By Les Tan
Shahril Ishak will get his first start of the ASEAN Football Championship. The Home United midfielder has 65 caps and 5 goals to his name so far. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)
National Stadium, Saturday, December 20, 2008 – After the 6pm evening practice at the National Stadium today, it looks like Shahril Ishak will get to start in the left midfield position that John Wilkinson normally takes.
This will be Shahril’s first start in the ASEAN Football Championship (AFF Suzuki Cup) and comes after a single substitute appearance in the Group A matches.
Wilkinson injured his calf earlier this week and looks unlikely to start tomorrow. In fact, should Singapore beat Vietnam tomorrow and qualify for the two-legged final, Wilkinson might not even make it for that. That’s because the last time Wilkinson injured his calf during the S.League season, he was out for three weeks.
John Wilkinson is the first choice for the left midfield position. Coach Raddy Avramovic pointed out that the absence of Wilkinson was the reason Singapore struggled to have any meaningful possession and forward movement, spending most of the game against Vietnam on the backfoot and escaping with a lucky 0-0 draw in what was their worst game of the championship.
Shi Jiayi, despite just recovering from the flu, will resume his central midfield partnership with defensive midfielder Mustafic Fahrudin, which means that Isa Halim will go back to the bench again. Isa, a defensive midfielder, started the game against Vietnam.
Noh Alam Shah, who was on the bench for the game against Vietnam but came on for the ineffective Indra Sahdan, will now get to start against Vietnam tomorrow. Alam Shah started the game against Myanmar as well and made a substitute appearance in the game against Cambodia.
Alam Shah will partner Agu Casmir upfront which means Indra will again sit on the bench. Agu has started every game in this championship and has four goals to his name. However, his goals have dried in the last two games as he only thrives when he has a good strike partner and constant service from midfield.
The Singapore squad looked tired in their game against Vietnam and one reason is the long 33-game, 10-month S.League season, which ended only on November 22nd.
Vietnam were the first team in the championship so far who have played a pressing, harassing game against Singapore, the defending champions, and it almost paid off for them with a win.
If Vietnam repeat those tactics again tomorrow, Singapore will have a hard time because the players don’t look like they have the energy to play a fast, passing, one-touch game to get around such high pressure tactics.
shahril lshak play well so as alam shah,lndra,ridhuan,agu amd more BUT it is not just their day …… by rite SINGAPORE should have win and bring glory to sinagpore but nevermind i know that they try really hard and give their best shot for the whole game …………despite that lsahk is having a lung infection he still came to plat that is great and wonderful
Today Singapore played well but they were not lucky.
Also Vietnam had a wonderful goal!
Looks like Shahril had a decent outing on the left for the first half.
i think putting shahril ishak on the left flank is a good move by raddy, and it was something i said should have been done since the last match. shahril ishak gives us another dimension to the team, because he is very calm on the ball and doesn’t just hit it up to the front two, which will help them tremendously. he is also regarded as the best dribbler in the singapore team and with the vietnamese full backs venturing forward at every opportunity, shahril ishak can be the one to exploit the spaces left at the back, as ridhuan mohammed almost did in the last match, although he wasted the opportunity by crossing early.
shahril ishak has also played left flank on a few occasions and looked lively there. in the absence of khairul amri, fazrul nawaz and john wilkinson, he definitely is the best choice for our left flank and we all hope to see a good game from him!
quote.
“Vietnam were the first team in the championship so far who have played a pressing, harassing game against Singapore, the defending champions, and it almost paid off for them with a win.”
haha i think its not that myanmar and indon didnt want to do that. its just that we hit them with goals as early as the 1st minute. shocked them i guess. haha