ball games

so i recently watched two matches: Gamba Osaka vs Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (SAFFC) and the Hanshin Tigers vs the Yomiuri Giants.

the football game was about a week ago; the Singaporean club was playing Gamba as part of the AFC Champions League and Singaporeans actually got a free ticket. that’s the only reason why i was there actually, as i’m by no means a soccer fan and have NEVER before sat through an entire game.

gamba osaka are the reigning champions in japan, and given the state of soccer in singapore, i certainly didnt expect SAFFC to win. my national pride still went down the drain however, when we lost 0-3 in a terrible  game.

the last time i saw singapore play football was when we were up against malaysia i think, many many years ago at the SEA games or some south-east asian football championships. then, we were criticised for lacking energy, having poor ball control and simply not showing the desire to score goals to win.

sadly, some things havent changed.

it was very obvious how much better gamba was. whenever we got possession, the game turned defensive and the pace dropped. the players lethargically passed the ball to each other on the defence side to kill time; they werent playing to score and the ball kept being passed backwards towards our goal. and whenever the ball went across the field towards gamba’s goal, the last man on the SAFFC team would be somewhere closer to midfield than the goal post and lost possession halfway cos he simply had no one to pass the ball to. URRGHH.

above you can see SAFFC in white and gamba in blue. it was pretty crap cos it was clear that SAFFC was just trying to play it safe, even when it was after half time and clear that, at 0-2, there’s no point being defensive when the only way you can turn the tide is to attempt to score. the gamba goalkeeper must have been extremely bored that match because he only had a handful of attempts at his goal. the SAFFC keeper did a pretty good job though, as he saved quite a few balls. too bad it wasnt the same for the rest of the team.

and just earlier this evening, i went for my first real baseball match. baseball is big in japan, and if you’re in kansai, one of the things you must do is to see a Tigers vs Giants match, cos we’re HUGE rivals. you can read all about the Curse of the Colonel that ended the winning streak of the Tigers about a decade ago online, but the Tigers vs Giants rivalry is basically an extension of the Kansai vs Kanto (or more specifically Tokyo) rivalry.

it was pretty cool before the game began, sitting at the legendary Koshien stadium and seeing so many people decked out in the Tigers’ colours, just like the Colonel above. the stadium was quite full too, and there was an air of excitement that i’d expected of a Tigers vs Giants game. tickets to their matches arent easy to get, and this is another of those things that i really want to do before i leave japan.

i never thought i’d say this, but i actually found the gamba vs SAFFC football game more exciting than this Tigers vs Giants baseball match.

unlike soccer, where there’s always action (people are always running about passing the ball, or at least that’s meant to be the case), nothing really happens in baseball. the pitcher pitches, the batter bats and the catchers (?) catch the ball. and this repeats itself until someone bats a good ball, which allows him to run to the next base. unfortunately this doesnt occur very often, and even when that happens, it’s not easy to score points because you need to repeat it 3 more times to reach home base and score 3 points within ONE inning, which isnt much.

throughout today’s match, the giants did that once and the tigers none at all; we lost 0-3.

someone tell me that this just happened to be a boring match?

i’d seen part of a baseball match once before, when my high school was playing another (better) school somewhere in Banpaku. that game was rather interesting as it moved quite fast; strikes were counted, points were scored; batters batted good balls and catchers missed. so there was lots going on and people were running and everything. i have no idea why the game just wasnt as engaging today.

for some reason too, the tigers dont seem to have very good batters. there were so many balls that went high into the air rather than far across the field, and quite a few went out as well. there was a group of Tigers supporters behind us who gave funny commentaries, and a really annoying Giants fan in front who kept cheering and blocking my view. i wanted to kick him!

the most exciting part of the match was the “Lucky 7” – in baseball, the 7th inning is something like the deciding point and is called the “Lucky 7” in Japan.

so everyone in the stadium will blow up sperm-shaped balloons like those above - i have no idea why they’re shaped like this – when the announcement is made. they’ll hold it up in the air in preparation for the signal:

and when a special song is played, they’ll release the balloons into the air:

my phone’s camera is quite lousy, but it was a pretty sight and everyone was excited and cheering really loudly at this point in the game. too bad this match turned out to be kind of a non-event though! i was rather buzzed up about this but it was somewhat disappointing. if someone organises going to another Hanshin Tigers match, i might give them a second chance though, and hope that it’ll be more exciting.