“It was a tactical loss” – national football coach Raddy Avramovic

By Les Tan

Jurong East Stadium, Wednesday, November 26, 2008 – Defending Asean champions Singapore were held to a 2-2 draw by Vietnam in a friendly game last night. Although the Singapore team went on to win the game on penalties, the way the team conceded both goals rankled coach Raddy Avramovic.

“If you are a serious team, you don’t allow your opponent to score a goal straight after you score,” said coach Raddy. “If you are a serious team, you don’t allow your opponent to score in the last minute.”

Vietnam played with a cohesion of a team that had trained together for a long time, unlike the Lions who only came together four days ago for centralised training after a long S.League season.

“Vietnam is in competition form, we are not in competition form. You can see the difference,” said Raddy. “It was a tactical loss.”

The players also didn’t have that freshness, coach Avramovic pointed out. They didn’t have the energy to run on for return balls after their passes.

When asked about his first XI, he said, “I already have my first eleven in mind long time ago. Tonight was to give more players a chance to see if they can take the place of the first 11 because you need 15 players for a tournament.”

He pointed out that Aleksandar Duric and Agu Casmir played well together even though they were new to each other as an upfront pair. He also acknowledged that it was difficult for Indra Shahdan in his new position on the right side of midfield.

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