Laos 0-0 Singapore

What can I say? Watching this game is painful on the eye for me as a Singaporean. For times of the game, I really thought Laos were the better team. Or, for that case, Singapore were the team in red.

These are the departments and players who desperately needs to improve.

All-round:
Passing was sloppy, often gives the ball away.
Crosses are often inaccurate and ineffective.
Lack of real urgency, less determination compared to Laotians.

Defence:
Often falls prey to quick counter-attacks from Laos.
Hence, they need to improve their positioning.

Midfield:
Lacks creativity.
Passes were often half-hearted and easily cut out by opposing players.
Needs to contribute more to both attack and defence.

Attack:
Did not make use of body strength (Agu Casmir) and pace enough.

Laos had nearly got the winning goal in injury time. That really shows that Laos' team is hungry and eager to prove, perhaps more after their national team got whacked by Singapore 0-11 in the Asean Football Championships earlier this year.

My personal take on players:
Hassan Sunny did fairly well on the few occasions when he needed to. Baihakki Khaizan and co. in defence were not really on top form as they were exposed by the swiftness of the Laos' counter-attacks. The midfield was often missing in action. Sharil Ishak failed to do what he ought to do: provide good passes into the penalty box. Fazrul would be better as a forward. Khairul Amri did fairly but lacked a goal. Agu was disappointing; his game in the 1st half was dreadful, and the 2nd half insignificant.

My note to Raddy (I don't know more than him though):
Drop Agu for match against Vietnam.
Restore Fazrul to frontline.
Use Hariss Harun in place of either Tangku Mushadad or Sharil Ishak.

Regret:
Singapore lack a tall centre-forward to tackle those incoming high crosses to punish the Laos. His height was what helped Noh Alam Shah put 7 past Laos in the Asean Football Championship rout.

Now, Singapore has to buck up and produce more urgency in their play from the start, and needs to produce effective passing and crossing to achieve a win against Vietnam to put them back into contention.

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.

Title run-in

Impressive. Home United lose to Young Lions. Draw between SAFFC and Tampines Rovers.

Wow. It's anyone's game, but Tampines have the advantage and Home Utd is in the worst position. But all these pressure...let's talk about other stuff.

It's too early to talk about this, but I shall be making guesses for the next S-League season. Here is it:

S-League to expand to 13 teams.
Same 3 teams fighting for title, but Young Lions to make a challenge.
Wooden Spoon to go to Sengkang Punggol, to be changed...likely.
Another walk-out.
AFC tells Singapore that their teams can go to AFC Champions League instead of AFC Cup.
Duric and Grabovac to finally retire at the end of the season.


Wow. Some nice stuff. But for now, I hope SAF win the title.

Back

Wow. It's time to post.

The S-League title fight is turning to be an intriguing one. Currently Tampines have the upper hand, but these 3 teams in the fight will be facing each other in part of their remaing matches. Very exciting. They can be in control of their own destiny. SAFFC meanwhile have the best goal difference. They might even end up with 100 league goals, averaging >3 goals per game. Impressive. Equally impressive is their top scorer Aleksander Duric. Absolutely top-class. With Home United, we present to you the Big Three of Singapore.

I recently watched on Channel 5 a match between Young Lions and Albirex Niigata. Young Lions won it 1-0. However, they deserved more than that. The football they play is absolutely impressive. They have very pacy attacking players. They also have good playmakers in Hariss Harun and engku Mushadad. Remember the latter is only 17, and probably the youngest in the league, since he is playing only on exemption. The rules of the league state that players have to be at least 18 years old. He had already represented the natiobnal team. Wonderful player. In Khairul Amri and Fazrul Nawaz, they boast of some really fast attackers that could pose a threat to any defence. I think this team really has a chance at the SEA Games, and they, not Gombak Utd, can pose the biggest threat to the Big Three.

I hope SAFFC win the league. A bond, maybe. Duric even got called up to the national team at 37. Unlike Mr Avramovic's policy of young players, definitely.

Tampines Rovers seriously isn't a team for the future. SAFFC and Home United can still sustain, but Young Lions' losing of players might hold them back for future seasons. Right now, they are really moving in the right direction. Way to go.

Walcott.

Long time

How long was it? I guess no one notices...

Anyway, just to say hi.

HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI!

Being seriously wrong. But I tip SAFFC to win the S-League title, and reach at least the semi-finals of AFC Cup.