By Les Tan
The central defensive pair of Precious Emuejeraye (left) and Baihakki Khaizan have towered over their shorter opponents in the air but it’s on the ground that they are a little slower. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Singapore have won all three of their group games to finish top of Group A in their ASEAN Football Championship (Suzuki Cup) campaign. They now face Vietnam in the first semi-final on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 away in Hanoi.
So far, the team has conceded only one goal and scored 10. The lone conceded goal came against Myanmar when the Burmese team outmanoeuvred our backline to leave their striker free to run at goal, eventually beating goalkeeper Lionel Lewis in a one-on-one situation.
Baikkakki Khaizan gave chase but never had a realistic chance of catching the Burmese forward who had a head start.
If Singapore has an obvious weakness, it’s the speed of the centre defensive pair of Precious Emuejeraye and Baihakki Khaizan. They reign in the skies, with high balls easily taken care of by the 1.95m Baihakki and 1.87m Precious.
However, they are vulnerable if speedy attackers take a run at them. Precious, who is listed as 80kg on the Football Association of Singapore website but looks like he is tipping the scales at 100kg, is not fast and neither is Baihakki.
The defensive midfield role played by Mustafic Fahrudin in the first two games against Cambodia and Myanmar and Isa Halim in the third game against Indonesia has been key in protecting the Singapore goal from attacks through the centre.
The second Vietnamese goal in the warm-up 2-2 draw at Jurong East last month, conceded in the last moments of the game, showed the vulnerability of the defense against a team with speedy attackers willing to run at them.
It is quite obvious what the Vietnamese tactics will be in Hanoi and this will be a tactical battle worth watching.
If you would like to write a story entitled “How Singapore got to the semi-final” I would be more than happy to post it on redsports for you.
It is my policy for this site to post any game story from any reader. So the open invitation stands.
I am not trying to insult Precious.
The point of the article was to explore the weakness of the team, which is not a big secret and is clear for all to see.
It was clear in the 2-2 warm up game at Jurong East last month and also clear last night again in Hanoi.
The chances Vietnam got was because the central two can’t move fast enough to close them down. Vietnam had two one-on-one chances. Baihakki got close enough to close one down but the other one they were both missing but the Vietnamese shot hit the post.
Having said all that, I hope Singapore wins. I didn’t write these articles hoping they will lose.
I don’t get what’s the point in this article. Are you insulting Precious by saying he should be around 100kg instead of 80kg?
instead of having an article of “How to beat Singapore”, why not have one about “How Singapore made it to the Semi-Finals”? I believe this pair of centrebacks played a huge role in us getting into the SF.
peace out.
actually baihakki is not that slow. He is just now that alert. Precious is slow. But he got the size
coach raddy should put ismail yunos or shaiful esah in the center .
thats why they are not a striker.
seems like singapore had not seen a fast centre back for a long time? aide and sasi was slow, even tong hai,mani was not that fast.. and now two slow centre backs.