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After Thoughts from Last Night's 2-2 game...

Various schools of thoughts were gathered from last night's Causeway Challenge that saw the Lions drawn 2-2 against Malaysia at Jalan Besar.

"Where is my support?" Agu (11) as depicted
"With no disrespect to the Malaysians who we are playing them week in and out, shouldn't we go for some stronger opponents?" said a friend who opined that facing a tougher opponents would only see the Lions improve their game (as first half saw the entire lineup filled up with Lions XII players).

The come about of the Causeway Challenge was part of the MOU agreed upon by both FAS and FAM last year, hence resulted the home-and-away series featuring two of the fiercest football rivalries in this region.

Even "kena hamtam", must know why "kena hamtam
Added on to the above-mentioned, I went on and shared with this friend of what I read from sources.

"On top of that, scheduling such friendlies also one issue to look into, just like one country FA, I read that, actually plan their international friendlies ONE year in advance."

I added on by asking:"At the end of the day, we have to ask what do we really want to achieve from playing these friendlies?"

Got to know what we want to achieve from friendlies
"We can't just blindly get some stronger teams to spar against just for 'the sake of improvement' and every time we got thrashing by stronger opponents, what do we learn and does it help improve?

Having said that is not of saying we shouldn't get teams like Japan, South Korea or Australia for these friendlies, but like mentioned does it do any good to our present future development of our football?

Kitchee SC (in dark shorts) has tie up with FC Barcelona
I am not sure how many people were surprised to see we lost to Hong Kong earlier this month, a result that not really taken me by surprise after seen how Kitchee SC did quite a job against Tampines Rovers in their recent AFC Cup encounter.

That display by the Hong Kong league champions against their Singaporean counterparts epitomized the improvement shown in the former British colony football, which is slowly and steadily crawling back to its glory days in the 1970s.

The Stakes are too HIGH
On another issue, while it was said that the recent arranged friendlies are to try new players for the year end's AFF Suzuki Cup, but the recall of evergreen striker Aleksandar Duric could have suggested otherwise.

Ahmad Fahmie still waiting for his chance
Recent injuries to the depleted strikeforce (namely of those of the Lions XII) would have given opportunity to see new chaps like Tampines' Ahmad Fahmie a run of chance against the Malaysians last night.

Perhaps, given the setting against the "auld enemy" was too great that coach Raddy decided to opt for a "safety first" approach by fielding seasoned campaigners like Mustafic Fahrudin, Shi Jiayi, Daniel Bennett and Qiu Li in the second half to maintain the undefeated record since 2004.

Only Coach Raddy (right) knows what he wants
When trying not to draw into the debate if those S.League players, who came on in the second 45, were pivotal in the 2-2 draw, coach Raddy was quick to defuse any suggestion of thoughts by saying "the best players will play, doesn't matter if he from Lions XII or S.League, even if the eleven players are from the same group".

That is for sure, coach, but we also know the stakes are too high in any Causeway Derby match that no one wants to lose in this game and it's always for the flag, honor of the country we play for - remember that too.

Comments

  1. I really think that that was a very good game, both teams were too similar and that is why the game was too competitive and Agu had an acceptable performance

    ReplyDelete

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