Young Lions keep Korean Super Reds at bay in S.League football

Story and pictures by Les Tan/Red Sports

Yishun Stadium, Thursday, February 19, 2009 – The Young Lions took their first step towards the 2009 SEA Games in Laos by holding the Korean Super Reds to a 0-0 draw in their opening game of the 2009 S.League Championship.

There are no expectations that the Young Lions will challenge for the S.League championship title and the main question their S.League campaign will throw up is this: who among the youngsters will have the ability to make the step up to the U-23 SEA Games squad?

With half the Young Lions team playing S.League-level football for the first time, it was no surprise that the Super Reds had majority of the possession, and the Young Lions made only one serious venture into the Korean penalty box in the first half. The Singapore team spent the rest of the first half with 10 men behind the ball, with the Koreans showing a masterful display of possession football to leave their opponents running around a lot, seeing but not touching little of the ball.

Whenever they had possession of the ball, whatever technical ability the Young Lions had was dwarfed by the Super Reds who closed them down with ruthless efficiency and tireless harassing. The Young Lions could not string any decent passes together on the ground and were left opting for the long ball for left midfielder Gabriel Quak (#7) to run down, a tactic that proved fruitless.

Korean keeper Kang Su Ho only had one moment of worry in the first half when his hesitation almost allowed Young Lion Erwan Gunawan (#21) through but he recovered fast enough to scoop up the loose ball.

The second half opened with Young Lions keeper Hyrulnizam Juma’at almost gifting a goal to the Super Reds when he couldn’t hold a shot. The ball spilled out to Lee Du Ri (#9) whose shot was deflected out with the goal at his mercy.

Gabriel Quak then almost scored a surprise goal with a shot from range in the 62nd minute that keeper Kang was at full stretch to save. Then teammate Fadhil Noh also found enough space to run at the Korean defence in the 75th minute to unleash a long-range that looked good for a goal which Kang again had to tip out for a corner.

The game saw the S.League debut of Eugene Luo (#27) who came on for Erwan Gunawan with 30 minutes to go.

When asked what the highlight of his debut was, a sweat-soaked Eugene could only say, “The pace,” referring to the high tempo game that the Super Reds played. “My highest level of play so far is the NFA U-17 league,” said Eugene, 18, who is aiming for a place in the SEA Games squad at the end of the year.

“This league is an excellent opportunity for the boys to prove themselves and impress the selectors,” said coach T. Pathmanathan, 53. who represented Singapore from 1978 to 1992 and was made captain.

“Given the lack of technical ability, we can only compensate with hard work,” said coach Pathma after the game against the Super Reds. “The boys really worked hard for the team. They (Super Reds) look a great team and these boys lifted their game to compete with the Super Reds.”

Young Lions Starting Line Up
Hyrulnizam Juma’at, Pos: GK, Age: 23, Jersey #: 1
Irwan Shah, Pos: DF, Age: 21, Jersey #: 10
Afiq Yunos. Pos: DF, Age 19, Jersey #: 14 (Sub: Azfar Zainal Abidin, Pos: MF, Age: 18, Jersey #: 28)
Shahir Hamzah, Pos: DF, Age: 20, Jersey #: 16
Obadin Aikhena, Pos: DF, Age: 23, Jersey #: 20
Isa Halim (C), Pos: MF, Age: 23, Jersey #: 4
Gabriel Quak, Pos: MF, Age: 19, Jersey #: 7
Faritz Abdul Hameed, Pos: MF, Age: 19, Jersey #: 9
Erwan Gunawan, Pos: MF, Age: 22, Jersey #: 21 (Sub: Eugene Luo, Pos: FW, Age: 18, Jersey #: 27)
Arif Aiman, Pos: MF, Age: 23, Jersey #: 23 (sub: Hafiz Abu Sujad, Pos: MF, Age: 19, Jersey #: 8 )