National Teams – Age-group ● Jul 03, 2022
U19s fall to Cambodia
Asis Ijilral on the ball in the second half against Cambodia.
SINGAPORE, 3 JUL 2022 – Singapore began their ASEAN Football Federation U19 Boys Championship 2022 campaign with a 1-0 loss to Cambodia on Sunday night as Sovan Dauna’s goal proved to be the difference between the two sides.
With 10 of the 11 players in the starting line-up playing a competitive international football match for the first time in two years and with all 11 players making their U19 debuts, there were some nerves as they started slowly.
This was capitalised upon by the Cambodians in the seventh minute. A free-kick on the right flank found defender Vorn Phalla, whose header was saved by Singapore custodian Firman Nabil. However, Dauna reacted quickest to the rebound to give the Cambodians the perfect start. To make matters worse, Kieran Teo had to be replaced in the 19th minute after picking up a back injury, with Syafi Hilman coming on to replace him.
Going into the break, the team needed a spark and Coach Fadzuhasny Juraimi responded by bringing on midfielders Amir Rashid and Asis Ijilral at the start of the second half to inject some life into the team.
Both Amir and Asis made a difference, with the former bringing aggression and energy into team’s midfield while the latter’s movement and technical ability troubled the Cambodian backline. It was Asis who came closest to scoring an equaliser in the 55th minute.
Expertly controlling a long pass, Asis fended off a defender before unleashing a long-range strike which went narrowly wide. Chasing an equaliser, Singapore thought they had equalised 20 minutes later when forward Irfan Iskandar met Amir’s free kick and buried the ball into the back of the net, however he was judged to be offside.
Despite the defeat, Coach Fadzu remained upbeat. He said: “I think the boys did their best given the circumstances. Most of them have not played much football and you could see they lacked match fitness and sharpness.
“Before the tournament, our objective has always been for the boys to apply our playing style and to enjoy themselves. There were glimpses of that today, but there’s room for improvement. The focus now is to recover well so that they boys are fresh for the game against Timor Leste on Tuesday.”
Singapore: Firman Nabil (GK), Aqil Yazid, Kieran Teo (Syafi Hilman 19′), Farid Jafri, Raoul Suhaimi, Ryu Hardy (Kieran Aryan 68′), Izrafil Yusof (Asis Ijilral 46′), Glenn Ong (Amir Rashid 46′), Irfan Iskandar, Khairin Nadim, Sham Mohamed (Ilyasin Zayed 64′).
Unused subs: Rauf Erwan, Karan Sobti, Aniq Raushan, Danial Crichton, Hilman Norisham, Junki Yoshimura, Zakaria Syari.
