“It was not about how many goals I scored, but our outstanding performance in that tournament garnered unexpected attention and support from everyone back home in Macau. Because nobody believes in us, right? Even when we play international friendlies, we rarely win. At most, we get a draw, but we rarely win. So when we started winning in the AFC Solidarity Cup, people began talking about us. People in Macau, newspapers and various media started to take notice and support us”
“You must realise that you must push yourself to the next level to accomplish anything. You always have to believe that you can, and then you will be able to do it. It’s all up here (pointing to the head). Understand that football is not played with the feet; the feet are just tools. It is here (pointing to the head). It’s all mentality”
“Japan missed the 1994 World Cup in the United States with just seconds remaining. And for the 1998 World Cup in France, Japan won the playoffs with a golden goal. It was because of these two ‘hells’ (Doha-1993, where the Japanese cried) and ‘heaven’ (Johor Bahru-1997, where we got our revenge and cried tears of joy) that Japanese football improved drastically.
Southeast Asian countries will also soon experience their own ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ as Southeast Asia will play one of the most exciting, if not the most exciting, World Cup Qualifiers in the World Cup”
“The UEFA Champions League theme song went off, and the match between Barca and FC Porto kicked off in nearly 40,000 packed Stadium. Instead of focusing on the exciting match, we were literally “marked out” of the game by the entertaining football ultras’ singing and the ten over thousands of mini Barca flags given to the fans for free upon entry, waving in the air. It was nothing impressive when only a few hundred flags moved in the air. But when it’s ten over thousands with singing, it is a sight”
