Singapore’s performances for AFC U-19 Championship 2020 Qualifiers go viral for the wrong reasons

The Football Association of Singapore kicked things off so optimistically, so full of hope for the Under-18 national team to get ahead in the championship qualifiers for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup next year. 

Alas, things didn’t pan out that great at the end of the first round. Making things worse is the fact that the losses have gone phenomenally viral on Facebook. 

As robust as our local lads are, they probably drew the short end of the straw when they were tasked to take on the teams from South Korea, Myanmar and China, all strong opponents in their own right.

But no matter the odds, the Singapore U-18 squad definitely stood a chance. These are the top players drawn from across six Singapore Premier League clubs and the Singapore Sports School, after all. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/singaporefootball/photos/a.10150247106593255/10157926978063255/[/embed]

“The boys understand that it’s a big task, a big challenge against the likes of Korea and China but they want to show what they have and give our opponents a tough fight,” noted the team’s head coach Fadzuhasny Juraimi.  

“Most of these players have not been involved in AFF and AFC international-level tournaments and this will be a good experience for them as well.”

And so they departed for Myanmar last week for their first match against Korea on Wednesday (Nov 6). Which, uh, ended in quite a harrowing manner: an 11-0 loss. So striking was the massive score margin that it garnered more than 1,600 shares across Facebook. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/singaporefootball/photos/a.10150247106593255/10157930200818255/[/embed]

But the squad couldn’t afford to brood about the big loss — they had the next match in two days to worry about. The cubs went in strong last Friday (Nov 8) and gave their best, but weren’t able to prevail against the might of China. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/singaporefootball/photos/a.10151974155388255/10157936145903255[/embed]

Bloodied but unbowed, they still had one more chance to make good in Yangon. Singapore clashed with the home team and — for the third match in a row — ended with zilch goals by the time the last whistle blew. Even the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) sounded pretty deflated in their post.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/singaporefootball/photos/a.10151974155388255/10157943083418255[/embed]

With the dismal results of all three matches having been widely shared online, comments (both sympathetic and scornful) flooded the Football Association of Singapore Facebook page. 

Better luck next time, boys. 

ilyas@asiaone.com