By Les Tan
There must be something in the way we live in Singapore. Too clean? Too hygienic? Whatever the reason, it was enough for five players in the under-16 national football team to end up seeing what most don’t want to see when in a foreign country – the inside of a hospital.
The U-16 football team went to Uzbekistan for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 Championship earlier this month and before the team even played their first game against Uzbekistan, five footballers were sent to hospital for fever and diarrhoea. The under-strength team then got hammered 0-7 by Uzbekistan.
The boys played a much better second game against Bahrain before losing 0-3, with Muhammad Muhaymin Salim hitting the post in the first half and also having a second half attempt cleared off the line. It was a game where the Singapore boys created chances but failed to take them.
In the last game against Iran, the boys went down 1-4, with Muhammad Al Qaasimy scoring the only goal of the campaign for Singapore. The team conceded 14 goals in three games.
In preparation for this tournament, the Singapore team had played in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Youth Championship in Jakarta, where they finished fourth after losing 0-3 to Malaysia. This was their second loss to Malaysia after losing 0-2 to our Northern neighbours in the preliminary round.
In other preliminary round fixtures, they went down 0-1 to Bahrain and managed to hold eventual champions Australia 1-1. They also drew 1-1 with Indonesia to finish the tournament with a 0-win-2-draw-2-loss record, scoring two goals while conceding eight.
U-16 squad:
(jersey number – name – age – position)
1 MUHAMMAD SYAZWAN 16 GK
2 MUHAMMAD FIRMAN 16 DF
3 STANLEY NG 16 FW
4 MUHAMMAD RAIMY 16 FW
5 MUHAMMAD MUHAYMIN 16 FW
6 MUHAMMAD SHAHFIQ 16 MF
7 MUHAMMAD FAZLI 16 MF
8 MUHAMMAD FARHAN 16 DF
9 SAFIRUL SULAIMAN 16 MF
10 MUHAMMAD AL-QAASIMY 16 MF
11 ALI HUDZAIFI 16 DF
12 SADESH BENARD GOVINDASAMY 16 MF
13 SIM TECK YI 16 DF
14 KENNETH CHANG WEI TZE 16 DF
15 KHAIRUL ANWAR 16 DF
16 GARY LOO ZHAN QUAN 16 MF
17 FAIZ MOHD SALLEH 16 MF
18 NG JIA FA 16 GK
19 MUHAMMAD ARISMAN 16 FW
20 MUHAMMAD FAIZ 16 DF
21 MUHAMMAD SHAKIR 16 DF
22 MUHAMMAD SHAMIL 16 MF
23 SYED SUFIYAN 16 GK
24 IGNATIUS ANG 16 FW
25 JUSTIN KHIANG YU HAN 16 MF
To look at things in a different perspective, I feel that giving these youth time to slowly improve on their game and mature in many aspects can aid us greatly in the future. They will want to reflect on the heavy losses and work on their mistakes, they will be hungrier for success in the future.
I believe that the future of the Singapore soccer scene is going to get better, given ample home support, the players themselves will surely seek to improve wouldn’t they.
Cheers.