Young Lions exit SEA Games football tournament

REPORTING FROM JAKARTA

As the Indonesia-Malaysia group match drew to a close, the Young Lions' sliver of hope faded to nothingness.

Singapore's under-23 Young Lions squad will be on an early flight home, having missed out on the semi-finals of the SEA Games football tournament.

But in head coach Slobodan Pavkovic's mind, the team had finished well.

"To have this fighting spirit today, to have this winning mentality and teamwork, this is what we were working for this season, and it is for me really nice to see," said Pavkovic after Singapore's final qualifying match against Thailand, where the Young Lions won 2-0.

That winning margin, however, proved too narrow for the Young Lions to overcome the five-goal gulf that lay between them and the Tigers, who beat hosts Indonesia 1-0 in a fully-packed Gelora Bung Karno stadium. Singapore could only progress if Malaysia had lost by a four-goal margin.

"It's nice to see them fight so well, to work as a team and create so many scoring opportunities," added the coach, who admitted that ultimately, the team still faced problems in scoring goals.

When asked how he will answer to angry football fans back home, Pavkovic said he will have to do a comprehensive analysis of the team's performance this season, having faced several problems putting the 20 players together for the Games.

"We must talk about the whole season, not just what happened in this competition," he added.

Pavkovic also added that he was satisfied with the team's performance, saying that they had played as he had instructed, except against Indonesia, to whom they fell 2-0 last Friday.

"The only problem we faced was our game against Indonesia. We were playing against very good opponents in this group," he pointed out.