Forget the World Cup, shoot for the SEA Games football gold first

HERE we go again. Stop day-dreaming. Once bitten, twice shy. These refrains have been often heard among football fans here when they are asked about the Singapore national team being challenged to shoot for a berth in the 2034 edition of the Fifa World Cup finals.

The target for the Lions, with a 15-year timeframe, no less, had come last Saturday from Football Association of Singapore (FAS) vice-president Edwin Tong.

Talk of déjà vu.

His words echoed then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's challenge issued in 1998: "Singapore should aim to qualify for the World Cup Finals. I am pleased that the FAS has taken up my challenge, and set itself a bold and ambitious target of doing so by 2010. It will be difficult…