Irfan grabs hat-trick in S’pore’s 10-0 rout of Northern Mariana

SINGAPORE — Rising star Irfan Fandi scored a hat-trick as the Singapore under-18s bounced back from their 2-6 thrashing by South Korea and routed Northern Mariana 10-0 in their second Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Championship qualifying match in Nonthaburi, Thailand, yesterday.

Although the Republic had been expected to beat their opponents, who are not even on the FIFA and AFC rankings, after Northern Mariana were clobbered 0-10 by Chinese Taipei on Monday, Singapore also needed a big win to beef up its goal difference.

The demolition job began in the ninth minute when midfielder Muhammad Hami Syahin Said broke the deadlock.

The 16-year-old, who scored against South Korea on Monday, then notched his second goal in the 39th minute.

Singapore’s midfielders continued to find the net as Justin Kang then made it 3-0 just before half time and 17-year-old Joshua Bernard Pereira scored in the 55th minute.

Striker Irfan, who came on as a second-half substitute, opened his accounts in the 60th minute.

Northern Mariana conceded an own goal in the 75th minute before Irfan pounced again two minutes later to make it 7-0.

Midfielder Gareth Low and defender Muhammad Shah Zulkarnaen scored before Irfan completed his hat-trick in injury time.

National youth team coach Richard Tardy said he was pleased with the players for achieving their objective. “After the first game, we did what we had to do,” he said.

“We needed to score goals and we did the job because Northern Mariana is not a strong team,” added the Frenchman. “The team still has many areas to work on but credit to them for today because it is not easy to score 10 goals in 90 minutes.”

Tardy also felt that the 2-6 loss to South Korea was not a fair reflection of the game. “South Korea is a good team but we played well for 60 minutes. The boys ran and fought for every ball,” he said. “We were down 0-1 at half time and it was 2-2 until we conceded again in the 70th minute.

“The boys lost their energy after that because they had only 20 per cent of possession throughout the game, and we conceded three goals in the last eight minutes.”

Tardy was also pleased with Irfan, who returned to full training two weeks ago after recovering from the leg injury he had sustained during the SEA Games in June.

“It was good that he scored,” he said. “Just as he gives confidence to the team when he plays, the goals will also boost his confidence.”

Singapore will next meet hosts Thailand on Sunday.