Young Lions gunning for Asian Games berth

SINGAPORE — The Young Lions, also known as the Singapore U-23 team, are gunning for a good result against their Indonesian counterparts tonight at the Hougang Stadium to strengthen their case for a berth at this September’s Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.

The team are waiting for a decision from the Singapore National Olympic Committee (SNOC), and coach Aide Iskandar, who was in charge of the U-23 team that won a bronze at last year’s SEA Games in Myanmar, acknowledged the usefulness of doing well against the Indonesians.

However, he added that he will be unfazed if they do not get the green light.

“Perhaps a good result against Indonesia will help our cause,” he said at a pre-match conference yesterday. “But even if we don’t get approval from the SNOC, we will carry on as usual because there is the SEA Games in Singapore, which is only fourteen months away, and we need to start planning for that.

“Still, it will be good for the boys to go to the Asian Games as they will get competitive matches against the best teams in Asia.”

Nevertheless, Aide believes his squad have registered enough good results recently to prove they are worthy of a ticket to Incheon.

“I am sure the SNOC will take into account the results of the six games we played in our recent training tour of Turkey,” he said.

Aide’s Courts Young Lions U-21 squad won two matches in Turkey, drew three and lost one of the six matches played.

The wins were over the Austrian U-19 side (3-1) and Danish club Neastved BK (2-1). They drew 0-0 with the reserve team of Turkish club Antalyaspor and the Azerbaijan U-21 side, and 1-1 with the Danish U-21 side.

Their sole defeat was a 1-4 loss to Austrian side SV Horn.

Indonesia’s assistant coach Muhammad Zein Alhada said tonight’s game is part of their final tune-up for Incheon.

“We beat Sri Lanka 5-0 in Jakarta last week but we expect a difficult match against Singapore,” said Zein, who added that the Indonesians will go on a four-match tour of Italy in June before heading to the Asian Games. DAN GUEN CHIN

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