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LIONS: Looking for "a needle with thread to piece together two pieces of cloths"

Fazrul (L) recalled
Fazrul Nawaz in, Shariff Samat out, Irwan Shah in, Hafiz Abu Sujad out, Shakir Hamzah in, Gabriel Quak out.

These are some of notable names called up and excluded in Singapore national football team coach Bernd Stange's latest selection that was announced yesterday via the media release from the Football Association of Singapore.

Other than that, the list of 22 players relatively stayed intact for the upcoming training tour to China and Hong Kong next month.

Despite the brickbats after his showing against the Omanis, Balestier Khalsa's Qiu Li is still in loop with young Adam Swandi of Metz FC joining the group.

Nonetheless, looking at the list of 22, there is one question that remains a mystery to me, at least.

Qiu Li (L) keeps his spot in Stange's plans
If anyone would still recall the match against the Omanis, it's not hard to tell the Lions were struggling to venture across the center line with their "passing and dominating" style of play. So much so that, the team had to resort to the old "long passing" game to make any breakthrough to the opponents' half.

It definitely doesn't fit what the German coach has preached since his arrival.

While coach Stange has been pleading for patient to see his formula works after the last week's loss, it's not difficult to tell either that the limited pool of players on the country's top level has made things difficult for him to look for the type of players he wants when he suggested that he will widen up his radar to the Prime League as well (as reported in the papers).

Coach Stange (R) widen up his radar for players
So would it had suggested that with the number of foreign players to be able to sign by local clubs in the S.League, it drastically reduced opportunities for local players to show what they are capable of at the top level and led to the predicament facing Stange?

Anyway, I think the utmost task for the Lions is to look from the group of 22 that could be that "needle with a thread to sew the two pieces of cloths together" during their trip.

The Group of 22 players bound for China and Hong Kong
S/No Player Age Position Club
1 Izwan Mahbud 23 Goalkeeper Lions XII
2 Hassan Sunny 29 Goalkeeper Warriors FC
3 Fadhil Salim 30 Goalkeeper Hougang United FC
4 Faritz Hameed 23 Defender Lions XII
5 Ismail Yunos 27 Defender Home United FC
6 Baihakki Khaizan 29 Defender Lions XII
7 Safuwan Baharudin 22 Defender Lions XII
8 Shakir Hamzah 20 Defender Lions XII
9 Afiq Yunos 23 Defender Courts Young Lions
10 Zulfadli Zainal Abidin 25 Defender Warriors FC
11 Irwan Shah 24 Defender Lions XII
12 Isa Halim 27 Midfielder Lions XII
13 Hariss Harun 23 Midfielder Lions XII
14 Noh Rahman 33 Defender Home United FC
15 Anumanthan S/O Mohan Kumar 19 Midfielder Courts Young Lions
16 Adam Swandi 17 Midfielder Metz FC
17 Indra Sahdan 34 Forward Home United FC
18 Khairul Amri 28 Forward Tampines Rovers FC
19 Qiu Li 32 Forward Balestier Khalsa FC
20 Shahfiq Ghani 21 Forward Lions XII
21 Shahril Ishak 29 Forward Lions XII
22 Fazrul Nawaz 28 Forward Lions XII

Comments

  1. Kheng Seng Chua (via LinkedIN)Monday 26 August 2013 at 06:50:00 GMT+8

    Good to see Stange thinking out of the box, and getting out of the box to get more talent.

    ReplyDelete

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