
Vs
Road to South Africa: International Friendly
Oman v Singapore
Sunday 27 January 2008 Singapore Time: 10:30pm
Raddy optimistic following Lions win over Kuwait Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic expressed cautious satisfaction with the outcome of his sideÂ’s friendly match against Kuwait on Thursday evening. Singapore beat Kuwait 2-0 which is the first win by the Lions over the Kuwaitis and follows a 2-2 draw the last time and two defeats home and away immediately before that.
“It was important for us to test ourselves against a good team and Kuwait is a good team”, the coach said. “Oman is a good team too and so is Jordan, but these matches are (essentially) preparation for the Saudi game more than anything else. “We do need to improve on our switching from attack back to defence more. It was interesting to see how we played against decent competition” he said.
“You can see there was still some tightness with the players and I think the next seven days should improve this. “We always say that if the defence does well, not just the back four, but the whole team’s defensive work, then the team will do well. We try to play football and not sit back.
Asked if there might be many changes for the next match or matches the coach emphasised that some of the younger players would get their chance. “Some will get their chance in the next two games, defenders in particular,” Avramovic said. “The main thing I was looking at in the Kuwait game was the players’ attitude and it was good.
Avramovic stressed that the games against both Oman and Jordan would be very hard ones though Kuwait could beat either of those sides on their day too.
Singapore: Lionel Lewis, Noh Rahman, Precious Emuejeraye, Baihakki Khaizan, Daniel Bennett, Shi Jiayi, Shahril Ishak, John Wilkinson, Hariss Harun, Mustafic Fahrudin, Isa Halim, Fazrul Nawaz, Khairul Amri, Indra Sahdan, Ridhuan Muhamad, Aleksandar Duric, Agu Casmir, Hassan Sunny, Faizal Hamid, Ismail Yunos, JumaÂ’at Jantan, Sevki ShaÂ’ban.