November 18, 2004

World Cup Qualifying Group 3

The goal flood in the World Cup Qualifying (Asia Zone) Group 3 never materialized with only 1 goal was scored in the last 2 matches in the group. In the previous meeting of the 4 teams, 9 goals had been scored with Oman thrashing India 5-1 in Goa & Japan defeating Singapore 2- in Jalan Besar1. Now with Japan & Oman having home advantage, it had been expected they would open up a goal flood. 

The honour of the final goal go to Japanese striker Tamada who scored early in the first half. Tamada had broken the Singapore offside trap to latch onto Masashi Motoyama's pass before pushing the ball past keeper Lewis into goal.

Oman & India had drawn 0-0 in Muscat earning India a precious point that saw them overtake Singapore into third place in the group.

Singapore team: Lionel Lewis, S Subramani, Daniel Bennett, Baihakki Khaizan, Noh Rahman (Jaslee Hatta, 74’), Ridhuan Muhammad, Tengku Mushadad (Khairul Amri, 52’), Goh Tat Chuan, Shahril Ishak, Itimi Dickson, Indra Sahdan (Noh Alam Shah, 65’)