August 7,
2004
Roundup of
the week S-league
August 3, 2004 Woodlands
|
Woodlands |
2 |
3 |
Balestier Khalsa |
|
Kim Eun Cher 60 Masalan Mahat 83 |
|
|
Park Tae Won 31, 93 Roniwardi Mamsa 73 |
The Tigers
triumphed 3-2 over one-time league-leaders, the Rams at the Woodlands Stadium
thus also ending the Rams championship hopes.
The Rams
were down to 10 men early in the first half when John Wilkinson in a moment of
foolishness got himself send off after head-butting S. Rajendran
after the latter went in for a harsh challenge on the Rams player. The Tigers
took advantage of the men advantage throughout the match
August 4, 2004 Jalan
Besar
|
Young Lions |
4 |
1 |
Geylang United |
|
Agu Casmir 4, 41,
66, 89 |
|
|
Peres De
Oliveira 23 |
Following
their mauling at the hands of Tampines Rovers last
week, Young Lions rebounded back in the best possible way by romping to a
resounding 4-1 victory over league leaders Home United in a highly-charged game
at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
It was a
must-win game for the Young Lions as anything other than 3 points would mean
the end of their championship hopes, and the Cubs did not disappoint by
completing their hat-trick of wins against Home United this season as they
stayed in third position behind the Stags & the Protectors.
The hero of
the night was Agu Casmir with a stunning haul of all
4 goals earning the praises of all who seem the match.
It was 2
goals in each half against the Protectors who ended the match with only 9 men
after A Siva Kumar and J Surachai both saw red in the
second half. The Protectors were already chasing the match early in the match
when Ridhuan Muhamad raced
down the right flank before crossing for Agu who
first shot was blocked but the sharp striker quickly got to the rebound ball to
scoop it over Sean Roberts into the net.
The defending champions got back when they exposed the Young Lions left & Shaiful Esah showed his
inexperience by needlessly hauling down Imran Sahib
inside the penalty area to concede a penalty kick. Hassan
had reacted brilliantly to save Peres low spot kick but his celebrations were
cut short as the referee ordered the kick to be re-taken after the Young Lions
keeper was deemed to have come off his line too early. Peres did not waste the
given opportunity again & send his attempt past Hassan.
Surely the
Young Lions would have felt hard done by the referee decision but instead
of blaming anybody the Young Lions came
back stronger & duly regained the lead through Agu
again before halftime. Latching onto a clearance from Shaiful
at the left touchline near the centre, the striker showed admirable upper
strength to hold off marker S Subramani as he
bulldozed his way into the penalty box before smashing an unstoppable grounder
past Roberts into goal.
After that
things threatened to boil over on the stroke of halftime when both sets of
players got into a scuffle after enraged Protectors players had surrounded Fadzuhasny Juraimi over his
challenge on Roberts. Order was restored but not before Aide Iskandar & Farizal Basri were both cautioned but the ill-feeling remained as
evidently shown later in the second half.
In the
second half, Agu completed his hat-trick after Shi Jiayi intercepting a pass from J Surachai
looked up & delivered a tantalizing cross beyond the flailing arms of
Roberts & to the far post where Agu was on hand
to head it in. From that point the match turned ugly as the Protectors lost
their discipline & it was no surprised when Siva Kumar was shown the red
card after a moment of petulance for disputing with the assistant referee. Soon
after that Surachai, who had been walking a
disciplinary tightrope for most of the match since earning a yellow card in the
10 minute followed Siva Kumar to the shower as he made an ill-timed lunge on
Shi Jiayi 8 minutes before full time, leaving the
referee with no choice but to caution the Thai for the second time. To compound
the Champion misery, Agu scored his fourth after a
cross from the right found Shahril Ishak whose header was parried by Roberts but it fell
nicely for Agu who had to poke it into the net.
August 5, 2004 Jurong
East
|
Albirex Niigata |
3 |
1 |
SAFFC |
|
Ryuji Sueoka 49 Hidetoshi Wakui 56 Ryuji Sueoka 90 |
|
|
Yusri Waris 49 |
The Swans
open up a 7 point gap over seventh-placed Eagles while closing the gap to 4
points with the Rams after a 3-1 victory over the Warriors
August 5, 2004 Tampines
|
Tampines |
1 |
0 |
TPUFC |
|
Sead Muratovic 44 |
|
|
|
Despite a disappointing
performance the Stags got the victory they needed to climb over the Protectors
to top position.
Clearly
missing Noh Alam Shah who was suspended the Stags attack never spark with Ismail Fitrey & Mirko Grabovac upfront & they
had towait until near the stroke of half-time before
getting their lead. The Stags were awarded
a penalty after Ratna Suffian
had made a rash tackle to bring down Santi Chaiyaphuak just inside the box & Sead Muratovic, ever so reliable from the spot, step up & made
no mistake by sending Jaguars keeper Naufalruddin Naim the wrong way.
August 6, 2004 Hougang
|
Sinchi |
1 |
1 |
Geylang United |
|
Zhou Yi 66 |
|
|
Fazrul Nawaz 57 |
In a dull
match, Sinchi & the Eagles shared the point at Hougang.
Both teams
showed the supporters nothing to cheer about & in the second half the
Eagles strike first when Rudy Khairon provided the
assist for Fazrul Nawaz to
score as the 30-year-old midfielder who was lurking on the left flank when he
received the ball dribbled forward before putting in a brilliant cross for Fazrul Nawaz who rose the highest
to head the ball beyond the reach of Sinchis
goalkeeper to put the Eagles ahead. Sinchi pressed
forward after conceding the goal & they were rewarded with an equaliser after Li Benjian surged
into Eagles penalty box & passed the ball to Zhong
Cheng who was waiting on his left. Zhong Cheng
controlled the ball well initially but lost it as he tried to round a defender
but the alert Zhou Yi strode into the penalty box to collect the loose ball &
unleashed a shot that put the ball into
the back of the net for Sinchis equalizing goal