Singapore Youth Olympic squad beats MJC 3-0 in football warm-up

Story by Les Tan/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

Jalan Besar Stadium, Saturday, July 10, 2010 — The Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) football squad continued their warm up with a 3-0 win over Meridian Junior College (MJC) over the weekend.

MJC are the current holders of the 2010 A Division Championship title and the YOG squad also beat A Division runners-up St Andrew’s Junior College 2-1 in an earlier warm-up game as well.

The YOG squad recently returned from a training trip to London, England, where they played five games against age-group teams. The squad lost three and won two games, their most memorable match being their 3-2 win over a Tottenham Hotspur academy team.

“It was a good experience for us to challenge ourselves against bigger and top class opposition. The highlight of the tour was coming back from going two goals down to beat the Spurs Academy in their home ground,” said YOG captain Jeffrey Lightfoot on the FAS website.

All the players in the YOG squad are 15 years of age this year and they continued their preparations after returning to Singapore by playing against the older junior college teams last week. Singapore are due to play Zimbabwe and Montenegro in the first round of the YOG football competition. (See fixtures here.)

Playing against an MJC squad that hadn’t trained since their A Division final win in late May, the YOG squad created chances but their finishing was poor. Syazwan Zin (#9) missed a hatful of chances before Syazwan Radhi (#3) found the net when he converted a penalty after Hanafi Akbar (#8) was brought down in the box. Brandon Koh (#7) then scored before half time to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead.

In the second half, goalkeeper Fashah (Singapore #1) did well when tested by Khairul Azmi (MJC #10) but it was MJC goalkeeper Daniel Lightfoot — brother of YOG captain Jeffrey — who was the busier of the two goalies as he made two good saves, one coming off the boot of substitute Bryan Neubronner.

Syazwan finally got his team’s third of the night and the game finished 3-0 in favour of the Cubs.

Ex-national coach Jita Singh, who now heads the FAS Grassroots and Community Outreach Division, was pleased with what he saw.

“They play with cohesiveness and possession and they are more adept on the ball,” said Jita when asked how different the team was compared to last year’s Asian Youth Games squad. “There are also not afraid of the big boys.”

Cubs coach Kadir Yahaya was a picture of studied concentration, poring over his post-game notes in the dressing room when we found him.

“We need more teamwork. Our finishing is very poor,” was Kadir’s precise assessment.

Mr Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary of MCYS, was on hand to watch the game. After the game, he went down to have a word with the YOG squad.

“Football is the only sport that can bring Singapore together. The responsibility is heavy on your shoulders but play hard, play well,” he told the squad.

The YOG squad will play three more warm-up games against the National Football Academy (NFA) U-18, U-17 and U-16 squads in the coming few weeks.

The 23-man squad will be cut to 18 for the YOG.

Results in London
Spurs Academy 2 Singapore 3
Chigwell FC 0 Singapore 1
West Ham (U-14) 2 Singapore 1
Burkhurst Hill 4 Singapore 0
Essex County 3 Singapore 2

Singapore Starting XI against MJC
Fashah (GK, #1)
Dhukhilan Jeevamani (left-back, #16), Jeffrey Lightfoot (centre-back,#4), Syazwan Radhi (centre-back, #3), Azrin Hamdan (right-back, #6)
Brandon Koh (left midfield, #7), Amirul Iskandar (centre midfield, #2), Ammirul Emmran Mazlan (centre midfield, #5), Jonathan Tan (centre midfield, #13)
Md Hanafi Md Akbar (striker, #8), Md Syazwan Md Zin (striker, #9)

Full 23-man Squad
Hamzah Fazil, Fashah Iskandar, *Nurshaban Razali, Dhukhilan Jeevamani, Amirul Iskandar, *Azrin Hamdan, Syazwan Radhi, Sunny Ng, Jeffrey Adam Lightfoot, *Illyas Lee Si Qin, Nurhidayat Rahim, Firdaus Sham, *Fatemy Firdouse, *Bryan Nicholas Neubronner, *Oscalli Rahim, Ammirul Emmran Mazlan, Brandon Koh, Irfan Asyraf, Muhaimin Suhaimi, Hanafi Akbar, Jonathan Tan, Syazwan Zin, *Muhammad Hazim Faiz

*new players who were not part of the 2009 Asian Youth Games squad

For more photos, go to next page