August 22, 2004

August 22, Hougang

Sinchi	1	5	Home United
Zhou Yi 40’			Indra Sahdan 5’ Egmar Goncalves 17’, 26’, 83’ Peres De Oliveira 90’

The night truly belonged to Brazilian-born striker Egmar Goncalves as he became the first player in S-League history to score 200 goals in all competitions. His hat-trick on the night not only underlined Egmar's lethal goalscoring record, it also helped Home to a 5-1 win in the first leg of their Singapore Cup semi-final lead against Sinchi - a lead that must be regarded as virtually unassailable.

It was Egmar striker partner Indra Sahdan who opened account with a powerful shot after breaking the offside trap before Egmar enmarked on his way his way to the history book.

History was created in when Egmar finished off a move started by ace midfielder Peres De Oliveira, who capitalised on an error from Sinchi's Li Ben Jian. Peres stole the ball after Sinchi's Li Ben Jian hesitated & send a great pass to Egmar who finished it off.

That was already the third of the match and the marksman’s second of the night - and not least, his 200th goal for Home.

Already 3-0 down before the break, a penalty was awarded to Sinchi offering them some hope. A clumsy challenge in the box by Protectors custodian Sean Roberts on striker Zhou Yi had referee Ganesan pointing to the spot instantly, and the striker himself made no mistake from it.

In the second half only 1 issue dominated & it was Sinchi keeper Chen Si sending off for handling the ball outside the box which lead to angry scenes & indeed Zhang Qinghua who was fortunate not be sent off for manhandling referee M Ganesan.

It was an angry scenes which lead to the match being held up for up to 5 minutes & one has to ask what Sinchi had to gain from it apart from enhancing their reputation of being an undisciplined side

So the second leg is surely a foregone conclusion with the Double Champuion having such a huge margin.