Two Footballing Neighbors

I heard it over the radio this morning that Liverpool whipped Singapore 5-0. 

I cannot wait to hear from my SNHU student Arun personally – he had gone to the island republic to watch the match – as to how this could have happened. 

I thought Singapore sits higher in the ranking table as compared to Malaysia – so the question is, How come? 

For the record, Malaysia played two friendly matches against Man United, and the scores were 2-3 and 0-2 – which is not too bad a loss considering that our footballing reputation is almost non-existent.

Anyhow, I was determined to check the FIFA Ranking as at July 2009 to see how the two countries fare. And true enough, Singapore sits in position No. 127, and Malaysia hunkers down in position No. 157.

Singapore's Straits Times today reported that Liverpool's Rafa Benitez (right) is upbeat about the year ahead. “We have confidence that we can be at the top of table. It can happen”, he said. 

“The message is clear, we have to be contenders, we have to work harder than last year. We need to get to the top of the table and stay at top and be competitive for the whole season and hopefully win the trophy”. I hope so too!