After 2 years out, Lionesses get stiff test

It has been two years since the Lionesses have stepped onto a pitch for an international game and the national women's football team are itching for a return to action at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup qualifiers in Tajikistan on Friday.

But they will have to hit the ground running as their first competitive match since 2019 will also be one of their biggest tests as they battle for a spot in the 2022 Women's Asian Cup in India, a tournament for which they last qualified in 2003.

While Singapore and Indonesia are the only two teams who remain in Group C after the withdrawals of Iraq and North Korea, the Republic's footballers will have to finish with more points than their South-east Asian rivals.

The team will play Indonesia on Friday and next Monday to determine which side progress to the tournament. If they are level on points after the two games, a penalty shoot-out will determine who earns the Asian Cup spot.

In their past four encounters, two matches - including their latest meeting at the 2018 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Women's Championship - ended in draws and the other two in defeats for Singapore.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made qualification even tougher as travel restrictions have left the team without several key overseas players, including Siti Rosnani Azman, who recently joined Japanese team INAC Kobe Leonessa, Australia-based defenders Priscilla Tan and Suriya Priya, and United States-based striker Putri Nur Syaliza.

Despite this, head coach Stephen Ng, who will be leading the team in a competition for the first time since his appointment in March, believes world No. 130 Singapore have a decent chance against the No. 96 Indonesian side.

He said: "I understand that they are also bringing in young players and they also have a new national coach (Rudy Eka Priyambada) at the same time this year, so I think it's a new start. So it's something that we look forward to for the challenge.

"For any football match... Results come not only with the scorelines, we also look at the level of performance, especially since we want to develop the next generation of national players."

Sixteen of the 23 players who featured in their last international competition - the 2019 AFF Women's Championship - remain, with Ng handing debuts to six players: Lila Tan, Sara Merican, Winette Lim, Nicole Lim, Khairunnisa Khairol Anwar and Nurhidayu Naszri.

Although it is a relatively young and new team, winger Lim Li Xian, who scored Singapore's only goal at the last Asian Cup qualifying event in 2018, believes that the young players "bring a lot of fresh blood and energy" to the set-up.

The 24-year-old said: "We haven't played a proper match in 11/2 to two years so everyone's looking forward to playing an actual full match, what's more it's overseas as well against Indonesia, so we're just looking forward to being able to finally show everyone what we've been training so hard for over the past few months."

The pandemic has also served up other challenges as the team have had to train in smaller groups of five and eight in accordance with the safe management measures.

There were instances, such as during last year's circuit breaker, when training was done virtually. There were also fewer opportunities for Ng to talent scout and observe players for team selection as local competitions like the Women's Premier League and the Challenge Cup were suspended owing to the pandemic.

So he first chose a provisional team of 40 from the 2019 squad, as well as through other coaches' recommendations and promoting youth from the Under-19 team, before whittling them down to the final 23, who flew to Tajikistan last Thursday.

While the team have been able to resume full team training in recent months, chances to play friendly games have been limited.

In preparation for the competition, they played two closed-door games against the Lion City Sailors women's team last week and have also been playing practice matches during training. The team also played a friendly against hosts Tajikistan yesterday, drawing 0-0.

Captain Ernie Sontaril is hoping that after a tough two years, the Lionesses can qualify for the AFC Women's Asian Cup ahead of a push for a berth at next year's postponed SEA Games in Vietnam.

Ernie, 32, said: "It would mean a lot because if we qualify, it would be the first time (since 2003).

"With this pandemic journey, I feel that if we can qualify for the next round, it would mean a lot to us.

"With this situation, we are able to go through all the training sessions in different phases and if we manage to be able to qualify, that would be great."