Singapore coach Kageyama Masanaga revealed that five of his players took ill on the eve of their AFC-16 Championship opener against hosts Uzbekistan.TASHKENT - Singapore coach Kageyama Masanaga revealed that a number of his side had been struck down by illness as the Cubs slumped to a 7-0 defeat to hosts Uzbekistan.
The Japanese tactician revealed that he was missing eight of his key players as five of them had to go to hospital before the game while three of them arrived on the night of the game.
"It's a disappointing defeat as five of our players had to go in the hospital last night (Friday) due to fever and diarrhoea," said Masanaga.
"Also three of our players will arrive tonight as they had exams in high school in Singapore."
Uzbekistan were 3-0 up by half-time through goals from Abdumutallib Abdullaev, Ayubhon Gapparov and Maksim Utkin while Aleksandr Galeev scored twice and Abdumutallib Abdullaev and Utkin added two more in the second half.
And despite being without eight players Masanaga admitted that his team suffered from lapses in concentration at key moments in the game.
"Uzbekistan played well tonight and our players didn't have good chances to score. The problem that we had is that the players struggled in the early minutes to adapt to the game.
"In the last minutes of the first-half and early in the second, things were good but in the last 10 minutes of the game the players lost it and some of them changed their positions and that's why we conceded four goals."
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan coach Robert Gay was understandably delighted with his side's emphatic over the Cubs.
"The big score reflects the good game that we had today and our strikers successfully did what they were supposed to do," said the Russian.
"We needed to get such a big result because it could help us later on."
Gay added that his players were initially overawed by their surroundings and paid tribute to the fans that turned up to support the side.
"It is the first time that our players have played at such a big stadium and that's why we couldn't instruct them well. I want to thank the spectators who attended the game and supported our players."
Ayubhon Gapparov suffered an injury in the second half and had to leave the pitch but Gay allayed fears his injury was serious.
"Gapparov’s injury is not serious and I think that he will be ready for the next match,” added Gay.
“We will try to prepare him and the other players for the next match against Iran because it is very important."
Source:The AFC.com
