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Young Lions must up their game, says Subramani

SINGAPORE — Despite opening their campaign at the South-east Asian (SEA) Games with a win yesterday (June 1), doubts have arisen over whether Singapore’s national under-23 football side achieve their pre-Games target of reaching the final on June 15.

Assistant Coach of the Young Lions S Subramani. Photo: Jaslin Goh

Assistant Coach of the Young Lions S Subramani. Photo: Jaslin Goh

SINGAPORE — Despite opening their campaign at the South-east Asian (SEA) Games with a win yesterday (June 1), doubts have arisen over whether Singapore’s national under-23 football side achieve their pre-Games target of reaching the final on June 15.

A solitary strike from defender Sheikh Abdul Hadi gave the hosts a narrow 1-0 win over the Philippines — a team that comprised mostly of university students — sparing their blushes in their opening Group A match at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

But national assistant coach S Subramani said the most important thing was that the Young Lions came away with all three points.

Nonetheless, the former national defender acknowledged that the Young Lions must up their game, starting with their next Group A match against Myanmar on Thursday.

“The performance wasn’t as good as expected but the most important thing was to get the three points,” he said at the team’s Days Hotel base today.

“The game against Philippines was the opening match, so it’s only natural there were jitters in the team, especially among the younger players. But now that the first game is over and we got the win under our belt, the players are feeling much more confident and I expect them to do better.”

Subramani expects Myanmar to give his team another stern challenge, but declined to reveal if there would be changes made to the team for the game.

“Myanmar are a very good side and they’ll be well prepared for us, so I’m sure they’ll give us a good fight,” he said.

“We haven’t decided on our starting line-up as yet because we’ll still have to look at the players’ condition tomorrow before finalising the squad. Some players such as Faris Ramli are suffering from fatigue, while Shafiq (Ghani) is still injured and we don’t know if he’ll be back in time for the match.”

A constant source of frustration for majority of the sold-out crowd at the Jalan Besar Stadium yesterday was Singapore’s lack of a finishing touch in front of goal, with winger Faris Ramli and forward Sahil Suhaimi, in particular, guilty of spurning several opportunities. Irfan Fandi came on as a first-half substitute and was a threat upfront, but the Young Lions’ profligacy continued.

“I think there’s still room for improvement in terms of the attacking aspect of our game,” said midfielder Safirul Sulaiman, 22.

“We’ll be working hard to improve on our composure in front of goal, which I think is the reason why we failed to score more goals against the Philippines. Morale in the team is good after the win and we’re more confident now. But there’s no room for complacency and we’ll continue giving our all during training.”

Defending champions and record 14-time SEA Games gold medallists Thailand, who look set to win Group B after a 1-0 win over Timor Leste at the Bishan Stadium on Monday — the Thais also beat Brunei 6-0 in their opening group match on Friday — are expected to reach the final.

But Singapore defender Fadli Kamis insisted they are not paying much attention to how their rivals are doing.

“We aren’t worried about the results and performances of our rivals,” said Fadli, 22.

“We’re just focused on ourselves and as long as we give our 100% in each game and follow the coach’s game plan, then I’m sure we’ll definitely reach the finals.”

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