December 6, 2004

A half-fit Agu Casmir might have been spared the axe by National coach Avramovic but he is not spared from the public with growing public opinions that he cannot handle the pressure in the National team as he keep fighting blanks.

After 7 internationals Casmir is still waiting for his first goal for Singapore.

Casmir though defend himself saying apart from the international against Oman in Muscat when he had started & finished the full game, the rest of the other internationals saw him either having to come on or go off. Also he had only recovered from a lengthy groin injury & is not fully fit.

However there lies the main crux of his problem with fans asking if the reason he is always injury is because he wanted to escape the pressure of leading the Singapore frontline as he was expected to do.

Brushing aside such talks, Casmir explained he felt the reason he is always injury is because of his pace & maybe the fact he always celebrate his goals with somersaults so he had agreed with Avramovic not to do them anymore.

Anyway despite his misfiring ways, Agu Casmir will still be expected to be deployed upfront alongside Indra Sahdah when the Lions face Vietnam in their Tiger Cup opener in Ho Chi Minh City.

National football coach Raddy Avramovic is not about to drop the 20-year-old striker despite his barren spell.

Not surprising as Avramovic has just 4 strikers in the 22-strong squad & only one - Khairul Amri - is fit.Indra Sahdan has a troublesome ankle while Noh Alam Shah's knee has to be heavily strapped whenever he plays.

Avramovic revealed that he will stick with Casmir as Alam Shah has a knee problem & Khairul is a different kind of striker who is often deployed on the left wing rather than as an out-and-out striker.

Adding to that Avramovic said the other option will be to play Itimi Dickson with Indra as Singapore did in Japan but he will see how it goes in Vietnam.