SINGAPORE - Dear Yoshida-san, welcome to Singapore.
Having taken up arguably the hottest seat in Singapore sport, I hope you know what you are in for with your first international assignment.
Your credentials have already been questioned and your command of English criticised but you can still prove them wrong.
I actually admire and appreciate how you were game enough to field questions in a foreign language at Thursday's press conference, even though you had a translator.
In any case, our most successful ringmaster ever was a chain-smoking Serb Radojko Avramovic who sometimes left people guessing what he just said with his gruff and mumbly diction.
He affectionately called Singapore fans "five million coaches", as there is no lack of persons, qualified or not, with an opinion of what the national coach should or should not do. Yet, Raddy delivered three Asean titles. So, ignore the haters and let your football (coaching) do the talking.
Like you said, communication will be key. And knowing English, and consequently Singlish, is not your first language, may I take the liberty to introduce you to some key words in our football lexicon.
Â
There was a time when our Lions roared on the regional stage. But after three straight group-stage eliminations from the AFF Suzuki Cup, we have been reduced to whimpering pussycats of late.
We are looking to you to restore the semangat - which is similar to the Japanese concepts of seishin and tamashii - and revive the energy and enthusiasm, soul and spirit in the team.
You will have ideas about how Singapore football could improve, perhaps through the use of technology for example, but you may meet with a response that has frustrated previous coaches.
It is essentially known as money no enough.
Sport in Singapore generally does not enjoy as much corporate financial support as it does in your country. Vissel Kobe midfielder Andres Iniesta's $38.5 million annual salary tops the Football Association of Singapore's budget, for about four years. And football is the most well-funded sport here.
As a result, you will learn to make a little go a long way. And that applies to human resources too.
Ideally, you will have your best players at every Fifa international window, but next week, you will already miss having two of the nation's top young players - Irfan and Ikhsan Fandi - for the international friendlies against Solomon Islands and Myanmar.
They will play in the U-22 Merlion Cup instead. The situation may well be replicated during the subsequent Nov 11-19 window, when the duo is likely to play in the SEA Games, another U-22 tournament.
The SEA Games gold, which Singapore have never won, is prized by local sports authorities, who rightly or wrongly, sometimes place more importance on than the national team's endeavours.
It results in a biennial tussle for players. At least three players could not join the Lions for that memorable 0-0 World Cup qualifying draw in Japan because they had to stay with the SEA Games team in 2015.
But this is just how things are in Singapore - different people express patriotism in different ways.
One of them is national service, in which all Singaporean males have to be conscripted for around two years. This includes your talent pool, who may not be able to train and play regularly.
Agreeing to the initial two-year contract means you are essentially saying boleh, that you can deal with all these constraints and challenges and try and establish for the Lions a football identity that has been missing for years.
Given adequate time and support, I hope you will realise and internalise the spirit of our national anthem Majulah Singapura, which means "Onward Singapore".
You have astutely asked for unity among administrators, coaches, players, and Singaporeans in general. Hopefully, these various stakeholders can live up to the lyrics "Marilah kita bersatu/dengan semangat yang baru" which translates into "Come, let us unite with a new spirit", as we usher in a new football era under your reign.
Good luck and ganbatte.
Lions hungry for post-raya victory. straitstimes.com. June 07, 2019 5:00 AM Singapore Under-22 striker Ikhsan Fandi is jet-lagged, having arrived from Norway on Tuesday and spending the following day …
Flipboard: Detroit Lions: Is this Michael Roberts' last
Football News -SINGAPORE - Dear Yoshida-san, welcome to Singapore.. restore the Lions' semangat, boleh? Tatsuma Yoshida was unveiled as Singapore's new national football coach on May 30, 2019
Football: Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh
sportstoft.com/soccer/football-yoshida-san-restore-the-lions-semangat-boleh/
Agreeing to the initial two-year contract means you are essentially saying boleh, that you can deal with all these constraints and challenges and try and establish for the Lions a football identity that has been missing for years.
Football: Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh?
Detroit Lions. Detroit Lions: Is this Michael Roberts' last chance in Motown? sidelionreport.com - Kellen Voss. The former Toledo Rocket is in his third year in the league, but with rookie TEs biting his heels, this may be Roberts' last chance with the Detroit …
Football: Kane starts for Tottenham in Champions League final
An open letter to Tatsuma Yoshida, the Singapore national football team's new coach. 2019, with the headline 'Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh?'. Print Edition | Subscribe.
Football: Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh?
virginiabus.info/sports/football-yoshida-san-restore-the-lions-semangat-boleh/
There was a time when our Lions roared on the regional stage. But after three straight group-stage eliminations from the AFF Suzuki Cup, we have been reduced to whimpering pussycats of late. We are looking to you to restore the semangat - which is similar to the Japanese concepts of seishin and tamashii - and revive the energy and
Flipboard: Lions hungry for post-raya victory
Football: Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh? SINGAPORE - Dear Yoshida-san, welcome to Singapore. Having taken up arguably the hottest seat in Singapore sport, I hope you know what you are in for with your first international assignment.
Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh?, Football
Football: Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh
Football: Yoshida-san, restore the Lions' semangat, boleh? 0:0 Comments Croatian Luxury Tourism Segment Presented in Singapore - Total Croatia News 0:0 Comments Tennis: Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas into last 16 at sweltering Roland Garros 0:0 Comments Football: Grief in Sevilla as former star Jose Antonio Reyes killed in car crash 0:0
Sunderland owner Donald to sell 64 per cent of his stake in
sportstoft.com/soccer/sunderland-owner-donald-to-sell-64-per-cent-of-his-stake-in-the-club/
Sportsmail can reveal that the deal would see Campbell acquire 64 per cent from owner Stewart Donald and 10 per cent from Uruguayan investor Juan Sartori.. That would leave Donald and Sartori each with a 10 per cent stake, and executive director Charlie Methven is likely to retain the six per cent share he was given by Donald for brokering the purchase of the club from Ellis Short just 13
Newspapers | Media | Virginia Bus
virginiabus.info/news/us-biologists-probe-deaths-of-70-emaciated-gray-whales/
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (REUTERS) - US government biologists have launched a special investigation into the deaths of at least 70 gray whales washed ashore in recent months along the US West Coast, from California to Alaska, many of them emaciated, officials said on Friday (May 31).
No comments:
Post a Comment