Thailand 1 : Baihakki 2 : Singapore 1

After a week long of media build up for the crucial Asian Cup qualifying game to be held at Kallang Stadium against our most bitter ASEAN rivals (well Malaysia not in the same league as us for long long time now), there was an air of anticipation for the Lions to do the job at home before taking the driving seat to Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok on Wednesday.

It turned out to be faux pas as the team Raddy selected played second fiddle to a Thai side under Manchester United legend Bryan Robson for the first time.

The final score did reflected the affairs on the pitch as the Thai deserved a win and perhaps by this much of our margin.
As 20000 fans including yours truly showed up for the game, sadly our team did not showed out.

From the word go, our team lack any shape and imaginative going up.
It turned out to be the pattern of our play for the remainder of the game as the players could not string 2 passes together before giving the ball away.
The crossing from the wings especially Ridhuan and Noh Rahman was slipshod while Duric and Noh Alam up front could not trap the ball with a yellow jersey wearing them like a second skin.
John Wilksinson had to drop very deep to dictate play but he and Mustafic were closed down very fast by the Thai midfielders throughout the first period.
In defense only Daniel Bennett and goalkeeper Hassan Sunny worthed a mention as Saiful Esah under the media glare since singlehandedly destroyed Indonesia in the meaningless friendly a week before with his setpieces looked shaken up by the occasion but he was still better than the former Geylang United pair Noh Rahman and Baihakki Khaizan.

Soon to be departing Sengkang Punggol, Noh Rahman gave his future employers a sign of how he had grown stagnant. He is good enough for the S League but on international scene, he was all downhill since valiant display against Lebanon many moons back.
He kept giving balls away and could not cope with the speed of the much older Sutee Suksomkit down the left flank and was the culprit for the first goal with the Japanese referee felt he intentionally put a hand to a ball from a corner which in the first place ought to be avoided. (Okay got enough evidence that Noh Alam was the culprit instead, but that did not take away the blame of Noh Rahman for a rather vapid display)

Then the weakest link of the game Baihakki Khaizan like Ridhuan Muhammad (and maybe the early departed Noh Alam Shah) had shown playing in the Indonesian Super League had done nothing to improve their reputation instead thwarting their game still.
Bai’s poor judgement allowed the Thai to score their second; then he looked marooned in his old world when Sutee beat the offside trap to score the third, by then the stadium looked 1/3 lighter as many disgusted fairweather fans had went for supper and wondered why they bothered spending 6 bucks and 70 minutes of their precious time here.

To add salt to our wound, the scorers for Thai were basically half Singaporean for the time they spent playing football here.
36 year old SAFFC midfield maestro Thersak Chaiman was a shock inclusion in Robson’s squad but he vindicated his inclusion with the second goal.
But it was Sutee Suksomkit who spent like a decade here with Tiong Bahru, Home United and subsequently Tampines Rovers before leaving for A League side Melbourne Victory recently, was the man of the match with his goals, running and constant menace up front as the remaining Thai team weren’t exactly hitting the right gear.

Many spectators were hurling scathing remarks on the Japanese referee but I felt he did a great job handling the game.
He was quick to respond to some fouls which were uncalled for and defuse many situations.
The only problem was that he turned down at least 3 clear cut handballs in the box from the Thai which looked more legitimate than the one awarded against us.
Perhaps he should show Baihakki his second yellow for his clueless lunges the entire evening.

As for the Changsuk, the nickname for the Thai team I was sorely irked by their playacting and time wasting antics on the pitch as they wound down a famous victory at the Ol’ Lady.
They had littered the match with alot of typical cramps and what not, forcing the Lions to break down their play (which was not many to begin with).
Taking 3 goals lead and coasting for the win, they argued incessantly when the referee awarded us a penalty on the blatant foul on Khairul Amri and led by their goalkeeper, they tried to distract Mustafic with delay and theater play.
As the king of ASEAN football (the Vietnamese will object), they should really cut down such acts and show the real side of football in them.

As for the Lions, another despondent display when the odds were stacked on them.
It was true the Thai contingent which accounted to about a thousand or so were in good voice which engulfed the feeble cheering from our own fans but how was we to cheer when there was nothing to cheer about.

It looked palpable that we would need another 4 years to try progressing into Asian Cup and let’s hope deadwood Duric would not be around by then.

Maybe Bai and Ridhuan too.

The Gulf We Need to Cross

My salivary glands got triggered as I marveled at the thoughts of Sengkang Punggol FC shock the Asian scene when they made it into the group stages of the Asian Champions League with the prospect of heading to illustrious opponents with the likes of Nagoya Grampus Eight, Urawa Red Diamonds, FC Seoul, Chunnam Dragons and even some China Super League sides to entertain with. As quoted Samsung Suwon Bluewings’ gaffer Cha Bum Kun : “Asian clubs are now chasing the standards of their European counterparts; while SAF’s head coach Richard Bok retaliated: “SAFFC is actually chasing Suwon”… I can safely say Jorg will be compelled to say “Chasing SAF? Maybe we should chase Tampines first”. SAFFC, certainly is the premier club in local football known for their discipline, fitness and ability to conjure the results; and with former player Richard Bok at helms, he had mold the side for the past 3 years with a strong backbone of players which no other club can boast to be able to come near (come on Sivaji, you know your Protectors is no where close). When they rode on the pride of Singapore to break into the group stages of the ACL, almost everyone here didn’t doubt their pedigree but we all wonder as well how SAF would fare against the crème de la crème of East Asian club football. After witnessing the first 2 games (away to Shanghai Shenhua and home to Suwon last evening), I do think there is indeed a gulf. Not because of the same complacency that stifled the growth of our local football; not because our boys lack the will to win and certainly not because of dubious referee’s decisions that killed both games off. The gulf is imminent in the quality of players and the professionalism of how the clubs are run. To mix with the best, we had to emulate how the best do their business. We all know that S League clubs here run on shoe string budget with subsidy from the Football Association form the bulk of the running course. Money from competition sponsors and own club sponsors account to some extra dough to pay for the wages of half decent foreign talents. At the end of the day money is the essence of how good a club will be run, there is no doubt about it.
Taking SAF as an example they had secured 2 major sponsors in Star Automotive and UE Engineers for this season but I am sure their overall running budget dwarf to that of any of their 3 ACL opponents. In order to make wits’ ends, Richard Bok decided to hold on to their loyal and consistent players like Duric, Thersak, Arai, Bennett, Wilkinson etc. while bringing in one supposed star name in Park Tae Won. Surely the caliber of Arai-Fukusawa-Park-Chaiman is not in the same league as Shanghai’s Mark Milligan-Hernan Barcos-Vyacheslav Hleb-Yanko Valkanov, Kashima’s Danilo-Marquinhos or Suwon’s Edu-Li Weifeng-Jorge Luiz Alves. To compound more misery to our league champions, Richard only have 15 first team players with a string of Prime League youngster to call upon; not because the club can’t afford a few more local players but seriously not many can make the cut in Richard’s book for sure. The fact that he made like 3 substitutions in 2 games show that his bench is not ready for the step up and no point spending on wages for mediocre local players we had seen week in week out. To close the gulf will be an ordeal task but surely it is not impossible. The FA had to be the first to render any form of help to the team participating in the ACL. First and foremost more financial aid. Many would argue the gulf between SAF and the rest of the league is already widen enough, but I feel it is also the clubs’ responsibility to try to micro manage their books well and still can produce decent results. Salary caps have to be lifted to allow the champions to bring in a couple of decent foreign talents as we know not many local players have the capacity yet to feature in the Asian level. Perhaps allowing them to have a bigger squad would be an idea as well with so many games to contemplate with. Sponsorship at such an arid period is always difficult but perhaps some government-linked companies could render whatever little amount they could to contribute to local sporting scene (then again the Youth Olympic Games for next year still fall short of half of the 50 million of sponsorship money they are targeting).	Thersak and Aleks: Body too old to compete at this level
Nevertheless thought the Warriors had a decent showing on the pitch despite the blatant inferiority on paper. The games are advantageous for younger local players like Saiful Esah to mature while granting seasoned internationals and ex-internationals like Daniel, John, Sharil and Ahmad Latiff to prove their worth. However at the pace the games are played, the likes of Duric and Thersak fell short of fitness as they are closing down to the end of their career. Aleksandar especially is a liability in attack in the Asian scene but still scoring freely at home, highlighting the horrendous gap we need to catch up. Therefore Sengkang and other aspiring S League club will need a major shake-up before that currently-absurd dream of mine can actually be realized.

Onto greater heights, Flagbearer of S.League!

Congratulations to SAFFC for defeating Thai Premier League champions Provincial Electricity Authority Football Club and Indonesia Super League’s runners up PSMS Medan to claim a spot in the prestigious group stage of the AFC Champions League.

The build-up to the game has the entire local soccer fraternity harping on the 7-time S League champions whipping the runner-up of the Indonesian Super League for 2008 but etched at the 2nd bottom position after 17th round in this year’s competition.

After doing the hard part of conquering PEA at Bangkok last week in the 1st qualifying round, many expected the Warriors to steamroll the ailing Indon side into the group stage where they would face 3 huge East Asian clubs in Kashima Antlers (JAP), Samsung Suwon Bluewings (KOR) and Shanghai Shenhua (CHN).

The match was nearly jeopardized by a thunderstorm shrouding the east side of the island which subsided at around 7-ish.
There was still drizzle when the game began… which will not affect the synthetic turf of Jalan Besar which many thought would be too hard for the Indonesians.
That and the lack of natural fitness should be SAF’s upper hand as well as the caliber of the playing staff.
There was no surprise with the selection of the 1st eleven but in the first half you can see the side putting up a rather defensive stance while the forwards didn’t really stretch the PSMS’ 5-men defense despite SAF bearing the lion’s share of the possession.

However a goal was imminent and veteran midfield general Thersak Chaiman duly delivered with his 3rd in the competition (after his brace against PEA last week) to bring the lead into half time.
Sadly the Warriors couldn’t build on it as too many of the team like John Wilkinson, Hafiz Osman and even substitute Mustaquim Manzur had a rather lackluster evening.
With one swift counter attack led by skipper Elie Aiboy from a failed corner attempt from SAF, Mario Costa was left unmarked and got the equalizer, much to the joy to that few Medan fans in stealth mode in the stands.

Richard Bok’s lads grind hard but to no avail for the winner with the Indons do their time delay tactic hoping for a peanlty shootout.
Extra time for the 2nd week in a row and perhaps the Man of the Match Ahmad Latiff scored a wonderful thumper past PSMS custodian Markus Harison.
With 2 players sent off (including the clown of the game, Octovianus Maniani or Otto), SAF was in total control and should had scored another 2 goals.
Nevertheless the victory long overdue against a bland ISL side.

Being the first S.League club to break into Asian’s football elite is truly an astonishing achievement and for that, we at FOW salute you.

The pride of S.League

The final hurdle before Kashima, Shanghai and Suwon

The journey won't be easy

Extra time for the second successive game

Match winner Ahmad Latiff celebrating in there somewhere

History in the making

The path of Champions is yours to walk

Singapore vs Jordan

2 weeks after the humiliating 6-0 mauling in Tehran to Asian bigwig, Iran; our national football team was under scathing scrutiny once again by local fans and media.

I caught the live streaming of that away fixture for our Asian Cup qualifying Group E campaign. I thought our gaffer, Radojko Avramovic did had a plan to contain the rampant Iranians then with 2 holding midfielders to curb the Iranian attack.
Little did he expected new Home United defender, Ismail Yunos was to get himself sent off with a blatant tackle from behind, and it was all the way downhill especially in the 2nd period which saw us conceded meekly, including 3 in 5 minutes when the lack of fighting spirit from the Lions.

The aftermath of that game saw the lack of interest with the national squad with the despondent attendance at the Grand Lady that never dies last evening.

Somehow many of the local fans like Raddy and the Lions felt a tinkling feeling of confidence going into the game against another Gulf nation, Jordan, 9 places above us in the FIFA World Ranking.

In the starting line up for the Lions was Sengkang new fullback, Mohd Noh Rahman who finally shrugged off that niggling thigh injury and was handed the captaincy after another prospective Sengkang sigining, Indra Sahdan was dropped.
However the most drastic change was in the back four when Raddy finally appeased the undying pleads from fans to have SAFFC centerback Daniel Bennett to move into the middle which was his natural position in his club line-up, replacing Precious Emuejeraye while club team mate Saiful Esah came in as the left back.

That move reaped immediate rewards when the backline shown a certain level of resilience and stoutness not seen since the 2-0 victory over Indonesia in the AFF Suzuki Cup tie.
Hassan Sunny who came in for Lionel Lewis between the sticks was composed and command his area well, much like that game against Saudi Arabia in the World Cup qualifying 3rd round.

Below is a good clip composed and uploaded by a local fan:

Last night was surely the redemption of the bad boys….
Just yesterday, a local tabloid was doing an article about Agu Casmir’s mending his way and instantly he scored a great opener down to a great run by Ridhuan Mohammad (who fizzled out in the 2nd half as he always does, and missed a golden chance to give us a lead). Sengkang’s own Noh Rahman was part of the build-up though very minimal with Ridhuan and fellow winger Sharil Ishak the main maestros.

However the skipper was adjudged to foul forward Odai Youssef though many claimed the challenge was always non-existent with the Jordanian player simulating it all. But from the replay, I can’t blame the referee to point to the spot which their own captain, Hatem converted because Noh Rahman’s right arm was in front of Odai and from afar it did look like a pull-down.

Fortunately we showed our true mantle when Daniel Bennett, surely the Man of the Match launched an innocuous long pass deep from Singapore defense which found Noh Alam Shah, his good ol’ sparring partner onside and our star striker who had served 7 months of suspension for his “fist of fury” in the 2007 Singapore Cup final duly put it away.
The finish surely showed his calmness and his ability to convert important chances.

Noh Rahman in the midst of his defensive duty (Picture courtesy of tpjkevin from KallangRoar forum)

From then on, our defense began absorbing whatever scarce attack the Jordanians could conjure while wily old Raddy put in the likes of Rosman Sulaiman and Precious to bolster the defense while Bennett came on top with a majestic display and getting a bloodied nose along the way.
The new starters like Saiful and keeper Hassan also staked their claim for future starting opportunity with an A-class displays.
As for our much demised strike force, in times when the likes of Duric, Khairul Amri and Fazrul Nawaz are out and Indra still struggling for form, it is always great to see them start scoring again.
As for our dear Mohd Noh Rahman, he had a disciplined game despite the penalty which that was perhaps too softly give to Jordan. He even tried a long shot outside the Jordan’s box which tested their keeper.
Truly hope to see him in club colors soon…

~~Why can’t we be friends?~~Why can’t we be friend?~~ sings Noh Rahman (Picture courtesy of tpjkevin from KallangRoar forum)

With the vital win, we are now 2nd on 3 points behind Group E leaders Iran who were shock to draw with Thailand last evening.
Our Southeast Asia rival is at 2 points after 2 good draws and surely set the stage for a thrilling double bill clash with us in November.

As for now, pride is reclaimed and the boys deserved a short rest before the S League kicks off on 16th February and hopefully we have less disruption to the league fixtures like last season; and hopefully the Lions would come out unscathed and stronger after another good season of football…Never know we might unearth more Saiful and Hassan this season…maybe  even from Sengkang Punggol!