Football: 'No excuses' as S'pore Under-23s target AFF championship trophy

SINGAPORE - National Under-23 head coach Nazri Nasir has called on his charges to show results by winning the 2022 Asean Football Federation (AFF) U23 Championship in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from Feb 14-26.

Singapore are in Group C with Thailand and Vietnam and will face their opponents on Feb 16 and 19 respectively.

Hosts Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Philippines and Brunei are in Group A while Malaysia, Myanmar and Laos are in Group B.

The three group winners and best-placed runners-up will advance to the semi-finals on Feb 24.

Only the winners' trophy matters for Nazri. The 51-year-old said: "We want to win. We aren't going there (just) to participate. It's been a while since we did well in regional tournaments, especially at youth level."

As a player, Nazri was known for his dogged presence in midfield, skippering Singapore to the 1998 Tiger Cup, and he wants his players to adopt the same winning mentality.

He said: "As a player, I wanted to win every game I played. For me, this isn't a tournament for youth development. The U-23s should be knocking on the door of the national team.

"The players have to fight every minute, push their limit and take responsibility. There is no room for reasons like youth development or that we are young. It's about winning and the players must believe in that."

Singapore U-23 captain Jacob Mahler said the players are heeding the words of their coach by displaying a desire to win even during training drills and games.

The Young Lions defender, 21, added: "It's (a winning mentality) what we are lacking in Singapore. We haven't got the results we've wanted at the youth tournaments. We can't use the excuse of development.

"Results matter and they show things are going in the positive way. We do want to go all the way and win the championship and create history."

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the team have played only three competitive matches in the last two years at last October's Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers. Then, Singapore beat the Philippines 1-0, drew 2-2 with Timor- Leste and lost 5-1 to South Korea.

A good performance against Vietnam and Thailand will strengthen their case for inclusion in the May 12-23 SEA Games in Hanoi and even the Sept 10-25 Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Albirex Niigata forward Nicky Melvin Singh, 19, who missed the AFC qualifiers due to a hamstring injury, said: "The SEA Games are a big tournament in this region and all the players in the squad want to impress the coaches. We are teammates but we are also fighting for our spots during training, to prove a point and to go to the other Games this year."

Their goal of winning the tournament will be boosted by their rivals' decision to field under-strength sides and the absence of holders Indonesia.

The Football Association of Thailand confirmed that it will send its Under-19 squad - only one out of their 23-strong squad is older than 20. Vietnam will field their Under-21 players, said the AFF website.

Indonesia, who won the last edition of the tournament in 2019, have already pulled out due to a number of Covid-19 cases in the squad. The defending champions were among the favourites to lift the trophy on Feb 26.

But Singapore will be missing some key players.

In its squad announcement on Saturday, the Football Association of Singapore said that Singapore Premier League Young Player of the Year Nur Adam Abdullah has been ruled out with an injury, while The Straits Times understands that Young Lions duo Joel Chew and Arshad Shamim have national service commitments.

While the squad departs for Cambodia on Saturday, four players - Zikos Chua, Irfan Najeeb, Daniel Goh and Khairin Nadim - will link up with the squad only when medically cleared after testing positive for Covid-19 during the week.

Nazri said that extra care will be taken to ensure there is no outbreak within the team. Players and officials from the Singapore U-23 squad, who will be in a tournament bubble during their time in Cambodia, will undergo polymerase chain reaction tests on the eve of matches, while antigen rapid tests will be done daily.

*Singapore’s matches will be streamed live on the Football Association of Singapore’s Facebook page.

Goalkeepers: Ridhwan Fikri, Umayr Sujuandy (Young Lions), Riki Kimura (Balestier Khalsa)

Defenders: Syed Akmal, Danish Irfan, Jacob Mahler, Jordan Emaviwe, Raoul Suhaimi, Ryhan Stewart (Young Lions), Irfan Najeeb, Ryaan Sanizal (Tampines Rovers)

Midfielders: Abdul Rasaq,Daniel Goh, Danish Qayyum, Jared Gallagher, Shah Shahiran, Zamani Zamri (Young Lions), Farhan Zulkifli (Hougang United), Saifullah Akbar ( Lion City Sailors)

Forwards: Khairin Nadim, Glenn Kweh, Zikos Chua , Ilhan Fandi (Young Lions), Nicky Melvin Singh (Albirex Niigata)