December 3, 2004

The 2 remaining members of Singapore winning team from 1998 both skipper Aide Iskandar & defender S.Subramani believed Singapore s ready to conquer ASEAN again by winning the Tiger Cup.

First from skipper Aide he believed that the number 5 will play an important role in Singapore's quest to win the 10-team championship for the second time. He had worn the No. 5 jersey since his international debut 10 years ago & now he is into his fifth Tiger Cup campaign so he knows this is the start of a new beginning fro Singapore.

The skipper said the No. 5 has always been his lucky number & now into his fifth Tiger Cup he have the feeling it will be a lucky tournament for him & the team. Also Vietnam is a lucky hunting ground for him too as he was part of the Singapore which won the second edition of the Tiger Cup in Vietnam in 1998.

However the main encouraging signs are that like in 1998 when all the fans & media in Singapore wrote off Singapore as potential champion but instead of being downcast they went onto win the Cup.

Now he believed the scenario is the same as they are not considered championship winning material too but this kind of assumption will spur the team on to play better just like in 1998.

Adding his weight to Aide words is defender S.Subramani who played with Aide at the back in the National team & S-league club Home United.

While Subramani will retire from the Lions after the Tiger Cup, he know the team is in for a bright future as he saw the spirit of the Tiger Cup winning team of 1998 in the current team as the team now no longer have the big name players (Or if one get the hints the troublemarkers like Ahmad Latiff & Tan Kim Leng is no longer there anymore) & everybody in the squad play & fight for one another.

Apart from that with the influx of young players in the squad, it make ‘oldies’ like himself & Aide feel young again as they looked to him or Aide for inspiration & guidance.   

Agreeing with that is Aide as he stated he intend to fulfill that.