Barcelona VS Malaysia 2013

Date: 10 Aug 2013

Venue: Stadium Shah Alam (changed from Bukit Jalil due to bad pitch condition)

We were supposed to sit at here! But we.....

Kai Mian and I reached the outside of the stadium at 1800. We were totally amazed by the crowd that already at outside of stadium. The match was going to start at 2045 but there were more than a quarter of people already. The queuing line was separated till more than 10 lines and the length of each queue were around 100m. FACT.

Here we are! The closest seats that we can find.

It was still only two hours before the match but you can see the crowds.

One hour before the match. 

This is the crowds at ONE HOUR before the match!

As you can see the time, it was one hour before.
But the right hand side of stadium was not that crowded.

We were supposed to sit at the tier 2 (middle role) but due to the venue changed, we able to sit at tier 1 (most front role) which cost RM288! *Our ticket price was RM208*. The benefit of sitting in front are we can see the player face at the clearly!

Our National team coach, Rajagopal

Malaysia Team in training

Pedro in the training

Pedro in the training

Pedro in the training

At first, our main coach, Rajagopal, walked around the pitch and greeted fans! Players of Malaysia came out from the player passageway for training after he finished his walking around the stadium. Pedro surprised all the fans because he ran around the stadium with companion of his fitness training coach. The fans were screaming for sometimes when they saw Pedro. I SAW HIM! I SAW HIS FACE CLEARLY! OMG! Sadly, our camera was not good enough to shoot clearer picture. I will remember the feeling and image as long as possible. 

Barcelona in training!

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After this, there was bigger screaming inside the stadium because Barcelona’s players came out for training! Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar, Alex Sanchex, Pique, Mascherano, Dani Alves, Adriano, Jordi Alba, Fabregas… OMG! I can’t believe that I can see them in this distance! Although it is not a very close distance, I was able to their face clearly! Our own half fans were shouting ‘Iniesta’ when he came close to us.

The score was wrong!

During the match, I have seen the world class passing, control, possession, attack and defense of Barcelona, and spirit of Malaysia’s players! The feeling of watching live football match was awesome! I have seen the world class defense skills of Pique and Mascherano, and the 2012-2013 La Liga Champion player’s strong degree of physical. I can hear the sound of the ball when it were kicked or hit players! I think I would be lying in hospital after hit by the ball for one times! Before the first goal came, Mascherano could not mark our winger because he was too fast! It leaded to Malaysian have one of the best chances in this match when Norsharul one-on-one to Valdes. His shot was brilliantly saved by Valdes and the ball was hit the woodwork! What a waste!

Few minutes later, Fabregas scored the first goal. From the view of my seats, I saw him jumped up and headed the ball back to the net. We were shocked for this goal because I thought goalkeeper should be able to save the ball and keep his clean sheet for longer time. The crowd shout ‘goal!’ after his score like La Liga fans did. For me, the best moment of the match was Amri Yahya scored an equalizer goal against Barcelona! 1-1! It was a very beautiful goal and classic counter attack. It ended up with our player scored due to the mistake of Alba’s clearance. I think most of the fans were using all of their power to shout ‘GOAL!’ because I felt the stadium might be fallen due to the scream! For me, it was also the best moment in watching live football matches in stadium. Amri Yahya celebrated the goal in front of us with a ‘come on!’ pose!

However, happiness is always short for us. 3 minutes later, Neymar showed his wonderful dribbling and shooting skills to help Barcelona sit at the front place again. 2-1! The score board broadcasted the score wrongly for around 1 minute, which stated Malaysia 2-1 Barcelona. Organizer corrected the score board to Malaysia 1-2 Barcelona soon after realizing the mistake. This score remain the same until Pique, who was the captain after Xavi was substituted by Dos Santos, extended the lead of Barcelona to two goals at 75 minutes. Fabregas through passed to Pique, and then the Barcelona captain scored the goal after turned around between two Malaysia’s defenders inside the box. Malaysia 1-3 Barcelona! There were no more goals until full time. Barcelona won their last friendly match before the new season of La Liga start at next week.

During the match, the calmness of Xavi and Iniesta in controlling and passing were world class while Malaysian’s players defend actively. I also remembered the defense of Malaysian to Barcelona’s players were tactically strong because they would have 2-3 players marked the player who was holding the ball. They were 3 players marked and forced Sanchez from middle to left hand side of the box, and it ended up with the ball was out of the line. Fans who sat around me were laughed and impressed by the tactics of Malaysian players. Other than that, I hardly found any chance for Malaysian’s player won the heading when they versus Pique. He is freaking tall and physically was strong. Mascherano was physically strong and the spirit of him in this match was impressive too. I can easily imagine how strong the physical that Barclays Premier League player required after this two ex-BPL player’s performances. Barcelona uses the spaces of the field well as they fully utilized it when attacking. They always passed the ball from left to right in order to find the chance to score goals from Malaysian ‘All-out-defense’ strategy.

Start form the second half, fans always shouted the name of king, MESSI, because we wanted to see him to play on pitch. Unfortunately, he was in thigh injury and could not play for this game. Fabregas was one of the key players, as he played ‘fake 9’ role and contributed one goal and two assists. One of the fans wrote ‘COME BACK HOME, FABREGAS. ARSENAL IS YOUR HOME!’ on a paper and walk in front of me. I was so regretted for not taking the photo of him and the words on the paper! Furthermore, all of the fans also played ‘waves’ during first half of the match.

There was a ceremony for Barcelona players lifting up the trophy as celebration for their victory and as a gift for them to play with Malaysia. Unlike Manchester City players, who played with Malaysia to Bukit Jalil at last year, Barcelona player did not walked around the stadium to thank and greet fans after the match.

Overall, it was a good experience for me. I gained some experiences after attending two live football matches in different stadium in these two years. I would recommend fans not to purchase the expensive ticket if you have no chance to get closer with players. It is because I realized the only advantage of VIP fans were they can take photo to player when they were lifting the trophy but could not shake their hands or neither takes autographs from them.

Thanks for Barcelona for coming and ,next target of me, watch Liverpool match at Anfield!