Singapore's national squad The Lions may be attempting "psy-war" with Malaysia's Harimau Malaya but they need to be aware that they are facing an altogether new Malaysian side.
The last time the senior squads of the neighbours met was in a friendly in November 2008 with the result being a 2-2 draw.
At the time, Malaysia's coach was B.Sathianathan while down south Serbian Radojko Avramovic was in charge.
However, the junior teams of both countires have met on a number of occasions like at the SEA Games and the Tiger Cup (now the AFF Cup).
On Saturday, the Malayan Tigers and the Lions will do battle in the first leg of the Asian Zone 2014 World Cup pre-qualifier at Singapore's Jalan Besar Satdium before playing the return leg at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil here on July 28.
It is a case of the Tigers taking on the Lions.
While the Lions have several import players who were given fastrack citizenship under the republic's "Singapore Foreign Talent Scheme", the Harimau Malaya squad consists of only local players with a mix of juinors and seniors.
Among Singapore's imported players are Egmar Goncalves from Brazil, Mirko Grabovac (Croatia), Qiu Li, Shi Jiayi (China), Itimi Dickson (Nigeria), Mustafic Fahrudin and Aleksandar Duric (from the Balkan states).
Avramovic is reported will be fielding Aleksandar, Mustafic, Qiu Li and Shi Jiayi on Saturday.
On the Malaysian side, of the 24 players shortlisted by coach Datuk K. Rajagobal for Saturday's match, only four players were in Sathianathan's squad in the game against Singapore in 2008.
They are Mohd Asruddin Putra Omar, Mohamad Aidil Zafuan, Mohd Safee Mohd Sali and Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal.
It is not the case with the Singaporeans, however, as out of their 24 players, 10 are from the 2008 squad.
They are Lionel Lewis, Daniel Bennet, Juma'at Jantan, Ismail Yunos, Afiq Yunos, Shahril Ishak, Shia Jiayi, Isa Halim, Aleksandar Duric and Qiu Li.
And it comes as no suprise that the mean age of the Singapore players is 27.82 while for Malaysia it is 24.23.
Singapore are also sticking to their old coach whereas Malaysia's new coach Rajagobal has taken the national team to win at the last SEA Games in Laos in 2009 and lift the AFF Cup last year.
However, Avramovic, who is more fondly called Raddy, was reported in a website as saying the "Lions would maul the Tigers".
"Who are the reigning ASEAN champions? I think the pressure is on them because they want to prove they are worthy of that title and that they didn't win it by chance," the 61-year-old Serbian was reported to have said.
And with Malaysia having shown a good account of themselves against three English Premier League giants - Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea - in international friendlies this past week, it might very well be the Tigers making a meal out of the Lions.
Neither Malaysia or Singapore have qualified for the World Cup finals to date.
And with the stakes this high, it is more than obvious that Rajagobal intends to make sure the Tigers will tame the Lions.
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