More work to be done for YOG football team before Games commence

By Kenneth Tan/Red Sports

Jalan Besar Stadium, Saturday, July 24, 2010 — “This game will bring us back down to earth,” said Singapore Youth Olympics Games (YOG) football coach Kadir Yahaya after watching his team fall to a hefty 0-4 defeat against the U-18 boys on Saturday night.

After impressive results achieved in their friendly warm-up games in London and Singapore, the YOG squad, which comprised of the country’s best U-15s, this was a result not many expected.

The YOG squad played five games against age-group teams in their recent training trip to London, England, where they lost three and won two games, with their highlight being their 3-2 win over a Tottenham Hotspur academy team.

After returning from London, the squad also played two friendlies with the top two junior college teams in Singapore and one match with the Singapore U-17s. Their most memorable victory came in a 3-0 thrashing of the National A Division champions, Meridian JC.

This match against the U-18 boys proved to be the toughest test to date for the Cubs as their lack of maturity against boys three years older than them.

The defence was caught napping for the opening goal when they failed to pick up U-18 forward Muhaymin Salim. Despite the presence of at least three defenders, they failed to get a block on Mahaymin’s resulting shot.

For the second goal, the defence was caught out by a series of quick one-twos that left Ignatius Ang free to shoot past goalkeeper Fashah Iskandar.

The last two goals came via a long-range looping header by Shamil Sharif and a superb long-range belter from Shahfiq Ghani, who also plays for the Young Lions in the S.League.

Kadir Yahaya was left disappointed at the manner of how the goals were conceded.

“Defending as a team, you can’t just allow simple goals to go in. I can accept the fourth goal but the first three could have been prevented,” he lamented.

“From a coach’s point’s of view, this game exposed a lot of our weaknesses,” he added. “I was actually looking forward to this game so that we can work on them. Previously against the JCs, we were technically better than them.”

The Cubs lined up for this game with a 4-4-1-1 formation with creative forward Hanafi Akbar playing just behind diminutive forward Muhaimin Suhaimi.

Hanafi, who shot to prominence after impressive performances in the Asian Youth Games last year, was a pale shadow of himself in the first half as he failed to make any impact. However he turned in a much better performance in the second when switched to the right flank to accommodate Hazim Faiz’s introduction in the second half.

He fired a 30m free kick just over the bar and had a nice shimmy and turn that earned the applause of the fans in the stands.

Meanwhile, Muhaimin had an anonymous outing in the first 30 minutes before he suffered a knock and had to be substituted.

Syazwan Zin came on to replace Muhaimin late in the first half but was well contained by U-18’s centre-back partnership of Delwinder Singh and Arisman Arman before he had to be sacrificed in the second after left-back Dhukilan Jeevamani’s dismissal.

However coach Kadir looked pleased with his strikers’ work.

“I’m quite pleased with the strikers, they can create,” he commented.

When asked about Hanafi’s performance, he said, “He’s talented and skilful but the only thing I want to know is when he can turn on the switch. Sometimes he’s wandering around, something he get the ball, sometimes he don’t.”

“I’ll need to find the right solution between who can he partner,” he added. “In London, I partnered him with Muhaimin and they clicked well. But in future games, I’ll need more from him.”

In midfield, Kadir decided to go with the approach of two defensive midfielders in Amirul Iskandar and Amirul Emmran and two fast wingers on the flanks in Brandon Koh and Jonathan Tan.

Brandon and Jonathan constantly switched flanks in an attempt to confuse the opposition.

Amirul Iskandar imposed a bigger presence in the midfield, showing glimpses of his ability with a couple of strong challenges. Meanwhile Jonathan Tan showed good technical ability on the ball with a couple of twists and turns that fooled his opposite number.

Substitute winger Bryan Neubronner came on in the second half and showed some neat touches on the flanks.

As for the back four, Kadir decided to go with the AYG partnership of Syazwan Radhi and Jeffrey Lightfoot with Dhukilan Jeevamani and Illyas Lee as the full backs.

It was a tough outing for both Syazwan and Jeffrey with the speedy U-18 strikeforce of Muhaymin Salim and Stanley Ng causing all sorts of problems.

Left back Dhukilan failed to mark the opposite winger tightly enough with three of the four goals resulting from attacks from his side. His timing of tackles could have been better after making a couple of late challenges that earned him an early bath, although the second foul was a bit harsh considering he got the ball.

Meanwhile it was a good learning experience for new right back Illyas who did not participate in the AYG. He coped well with the threat on his flank.

Despite conceding four goals, coach Kadir looked settled on his back four for the YOG as he made no changes to it for the full 80 minutes.

Goalkeeper Fashah Iskandar generally showed a pair of safe hands as he was at no real fault for the goals conceded. However he could have been more commanding with his 1.81m frame in the box and shown less vulnerability to long-range shots.

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