Gavin Lee

They've made the Asian Cup.

And under Gavin Lee, they've done pretty well until they got absolutely blitzed by Malaysia 6-0.

So he's under a bit of pressure, Gavin.

But for Singapore, this is their last chance.

We'll talk about possible solutions in a short while.

But I tracked down Singapore National Team head coach Gavin Lee for his thoughts on the matter.

Here's what he had to say.

Obviously, we all want to definitely play the AFC Asian Cup.

But again, nothing is more important than than the health and safety of everyone involved in the competition, but also, you know, people

living in the region.

Beautifully put by national head coach Gavin Lee, and thanks Raulshan for speaking to him.

But this is the key point.

The time to pick up the pieces and continue to hopefully push for progress needs to happen just as quickly.

For that, I'm in the company of Gavin Lee, the man who holds the keys to the engine.

A man who has told us time and again to trust the process.

But after that bruising night in Bandung, what exactly are we trusting? Gavin, thank you for making yourself available.

look at yourself in the mirror because not like when you win is not everything is perfect when you lose it's not like everything is bad right so we have to we have to take we have to keep what is good and then the things that are not so good probably more when it's when you don't win you know then you gotta you gotta do better and it starts with me and then after that then we look at a staff did we give the players the best environment for them to go out do what they do and then After that, look at the players, right? Then collectively as a team, we find the best solutions to improve what we need to improve.

We'll talk about improvements, but Gav, just deviating slightly, right? When I first texted you for this to happen, I asked you how you're doing and you said, I'll get better.

How does Gavin Lee deal with all of it? What's the escape mechanism here? Is it your son? Is it family? Is it Netflix? What is it?

Definitely no time or no mood for Netflix.

I'm so sorry, guys.

It was an utter humiliation, and easy the worst defeat of Coach Gavin Lee's career.

A 6-0 drubbing by their Causeway rivals in the FIFA ASEAN Cup up in Jakarta, and here's a key point.

Here's a key point.

[laughs]

Where was the pride? What do you guys think? Do we have to follow Malaysia? Do we have to look out, cast our net far and wide, and find anybody with a link to Singapore, a grandparent, an auntie, an uncle, whatever it is? We call them naturalized players, heritage players.

Is that the way for Singapore to go? At the final whistle, Gavin Lee, look, he tried to stay upbeat despite the 6-0 thrashing, and this is what Gavin Lee had to say.

The question now for us is, do we allow this event to, to define us, or do we use it as fuel to, to go again? Uh, every game has always been a reality check, mate.

So, this age, like I say, whatever is in front of me, you know, I'm enjoying every single bit.

Central to the trajectory Singapore football is on is Gavin Lee, your head coach, right, Safwan? And I think it's safe to say now, you were someone who really wanted Gavin as our head coach.

About one year since he became full-time coach, how is it going so far and why is it working so well?

Whatever is working well now is that everybody is trusting the process.

Did you catch the match?

yes yes and i'm catching them all it's uh... it's it's all part of it it was a good win against bangladesh awkward little team malaysia daily beaten bangladesh and the sort of fifa asian cup is the second asian championship going on this season uh... we have the the the hyundai cup earlier on uh... outside of a people window this time this people window uh... uh... has all of the players involved singapore had a strong team up for the earlier ascian championship the real ascian championship this new ascian championship singapore also got a strong spot but so do other nations uh... singapore lost 2-0 to indonesia which no disgrace a couple of days ago needed to beat bangladesh and did so harris stewart scoring a goal late in the first half singapore for the most part dominated events and played very well and they've got a of winner-takes-all match against them as Malaysia coming up if they lose to Malaysia Malaysia got a chance of making the final and top in the group Singapore themselves unlikely to get it but I'm looking at this in a bigger context this is a good competitive matches it's all for Gavin Lee aiming towards the Asia Cup in January next year Singapore go to the Asia Cup qualifying for the first time They're not expected to progress into the knockout stages.

But all of these games are vital experience for Gavin Lee and his team to put themselves against strong opposition.

So this Bangladesh game was a good test.

The 2-0 defeat against Indonesia was a good test.

They're building up to the games against Japan and Brazil later on in November.

Keep in mind, though, this is all leading towards the Asian Cup.

Now, very quickly, how would you rate Coach Gavin Lee's performance so far with the Lions?