June 26, 2004

Roundup of the week S-league

June 22, 2004 Toa Poyah

Balestier Khalsa	1	4	Geylang United
Igwe Iroha 90’			Aleksandar Duric 15', 36’ Hasrin Jailani 54’ Fazrul Nawaz 92’

In a thoroughly one- sided affair match, Duric sent the visiting fans into delirium when he slotted home the rebound after Petrie’s earlier shot had been deflected into his path. Later Duric added a second when he played a neat one- two with strike partner Petrie & burst past the Tigers defence. Just as he was about to round the keeper, Zulkifli Zainolabidin, he seemed to have lost control of the ball & Zulkifli graciously scooped the ball up. However, ref S K Kennedy (who must have seem something that the rest of the stadium could never see) adjudged the keeper to have impeded the striker, showed the keeper a yellow card & gave the Eagles a penalty. Happy for the lucky break, Duric hit the spot- kick past the luckless keeper.

The second half carried on in the same manner as Petrie lobbed the static Tigers’ defence to send Hasrin Jailani racing through. The Singapore international lobbed the advancing keeper & putting it into the net thus effectively ending the contest. The Tigers manage a consolation when debutant Igwe wiggled his way past the Eagles’s defence & blasted past Sharil in goal while the Eagles hit back immediately with youngster Fazrul Nawaz, who was brought on for a run-out, harried keeper Zul into making a mistake as he dispossessed the keeper & rolled the ball into an empty net. Not bad for someone who had been on the pitch for 10 minutes.

June 23, 2004 Woodlands

Woodlands Wellington	1	1	Tanjong Pagar United
John Wilkinson 11’			Jean Audemar 16’

The Rams could not hold onto an early lead given to them by John Wilkinson as the Englishman needed no second invitation when the Jaguars’ defence failed to deal with a cross effectively hitting the ball flew into the roof on the net. The Rams defence, missing their suspended player- coach though did no better as a mere 5 minutes later, Jean Audemar lifted the ball into the top right hand corner of Yazid Yasin’s goal, leaving the keeper clutching at thin air. In truth though, few keepers in this league would have dealt with that shot at all. That goal would definitely go down as 1of the goals of the season.

 June 24, 2004 Bishan

Home United	2	1	Tampines Rovers
Egmar Goncalves 28’ Sutee Suksomkit 45’			Noh Alam Shah 85’

Home United had the chance to go top & it was what they did as they defeated the Stags 2-1

Home United gained the advantage thanks to sound work on the left by Indra Sahdan who got the better of Steven Tan out wide & whipped in an awkward cross fooling even the normally reliable Sead Muratovic who in his attempt to block the cross, failed to notice Egmar reaching the ball from behind. The striker got ahead of Sead & make Sead pay the price by nodding the ball down firmly into the ground & bouncing over keeper Rezal Hassan. The Protectors was a goal ahead.

Thai midfielder Sutee Suksomkit before the break scored the Champion second goal. He had a run at the Stags defence & let fly a shot from 25 yards, giving Rezal no chance as the ball climbed into the roof of the net. It was a great goal to end the first half.

The second half saw the Champion gladly sit back & asking the Stags to break them down.

It worked to a certain extent as the Stags could not break through until a clever ball, chipped forward by Rafi Ali, was nodded on smartly by Fitrey for Noh Alam Shah. The player trying to break back into the national team made a great turn inside the six-yard area & sliced the ball beyond the reach of Roberts. The keeper had nothing to do until that point for the entire second half despite much Stags pressure.

However there was no denying the Champion their march back o the top as they win all 3 points

June 24, 2004 Jalan Besar

Young Lions	2	2	SAFFC
Agu Casmir 5’ Shahril Ishak 43’			Jonathon Angelucci 30’ Nenad Bacina 64’

Young Lions took the early lead in as Shahril Ishak collected a pass from Shaifu Esah on the left & cut-back a low cross for Agu Casmir to beautifully chip home first time. On the half-hour mark, Jonathon Angelluci matched Agu’s opener with a pile-driver from the left corner of the box which flew to the opposite corner of the net, leaving Hassan no chance. Young Lions took the lead again as a well-worked corner between Shaiful & Shahril gave Shahril the chance to curled in a teasing shot from the top right corner of the box which went through a sea of players & landed at the bottom corner of the Warriors goal.

 So the first half ended 2-1

The next goal of the game came from a dead ball situation, with the Warriors equalising through Nenad Bacina’s header from just outside the six-yard area off a Gusta Guzarishah corner.

Honour even as the 2 challengers each came away with 1 point from this encounter.

June 25, 2004 Hougang

Sinchi	1	1	Albirex Niigata
Li Xi 93’			Hidetoshi Wakui 17’

Sinchi substitute Li Xi equalized for them deep into stoppage time to cancel out Hidetoshi Wakui’s excellent opener. The 1-1 result meant that Albirex Niigata failed to overtake Geylang United in the standings as they trail the Eagles by a solitary point.

Norikazu Murakami received the ball with his back towards the goal before laiding it off to Wakui. The midfielder controlled the ball sweetly & expertly made some room for himself. He then dispatched the ball past a diving Chen Si in the bottom left hand corner. Then late in the game from a free-kick & the confusion it caused Li Xi put the ball over keeper Nobuhiro Maeda to level the scores in virtually the last kick of the game