December 10, 2004

Tiger Cup Group A (Vietnam)

Singapore

0

0

Vietnam

Vietnam	9	1	Cambodia
Thach Bao Khanh 8’, 23’ Le Cong Vinh 58’, 87’, 89’ Sun Sampratna 63’(OG) Dang Van Thanh 71’, 83’ Nguyen Huy Hoang 77’			Hang Sokunthea 44

It was the miss that even if one see with his own eye it would still be unbelievable as Agu Casmir when faced with an open net could only tamely fired the shot into the hands of the Indonesia keeper   

Agu Casmir, who had yet to open his account for Singapore, could not have an easier chance to score.

Early in the game, Indra had pound on a mistake by the Indonesia defence to steal the ball & using his pace he got behind the Indonesia defence but as he was too wide of the Indonesia goal & with Indonesia coming out to block his angle, he wisely selected to fired the ball across the goal to a on rushing Agu, who came in between 2 Indonesia defenders.

How Agu could take the ball & then fired tamely into the Indonesia keeper only he can answer but the fact remained he falter & now Singapore hopes of a semi-final berth hang in the balance with the Vietnam against Indonesia of paramount importance. Goal differences could possibility come into play if host Vietnam draw with Indonesia & then Singapore would be at a disadvantage with the Republic not known to be high scorers with the most number of goals scored in the Tiger Cup history standing at 4 goals.  

With the early excitement from Agu miss gone the dull game could offer no more with both teams creating next to nothing for much of the match until the end when it appeared Indonesia could snatch all 3 points.

From a corner, the Singapore half-cleared the ball & from the wide area the ball was send back into the Singapore box& a Charis Yulianto header from close range was superbly saved by Keeper Lionel Liews. Demonstrating remarkable reflexes, he dived instinctively to his right to palm the ball away from danger just when Indonesia players were ready to celebrate.

That save earned Singapore a deserved point but it could have been more.

In the other match in Group A , Vietnam crushed Cambodia 9-1 but up to half-time Vietnam was only leading Cambodia 2-1 & if not or a shocking won goal & Cambodia late collapsed the scoreline would have been much more respected 

Singapore team – Lionel Lewis (GK), S. Subramani, Baihakki Khaizan, Aide Iskandar (C), Daniel Bennett, Itimi Dickson, Shahril Ishak (Khairul Amri, 67’) Hasrin Jailani, Goh Tat Chuan, Indra Sahdan, Agu Casmir (Noh Alam Shah, 45’)