Singapore U-22 coach Richard Tardy admitted that his players could not endure fitness condition during the 1-2 defeat against Malaysia on Wednesday night.
Singapore are on the verge of early elimination from the SEA Games after two straight losses against Myanmar and Malaysia.
The Young Lions had led 1-0 into the half-time break, but could not remain the leading advantage as Malaysia scored twice within a five-minute spell midway through the second half, which means that they suffered from a 1-2 defeat.
“In the first half, our organisation was good and we managed to control Malaysia. We had good orientation; we created difficult problems for them. We knew how to play Malaysia and we came up with a plan,” Tardy told the media at the post-match press conference,” Tardy said in the post-match press conference, as reported by Yahoo News Singapore.
“But after one hour, the problems started physically and in this kind of game at this level, it will be difficult against a good team like Malaysia, who have some good players.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t do the same in the second half as we did in the first.”