singapore 1 japan 2

in the end, the humidity took its toll on the visitors. in reality, the japanese were just woeful, taking potshots at goal without really having anything more than the score line to show for their efforts.

the first half started promisingly enough for the japanese. they had their singaporean hosts mesmorised with their silly ball skills. but midway through the first half, when it was still scoreless, one sensed that it would be a long night for the japanese superstars.

for all their dominance, what with 55% of possession and almost 15 shots in the game, as opposed to the hosts' seemingly pathetic total of 7 shots on target, the japanese lacked the killer instinct in front of goal. nakamura of serie a reggina and hamburg's takahara were prime culprits. for a moment, sitting in my capacity as a singapore fan, i was shocked that the singapore team, half of which were from the under-23 development team, took the japanese to their game, showing no fear, nerves or over-respect. they were pinned down in their own half for much of the first half, but as the game grew on, the youngsters grew in confidence.

one sore point about the japanese side was their awful defence. while singapore's defending of setpieces was explemplery, the same could not of the japanese. in a match that was characterised by the midfield dominance of the peerless hidetoshi nakata and the 2 japanese wing wonders, santos and kaji, singapore's performance was defined by their defence. their all-round brilliant defensive play was the lynchpin of many of their counter attacks. although singapore only had a meagre 7 shots on target, all were arguably quality shots. if not for the heroics of sergio narasaki, singapore would have been a goal up by half time. the japanese central defence pairing struggled to contain the pace of indra shadan daud and in the second half, the introduction of agu casmir and ahmad latiff had the defence in sizes and sevens. one shudder to imagine what would the likes of zidane and henry do to their sanity.

the opening goal came after the restart and was credited to takahara. but his muted celebrations, the sheepish smile on his face and television replays showed that his shot would not have been a goal if singapore's skipper, aide iskandar, hadn't deflected the shot into his own net. singapore's equaliser was an opportunistic strike from indra from the edge of the penalty box. he held out a defender to whip a low shot that slipped under the body of the japanese 'keeper to slip in the bottm left corner of the net.

the anxiety on zico's face was amusing to say the least. the much feted japanese team who was defending asian champion was struggling to contain a lively singapore side. zico then introduced 2 substitutes who replaced the ineffective takahara and nakamura. the result was instant. in their second attack, off a corner, tayuki suzuki took advantage of a botched clearance by singapore's keeper, hassan sunny, to make it japan 2 singapore 1.

to singapore's credit, they fought till the very end, refusing to let their heads hang down. indra was substituted because he was thoroughly exhausted from his brilliant all round play. singapore's 20-year-old keeper, hassan sunny, also impressed with some of his decisiveness and his bravery. although he made 2 key mistakes, one of which resulted in the japanese winning goal, his performance was one that gives singapore soccer a lot of hope -- especially since he was playing for 3/4 of the match with a somewhat strained hamstring on his kicking leg.

perhaps the reason why singapore was made to look this good was the fact that the japs were lousy. asking the european players to acclimatise from end winter-early spring temperature to a tropical humid climate in a span of a few days -- maybe a tad unreasonable. but the young singapore team can take heart from this performance.

and this coming from somebody who thought there was no more hope. this was a vast improvement from the last match i watched. there was passion, movement, and the occasional one-two's. there appears to be more tactical discipline and more shape to the way the team played. but some old problems still remain points of contention, like their fitness levels, like their tendency to ball watch and not follow their man.

but take nothing away from this performance at our humble abode at jalan besar by the national football team. maybe a tad premature to start blowing out trumpets, but it has been a long while since i was so excited by the performance of a local team. i can't remember the last time i was not disgusted by the way the team played and watched the whole match. it was that painful. but today. yeah. the way to go. totally.

and oh, another point to note. for goodness sake, install some decent flag poles at the craddle of singapore soccer lah. it was embarrassing having 2 soccer officials holding the national flags in front of the national teams.