Young Lions roar

There are many unique things about the Singaporean premier league, one of my favourites is the Young Lions project. I have been fascinated by the idea since I first heard about it. Technically the Young Lions are the Singapore U22 team. They represent the nation at various international competitions like the SEA games, Olympics and the recent AFCU23 qualification tournament. The unique thing about them is that for the last 15 seasons they have also entered a team into the Singaporean local league. While England fans often bemoan the lack of first team opportunities given to young up and coming English youngsters in the EPL, the Singaporean FA have come up with a seemingly perfect solution. Not only do promising young Singaporean players get regular first team football in the nations top flight they also get to train together every day and develop a collective team spirit. The idea can't fail to produce a top U22 national team, can it?

The Young Lions performances in the Singapore Premier League have not been particually impressive over the years. In 2016 and 2017 for instance the Cubs managed to win only 3 games in 48 conceding an alarming 132 goals in the process and picking up the wooden spoon both years. Last year was an improvement, they avoided bottom spot and picked up 5 wins. It is often argued that being demolished every week by more experienced teams, bulked out with foreign talent, is not a great way to groom the stars of the future and in fact only instills a losing mentality that stays with Singaporean footballers as they make their way up to the senior team.

The alarm bells were ringing again this season. Predictably, as they are essentially a feeder team for the rest of the league, their best performers from last season have moved on to bigger things. Hami Syahin and Taufiq Muqminin are both playing well this season for Home United while the Fandi brothers, Ikhsan and Irfan have both ventured overseas to play in the Norwegian and Thai Leagues. In many ways the Young Lions are destined to be a victim of their own success, doom to lose their most experienced and accomplished players at the end of each season. Coach Fandi Ahmad has once again been forced to assemble a fresh group of hopeful young players. It is notable that this year's crop of talent is significantly younger than usual with an average age less than 20, and also less experienced with many of the team set to take part in their first full professional season. Former Singaporean captain Fandi was refreshingly honest when he said "It will be a very difficult season. I will be very happy if we are not bottom". It seemed that this prediction was correct after the first game, the Young Lions were humbled 5-1 by a Balestier Khalsa not known for it's free scoring ways.

But the Young Lions is a team built to perform on a different stage. The SPL is a mere dress rehearsal for the work the youngsters do on the international circuit. The recent AFCU23 qualifying tournament was the first opportunity for me to see the Young Lions outside of the SPL, competing in wintery Mongolia against Hong Kong, North Korea and Mongolia. The Young Lions performed well, drawing twice before beating Mongolia. This was not good enough to qualify for the competition proper but was good enough to silence many of the doubters back home. Worryingly for the Young Lions SPL season, it was the likes of Hami and Ikhsan, who looked strongest in the team, both of whom have already moved on. The team were away for more than two weeks aclimatising to the Northern Winter, only returning to tropical Singapore on Friday, two days before they were due to face Hougang United in the SPL. This grueling schedule is something the youngsters will need to get used to this season.

The Cubs performances in Mongolia caught my eye, so when it came time to choose which game to watch this weekend it seemed obvious to me that it was time I saw the Young Lions live for the first time. Their opponents would be an impressive Hougang team full of experience and confidence after smashing five past Warriors in their last game. Much has already been said about the blossoming partnership of Faris Ramli and Stipe Plazibat. The duo have rekindled their love affair from 2017 when they scored 57 goals and made 34 assists while playing for Home. Hougang haven't reached the heights expected of them this season but surely they would be too much for a group of jet lagged teenagers.

Hougang started the game confidently, passing the ball around the back and keeping possession. The Young Lions' first touch of the ball came in the 3rd minute when Kenji Rusydi, making his debut in goal, was alert enough to rush off his line to save at the feet of Fazrul Nawaz who looked clean through for a second. The pre-match predictions seemed to be coming true. However the Young Lions didn't seem to be showing the fatigue that I had been expecting. They were pressing high up the pitch in groups, using the enthusiasm of youth to their advantage and pressuring the Hougang midfield. Syed Firdaus was a bag of energy and looked really up for the game, he was always closing down in midfield and clearly wasn't afraid to get stuck in, so much so that after 3 fouls in the first 3 minutes the ref was forced to step in to calm things down a bit. Perhaps because of the success that the Young Lions were having in the midfield battle Plazibat was forced to drop deep to find the ball. When he did combine with Faris and break behind the defence in the 10th minute, a poor touch let him down. Hougang began to look like the team with the heavy legs, the two weeks of intensive training that the Young Lions had put in seemed to be paying off and they looked the more energetic and fitter of the two teams. A great example of this came in the 14th minute when the Young Lions forwards forced the Hougang keeper into a poor clearance that Joshua Pereira pounced on in midfield, the Young Lions captain drilled the ball from distance but the shot flew over the bar.

Young Lions were looking the better side, this was exemplified again a minute later when Saifullah Akbar and Syukri Bashir combined well on the edge of the box to win a freekick and then further highlighted when Hougang keeper, Heng How Meng, had to use his head as he came rushing out of the area to cut out a long ball that Syukri looked destined to get on the end of. Hougang couldn't find a way through a well organised Young Lions defence that at times seemed to be playing with 5 at the back with a couple of deep laying midfielders. In addition to Syed playing deep Nur Luqman also played a part in stopping any Hougang attacks coming to anything.

The goal when it came was completely deserved. It was the impressive Syed Firdaus who crossed from the right to find Syukri Bashir free in the box. The stocky Syukri looks had already looked strong and able to hold off bigger defenders, he guided his header expertly into the back of the net. 1-0 to Young Lions, this is not what I had been expecting at all.

Young Lions hunting in packs

Young Lions started to tire

After a halftime show that saw the Young Lions mascot accidentally save a number of penalties from future players, the teams were back out. I fully expected Hougang to up their game and still go and take all three points, especially once it was announced that the industrious Syed would not be coming out for the second half, hardly surprising as he had run non-stop for 45 minutes and looked exhausted towards the end of the half. The space vacated by Syed was obvious and Hougang began to get more joy in midfield. They also began to exploit the flanks a bit better and got a number of crosses into the box during the first 5 minutes of the half. Young Lions also had a few chances to extend thier lead, Lionel Tan had a couple of headed opportunities from set pieces and Haiqal Pashia was unlucky to see his effort tipped wide after cutting in from the right, sprinting past the defence and firing his effort towards the far corner from a tight angle. But is was Hougang who got the next goal. Afiq Yunos with a header from a corner only seconds after Faris had had a good shout for a penalty turned down. The question now was could Young Lions hold on to claim a vital point.

I expected the to see Young Lion's heads drop after the goal. After all, this was a team with a losing mentality built into them, or so I had read. Hougang were clearly on top at this stage, the Hools were in good voice urging their team forward with a collection of songs and chants that oddly seem to be completely disconnected from what actually unfolds on the pitch. But the Young Lions did not give up, especially the impressive pair of Lionel Tan and Jacob Mahler who kept pressuring the Hougang forwards, giving them no time to combine, and silencing the critics who had claimed that the Young Lions couldn't defend. It was more of this closing down that eventually led to Young Lions taking the lead. Saifallah made a nuisance of himself in the box, pressuring the Hougang defenders into making a costly mistake when a poor Jordan Vestering clarance was charged down by the forward and diverted into the back of the net. Yes it was fortunate, but more than deserved. The cubs had hunted down the ball like a pack of lions all game, had never stopped running and deserved the lead.

After this it was the heads of the more experienced Hougang players that dropped. Less than 5 minutes after going behind they were down to 10 men when Kong Howon got a straight red for bringing down Pashia who would have been clean through on goal. The Young Lions predictably started to tire but bought fresh legs on to replace tired. Substitute Eunos followed the same tactics as his teammates and impressively closed down the keeper, who managed to squeeze a pass away, before turning around and pressuring the defender into a mistake. He was unfortunate that his shot was saved. Hougang put together their best passing move of the game in the 85 minute, stringing together a number of good passes before substitute and former Home United player M Anumanthan got a shot away. Anumanthan looked good when he came on and will be hopeful of starting future Hougang games.

Young Lions held onto the lead and the exhausted players looked delighted with what they had achieved. Hougang will be disappointed and questions have to be raised about how they have spent their last few weeks. I was hugely impressed by my first Young Lions game, they looked fit and hungry and it was fantastic to see a team closing down so well. They won't be challenging at the top this season, and probably never will, but they are not just making up the numbers. Based on this performance I expect them to take a few points off of other teams this year and I predict that they will finish above a Warriors team that look dismal so far. Maybe the idea of playing a national youth team in the local league is not as crazy as I first thought. It will be largley this group of players, with the addition of some experience in the form of Harris, that will represent Singapore in this year's SEA games. After this performance I am confident that we'll see a strong performance from the Young Lions and I hope the country unites behind the never give up, never stop running style that was in evidence yesterday.