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| Singapore coach Tsutomu Ogura |
The same thing happened after the Lions concluded their friendly fixtures of late against Myanmar and Chinese Taipei at the National Stadium.
Using these two fixtures as a final tuning up before the biennial showpiece, the Asean Championship, aka AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup (AFF ME Cup), Coach Tsutomu Ogura prioritised experimenting with some new tactics and formations, which resulted in a scrappy 3-2 win over the "Chinthe" before succumbing to their third defeat to the Blue Wings on the same scoreline since 2017.
A SCRAPPY WIN OVER MYANMAR
Understandably, the performances from these two fixtures aren't convincing enough to suggest the four-time Asean champions are ready for the bigger test.Apart from the first half against the Myanmarese, when the Lions took an early lead from Farhan Zulkifli, the Lions were literally goal-shy despite being the dominant side of the two in that half.
It was a different story when the match (highlights above from Mediacorp), in front of 6,061, resumed with Myanmar replying with two quick goals to test the resilience of the hosting side, who launched a late assault to turn things around with the equaliser from Lion City Sailors' hotshot Shawal Anuar in the 84th minute and the winning strike from Naqiuddin Eunos of Geylang International two minutes later.
The victory was the first international win for Coach Ogura since he took office in February.
DEFENSIVE LAPSES AGAINST CHINESE TAIPEI
Sadly, the triumph did not inspire the Lions further when they took on Chinese Taipei four days later at the same venue (highlights below from Mediacorp).Apart from the screamer from Christopher Tiao in the first half that gifted them the lead, the two other goals by Chinese Taipei were due to some careless defending.
The two goals by Shawal and Irfan Najeeb in the closing minutes proved too little too late, as it is back to the drawing board for Coach Ogura and his panel before they are due to take on Cambodia in their AFF ME Cup opener on 11th December.
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| Are Lions ready for AFF ME Cup 2024? |
- 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎'𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒍 -
So what has he done to rectify this issue, or was it something that he only noticed in these 2 friendlies? Does that mean the Japan trip was a faux, and he learnt nothing from it?
ReplyDeleteThe curve is steep, he took the job knowing that, fully aware of the situation football is in Singapore. He took up the challenge. We know he is no Alex, Pep or Jurgen. But he can't do the fans' job by complaining. Leave that to us. He needs to whip up the boys in shape, or get whipped out.
just my observation only, but the Coach did attended the SPL matches, and he knew that the problem is players fitness or lack of it, it clearly it been the issue that needed to be resolved by the NT Coach, just my humble opinion only.
ReplyDeleteIndeed I do not think the current team standard is ready to win the AFF. But we can draw lessons from these matches to see how the national team can be improved. I noticed the Taiwanese team do have certain similarities. They also do not have a popular local league to begin with and the locals do not really watch their own football. But the key difference I noticed is that the individual players took pride in their trade and more than half of the starting eleven play in overseas professional football league.
ReplyDeleteThat experience and tenacity I believe is what the Lions are lacking as well.