Singapore crash out in pre-Olympic qualifier

Source

Singapore's route to the 2012 London Olympics Games ended in UAE as they lost 1-0 (3-0 in aggregate) to Yemen in the second leg of the Asian Round 1 Men's Olympic Preliminary Competition.

Singapore began the match in similar fashion from the second half of the first leg, piling the pressure on Yemen and it took just five minutes for Fazli Ayob to crack one from outside the box after some diligent work by Faritz Abdul Hameed down the right flank.

Fazli was at the end of Singapore's best chance of the first half after some fluid passing between Hariss Harun and Yasir Hanapi along with a clever dummy by Haniff Sadique, but Shukri Salem parried the ball to safety in the 10th minute.

Three minutes later, Yemen took the lead with virtually their only attack of the half after left-back Shakir Hamzah misjudged Munassar Awadh's cross which found Mohammed Al Khadeer who slotted home the winner.

Singapore continued their search for the equaliser and came close in the 23rd minute after Shukri fumbled the ball following some persistent work from Haniff upfront, whose ricocheted effort went just wide off the Yemeni goal.

The home side was on the attack once more with Yasir Hanapi this time, teeing-off Zulfahmi Arifin for a thunderous right foot shot but Shukri came to Yemen's rescue once again, spurning the ball around for a corner.

Zulfahmi then turned provider from the resulting corner, finding Hariss but the skipper was eluded of that extra touch to nick the ball into the back of the net.

Lady luck continued to smile on Yemen as half-time substitute Shafiq Zainal agonisingly watched his effort denied by the Yemen right post after meeting a pin point cross by Zulfahmi.

Singapore finally got the ball in the net when Shahir Zainal's flick found Afiq Yunos but the assistant referee raised his flagged for offside.

Singapore missed another golden opportunity to draw level in the closing stages when Faris Ramli's telling pass released Shafiq who had only the keeper to beat but the former Balestier Khalsa forward blasted his shot well over the Yemeni goal.

Coach Radojko Avramoic said: "If you look at the match, we played a very attacking game. We had a very good chance with our first attack of the game but they had one chance from a cross that was going nowhere and they scored their goal. We hit the post and we created enough chances to score at least two goals, maybe three tonight. "

"For the both games here, we didn't come to defend. We came here to attack and to try
and score goals. We created many chances but we didn't get the ball in the net."

- CNA/FAS/de