Talk about drastic measures to close another chapter in the long-line of name-change to the existence of the S League club based in Hougang Stadium.

Chairman Bill Ng had been the limelight of late with the issues of his deputy Winson Song taking over the reins at Woodlands Wellington yet under his tutelage as well as signaling the fact that the account books at Sengkang Punggol slowly but gradually turning black.
With the name change, moreso the identity of the club to be associated with the fans residing around the area, Mr Ng might had justified himself to set a new legacy as the perennial cellar-dwellers tried to improve in the standings in the years to come.

This also indicates that in time of financial crisis in the S League club scene with FAS already stating a cut in the budget for subsidy, the club looks to keep itself afloat, at least for the next season.

The New Identity

There was one particular forum dweller in Kallangroar.com who had been advocating for the establishment of Hougang United who at times sound very dubious.
Perhaps this particular gentleman will have his last laugh now that the club and ultimately S League committee had granted his wish; therefore he has no excuse not to support his hometown team in 2011. (After claiming to boycott the S League after Super Reds had been rejected entry in the 2010 season for Beijing Guoan talents before pledging his allegiance to Etoile FC)

Jakarta Casual had pointed out how clubs in Southeast Asia had indiscriminately tagging “United” in the club name so as to carve themselves as a footballing body, alike their counterparts in Europe, especially the British Isles.
Hougang United would make it a quarter of clubs in the 12 teams strong S League to enforce that notion and now with the dilemma of having the same acronyms as Home United FC which might be a headache of live telecast of matches on TV between both teams.
Nevertheless it still sounds better than Sengkang Punggol or Paya Lebar Kovan or whatever.

The club also decided to cast themselves off the marine mascot thing by adopting cheetahs as the new club mascot.
Dolphins proved to be too docile over the years while the incredulous season as Seahorses showed that you can’t just name yourselves from any creature you seen at Underwater World, unless you adopt more fearsome persona like mantra rays or great white sharks.
Feral mascot had also proved to be toothless in S League albeit their rank on the natural ecosystem food chain.
The Jaguars of Tanjong Pagar/Tiong Bahru had been a force to be reckon with early on but eventually subdued by financial problem while we all know how the Tigers of Balestier had only seen a resuscitation of fortunes on the pitch in the past season.
Cheetahs are fast and cerebral predators, let’s hope the new team lived up to the new persona and hope the almost similar pronunciation to “cheaters” would not bite back to them (luckily no Frederic Mendy in the books).

Changing of Personnel

There had been no news transpiring of any major changes in the backroom.
An aspiring young head coach like Aide Iskandar had displayed his ability over the course of the past one and half season in charge.
When his original plan to bank on a youthful squad turned awry, he managed to curb the rot by an astute recruitment program by bringing in a couple of experienced defenders.
With the fickle-minded nature of the local game, I hope the former national team skipper could be at least another season to allow him the good work from the backend of the previous season.

However he would be doing it without the likes of Kenji Arai and skipper Nor Azli Yusof, both of which had left for Home United.
It’s a pity that the Protectors were denied entry to next year’s AFC Cup tournament as the squad certainly bolstered including the 2 Sengkang Punggol alumni.
The only other notable departure heard so far would be long-serving goalkeeper Amos Boon who will joining Winson Song at Woodlands Wellington.
The whereabouts of the remainder of the 1st team squad remained unknown though I would assume at least 2 or 3 foreigners would be seeking greener pastures.

New recruits include former Tampines utility man Fathi Yunus, Gombak’s midfielder Fazli Jaffar, Home United’s second choice keeper Ridzuan Fatah and a player who was capped for Singapore not too long back, Syaqir Sulaiman from Balestier Khalsa.
The quartet might not be household names but can at least try to prove their worth in a rather thin squad.

2010 Season: A look back

I know I had mentioned a comprehensive write-out summary of the team’s performance for 2010 but I guess this will do.

An explosive start for the Dolphins with 2 wins and a draw in the opening 5 matches of the S League saw the team sitting pretty in mid table before the League Cup break.
A thrilling run including an awe-inspiring display over host SAFFC at Choa Chu Kang which easily was the highlight of the year saw the team swimmingly making into the final four of the league cup, against Etoile whom they nearly beaten in the S League tie 2 weeks before.
The French pulled their antics and the youthful looking Sengkang Punggol was knocked out by a slim 1-0 scoreline but managed to redeem themselves on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, beating Gombak United 2-1 with the Diallo brothers scoring.
Mamadou was the top scorer in the tournament with 4 goals in 5 matches.

Another league win against Woodlands away really got the local football fraternity sitting and paid attention but it was free fall from that point on.
By middle of the season, the team could only clinch another win (away at Young Lions) and results at home ground was appalling.
After Guinean striker Moussa Keita was “mysteriously” released due to work permit reason, three more foreign talents followed his footsteps.
Abdoulaye Diallo and Moussa’s replacement, Canadian striker Ryan Fante were made the scapegoats of the team’s poor run but their absence certainly would not be missed.
The biggest shock of all and the player I think was sorely missed was Murphy Wiredu who was leading the scoring chart in 2009 and had notched 3 goals prior to his release despite playing as a defensive midfielder the entire season.
In replacement came Kenji Arai who returned from his escapade from the beach resorts of Goa in India as well as NFL-quality players like Iranian Moshee and Korean Ahn Jae-Chul.
Kenji built a sound defense alongside another recent recruit Ratna Suffian to lift the team with a decent run  of 3 wins and 3 draws in the final stretch including a morale-boosting 2-2 draw away at title-chasing Home United.
With the fracas between Beijing & Young Lions saw them deducting 5 points each, there was a chance to overtake the Chinese team into an unprecedented 10th placing in the final game of the season.
Somehow things came short as it had been was expectations were laid on the team for the past few seasons.

Nevertheless still a record number of points attained in the Sengkang Punggol era though it could be so much better at times.
There had been intermittently good personal performances from the likes of Mamadou Diallo, Jordan Webb and even cards-collecting Shahir Hamzah but accolades had to be given to a couple of players whom to me really impressed the whole season long.

Fadhil Salim, a former Singapore international was genuinely a good goalkeeper in between the caliber of Hassan Sunny/ Sharil Jantan and those of Fajar Sarib/ Joey Sim et al.
His service was deemed surplus at Gombak United but his recruitment was warmly welcomed and he slipped in comfortably to fix a problem plaguing the team since the beginning of time: the goalkeeping.
Fadhil had singlehandedly bailed out the team the entire season and he alone accounted for at least half the points earned.

Another luminary to be mentioned is leftback Duncan Elias David.
Duncan came through the Prime League squad back in 2008 and played his fair share of S League games in attack with other contemporaries like Sobrie Mazelan and Fairoz Hasan.
While the other two at least showed an eye for attack, Duncan looked bewildered despite assuming an attacking midfielder role.
Therefore one could not fault us to raise our eyebrows to see him promoted proper into the first team in the stellar line-up including Indra Sahdan and Noh Rahman.
However Duncan sat out the entire season of 2009 without even making his mark in the Prime League squad; we all felt time was up for the 25 year-old.
Somehow coach Aide saw something in Duncan which we do not and when he started playing in the first eleven in the pre-season in an unfamiliar leftback position, little would one imagine that Duncan would become a key player for the entire 2010.
His cultured left foot and exemplary delivery from the left flank always caused oppositions’ defense problem and from his set-pieces, the team went on to clinched a few important goals. He nearly got one from the spot as well if not for the ball to hit the upright.
If only he had a bit more pace and learn to defend better, he would be a rare breed of good left back in local game sorely misses.

Final Words

The changing of the club persona perhaps is subliminal for this blog to come to its due.

There are 3 objectives of this blog:

1. Provide the latest and most accurate information concerning the club and its players.

2. Provide our point of view in terms of the performance of the team in the matches played.

3. Serve as a forum for fellow supporters of the club to drop by and share their views.

Somehow as time passes, we failed to meet the first 2 objectives.
Information passing through the club and S League on the whole is a hush-hush affair, concealed behind a veil somehow.
If there is something unsavory that the authorities do not want you to know, you will never know.
Even things like players movement or signings will only be made known until the full list was submitted for registration, by then it is nothing exclusive to be address here.
Of course we had never want to be aligning ourselves with the club nor the organization, maintaining our stance to keep ourselves out of the loop to retain our freedom to post what we truly want to address without the regular censures, therefore we definitely cannot give up the most up to date information.

At the same time, personally I am getting less and less compelled to attend live matches which could be due to a myriad of reasons which you might had known along the course of the past 2 seasons.
Therefore whatever information I posted are based on official reports from Sleague.com which certainly defeats any purpose of maintaining a fan blog.

It would be prevalent to be tagged “fair-weather” or ditching the game at its lowest ebb but one have to agree the doldrums local football is suffering now is running its course with the seed of this problem growing for years now.
It is always a vicious cycle in which without public appeal to support the local game, the sponsors would steer clear their path.
Without sponsors, there would be less money for the game thus less money could be spend to attract better caliber of players and thus the game became stagnated with always the same faces which the supporters grew weary of over time.

There is definitely a need for star appeal in the league.
The likes of Fandi Ahmad and V Sundramoorthy are icons who do not have any parallels in this generation.
We definitely need icons in the football scene for people to clamor about and for aspiring young footballers to look up to; I wonder if it is down to packaging or raw talent, but somehow the Football Association definitely has a part to play.

Reducing the foreign teams and keeping fixtures to a more consistent schedule (i.e. Friday-Saturday-Sunday) would certainly be welcomed though one would argue it incurs more cost as well.
Perhaps staying away the choppy production of Mediacorp and give Starhub the full rights since they did a real fantastic job covering 2009 League Cup competition which really is of a better quality.

If the authorities are resisting to alter their mindsets and people just stay away, then perhaps we could be heading towards semi-professionalism in football as it was back in the 1980s again.

Anyway enough rambling about Singapore football, I would say over the course of 2 years we had met some really nice people in the scene I want to give a shout out to.
Mr Ben Lim, Sengkang Punggol’s former chairman, had always been supportive of us back in 2009 before relinquishing his role.
Mr Ko Po Hui, a luminary in the small world of Singapore football blogging, definitely has an undying passion for the game and is affable and always willing to share information.
Mr Bryan Lim, now the Sporting Director of Trebol Sports International, who gave us an insight of the local game when we first started the blog; I hope he could really bring in some decent foreign talents to our local game in the future.

There are many other supportive and friendly fellow supporters of Sengkang Punggol and Singapore football we had met along the way but of course as of other blogs of such nature, we seems to draw criticisms and even threats for claiming that we had insinuated baseless accusations and whatnot.
There are also “spammers” who undermined the information we just want to share in our point of view.

At the end of the day, I am glad our conscience remains clear and we managed to stick to our we had set out to do from the beginning.
If our words had been too strong over the past 2 years, we do not mean to offend anyone personally.

I will still keep an eye of the progress of Hougang United in 2011 and the seasons that follow as well as trying my best to stand behind Singapore football on the whole, even though in my own passive manner.
All the best to the club and S League!

I would not be within the country to witness the game but surely a devoted crew here will be getting behind the Dolphins to overcame a rather depleted Beijing Guoan side.
Of course anything can happen in the 90 minutes and the problem with supporting Sengkang Punggol is that when the expectation gets a bit higher, they tend to fail to deliver.

Will be back to to a round up of the 2010 season for the Dolphins

So there is no spanner thrown in the title race but a seemingly well-spurred host playing their final home match in front of a boisterous home crowd.

Kenji Arai, a player who is surely well conditioned for a title race rather than fighting for points with his current employer nearly gave the Stags a scare with the penalty innocuously awarded for a handball in the box after some scramble.
But 40 year old sage by the name of Aleks got the brace to ensure Tampines Rovers still have the final say to the outcome of the league championship when one of former employers Home United fizzles out.
Unfortunately a postponed game between Etoile and a lackluster Young Lions did not deter the French side en route to be the first foreign side to win the S League.

Anyway back to Sengkang Punggol.
A lot fo lyricals had been waxed about how things had improved over the course of 12 months and the team still had a chance for 10th placing and a 30 points finish; but the results at home base in Hougang Stadium can surely be described as less than stellar in 2010.
Let us go through the results one by one:

1-2 (loss) Balestier Khalsa
2-1 (win) Gombak United
1-3 (loss) SAFFC
0-1 (loss) Albirex (S)
0-3 (loss) Tampines Rovers
0-1 (loss) Woodlands
0-1 (loss) Albirex (S) (Singapore Cup)
0-1 (loss) SAFFC
0-1 (loss) Home United
0-2 (loss) Geylang United
2-2 (draw) Young Lions
1-0 (win) Beijing Guoan
1-3 (loss) Tampines Rovers

2 wins & a draw in 12 league matches at Hougang Stadium pushed the team in the predicament they are facing now.
If they could do as good as they had been let’s say the astro-turf of Jalan Besar, it could had been a decent end to the season.

Hope the home form can be rectified in 2011.

Once again whoever scheduled fixtures in the league has done brilliantly to alienate viewers again; just when the stone cold fact that we just aren’t the Top 10 league in Asia.
(Well no one in the right state of mind  is deceiving himself about the Top 10 accolade for a while now)

On the ground, they were humbled by Geylang United days before, the Dolphins bounced back with a nifty win to see them notching a record 27 points (in Sengkang Punggol era).
Perhaps in the past few seasons, Sengkang Punggol could be in 9th or 10th position now but due to the competitiveness innate in the league in the mid table region, they are still entrenched second from bottom.

With 2 games left to play (one against Tampines Rovers), 10th position in the final standings definitely look a yard too far now.
Of course Beijing with all their suspension problem could slide downhill by losing all their remaining matches including the final game of the season against Sengkang Punggol of course.

Against a weakened and well fatigued Young Lions, the Dolphins clinched the win from Kenji Arai’s second goal of the season.
The former Albirex & SAFFC man really had been a revelation for the team.
His calmness in defense coupled with his spot on instructions to his fellow defenders really beef the team up defensively.
His brace score in merely like 16 -17 games played showed the attacking facet to his game and outdid Abdoullaye Diallo who played twice as many game for us and not score once in the league.

An impressive tailend for coach Aide and his team who really outdid their predecessors (including the highly touted “all stars” class of 2009) and surely a platform to build upon for the next season.
]]> http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/s-league-match-31/feed/ 22 Midas http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/s-league-2010-match-30/ http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/s-league-2010-match-30/#comments Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:21:21 +0000 wreckidigidy http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/?p=3350 ]]> Opponent: Geylang United
Date: 29th Sep, 1930hrs
Venue: Jalan Besar Stadium
Final Score: 4 – 1(All four foreigners of Geylang scored – Mamadou Diallo 88″) Alright, I know this is a week late but I was so tempted to leave this out of the record book. I was actually thinking Sengkang Punggol stood a chance in another televised game, but after starting strongly, it all went awfully wrong in the first half.

Against a team who failed to score like 300 minutes and shipped out 4 goals from shoddy goalkeeping and non-existent defending is a throw back to what Sengkang Punggol had been for years; which really do not give credit to the steel Aide added in the rear during the mid season.

For a goal-shy side like Geylang, they surely love to meet the Dolphins with a wonderful record of 3 wins in 3 plus 9 goals scored (around a third of their grand total of 30 in the league this year).
Kim Jae Hong is a wonderful player to have, regardless of his pacy run or delivery from the setpieces but instead we have a Korean of entirely different spectrum.
]]> http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/s-league-2010-match-30/feed/ 0 Midas http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/reaping-the-benefits/ http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/reaping-the-benefits/#comments Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:19:16 +0000 wreckidigidy http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/?p=3343 ]]> The verdict is out…

The culpable parties of that infamous brawl at Jalan Besar had duly been punished.
And from the look of it, our own Young Lions might had instigated the whole fracas as well.

Ultimately points were docked, players were suspended and fined (some more severe than the others), and management shown remorse in the closing statement, time to let the unsavory episode laid to rest.

However with the points reduction, it makes things rather interesting in the bottom half of the table, and perhaps something Sengkang Punggol can reap benefits from.

Even with the reduction of 5 points, Young Lions still consolidate their 7th position with a better goal difference over Balestier Khalsa.
The Dolphins had defeated as well as been soundly beaten by the Young Lions over the course of the past 3 seasons; in 2010, the records remained at a win and a draw for Sengkang Punggol.
With the likes of talismanic striker Khairul Nizam, as well as fringe players like Gabriel Quak, Madhu Mohana & former Sengkang Punggol Prime League player Fairoz Hasan missing in the ranks, coach Aide might be optimistic of claiming another win under his belt.
The fact that the team won at the Young Lions’ home turf of Jalan Besar Stadium twice in 2 seasons should bode well to their cause.
Of course this match had been postponed without a definite date.
Hopefully it would be in October with Young Lions having their hands full with 3 games in like 2 weeks while the Dolphins playing once.

As for the kungfu kids from Beijing, Sengkang Punggol’s records against them had been pretty decent as well.
After knocking them out of the League Cup at Yishun Stadium in February, it was 4 points out of possible 6 for Sengkang Punggol and like against the Young Lions, it could very well be 7 out of 9 in the final match of the 2010 S league season at Jalan Besar on 12th November.

Beijing will have to contemplate with facing Gombak United & SAFFC from their postponed fixtures as well as traveling to Balestier Khalsa and hosting Albirex Niigata; all of whom would not think twice to pounce on their lack of manpower especially inspirational skipper cum goalkeeper Sun Boyang, midfielder Meng Yu & striker Zheng Ye who had notched 3 goals in the league.

I could almost guarantee the Chinese lads would be scorned and scowled at wherever they play (maybe perhaps not against Albirex) and would take a lot of mental strength to meander through the final few games but iit could be highly likely they end up pointless by the time they square up against the Dolphins in November.

I truly hope by then Sengkang Punggol could have climb above them in the standings and deal them with the coupe de grace.
I know the troop from United4United would be there in full vocals to spur the team on and douse whatever fighting spirits left in the engine of Beijing Guoan.

Nevertheless it is still up to the team to make the most out of the final 4 games.

Beside the 2 winnable games, facing a rather toothless Geylang United at Jalan Besar Stadium should not be a daunting aspect, not with how they had been playing as evident from the game on TV against Albirex.

With Tampines Rovers seemingly out of the title race (but never count the eggs before they hatch), they could put the gas off the pedal at Hougang Stadium but a draw would be a mightily fine result in that fixture.

Of course, people might claimed that the final outcome could be orchestrated by the whole punishment affair and not by the team’s merit.
But for the long suffering fans of the team desperate to climb out of the bottom two, I guess they will take anything.

Before I begin, we must honor the only real consummate model among the ragtag crew of foreign teams since their inception back in 2003, Albirex Niigata (S).
The Jurong East-based satellite team of the J League outfit had embraced their role as an invited team with professionalism and manner second to none as compared to the other foreign sides from past & present.
Their modus operandi had always been cultivating players for the parent team back in Japan, however the squads over the years had featured seasoned professionals playing in various levels of football there as well.
Despite results not going their way for the past few seasons in the league, they still took it in their stride and channel their best for all facets of the local game, with their appearance in the semi final of the 2009 Singapore Cup as a testament.
Over the years they had given the local game with some luminaries like Kenji Arai, Issey Nakajima, Hidetoshi Wakui, Norio Takahashi, Tetsuya Okayama, Akira Takase, Hiroyuki Yamamoto, Kenji Adachihara, Taisuke Akiyoshi et al.
The White Swans had also contributed to the local Japanese community and even create a niche in the neighborhood where they are based (with a hawker store no less).

It does not take much to reciprocate what Albirex had done for the past 6 years, but the following list of clubs turned out to appear in the local media for the wrong reason somehow:

*Edited with the aftermath of the disciplinary hearing of the brawl between Beijing Guoan Talents & Young Lions

Sinchi FC Year Joined: 2003 Year Left: 2005	The first foreign side to be invited and formed under a rather buffoony name as a short form for “Singapre Chinese” which none of their players actually hailed from Singapore. Players were recruited from those who could not break into the clubs in the top Chinese division. Ended inaugural year in an encouraging 7th position, but dropped to second from bottom for the subsequent seasons. Youth player Jiang Tao was tragically struck by lightning during a training session and passed on. Notable names from the side include striker Chang Hui who did not fare as well as Geylang United had thought. The side also provided us with current Singapore internationals Shi Jiayi & Qiu Li. Club management decided to pull out of the league for the 2006 competition perhaps due to financial difficulties.
Sporting Afrique FC Year Joined: 2006 Year Left: 2007	An all West African contingent was to add excitement and raw finesse to the league. The team who started a roll call of foreign side occupying Yishun Stadium, ended their only season here at 9th placing out of 11 teams. The controversy came off pitch when the band of players were ill-treated by the club, fronted by former model & actor Collin Chee. Each player was paid a measly $100 after the club made unreasonable subtraction. FAS rejected their application for participation for the 2007 season. Not many notable players from that side though quite a few remained and ply trade in some amatuer NFL sides.
Liaoning Guangyuan FC Year Joined: 2007 Year Left: 2007	The second Chinese side is the satellite side from Chinese Super League side, Liaoning FC. Unlike Sinchi previously, Liaoning did not take the league by storm and ended second from bottom in the final standings. The only notable thing about their stay here is the match-fixing which involve team manager Wang Lin who asked many of his players to throw matches he bet on. The guilty party were slapped with imprisonment and hefty fines. There is no surprise we don’t see Liaoning Guangyuan in 2008.
Super Reds FC Year Joined: 2007 Year Left: 2009	A club initiated by club chairman Charlie Yoon offers local fans a glimpse of the renowned worksmanship of South Korean football. Super Reds however had the dishonor of the first foreign side to finish the season at the bottom of the league table in 2007 with merely 18 points out of possible 99 and conceded 80 goals;  not even a change of name and club logo could aid their cause. They saw an upheaval of fortune on the pitch in the subsequent season, pushing for the league title till the very end, playing some swashbuckling football. 2009 though was not a good year for the Super Red with players reportedly not paid their wages while the team was embroiled in a mass brawl against Woodlands Wellington in a tumultuous League Cup tie. Club chairmen Yoon tried to contribute to local football with the team converting to a local side with a few notesworthy Korean talents remaining. Their rejected application (for some absurd reason) spelt an end of a memorable 3 years run in the S League. The remnants of the Super Reds remained with the likes of Park Kang Jin & Chang Jo Yoon (Gombak), Seo Su Jong & Kim Seong Kyu (Young Lions) remain in the local scene.
Dalian Shide Siwu FC Year Joined: 2008 Year Left: 2008	The lesson from Liaoning was not learnt as FAS roped in another satellite side from China. In truth there was very little recollection from a terribly bland tourney from Dalian back in 2008. The team with an awful club logo and equally horrendous footballing strip ended with 22 points and was survived from the bottom due to the god-awful performances by the 2 teams below them, Sengkang Punggol & Balestier Khalsa. The team did earn the dishonor for most goals conceded in that season with 75. FAS felt they were not competitive enough, thus letting them go in 2009.
Brunei DPMM Year Joined: 2009 Year Left: 2009	Dalian was sacrificed for a footballing team from somewhere much nearer, in Brunei. Fresh from their retraction from the Malaysian League, DPMM which hailed from a perennially football weak nation of Brunei looked like an easy meat with FAS likened their initiative to put in money for logistic to send S League team to play their home games there in Bandar Seri Begawan. The Wasps was buoyed by their performances on the pitch with a colorful character of Vjeran Simunic as their gaffer and their rough house style really giving S League team a run for their money. Early success came in the form a League Cup success in a memorable run including beating SAFFC in the final. DPMM’s defenders Rene Komar, Sallehuddin Damit & Yusof Salleh were slapped with lengthy suspension for their altercation on referee K. Kalimuthu in a home game against Home United. Overall DPMM picked up record breaking yellow and red cards over the course of the season as well. However with the involvement of the government in their footballing affair, all football activities in Brunei was suspended, forcing their involvement in the S League to be expunged and entailed a decent run in their chapter in Singapore footballing history.
Etoile FC Year Joined: 2010 Year Left: ?	S League has a gallic flavor for 2010 when a flamboyant French businessman decided to set up a football club based on a bunch of players, hailed from the gallows of lower league French football. Etoile did began with a bang by snagging the league cup with little resistance though they were strugglingto bring in a full team due to their recruits consistently failing the mandatory beep test. They started to draw a lot of media attention with a Hollywood style first home game at Queesntown Stadium with fireworks, Harley Davidson on the running track and Jaime Yeo; of course they also charged $10 per ticket which drew alot of eyebrows. The show was an one-off before they decided to give lucky draw cash prizes which turned out to be another one-off. Early promises of club ambassador David Ginola and a couple pf marquee players turned out to be empty and never look like materializing. Many local fans who jumped on their bandwagon due to the great promise slowly faded, leaving a core of hardcore Ultras to feed on what their howling coach Patrick Vallee constanly whined about. Their snobbish air started to rub people off the wrong way as defender Lakehal was involved in a bitch-slap with fellow countryman Benoit Croissant in an aftermath of a 1-1 draw with Tampines Rovers. The Etoile defender was suspended for 2 matches while there had been claims of people threatening each other in a very sheepish manner. Midfielder Flavien Michelini came out to the media, sobbing about how he was manhandled by a local fan, supporting a title challenger while coach Vallee claimed he was verbally abused by fans on the stands. Off the pitch, the club broke association with their publicity company, Red Card Pte Ltd led by former Singapore international R Sasikumar and let go of some of their management staff who was associated with Red Card. In September, both Red Card and apparel sponsors Diadora claimed they were owed 5 figure sums from the club just when the chairman Gouttefangeas claimed about roping in more sponsors and had a lavish clubhouse in the blueprint (although the authorities had yet to sanction). With the current team looking to claim a treble in their first year of participation, many of the players and even Vallee could be exiting to greener pastures. Time will tell how long this project will last.
Beijing Guoan Talents Year Joined: 2010 Year Left: ?	Seriously after all the poor showings from CSL satellite sides, FAS still insist of bringing in Beijing Guoan, of course from a currently-crowned CSL champions and a wealthy project straight off the Chinese capital. Meekly called themselves the talents, the Chinese lads had a hard time adjusting to local condition especially they arrived only days before the season kicked off. Leg cramps were their only talent at the beginning of the season. Started to put in some decent performances including a 4-1 win over an out-of-sort Home United in a televised match at Jalan Besar. Cruelly robbed of a few of their most talented players like top scorer Tan Tiancheng to the Chinese Olympic side. After losing to Tampines 2-5 in a recent game, the team whined about retained at the airport due to misunderstanding in their work pass. In their game against Young Lions, the team got into an ugly brawl with their equally young Singaporean counterparts. The same unruly side was indicative in a televised game against Balestier Khalsa which was quell after some of their bench players got involved in the scuffle. The final judgment had been passed by the Disciplinary Committee on 21st September 2010 with regards to the brawl which saw Meng Yang (the reserve player who flagrantly kicked Faritz in the head) slapped with a year ban while captain cum goalkeeper Su Boyang and Zhang Ye were given 8 months suspension each. 7 other players involves were slapped with hefty fines

Phew what a hefty list but it is conclusive that FAS and the S League committee had time and again got their face slapped for bringing in foreign sides which the local fraternity could not associate with and most of the time do not miss their involvement when they are gone.

There are still plenty of foreign sides forming the beeline for a slice of the awful tasting pie known as the S League for god knows what reason.
Seemingly an Aussie consortium is interested as well as a recently scribed American side. And yes all the CSL sides who felt their large working contingent in the puny island needed some of their mesmerizing football.

Perhaps they should just stick to 10 teams for the following season,rather than stubbornly maintain the 12 teams quota to accommodate such foreign sides.

The Japanese outfit certainly shown more hunger in the first 45 minutes and a decent delivery from the left saw Ichihara heading the winner as there had been signs of guard being letting down in the 18 yard box during setpieces.

The second half tells a whole different story as the resolute Sengkang Punggol squad of late came out of the break, showing the tenacity and eagerness to find the back of Matsushita’s goal, sadly it did not transpire even from a fortituous penalty call.
The team sorely miss the playmaker in the middle of the park to spray passes with the Korean An really looks ineffectual, as he plays a role almost replicate of Nor Azli.
The vocal fans who attended the match were also let down by the poor delivery from setpieces time and again which could prove vital.

Losing this game almost saw the quest to 9th placing to fizz out but the gaffer Aide had to psyche his side for the remaining 4 games to see whether 10th place is still within touch.
]]> http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/s-league-match-29/feed/ 15 Midas http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/s-league-match-28/ http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/s-league-match-28/#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:57:07 +0000 wreckidigidy http://fishoutofwaterspfc.wordpress.com/?p=3315 ]]> Opponent: Home United
Date: 6th Sep, 1945hrs
Venue: Clementi Stadium
Final Score: 2 – 2(Choi Chul Woo 52″, Shi Jiayi 63″ : Mamadou Diallo 35″, Jordan Webb 40″)

2 goals in 5 minutes of the first half surely rocked the Clementi Stadium as the Dolphins put on yet another sterling performance, days after nearly snitching a point at Choa Chu Kang.

Against lesser opponent, the halftime score might had been 3 or 4 and the game would be wrapped.
But a team of Home United caliber especially with the discipline gaffer Lee Lim Saeng instilled got the Protectors back into the fray and Shi Jiayi’s equalizer was sort of a sucker punch.
Nevertheless the team held on for a precious point unlike last season when they fell to Super Reds away and came off a similar 2 goal advantage during halftime only to self destruct to allow the Koreans steal the win.

From the report the team definitely was all gun blazing in the first half with Farizal and Sobrie playing their parts alongside the goalscorers.
Both played fleeting role in the early part of the season and was nice to see them gaining more foothold in the team especially Sobrie who was with the club for a while now.
Both Jordan and Mamadou are now touching distance to reaching double figures in goals which would be the first time someone in the marigold and skyblue hitting double digit since Farhan Farook done so in 2008.

Although conceding 4 goals against the 2 uniformed giants of the S League was not a poor statistic (considering last seasoon we had let in like 20 goals in total in 7 games against these teams), the Jerkovic’s winner and Shi’s leveler as according to coach Aide should had been avoided.
It might had seen the team dropping 4 points but not a bad effort to get one in the end.

Home United would be sore to miss the chance to soar to the summit and personally I just hope Tampines do a job against Etoile though a point in that fixture would be mighty interesting to the title race.

As for the Dolphins, no time to rest on the laurels with Woodlands stealing a win at Geylang United and the home game against Albirex is paramount if they want to climb out of the bottom two.