Singapore to play Myanmar on my birthday.

It's international break again around the world. I've written before about how I've always loved international football and the June games have always been my favourites. The sunny weather, the lack of club distractions, international tournaments and the fact that, more often than not, there is a game either on or around my birthday has resulted in me having many great memories of watching England around this time of year. But while my compatriots will be celebrating England lifting the most important trophy in international football, I'm spending my birthday at the National Stadium in Singapore watching Tatsuma Yoshida's Lions take on Myanmar, confusingly known as the Asian Lions. It will be Singapore's first game at the National Stadium for 7 months and the first time I will watch the national team live. To give the game a bit of context I've decided to take a closer look at Myanmar, a team which the Straits Times rather dismissively described as 'hardly a glamour team'.

Expect Myanmar's fans to create a great atmosphere.

A few years ago, football in Myanmar was on the up. They were being touted as a rising force in Southeast Asia. They finished second in the 2015 SEA games, hosted at the National Stadium in Singapore and even reached the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup. They may have lost every game at this tournament, including suffering a 6-0 hammering against Ukraine, but the future looked good. Gerd Zeise, the German coach who guided the U20's to these achievements, stepped up to manage the senior team, replacing Singapore favourite Raddy Avramovic. Zeise led Myanmar to an impressive Suzuki cup semi final in 2016 and was unlucky not to go further. Four years later Myanmar's 'golden generation' hasn't exactly lived up to the hype. Zeise left last year after failing to build on his early success. Another German, Antione Hey, took over the national team job but left less than a year later after ugly scenes against Vietnam that saw Hey allegedly verbally abuse Vietnamese players and staff after drawing. Many Singaporean fans have been dismissive of Myanmar since the game was announced. However, although they failed to get out of the group stage during last year’s AFF Suzuki Cup and Yangon and Shan United, who provide many of the national team's players, both performed poorly in the AFC Cup this year, I'm expecting a tough test for Singapore from a team that is ranked 20 places above them in world rankings. Myanmar looked impressive in last year's Suzuki Cup before imploding against Malaysia and losing 3-0, they sat top of the group before the final game having demolished Ccambodia and Laos and getting a great draw against regional power house Vietnam.

Both teams have recently appointed new managers. Much has been said elsewhere about Singapore's Tatsuma Yoshida but this game will also be Miodrag Radulovic's first game in charge of Myanmar. In contrast to Singapore's new manager, the coach from Montenegro has an impressive management record at both youth and senior international level. For example, Radulovic was in charge of Lebanon from 2015 to May this year and helped them to qualify for their first ever AFC Asian Cup. The 51 year old was often animated on the touchline during the tournament, even getting fined for his behaviour at one point. The appointment of Radulovic looks a good one for Myanmar, it will be interesting to see which new manager comes out on top next week.

Radulovic will take charge of Myanmar for the first time when they play Singapore.

Back in March, at the Airmarine Cup, Singapore showed that they are hard to breakdown at the back, while Myanmar have failed to score in any of their last four games, if Myanmar are to get anything out of this game they will need their best players to perform. The Myanmar squad includes a number of players that could cause problems for Singapore. Undoubtedly the biggest threat will be dangerous forward Aung Thu. The 22 year old, who was part of the successful 2015 U20 team, has been playing in Thailand's top league for the last few years. An impressive debut season in the league saw him earn a move to Thai giants Muangthong United. The forward is sometimes criticised for his lack of goals for both club and country, he only managed one goal for Myanmar in the 2018 Suzuki Cup and has yet to score for Muangthong this season. However, his creativity and energy should be on show next week at the National Stadium and I expect him to have a good game and an exciting future ahead of him. Myanmar have two more players currently playing for Chonburi in Thailand's top division, Sithu Aung and Zaw Min Tun. 22 year old Sithu Aung, who will probably play on the left for Myanmar is contracted to the the same team as Aung Thu, Yandanarbon FC , and in many ways shares similar qualities while 27 year old Zaw Min Tun will look to be the rock at the back for Myanmar. One of the few positives to come out of Yangon United's AFC cup campaign has been the consistent performances of 23 year old Maung Maung Lwin. The midfielder followed up his impressive 2018 AFC cup campaign with another this year. He is known for his assists rather than his goals, he had the the joint second highest number of assists in last year’s competition, but he scored 3 goals in the competition this year including the winner against Hanoi and a goal against Tampines Rovers. When I watched Yangon play Tampines last month Maung Maung Lwin was dangerous throughout and I expect him to repeat this next week. I worry that he is likely to be playing up against Faritz who always looks full of errors when I watch him.

Myanmar were torn apart against Malaysia in the Suzuki cup back in November last year. Although they are now under new leadership it is still worth noting that they played very narrow and looked open to attacks down the wings. All three of Malaysia's goals came from crosses. I expect Singapore to try and exploit these wide areas and use Adam Swandi, Faris Ramli or Gabriel Quak to get behind the Myanmar defence and provide the crosses that Khairul Amri thrives on. It was interesting to read that Yoshida was seen working closely with Quak and Swandi during his first training session, suggesting that perhaps these two players will form a big part of his plans. Quak reported aftet the training session that "During the two-sided game, he told me to hug the line. I think it's similar to Japan's style of stretching the opponents using width". Time and again, over my short time watching football in this part of the world, I have seen the importance of crosses and how dangerous they can be so I'm excited to hear that Singapore could be looking to exploit the space out wide. However, I'm disappointed that Yoshida has not called up either of the Fandi brothers for the first team and has instead left them for the U20 team. The FA once again seem to be placing the SEA games above the first team, something I disagree with.

History is on the side of Singapore, they have only ever lost once to Myanmar. But that is no reason to take the visitors for granted. The games against Solomon Islands and Myanmar are not just meaningless friendlies. If Singapore can get good results in this international break they should be given a better draw in the World Cup qualification campaign which kicks off later this year. Every team performs better in front of a large crowd so I hope a lot of you will join me at the National Stadium on Tuesday to celebrate my birthday, you can buy your ticket here it probably wont sell out. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think on my twitter page @kevindunkerley.