Football: Cubs shamed in Brunei

Team lose all matches in ASEAN U-21 tournament for the first time.

When Singapore's national Under-21s completed their Group B fixtures at the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy in Brunei on Monday, their report card was a compilation of sorry statistics.

For the first time in the history of the tournament the team lost all their games and lost them heavily - a five-match string of defeats (0-4 to Vietnam, 1-3 to Cambodia, 1-3 to Brunei, 0-3 to Malaysia, 0-6 to Indonesia).

The side also scored the least goals (two) and conceded the most (19).

To further add insult to injury, coach Richard Bok's squad of 18 for this regional Under-21 competition included four over-aged players - LionsXII trio Ignatius Ang (22 years old), his clubmates, Emmeric Ong and forward Syafiq Zainal and Warriors FC goalkeeper Neezam Abdul Aziz (all 23).

But they were thrashed by Vietnam and Indonesia, who fielded their Under-19 sides.

In four previous editions dating back to 2002, Singapore has never progressed beyond the group stage. Myanmar will meet Vietnam in the final tomorrow.

Bok's squad of 18 consisted of 13 from the Singapore Cubs, the National Football Academy's (NFA) developmental side which play in the S-League's second-tier Prime League, three from the LionsXII, and two from S-League clubs.

The lop-sided mix of the team raised eyebrows in local football circles, since arguably more talented players were not picked for the Brunei tournament.

For example, the top five goal-scorers in the Prime League - Home United's Nur Hizami (18 goals), Warriors' Suria Prakash (14), Tampines Rovers' Cameron Bell (13), Balestier Khalsa's Noor Akid and Geylang International's Shafeeq Faruk (both nine) - did not get call-ups.

The decision becomes all the more strange considering the top scoring player in the team was the Cubs' forward Hazim Faiz (six goals). This has led to accusations from coaches and officials outside the NFA to believe that the selection process was not balanced.

An S-League official took to social media to highlight that none of Home United's Prime League players were selected for the squad even though they are runaway leaders in the league with 48 points after 20 games, 11 more than closest rivals NFA Under-18s.

The official questioned the criteria used to select the players.

"Does being part of the national set-up, or a graduate of it... mean guaranteed selection?" he wrote.

"If so, then why are we wasting time and resources on other youths who are not in the NFA system... (and) showing the results that warrant at least some kind of identification and selection?"

Bok said he did not pick the team and that when he took the job in May, the squad had already been selected.

Said the former coach of Singapore Armed Forces FC, now known as Warriors FC, and three-time S-League Coach of the Year: "Moving along, there are other options at club level who can be good enough for the team and I'm open to calling them up."

Emmeric added that the tournament served as a wake-up call about local standards. He said: "Individually, the players in this team are good but they were just not used to the faster pace of the international game.

"To improve, I feel they have to get out of the Prime League, and maybe participate in the S-League next year so that they can get experience against older players who are more experienced and stronger physically."

With that in mind, the local official also questioned the effectiveness of the newly-centralised Centre of Excellence (COE) youth development programme, which saw the number of S-League clubs running COE programmes reduced from eight to just three while the number of age-group competitions doubled from three (U-14, U-16 and U-18) to six(U-13, U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-18).

Khairul Asyraf, a former COE coach with Balestier Khalsa, Woodlands Wellington and Tanjong Pagar United, sees merits in the new COE system, which has six different age-group competitions, but he believes the transition could have been better managed without compromising the quantity of players available for national selection.

He felt the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) should have stuck with the initial system, and instead rope in assistant coaches to the teams - as in the old system - so as to groom them for the main job for two years before expanding the age-group competitions in the COE to what it is now and letting them take charge of the new teams there.

"Even with eight COEs in the past, the talent pool was already insufficient. Shrinking it further now just doesn't make sense at all," said Khairul, 30.

"More time should by the FAS to let a system grow. The old COE system was put into place only two years ago."

Added Khidhir Khamis, the former head of youth and football development at S-League side Geylang International who now runs a private football academy with his brother Khairul Asyraf: "Germany embarked on a 10-year plan to revamp their football structure in 2000 and look what they have achieved today."

"We can do that too but the entire set-up, from the curriculum to the coaches and players, needs time to blossom.

"A smaller talent pool now means lesser chance of us uncovering the next Fandi Ahmad or V Sundramoorthy, which is only bad for Singapore."

terong@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Aug 22, 2014.
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