The Big Question: Are the Young Lions doomed to fail at the SEA Games?

SINGAPORE – The buzz around Singapore football would have barely died down by Dec 6, when the Republic’s Under-22 footballers kick off their SEA Games campaign at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok.

After the highs of witnessing the senior Lions make history with their first qualification for the 2027 Asian Cup on Nov 18, the sobering reality is that the U-22 squad arrive in Thailand with expectations lower than ever.

The Young Lions were not in the Singapore National Olympic Council’s provisional SEA Games list that was released in August, and only managed to secure their spots on appeal after playing two closed-door friendly matches – a 1-0 win over Malaysia and a 0-0 draw against the Philippines.

And as the lowest-ranked team from the 2023 Games based on points and goal difference, Singapore were the lowest seeds out of 10 teams in the draw for the 2025 edition.

But an 11th-hour change in the match schedule could provide a boost, as Singapore will play just two matches in the group stage phase.

Originally drawn into Group C to face champions Indonesia on Dec 5, Myanmar (Dec 8) and the Philippines (Dec 12) in Chiangmai, the Young Lions found out less than a week before the Games that they are now in Group A and will play Timor-Leste and record 16-time champions Thailand on Dec 6 and 11 respectively in Bangkok.

This was after the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia’s decision to not participate in judo, karate, pencak silat, wrestling, wushu, petanque, football and sepak takraw due to safety concerns arising from diplomatic tensions between both countries.

With Group B comprising Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos, the three group winners and the best second-placed teams will advance to the semi-finals, which means Singapore need to rack up a goal difference against Timor-Leste and do their best to hold the formidable Thais to stand any chance of progressing to the next stage.

With the odds firmly stacked against the Young Lions, can they prevent this SEA Games campaign from becoming another write-off, or is failure already on the cards?

Fail to plan, plan to fail

The Young Lions last qualified for the semi-finals in 2013. Since then, they have been booted out of the group-stage at five consecutive editions.

And the results at the 2023 Cambodia Games proved to be a nadir. Singapore suffered their worst defeat at the SEA Games football competition since 1971 after a 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Causeway rivals Malaysia. For the first time since 1987, they ended their campaign without a single victory and finished rock bottom in Group B, behind Laos on goal difference.

In the wake of the Young Lions’ disastrous campaign and a public backlash, the FAS – with the help of an appointed panel – came up with 10 recommendations to improve the country’s performance at future editions. The proposals included suggestions for the men’s U-23 and U-22 sides to be under the purview of men’s national teams and the national coach, and to make the SEA Games and AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers a priority.

Another recommendation was that each SEA Games campaign would be run as a two-year project to allow the head coach and team to develop.

But this has not been the case, primarily due to a change in FAS leadership – a new hierarchy headed by president Forrest Li took over in April – and other circumstances.

Shortly after the 2023 Games, then coach Philippe Aw quit the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and Nazri Nasir took up the hot seat. In January, the FAS announced that Nazri was heading overseas for an extended coaching attachment stint and assistant coach Fadzuhasny Juraimi stepped in as the interim head coach.

On June 25, there was another change as the FAS announced former Hougang and Lion City Sailors Under-21 tactician Firdaus Kassim as head coach of the Young Lions for the 2025 SEA Games.

The new man has had just over five months to get his team ready.

Former FAS council member and ex-national goalkeeper Yakob Hashim criticised the previous administration for not planning ahead.

He said: “There was never a clear direction from the previous FAS team on who is bringing the team to the 2025 SEA Games. The day they ended the 2023 campaign, there should have been a plan formed and the man to take them through the last two years and into this tournament should have been clear.

“While it is great that the new FAS council came in and put in place a plan and a change as soon as they possibly could, it may have been better for the squad to stick with Fadzu for this edition.”

Results do not bode well

Since Firdaus’ appointment as head coach in June, the Young Lions have yet to win a competitive fixture, whether as a U-22 national team or in the SPL.

In their Asian Football Confederation Under-23 Asian Cup qualifying group matches in September, the team lost all three games to Yemen (1-2), Vietnam (0-1) and Bangladesh (1-4).

During the final phase of SEA Games preparation in Dubai, the U-22s went down 6-0 to the United Arab Emirates on Nov 15 and lost 2-0 to Iraq three days later.

Singapore football fan Chee Wei Jie, who watched the team during the AFC qualifiers, said the campaign was not encouraging “not just in terms of results but the performances”.

Noting that much effort and resources have been invested in the team, such as a training camp and friendly matches in Europe, Chee was disheartened that “there has been nothing to show for in the qualifiers or in the league”.

Inclusion of foreign players

A local coach who declined to be named questioned the purpose of adding foreigners to the Young Lions’ squad in the SPL, given that the objective of the team is to prepare for the SEA Games.

In all five matches in the league – which they lost – the Young Lions fielded four foreigners in their starting XI. The squad has a total of seven foreign players.

The coach said: “The first-half of the season could have been used to give all your local U-22 players competitive game time, then after the SEA Games you can use your foreigners if you really want to. If your idea is to develop players and the team for the Games, then I don’t get this at all.”

Building for the future

Firdaus’s final 23-man squad provides a hint that the team may have been picked with an eye on the future.

The squad features a notably youthful group, with 12 players eligible for the 2027 edition of the Games and five of those players – all born in 2008 – will also be eligible to play in the 2029 Games on home soil.

When asked about the pressure that he faces to produce results, Firdaus said: “If you look deeper, the squad composition is made up of players from different generations. And we always talk about trusting the process, and I’m a big believer in that, because if we take care of the process, the results will eventually come. And the question is how patient we are with the process.

“And I really do believe that these generations of players that we have, for example, the way we are exposing them, can only be beneficial for the future of Singapore football.”

Siege mentality

Although public expectations are low, the players are determined to prove their critics wrong.

Midfielder Jonan Tan, 19, who is one of three overseas-based players in the squad, said: “Actually, to be honest, I’m feeling confident in our ability. About the noise, about what people are saying...there will always be criticism.

“For us, we try not to think about it. We go there with 100 per cent focus. You can be assured that we’ll give our best.”

While the players’ resolve may be strong, ardent local fan Michael James Long, 22, is not convinced.

He said: “It was quite worrying as a fan to see that once we conceded the first goal against Bangladesh (in the U23 Asian Cup Qualifiers) we let our heads drop and conceded another three goals in less than 15 minutes.

“With such a poor mentality on display, it’s quite hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

A key area which the Lions need to up the ante in is the scoring department, especially if progression could come down to goal difference.

All four of their goals in the SPL were scored by their foreign players. In their most recent U-22 friendlies in the UAE, they did not find the net.

Firdaus said: “We have to be very creative in terms of how we want to find the goals. It could be from set pieces, from transition moments, but this is something that we have to work on. Every team has their own set of challenges, no different to us. So we will find a way to get the goals. In this tournament, sometimes one or two goals per game is enough.”

‘Work your socks off’

Football consultant and former youth football coach Khairul Asyraf was damning in his assessment of the squad. He expects Thailand to top the group and predicts a close match between Timor Leste and the Young Lions.

He said: “This is probably the least talented generation, mainly due to the youth development policies put in place by the previous administration and leadership of the FAS.

“So the bare minimum that I expect to see is the fighting spirit. For what they may lack in talent, I think to appease the general public, you need to make up for it in spirit by working your socks off for 90 minutes.”

Chee hopes the team will achieve a “good win against Timor Leste and put up a fight against hosts Thailand”. He added: “In the end we are sending a team and it should not be doomed to fail, otherwise what’s the point of sending a team?”