WC qualifiers draw + SEA Games

Two topics today. Let's start without ado.

Asian draw:
Singapore grouped with Asian 4th Saudi Arabia and 6th Uzbekistan, and Lebanon.

Initially, I thought it was not bad. Who knows? Uzbekistan is the best outside the 5 top seeds. It seems bad now. But never mind. A daunting task for Singapore that can only help us grow in quality and stature, that is when we pull off shocks.

My prediction: If Singapore can defeat Lebanon twice, and win on 2 other occasions, they will be able to progress. The magic number is 13, but 12 is not too bad.

If Singapore couldn't get pass this round, I will regard 9 points as passable, though not enough to get to the 4th round of qualifying.


Next: SEA Games football

First I congratulate Singapore for leading the medal tally after 2 days, with the shooting team contributing 5 gold medals, 2 silver and 2 bronze.

Singapore is grouped with Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos. Finally Singapore isn't grouped with Vietnam and Indonesia! That has been the most often case, which will probably result in a 5-team group ending with the 3 nations tied on 8 points.

Anyway, will we see another whacking of Laos, like that 11-0 mauling at the Asean Football Championships at the start of this year? Answer is a no. Laotians are shorter than others, but there isn't any tall forward in the U-23 team. The strikers are Khairul Amri and Fazrul Nawaz, who are both sprinters, and Agu Casmir, who isn't really tall either. The tall ones are Baihakki and Hassan Sunny, in defence and goal.

However, expect the Singaporean outfit to be exciting. There are fast-paced players and good passers in the team. Amri, Nawaz, Ridhuan Mohd are all good sprinters who have pace, while you can count on Hariss Harun and Sharil Ishak to spread the passes around the field against the stamina-lacking Laotians. Hence, believe Singapore can win their opening encounter with ease. I back Amri to score 2 or 3 goals, and the final scoreline to be 4-0. No goals considered as Laos can't outpace nor outjump the defence.

I will talk about following encounters in coming posts, to ensure more often posting at this blog.

And on a sidenote, join Freekick if you know who I am && you are a classmate or a friend of mine.