A tale of two teams

It was shocking to read that Malaysia was thrashed 10-0 by the United Arab Emirates during a World Cup qualifying match, while Singapore was beaten 1-0 by Syria ("Bleak night for minnows" and "Lions ponder what could have been"; both published last Saturday).

Malaysia's result was in stark contrast to the good performances by the teams in their Malaysia Super League.

One can only conclude that the presence of imported foreign footballers and coaches masked the reality of the state of Malaysian football.

On the contrary, our LionsXII, comprising our local boys, achieved an excellent result in winning the Malaysia FA Cup ("Double caps amazing run"; May 24).

This would explain why the Malaysia national team, stripped of their foreign players, perform miserably at the international stage.

Thus, kudos to the Football Association of Singapore, which believes in developing our local players. This strategy should continue to pay off for Singapore at the international stage.

Lee Kek Chin

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 12, 2015, with the headline A tale of two teams. Subscribe