SINGAPORE (21 July 2015) – Courts Young Lions coach Jurgen Raab wants his side to continue playing attractive football while aiming to climb up the league table.
The German took over the Young Lions side three weeks ago, and have tried to impose a possession-based game.
In his first match against Hougang United, the Young Lions lost 3-1, but dominated possession throughout the game and created several chances which they failed to take.
However, Raab saw enough to convince him that his young team had plenty of potential.
“With that performance I’m very confident,” Raab said to www.sleague.com. “We played 90 minutes of good football. We had good build up with ball possession. We created, I think, seven or eight 100% chances, but lesson in football is that you have to score.
“We went to sleep at the two set-pieces and it’s difficult to come back, but the team showed good morale and willpower to get one goal. I was hoping we can equalise and we had chances, but that was our problem. It’s the only negative point I can make at the team.”
Raab believes that after that showing, his team will be able to improve their fortunes with more trainings and matches under the belt.
“After this short time, we only had three weeks to prepare and today we only had fourteen outfield players and two goalkeepers, I can only take my hats off to my players,” Raab explained.
“I hope the team understand and learn from the two mistakes. We were not ready for the battle in the penalty box against these big guys, we have to learn from this. But we will continue this way, to play football, I hope you all have seen and enjoyed the football.”
On the other hand, Hougang coach Salim Moin felt that his game preparations paid off against their younger opponents.
“There’s two types of game situations that I prepared,” said Salim.
“The first half, we wanted as early goal as possible, and we got the two goals from very well taken set-pieces. In fact, we also had a few chances when we went on the counter attack.
“In the second half, we know they will come. They played a very high tempo game so I told my team to be more compact, more organised and more concentration in the defending. Few times we managed to play the ball behind the back four of the opponent, only thing is we were not composed enough to convert the situation into goals.
“Overall, the performance was satisfying. After the fasting month, the boys got their rhythm back to normal so I hope our future preparation will be much better.”
