| Fadhil Yunus |
BRUNEI Darussalam under-12 national head coach Stephen Ng emphasised that his charges have gained a valuable lesson despite a 3-0 defeat against Malaysia’s NFDP Terengganu in the plate quarter-final of the SuperMokh Cup at the Maybank Field ‘A’, Bangi yesterday.
The young Tabuan showed that they were no pushovers despite the margin of victory having established opportunities of their own against a side who have played together for four to five years.
Terengganu Under-12s, the Malaysia 2016 National Under-12 state champions, boast a good youth development system but they survived a scare from a determined Tabuan side.
The Brunei juniors struck against the post twice and the Terengganu juniors’ goalkeeper also made two point-blank saves to deny the young Tabuan.
The Terengganu juniors proved clinical in creating their chances making it count in the 8th, 12th and 46th minutes.
Ng highlighted the importance of frequenting training sessions mainly to players below the under-12 age group following his charges’ performances.
Brunei Darussalam Under-12 national team in a group picture prior to kick-off against NFDP Terengganu.
“Tabuan have gained another valuable lesson with this experience and this technical abilities gap of our young players comparing to other regional teams here that will need to be bridge with more training frequency and quality trainings in the younger age groups (below age 12) to develop our young players early,” said Ng.
The international meet served as a platform to help evaluate the current state of young football players in the country.
“This, being our 1st year in forming and training a U12 elite team to compete and by playing here help us to gauge where we are in term of our young players’ playing abilities,” concluded the head coach.
Brunei Darussalam under-12s will next face Iran’s Foolad Mobarakeh Sepahan to determine the classification between 13th to 16th places with the winner through to the 13th place playoff.
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