Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Asean Football Championship

[Telegram Chat] - FINALLY, COACHES NEED NOT SCRATCH THEIR HEADS

39th FAS Annual Congress (picture credit: FAS) The following are some of the key points mentioned in the 39th Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Annual Congress . A) From the 2022 Singapore Premier League (SPL) season onwards, the fielding of one Under-23 (U23) player instead of three in the starting lineup. B) No limit on the number of U23 players registered in each SPL squad. C) Young elite leagues to resume in the 2022 season (subject to prevailing circumstances). D) FAS will "put in a strong and determined bid to host" AFF Suzuki Cup . I thought the biggest takeaways would be points (A) and (C) , especially for the former that head coaches would not find themselves in a constrained situation and give more flexibility to field their ideal XI. The move to revive the youth elite leagues is a good one and hopefully, we can see a conduit in place to allow proper progression than having a fast-tracking mode that saw more teenage players in a top-tier league in this s...

OFTEN FORGOTTEN - THE SHADOWED SIGNIFICANCE OF LIONS' ASEAN GLORIES

Most of those relive-the-glory-days moments would always have that 1994 Malaysia Cup-winning video shown but overlooked the few other notable moments - the 1998 victory over Vietnam in Hanoi that saw us win our very FIRST international honour - the Tiger Cup before repeating the same feat in 2004 at Kallang when we won at HOME - in front of a full capacity (old) National Stadium and not forgetting the 2007 and 2012 moments of glories too. The 1994 Malaysia Cup triumph moment, as seen in an exhibition at the National Museum   Yet many times, many social media postings seem to favour the footage from the 1994 Shah Alam victory when comes to savouring that bit of nostalgia. "It feels like you celebrate your 25th anniversary at work by showcasing the company that fired you as (a) prelude." remarked a friend after seeing it on the  AIA Singapore Premier League Facebook Page of the 1994 Malaysia Cup Final last year. TESTAMENT FOR THE FLEDGLING S.LEAGUE Don't get me wrong, whi...

We Will Thank Raddy 20 Years Later, Instead Of Now ...

Maybe we will not say it now but who knows twenty years down the road, we would proudly declare: "The era under Raddy Avramovic was the greatest ever in Singapore football!", I am sure there are some people who read the words earlier would recommend me to see a psychiatrist now. How on earth would that be possible when that period while the Serbian was the coach of the Singapore national team was considered by many as a watershed in the local football despite successfully guided the Lions to three Asean titles in 2004, 2007, 2012 and accoladed himself as the "Coach of the Year" by Asean Football Federation back in 2013. 20 years later we would thank Raddy for his work done for us  Ironically, it was because of those honours gathered during that period that when people start to reminisce about the "glorious" past and those records would speak for themselves and some would say "yes, those were the days..." and start to talk about those nosta...

[Annual Review] A Sigh Of Relief

Am I glad the season is over! It must be one of the most dreadful seasons since my involvement when I breathed a sigh of relief after Albirex Niigata (Singapore) was finally awarded the trophy  that accoladed them as the inaugural champions of the revamped professional league aka Great Eastern-Hyundai Singapore Premier League (SGPL), despite the confirmation months earlier after their draw against Balestier Khalsa at Toa Payoh to close the 2018 season. Albirex Niigata (Singapore) established a dynasty in local football In an attempt to distance itself from the S.League which was associated with much of the flaws of the old regime, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced the rebranding of the Republic's only professional sporting league as SGPL in a glittering setting at the Singapore Sports Hub (SSH) amid much skepticism from the ground . SUPERFICIAL CHANGES? Perhaps the only difference between the SGPL and the S.League is the change in the name and the...

"Matchpix" - November 2018

71st SCC Rugby 7s @ Padang - 031118 A ball boy tossing the ball before the start of a game The SCC 7s is affectionally dubbed as the ‘Friendly Sevens’ and over the decades, legends like the late Jonah Lomu, New Zealand Rugby World Cup Sevens winning captain Eric Rush, All Blacks’ Hall of Famer Tana Umaga and South Africa’s former World Player of the Year Cecil Afrika graced the Padang on their ascendency to rugby stardom. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES 71st SCC Rugby 7s @ Padang - 041118 "There is a card for you" The SCC 7s is affectionally dubbed as the ‘Friendly Sevens’ and over the decades, legends like the late Jonah Lomu, New Zealand Rugby World Cup Sevens winning captain Eric Rush, All Blacks’ Hall of Famer Tana Umaga and South Africa’s former World Player of the Year Cecil Afrika graced the Padang on their ascendency to rugby stardom. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES AFF Suzuki Cup - Singapore 6-1...

Baby Step Forward Amid Voracious Skepticism

I am wondering if was it because we played both Mauritius (FIFA ranked 155th) and Fiji (165th) in our recent friendlies that the ridiculing of our football continues by some skeptics? DIFFERENT EXPOSURE Granted the fact that both the aforementioned countries are not known for their football powress with someone even thought it was a rugby match when we took on the Fijians last evening , the two virtually unknown sides did, however, give Singapore national team some much-needed workouts in preparing for the upcoming AFF Suzuki Cup. Baihakki Khaizan (5) restraining Fijian captain Roy Krishna Instead of the "usual who" kind of opponents, I thought it was a refreshing change to see games against teams which allowed the Lions to expose to some robust kind of football aided by the opponents' much superior physical frames. It was probably this kind of exposure that made a good introduction to a different level of football between the domestic and internati...

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words.

Shahril Ishak roams into the box One snap (above) of Home United's Shahril Ishak like this in their recent Great Eastern Hyundai Singapore Premier League (SGPL) game against Hougang United should raise a concern about our chance in this year's AFF Suzuki Cup and the panic button should be pressed by now. WHY? First of all, take a look at this picture and what did you see? We have a free-roaming Shahril with his eyes on the ball making his way into the box in this attacking move. Any sane mind would be asking how could a veteran striker like him be given such a luxury of space by a backline? That was probably why Hougang's caretaker coach Clement Teo, seen in the background of this snap, gestured either to his back line to "watch out for Shahril!" or asked, " why no one is marking Shahril?" Eventually, both Justin Hui and Adam Mitter (who was released during the recent transfer window) arrived in time to keep the ex-JDT II skipper at bay....

"Abang" Taking Charge in November

Fandi Ahmad will take charge of the Suzuki Cup campaign It was a mere formality when the earlier press conference was called to announce Young Lions coach Fandi Ahmad as the man in charge of the Singapore National Team for the upcoming AFF Suzuki Cup campaign in November. This hastily-arranged media gathering more or less confirmed a Straits Times'  report that appeared days ago which suggested the former Singapore skipper “will hold the fort for the national team while the search continues for the coach who will lead the Lions on a permanent basis”. So when the panel that comprised Messrs Lim Kia Tong (FAS president), Edwin Tong (FAS vice-president), Yazeen Buhari (FAS Acting General Secretary), and Fandi, himself, took their seats before the start of the event, the awaiting media at the venue already knew what was on the agenda. Fandi spoke to the media after the presser “I am really excited about the new Suzuki Cup format,” said the one-time FC Groningen striker o...

[Annual Review] Twenty Years in the Circus ...

Years of involvement made me learn to adopt a precautionary stance on almost everything that came along as a way to buffer myself from disappointment. Even though I stick to that belief, it's no difference again when we are drawing close to another year with things ending sour again and no improvement to the scene when we thought it would at the start. Some painted a picture of optimism that our own S.League would gain from Lions XII's acrimonious exit from the Malaysian league with a large part of their playing staff, long perceived to be the best in the country, being snapped by various clubs in the beleaguered setup. Jermaine Pennant graced the league not long ago Furthermore, setting things into the groove saw big spending Tampines Rovers, under new chairman Krishna Ramachandra, acquired the biggest name in the league history by recruiting former Liverpool and Arsenal winger Jermaine Pennant , inked a partnership with Brazilian legend Ronaldinho to set...

Lions snapped losing streak just before flight to Manila.

Coach Sundram (in blue jacket) facing the media To sum up the Singapore National Football Team's final warming up before heading off to Manila this coming Tuesday – to win the game, the feeling is great but to score a goal, it's bonus. The one-nil win over the visiting Cambodian national team at the Bishan Stadium was indeed a relief to everyone in the Lions setup whose preparation for the biennial regional showpiece – the AFF Suzuki Cup, hasn't been smooth sailing since national caretaker coach V Sundram moorthy took over back in May. With the most of the participating countries already confirmed their list of 23 for the tournament, the former Lions striker decided to buckle the trend by stated he will only do so when arrived in the Philippines in reply to a query from the media after the game. “I will only reveal when we are in Philippines,” said Coach Sundram during the post-match press conference on the to-be-finalized squad which is now trimmed to 24...

Why Daniel And Farra Are Essential Now ...

Close to 25,000 watched the Causeway Challenge Honestly, the recent Causeway Challenge fixture between Singapore and Malaysia shall go down in history as one of those anti-climax games in recent years. Apart from both teams using this friendly to finalize their preparation for the AFF Suzuki Cup next month, it is always not uncommon to have both the Lions and Harimau (Tigers) trying to claim supremacy over each other since both went separate ways in 1965. "DAMP SQUID" Any match featuring these two nations would usually wipe up those chest-pumping patriotism sentiments on both sides of the Causeway, but the mood during the run-up to the match played last Friday at the iconic National Stadium at Kallang resulted in a much more mundane affair. Perhaps much of that "damp squid" ambience has to do with ongoing misfortune that plagued the football fraternities of both sides. (L-R) Coach Sundram and Malaysia's coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee One of those con...