ismail yunos

A straight red card for Ismail Yunos leads to the calamitous 0-6 defeat by Iran. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)

For the second straight international, Ismail Yunos played a central role in a Singapore defeat when he was shown a straight red card for a two-footed tackle from behind on Reza Khalatbari in Singapore’s first Group E AFC Asian Cup qualifying match.

Ismail came on as a substitute in the second leg semi-final game against Vietnam in the ASEAN Football Championship (Suzuki Cup) and his failure to take down Le Cong Vinh allowed the striker to get past him and square the ball for the winner by Nguyen Quang Hai with Vietnam’s only shot of the game.

Vietnam subsequently went on to win the championship when they beat Thailand 3-2 in the finals.

With the loss of first-choice players Shi Jiayi, Aleksandar Duric and Noh Rahman from the starting lineup and a half-fit John Wilkinson and Noh Alam Shah starting, local-born players like Indra Sahdan, Shahril Ishak and Ismail Yunos got starting places.

However, that challenge by Ismail undid the good work of the team which up to that point, had played well enough to prevent the Iranians from doing any damage.

Coach Raddy Avramovic also questioned the heart of the players.

"I did not see the will in my players when we had possession of the ball. We defended well, especially in the first half, but when we got the ball we didn't know what to do with it. None of the players wanted to get the ball and start an attack.

The Iranians pressed us and they constantly won the ball and we kept losing balls in places we shouldn't have and this is one of the reasons why we lost this game,' concluded Avramovic.