Singapore beat Myanmar 3-1 to cement semi-final place in ASEAN Football Championship

By Les Tan

Gelora Bang Karno Stadium, Jakarta, Sunday, December 7, 2008 – Singapore beat Myanmar 3-1 this evening with a controversial third goal by Agu Casmir leading to a red card for Myanmar goalkeeper Aung Oo Aung. The win ensure that they would progress into the semi-final stage of the ASEAN Football Championship (AFF Suzuki Cup).

A 1st minute headed goal by Noh Alam Shah set up by a John Wilkinson cross gave them a great start to the game and when Agu Casmir scored the second with a well-taken volley in the 15th minute from the edge of the box from a Shi Jiayi corner, Singapore hopes went up even more for a big victory.

But the Myanmar team came back with a well-worked goal that exposed the lack of speed and concentration in the Singapore defence with Noh Rahman allowing Myo to get away from him to run clear at goal. Baihakki Khaizan tried to chase back but he never had a real chance of catching Myo and the Myanmar striker finished off his run with a well-placed strike against an exposed Lionel Lewis in a one-on-one situation.

A well-struck John Wilkinson shot after a nice layoff by Agu Casmir almost gave Singapore their third goal but the Myanmar keeper Aung saved brilliantly to keep his team in the game.

Trailing 1-2 at the start of the second half, Myanmar took the game to Singapore in a torrid first ten minutes that saw Singapore struggle to keep possession. Myanmar had to win to remain alive in the competition, having lost their first game 0-3 to Indonesia, and so attacked with intent.

However, they could not translate their possession into any meaningful threat on goal and Lionel Lewis did not have a save to make.

Having survived the Myanmar pressure, Singapore came back into their own and Agu Casmir had an excellent chance to score a third goal but his volley was too high.

As time went on, neither team made any serious threat to their opponents goal although Myanmar always seemed to have more of a threat with their speed against a slower Singapore defence, with Noh Rahman exposed on a few occasions, resulting in a yellow card for a shirt-tugging incident when he couldn’t keep up with the Myanmar attacker.

Then came the moment of madness that can sometimes blight the ASEAN Football Championship. Shi Jiayi went down under a strong challenge and stayed down. Noh Alam Shah took the free kick quickly to catch the Myanmar defence unprepared, his pass finding John Wilkinson one-on-one with the keeper Aung.

While Aung managed to keep out Wilkinson’s first effort, he couldn’t prevent Wilkinson from getting to the ball again and squaring it across to Agu who had the simplest of tap-ins into an unguarded goal.

Keeper Aung was furious and rushed the Vietnamese referee Phung Ding Dung, shoving him in the process while the rest of his teammates surrounded the referee to protest against his decision to allow the quick free kick. Baihakki Khaizan tried to step in to cool the Myanmar team down but Daniel Bennett sensibly drew him away to avoid inflaming the situation.

The Myanmar team looked like they would stage a walkout, a reminder of how Thailand too threatened to walk out after they disagreed with a penalty awarded to Singapore in the final of the last ASEAN Football Championship.

Play finally resumed after the Myanmar team were persuaded to come back onto the pitch by officials but they had lost their momentum already and did not pose any threat to a Singapore team that sensibly played out time to secure their second win of Group A.

Singapore will now face Indonesia next Tuesday in a game that will decide who tops the group.

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Player Statistics

ROSMAN SULAIMAN
Age: 26 (6/11/82) Position: Defender Club: Home United Caps: 0 Goals: 0 Jersey #: 26

SHAIFUL ESAH
Age: 22 (12/5/86) Position: Defender Club: SAFFC Caps: 0 Goals: 0 Jersey #: 22

Television schedule for Singapore games

Indonesia vs Singapore
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
Channel 24 (live) 8.27pm
Channel 5 (delayed) 10pm

Semi-finals: December 16, 17, 20, 21

Final: December 24, 28