Commentary: Singapore's AFF Cup elimination was painful, but how we lost hurt even more

SINGAPORE: Losing always hurts, but this one really stung. It wasn't that defeat came at the hands of Causeway rivals Malaysia, nor that it killed the optimistic hope that Singapore might make the semi-finals of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Mitsubishi Electric Cup.

Rather, it was how the Lions capitulated 4-1 to the Tigers on Tuesday (Jan 3) at the Bukit Jalil stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

A first-half header from Darren Lok and a second-half Stuart Wilkin double put the Tigers comfortably ahead. Singapore substitute Faris Ramli reduced arrears in the closing minutes of the game, only for a Sergio Aguero strike to negate it just three minutes later.

Only one team brought a ferocity to their play that night. The Tigers roared, the Lions whimpered.

Criticism has been lobbed the way of head coach Takayuki Nishigaya. And the Japanese coach must shoulder some of the blame.

At a pre-match press conference in the lead-up to the game, Nishigaya asserted that the team would be "aggressive". But it was Malaysia that was aggressive, as well as progressive and proactive.

The Lions struggled to soak up the Tigers' attack and hit them on the counter. After Lok's opening goal, Singapore looked bereft of ideas.

Nishigaya opted for a more pragmatic approach to matches against Vietnam and Malaysia. While it did win a valuable a point against the top-ranked side in Southeast Asia, one could have argued that the Lions could have been slightly more adventurous given their opponents were missing several key men. And against Malaysia, Singapore were simply not at the races.

"Bad management from the coach. Tactics borrow from secondary school C division," said one commenter on the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Facebook page. "Poor