Pre-Match : Singapore v Liverpool FC

This coming Sunday, 26th July, 7.00pm local kickoff here in Singapore, noon kickoff for you Scousers in Liverpool.

I'll start this thread for discussion first, seeing that I'm probably the most active Singaporean on here I would like to have the honour of starting this thread between my nation and my club.

Sorry for the lack of information, as soon as I get it done I will edit this and add in the relevant information of what you would need to know!

 v  

Sunday, 26th July 2009, 12:00 PM Kickoff.

Venue: Singapore National Stadium (55,000)


The Singapore National Stadium (Chinese: ý¶S²:; Malay: Stadium Nasional Singapura) is located in Kallang. Opened in July 1973, the National Stadium was officially closed on 30 June 2007 and is scheduled to be demolished to make way for the Singapore Sports Hub which is expected to open in 2011.The stadium has played host to many sporting, cultural, entertainment and national events, such as the Southeast Asian Games when it was hosted in Singapore, the Singapore Armed Forces Day, the Singapore Youth Festival Opening Ceremony, and the finals of the 2004 Tiger Cup. The National Stadium has also been the venue for the National Day Parade 18 times (in 1976, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 to 1999, 2001 to 2004, and 2006).Ever since the stadium opened in 1973, the Singapore's national football team's has played its home matches here. It has also hosted the final of the Singapore Cup since 1996.


The Reds' travelling party in full: Reina, Arbeloa, Johnson, Dossena, Insua, Agger, Skrtel, Carragher, Mascherano, Lucas, Alonso, Riera, Benayoun, Kuyt, Torres, Voronin, Babel, Ngog, El Zhar, Cavalieri, Gulacsi, Degen, Spearing, Plessis, Nemeth, San
Jose, Pacheco, Kelly.
Coach: Rafael Benitez


Singapore squad: Hassan Sunny, Lionel Lewis, Baihakki Khaizan, Daniel Bennett, Precious Emeujeraye, Juma'at Jantan, Isa Halim, Noh Rahman, Rosman Sulaiman, Sevki Sha'ban, Shaiful Esah, Fahrudin Mustafic, Fazrul Nawaz, Hariss Harun, Ridhuan Muhamad, Shahril Ishak, Shi Jiayi , Agu Casmir, Aleksandar Duric, Indra Sahdan, Noh Alam Shah, Qiu Li

Coach: Radojko Avramovic
As a player earned one cap for the Yugoslavia national football team. As a goalkeeper Raddy played for NK Rijeka of the Yugoslav First League then spent several years in British football with Notts County before finished out his playing career in OFK Beograd.  In 2001, he became Kuwait's national coach. Four months later, Kuwait were crowned West Asian Games champions and he led Kuwait to the quarter-finals of the 2002 Busan Asian Games. He then became coach for the Singapore National football team in 2003 and led them to the ASEAN Football Championship (at that time known as Tiger Cup) in 2005. In 2007, Radojko Avramovic guided Singapore towards back-to-back triumphs in the ASEAN Cup, when Singapore edged Thailand 3-2 on aggregate over a two-legged final, at the same time establishing a 15-match unbeaten run in the competition under him stretching back to 2004. After the back-to-back ASEAN Cup titles, he is a favorite among Singapore fans who hail him as a miracle worker, churning out credible results against Asian football powerhouses with a small talent pool and limited resources, most recently, in 2008, Singapore beat Kuwait 2-0, and drew with Australia 0-0. A day before Singapore's game in the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers game against Tajikistan, an official from the Football Association of Singapore said that Avramovic was set to sign another 3-year extension, news that was greeted with cheers from local football fans, which had seen the success garnered by the national team, was all down to his hard work and losing him would be difficult to bear.



Scarfs will be given out to everyone who will be on the Kop.

Credits: Profitable Group.
www.profitablegroup.com

i'm already doing the count down now.... see u all the Mighty Reds.

What time will that be here?

We're DEFFO gonna win this one!

Maybe I'll actually get to see this one.

Couldn't wait to get this thread up could you ROF?

One of those rare occasions I can catch a Liverpool game so early. 12pm UK time Gow.

Nice!

Couldn't wait to get this thread up could you ROF?

One of those rare occasions i can catch a Liverpool game so early. 12am UK time Gow.

Midday in the UK is 12pm mate.

Enjoy yourself ROF.

Waited for 2 hours outside the hotel, which was tight in security and completely cordoned off. Only could see the bus going in, there was a bunch of about 30-50 LFC fans there. Arrived hotel at about 4:10pm, after landing at 2pm and relaxing in the posh lounge at the VIP terminal. Came in 2 buses, 1 with the players and 1 with the staff (McMahon in the staff bus as well). Loud cheers when the bus came, saw Plessis, Yossi, Alonso and Riera. Alonso lookin' moody. For that 5 seconds it was well worth it. Yossi waved at me.

We made noises, then Claire Rourke came and interviewed a couple of the fans (not me though). She was there interviewing for 20 minutes and I was 2 metres away from her. Fantastic that was, snapped about 10 pics of her. She's gorgeous.

I know it's like 3 days away but anyways have fun at the game ROF . Sing your heart out , sing extra loud for the rest of us who aren't gonna be there !

EDIT : That must have been so cool to see them !

You very lucky to have The Mighty Reds in your country we only get the sh*te teams the mancs were here last year and man city are here this year.

I probably would have fainted if i saw one of the players.

Can we win this one?

Please?

DAY 1 WITH THE REDS IN SINGAPORE

It's been a long day for Rafa Benitez and his players after saying goodbye to Thailand and hello to Singapore - and we've been with them every step of the way.
# We were hoping for milder temperatures compared to Thailand - but not a chance. It's boiling hot but let's hope we're not hit by an unexpected monsoon-like downpour, as was the case after the match last night which resulted in us conducting interviews with Fernando Torres and Philipp Degen in pools of water. Thanks for stopping for us, guys - and sorry if your feet were soaked through!
 
# And fair play to Jamie Carragher who was happy to hang around in the pouring rain while the LFC TV team prepared to record a live post-match interview. Special mention also to Kenny Dalglish who, realising we didn't have the same luxury as the players of going into the dressing room to dry off, emerged with a towel to help us at least partly recover from the soaking. It's not every day you get to share a towel with a King.



# As in Thailand, one day has been put aside in Singapore for the players to attend a number of commercial events. Fernando Torres, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger and Pepe Reina will be visiting a Carlsberg bar while Xabi Alonso, Dirk Kuyt, Albert Riera and Emiliano Insua will be taking part in adidas related events. Javier Mascherano and Alvaro Arbeloa, meanwhile, will be taking part in a signing session at Courts store. On Saturday the entire squad will take a river cruise before attending a reception at the hotel and travelling to an electrical store in the evening. Add double training most days along with pre and post-match press conferences and we're set for a busy end to the week.
 
# When the Reds arrived at Singapore airport they were greeted by a hoard of security guards at the foot of the plane, all of whom took the opportunity to produce their camera phones and break into a quiet rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone' as the players were taken away to a VIP lounge for refreshments.



#


# After the welcome press conference in Thailand at which questions which could only be described as bizarre were fired at the Liverpool representatives, we weren't sure exactly what to expect when Rafa, Fernando and Yossi addressed the press shortly after arriving at the hotel. The media didn't let us down though, with the highlight being the final question from an Indonesian journalist who made a passionate speech to El Nino about how she shares the same love of music as our number nine after seeing him in a music video back in Spain. You couldn't make it up.
 
# Rafa was asked to comment on Michael Owen's transfer to Manchester United in the press conference. He politely declined to answer the question. And the almost daily question about Xabi Alonso's future cropped up again, with the usual reply of 'he's here with us and he can enjoy the weather and the journalists' being the manager's reply. And another reporter asked if Singaporeans would see more than ten minutes of Torres on Sunday night. "He could play eleven or twelve minutes this time," joked Rafa.



#


# The Reds enjoyed their first run-out on Singapore soil at the Jalon Bezar sports club in early evening. The full squad took part in the session, though of course Martin Skrtel and Nabil El Zhar were notable absentees after picking up injuries in Thailand. They will arrive back in England on Friday when they will undergo scans.
 
# At the end of the session members of the Official Liverpool Supporters group branch in Singapore got a chance to meet their heroes pitchside and have their LFC related goodies signed. Commercial Director Ian Ayre accepted a plaque on behalf of the club thanking the Reds for visiting this part of the world. A nice touch.



#


# The first day came to an end with dinner at the team hotel. Breakfast is being served at 8.30am in the morning before another hectic day gets underway. It's been rather low-key so far in terms of the number of fans around the hotel - but doubtless that will change as the Reds go out and about tomorrow.
 
Stay logged onto Liverpoolfc.tv for all the latest news direct from Singapore.

Will be seeing Javier Mascherano and Alvaro Arbeloa tomorrow at Courts then. Starts at 2pm but will be a little late, only coming at 2:30pm. Low-key being the fact that the hotel was secured tightly, you cannot even loiter in the hotel's lobby. They even cordoned off the area outside the hotel, the taxi stands are cordoned off and ONLY guests of the hotel are allowed to enter. Unlike in Bangkok when the fans are allowed to roam at all levels of the hotel - with the exception of the team level.

Oh and just to add - those footballs that the players use are sh*te. It's made by a brand called Mikasa I think, it isn't good and extremely hard. It is the official match ball for the S-League here in Singapore. But as compared to the EPL Nike balls they are nowhere near that standard.

Charlie I told you mate just mug somebody to get into the hotel. Grab the receptionist, nick their clothes and pretend to be them for the day.

Enjoy yourself at the match though an don't forget the banner.

Haha gotta laugh at Rafa.  ''He could play eleven or twelve minutes this time''.

Haha gotta laugh at Rafa.  ''He could play eleven or twelve minutes this time''.

Haha. I know, doesn't give too much away does he

I think with a couple of the Spanish lads back and most of them playing some part in the match against the Thais, we could see them feature for longer i.e maybe 45mins. With that, i think we will be looking at our first pre-season win. Redsonfire, have a great time on Sunday. Also, post some of those pics of Claire Rourke up- i wanna take a quick look at them

Hope I don't get disappointed. Taking a short flight to Singapore on Sunday I was at the Man United vs Malaysia game(only because my mum's office gave free Grandstand tickets) and also caught Thailand vs Liverpool live on TV, pretty disappointed not to hear any Kop songs. No songs were sung at the United game either. I kept shouting 'Where's Steven Gerrard?', and was almost tempted to sing the Torres Bounce, .

I for one hope I'm not the only one singing in Singapore. Anyways, f.y.I. me dad's mate got tickets for the Grandstand Red section. I hope I can get some decent pictures there.

I think i'm the luck charm for us.  

I've missed all the pre-season matches and we've drawn or lost.

But i should be able to watch this one, so hopefully we'll win.

I think I'm the luck charm for us.  

I've missed all the pre-season matches and we've drawn or lost.

But I should be able to watch this one, so hopefully we'll win.

So if we lose its your fault?

So if we lose its your fault?

Well, yes. But we shouldn't because i should be watching.

I think with a couple of the Spanish lads back and most of them playing some part in the match against the Thais, we could see them feature for longer I.e maybe 45mins. With that, I think we will be looking at our first pre-season win. Redsonfire, have a great time on Sunday. Also, post some of those pics of Claire Rourke up- I wanna take a quick look at them

Think I will go about doing it some other time, maybe in the LFC Reds Picture Thread 09/10. Dont know where is the USB Cable which links the camera to the computer. I would have to ask my dad but he is currently overseas. Would only get the chance to load up the pics a few days later though, he would be back to catch the Singapore game with me.