the horizon, played the silver lining's role exceptionally well...
The Filipinos are N U T S about basketball, and the collegiate championship games I watched at Manila's “Mall of Asia Arena” more than made up the lack of chances to catch any football matches in the country
103 to 114
103 Kelantan-Kitchee 0-2, Kota Bharu, Malaysia, 2013, May 14
104 Kelantan-Selangor 1-1, Kota Bharu, Malaysia, 2013, May 18
105 Malaysia-Chelsea 1-4, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2013, July 21
106 Malaysia-Barcelona 1-3, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2013, August 10
107 Persija ISL-Persib 1-1, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2013, August 28
108 Persija ISL-Pelita Bandung 2-1, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2013, August 31
109 Busan IPark-Jeonbuk Motors 1-3, Busan, Korea, 2013, September 15
110 Suwon Bluewings-Incheon United 1-1, Suwon, Korea, 2013, September 22
111 Seoul-Esteghlal 2-0, Seoul, Korea, 2013, September 25
112 Incheon United-Pohang Steelers 2-2, Incheon, Korea, 2013, September 28
113 Malaysia-Bahrain 1-1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2013, October 15
114 Kuala Lumpur-Selangor 0-1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2013, November 24
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