Ikhsan Fandi looking to make his mark in Lion City Cup

Ikhsan Fandi looking to make his mark in Lion City Cup

The Lion City Cup is a competition that has unearthed local football stars like Fandi Ahmad, V Sundramoorthy and Shahril Ishak.

Now, Ikhsan Fandi, the son of Fandi Ahmad, will be looking to etch his name in Singapore football history when the tournament kicks off on Friday (Aug 14), 6pm at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Ikhsan is part of the national under-16 team. Comparisons are likely to be made between him and his father, but the 16-year-old is eager to prove he is his own man.

"Hopefully, we win this thing, but for me I just want to score,” said Ikhsan. “I'll just turn it into something positive, make myself work harder, and prove them if they think that it's just because of my father and brother that I'm in the team, I'll show them on the field."

The Singapore under-16s will be up against the Liverpool under-16s in the first game and the team is ready to go.

Said Ikhsan: "It's a good platform for us, for our team to see where we are right now and just to show Singapore what we have. The team is really excited and they want to do well. So they're really fighting for their spot in the first 11."

Meanwhile, the Singapore under-15 team will also be in action against the Tottenham under-16s. Head coach V Selvaraj said the competition comes at the right time, ahead of the AFC Under-16 Championship qualifiers, which begin in September.

Coach Selvaraj said: "These two games definitely will be a good gauge for us, to see where we stand. We will have another two weeks after that to prepare and work on our weaknesses and build on our strengths to prepare for the AFC tournament."

The first match of the Lion City Cup is between the Singapore under-15s and Tottenham under-16s.

The youth tournament is making a return to the local football calendar after a year's absence. Fandi Ahmad had helped Singapore win two Lion City Cup titles.

~News courtesy of Channel News Asia~

Heartbreak for Singapore lads

Heartbreak for Singapore lads



Victory was sweet but it was not enough for the Singapore Under-16 side to continue their journey in the 25th Canon Lion City Cup.

Needing to beat German side Eintracht Frankfurt by two clear goals in their final Group A match on Wednesday night, the Singapore team went 2-0 up with early goals from Irfan Fandi (9th minute) and Andin Addie (18th).

Seemingly with one foot in the semi-finals, the Singapore boys defended stoutly until Eintracht Frankfurt conjured up a goal with a minute left in normal time to earn themselves a place in the final four, and leave the local side heartbroken.

All three teams in the group, which included English side Arsenal, finished the preliminary round with one win and one defeat each, but the European sides advance by virtue of having scored five goals each, while the Singapore U-16s managed three.

Frankfurt will top the group having won their penalty shoot-out against Arsenal on Monday when they met in their opening match.

Singapore fans could take heart that there was not much disparity on display, at least not in terms of physical advantage as the hosts paraded players like defenders Thaniyath Vishaal and Adam Hakeem Nazri and forwards Irfan Fandi and Amiruldin Asraf who could match their German counterparts.

Eintracht Frankfurt looked the more adventurous throughout the match although the Singaporeans were equally comfortable in defence.

The first goal came when the ball was played out to Amiruldin on the right and his cross into the six-yard box evaded the right foot of Furkan Zoba in the heart of the German defence.

From there Irfan, the son of Fandi Ahmad, needed no second invitation as he swept the bouncing ball into the German net.

Irfan, who is due back to continue his stint in the academy of the Spanish second division club Hercules CF, was a constant threat to the German defence but it was Andin Addie who scored the second goal for Singapore in the 18th minute when he latched onto a poor clearance out of the Eintracht box to put the Germans into deeper trouble.

For Eintracht, it was an evening in which they could not find their way past a resolute Singapore defence led by Hakeem, the eldest son of former skipper Nazri Nasir, and even their two-goal hero against Arsenal, Nils Herdt, was largely ineffective and his best effort of the night was a 61st minute header which was pushed away by Zarfan Rohaizad in the Singapore goal.

The young lads were living dangerously as legs began to tire and Lukas Rodwald let the host off the hook in the 73rd minute when he had an open goal but put his shot wide.

Then came his substitution, and Rodwald's replacement Marvin Diehl was to become the hero for the Germans when he ran through the Singapore defence in the 78th minute, saw the opening and his right-footed shot landed in the left hand corner of the Singapore net.

The Germans lined up a semi-final date on Friday with SC Corinthians, while Arsenal will face PSV Eindhoven.

The U-16s, meanwhile, will have to be contented with a match for the fifth placing against the Under-15 counterparts.

~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~

Lion City Cup returns with stronger teams

Canon Lion City Cup returns with stronger teams


The Canon Lion City Cup, an international youth football tournament which was a hit with fans last year, returns with stronger teams this year.

While defending champions Flamengo from Brazil are not participating, the new line-up includes the likes of Manchester City, representing England, Ajax Amsterdam from the Netherlands, Portugal's FC Porto and Argentina's Boca Juniors representing South America. Like last year, hosts Singapore will have two teams - the Under-15 and Under-16.

The format of the week-long event in June has also been tweaked. Each half will now be 40 minutes instead of 45, and five substitutions will be allowed instead of the usual three. Mr Andrew Koh, Senior Director and General Manager of Canon Singapore, said: "You can see how sports can unite the nation or unite a country. We hope the same will happen in June and we are looking forward to some moments of magic again."

The title sponsor is also making a longer commitment till 2013, in a drive to promote youth sports in all areas. Mr Koh adds: "We also use this as a channel for us to promote photography, sports photography among the youths too. And that's what we did last year and this year.

We are going to extend it further to talent hunt and search for good sports photographers, and to give them the opportunity to shoot the live matches, and to get these photographs featured in the local newspapers."

~News courtesy of Channel Newsasia~