Football: S'pore coach reveals battleplan SEA Games

To achieve a historic breakthrough, sometimes one has to make an unusual move.

In a bid to win the Republic's first football gold at the South-east Asia (SEA) Games next year on home soil, the Football Association of Singapore has decided to pull the top under-23 players out of the Courts Young Lions and the LionsXII next season.

On his first anniversary since taking over as national football coach, Bernd Stange revealed to The New Paper that national Under-23 players like Sahil Suhaimi, Faris Ramli and Shahfiq Ghani will not play in the Great Eastern Yeo's S.League or the Malaysian Super League next season.

"The SEA Games team players will not be involved in the S.League and the Malaysian League next year. This means they are completely under our control, and they can focus on their preparations for the Games," said the 66-year-old German.

The best Singapore have done in the SEA Games is a silver, losing in the final in 1983, 1985 and 1989.

The tournament became an under-23 competition in 2001, and the Young Lions have finished with bronze medals in 2007, 2009 and 2013.

In a bid to win gold next year, this July, the Under-23s will visit Europe for a training camp and friendly matches against top sides as they build towards the 2015 SEA Games, which will be held in Singapore from June 5 to 16.

As TNP had reported earlier, S.League side the Courts Young Lions will not play in this season's RHB Singapore Cup which kicks off at the end of this month. Instead, a team made up predominantly of under-23 players will take on the France Under-21 team on June 2 in Reunion Island, before the SEA Games team head to Austria from July 7 to 22 to play another three friendly matches.

"At the end of the year, there will be players (eligible for the SEA Games) involved in the Suzuki Cup," added Stange.

"After that, we will have a break. Then we will start 2015 with preparations overseas, perhaps in Turkey, maybe three weeks, maybe four weeks... to play better opponents... because we want improvement.

"Then we come back to Singapore. In March... we'll play some international matches against teams not in our group in the SEA Games.

"And then we move for overseas training again, maybe to Turkey at the end of March, beginning of April.

GOOD OPPORTUNITY

"It's a stage where we have a good opportunity to try to arrange matches against a lot of top-class teams from Russia because their season restarts around that time.

"We hope to arrange matches against the likes of Rubin Kazan and Spartak Moscow, to prepare this team at a very high level.

"And then the final stage will be training here in Singapore with matches against S.League teams and the LionsXII, or against international teams like Australia. This is the plan to prepare the team." Stange wants young players to work hard to impress at Asian level, hopefully starting at this year's Asian Games, before trying to

qualify for the 2019 Asian Cup Finals.

The challenge now is to convince the Singapore National Olympic Council selectors that the Singapore under-23s should play at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, in September.

"We have this game in Reunion Island against the France Under-21 team, with top, top players. We wanted to play them with our national team, but the SNOC wants us to prove that we are able to play Asian Games.

"And we should show them. So immediately we changed our decision, and we go with the Asian Games team, an under-23 team which allows for three overaged players, and we will try to convince them with a good result against this powerhouse, but we will try our best to do it."

This article was published on May 16 in The New Paper.

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