After school, I went straight to Jalan Besar Stadium for the match. This match kicks off our LionsXII debut season in the Malaysian Super League. The atmosphere was great and thousands of fans turned up in red supporter’s T-shirts.

Amid the cheering and Kallang wave, I felt proud to be part of the moment. I thought the Polytechnics students did a great job in the pre-match cheers to drive the crowd wild. It is one of those precious moment, where the community comes together.

The final score was 1-2. We lost by a penalty decision. I thought it was a dubious penalty call – the contact was light yet the Kelantan man could ‘fly’. The fans went wild and chants of “REFEREE KAYU” rocked the stadium!

LionsXII fought really hard. However, in all honesty the Kelantan side were technically sharper with better ball control and passing.

I believe that if our LionsXII are to do well in the M-League, they have got learn to keep possession by stringing short passes together and not always hitting long ball to a lone centre-forward.

This is only the beginning of the journey and I look forward to more exciting matches ahead.

I’ve bought the tickets to the opening match of the LionsXII. The match will be against Kelantan, last year’s M-League champions. It will be a special game as it marks our return to the Malaysian Cup days.

The footballing agreement was set for Malaysia and Singapore to send a selection team to play in each country. LionsXII will play in the the M-League while the Malaysian’s selection Harimau Huda will play in the S-League.

Here, the supporter’s T-shirt that comes along with the ticket. The number 12 symbolized the fans as the 12th man.

Prior to the opening, more local football press coverage can be seen in the papers. On TV, Starhub and Mediacorp have agreed to show ‘LIVE’ matches. I guess the media intensity will accelerate once the tournament kicks off. Hopefully this can go on to unite the nation. As for me, I will be keeping close tab on the matches and results.