Commentary: Singapore football fans love South Korea's Son Heung-min, but they should get behind our Lions too

SINGAPORE: It’s not often Singapore’s national football team sells out the National Stadium. Of course, not all 49,097 fans at the World Cup qualifier against South Korea on Thursday (Jun 6) were there to watch the Lions.

South Korean captain and superstar Son Heung-min would be used to booing from the opponent’s stands - he gets treated to more colourful language in the English Premier League week after week. But perhaps the cheering was a surprise: Support for his national side was audible from all sections of the stadium.

There’s good reason the fans are called the 12th man. They are supposed to roar with every crunching tackle, applaud every shot and cheer every save, giving players a boost to forget their tired legs or to keep up their fighting spirit.

Home advantage was especially important given that the odds were heavily stacked against the Lions. Singapore is currently ranked 155th in the FIFA World Rankings; South Korea sits on 23rd and already took Singapore down 5-0 in Seoul in November 2023.

A win against the Asian giant may have been a fanciful possibility; a draw optimistic. Even a valiant, narrow defeat would have us fighting to the end.

The Lions fell 7-0. But still, I cheered.

CHEERING OURSELVES HOARSE

I was part of the SingaBrigade that night - a singing, chanting group of fans that aims to support the Lions and create an atmosphere at every Lions game. The group was in full voice, and our spirit never flagged, even as the goals went in one after another.

We knew that the team would be disappointed. So more than ever, we needed to make ourselves heard and spur them on. 

However, it was a little disheartening to know that for every fan in our ranks who shouted their throat hoarse, there would be one or more Singaporeans diluting that fervent support a little, by cheering for the opponents.

It was somewhat ironic as well, that those cheering on South Korea were jumping up and down, holding the complimentary plastic Singapore flags provided by the Football Association of Singapore. Perhaps from the pitch, both sides drank in the cheers for them.

A TEAM WORTH CELEBRATING

But take this not as a complaint about football fans in Singapore.

Long after the South Korean team had left the pitch, there were Singaporeans in every section of the stadium who stayed behind to applaud the Lions, even after the heavy defeat. They saw first-hand the effort and endeavour of the players and saw fit to stay behind to celebrate them.

Unlike in previous matches against more illustrious opposition, the Lions dared to press their South Korean counterparts and came close to scoring on a couple of occasions. Had the opposing goalkeeper not been sharp, midfielder Hami Syahin’s firm header might have hit the net.

Maybe then we would have heard how the crowd would sound like celebrating a Singapore goal.

Worth our applause too is Singapore’s head coach who did not shy away from taking responsibility for the defeat. Tsutomu Ogura, who only took over the reins of the national side in February, walked over to the SingaBrigade section after the match to thank us for the constant support.

He then held a deep bow for more than 20 seconds to apologise for the team’s performance that night - it is an image that will stay with me for a long time.

Compared to the last glamour tie we played (against a Lionel Messi-less Argentina in 2017), where some Singaporeans booed our own players, I could see shoots of positivity here.

FOES FOR 90 MINUTES, FRIENDS BEFORE AND AFTER

As a passionate fan, my wish is, of course, that Singaporeans will get behind our own players a little more in future games.

Cheering for our home side should be our cause, even excited as we are to see our favourite club players in action. If we have to boo the opposition to be the 12th man for our underdog team, so be it. It does not make us rude or any less gracious as hosts.

“As a fan, you can’t just support the opposite player, which I totally understand,” was Son Heung-min’s classy response when asked at the post-match press conference about boos from Singapore fans.

But the beautiful game is ultimately just a game of 90 minutes.

How about before and after those 90 minutes? The Korean Association in Singapore led the way, printing cheer towels that proudly read “We love Korea and Singapore”.

Pre-match, my friends and I were in a karaoke bar outside the stadium, with some Korean fans at the next table. Sensing they might have felt a little awkward in a Mandopop-dominant setting, we made friends with them and sang a Korean song to break the ice.

The day after the game and after booing Son, I met up with the leader of the Korean cheer team and brought him around Singapore to try curry chicken noodles, bak kut teh and some local desserts.

We are gracious hosts, let’s be gracious too towards our own. Though our World Cup hopes are already dashed, some of the SingaBrigade will be in Bangkok, shouting themselves hoarse as usual when Singapore faces Thailand on Tuesday night. For the rest of us, let us cheer on the Lions through our screens.

Eddy Hirono is an in-house legal counsel and a fervent supporter of local football.

Catch the FIFA World Cup 2026 Qualifier between Thailand and Singapore on Tuesday (Jun 11) from 8.20pm LIVE on 5, mewatch and Mediacorp Entertainment on YouTube.