Hungry Cubs Unluck To Draw

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By Lionel Lim

Standing tall with his chest pumped out, Dhukilan Jeevamani was having one of the biggest days of his life.

With Youth Olympic Games (YOG) football captain Jeffrey Lightfoot out with a calf injury, Dhukilan was entrusted with the captain’s armband and led his team out for the first time.

“Jeffrey was the YOG captain and he did a great, I just want to do a good job like he did,” said Dhukilan as he turned in a Man-of-the-Match performance.

Leading his team by example, Dhukilan was calmness personified in a very heated first half even when Dhukilan was brought down with a hard tackle and still wincing from the pain, he refused to be drawn into any on-pitch altercation. In a show of true class and sportsmanship, he even offered his hand to his assailant, Pedro Fernandes.

Calm and composed, he too led his backline with aplomb, thwarting the attacks of the samba boys.

Spot-on with his reading of the game, he executed a well-timed sliding tackle on CR Flamengo forward Arlindo Neto in the 42nd minute to prevent him from going clean through on goal.

Holding a tight defence, Dhukilan also gave his forwards the peace of mind to charge forward and bombard the Brazilian defence.

The defence of CR Flamengo were clearly troubled by these attacks and it showed in the 54th minute when Muhaimin Suhaimi gave Singapore a numerical advantage.

Catching Flamengo’s defence out with a long ball over the top, Muhaimin bombed forward and was brought down by last man Caio Thimoteo. 

Muhaimin was there again in the 70th minute to trouble the Brazilians, ever the opportunist; he was the quickest to react to a fluffed clearance from a dangerous cross by Jonathan Tan, walloping the ball in the goal to give Singapore a well deserved lead.

It seemed like our boys were about to cause an upset, but five minutes before time, Flamengo’s Jorge Marco exploited the time and space given to him.

Seeing a gap in the defence and Singapore’s custodian Fashah out of position, he smashed a 20-mtre shot into the back of the net.

Sinking to the ground upon the final whistle, one could see how disappointed Dhukilan and his charges were. 

“We wanted a victory so bad, so it is heartbreaking to concede a late goal,” said Dhukilan after the match. 

But for now, the boys must get over their disappointment of dropping two points and focus on the upcoming match with the Everton Under-15s on 22 July at 8.45pm. Our Under-15 team will face the Juventus Under-15 team at 6pm on the same day. Both matches will be played at the Jalan Besar stadium.