SINGAPORE (23 March 2011) – The Singapore Olympic team’s hope of getting into the next round of the 2012 Olympic qualifiers fell a little short when they fell to a 3-0 aggregate loss to Yemen.
In the second-leg of the of the Asian Round 1 Men’s Olympic Preliminary competition played at the neutral venue of the Sheikh Khalifa International Stadium in Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates, the young Lion side fell to a 1-0.
Singapore had fallen to a 2-0 loss to the same Yemeni side in the first leg of Round 1 a few days earlier.
Following the deficit from their first encounter, Singapore piled the pressure from the very first whistle with Fazli Ayob getting the first crack five minutes into the match.
But it was Yemen who took the lead in the 13th minute when Singapore left-back Shakir Hamzah misjudged Munassar Awadh’s cross for Mohammed Al Khadeer to slam home.
That was to be the only goal in the game with Singapore having a disallowed goal in the second half for the final result.
“If you look at the match, we played a very attacking game. We had a very good chance with our first attack of the game but they had one chance from a cross that was going nowhere and they scored their goal,” said Singapore coach Radojko Avramoic.
“We hit the post and we created enough chances to score at least two goals, maybe three tonight.
“For the both games here, we didn’t come to defend. We came here to attack and to try and score goals. We created many chances but we didn’t get the ball in the net.”
