October 9, 2004

UAE coach Aad De Mos, who has led teams like Werder Bremen, Ajax Amsterdam & FC Cologne in his 20-year coaching career, had only praise for the Lions after the match.

The Dutchman said the Singapore team played well & were hardworking.

He felt it was a very different team from the one which he watched in Saudi Arabia some time back. While he cannot remember the score, but they lost by a heavy margin to the Saudi Pre-Olympic team.

Instead the Lions looked hungry & they were very ambitious.

Therefore he believes Singapore will surprise some big Asian team in time to come as he know Singapore had been suffering narrow losses to top teams like Japan & now against the UAE.

Then speaking on the preparation for World Cup qualifying where UAE will face Thailand in a crucial fixture in Bangkok, the Dutchman said he had changed half the team after their last match (3-1 loss to Yemen) as he wanted to see the players the hunger & will to fight.

If they do not show that, he will not hesitate to leave them out as the first lesson in football is that you have to fight, because if you don’t fight, you might as well not play.

From that & from the match De Mos concluded they are ready for Thailand & he is sure Singapore is ready for India too.