Oman cruised to a relatively easy 3-1 win over Singapore in the final qualifying match for the 2015 Asian Cup on Wednesday night, 5 Mar 2014.
Oman dominated the match and easily went 3-0 up in the 69th minute. However, the Lions did stun the home fans by grabbing a consolation goal against the run of play. Zulfahmi Arriffin's well-timed lob over the Omani defence found Shahril Ishak through on goal, and the Singapore captain calmly slot the ball in between Ali Al-Habsi's legs into goal.
Shahril's goal was also incidentally the first that the Group A winners had conceded in the qualifying campaign and was also the first shot on target Singapore had registered against Oman over both qualifying matches.
Actually, I always think that Singapore has improved leaps and bounds in terms of discipline, skills and tactical play in recent years. However, our team still lack 1 very important ingredients to be more successful. That is CONFIDENCE.
I felt that in this match, 10 of the 11 players' body language betrayed them. It gave them away to their opponents. When a player collected the ball, his first reaction was to look side or look back for a teammate to pass the ball to, if not pump the ball forward to "no man's land". This action put them into a disadvantageous position and very quickly the opponents players would come chasing after them and snatched the ball away. Only Shahril Ishak will try to hold the ball and face forward and try to move ahead nearer to the opponent's goalmouth. If you check out the way he scored that only Singapore goal; he actually set himself up in a on-side position, timed his run to collect the ball, dribbled the ball ahead and coolly slot the ball past the goalie's legs and into the net. I felt all the Singaporean players have such ability one way or another but they just "scared to lose" (kiasu) and dare not move ahead as much as they should be.
We need to work harder on strengthening the mindset of our players so much so that they must be so confident in their ability that they will think they can beat every team in the world. It is not to be over confident but to be on top of they ability and carry out the job at their fullest potential and true ability.
FAS bring on the big teams and let Singapore beat them up. Very soon, as our team taste success, we will be knocking on World Cup's door.
Let's dream! Let's believe we can do it!
Ole.......! Ole! Ole! Ole!
Oman dominated the match and easily went 3-0 up in the 69th minute. However, the Lions did stun the home fans by grabbing a consolation goal against the run of play. Zulfahmi Arriffin's well-timed lob over the Omani defence found Shahril Ishak through on goal, and the Singapore captain calmly slot the ball in between Ali Al-Habsi's legs into goal.
Shahril's goal was also incidentally the first that the Group A winners had conceded in the qualifying campaign and was also the first shot on target Singapore had registered against Oman over both qualifying matches.
Actually, I always think that Singapore has improved leaps and bounds in terms of discipline, skills and tactical play in recent years. However, our team still lack 1 very important ingredients to be more successful. That is CONFIDENCE.
I felt that in this match, 10 of the 11 players' body language betrayed them. It gave them away to their opponents. When a player collected the ball, his first reaction was to look side or look back for a teammate to pass the ball to, if not pump the ball forward to "no man's land". This action put them into a disadvantageous position and very quickly the opponents players would come chasing after them and snatched the ball away. Only Shahril Ishak will try to hold the ball and face forward and try to move ahead nearer to the opponent's goalmouth. If you check out the way he scored that only Singapore goal; he actually set himself up in a on-side position, timed his run to collect the ball, dribbled the ball ahead and coolly slot the ball past the goalie's legs and into the net. I felt all the Singaporean players have such ability one way or another but they just "scared to lose" (kiasu) and dare not move ahead as much as they should be.
We need to work harder on strengthening the mindset of our players so much so that they must be so confident in their ability that they will think they can beat every team in the world. It is not to be over confident but to be on top of they ability and carry out the job at their fullest potential and true ability.
FAS bring on the big teams and let Singapore beat them up. Very soon, as our team taste success, we will be knocking on World Cup's door.
Let's dream! Let's believe we can do it!
Ole.......! Ole! Ole! Ole!
No comments:
Post a Comment