Lions begin FIFA ASEAN Cup campaign with defeat as Indonesia claim 2-0 win

JAKARTA - Singapore's FIFA ASEAN Cup campaign began with a defeat in front of more than 38,000 spectators on Friday (Sept 25), as Indonesia beat the Lions 2-0 at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

It was a night of revenge for the hosts.

Seven weeks ago, a 1-1 draw against Singapore at Jalan Besar had knocked Indonesia out of the ASEAN Championship, a result many here had shrugged off as a point taken from a second-string side.

This time, John Herdman had his full squad, with Thom Haye, Ragnar Oratmangoen and the rest of his Europe-based core available during the Fifa international window.

Indonesia needed just 13 minutes to make their superiority count.

Luke Vickery was allowed to surge down the right before finding Oratmangoen inside the box, and the forward applied a simple finish to put the hosts ahead.

Vickery continued to cause Singapore problems down that flank, but Gavin Lee's men recovered from the early setback and regrouped, making it  difficult for Indonesia.

Lee felt Singapore had been too tentative early on against opponents whose quality they already knew about.

"It's just a shame that... we didn't trust ourselves enough from the get go, from the first half," he said. 

"I thought again, second half we responded a lot better. We were more of ourselves, if you like."

Indonesia enjoyed most of the possession, but struggled to create clear chances against Singapore's compact midfield and defence, while the Lions found it difficult to get the ball to their forwards.

At half-time, Lee sought to address the spaces Singapore had been conceding through the middle and added an extra player in midfield when they had the ball. 

He felt the changes brought greater compactness defensively and gave Singapore a better foothold in the second half.

Their first shot on target came only in the 58th minute, when substitute Song Ui-young's long-range effort was comfortably dealt with by goalkeeper Maarten Paes.

Any hopes of a Singapore comeback effectively ended in the 70th minute.

Safuwan Baharudin was sent off for bringing down Mitchell Baker near the penalty area, before Song was penalised for handball from the resulting free kick.

Ole Romeny converted from the spot in the the 73rd-minute to make it 2-0 and leave the 10-man Lions with too much to do.

Lee declined to be drawn on either decision, saying he preferred to focus on Singapore's response after going down to 10 men.

"I cannot control what the ref does, but what I can speak about is how we responded," he said.

"I thought again we are a side that never give up, we never give in, and that was very evident despite the sending off, despite the penalty." 

Singapore are looking for a way back into the contest, with Lee pointing to that response as one of the qualities he wants his side to carry into next year's Asian Cup.

For Lee's men, it was a first defeat at the main Gelora Bung Karno stadium since October 1997, ending a sequence of a draw and two wins. 

Singapore had not played at the ground in nearly 18 years.

Earlier, Malaysia beat Bangladesh 3-0, leaving Singapore third in Group A after the opening round, ahead of Bangladesh on goal difference.

The Lions now turn their attention to Bangladesh, with Lee refusing to look beyond their next Group A match on Monday. 

"We just treat our next game as our next final, and then we do our best against Bangladesh," he said. 

"One game at a time."

shafiq.apandi@asiaone.com

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