It’s the penultimate day in Singapore and City u15s are looking to sign off their Lion City Cup campaign with a win in the third/fourth place play-off.
Last night we attended the Lion City Cup Gala Dinner at Downtown East where all the teams were gathered to reflect on a week of top quality youth football.
Ex-Blues midfielder Dietmar Hamann attended the dinner and had some advice for all of the players in attendance. He cited the next few years of their development as being vital in deciding whether these precocious talents graduate to become professional footballers.
Hamann also revealed how important this experience could be for the player’s futures, playing against teams with different footballing cultures and styles.
Tonight, the team takes on Vasco da Gama in the third/fourth place play-off – it will be the second time the teams have met in the tournament, with City getting the better of the Brazilians 2-0 in the first-match.
Vasco will be out for revenge while City will be looking to exorcize demons after their 4-2 defeat to Ajax. The coaching staff certainly aren’t taking the play-off lightly, preparing for the match in exactly the same way as the semi-final, running through set-piece plans with the team at the hotel now.
The lads seem to have come to terms with their semi-final defeat now and are back in high spirits – as shown when Yvan Wassi was challenged to a dance battle by a local. Not one to shy away from such things, Yvan delighted bystanders by meeting the challenge head on – with hilarious results…
Last night I was told by defender Ryan Ellison to shave my head “for bants” – travelling with 13-15-year old footballers certainly teaches you lots of new phrases. Here are some favourites with definitions:
“Busy”: if someone is unnecessary, eg: if one asks the time and it’s 6.06, they would say six-oh-six rather than estimate five past six.
“Begging it”: when a man is too forthcoming in his romantic intentions for a would-be romantic interest.
“Leng”: still yet to decipher - will conduct further investigation and report back.
You can follow goal updates of City u15s v Vasco with us on Twitter and we’ll have match highlights on the site tomorrow. See you tomorrow for the final entry of the Lion City Cup diary.
