December 29, 2004

Singapore captain Aide Iskandar has set his sights on repeating the republic’s 1998 Tiger Cup success & would not mind if they needed the same rub of the green they had 6 years ago in Vietnam.

Reflecting on Sasi Kumar’s ‘shoulder blade of God’ goal which gave Singapore an unexpected 1-0 win over 1998 hosts Vietnam, the 29-year-old central defender said we had a bit of luck with Sasi’s shoulder & if it takes something similar to win the trophy again so be it. It was very special to be part of Singapore’s only ever international tournament win & it would be great to have success this time around in the fifth Tiger Cup.

Iskandar, like teammate S. Subramani, has appeared at every Tiger Cup since the inception of the tournament in 1996, & has fond memories of the ’98 competition, particularly silencing the detractors who didn’t believe Singapore had a chance of winning the event.

H e recalled we were certainly not considered one of the favourites then & even the Singapore media was writing us off. They said we wouldn’t reach the knockout stage & we did. Then they said we wouldn’t beat Indonesia in the semis & we did & then, of course, we didn’t have a chance against Vietnam in the final. But each time we proved them wrong.

Now in 2004 Singapore have again proven the critics, who claimed Singapore will not make it past the group stages wrong, as in the group stage for the 2004 Tiger Cup Singapore drew with Indonesia (0-0) & hosts Vietnam (1-1), considered two of the strongest candidates for the title, before claiming a place in the semi-finals with comfortable victories over Laos (6-2) & Cambodia (3-0).

Despite not firing on all cylinders up front, a problem that has been compounded by the suspension of striker Indra Sahdan for the first leg of the semi-final against Myanmar, Singapore have been reasonably resolute in defence & the 2004 side could well matched the 1998 side using their defensive brand of football to win the Tiger Cup & one cannot ruled that out.