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Izwan brilliant as Singapore hold mighty Japan in World Cup Qualifying A hero in last month's Malaysia FA Cup final, goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud excelled for Singapore in Japan. Izwan Mahbud put on a goalkeeping masterclass to help Singapore hold Asian giants Japan to a 0-0 draw in their 2018 World Cup qualifier at the Saitama Stadium on Tuesday night. On the night of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games closing ceremony, the Lions produced a courageous performance to stun Japan's new head coach Vahid Halihodzic in his first competitive match and leave a crowd of more than 55,000 shocked. Singapore now sit top of Group E on four points after negotiating their two away games with a 4-0 win against Cambodia last Thursday to go with the draw in Japan. Syria and Afghanistan are the other nations in the pool. It was an uninspiring performance from the Samurai Blue against a team 102 places below them in the world rankings. Bernd Stange's Lions frustrated the hosts who simply could not find a way past the brilliant Izwan in goal. Things did look ominous for the visitors when Keisuke Honda thumped a 15-yard shot in the third minute which needed two attempts before Izwan finally gathered. Shinji Kagawa was next to threaten on 12 minutes. But his shot was tipped out for a corner by Izwan, who was always predicted to be Singapore's busiest player on the night. Japan captain Makoto Hasebe led by example as he drove down the middle of the park, but it was Kagawa's failure in finding his shooting range that proved costly. Two attempts in quick succession failed to trouble Izwan in goal. Singapore finally broke out of their half when Zulfahmi Arifin found space just outside the box. The young midfielder opted to shoot despite the shouts from Khairul Amri who'd made an intelligent run. Japan's best chance of the half fell to Shinji Okazaki after some good work between Usami Takashi and Honda. But the home fans couldn't believe their eyes when Izwan pulled off a superb save to keep things level. Stange was visibly elated as both teams walked at half-time while his counterpart Halihodzic had a pensive look after Japan's dismal showing. Singapore defenders, led by Baihakki Khaizan, heroically backed up goalkeeper Mahbud's masterclass during the goalless draw against Japan. The Japanese started the second half in determined fashion, with Usami taking a couple of early pot shots. Izwan was the hero again on 55 minutes when Ota Kasuke's pinpoint cross was met by an Okazaki header. Once again, the Singapore custodian pulled off an instinctive save to deny the hosts. Halihodzic saw enough and stunned the Saitama crowd when he took off Borussia Dortmund's Kagawa and brought on FC Koln's Yuya Osako. The Izwan versus Japan battle continued in the 63rd minute when the keeper foiled Usami's cross-shot as a restless Japanese bench looked more tense by the minute. Another one-handed save three minutes later, off Honda's powerful header from an Ota corner saw the AC Milan man let out a big scream of frustration. Nothing seemed to go right for the Samurai Blue as Honda's 72nd minute free kick cannoned off the post. Izwan was on hand to save Usami's meek shot from the rebound. When Iraqi referee Mohanad Sarray blew the final whistle, he left the Japan team and fans shell-shocked. The 154th ranked Singapore players punched the air in delight in what felt like a victory for the underdogs from Southeast Asia. After their disappointing AFC Asian Cup in January when they were knocked out in the quarterfinals, the Japanese are still searching for answers. Japan: Eiji Kawashima (GK), Ota Kasuke, Hiroki Sakai, Makino Tomoaki, Maya Yoshida, Makoto Hasebe ©, Usami Takashi (Yoshinori Muto 78'), Gaku Shibasaki (Genki Haraguchi 70'), Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa (Yuya Osako 61'), Shinji Okazaki Singapore: Izwan Mahbud (GK), Shaiful Esah, Baihakki Khaizan (Firdaus Kasman 80'), Madhu Mohana, Nazrul Nazari, Zulfahmi Arifin, Hariss Harun, Izzdin Shafiq, Hafiz Sujad, Fazrul Nawaz (Yasir Hanapi 90+1'), Khairul Amri (Khairul Nizam 85')

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singap...oan/661792.html "We have about 37 units of those ex-stocks. We have cleared (most of them), left with two units only. So it has turned out to be not only good, it's fantastic. When borrowing restrictions revert next month, the Singapore Vehicle Traders Association expects times to be tougher. It said used car dealers are likely to be more careful about stockpiling second-hand vehicles."

knn...what does olympic gotta do with doing away with live qualifying??? fug u...!!!

Best qualifying session for this season as we see the fastest drivers are changing so rapidly in the last 6 minutes of Q3. And Vettel is back at the top again.

Speaking at the National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that this move was due to young couples' incomes increasing recently.

I happened to read the letters / articles in Straits times from last Thursday through Sunday and I found out that some readers complain that low COE Qualifying Price for last few years leading to flooding of cars on the roads. Surprisingly some of our MCF friends also echo the same. There is no relation between flooding and COE QP as the quota is always fixed for any bidding. If economy is good and demand is more, the COEs are bidded and purchased at a higher price. This happened in mid nighties too (even though the COE quota was much higher than now) Am I missing any point on this?

Pos No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps 1 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 01:24.8 01:24.1 01:23.9 19 2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 01:25.3 01:24.3 01:24.0 20 3 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:25.1 01:24.3 01:24.1 22 4 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 01:24.9 01:24.5 01:24.7 19 5 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 01:25.5 01:25.0 01:24.8 24 6 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 01:24.8 01:24.8 01:24.9 26 7 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 01:25.4 01:24.9 01:24.9 24 8 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 01:25.7 01:25.1 01:25.2 20 9 11 Robert Kubica Renault 01:25.6 01:25.1 01:25.4 23 10 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:25.5 01:25.0 01:26.0 24 11 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:25.0 01:25.2 - 13 12 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 01:26.1 01:25.6 - 17 13 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 01:26.2 01:25.7 - 19 14 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:26.1 01:25.7 - 15 15 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 01:25.9 01:25.7 - 17 16 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 01:26.3 01:25.8 - 16 17 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 01:26.1 01:26.1 - 16 18 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:26.5 - - 10 19 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 01:28.8 - - 9 20 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 01:29.1 - - 8 21 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 01:29.6 - - 8 22 25 Lucas Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 01:30.2 - - 8 23 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 01:30.5 - - 10 24 20 Karun Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 01:30.6 - - 10

Group 1 Australia China Iraq Qatar Group 2 Japan Bahrain Oman Thailand Group 3 South Korea North Korea Jordan Turkmenistan Group 4 Saudi Arabia Uzbekistan Lebanon Singapore Group 5 Iran Kuwait UAE Syria Interesting draw... North Korea vs South Korea... Australia vs China vs Iraq.... Singapore has a chance to progress to 4th round if they can beat Uzbekistan and Lebanon at home.

As announced in the New Paper, Croatia & England had been group together again for the European qualifying rounds. They are grouped together in Group 6. The group consist of : Croatia England Ukraine Belarus Kazakhstan Andorra As reported in the ESPN Soccernet: "World Cup: Bilic wary" "Croatia manager Slaven Bilic admits England were the team he least wanted to be paired with in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers despite ending their Euro 2008 hopes at Wembley on Wednesday. Croatia beat England both home and away, culminating in the 3-2 midweek victory which sealed England's fate - as well as that of manager Steve McClaren. Whoever is appointed to succeed McClaren will have an early chance to succeed where the former Middlesbrough boss failed, while matches against the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra also await in Group Six. But Bilic is not pleased to pit his wits against the English again and insists he was keen to avoid a side he believes were the best of the tier-two nations in today's draw in Durban. '(When I saw the draw) I was saying 'Oh no!',' Bilic told Sky Sports News. 'Everyone in Croatia was saying 'give us England again' but I wanted to avoid England. 'It is a very, very hard draw because they are by far the best team from the second pot. 'The only team I wanted to avoid was England. We are not afraid of them but they have got a terrific team and brilliant players. They should gel and they are going to gel." Another piece of pleasant news is that Jose Mourinho agent is in talk with English FA for a possiblity of Jose Mourinho taking over as England manager. Jose agent will give English FA the chance to talk first before opening to Barcelona and Real Madrid. Total ST read: "But, the self-proclaimed Special One is waiting for the FA to contact him. The 44 years old Portuguese believes he can extract the best from an England squad regularly labelled world-class despite rarely delivering performances to match." It is to good to be true but if the news is reliable, then by looking at the countries in Group 6, the chances are England will qualify for the WC 2010. Another chance to show that what they are capable off. The only missing link is a capable manager to lead the charges. So Jose Mouronho is suited for that post. What your say ?

The Formula 1 teams have come up with two possible ideas for the 2006 season qualifying format. Click here to vote. Personally I think option 2 sounds more exciting but the initial 15 mins with all 20 cars on the circuit doing hot laps sounds a little too short.