The 2013 season is LionsXII's 2nd season in the Malaysia Super League. LionsXII won their first MSL title. LionsXII were set a target of finishing top five for the

2013 Malaysia Super League The 2013 Liga Super ( en, 2013 Super League) also known as the Astro Liga Super for sponsorship reasons, is the 10th season of the Liga Super, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia.http://www.rsssf.com/tablesm/malay2013.html 2013 ...

. Five senior players, namely

Shahril Ishak Shahril Ishak (born 23 January 1984) is a Singaporean football player who last played for Hougang United in the Singapore Premier League. He is a natural central midfielder who can also play as a striker or winger. A former captain of the Si ...

Isa Halim Mohammad Isa bin Abdul Halim (born 15 May 1986) is a former Singapore international footballer who last played as a defensive-midfielder for Singapore Premier League club Geylang International FC and the Singapore national team. He started ...

, Fazrul Nawaz, Irwan Shah and

Baihakki Khaizan Baihakki bin Khaizan (born 31 January 1984) is a former Singaporean professional footballer who played as a centre back for the Singapore national team. Football career Club career Along with Khairul Amri, Shahril Ishak and Hassan Sunny ...

were included in the 29-men squad to guide the younger players. Other key players such as Shahdan Sulaiman and Shaiful Esah no longer featured. The main aim was to develop the U–23 players and prepare them for the upcoming

2013 Southeast Asian Games The 2013 Southeast Asian Games ( my, ၂၀၁၃ ခုနှစ် အရှေ့တောင် အာရှ အားကစား ပြိုင်ပွဲ), officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, or the 27th SEA Games, and comm ...

that would be held at the end of the year.

Malaysia Super League

LionsXII began their campaign by defeating

ATM FA Armed Forces Football Club, commonly known as Armed Forces, enters a team in Malaysian football competitions to represent the Malaysian Armed Forces. The club's home stadium is the Mindef Stadium. The club currently plays in the 3rd division of ...

1–0 away. Subsequently, they vanquished the nation's traditional rivals

Selangor FA Selangor Football Club (Malay: ''Kelab Bola Sepak Selangor''), commonly referred to as Selangor F.C. is a Malaysian professional football club based in the city of Shah Alam, Selangor, that currently competes in the Malaysia Super League, the ...

. However, LionsXII stumbled to three losses against lowly

T-Team FC Terengganu Football Club II ( ms, Kelab Bola Sepak Terengganu II) is a professional football club based in Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia. The club currently plays in the Malaysia Premier League, the second division of the Malaysian Leag ...

and

PKNS FC Selangor Football Club II ( Malay: ''Kelab Bola Sepak Selangor 2''), commonly referred to as Selangor F.C. II, is a professional Malaysian football reserve team club of Selangor F.C., based in Shah Alam, in the state of Selangor. The club ...

away. One sent them crashing out of the

2013 Malaysia FA Cup The 2013 Malaysia FA Cup, also known as the Astro Piala FA due to the competition's sponsorship by Astro Arena, was the 24th season of the Malaysia FA Cup, a knockout competition for Malaysia's state football association and clubs. Kelantan defe ...

. In a turn of events, LionsXII went on a long unbeaten streak, securing important wins over

Pahang FA Sri Pahang Football Club () is a Malaysian professional football club based in Kuantan, Pahang. Founded in 1959 and has traditionally worn a yellow home kit since. At the beginning, club's home matches were held around the city public fields an ...

(3–0),

Kelantan FA Kelantan Football Club ( ms, Kelab Bola Sepak Kelantan) is a Malaysian professional football club based in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The club plays in the Malaysia Super League, the top tier of Malaysian football since 2023. Founded in 1946, the ...

(1–0), and

(3–1) at home. On 2 July 2013, a 4–0 win over relegation-threatened

FELDA United FC Felda United Football Club is a Malaysian football club based in Jengka, Pahang which is owned by the Malaysian Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).

in the penultimate league game made LionsXII league champions. Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong was present for the match played in front of a sold-out crowd at the Jalan Besar Stadium. The MSL trophy was also brought to the stadium as the LionsXII received it on home soil after the final whistle. LionsXII became the first foreign team to win the MSL, adding to the four Malaysian league titles it had won in 1979, 1981, 1985, and 1994. The title run was defined by a combination of good defence (15 goals conceded, the best record in the MSL) and goals from set-pieces (17 out of 32). The club chalked up their best home record (10 wins and 1 draw) in the league, making

Jalan Besar Stadium Jalan Besar Stadium, officially the Jalan Besar ActiveSG Stadium, is a association football, football stadium located in Kallang, Singapore. The stadium is part of the Jalan Besar Sports and Recreation Centre, a community sports facility that i ...

a fortress. The news of

V. Sundramoorthy Varadaraju Sundramoorthy ( ta, வரதராஜு சுந்தரமூர்த்தி; born 6 October 1965) is a former Singaporean international footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, is widely touted as one of the country's mo ...

leaving to helm Negeri Sembilan FA was confirmed on 7 October 2013. On 13 October, the

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of As ...

posted an advertisement openly to recruit the succeeding LionsXII coach. Former

Johor Darul Takzim Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the northwest. Johor shares maritime bor ...

coach and ex-Singapore international Fandi Ahmad is speculated to take over the position. Other candidates include former Warriors FC coach

Richard Bok Richard Bok is a Singaporean soccer coach and former football player. He is currently Head Coach Serangoon Centre with ActiveSG Football Academy. Bok is the most successful coach in the history of Singapore's S.League.Liverpool F.C. stalwart Steve McMahon. Final standings

Malaysia FA Cup

Following inclement weather and a water-logged pitch, the match against PKNS was abandoned in the 38th minute with PKNS leading 1–0. The scoreline was reset for the rescheduled match but the teams had to submit the same starting line-ups. LionsXII were forced to bring on two substitutes in Faris Azienuddin and Izzdin Shafiq in the first minute as initial players Faritz Hameed and Shahril Ishak were unavailable. Raihan Rahman was dismissed for a second yellow card in the 24th minute with his first caution from the abandoned match carrying over. Fauzan Dzulkifli scored the only goal in the match to knock the Lions out of the competition.

Malaysia Cup

On 27 July, LionsXII were drawn into Group D for the

2013 Malaysia Cup The 2013 Malaysia Cup (Malay: ''Piala Malaysia 2013'') was the 87th season of Malaysia Cup and began on 20 August with a preliminary round and finished on 3 November 2013 with the final, held at Shah Alam Stadium. A total of 16 teams took part in ...

with Perak FA,

Sarawak FA Sarawak FA State Football Team ( ms, Pasukan Bola Sepak Negeri Sarawak) was a defunct football team which represented the Malaysian region (formerly state) of Sarawak from 1974 to 2020 in the Malaysian football league. It was one of the 14 Mal ...

and

Kedah FA Kedah Darul Aman Football Club ( ms, Kelab Bola Sepak Kedah Darul Aman) is a football club based in Alor Setar, Kedah, that competes in the Malaysia Super League. They are the only team in the history of Malaysian football to have won two tr ...

. They drew Kedah (2–2) in Singapore and succumbed to two collapses against Perak (1–0) and Sarawak (2–1). With those results, they nearly bowed out of the tournament. At that time, coach

was rumoured to leave LionsXII at the end of the season to take charge of

Malaysian Premier League The Malaysia Premier League ( ms, Liga Premier) was the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. The league replaced the former second-tier league, Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The Malaysia Premier Leagu ...

side Negeri Sembilan FA.On the contrary, LionsXII eked out three victories (2–1 versus Perak, 1–0 versus Sarawak and 3–1 versus Kedah which marked the biggest away accomplishment of the season) out of the three remaining games to progress to the next round. On 28 September, LionsXII narrowed a 1–0 victory over

in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the

but squandered to a 1–4 mauling to the Gladiators in the return tie on 4 October.

Squad statistics

* Five senior players aged 23 and over were included in the 2013 squad. Statistics accurate as of match played 4 October 2013

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em LionsXII seasons Lions 2013 in Malaysian football