photo from hkfa.com
For those who missed the game last evening at Jurong West Stadium, it was a pity. Singapore put up a great performance to outclass HongKong 2-0 in the International Friendly. Considered Singapore losing 1-0 to them last June at HongKong, the victory last evening was a sweet revenge.
Although both sides called up several uncapped players and field quite a handful of young players, the headline undoubtedly still went to the more senior player. Singapore’s forever-young hotshot, Aleksandar Duric (No-9), scored a brace in the 7th and 21st minute to hand Singapore’s first victory since last October! Not only Duric was a constant threat to the HongKong team, Qiu Li (No-11) was full of pace on the left and even whipped in lots of crosses which resulted into the first goal!
HongKong put up a better performance in the second half but with a relatively young side, veteran Lam Ka Wai (No-10), Chan Siu Ki (No-7) and Cheung Kin Fung (No-13) were not able to contribute as much as they wanted to. Having said that, HongKong’s coach, Ernest Merrick, was particularly impressed with his young striker, 21yrs old, Lam Hok Hei (Number-21). He even announced that the young Lam would be featured more regularly in the senior team now. Apart from his recognition to his young player, coach Merrick also sang praises to several Singapore’s players.
“Other than Duric (Aleksandar), your number-15 (Mustafic Fahrudin) played against us in HongKong and today he caused us a lot of problem again. He might not be the fittest player on the pitch but he has good technique and a good football brain,” said HongKong’s coach, Merrick.
Well, Singapore’s preparation for the upcoming Suzuki Cup has just got underway. A honest opinion, this friendly is only sufficient to boost the confidence of the Singapore camp but not enough to push Singapore to match the Vietnamese and Malaysians. I guess more such decent friendlies would be required to match our neighbour countries, and more effort to be put in to lift Suzuki Cup!
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