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