Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

It’s do-or-die time for Young Lions against Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR — As Singapore’s Under-22 football team were put through a light recovery training session at the Inspens Bangi Stadium in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, head coach Richard Tardy stood in the middle of the pitch looking pensively at the players around him.

As Singapore’s Under-22 football team were put through a light recovery training session at the Inspens Bangi Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (Aug 15) evening. Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY

As Singapore’s Under-22 football team were put through a light recovery training session at the Inspens Bangi Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (Aug 15) evening. Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY

KUALA LUMPUR — As Singapore’s Under-22 football team were put through a light recovery training session at the Inspens Bangi Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (Aug 15), head coach Richard Tardy stood in the middle of the pitch looking pensively at the players around him.

The mood within the Young Lions camp was relaxed, but the Frenchman remained brooding throughout the 90-minute session.

It is not hard to figure out why —  his charges will be playing in arguably one of their biggest matches to date tonight, one that they cannot afford to lose, when they take on Causeway rivals and South-East Asian (SEA) Games host Malaysia at the 80,000-capacity Shah Alam Stadium.

After his team’s 2-0 defeat to Myanmar on Monday, Tardy knows they need to survive their Malaysia test if they are to stand any chance of progressing to the semi-finals.

“Sure, if we lose to Malaysia, it will be 90 per cent certain that we cannot progress,” said Tardy. “Of course, it’ll also depend on the result of Myanmar’s game against Laos, and we will get a clearer idea of where we stand on Thursday. I said before the Myanmar game that it would be very good if we can get a win or a draw against them, and it’s the same aim as well against the Malaysians. But there is no doubt Malaysia are the favourites, and we are the outsiders.”

Nonetheless, Tardy said he was heartened by his side’s second-half display against Myanmar, when they pushed the SEA Games silver medallists to the limit.

Indeed, the Young Lions were able to carve out several good goal-scoring opportunities, but were just unable to put the ball into the back of the net.

However, Tardy believes that if his players are able to replicate their second-half performance against Myanmar tonight, the result will follow.

Said the 67-year-old Frenchman: “The aim is to perform again like we did in the second half against Myanmar. I told the players they must take confidence in the spirit and performance they showed … we had more possession, we threatened the Myanmar goal more, but in football, you need to score if you want to win.

“So we must focus on repeating that performance against Malaysia and hope that inconsistency doesn’t cost us again.”

Many were expecting Malaysia to beat Brunei convincingly in their opening match on Monday, but the hosts were able to secure only a 2-1 victory. Despite that, Tardy cautioned against reading too much into the result of the match.

“It’s never easy to start the tournament, especially when you’re under big pressure from the home crowd. Maybe Malaysia too were not as switched on as they should have been because they were too confident of victory,” explained the former coach of Rwanda’s U-17 team, who led the country to the 2011 Fifa U-17 World Cup. “But we know matches between Singapore and Malaysia are always special, and we expect them to be fired up — so it’ll definitely be difficult for us.”

Tardy also revealed that he was likely to make a few changes to his line-up to avoid player fatigue.

“Perhaps some players who didn’t start the game against Myanmar will start against Malaysia,” he said. “We need fresh legs because it’s difficult for the players to play every two days.”

Among those in line to start the game is playmaker Hanafi Akbar, who was an unused substitute against Myanmar, while midfielder Adam Swandi is also likely to play a part in the match after recovering from an ankle injury.

Hanafi declared that the team is united in their goal of securing victory over Malaysia. “We are together as one team ... whether I play or not is up to the coach, but the team has done pretty well so far,” said Hanafi. “We showed fighting spirit and what we were capable of against Myanmar, and we will definitely fight as hard against when we play Malaysia.”

WATCH LIVE ON TODAY'S FACEBOOK PAGE: 


OR LIVE ON OKTO
The game will be shown live on Okto at 8.45pm and on Toggle (toggle.sg/seagames2017).

SEA GAMES ON MEDIACORP
Follow Team Singapore at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games on Okto and Toggle daily. 
Okto: 6-9pm on weekdays and 4-9pm on weekends. Today at the Games, a one-hour highlight show will be screened nightly from 9-10pm
Toggle: Go to the SEA Games microsite at toggle.sg/seagames2017 which featues Toggle’s three live channels

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.