It's football time!

Early tomorrow morning, football fans throughout the world (almost), will be watching the much awaited Champion's League Final between Manchester United and Barcelona. Who will win this prestigous trophy, has yet to be known. pundits already throwing their money on United. Was it bcos of Ronaldo? or was it Rooney? Is Messi or Niesta going the steal the show from Rooney and Ronaldo? We'll see. It could be the night of the unsung heroes. Carrick or even Park J Sung could turn the magic for United. But I.m sure we gonna enjoyed the game. One thing for sure I'll be watching the game at home with my two sons. Too late (or too early) to go and watch the final at the 'Mamak's al-Maju' restaurant.

Talking about football, reminded me of the footballing years in Tiger Lane. We were crazy about football then. There were no Ronaldos or Rooneys or Giggs or Messis then. But the little plot of graas field between Green House and the school building (opposite the bathroom/toilets) was the place where we showed our talent. We produced some good footballers mind you. Sakaf Manaf was very good in dribbling and ball controll. He did wonders even within the tiny 'playing field!. i even wonder, until now, how come he never played for the school team. Even Shoib and Awe Adek learnt their football traits here. But sad to say, Green house never won the inter-house football game!.

When we were in Form Two, a game was organised by 'crazy and fanatic English football fans'. It was between 'Chelsea' and 'Leeds. The craze was because in 1970, Chelsea came out as F.A. Cup winners in Wembley beating Leeds 2-1 in a pulsating final (as was reported by the papers). We tried to emulate that scenario in Tiger Lane and organised the game. Among the 'Leeds' players were Arwah Kutik, Yunus, Mohd Nor Hassan, Lan Chik. For 'Chelsea' we had Awe Adek (he fantasized himself as Charlie Cook!) and Arwah Radhi Majid and Mutalib just to name a few. We imagines ourselves to the likes of Peter Osgood, Peter Lorimer, Peter Bonetti, Billy Bremner, Allan Clarke etc. There were no Drogba nor Lampard nor Ballack nor John Terry at that time!!

One player I admired most was Arwah Kutik. He was such a fantastic sportsman that he almost excelled in whatever game he played. He was the school and Perak under 18 goalkeeper, when most of us were struggling in the lower grades, i.e playing for the school under 16! Fancy that!. He even played rugby for the senior side after palying for a while with the under 16. But I had 2 wonderful memories on scoring goals against Kutik. Mind you he was 'the goalie' at the time! Both goals were more or less scored at the same spot and using the same techniques. Kutik must have thought at the time that I for sure would crossed the ball, since he had covered the angle, but instead lobbed the ball over him and scored the goals. He 'kena' twice, one during a game proper and one was a game during PE class. I was rather astonished when Rashid told me that he recalled the 'incidence' - of me scoring against Kutik during PE class. It was indeed a compliment when he said that.

Batch 73 did produce football players for the school, be it under 16 or under 18. We had Arwah Kutik, Arwah Radhi Majid, Wan Manshol, Mutalib, Yunus, Mohd Nor Hassan, Mohamad Saleh, Lan Chik, Ramlan Malek and Mail Gebang. We enjoyed the game and what mattered most was the comradeship, the thrive for winning and spirit of sportmanship.

For Arwah Kutik and Arwah Radhi Majid... al-Fatihah.