September 17, 2004
Jumping, screaming, kneeling & crying as
cameramen snapped away, the players in the Stags team goalkeeper could well
have been mistaken for raving lunatics but who could blame them
Touted as S-league ‘Daddy’ team as a result
of the number of veterans in the team they were given no chance whatsoever for
the league title but they overcome all odds to achieve the remarkable.
It is in the case of Rezal Hassan as once
touted as Singapore best goalkeeper, the 28-year-old has since been dropped
from the national team & criticised as a has been for the extra kilograms
around his waist but the Tampines Rovers goalkeeper had struck back as he kept
his fifth clean sheet in 6 games with 3 outstanding first-half saves in the
first half when the score was still level & the rest of the Stags team was playing
badly due tonervous .
It formed the foundation for the Stags
to claim a 3-0 win over Albirex Niigata & the
Stags' first S-League title.
He could not help but savour his moment in the limelight as he let out all his emotions.
Wiping away tears while holding his
Man-of-the-Match award, Rezal said nobody gave them a chance at the start of
the season & nobody gave him a chance but he did not care what people said
but now with the performance of the team & himself, they have proven some
people wrong.
Another hero was Noh Alam Shah with his 2 goals but the international striker praised
Rezal instead saying Rezal played the bigger role as he made the difference when
they were struggling in the first half & with him leading from the back,
how could the rest of the team disappoint him.
Indeed the rest of the Stags did not as
the team performance after what Rezal did was the best example of a team
performance one could find in the S-League.
Every blade of grass was covered,
every lost ball chased, & everyone ran his heart out - even when age made
it difficult, as in the case of Mirko Grabovac & Nazri Nasir, both 32, &
Steven Tan, 33.
Skipper Nazri
rolled back the years in defence, putting in biting
tackles & keeping up with the speedier and younger Japanese. He even had
the improved vision to
send a immaculate 50-metre punt into the
'Supersub'
Tan, was another example along with Mirko Grabovac as
Tampines coach Vorawan Chitavanich
is sent the former Tanjong Pagar
United & Sengkang Marine player on as a
substitute & 6 minutes later, Tan sent one of his trademark crosses onto Grabovac's head for the icing on the cake.
Tan, who missed out on the title with Tanjong Pagar in 1998, losing out
on goal difference to SAFFC on the final day said he had kept thinking, 'Not
again' when
Then the Stags scored 1, and then 2,
but he was still tense as it was the biggest game of my S-League career &
he wanted to be on the field.
That is why he thanks the coach as Vorawan
understood that & sends him on so he wanted to repay the coach with the clincher.