What It's Like Being The Only Drunk One At The Frenzied Malaysian Soccer Cup

The 2011 Malaysia FA Cup played its championship game yesterday—Terengganu FA defeated Kelantan FA, 2-1, and Cyrus_the_Virus, who says he was the drunkest person out of 80,000 spectators (Malaysia is a Muslim nation), was on hand for the sights and sounds, a stranger in a strange land.

The above photo depicts a young Malay vendor with great style. Follow along on the rest of the fantastic journey.

He writes, "Early Saturday morning, I went to the stadium to buy a ticket and was amazed at the number of fans that were already there. The crowd was decidedly pro-Kelantan (in red)—the Red Warriors were looking to win the FA Cup for the first time in its 22 year existence and so many of the clubs supporters had made the 4+ hour drive to Kuala Lumpur. I'd been in Kelantan the day before for work, where they'd been amassing convoys of dozens of cars and buses to go down to the match. No one wanted to drive down alone because 1) It's always more fun to caravan, and 2) Drivers would be passing through Terengganu sultanate (home to Kelantan's opponent, Terengganu FA) to get to Kuala Lumpur and didn't want to face the very real possibility of getting heckled with or even assaulted as they drove through the area."

"Ayil, my host for the game. He saw me wandering around looking for a seat and invited me to join him and his friends."

"Outside the stadium before the match, a color guard plays the national anthem at the local barracks."

"2 hours before the match started, it was already at capacity; by game time, the aisles were completely blocked and they had to turn people away at the gate. They over-issued tickets."

"On both sides of the stadium, sections were left empty and flanked on either side by police in riot gear to keep the supporters separated."

"Kind of intimidating, flares and smoke envelope a draped 'Rising Sun' flag, with the words 'RED MANIA' on it."

"One of Ayil's friends blowing on a mini-horn. There were tons of these and lots of hand-action airhorns that continuously kept the stadium very loud."