Sports Minutes: Danelle Tan & Yuvika Suresh on Indonesia win, Coach Mihoko Ishida’s impact and more

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Sports Minutes with Zia-ul Raushan on MoneyFM 89.3.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (0:06)
MoneyFM 89.3, it's time for Sports Minutes with me, Zia-ul Raushan. Some things are certain in life, death, taxes and change. Especially so in a high-pressure world of football. Coaches come, coaches go. To that end, the Singapore Women's National Team recently made a change to their head coach, as Kareem Ben Sharifah called time on his three-year tenure, making way for the appointment of coach Mihoko Ishida.
And now, fresh from their training camp in Bandung, where the Lionesses played two friendlies, including a historic win against Indonesia and somewhat humbling loss to Cambodia, I'm joined in the studio by two members of the team, Danelle Tan and Yuvika Suresh. Danelle, Yuvika, a huge welcome to the show. Danelle, first, how are you doing?

**Danelle Tan** (0:49)
I'm very good, thank you. Thanks for having me.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (0:51)
Good to have you with us, Danelle. Yuvika, how are you?

**Yuvika Suresh** (0:54)
I'm doing great, too. Thank you for having me, too.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (0:56)
Very excited to have the both of you, as I said, off air. Good time to be talking women's football in Singapore. Let's first touch on that historic win against Indonesia. Danelle, coming to you, how big a result was that and how satisfying was it?

**Danelle Tan** (1:08)
I think obviously it was a big result and it was good to start off, especially under a new coach, off the right foot. I guess 10 towards saying historic win, I think moving forward, I would sort of like to frame it more as yeah, the women's football in Singapore is growing as well. And so I would like wins against Indonesia to become common rather than something historic.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (1:31)
You're singing from the same hymn sheet as a certain Gavin Lee. He says Asian Cup qualification should become common. Danelle, your mind is in the right place. Yuvika, I'll use the word historic with you because Indonesia was historic for you. You made your national team debut for the senior team. Talk me through the experience.

**Yuvika Suresh** (1:48)
It's a really nice feeling to play for the senior team. And getting a win on my first start, I think it's a really special moment for me. And this win just gives us confidence that what we've been putting in in training has, we can translate it into the match. And it just gives us confidence going forward.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (2:07)
And Yuvika on a personal level, after that first cap was won, right? Who was the first person you contacted on your phone?

**Yuvika Suresh** (2:13)
I think it was my parents.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (2:15)
And what do you say?

**Yuvika Suresh** (2:15)
I think they're just really proud of me.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (2:18)
Alright, fantastic. Many more to come for you. We've talked about the historic win, the milestone win against Indonesia, right? Danelle, it's only fair I talk about that loss to Cambodia as well.
After the high of Indonesia, that was somewhat humbling. What are your thoughts?

**Danelle Tan** (2:32)
I think that's interesting because the camp was, I guess, sort of split into two games and two very different games. I think even on the field, we could feel it as players as well. And obviously not the way we wanted to end a camp, especially going into the AFF.
But we knew going into the camp that these were two teams that were the finalists of last year's AFF qualifiers. And so we were pitting ourselves against the best going into this tournament. And so for us, it was more a test. And of course, we go into every game wanting to win and playing to win, playing good football as well. But also we knew at the back of our heads that, yes, we were trying a lot of things.
Yes, we are all playing under a new system, a new tactics, new style of play. And so I think we can give ourselves a bit of space to make mistakes. At least we want these kind of games to be when it's an international friendly and not when we're playing for a cup or for a tournament.

**Zia-ul Raushan** (3:27)
No, I love that. And it's so important coming from someone like you, Danelle, because I often say this on the show, there's so much more to football than just the results. So thank you for mapping that out. Yuvika, coming to you, Danelle touched on it, Coach Mihoko Ishida's first real foray with the team. I know there was a training camp prior to this as well, but what are your impressions of the new head coach?

**Yuvika Suresh** (3:47)