September 4, 2004

Roundup of the week S-league

August 30, 2004 Jalan Besar

Young Lions	2	3	Albirex Niigata
Baihakki Khaizan 59’ Farizal Basri 77’			Issey Nakajima 17’ Ryuji Sueoka 50’, 85’

The Young Lions suffered their second consecutive home defeats at Jalan Besar Stadium losing 2-3 to Albirex Niigata adding to the 1-3 defeat to the Eagles just 2 week ago. The 6-pointer defeat narrowed the gap between the 2 teams to a mere 3 points, and with only 2 games remaining, the fight for third place is still very much alive.

The White Swans fielding a three-pronged attack had Nakajima & Norikazu Murakami operating as out-and-out forwards with Sueoka operating just behind the duo took the early lead after a horrible lapse in the Young Lions defence allowed Suoeka a free shot at goal which was parried by Hassan Sunny in goal - only for Issey Nakajima to tuck home the rebound.– and did they cause all sorts of problems for the Young Lions backline. Then after the interval and the Swans doubled their lead after the industrious Nakajima retrieved a hopeless looking ball on the left touchline, took out his marker with a shimmy before cutting back for Sueoka to volley past Hassan for 2-0.

To Young Lions’ credit, Sueoka’s goal woke them up from their slumber & pulled a goal back soon through Captain Baihaikki Khaizan’s header at the near post from Shahril Ishak’s corner delivery. Clearly missing the domineering presence of top-scorer Agu Casmir upfront, Young Lions looked lightweight with defender-turned-striker Farizal Basri partnering Fadzuhasny Juraimi in the last third of the pitch. However, like all good strikers, Farizal, who did not have any notable contribution prior to his goal, created an equalizer out of nothing. Receiving an innocuous pass outside the Albirex penalty box, Farizal wriggled his way to the centre going pass 2 Swans defenders before unleashing an absolute unstoppable thunderbolt from outside the box pass Nobuhiro Maeda into his bottom corner. Farizal Basri’s superb equalizer for Young Lions completed a magnificent comeback for his team but there was no fairy-tale story as a result of Sueoka’s late salvo at the other end of the pitch.

With the score delicately poised at 2-2, Lee Bong Il raced down the left with his low centre eluding the home side’s defenders & found Sueoka lurking at the penalty spot. The Albirex top scorer took one touch to steady himself before calmly stroked the ball into the top corner to claim maximum points for the Swans.

August 31, 2004 Tampines

Tampines Rovers	4	0	Balestier Khalsa
Mirko Grabovac 12’, 88’ Ismail Fitrey 26’ Nazri Nasir 77’

1 more win & the S-League title will be heading the way of Tampines. That is the straightforward equation after the Stags beat Balestier Khalsa 4-0 at the Tampines Stadium.

The eastern club now has 57 points from 25 matches while closest challengers & defending double champions Home United are on 53 points with only 2 matches left. 3 more points from their final two matches will give the Stags an unassailable points-total of 60, supposing Home United .

The Tigers were never in the game against the stronger Stags as the vast different in quality show & it was no surprise when the Stgas took the lead after striker Ismail Fitrey still in place of the suspended Noh Alam Shah accelerated past Tigers’ stopper Winston Yap before squaring the ball for Mirko Grabovac to tap home. Ismail then got in on the act by adding his team’s second scrambling the ball home after a melee inside the box. Nazri Nasir made it 3-0 when he unleashed a screamer from 20 metres after a one-two that flew straight into the top corner of the net. 2 minutes before the end, Grabovac scored his second by beating the offside trap & drawing out Tigers custodian Bashir Khan before firing low past him into the net.

September 1, 2004 Bishan

Home United	1	0	Woodlands Wellington
Indra Sahdan 62’

The pressure is definitely telling on the defending champions Home Utd, as they begun to show signs of fatigue in this fixture against the Rams

A loss or a draw from this game will be disastrous in the Protectors’ quest of retaining the title but thanks to a goal by national striker Indra Sahdan Daud the Double Champion got what matter most which was the 3 points

The best chance of the night had fell to the Rams with Woodlands striker Masrezwan Masturi missing the sitter as if he had scored the sitter in the six-yard box, it would have changed the fate of the title race. Having latched on to a cross from skipper Goh Tat Chuan from the right & with Sean Roberts ion nomanland, the crowds at the Bishan stadium were shocked to see Masrezwan’s shot hit the air instead of the goal.

In the end it proved costly as rightback A Sivakumar’s pin-pointed cross from the left flank landed on the path of Indra Sahdan, who controlled nicely but the striker miskick his shot but it proved fortunate as it fooled Effendy into mistiming his dive while tried to make the save thus allowing the abll to go under him into the net. A mix of errors but the Double Champion too k the lead & 3 points at Bishan

September 1, 2004 Bedok

Geylang United	1	3	SAFFC
Stewart Petrie 32’			Yusri Waris 17’ Daniel Bennett 28’ Basri Halis 70’

The Warriors continued their fight to finish in third position after surely ensuring the Eagles finished in seventh position with a 3-1 victory over them at Bedok

The Eagles are 6 points behind sixth–placed Rams with only a possible maximum 6 points from the remaining 2 games the Eagles would have to win both & hoped the Rams lose their but making the job harder is the fact the Eagles also had a inferior goal difference of 5 goals making it an impossible job. At the same, they cannot be caught by the bottom 3 teams so it looked like the Eagles are set to finish in their worst ever league position since the S-league started in 1996

September 3, 2004 Hougang

Sinchi	2	0	TPUFC
Zhou Yi 50’ Li Benjian 63’

In the battle of the Wooden Spoon it appeared Sicnhi had got the extra advantage to ensure they would not finished in that position after a 2-0 against the Jaguars

After a goalless first half in which Sinchi was the better team but failed to kill off the Jaguars despite the numerous coming the way of the Chinese side, Sinchi got ahead in the early part of the second half after  Zhong Cheng sent in a teasing low cross, which eluded every one en route to Zhou Yi who arrived at the far post, gleefully firing in from close range albeit from a very tight angle. Zhong Cheng was again the provider for the second as he sent in the initial cross that was muffed by Li. The forward however made amends as he scored off a diagonal shot after Zhou played the partially cleared ball back into the danger area.

With very little to choose from in terms of quality from the 3 bottom teams & the fact all 3 had tough fixtures for their remaining matches the ‘wooden spoon’ would go to the Tigers who are bottom at the moment but much like a roll of an equilateral triangular rod all 3 sides still have equal odds & it is best not to assume so.