SEA GAMES 2011: SINGAPORE COULD SPRING FURTHER SURPRISE

JAKARTA (8 Nov 2011) – After holding defending champions Malaysia to a scoreless draw in the opening game of Group A last night, Singapore could yet spring further surprise in their remaining matches.

With the competition in the group largely being assessed by pundits to be between Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, the Young Lions showed that they can play simple but effective brand of football.

And as long as they kept to this, it will be hard to beat them.

“We played with a lot of fighting spirit but we showed that we are serious in being here. We are certainly not here just for this one game against Malaysia,” said Slobodan Pavkovic, the chief coach of Singapore.

“The players stick to the game plan tonight and they were disciplined throughout. The several yellow cards were just unfortunate.

“We pick up the first point and that is good from the first match.”

Perhaps, that was the game plan all along for Singapore where with the focus firmly on their opponents, they are better focused to prepare on their own team and not get too much into the limelight.

Certainly, they were playing under less pressure than the Malaysians, who had gone into the game as the defending champions.

But it has to be reminded that Singapore are not exactly just another team where the fact that they have emerged as the third best team in the competition at the last two editions of the SEA Games spoke volumes of their abilities.

“We are confident that we can make the semi-finals,” quipped Pavkovic.

“As long as we continue to be disciplined, I think that we can go far with this team.”

Singapore’s next match in the group will be against Cambodia tomorrow.

SEA GAMES FIXTURES
GROUP A