Lions captain Hariss says team 'fired up' for Indonesia semi-final
For the first time in nine years, the Lions will compete in the semi-finals of the AFF Suzuki Cup where they face Indonesia in the first leg of the tie at the National Stadium on Wednesday (Dec 22).
While pleased with the progress, Singapore captain Hariss Harun knows they have to up their game at this knockout stage of the Asean Football Federation Championship.
The initial feel-good factor after three straight wins against Myanmar (3-0), the Philippines (2-1) and Timor-Leste (2-0) has dissipated and last Saturday's 2-0 loss to a second-string Thailand side was a reality check. The Lions were also unconvincing in their narrow victory over Timor-Leste.
Hariss, so often a dependable figure in the middle of the park, has also not been at his best in the last two outings. This is largely down to a lack of match time leading up to the tournament. He picked up a quadriceps injury on Oct 10 - the final day of the Singapore Premier League season - before contracting Covid-19 in early November, causing him to miss the team's training camp in Dubai.
The 31-year-old was honest when assessing his own performance in an interview with The Straits Times on the eve of the match against Indonesia. He said: "I know it's not at where it should be or what I am capable of. I need to keep pushing to get back to the level I can be at. It's not been easy but I am not one to make excuses.
"The coach trusts me and he's put me in the starting 11 in the matches... I know I have to improve but this is a team game and we all have to cover and fight for each other.
"Performance generally has not been good since the first two games but we have to see the bigger picture - we are in the semi-finals for the first time in nine years. But we are aware of the challenges ahead."
Fans will be hoping to see a revived Hariss back on the pitch, as it was the skipper who scored in the Lions' last encounter at the 2018 Suzuki Cup group stage, when they won 1-0 in front of 30,783 fans at the National Stadium.
On Wednesday, the same venue will see a sell-out crowd of almost 10,000 - the current allowed maximum capacity due to Covid-19 measures.
While the Garuda are in confident mood after a comfortable 4-1 victory over arch-rivals Malaysia in the final group match last Sunday, the home support will hand the Lions an advantage, said Indonesia head coach Shin Tae-yong.
The 52-year-old said: "When we played Vietnam and Malaysia, I told my boys to think of those matches as a final. That's the mentality we will have for the next matches as well.
"I have watched Singapore's matches and I felt they played well against Myanmar and Philippines. They are a good team, with good attacking and defending players and we can't look down on them."
Meanwhile, Lions head coach Tatsuma Yoshida has spent the last few days analysing his semi-final opponents and knows his team are in for a tough battle. Indonesia have scored 13 goals in four group stage matches - the highest in the competition. Singapore have seven.
Said Yoshida: "They will play aggressively and we have to match that. We have our own concept of how we play and we need to trust and stick to that. As always, we will try to find some weaknesses in our opponents. We have solutions for the problems they will pose us and we'll show what they are on the pitch."
Yoshida's solutions, however, will not include key defender Shakir Hamzah and Gabriel Quak, who have been ruled out of the tournament due to injury. Lion City Sailors' Nur Adam Abdullah is expected to be given his first start for the national team in place of Shakir at left-back.
Club teammate Hassan Sunny is confident that Nur Adam, who was named the 2021 Singapore Premier League Young Player of the Year, will step up when needed.
Said Hassan: "He shows a lot of hunger in training. He goes hard into every tackle. If he's given the opportunity, I'm sure he will show his potential. We saw a glimpse of what he can do when he came on against Thailand and I'm sure he will shine if he plays tomorrow."
Regardless of who takes to the field, Hariss said that the squad are motivated for the task ahead. He also admitted that they were aware of a section of the home crowd booing the team off in the loss to Thailand, which prompted an emotional Yoshida to stop the post-match virtual press conference after responding to a question about the jeers.
Acknowledging that the players have seen the video of their coach's conference, Hariss added: "He's (Yoshida) done a lot for us on and off the field. He's protected us. It's not the most ideal thing but emotions can take over. The team is together and we know what's at stake. We are clear of what we need to do. We are fired up.
"We had a talk among ourselves. It may look like we are weak and down but we are not. We are strong."
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