Apart from the 2-1 victory over Tokyo Verdy, the club where Lions coach Tsutomo Ogura worked as assistant manager prior to his appointment to the current role in early February, the four-time Asean champions succumbed to heavy losses to FC Tokyo (4-0) and Yokohama F. Marinos (7-1).

PREPARING FOR THE AFF MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CUP

The motive of the camp is to gear the team up for the upcoming AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup, which is scheduled to commence on 8 December.

The outcome of these friendlies should not be surprising, given the wide gulf in footballing standards between the Republic and Asia's number one.

REALITY CHECK FOR THE LIONS

This notion was fittingly expressed by Coach Ogura in his assessment with The Straits Times when he told the broadsheet: "Before this, they (Singapore) had a feeling of how big the gap was between them and J1 teams, but this became real for them when they actually played."

Some may argue and find it difficult to understand why the Lions did not schedule games against other national sides in order to accumulate some points to push their FIFA ranking during the international break. I believe matches against the Japanese clubs are probably what the Lions have been lacking in recent years.

CHALLENGES OF LOW FIFA RANKING

With due respect to those recent opponents they played, how much experience can the Lions gain from the likes of Papua New Guinea and Guam compared to the reality check offered by the Japanese clubs?

Furthermore, given the low ranking of where we are now (FIFA ranking 161st), it should not be surprising that some national teams would not find us an attractive option in their bid to enhance their ranking at this point.

At a time when many clamour for us to play against stronger opponents in order to improve, haven’t we just done that?