Duric: Singapore stopped playing in the second half

The Singapore Under-22 football team's hopes of making the SEA Games semi-finals are all but over after a 2-1 defeat by Malaysia at the Shah Alam Stadium in Selangor last night.

With two games left, the Young Lions are bottom in Group A with zero points.

Former Singapore striker Aleksandar Duric, 47, who is now the principal of the ActiveSG Football Academy at Sport Singapore, analyses the match with The New Paper.

What are your thoughts on the game?

DURIC: Singapore started brightly in the first half and, to be honest, they dominated. They scored and Malaysia couldn't.

But, in the second half, they let Malaysia come at them.

After the goal, their performance just wasn't good enough.

I thought they had a chance to do something tonight.

It's not that Malaysia were better than Singapore but, when they had a chance, they were able to finish it off.

So what went wrong for Singapore?

I think it went wrong from the first game. They could have been played much better against Myanmar, but they gave too much respect to them.

For tonight's game, Singapore just stopped playing in the second half. Maybe it was heavy legs, maybe they were tired, but that's no excuse.

Did Singapore coach Richard Tardy get his tactics right?

He really went for the three points and it nearly worked.

I wished there wasn't a half-time because the way they played in the first and second half was totally different.

Tactics are one thing but, at the end of the day, the players must want to play.

I don't know if the coach played the wrong tactics, or if the players just weren't good enough (in the second half).

Were the Young Lions too defensive and should Tardy have given Ikhsan Fandi more support in attack?

I cannot question his tactics in the first game (against Myanmar), they were compact in defence.

In that game, Singapore didn't really have many chances because it was a scrappy game from both sides.

But, tonight, it was the right tactics. We dominated in the first half and had good chances.

I thought one goal would at least be enough for a draw, but two goals in the first half would have been really good.

But I don't know what happened after half-time.

I cannot believe it. It was a totally different team in the second half.

angzlj@sph.com.sg