had been suspended from the national team and missed a friendly against UAE and the World Cup qualifier against Palestine after he was banned for insulting a domestic league referee in August. Singapore defeated Tajikistan 3–1 on aggregate to reach the third round for the first time. Avramović then led the Singapore under-23 team at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in December where they won the bronze medal. Their performances in 2007 won the Lions and Avramović the Team of the Year and the Coach of the Year awards at the Singapore Sports Awards respectively. Avramović was only the third football coach after Choo Seng Quee and Jita Singh to achieve the coaching honour. The World Cup third qualifying round draw grouped Singapore with Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, with fixtures starting in February 2008. Despite two wins over Lebanon, the gulf in quality was evident in a 7–3 home defeat to Uzbekistan. Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan also had 3–0 victories awarded in place of 2–0 and 1–0 wins respectively as a result of Singapore fielding an ineligible player. Defending champions Singapore started the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup with a perfect record in the group stage, registering wins over Cambodia, Myanmar and co-hosts Indonesia. The first leg of the semi-finals against Vietnam ended in a goalless draw. Singapore then conceded a late goal in the home leg to bow out of the competition to the eventual tournament winners. Singapore were placed in Group E of the 2011 Asian Cup qualification along with Thailand, 2008 West Asian champions Iran and runners-up Jordan. They were trounced 6–0 away to Iran in January 2009 but defeated Jordan 2–1 at home two weeks later. Singapore lost 3–1 to Thailand at Kallang in November; the reverse fixture saw Singapore defeat Thailand 1–0. Further losses to Iran and Jordan in early 2010 condemned Singapore to the bottom of the group. Avramović considers Singapore's failure to qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup as his biggest regret as Singapore coach. Their next assignment was the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup in December. Singapore were held to a shock 1–1 draw with the Philippines in their Group B opener and needed an injury-time goal to defeat Myanmar 2–1 in the next match. Co-hosts and defending champions Vietnam's solitary goal in the third match meant that Singapore failed to progress to the knockout stages since 2002. Following the disappointing exit at