Would it be nice if Alexander Pato is actually Iskandar Faizol from Seri Petaling

and Sergio Aguero is Syeed Al – Baharom from Kelana Jaya, both playing for Selangor and wear the cute Nike-designed national team jersey to bag goals for Malaysia.

Well, I flew far enough, let’s get back to reality, the Malaysian football scene, my football scene, our football scene. FAM has been singing their own praise when they coined out that Malaysian football is growing year by year, by some measurements or standard which I am not sure about. FAM boast that the status of our league has been uplifted with the introduction of separate league in Super League and Premier League – all with the goal to promote a more competitive atmosphere among the competing teams. By doing so, we actually put our country’s performance on the line with other competing nations as we are not the only team registered in the football congregation FIFA. There are Brazil Football Confederation, English The Football Association, and other heavyweights as well, growing by leaps and bounds and surely lightning year ahead of us. How can one imagine how troubled we are in the world of football, when Japan had to shed blood and few billion litres of sweat not to lose to Brazil, the same team which can easily tame Thailand who can break Malaysia to pieces.

Tigers roar, not giggle.

Physique? Skill? Technique? Management? Money factor? What went wrong?

Then again, to list down what is the problem with Malaysian football might take years to be completed as the list is long enough to enfold the Bukit Jalil National Stadium. Maybe the root of the problem is in the root itself, the fans – as my two cents which should be published in a local newspaper some months ago would suggest on what is wrong with Malaysian football,

“Finger pointing won’t cut it. The team needs their 12th man, the fans. I’ll blame myself for this - for not being able to be at the stadium to support our team, and support Liverpool FC even more all this while.” Izham Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. (With a picture of me wearing a sombrero attached)

I was dejected after knowing my letter was scrapped maybe the same way I scrapped one lousy article when I was in magazine editorial capacity back in Malay College. But this listening experience I had few months back made my hypothesis seemed to be spelled out clearer.

“Why don’t we just do what we do best, wait and see the team to karam in the sea”, some smart alec or a pundit wannabe suggested.

“Itu la pasal. Hancur beb! Hancurrr! Main bola macam tak sekolah je sorang-sorang”, a panel nodded in agreement.

“At least they play better than you. They are the best Malaysia have. You terer sangat pegi main la”, some honest nasi lemak stall owner rebutted, who sent the pundit back to reality.

I walked away stomach-full of nasi lemak sotong with extra groundnuts and richer with Malaysian football spirit.