Football: Merlion Cup to return from March 24-26 as part of SEA Games preparation
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Singapore's Under-22 team defeated Thailand 1-0 to lift the Merlion Cup at the Jalan Besar Stadium in 2019.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – More than three years after the Singapore Under-22 team defeated their Thai counterparts to win the Merlion Cup at the Jalan Besar Stadium,
In a media statement on Thursday, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced that the Singapore U-22 side will take part in the quadrangular at the Jalan Besar Stadium featuring their counterparts from Cambodia, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
The tournament will kick off on March 24, with the third-place play-off and final two days later.
A draw to determine the fixtures will take place on Monday. Ticketing information will be released in due course.
This quadrangular will allow the teams to prepare for the SEA Games in Cambodia in May.
The men’s football competition will begin on April 29, six days before the May 5 opening ceremony, with the draw expected by mid-April.
In June 2019, the Singapore U-22 side – led by coach Fandi Ahmad – clinched the Merlion Cup in a quadrangular that featured their Thai, Indonesian and Philippine counterparts. The Young Lions pipped Thailand 1-0 in the final with Ikhsan Fandi scoring the winner.
This time, Philippe Aw, who coaches the Young Lions in the Singapore Premier League, will also take charge of the Under-22s, who have a busy year ahead.
Besides the Merlion Cup and the SEA Games, they will also feature in the 2024 Under-23 Asian Cup qualifiers in September and the Sept 23-Oct 8 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Aw, 45, has called on his players to show that they have “the hunger, the desire and the ability to step up”.
He said that he was looking forward to working with players from the other SPL clubs “so that the team as a whole can be a cohesive unit”.
“Ultimately, we want to ensure that the players are ready to make the step up to the national team and will be ready when called upon,” he said.
“Our opponents in the Merlion Cup will provide a good benchmark of the type of opposition that we can expect to face in the upcoming SEA Games.”
Under the regulations set by hosts Cambodia, this will be purely an Under-22 competition, unlike the previous edition where teams could field up to three overage players.
The age limit, which has been lowered from Under-23, also rules out a slew of players who turn 23 in 2023 and have been capped at the national level. They include Young Lions captain Jacob Mahler, Tampines Rovers striker Glenn Kweh and Thailand-based fullback Ryhan Stewart.
At the last SEA Games in 2022, the Singapore side led by Nazri Nasir crashed out at the group stage in Vietnam, winning just one of their four matches and finishing third in their group behind Thailand and Malaysia and ahead of Cambodia and Laos.
It was Singapore’s fourth straight SEA Games group-stage exit.
