There’s magic in the roar of the stadium, glory or not

Seated several rows ahead of me, a boy about eight years old kept his cool, held his mini camera up to his face, and snapped away at the scene before him, just as he had done all night.

It was

Singapore’s first leg football match against Vietnam

in the Asean Championship semi-finals at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Boxing Day in 2024. The teams were yet to break the deadlock when the Lions suddenly had a penalty claim in the 80th minute as winger Faris Ramli went down in the box after a challenge by a Vietnamese defender.