August 15,
2004
Roundup of
the week S-league
August 10, 2004 Bedok
|
Geylang United |
1 |
0 |
Woodlands |
|
Wayne
O'Sullivan 60’ |
|
|
|
Wayne
O’Sullivan’s goal on the hour mark helped Geylang
United to a 1-0 win over Woodlands
August 10, 2004 Choa
Chu Kang
|
SAFFC |
0 |
2 |
Tampines Rovers |
|
|
|
|
Steven Tan 59’ Noh Alam Shah 61’ |
With 5 more
matches to go, Tampines Rovers remained on top in
their quest for their first ever title, by gathered maximum points at the Choa Chu Kang Stadium at the
expense of the SAFFC. The defeat to the Stags finally ended any hopes the
Warriors still had in winning the championship.
August 11, 2004 Bishan
|
Home United |
4 |
2 |
Albirex Niigata |
|
Egmar Gonclaves 35’, 42’, 82’ Peres De Oliveira 51’ |
|
|
Norikazu Murakami 45’ Hidetoshi Wakui 86’ |
Home United
kept the pressure on league leaders Tampines Rovers
when they convincingly defeated Albirex Niigata 4-2
at the Bishan Stadium.
The victory
means that the Protectors are now just 1 point behind the Stags with 5 games
remaining, thus setting it up nicely for what promises to be a mouthwatering
clash between the two powerhouses in a fortnight’s time.
The
Protectors were a bit cautious in their approach to the game in the early
moments due to the fact they were missing regulars like Siva Kumar &
Surachai & the White Swans took full advantage as the Japanese pressured
the Double Champion. With the Double Champion needing leadership, up step Home
United & league leading scorer Egmar Goncalves to show his team the way to victory as he caught
the Swans defence out cold with a moment of his
brilliant predatory goalscoring skills. From a Indra pass, Egmar
got the ball but had with his back facing the goal & a defender closely
guarding him so there appeared no danger whatsoever. How could anybody believed
that as Egmar expertly spun away from his marker with
a great turn in the penalty box & then drilling a low unstoppable shot past
Swans custodian Nobuhiro Maeda. With that goal the
Double Champion showed their championship form & deservedly went 2-0 up
when Egmar clinically finished off a great move
initiated by the impressive Imran Sahib. The 21 year-old Imran passed the ball
to Sutee Suksomsit who
found himself in acres of space on the right flank. The Thai International then
crossed the ball to the two players – Indra & Imran Lomri - who were lurking
around the box. Ali Imran Lomri, headed the ball back across the goal towards Egmar & the striker who feeds on such chances finished
it off giving Maeda no chance again. With the lead it seemed that the
Protectors would be cruising through this match but Protectors keeper Sean Roberts made an error that he
would soon rather forget as after magnificently collecting the ball from a
cross, Roberts unwittingly threw the ball straight to the opposition midfielder
Toshinari Kobayashi. Kobayashi quickly passed the
ball to Murakami as the Protectors were still organizing their defence. Murakami bamboozled his way into the penalty area
& fired a terrific goal past Roberts to make the scoreline
2-1.
The second
half served up 1 of Peres De Oliveira special freekick
as he brilliantly dispatched an unstoppable freekick
into the top right corner to make the score 3-1. Indra
Sahdan then had a few good chances to add his name to
the scoresheet but blew 1 of it over the bar with the
keeper out of position & the other if not for the brilliant save by keeper
Maeda it would have been 4 goals to the Protectors as after Peres passed to Indra, he skillfully glided past Swans defenders & speed away from them before
firing low with his left foot. Still no matter as from the resulting corner up
came Egmatr hat-trick show as he rose unmarked to
send a powerful header past a helpless Maeda. After that the Double Champion
shockingly went to sleep allowing Hidetoshi Wakui to
pulled one back to make the score 4-2 after a cross from the left was allowed
to come in & it was missed by the entireProtectors
defence to the feet of Hidetoshi Wakui
to tap into an unguarded net. Nevertheless it proved to be a little too late as
the Protectors held on to claim all 3 points.
August 12, 2004 Toa Poyah
|
Balestier Khalsa |
1 |
4 |
Sinchi |
|
Igwe Iroha 26’ |
|
|
Zhou Yi 30’, 68’ Li Benjian 51’, 63’ |
A needless
sending-off by Ruhaizad turned the tide for Balestier Khalsa as they lived up
to their tag of being notoriously inconsistent with a dismal 4-1 loss to Sinchi Golden Throat.
The Chinese
side took a giant step away from bottom spot in the S-League & pulled up to
eighth as a double apiece from Zhou Yi & Li Benjian
tore apart the Tigers. Still both Sinchi & the
Tigers are on equal points separated only be goal difference &l only a
point above last-placed Tanjong Pagar United
August 13, 2004 Queenstown
|
TPUFC |
2 |
1 |
Young Lions |
|
Benoit Saviat 36’, 90’ |
|
|
Vladan Seric 8’ |
Young Lions
saw their championship hopes destroyed after a surprise 2-1 defeat in the hands
of bottom-place Jaguars at the Queenstown Stadium. It leaves Kim Poulsen’s side with a daunting 7-point gap to bridge.
Agu Casmir who was the
4-goal hero against the Protectors was the main villain for failing to convert
his spot kick, which was brilliantly saved by Man-of-Match Ridzuan Fatah Hasan in the second half as
well as missing several one on one chance he should have finished.
How
different it was in the early moment as it appeared to be Young Lions night as they
took an early lead after what is their only meaningful attack in the first half
with Ridhuan Muhamad working a short corner routine
with Shahril Ishak which
led to the latter swinging in a cross for Vladan Seric to rise unchallenged & head powerfully into the
top corner. The Jaguars was level after a spot kick was awarded when Ridhuan
had tripped Jalil Arsat
just inside the area & Benoit Saviat had no
hesitation in putting his shot past Hassan for 1-1.
The defining
moment of the match came in the second half when referee Subash
Lazar even things up by awarding the away team a penalty kick after substitute Khairul Amri’s pace had tricked Ong Leong Koen
into fouling him inside the box. However, Ridzuan guessed the right way & managed
a great save to divert Agu’s effort away for a
corner. From the resulting set-piece, Baihakki Khaizan
thought he had given his team the lead again after seeing his glancing header
end up inside the Jaguars net but his effort was disallowed for a foul. From that
moment one could tell it was not to be Young Lions night.
The Young
Lions carried on the onslaught by peppering the Jaguars goal with numerous
shots but the Jaguars defence all more precisely Man-of-Match Ridzuan Fatah Hasan stood firm. First Ridzuan
deny Agu after the international striker got free of
his marker with a great touch from a throw in & was one-on-one with Ridzuan.
The international striker fired to Ridzuan near post but the keeper make a great
save. Then 5 minutes later, Young Lions midfielder Ridhuan got free & found
himself one-on-one with Jaguars keeper Ridzuan after
he broke the offside trap & got to a long ball from Baihakki. Ridhuan shot
to Ridzuan right but the keeper got to it pushing it out for a corner. There
was no beating Ridzuan in the Jaguars post.
However he
was not the only keeper on form that night as
In a night
of great keeping it had to take a moment of great brilliant to find the winner
& it came from Jaguars Frenchman Benoit Saviat. Jaguars was awarded a free-kick just outside the penalty
area after Hassan had charged out of his box to bring
down Haris who was bearing down on goal. The Young Lions custodian was
considered lucky to escape with only a caution but Saviat
exacted punishment of his own with a shot that crept past Hassan
into goal.