Suzuki Cup: Only
the crown will do
Twenty-one
months after successfully defending the ASEAN Championship, the Lions will once
again be tasked with defending their ASEAN crown when the newly-renamed Suzuki Cup
kicked off in Indonesia and Thailand this coming December.
The
draw was kind to Singapore as the Republic was dealt with an easy group with
co-host Indonesia and, the weakest of the six automatic team, Myanmar along
with a qualifier yet to be decided to qualify for the semi-final stage.
Not
that the Lions needed the luck for since the end of the last ASEAN
championship, the team has progress tremendously for one to view the ASEAN
crown as the minimum target.
It is
not arrogance to set the ASEAN crown as the minimum target but a reflection of
the height the Lions is reaching that even a Final appearance should be viewed
as disappointment.
Unlike
the last two ASEAN championship crown the Lions won, National coach Raddy is
marching into the 2008 edition with not only a stable team but also having
transform his team to his preferred tactics and formation of 4-5-1.
For
both 04/05 and 07 edition, Singapore was playing 4-4-2 and the midfield spine of
Goh and Jailani for the 04/05 edition only formed at the last moment going into
the crucial junction.
Unfortunately
both were already 29 and could not be considered the future with both also lacking
the technical abilities needed to play constructive football.
Thus in
the Asian Cup Qualifiers in 2006, the midfield was reconstructed once again
just 12 months after it was formed and with time running short, a Shi and Fahrudin
partnership was clobber together on short notice.
Therefore
the spirit and teamwork between the midfield and the other departments, as well
as between both teammates, were in the building stage entering the 2007 edition
but now 20 months later, both have worked the partnership brilliantly.
However
it is not just the mentioned two that is the only reason behind the Lions
recent transformation over the last year and a half but rather, it being the team
effort as Isa Halim,
Wilkinson, Shahril Ishak
and Noh Rahman all step up to be counted as well as
the abilities and willingness of Farzul, Amri and Indra to be the support
attack that gave Raddy the confidence to implement
the change from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1.
The
4-5-1 is a flexible formation that allowed the attack to be at it most
destructive as it free the team best attackers to concentrate on attacking when
having the ball as anchorman are always behind defending the backline and it
even give defenders and fullback the freedom to join in the attack if required.
Yet at
the other end, the formation also ensure teams are not easy to break down as
the team leave only one true forward upfront when defending and with nine
players at the back and in midfield it compress the space given to opposition,
making it difficult to pass the ball through the backline.
In the
World Cup Qualifiers, the effect of the new formation make it case right from
the start with a 4-0 demolition of Palestine in Amman, Jordan where 19 months
earlier, the Lions fell to the same opposition one-nil down with a poor
display.
Indeed
If one
take out Uzbekistan and Saudi
Arabia as both are a class apart from any of the ASEAN teams Singapore will
face in this championship, one will see Singapore have hit 11 goals in 5 games
against teams like Lebanon, Tajikistan and Palestine; all of whom can match up
to any of the ASEAN teams in Singapore group or Group B.
It is
an average of 2.2 goals scored per game and in international football any
average above 2 is amazing.
Also
the goals are spread out between the midfielders and attack unlike past when
the attack is the one shouldering the goals.
In
addition, we are also not conceding goals at the back with 3 clean sheet out of
5 Qualifiers and only 2 goals conceded meaning an average of only 0.4 which is
equally amazing.
With
such evidences from the last year and half backing the Lions for this ASEAN
campaign, a Final finish of previous campaign cannot be judged as enough any
longer and only the ASEAN crown will do this time round.