As most of you may know, Singapore just beat Malaysia with an aggregate score of 6-4 in the second round of the 2014 World Cup Qualifying. FYI, the first leg was played at home, at the Jalan Besar Stadium and it ended 5-3 and the second leg, played in front of a capacity crowd of 85,000, finished 1-1.
I have to say it was a pretty impressive performance from the Singapore Lions, after a disastrous time at the AFF Suzuki Cup in 2010, where they crashed out very early in the competition. A revamp of the squad, new players being called in for this Causeway Derby, was the main cause of the improvement, in my opinion. An example would be Safuwan Baharudin, plying his trade in the S-League for Courts Young Lions. He was a rock in defence alongside the supposedly-reliable Daniel Bennett, who had a torrid time over the two legs.
Moving to the main focus of this article today- my thoughts on Singapore football. Yes, there might be a revamp of the squad, BUT the players who were called up were rather predictable. The likes of Hassan Sunny, Lionel Lewis as well as Daniel Bennett. Well, have to agree they form the spine or core of the Lions' team. However, my thoughts was that, shouldn't Raddy have chosen someone else instead of Bennett? Yes, he's experienced and he's a good leader. However, after the torrid time he had over the legs, marking Safee Sali, shouldn't that have made Raddy consider the options available to him? I've to agree that Raddy is a smart tactician, but with him at helm, especially with that strict approach he has in player selection, it'd eventually cause the Singapore team to falter at the big stage, because of his strict and stubborn approach. In part 2, I'll talk more about the criticisms I have for Raddy as well as some of the national team players. Stay tuned!
-PJH
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