Japanese students hand Lions a footballing lesson

SINGAPORE — It is just as well that Singapore national head coach V Sundramoorthy publicly declared that “results were not important” ahead of his team’s nine-day training tour in Japan as part of their preparations for the year-end AFF Suzuki Cup.

After all, his words proved prophetic as the Lions suffered a 3-2 defeat to the Niigata University of Health and Welfare in their opening friendly match on the tour on Wednesday (July 20).

With the Lions deprived of first-team stalwarts such as midfielder Hariss Harun, goalkeeper Hassan Sunny and defender Baihakki Khaizan due to club commitments, Sundram was forced to call-up a makeshift squad, including four uncapped players. 

But there should still have been enough quality within the Lions’ ranks, with the likes of Madhu Mohana, Gabriel Quak and Khairul Amri starting the friendly match, to avoid a defeat to a team consisting of university students.

Sundram’s men started on the front foot as they took the lead through Quak in the 9th minute. However, Takahashi Kazuma equalised for the Japanese side just four minutes later, before striking again in the 22nd minute to give his team the lead. 

Hafiz levelled the score soon after as both teams went into the break on equal footing, but Wada Kanta struck what eventually proved to be the winner for Niigata in the 56th minute to condemn the Lions to defeat.

Despite the loss, Sundram was unperturbed as he maintained his stance that the main purpose of the training tour in Japan would be to test out new players and formations ahead of the Suzuki Cup.

“I’m happy to give the players their first playing minutes of this training camp,” said Sundram, who gave a total of 18 players a run-out during the game. 

“These two training matches give me a chance to test various formations and players such as Amy Recha, which will be important in our preparations for the friendly against Albirex Niigata on Sunday and the ‘A’ international against Cambodia.”

Singapore will take on Albirex this Sunday at the Denka Big Swan Stadium, before facing Cambodia next Thursday in Phnom Penh.