Monday, December 6, 2010

SC: The Agu show as Lions down Myanmar

It was the Agu Casmir show as he lead the Lions to a 2-1 win against Myanmar by setting up one goal and scoring the winner.

And that only took into account the fact he was only given one half to do that as he came on in the second half with Singapore down 0-1 due to a Khin Maung Lwin goal.

Immediately Agu strucked a chord with strike partner Aleksandar Duric and the Lions started creating problems for the Myanmar backline, which Singapore failed so miserably in the first period.

Myanmar was pushed back and the Lions got their reward as Duric found the equalizer after being set up by Agu; who control a cross by Shahril Ishak to go to the byline and and pass to an open Duric.

Roar on by that goal, the Lions control the game even more closely from that point and created many chances.

But somehow, the ball will not go in until injury-time when Duric return the favour to Agu by beating the offside trap and then getting out of the way, to a better-positioned Agu, so his strike partner can shot at goal.

That is what Agu did and the Lions got their deserved winner.

With such a performace, he has surely secured his spot, ahead of fellow forward Noh Alam Shah, to start against co-host Vietnam.

Vietnam will need a win to secure their spot in the last four and therefore will be coming at Singapore from the word go.

In such a case, the Singapore forward line will must have the abilities to hold up the ball upfront to ease up the pressure as well as set up any attack.

And it is no secert, Noh Alam Shah weakness is his (lacked of) technique abilities so that is why giving him the ball to his feet or in the air will likely result in giving Vietnam back the ball.

That is why Alam Shah tend to flourish in a two-man forward line and the Lions seldom played a 4-5-1 when the Armea Malang forward is playing.

It is not the time to take unnecessary risk with semi-final stake up for grab and the Agu and Duric forward line looking more promising.

Suzuki Cup Group Stage
Singapore 2-1 Myanmar

Scorer: Aleksandar Duric, Agu Casmir

SINGAPORE: Hassan Sunny, Ridhuan Muhamad (Mohd Khairul Amri Kamal 46th), Baihakki Khaizan, Isa Halim (Shahdan Sulaiman 62nd), Noh Rahman, Emuejeraye Precious, Noh Alam Shah (Agu Casimir 46th), Aleksandar Duric, Mustafic Fahrudin, Shahril Ishak, Jumaat Jantan.

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