As I promised in yesterday’s post, I’m publishing today more pictures taken during the Singapore U16 versus CR Flamengo U15 23rd Lion City Cup football match held yesterday at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.
Some of the pictures are blurred. Well, taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower is light years away from taking photos of young and energetic people playing football.
Besides, my camera wasn’t really designed for sports photographers.
Hometown crowd
Brazilian supporters
That’s the score in today’s 23rd Canon Lion City Cup football match between teams from Singapore and Brazil (CR Flamengo).
The battle took place at the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.
White shirt (CR Flamengo); Red shirt (Singapore)
More pictures tomorrow.
Posted in Life
Tagged 23rd canon lion city cup, cr flamengo u15, cr flamengo u15 brazil, football, jalan besar stadium, singapore, singapore u16, sports
Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao is a great athlete not because of his boxing wins, but because of what he has done, and is still doing, to win.
When he’s there in the ring and celebrating his triumph over his opponent, it’s so easy for people to forget that it’s merely the destination after a long, tortuous and really painful journey.
I’ve watched on television a lot of news reports on Pacquiao’s trainings and boy, oh, boy! I could feel how physically taxing those trainings were! His grimacing face said it all.
Personally, I’ve tried to do some of the exercises that the pound-for-pound king has done. I have nothing but more respect for him after that.
But despite his accomplishments in the field of boxing, Pacquiao continues to practice to hone his craft. He’s a true champion who will never rest on his laurels.
The car and the Algerian flag
I will always remember Bonn in Germany as the most laid back city I’ve ever visited.
By 9 PM almost no one is on the streets. Most stores are closed.
And yes, it’s so quiet.
However, the day when Algeria won a soccer match changed that, even for just a few minutes.
My Bangladeshi friend and I usually ate dinner at an Algerian restaurant located just across Bonn’s Hauptbahnhof (main station).
The Algerian restaurant. Photo was taken on my last day in Bonn, not the night of the celebration
But that night, we had to eat at another restaurant that offered Halal food because the Algerian one was packed with people, most of them men.
All of them were watching something on television, which both my friend and I assumed to be a soccer match.
After dinner we returned to our hotel.
From my hotel room I heard people chanting something and honking their car horns incessantly, as if traffic had stood still.
I got curious. What was that noise all about?
I went out of the hotel and hoped that another “loud” car would come.
Fortunately for me one passed through Thomas-Mann-Straße, where the hotel is located.
I was able to film the mobile party.
The following day I found out on the Internet that Algeria had defeated Egypt in a soccer match and qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
I finally knew the exact reason for the Algerians’ celebration.
Félicitations, Algérie.
BBC pictures showing the festivity
Posted in Travel
Tagged 2010 world cup south africa, algeria, bonn, europe, germany, soccer, sports, world cup 2010
The brouhaha over the gender of South African athlete Caster Semenya has reminded me of the Mona Sulaiman and Nancy Navalta controversies in the Philippines.
Sports Illustrated on January 2, 1967 described Mona Sulaiman as the ”most controversial athlete” in the Asian Games, referring to questions about her gender.
“Still left unanswered is the question of whether Mona is a Filipino or Filipina,” wrote Marvin Zim.
About three decades later, another athlete, named Nancy Navalta, would be embroiled in a similar row.
I can’t help but wonder why such things keep happening.
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