Inconsistency ‘could stop Young Lions from purring’

KUALA LUMPUR — The first thing Young Lions head coach Richard Tardy did at Saturday’s training session at the Inspens Bangi Stadium in Kuala Lumpur was to gather them for a team talk.

With the national under-22 football team set to kick off their SEA Games campaign against Myanmar at Selayang Stadium today, Tardy, who spoke for close to 10 minutes, was clear in his message to his charges: Keep focused.

The Frenchman showed that he meant business. Players who made mistakes during the one-and-a-half- hour-long training session were immediately rewarded with a frustrated shout of “wake up” or “come on, do better!” directed at them.

It is no surprise to see Tardy place so much emphasis on his players keeping their focus and concentration, as the 67-year-old said inconsistency is his team’s biggest bane.

“We can play a very good game one day, and play very badly the next,” he lamented. “Our problems with consistency are still there ... and we’ve faced this issue on many occasions.

“This inconsistency is because the majority of the players here are still very young. The average age of this squad is about 20 years old, which makes us one of the younger teams at this SEA Games. We need to push them, but the problem is sometimes these young players forget what it takes to perform at a high level ... which is to prepare well and fight hard.”

The Young Lions will also face hosts Malaysia, Laos and Brunei during the group stages of the SEA Games football competition. The top two teams of each group will progress to the semi-finals.

While Tardy has set his team a target of progressing from their group, he admits it will be an uphill battle, and identified Myanmar and Malaysia as the favourites to reach the semis. Singapore could also miss the services of attacking midfielder Adam Swandi, who may have to sit out the match as he recovers from damaged ankle ligaments.

“Myanmar are, with Malaysia, the best team in the group,” he said. “This group is tough, and we are not the favourites, we are outsiders. But we need to get at least two points from the first two games (against Myanmar and Malaysia) if we are to stand any chance of progressing to the next round.

“Many people are expecting a big result from us, but for me, it’s more important to give experience and exposure to this young team as about half of them will still be eligible to play in the next Games. We must be careful about the expectations of the team, especially in terms of results.”

However, Myanmar head coach Gerd Zeise dispelled the notion that his team would have it easy in their match against Singapore.

The two teams played each other during the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) championship qualifiers just last month, and although Myanmar ran out 2-0 winners, Zeise said the Young Lions impressed him.

“Singapore is a young team that plays at a very good level,” said Zeise. “In our AFC match, they defended really well and always looked dangerous on the counter-attack.

“I don’t think we are the favourites for the match. Singapore will want to win, and I expect them to play aggressively and press us hard, so we must be prepared for a hard game.”