Tam Cheong Yan
info@fas.org.sg
There was a clear buzz of excitement and enthusiasm about the Singapore national team, more than usual, as they trained at the National Stadium on Saturday evening.
Agu Casmir put away some clinical finishes, Faizal Abdul Hamid was in merciless tackling mood, and through it all, Ridhuan Muhammad entertained his teammates with his music and comedy when not steaming down the field.
All seems to be going well for the Lions, then, as they concluded the home leg of their month-long training programme and got themselves mentally prepared for the long trip to the Omani capital of Muscat.
That is where the players will start on their 16-day-long overseas camp, which will also see them swing over to Jordan before checking in at Riyadh, where they will kick off the third stage of their World Cup Qualifiers campaign against Saudi Arabia on 6 February.
It is a journey the entire squad is clearly looking forward to, a fact that captain Indra Sahdan confirmed as he reported on the team’s status at the end of Saturday’s session.
“The team has enjoyed the last two weeks of training, even though it has been hard work,” the striker noted.
“Morale is very high, we haven’t had conflicts of any kind all week, and we’re all looking forward to the trip and the first friendly game (against Kuwait).
“It’s helped a lot that the S.League season hasn’t started yet, so everybody can get together early and start preparing for this long trip.”
Besides the match against Kuwait, Radojko Avramovic’s boys will also be sparring against Oman and Jordan, who are themselves preparing for Qualifiers matches against UAE, Bahrain and DPR Korea respectively.
All three friendly ties can thus be expected to prime the Lions excellently for their mammoth task ahead: getting a positive result in Riyadh.
Centre-back Precious Emuejeraye believes, however, that there is more to the tour of Arabia than kick starting Singapore’s bid to reach the fourth qualifying round.
“We’re not looking at Saudi Arabia as the end-point; we’re going beyond that,” remarked the 24-year-old.
“Everyone, the whole team, we are feeling that self-belief that we can go far. We are facing teams that have come this far before, and we want to make a statement to those countries.
“It’s also about bringing back the belief to all Singaporeans, to all the fans. I get the feeling that up to now, there are still those who don’t believe in our football.
“I feel that it is up to us to bring back that belief, and we can do that by getting there, pushing ourselves far towards the World Cup. For them, we have to make this trip, give 100% and get the most out of it.”
The gravity of the challenges that await the Lions in the Middle East will certainly mean that competition for playing time will be intense, as Avramovic ruminates over the options in his 23-man squad for each of the four matches.
While Indra and Precious are among the mainstays in the Singapore lineup, teenage goalkeeper Jasper Chan is among those likelier to find themselves on the sidelines for much of the 360 minutes of game time.
But Chan, who ranks third in the pecking order behind regulars Lionel Lewis and Hassan Sunny, has been positive about the objectives he intends to set for himself on this trip.
“For me, it’s about working with the seniors in the national team,” said the 19-year-old.
“I get to see how the top national goalkeepers train, and I can learn lots of techniques in goalkeeping by working with Hassan and Lionel. And against top-level teams, while I may not get to play, at least I’ll get a live demonstration of how Hassan or Lionel plays.”
Together with 17-year-old midfielder Hariss Harun, Chan can expect to gain much from the exposure to more intense preparation against higher-level opponents in Asia.
The other members of Avramovic’s squad have already tasted the benefits for some time, ever since the Serbian had taken charge of the team in 2003.
Being familiar with the Middle East scene, the former Kuwait and Oman coach has constantly lobbied for Singaporean sides to confront Gulf teams and push themselves into matching up to these opponents’ standards.
Both Indra and Precious believe that such drilling has given the current national squad the confidence to face the Saudis, who managed no more than a 2-1 victory in a friendly match in Singapore last year, as well as the other teams they will meet during the tour.
“Ever since Raddy came here, he has improved us a lot,” said Indra as he looked back at how team preparations have evolved in his time in the Lions setup.
“We’ve been playing the Middle East teams instead of just limiting ourselves to our neighbouring countries. The Saudi Arabia game won’t be easy, but then we’ve got lots of these hard games that we can use to test ourselves and find lacking areas to improve on.”
“The games we are playing in the build-up may be friendlies, but it won’t be that friendly when a country’s reputation is at stake,” added Precious.
“The teams we are playing against will be more scared than we are of losing. We have nothing to lose, but teams like Saudi Arabia have their names to protect, having been there before.
“If they cannot make it to the next stage this time and we can, it will be a great shame to them. And having seen us close-up recently, they know they cannot take us lightly because we have become very difficult to crack.
“The gap in standards between us and the Middle East teams is now very much narrower. We are getting closer to them, and I think these games we will be playing will push that process further.”
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