Lions win, but fail to convince

SINGAPORE — The Lions may have met their main objective of picking up all three points against Cambodia — courtesy of a 2-1 win — in last night’s FIFA World Cup Group E qualification match at the National Stadium.

But the unconvincing manner of victory has raised doubts over Singapore’s ability to secure the needed results when much stronger opponents, in the form of Syria and Japan, come visiting next month.

Having already beaten Cambodia 4-0 away in June, Singapore were expected to make light work of their same opponents yesterday, and much of the talk before the game was centered on how many goals coach Bernd Stange’s men would score.

Instead, the Lions’ profligacy in front of goal, coupled with stout defending from Cambodia saw the home team improve their goal difference by just one.

While admitting that his team failed to perform to their best, Stange remained defiant in the face of his critics, even as fans were heard chanting “boring, boring Singapore” near the end of the match.

“We have achieved what we wanted: Six points from two home games,” the 67-year-old German said. “It shows exactly that all these demands for scoring goals are not easy for us. It was boring for me as well, especially when we could not use our chances.

“We have to find our way back in combination football and find a right way to go forward. The performance is not there, but I’m choosing to look at the positives. Credit to the players as well — they worked hard today against a Cambodia side that was always dangerous and did a good job.”

Going up against a well-disciplined five-man defence, Singapore were unable to create many chances of note in the opening stages of the game. However, Cambodia’s fierce resistance was broken in the 16th minute when Safuwan Baharudin, who was making his return from a one-match ban, flicked on Madhu Mohana’s long throw for winger Faris Ramli to sidefoot home from close range.

If the 9,417 fans were hoping the goal would open the floodgates, they were sorely disappointed. Instead, Singapore contrived to miss several gilt-edged chances throughout the first half, which culminated in Khairul Amri’s missed penalty in the 43rd minute. It also proved to be the 30-year-old’s last involvement in the match, as he was stretchered off with a pulled hamstring and was eventually replaced by Fazrul Nawaz during the interval.

Fazrul made an immediate impact as he doubled Singapore’s lead a minute after the break, after capitalising on a poor back-pass by Nhim Sovannara before coolly curling the ball into the top corner.

Despite the two-goal lead, Singapore still looked uncomfortable and were unable to further threaten Cambodia’s goal.

Instead it were the visitors who scored the next goal — their first in the qualifiers — when Sos Suhana flicked Chan Vathanaka’s low cross past Singapore goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud.

“I was hopeful of taking a point, but my players’ condition wasn’t good,” said Cambodia head coach Lee Tae Hoon. “I think (in the) second half, Singapore players were tired, that’s why we were able to score. Our players tried to be more offensive in the second-half as well, but we just weren’t able to find the equaliser.”

Singapore are currently joint-top of Group E on 10 points along with Japan, who have played one game less. As of press time, Syria, who played Afghanistan this morning, are third on nine points.

Singapore will next take on the Japanese on Nov 12, before facing Syria five days later, with the results of both matches likely to determine Singapore’s fate in qualifying for the Asian Cup finals.

Stange however, has called on his players to believe they can pick up victories over their more illustrious opponents next month.

“My target is six points from our next two home games. How we do it is another thing,” he said.

“But we have to play much better than we did against Afghanistan and Cambodia. The next match is the most important and we are focused on that.”