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| Friday, 3 September 2010 |
| It's now 3:36 PM in Singapore |
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| TEAM DETAILS: |
| Home Kit: |
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| Away Kit: |
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| Third choice kit: |
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| Team WebSite: |
http://www.realalemadrid.com.sg |
| Description: |
The team is managed by a local Singaporean named
Ronald, who recons he's in his 40's, still plays, but we
recon he is nearer to 30 and just uses his age as an
excuse not to run. He’s just about the only guy who can
complete a game and come off fresher looking before he
went on. But seriously Ron must know nearly every
referee and team manager on the Island. We play nearly
all the year around except for the Christmas and New
Year break when most of the players spend a few weeks
at home. This is football, as it should be played, fun and
enjoyment and the prefect environment to let off steam
after the week's work. It's great enjoyment, a chance to
have a shout and a scream, kick a few people and then
shake hands afterwards (most times).
Real Ale Madrid take their football seriously. Training for
Sunday normally kicks off around 8.00pm Saturday night
in the1NiteStand, a bar and Comedy Club at Clarke
Quay, proud sponsors of Real Ale Madrid FC. Training
starts off with a few beers just to ensure no chance of
dehydration the following day. However after
the first 1 or 2 beers, the planned moves become more
and more complicated, until right out of there
is a general consensus that talking tactics is a waste of
time and much better to adopt the Keegan
approach and not have a clue of how the team will play on
any given day and to dispense with a
tactical plan and let the players do as they wish. By now
the team have really warmed up and
Saturday night is turning into Sunday morning.
Real Ale was formed in early 1997 as a result of a number
of expat and locals. No choice but to have a beer related
name, 6 of the players were connected with running or
operating bars, clubs or restaurants, this included China
Jump, Pleasure Dome, Buzz Bar, all famous drinking holes
around town and maybe not as famous but a few select
bars along the East Coast including Granitas restaurant
and Vie Wine Bar. This has proved to be a fertile area for
recruitment. The way it worked was to identify who was
obviously the worst for ware after a few too many and
they would invariably find themselves recruited into the
team. A little like the old Press Gang, but Singapore style.
Amazing how many people, after a few beers have been
part of professional clubs back home, normally in reality
they end up having 2 left feet and the nearest they came
to being a professional was passing the stadium on the
way to work everyday. But at least they become part of
the team. So from the very start this was definitely a
team to be associated with beer drinking, fond memories
from back home.
As with the transit nature of Singapore, the teams
fortunes tend to run in cycles, we have periods of too
many players and not enough places to running from
famine to feast when many of these go back home at the
end of their assignments or when the uniformity of
Singapore becomes too much. Some of the guys have
moved back to England and unfortunately for some of the
others in the team have taken their Singaporean
girlfriends with them! So keen to play, a number of the
players arrange their business trips around the football,
insisting to return from business in time for the afternoon
kick off or fly out late Sunday evening on a business trip
after the game. As well as the team giving everyone their
football fix, it also provides an ideal way for many of the
players that are new to Singapore to find out what’s going
on, meet some new friends and understand the do's and
don'ts of living in Singapore, counter to the very biased
picture, there is no shortage of places to go and things to
do in Singapore. |
| Team Honours: |
Real Ale Madrid FC are proudly sponsored by the Dallas
Restaurant and Bar at Boat Quay and
welcome
any of the other ESPZEN teams down for a beer. |
| Sponsor(1): |
Dallas Restaurant and Bar |
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| SPONSORS: |
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