Avramovic angry as under-23s go down in Sydney

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SINGAPORE - The Republic's under-23 football team were blitzed 6-0 by the Australian Olympic side in a friendly match in Sydney yesterday.

The match took place 48 hours later than initially scheduled due to a waterlogged pitch. Singapore national coach Radojko Avramovic was angry after the game, and not because of the scoreline.

The young Lions were outplayed in every department by their bigger and more skilful opponents, who led 2-0 at halftime.

Speaking to MediaCorp via telephone, Avramovic gave his men a rating of five out of 10, and said: "Yes, they were physically stronger and they just came from a training camp in Europe preparing for their Olympic qualifier against Yemen, but our players have to ignore that and just go out and play.

"It's no problem to lose a game if you give 100 per cent and you try to play, but it upsets me to see them not trying."

Singapore's under-23 team have been set the target of reaching the final at November's SEA Games in Indonesia, and skipper Hariss Harun felt the game would be a good lesson.

"We could have done better but we made mistakes by not being calm and lacking experience," said Hariss. "Our team is still a work in progress. I'd love to play more teams of this calibre as we need the exposure and opportunities to gain more experience."