The starting lineup for the Singapore U22s. (Photo courtesy of FAS)
Pekanbaru, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 — The Singapore Under-22s earned a crucial point when they held the Australia U22s to a 0-0 draw in the AFC Under-22 Championship Qualifiers.
Singapore had won their opening game 2-1 against Timor Leste and then lost 1-3 to Japan. Singapore’s 1-1-1 win-draw-lose record currently gives them third place in Group E. Japan (3-0-0) are the current group leaders while Australia (2-1-0) are second.
Singapore have two more games left against Macau and Indonesia in their group.
While Australia had the edge on possession, Singapore had more clear chances, with the first one coming in the 14th minute.
Faris Ramli had his shot saved by Australia’s keeper, after an excellent sequence of passes between Ignatius Ang and Ahmad Suhaimi.
Australia then went down to 10 men in the 42nd minute after their captain, Terry Antonis, was shown the red card for an off-the-ball incident.
Singapore could have broken the deadlock just five minutes later, when Aqhari Abdullah intercepted the Australian keeper’s pass out of the penalty box. However, Aqhari rushed his shot and Aaron Lennox gathered gratefully.
Australia had a chance in the 56th minute when substitute Nick Fitzgerald pounced on a loose ball in the penalty box but his shot was brilliantly saved by the Singapore custodian, Syazwan Buhari.
Singapore responded just five minutes later but midfielder Ignatius saw his shot go just wide of the post.
Young Lions’ substitute, Farhan Rahmat, was then sent off two minutes before the end of the match for a rash tackle near the corner flag.
“It was a tough game for us as Australia is a very strong team. The players did a lot of running and it was not easy especially with the hot weather. We could have done much better offensively. For now, we will look at a game at a time, and next up is Macau and we are here to compete and win,” said Singapore U22s head coach, Mike Wong.
Midfielder Faris Ramli said: “I am pleased with our performance as all the boys gave their all during the whole of the 90 minutes played. We could have won the game, and I had a good chance of scoring one just now, but unfortunately, we did not convert our chances. But it is an important one point for us.”
The Singapore U22 squad is missing 13 other players due to National Service commitments.
Final Score
Singapore U22 0 Australia U22 0
Singapore U22s Starting Line-up
Syazwan Buhari, Delwinder Singh, Al-Qaasimy Rahman, Sheikh Abdul Hadi, Ali Hudzaifi, Shami Sharif, Basil Teo, Faris Ramli, Aqhari Abdullah, Ahmad Suhaimi, Ignatius Ang
Australia U22s Starting Line-up
Aaron Lennox, Joshua Brillante, Connor Edward Chapman, Corey Edward Brown, Reece Caira, Jake Barker-Daish, Terry Antonis, Jesse David, Anthony Proia, Giancarlo Gallifuoco, Benjamin Garuccio
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