Singapore head to China for AFC U16 qualifiers

Contributed by Visakan Subramaniam

Friday, September 18, 2009 – The Singapore Under-15 team will be travelling to Xianghe, China this Saturday to compete in the Asean Football Confederation (AFC) Under-16 Championship 2010 qualifiers, which kick off on 21 September 2009.

The Singapore team is coached by K Balagumaran and the 22-men squad will face hosts China, in addition to Guam, Hong Kong, Macau and Timor Leste.

Team coach Balagumaran is hoping for a good showing as only the top two teams from the group will proceed to the finals in 2010.

"Our main challenge will come from the Chinese team. They are much taller and faster than us and we will try to cope with that. Hong Kong and Macau will also be difficult opponents as they don't stop running till the final whistle," said Balagumaran.

Singapore will play their opening encounter of the qualifiers against Macau on Monday, 21 September at the NFTC Stadium at 2.30pm local time (2.30pm Singapore time).

The squad list for the Singapore team and the fixtures for the AFC Under-16 Championship Qualifiers are listed below.

Singapore/Jersey No./Position/Name

1 GK Khairul Karim Bin Zulhanif
3 DF Tajeli Bin Salamat
4 DF Muhammad Syafiq Bin Iderus
5 DF Muhammad Syafiq Bin Bidin
6 DF Muhammad Alif Haiqal Bin Nidzam
7 MF Muhammad Zakir Bin Samsudin
8 MF Anumanthan Mohan Kumar
9 FW Muhammad Raushyan Bin Mazlan
11 FW Nicholas Marc Cher
12 DF Muhammad Faris Azienudin Bin Khaeri
13 DF Tan Daniel Farhan
14 MF Muhammad Nur Ridho Bin Ahmad Jafri
15 MF Muhammad Hafiz Bin Rosli
16 DF Shannon Stephen
18 DF Jasvinderpal Singh s/o Kuldeep Singh
19 MF Don Jun Ming
21 GK Ho Ji Keat Joey
22 GK Muhammad Fawwaz Bin Anuar
24 MF Muhammad Fuad Bin Ramli
25 DF Marcus Adi Wheeler
17 FW Kevin Tan
20 DF Muhammad Ashrul Syafeeq Bin Mohamed Amin