photo: futbolexclusivo.com
After clinching S-League 2012 Championship, Tampines Rovers FC has already start planning for the Asian Champions League (ACL) next year! Although AFC (Asian Football Confederation) has not officially given FAS (Football Association of Singapore) the green light, I can only see Singapore football gets better and further with such an ambition! Singapore Armed Forces FC (SAFFC) went the furthest in the highest level of Asian club competition in 2009 where they battled out with J-League’s champion, Kashima Antlers, K-League’s champion, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Chinese Super League’s runners-up, Shanghai Shenhua.
I managed to catch a few of the games at home soil and I could tell you that the standard of play between SAFFC and the rest of the Asian teams was so different; there is still a significant gap between our domestic champion and the rest of the Asian bests. Despite a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Shanghai Shenhua, SAFFC was no match for Antlers and Suwon, not even at home. We can imagine how high is the standard playing at such a level where almost every team is a champion. Recently, Singapore NT was in Japan playing against Shimizu S-Pulse, where we fielded a pretty decent team. Singapore lost 0-2 as the Japanese seems to outrun the Lions in every department. Singapore players seems to be always a step or two slower than the Japanese. Now, you know the standard difference where our national setup could not even defeat a football club?
We all know that we will only improve if we play against the bests. Although it might be an one-sided game against the mighty Japanese, Korean or even a Middle-East club, the experience of playing against the bests for our players is vital and valuable! And that will only benefits Singapore football rather than demoralizing it. We really hope that green line for our ACL participation could be granted and let’s look forward to some really great football games at Jalan Besar Stadium! Good luck to Tampines Rovers FC too!
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