SINGAPORE (7 Sept 2016) – With just days left to the AFF Under-19 Championship, the Singapore U19 team failed to get the tonic they were looking for when they fell to a double defeat to Bahrain.
In the first friendly that was played last week, the Singapore U19 team was outplayed 4-0 while in the second, the islanders improved to just a 1-0 loss against a Bahraini side who had to play with just ten men for much of the tie.
Bahraini captain Husain Sabba was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 37th minute after hacking down Singapore’s Shafie Muliantoh.
In spite of that, Bahrain still managed to find the back of the net when Talal Alnaar scored the only goal of the game off a great solo effort when he weaved past three Singapore defenders before scoring.
“When it was 11 vs 10, our mentality was different; we were rushing and going too direct to the opponents,” said Singapore U19 coach Takuya Inoue.
“We conceded the goal through a mistake. When you make simple mistakes, you get punished in an international game. But I’m happy we reduced the number of mistakes in this game.”
