Fair Play: A crazy dream: A win against Thailand!

DREAMS are weird right? Sometimes, you remember only that last moments, those fleeting moments just before you wake up.

Well, I had one last night. Stuck on a hospital bench that was a bit too small, the only thing good about my sleep was that crazy dream I remembered waking up.

Misagh Bahadoran celebrating like crazy against Thailand. All I remember was Misagh screaming like crazy to the camera and jumping on to player wearing a substitute's bib.  


The striker who we all love to hate and earned the monicker Mr Hollywood from former Global coach and my friend Graeme Mackinnon has reinvented himself under coach Thomas Dooley.

Sure, there are still moments when we'd all scream at the monitor and scream pass the goddamn ball, but more often than that, Lord Misagh--as the Ultras call him--has been quite a surprise lately.

I write this with hours to go before kickoff (and I don't even know if Misagh's starting) but I hope, nay, I pray that my crazy dream becomes true.  Football fans have never been this excited and I think you can't blame us if entertain crazy notions of beating Thailand in Thailand.

And compared to our two previous stints in the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup semifinals, this is our best chance of finally making that finals spot. In 2010, we were just too darn happy to make it, while in 2012, our strongest team yet crumbled.

Now, we didn't conceded a goal to Thailand, which beat us 3-0, in the first leg, one which we should have won and one of their strikers will be sitting out on a red card, while another is injured.

A 1-1 draw is all we need to advance. To the newbies, here's an explanation: in two-legged matches, the winner is determined by first who posts the most wins, and second, aggregate goals. If both teams are tied on aggregate, say 1-1 after two matches, then who scores the most "away goals" wins.

In this case, it's us who's the visiting team so hobbled Thailand may be playing at home, but they also face the pressure of needing to score, while we can wait for those chances when we can catch Thailand's defense sleeping.

I hope that's what will happen.

And should Lord Misagh be the factor, I'll change career interpreting dream if not, well, there's always the day job.

P.S.  I may not be able to watch tonight's match, so 10 minutes before kick-off, please raise your glasses and say a toast for the Azkals.

Go Azkals Go!

Comments

ymonric said…
Dreaming of a win against a regional powerhouse may be seem crazy but considering that the Azkals have turned in quite a performance this season (even holding the Thais to a 0-0 draw last week), it doesn't seem too farfetched at all!

Sadly, the drubbing in the hands of the Thais last night have zapped countless of Pinoy fans back to reality. :-(

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